No production, storage, shipping… You think all of that costs $1? Also not every book is $50. A lot are way cheaper than that (around $10). So even $1 would be %10 which is not just a very small fraction (but again it’s more than that). See below for a screenshot of Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone. Kindle edition is even more expensive than the paper copy ($10 vs $7). Not only that it is more expensive for no reason but it is about 40% more expensive compared to the $7 price of the physical copy (and I don’t think I have to say this but I don’t think that’s a small fraction).

Edit: also I never said I don’t purchase any ebooks. I said I’ll stop using libgen when ebooks are cheaper than physical copies. Whenever I see shit like the screenshot I have attached I just pirate the book. I am not going to spend $10 on an ebook when half of that is going into Bezo’s pocket for no reason.

It’s not just the printing cost but storage, transportation, distribution and collection (though free books get collected; most have the covers removed and the paper thrown out). Plus there is the setup for commercial printing and minimum runs. The 100,000th book it may only be a couple dollars, but a run of specialty texts that only has a 10,000 print run could be ten times that. Shipping cost, alone, of three pounds of dead tree can cost in excess of $12-15 by ground transport (at retail rates) plus packaging and handling.

It was once said (in the aerospace industry) that every hand which touches a part costs $100. While it’s less for items like books, the number of transfers from publishes pc to a students backpack is pretty large.