> I would guess-but do not know-that it is probably being
> sold at printing cost
You sound more experienced in these matters than me, but this seems very unlikely. I presume the book will be excellent, but Myrvhold has never been shy about making money. Do you have more evidence back this up?
I haven't seen this book, but in general I've always been astonished by how _low_ printing costs are even for full color hardbacks. A cost this high for printing alone would seem extraordinary for anything but print-on-demand.
"Printing cost" is probably too loosy-goosey a term. Perhaps the better sentence would have been: "I would guess—but do not know—that he will not make much of a profit off the sales of the book itself."
What surprised me with my book was just how much distribution and storage costs add up. Without getting into exact numbers, the printing costs themselves can be less than those costs, not even factoring in amortized costs. The comments that look at the per-page printing cost (2,400 / 400 = $0.16 / page) leave that out.
What would make more sense to me in this case would be the potential intellectual property (patents) that could come about from doing the research for such a book. Regardless, from my conversation from him, it's clear he loves the topic (as do I) and looks at it as a way to contribute to the world. In his case, it just happens to be a business expense as well.
Fwiw, authors really don't make that much money on books, excluding the very few at the top of the bestseller list. Nathan put it best: "How to make a small fortune writing a book: First, you start with a large fortune, then..." Having been through the process myself, I'd have to agree with the sentiment.
You sound more experienced in these matters than me, but this seems very unlikely. I presume the book will be excellent, but Myrvhold has never been shy about making money. Do you have more evidence back this up?
I haven't seen this book, but in general I've always been astonished by how _low_ printing costs are even for full color hardbacks. A cost this high for printing alone would seem extraordinary for anything but print-on-demand.