Quote:
Originally Posted by mr ploppy
Unfortuantely their first attempt at winning back the customers they had lost was to price the nonexistant virtual product at a higher price than the real physical product.
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It's not just publishers who are asking more for ebooks than for physical books. Amazon ask for more from small publishers.
I sell my print books through Amazon, and the entire distribution chain takes just 20%. (PoD through Lightning Source/Ingram) Of course, I also need to pay for the print cost of each copy sold.
My ebooks are sold through the Amazon Kindle Store. Amazon takes 65% of the RRP of the ebook. For non-US customers, they also add on a $2 wireless download fee.
My latest book has an RRP of $12.99 paperback, $7.99 ebook.
From the paperback I get $12.99*0.8-$3.97 = $6.42
From the Kindle ebook I get $7.99*0.35 = $2.80.
To get as much from a Kindle eBook sale as from a paperback sale, I'd need to price the ebook at $18.34! Or alternatively, if I was willing to only make as much from the paper as from the ebook, I should set the paper price at $8.49, just $0.50 more than the ebook RRP. Clearly Amazon are charging far too much to small publisher for being in the Kindle store.
Amazon are adding another option to the Kindle store soon. A 70% rate (less delivery costs) that will net me $5.56 per ebook sold. But it doesn't arrive until June, and then only for US sales.