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I realised when I logged off that I got my percentages wrong too.... They don't add a 30% mark up to the publisher's price. They add a 50% mark up because they always get about a third of the total price. So if we charge £2 for a book, the online seller adds about £1 making £3 and then VAT would be added to that. They always get at least about a third of the price. Sometimes they take two thirds, or Amazon do anyway. Publishers then have to try not to devalue a book by making it too much like a freebie they're trying to offload at any price because it isn't selling any more. But I suppose about £4 might be the minimum we could manage while giving the author a royalty of £1, plus the publisher and the seller, eg Waterstones, getting £1 too.
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