I was trying to explain why I thought that you were wrong to consider it a fair deal. A fair deal, to me, is one in which both parties profit proportionately.
I have shown that Amazon will accept 20% of retail price for selling a paper book, in which they incur specific costs in ordering, storing and handling.
While I can understand that they also have costs that are only applicable to ebooks (data storage, bandwidth), I can't see that they are more than the specific costs for the paper book.
Costs for customer service, website, payment handling, etc. are the same for both.
So either Amazon are being unfair to themselves in accepting books on 20% terms, or they are being unfair to ebook suppliers in insisting on taking 65%.
I can't see that Amazon would continue to accept books at 20% if they were unhappy with the deal - it would be simple for them to insist on a higher margin.
So my conclusion is that Amazon's deal for ebooks is unfair.
That's not to say that I might not take them up on it - they have such a large portion of the ebook market that it might be foolish not to do so. But abuse of a very strong market position isn't good long term news.
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Originally Posted by HarryT
If you feel that it's not a good deal then of course your choice is clear - don't go for it.
For many, however, the large number of retailers that uploading to Mobi will let your book reach, and the hassle of setting up your own website, handling payment, etc, will make it worthwhile.
It's a service that's available. Nobody is under an obligation to use it if they prefer to sell their books through other channels.
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