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Old 10-25-2013, 10:38 PM   #1
GeoffR
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Price of publisher- vs. self-published ebooks.
Recently one of my favourite authors self-published some of his ebooks for the US market at $2.99 each. The same titles were already being sold by publishers in other countries for $10 or more. One of the titles is actually selling at Amazon US in both versions, the self-published one for $2.99 alongside the publisher-pubished version for $8.89. It made me wonder which version the author would actually earn more money from.

This article http://blog.smashwords.com/2013/05/n...s-authors.html dated May 2013 states that:

Quote:
An indie ebook author earns about $2.00 from the sale of a $2.99 book. That book, on average, will sell four times as many units as a book priced over $10.00. In order for a traditionally published author to earn $2.00 on an ebook sale, the book must be priced at $11.42 (if the publisher has agency terms, as Smashwords does) or $16.00 (if it's a wholesale publisher).
From this it appears that the author and I would both be better off if I bought the $2.99 self-published version.
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Old 10-25-2013, 11:25 PM   #2
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Edit - sorry Geoff - I just followed the right link and found it, lol!!

Edit

Geoff - both those Amazon links show as AUD $11.58.
Last edited by Lynx-lynx; 10-25-2013 at 11:29 PM.
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Old 10-25-2013, 11:31 PM   #3
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I correct myself (again, lol) - when I click on either of the Amazon links above - the ebook is not available to me in Aus.

I need to click on the author's name in order to get to his ebook - and then there is only 1 copy available @ $11.58.
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Old 10-26-2013, 01:00 AM   #4
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I generally avoid self-pubbed ebooks, but I will be reissues of books that had been previously released by mainstream publishers.

I will happily buy that 2.99 (or even 3.99), knowing the author gets significantly more of it.
Last edited by FizzyWater; 10-26-2013 at 08:54 PM.
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Old 10-26-2013, 08:10 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffR View Post
...One of the titles is actually selling at Amazon US in both versions....
This confuses me because I thought authors couldn't self-publish their books until the rights to the book reverted to the author from the original publisher. My understanding is apparently flawed.
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Old 10-27-2013, 05:55 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by orange! View Post
This confuses me because I thought authors couldn't self-publish their books until the rights to the book reverted to the author from the original publisher. My understanding is apparently flawed.
Could this be a case of having different publishers in different regions?

I can see a possibility where in one region (e.g. UK/NZ/Australia market) the publisher has the (global but not exclusive) ebook rights, while in another region (US/Canada market, for example) the rights have reverted to the author (or the publisher for that area never had the ebook rights to begin with).

I don't quite know how common it is for readers in specific English-language markets, but I know European readers in many cases - officially and legally - can see and buy both the US-published and the UK-published ebooks for books where both the US and UK publisher apparently have global ebook rights.

Same book, different publishers, different editions, different prices. And I could easily see a similar scenario here, just with the author self-publishing the ebook instead of having a different publisher for it in one of the markets.
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Old 10-27-2013, 08:06 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Yapyap View Post
Could this be a case of having different publishers in different regions?
Yes, almost without a doubt.
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Old 10-27-2013, 10:38 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffR View Post
It made me wonder which version the author would actually earn more money from.
It's about the same amount on each. Corporation published you get 15% of net price, self published you get 60-70% of list price. Corporation published you get it about a year after it's earned (assuming there was no advance or you've already earned out the advance), self published about 3 months after it's earned.
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Old 10-27-2013, 10:41 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by orange! View Post
This confuses me because I thought authors couldn't self-publish their books until the rights to the book reverted to the author from the original publisher. My understanding is apparently flawed.
Leisure books kept their ebook versions on sale long after they lost the rights to them.

http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20.../#.Um0l4VNn0VU
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