How Amazon squeezes authors

[hn333]

Originally Posted by taustin

Amazon charges a delivery fee on ebooks? That's just slimy.

The internet isn't free. Someone has to pay for it.

[Top100EbooksRank]

The delivery fee is (in the US) charged per MB at

Amazon.com: $0.15/MB
Amazon.co.uk: £0.10/MB
Amazon.de: €0.12/MB
Amazon.fr: €0.12/MB
Amazon.es: €0.12/MBAmazon.it: €0.12/MB


The book was at 18MB. The author has cut that down to

2612 KB

So the new delivery fee is 2.6 MB x $0.15 = $0.39


I guess he's a newbie at self-publishing and didn't read the TOS carefully. Now that he knows better, he wisely cutting down from 18MB to 2.6MB.




At least he got a lot of publicity out of it

UPDATE #2 Welcome Boing Boing. I switched over selling .mobi first through gumroad with a link to Amazon. You can buy This Book Is About Travel .mobi (Kindle Version) here.
UPDATE #3 Welcome Radar readers.

UPDATE #4 Welcome Domino Project readers.

UPDATE #5 My kindle .mobi is now compressed and resubmitted, I will now (only) see a $36% cut from Amazon for selling the book. You can buy it on Amazon here.

[taustin]

Originally Posted by hn333

The internet isn't free. Someone has to pay for it.

Delivered online, the cost of electricity, amortized cost of the hardware and bandwidth to delivery any file small enough to funciton on any Kindle, rounded to the nearest penny, will still be zero.

[MikeOxlittle]

Amazon is in the business of making money ... why is this guy whining?

[taustin]

Originally Posted by MikeOxlittle

Amazon is in the business of making money ... why is this guy whining?

Your average mugger is in the business of making money, too.

[plib]

Originally Posted by taustin

Your average mugger is in the business of making money, too.

But their overheads are lower. They don't have to pay lawyers to draw up a contract.

[taustin]

Originally Posted by plib

But their overheads are lower. They don't have to pay lawyers to draw up a contract.

Technically, both probation and parole are contracts, of a sort. Though the taxpayers will pay for said laywer, it's not really the best bet for the mugger.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by taustin

Delivered online, the cost of electricity, amortized cost of the hardware and bandwidth to delivery any file small enough to funciton on any Kindle, rounded to the nearest penny, will still be zero.

Are you actually trying to say that since the costs per book—rounded to the nearest penny—is zero (which actually doesn't make sense to me since zero isn't the nearest penny) that the costs for the delivery of all KDP ebooks they sell will still be zero?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by taustin

Delivered online, the cost of electricity, amortized cost of the hardware and bandwidth to delivery any file small enough to funciton on any Kindle, rounded to the nearest penny, will still be zero.

Not over a 3G network.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Are you actually trying to say that since the costs per book—rounded to the nearest penny—is zero (which actually doesn't make sense to me since zero isn't the nearest penny) that the costs for the delivery of all KDP ebooks they sell will still be zero?

I think there is a reason that the retailer gets to keep 30% of the cover price, and part of it is to handle their costs of delivery.
Do you think Amazon take their delivery costs in addition to 30% for PBH books, or is it taken out of their 30%?

[DiapDealer]

Don't know. All I know is that most KDP members I've met have all been well aware of the per/Mb delivery charges since the beginning. And they certainly don't seem to be nearly as outraged over them as other people are attempting to be for them. *shrugs*

[terminalveracity]

So Amazon takes 50% off each sale...so what? Not to disparage the author, but this is a book that wouldn't have even been written without Amazon. 20 years ago he'd have to shop his book around trying to find someone, anyone, to publish it. Then if some obscure, backwater press happens to pick it up, he'd get 10 cents on the dollar. If he's lucky, his book might be packaged with a few better selling titles and actually be shipped out to real bookstores.

Consider the history:
20 years ago: No ebooks and no online retailers. If you want a book, drive to a brick and mortar bookstore. Even Project Gutenberg didn't reach 1,000 books until 1996 and it wasn't until 2003 that they reached 10,000.

10 years ago: No major publisher sells ebooks.

5 years ago: No ereaders. The first Kindle came out in 2007 for a whopping $400 and then only with 90,000 titles.

Only in the few years has it been possible for a relatively obscure book such as this to reach any significant audience. Love it or hate it, Amazon is a big part of this, so why shouldn't they get half the price?

[Lazybones]

I don't disagree, and think that Amazon is entitled to whatever it can get, but this is the reason why we as writers (and readers) should be against any one player gaining a monopoly in the e-book marketplace. I doubt that we would have gotten perks like the 70% royalty option or the Kindle Select program if there wasn't a battle for e-reader/e-book marketshare going on.

[Jyster]

Book publishing royalties

Except in the rarity of cases where book writers can demand high advances and royalties, an author's royalty rate is dictated by their publisher. All book-publishing royalties are paid by the publisher.

For the predominant case, the publishers advance an amount (part of the royalty) which can constitute the bulk of the author’s total income plus whatever little flows from the "running royalty" stream. Some costs may be attributed to the advance paid, which depletes further advances to be paid or from the running royalty paid. The author and the publisher can independently draw up the agreement that binds them or alongside an agent representing the author. There are many risks for the author – definition of cover price, the retail price, "net price", the discounts on the sale, the bulk sales on the POD (publish on demand) platform, the term of the agreement, audit of the publishers accounts in case of impropriety, etc. which an agent can provide.

The following illustrates the income to an author on the basis chosen for royalty, particularly in POD which minimizes losses from inventorying and is based on computer technologies.

(There is a table, that I just cant place here.)

Hardback royalties on the published price of trade books usually range from 10% to 12.5%, with 15% for more important authors. On paperback it is usually 7.5% to 10%, going up to 12.5% only in exceptional cases. All the royalties displayed below are on the "cover price". Paying 15% to the author can mean that the other 85% of the cost pays for editing and proof-reading, printing and binding, overheads, and the profits (if any) to the publisher.

The publishing company pays no royalty on bulk purchases of books since the buying price may be a third of the cover price sold on a singles basis.

In the US there is no "maximum retail price" for books (whereas there is in the UK) which can serve as a calculation basis.


For the most part I think Authors can make more money with Amazon than with print Publishers.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by terminalveracity

5 years ago: No ereaders.

Sony and Hanlin/Jinke would beg to differ, and that's only for E-ink based ones. LCD-based dedicated readers were around in the late '90s (Franklin ebookMan and Rocket eBook)

There were readers before the Kindle, even E-ink ones. My first dedicated reader was a Bookeen Cybook Gen3 which came out before the Kindle 1, albeit just a month or so.