Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I'm afraid I don't understand your point. We already know exactly what Amazon pay authors: 70% of the purchase price. Can you clarify what it is that you're asking?
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Harry,
Sorry I wasn't clear. Amazon is
rumored to be investigating an all-you-can-eat service for books -- similar to the way that netflix lets you download unlimited movies for free. The rumor says it would be bundled in with Amazon Prime service.
I don't know what the deal will be, but I suspect the authors will get significantly less than normal margins. That Prime fee (is it $79 currently?) needs to be split among free two day shipping, free video downloads, and now, free books.
My guess is that it will be heavily loaded with backlist books that don't generate much revenue anyway. However, whatever the content, my guess is that the author will get significantly less revenue than for normal (70/30) book sales.
In the original article, I compare what happens with music. The musicians get $5 or so if their album is sold as a traditional download, but they only get four cents if it is streamed over an all-you-can-eat subscription service.
Of course, one difference between music and books is that music can be streamed multiple times as people re-listen to songs. However, books are less likely to see frequent re-downloads.