eBooks vs Printed Books Which is the Best for Readers and Publishers
Introduction:
Are you a book reader? Do you want to explore the difference between eBooks and printed books (Paperbacks)? Then you are in the right article! In this article, you will get detailed insights into ebooks vs printed books, like Cost Comparison, Space Comparison Accessibility, Availability Preferences, Reading Habits, Health Comparison, Technological Advancements, and Environmental Impacts.
Are you a book author? If you want to find which type is better to publish your book, then you are at the right article. In this article, you will find Cost (Investment) Comparison, Work Load, Republish Comparison, and Sales Comparison for eBooks as well as Printed Books.
Put off your distractions and learn better. Get ready to dive into the article!
Table of Contents
- Comparison Table: eBooks Vs Printed Books
- Advantages and Disadvantages of eBooks Vs Printed Books
- Resources Need to Publish eBooks
- Resources Need to Publish Printed Books
- Conclusion
Comparison Tables: eBooks Vs Printed Books
For Reader
| Pain points | eBooks | Paperbacks |
| Cost | Affordable (avg: $0.99 to $9.99) | Costlier than eBook
($3.00 to $200 based on pages) |
| Storage Space | 10MB (on a laptop or phone) is more than enough to keep 30+ eBooks | A bookshelf is needed for 30 books requires more space |
| Accessible | You can access eBooks everywhere on your e-device | You cannot access normal books everywhere. |
| Portability | Carry more books in a single device | You cannot carry more books in your hand |
| Environmental Impacts | The destruction of trees reduces | More trees are destroyed |
| Habits | It may create distractions while reading. | It keeps you away from distractions |
| Health | It may affect your eyes | It cannot affect your eyes |
| Features | More options like taking notes on the page we read | We need to carry a note or book to take notes. |
Advantages And Disadvantages of eBooks Vs Printed Books
Now you will understand the advantages and disadvantages of eBooks Vs printed Books with some examples, real-life scenarios, and case studies.
Affordability
| Scenarios | eBooks | Paperback |
| Real time example
The price of the Atomic Habits book on Amazon |
Around $12.99 (for each copy) |
Around $15.00 (each copy)
|
|
Rich dad poor dad book on Amazon is |
Around $6.00 (for each copy) |
Around $7 to $15 (for each) |
| Saving | Save around $2 | Bit expensive than eBooks |
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Storage Space
| Scenario | eBooks | Paperback |
| Avg size of 1 book | 500 kb to 5 MB | 100cm2 |
|
Storage required to kept n books
|
In 1 Gb of memory space, you kept an average of 3334 eBooks |
To keep 3334 paperbacks, you need nearly 1000 cubic feet of space ( data Provide by bard ai) |
Accessibility:
| Scenario | eBooks | paperback |
| Access | Wherever and whenever you can access eBooks | Cannot access it wherever and whenever you want. |
| Example | Assume you are traveling somewhere through that way of traveling you think let’s read some books, you can use eBooks through your phone or even you can listen to audiobooks | Assume the same scenario if you are traveling if you read some books on the travel people see something weird about your that is why eBooks are better. |
Portability:
| eBooks | paperbacks |
| eBooks are easy to carry. As we tell before we can carry nearly 3334 eBooks on 1 GB of memory space. So, read whatever title we want to read when we use eBooks
|
We cannot take paperback eBooks everywhere you want. If we carry more than 2 books it looks like something heavy on our bags.
|
That is why eBooks are more easily portable than paperbacks.
Environmental Impacts:
| eBooks | Paperback |
| eBooks are environmentally friendly because eBooks cannot destroy any trees, and they cannot take degradation time.
|
1 kg of wood is needed to create avg. of 50 pages in a book, this results from the huge destruction of trees. That is why ebooks are more environmentally friendly than paperbacks |
Image Created by Bing ai image creator
Health Comparison:
eBooks: eBooks may cause eye damage, but that is not a big issue now because we have more technological advancements. We have eye protection glasses, we have a reading light option on our mobile phone, and more precautionary measures to protect our eyes.
Paperbacks: Paperbacks are not affect our vision it is good for you and paperbacks are more efficient in some ways. If you are more care about your health then go with paperback books.
Habit Formation:
Both eBooks and paperbacks help you create reading habit formation. But in eBooks, you may find a lot of distractions because you read eBooks through your electronic devices like mobile phones or laptops. This may make to lack of focus.
But paperbacks are a distraction-free environment, you only read the words and understand the meanings, and you never get into any distractions when you read eBooks.
For Book Authors
| Pain points | eBooks | Paperback |
| Investment | Less investment to publish | More investment to publish |
| Work Load | One-time creation and publishing are enough | Need to print and publish again and again |
| Republish | Easy to edit and republish it | Cannot possible to change old books but republish them again after edit |
| Return on Investment | May get more ROI | May or may not get more ROI |
| Resources | Cannot need more human resources | Need more human resources |
| Risk | Low Investment low risk | High investment high risk |
If you are a book author then you must know which type of publication is more profitable in less work. If you want to know the details about that, then go through our blog buddy.
Investment Comparison:
| eBooks | Paperback | |
| Initial Investment | $ 0 (if you are an author) to $100 | $500 to $1000 (may increase based on factors and requirements) |
| Investment Need | You can publish your eBook free on multiple platforms for example amazon, gum road, etc for $0 (if you know some kind of stuff like cover design etc.)
Factors for the initial cost 1. Editing 2. Cover design Note: You can publish eBooks without an ISBN number |
Factors for the initial cost
1. Editing 2. Cover design 3. Typesetting 4. Formatting 5. ISBN and barcode 6. Printing and production |
How Much Does It Cost to Self-Publish A Book in 2023 by Reedsy
Work Load Comparison:
| ebooks | paperbacks |
| 1. One-time creation
2. For example if you are an ebook writer you can publish your eBook only once and resale it again and again 3. Shipping is not needed. They are easily downloadable |
1. We need to print it again and again after the sales
2. For example if you are a book writer you want to publish it as a paperback you need to reprint it after the sale of all printed books so reinvesting is needed. 3. Shipping cost is needed. This needs more human work |
Republishing:
eBooks: If you publish an eBook and you need to edit something, you can easily edit your ebook and republish it.
Paperback: But if you edit and publish a paperback you want to print it with editions. So again it needs more cost. Another drawback is most people prefer new editions so your old edition books may not sell.
Resources Need To Publish eBooks:
- Manuscript: A manuscript is a document that contains the valuable content of yours. You need to convert this manuscript to eBook format. Before converting to ebook format please proofread your content at least 5 times. Check thrice by your side and twice by any content editor’s side. This helps to make your eBook concise and clear. This doesn’t need any cost you do this thing on your Microsoft docs.
- eBook Formatting: After you proofread the content of your eBook you need to convert the docx format into eBook formats such as EPUB, pdf, txt, kindle format, etc. If you want to publish your eBook on Kindle you cannot need to format it in any type. Kindle publication format your docx into amazon kindle format. But you need to publish in the format you want then you need to convert using some formatting software or go with a freelancer to format your docx. Formatting may cost $30 to $50.
- eBook design: After completing your content edition and formatting section you need to edit your eBook cover design. eBook cover helps most authors to get more sales for their eBooks. People say Do not judge a book by its cover, but when it comes to reality people judge something by its outer appearance. So, please provide attractive and valuable information via your eBook cover design. Try your eBook design in Canva, etc. The design may cost $30 to $50
- Publishing Platform: There are more platforms to publish your eBooks. Let me explain some eBooks publishing platforms for your reference.
- Amazon KDP
- Sellfy
- Podia
- Payhip
- BigCommerce
- SendOwl
- PublishDrive
- Apple Books
- Google Play
- Smashwords
- Draft2Digital
- Kobo
- OneRead
- IngramSpark
- Barnes & Noble
- You can publish your eBook for free on all the above platforms. So the total cost to publish an ebook is range between 0$ to 100 dollars.To know more about these platforms read this blog
- 10 Best Platforms to Sell eBooks In 2023 by Blogging Wizard
- 10 Best Platforms For Selling eBooks by Firmbee
- 11 Best Platforms to Sell eBooks In 2023 Comparison by StartupBonsai
These are the resources you need to publish an eBook.
Resources Need To Publish A Paperback:
To publish a paperback, you need some basic things like eBooks, they are
- Manuscript
- Editing
- Cover Design
- ISBN Number: ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. This is a unique identifier to sell your book to other countries. To get an ISBN number you need some fee ranging between $10 to $300
Resources
ISBN application form details in India
Get you ISBN number from all over the world
5. Printing: Printing is the major cost for publishing a paperback. The cost of printing depends of various factors such as book pages, book size, paper quality, and page color printing. The average price to print a book range from $2 to $10
Try the author copy calculator for the price of your book
Distribution Cost
After printing your paperbacks you need to distribute these books to market. So, you need to understand how to distribute your book, where you need to distribute your books, and n how much quantity you need to distribute your book.
On average the price to distribute your paperback ranges between $100 to $1000. If you distribute online it may reduce because you collect shipping costs from customers.
To know more about distribution Read the blog titled Everything Authors Need to Know about Distribution by Scribe Media
Marketing Cost:
Marketing is the root of business, if your product is good, if the product provides value to the customers but if you fail to market it your product fails. That is why I say marketing is the root of business. You want to tell people what is your product and how it helps them to solve their problems.
You market your product way of digital marketing via different channels like social media marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Email Marketing, Content Marketing, and so on.
The avg cost to market your eBook is $100 to $1000 if you market it in a good manner, you will get more sales and get 3x times more revenue than your marketing cost. For example, if you spend $100 for marketing you will get $300+ sales revenue through the marketing. So, Market so product well is the keystone to building your business.
Conclusion:
Both eBooks and paperback publications provide good profits but in ebooks, the publication cost is less than the paperback books. So if you want to publish your manuscript as a book publish it as a eBook and get some sales and reviews. Based on that reinvest some amount and publish it as a paperback. This helps you to save some money and get more sales buddy
I hope this article blows your mind. Thank you for spending your valuable time with us. I will provide you with some resource articles below if you like this read those articles and gain some knowledge. All the best buddy!
