Quote:
Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx
I'm fairly sure that it was Billingsgate in Hong Kong who mentioned a little while ago that as an Author with Kobo his fee doesn't differ when his books sell in India.
I hope that Billingsgate sees this post to alert me to the veracity of my recollection.
|
I don't remember saying such a thing. As someone who has both self-published and been published by mainstream publishers, I can tell you that with Kindle books, the royalty from India is exactly half that from most other places. (are you surprised?) And, again with Kindle, ebooks sold at a discount receive a lower royalty, though I haven't yet figured out where the precise threshold lies, or whether it is publisher-directed discounts, or other discounts (like coupons) which trigger the lower royalty. That's for self-publishing (and, I would assume, mainstream publishing on Kindle as well). I'm talking about the actual percentage used to calculate. Hence, a $3 sale in India will net the author half of what a $3 sale in America would. As for revenue from Kobo sales, would they be any different than Amazon? While an author's royalty for paper books is often based on list price irrespective of the actual selling price (with provisos for remaindered sales), yet royalties for e-books and other products are based on "net revenue". I can't prove that sales discounted with coupons cut into the royalties, but my guess is that Kobo would separately report full-price and discounted sales, so that the royalty will be affected. Guess only.
And while we're at it, I'll weigh in on this latest conversation. I side with others who can't be bothered to rig the system for every loophole in order to save a few pennies on an e-book. I'm not a wealthy author, and I am as happy as anyone else to buy a few e-books per month at a discount. But to go so far as to install VPNs and maintain numerous accounts and change billing addresses, keep numerous browsers with 120 tabs open, in order to save a buck, seems somewhat over-the-top (I'm being polite). The only times I've been tempted to do so was one occasion when a book I wanted was georestricted to the USA site and wasn't even listed on the Hong Kong store. I installed a VPN, found it made no difference...and then I felt ashamed of myself for spending my time trying. I ended up buying the hardcover book from Book Depository, for just TWO DOLLARS more than the full-price e-book.
On the other hand, nobody here (as far as I'm aware) is stealing torrented e-books, so the obsessive mining for discounts is relatively harmless. All of us are likely affecting our favorite authors' royalties, but less so than by stealing.