Great WSJ article on ebooks - Page 2

SameOldStory · 06-03-2010, 10:15 PM

"This month, Amazon is upping the ante, increasing the amount it pays authors to 70% of revenue, from 35%, for e-books priced from $2.99 to $9.99. A self-published author whose e-book lists for $9.99 on Amazon's Kindle e-bookstore will receive about $6.99 for each book sold". The author would net $1.75 on a similar new e-book sale by most major publishers.

"Mr. Konrath says he's already earning more from self-published Kindle books that New York publishers rejected than from his print books. In the past 14 months, he has sold nearly 50,000 Kindle e-books, and at the current royalty rate, he makes $58,000 per year from his self-published works. When Amazon royalties double this summer, he expects to bring in $170,000 annually."

All in all does this mean, gulp, WAR?

The publishers wanted to punish Amazon. And Amazon is getting nasty right back.

Scott Nicholson · 06-10-2010, 02:48 PM

Amazon's not getting nasty at all. They are just giving the most compensation to the person who does the most work in creating a book--the author. All sounds sensible and fair to me!

I trust readers to select the books they want way more than I trust publishers to select a small handful of books that aim for the widest bottom line.

Scott

06-10-2010, 02:48 PM	#17
Scott Nicholson Scott Nicholson, author Posts: 363 Karma: 2029337 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Boone NC Device: Kindle	Amazon's not getting nasty at all. They are just giving the most compensation to the person who does the most work in creating a book--the author. All sounds sensible and fair to me! I trust readers to select the books they want way more than I trust publishers to select a small handful of books that aim for the widest bottom line. Scott Last edited by Scott Nicholson; 06-10-2010 at 02:50 PM.

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06-03-2010, 10:15 PM	#16
SameOldStory My True Self Posts: 3,126 Karma: 66242098 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Trantor, Galactic Center Device: Galaxy Tab 2 7.0	"This month, Amazon is upping the ante, increasing the amount it pays authors to 70% of revenue, from 35%, for e-books priced from $2.99 to $9.99. A self-published author whose e-book lists for $9.99 on Amazon's Kindle e-bookstore will receive about $6.99 for each book sold". The author would net $1.75 on a similar new e-book sale by most major publishers. "Mr. Konrath says he's already earning more from self-published Kindle books that New York publishers rejected than from his print books. In the past 14 months, he has sold nearly 50,000 Kindle e-books, and at the current royalty rate, he makes $58,000 per year from his self-published works. When Amazon royalties double this summer, he expects to bring in $170,000 annually." All in all does this mean, gulp, WAR? The publishers wanted to punish Amazon. And Amazon is getting nasty right back.