Breaking Down Book Publishing Costs

Motoko Rich of The New York Times wrote a two page story yesterday breaking down the costs of publishing both print and electronic books. Her goal in the story is to make clear publishers’ justifications for trying to keep eBook prices above $9.99. She quotes Mike Shatzkin, who points out that publishers are trying to slow the transition to eBooks largely because that transition makes big book retailers unable to compete, cutting off one of publishers’ major revenue sources.