Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
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.
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Or you could sell your e-books somewhere else. Maybe here?
http://www.closed-circle.net
Not you, nor anyone else, is obligated to sell your books on Amazon. Part of what is going to Amazon is for 'real' costs (server and bandwidth costs, administrative costs, payment collection and accounting, …), but also part is the privilege of tapping into the visibility and market share of Amazon. And probably some of it is because they want it and authors are willing to pay it. Isn't capitalism grand?
Now I can see that one could argue that Amazon is in danger of becoming an effective monopoly. I have such concerns myself, especially regarding all but the most popular legacy books in e-book form. The only solution to that is government action or action on the part of authors and buyers to take their product and dollars, respectively, elsewhere.