Interesting, notwithstanding the questionable statistical methodologies.
Asking HN: do you think e-books are overpriced? Several writers I know say that at most they get the same royalty on a Kindle copy as on paper - or sometimes less; the excuse being that the whole book has to be re-typeset for Kindle etc. While arguably valid for some books with complex layout, I find it very hard to credit for things like novels etc. I sometimes take old public domain books in .txt form from Project Gutenberg, reformat into more readable font etc. and output a .pdf for printing or laptop reading. This rarely takes more than an hour or two, and indeed many public domain or obscure books are available from Kindle for $0.80.
So I wonder where the money is going when an e-book sells for $9.99 and the author informs me he's still getting the same ~$0.50 per copy.
The site's maintainer also designs very interesting covers for many of the available texts; the gallery alone is worth a visit: http://manybooks.net/personal_covers.php
That is not a problem with kindle, but with author's contracts. As far as I know, most of the time they are paid in advance, and the 0.5 cents are just extra.
What would be really cool is if Amazon would let authors publish through them directly on kindle. This will probably happen at some point, when the market in e-readers becomes substantial, though it may not be Amazon who does it. But for the time being that would upset the publishers too much to be worth it (for Amazon at least). And when it does happen, be prepared to witness RIAA vs Napster all over again. They will do anything to keep this from happening, including banning for life any authors who publish directly on an e-medium. Just remember the recent "read-out-loud" incident with Kindle...
I've always thought that ebooks shouldn't cost more than 99cts. Perhaps 4.99 for a hot best seller like Harry Potter or something. But paying 10s, 20s or more is just ridiculous.
"Young Madison spends a typical day visiting with friends and family; follow along to see how she is learning ever step of the way! This book invites readers to explore the world of learning through the eyes of a child. Find out how children learn in a variety of different ways as they explore all that is around them. Discover how learning can occur while baking cookies or while jumping rope with friends."
Looks like numerical methods are easier than I expected!
Asking HN: do you think e-books are overpriced? Several writers I know say that at most they get the same royalty on a Kindle copy as on paper - or sometimes less; the excuse being that the whole book has to be re-typeset for Kindle etc. While arguably valid for some books with complex layout, I find it very hard to credit for things like novels etc. I sometimes take old public domain books in .txt form from Project Gutenberg, reformat into more readable font etc. and output a .pdf for printing or laptop reading. This rarely takes more than an hour or two, and indeed many public domain or obscure books are available from Kindle for $0.80.
So I wonder where the money is going when an e-book sells for $9.99 and the author informs me he's still getting the same ~$0.50 per copy.