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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dm4hire" data-source="post: 7776662" data-attributes="member: 14848">The problem I have with PDF price is that traditional print was based on a layer structure.  The publisher set a price to recover their costs and make a profit off the sale to the distributor.  The distributor then marked up for sale to the retailer to recoup their expense and make their profit.  The retailer then marked up for the same reason.  IRC the matrix was based on a split of 5, where each 1/5 accounted for one step along the way with the remaining 2/5s being the retailer's profit margin, thus generating the MSRP.That structure is no longer in place for the most part.  With the exception of places like Drivethru and Amazon, most PDFs are now sold directly by the publisher, thus removing 3/5s of the matrix.  The publisher still has their 1/5 cost and 1/5 markup, but no distributor or retailer outside of themselves.The other fault with pricing is that it was normally set by print run.  If it cost the publisher X to print 2000 copies then they would divide that cost between those 2000.  Once sold they would go back to print.  PDFs do eliminate the paper cost, but the publishing costs still remain as mentioned.  However that paper cost needs to be backed out of the PDF cost.I've seen this done by some publishers that do sell both and normally the pdf is on average around $20 less than the print (books costing $49-69).  Though I have seen lots of game companies charge full price then they wonder why people aren't buying the PDF like they should.I'm sure it's possible to guesstimate a projected sales total similar to print run.  Based off of interest determine that Y number of PDFs will sell then divide that into the cost of creating the book.  This would give an underlying price range that once surpassed would allow the price to begin to come down.  If print is done just mark up the cost of the physical book by the cost of print publishing.So overall PDF prices should reflect the absence of traditional distribution and the physical print cost.</blockquote>

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