Yes, Amazon are paying a percentage of retail, not the price at which the book sells.
Say the retail price for an ebook I publish is $10.
Amazon will pay me $3.50 per sale.
Smashwords will pay me $4.25 sale.
Either way, if I'm paying the author 20% of retail price, I need to pay them $2 when a book sells.
So selling through Smashwords on Amazon will net me $2.25 compared to $1.50 from going direct.
Suppose I do go direct, and knowing that Amazon will
probably discount my book by 20%, I set the retail price at $12.50, so it sells for $10. Amazon will pay me $4.37, which is more that I'd get selling it for $10 through Smashwords. But I'd then have to pay the author $2.50, leaving me with $1.87, still worse off than selling through Smashwords for $10.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daithi
How do you figure? Amazon is paying on a percentage of retail price.
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