How the price of an e-book is formed in Ukraine: publishers' explanation
The manufacturer forms the cost of making an e-book in accordance with his costs, so such a book is only 30-40% cheaper than a paper one
Yulia Orlova, CEO of the Vivat publishing house, said that for a number of reasons it is impossible to significantly reduce the price of an e-book compared to a paper book, even though there are no paper costs.
"The platforms that sell electronic content (Google Books, Apple Books, Amazon, etc.) have a rather high commission — up to 60% of the retail price. And copyright holders impose royalties on e-books — 25-40% of the sales revenue received by the publisher. For comparison: royalties for paper books are on average 8-12%. Therefore, it is impossible to significantly reduce the price of an e-book compared to a paper book", the publisher explained.
Besides royalties and commissions, the price of an e-book also includes the cost of the license, the cost of book design (layout, editing, translation, etc.), the publisher's income, taxes, employee compensation, advertising campaigns, etc.
"The cost of producing an e-book is formed by the manufacturer in accordance with its expenses. As a rule, the price of an e-book is 40% lower than a paper book. That is, in fact, minus the price of printing", said Yakaboo CEO Eugene Volovichenko.
He also noted that the proportions of the price may vary depending on the genre, volume of the book, popularity of the author, etc.
Strike on Kharkiv printing house: what is known
On Thursday, May 23, Russia launched a missile strike on Kharkiv, hitting one of the largest printing houses in Europe, Factor-Print, where books by almost all Ukrainian publishers are printed. The strike killed seven people and wounded 21 others. On May 25, Vivat Publishing published the names of the seven people who died under fire at the printing house in Kharkiv.
Note: "Factor-Print" is a printing house that is part of the Factor group of companies. Vivat publishing house and Vivat bookstores are part of the holding, but the printing house also produced books for other publishers. The publishing house "Family Leisure Club" confirmed that it prints many of its books at Factor Printing.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 50,000 books were burned. Sergei Polituchiy, owner of the Factor-Druk printing plant, said the strike on the printing plant would reduce capacity of the entire industry by 40 percent.
On May 27, the Vivat publishing house released a list of books destroyed by the Russian strike on the printing plant in Kharkiv.
