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Another problem caused by Amazon paying very low commission to publishers in some countries is separate to the issue of sales. I also consider good authors from other countries to publish as ebooks. For various reasons it's too hard to promote an author who can't be involved in regular events in the country where the publisher is based, and a debut author really needs to give events at least monthly to get established and noticed.
The cost of delivery also makes it impossible to do this by sending books to another country if the author is based there. We do have to do this to some extent as one of our authors is regularly in South East Asia, but she's quite a good seller. For a new author it's very difficult. Another of our authors is in Finland and the bookshops there are surprisingly supportive, so we manage.
But in general I have realised I can accept good authors from other countries if we start with an ebook. I have been considering authors in Australia, which is why I noticed the low commission we're paid. Authors submitting to me were getting our ebooks and I noticed the very low payment from Amazon.
I would still take authors from countries where Amazon only pays us 35%, even though I know the amount of work I do with an author over months leading up to the publication of the book, and in promotion afterwards, could never be recuperated at that rate. But I'm not sure many publishers could do that. I'm not honestly sure I should because I should be doing paid work to support my family, but I come at this from an author's perspective and I find it hard to turn down really good writing.
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