His ebook costs breakdown is pretty revealing. $3000 for an original cover? I hardly realize my Kindle books have covers, since they auto-open to the first page. $1000 for a designer? Use a standard font and template.<p>Book publishers have crazy overheads, with authors typically receiving only 10% of the cover price. Editors and proofreaders make sense, but it's hard to see how everything else adds value. The current publishing model seems to be a big part of the problem here.