WSJ: E-Book Sales Fall After New Amazon Contracts

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by dickloraine

You do realize that amazon does it exactly the other way around? They give you only 35% if you sell for 99 cents and 70% if you sell in the comfort prizing zone? That is punishing to low prices. I think you earn more, if someone reads the 99 cent book in KU.

Now only if it is a longer book.

And yes, I reversed it on purpose. Note I never said who was making the bigger profit just that an entity can make more off 99 cent sales if one sells twice as many at 99 cents.

Oh there is one exception to the 35% @ 99 cents.
If you are in Select and do a countdown deal, you get your normal 70%.

My point was and is Amazon makes more on their 99 cent books because they sell more of them.
The author makes less at 99 cents.

It is not a punishment if the author chooses to price at 99 cents. They themselves chose that price. It was not forced on them.

Amazon is customer centric. Matter of fact, they thank the customers that buy more at cheaper prices. Heck, they take one look at my digital account and say you are a great customer what can we do for you.
I buy mostly cheaper books.

Here is the other point many authors miss.
If you choose to sell your whatever, you are now a business.
Read the fine print before going into business with someone. Be that someone your crazy cousin Joe or Amazon.
If you sign the contract or click agree on the TOS, you are not being punished.
You made the choice.
Note Amazon gives 2 choices. And I do believe the author is free to change their prices at any time if they are not in Select. I think there are a few restrictions in Select if you choose the countdown deal.

FWIW: If I ever get my cookbook back from the formatters, I will either do 99 cents or $4.99.

[DuckieTigger]

@Cinisajoy: please stop acting like you are the only person that knows how to read the fine print. You are very much insulting the authors that choose a low price on purpose. Economically it makes little sense from a business standpoint if your goal is to maximise profit. I have never encountered any self publisher out there that wasn't aware of the different % in royalties based on price. And yet the terms Amazon gives and the options are still much better than any traditionally publisher.

If you are asking advice on your cookbook you are planning to self publish, whether you should go $0.99 or $4.99, then here is my advice to you free of charge: put it in KU and set the price at either $3.99 or $4.99. Screw all the other vendors since you would be exclusive to Amazon. Keep a close eye on your sales and borrow data, and decide if you want to try to get out of KU to spread out to other ebook stores after each 90 days or so you are locked into KU.

[dickloraine]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

It is not a punishment if the author chooses to price at 99 cents. They themselves chose that price. It was not forced on them.
.

You know, that we used "punish" figural? Amazon discourages too low a price by making it less attractive for the author. They take a greater cut, because they want to at least make some money.
Of course you maybe sell more at 99cent,but amazon knows, that it is not the optimal price for maximizing profit (which is the ultimate goal).

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

@Cinisajoy: please stop acting like you are the only person that knows how to read the fine print. You are very much insulting the authors that choose a low price on purpose. Economically it makes little sense from a business standpoint if your goal is to maximise profit. I have never encountered any self publisher out there that wasn't aware of the different % in royalties based on price. And yet the terms Amazon gives and the options are still much better than any traditionally publisher.

If you are asking advice on your cookbook you are planning to self publish, whether you should go $0.99 or $4.99, then here is my advice to you free of charge: put it in KU and set the price at either $3.99 or $4.99. Screw all the other vendors since you would be exclusive to Amazon. Keep a close eye on your sales and borrow data, and decide if you want to try to get out of KU to spread out to other ebook stores after each 90 days or so you are locked into KU.

My apologies. I have met too many "authors" that did not read the fine print, then griped publicly when they didn't make exactly what they thought they should.
The funny part, most of them were at the 70% royalty. They hadn't seen the delivery fee.
I never said authors shouldn't go with 99 cents. I said figure out what is best for them.

Now as to my cookbook, I probably will be exclusive to Amazon. I just don't want to deal with the others. I probably won't put it in KU, because it is only about 100 pages.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by dickloraine

You know, that we used "punish" figural? Amazon discourages too low a price by making it less attractive for the author. They take a greater cut, because they want to at least make some money.
Of course you maybe sell more at 99cent,but amazon knows, that it is not the optimal price for maximizing profit (which is the ultimate goal).

Optimize the profit for Amazon it should be here. Which might not be the same as optimizing the profit for the author.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by tompe

Optimize the profit for Amazon it should be here. Which might not be the same as optimizing the profit for the author.

Thank you.

[dickloraine]

Originally Posted by tompe

Optimize the profit for Amazon it should be here. Which might not be the same as optimizing the profit for the author.

Thats why there are the two royalty rates. At 99 cents amazon thinks it does not benefit it, hence they take a greater cut.
Since profit on the book is shared, optimizing the profit benefits both, the author and amazon. Please explain to me, how it should be possible, that optimizing amazons profit is in that case not equal to optimizing the profit of the author?

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by dickloraine

Please explain to me, how it should be possible, that optimizing amazons profit is in that case not equal to optimizing the profit of the author?

Take $0.99 as example. Imagine that all books are now that price. Huge profit because sales of each book skyrockets? No. There is only so many books that can be read. Amazon's profit depends not on one book, but on all books. They make money on every book they sell. In the grand scheme of things they could care less who's book it is. But there is different kind of buyers that will buy for different reasons, so prices cannot be the same among all books. Do you all of a sudden have 4 times as much time to read because you used to buy at $3.99, or 5 times as much for $4.99 books - since they are now only 99 cent? For simpler math, imagine the royalties are the same percent for all prices: Amazon's profit depends on how much total revenue they generate. The profit for the individual book depends on how big a pie they get out of that total revenue. So Amazon's interests are not the same as a publishers / authors interest.

[Cinisajoy]

Ok. Here is my question.
If Amazon wants to discourage the cheaper books, then why do they say here are the extra benefits that you only get at 35%?
That is all I have been asking.
Actually, if I remember right, you can check the 35% box and price higher. This is to avoid the delivery fees.
I'm not arguing about what authors should or shouldn't do.
Just that Amazon does not discourage and does make it seem more attractive than the 70%.

[dickloraine]

Double post, sorry.

[dickloraine]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Take $0.99 as example. Imagine that all books are now that price. Huge profit because sales of each book skyrockets? No. There is only so many books that can be read. Amazon's profit depends not on one book, but on all books. They make money on every book they sell. In the grand scheme of things they could care less who's book it is. But there is different kind of buyers that will buy for different reasons, so prices cannot be the same among all books. Do you all of a sudden have 4 times as much time to read because you used to buy at $3.99, or 5 times as much for $4.99 books - since they are now only 99 cent? For simpler math, imagine the royalties are the same percent for all prices: Amazon's profit depends on how much total revenue they generate. The profit for the individual book depends on how big a pie they get out of that total revenue. So Amazon's interests are not the same as a publishers / authors interest.

I don't really understand that. Each book is of course competing against other books, regardless of amazon. But different books have different audiences, sell power etc. So the best price is not obvious. But of course amazon would like to price a book, so that it is most profitable. It does not do that for authors, they have to think about their prices themselves. But they give advice, where they would price a book and they create incentives to price books between 1.99 and 10.
Apart from some cases of 99 cent and 1.99 books (where it could be that amzon profits more from 99 cent books), the interests of amazon and the author align. If amazon makes more money, the author makes more money too.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Ok. Here is my question.
If Amazon wants to discourage the cheaper books, then why do they say here are the extra benefits that you only get at 35%?
That is all I have been asking.
Actually, if I remember right, you can check the 35% box and price higher. This is to avoid the delivery fees.
I'm not arguing about what authors should or shouldn't do.
Just that Amazon does not discourage and does make it seem more attractive than the 70%.

The delivery fee can be ignored. Well, for regular novels it can be ignored. Example: LOTR one volume is less than 4 mb in size. Delivery fee would be $0.60. Already at $1.99 at 70% royalty you would make more money with the 70% option compared to the 35%. For normal novels I don't see how delivery fees would make you want to chose the 35% option. Specialist books that are image heavy (e.g. a cookbook with tons of pictures) - the incentive of free delivery is worth considering.

Edit: few things: you are probably not elegible to price your cookbook at $0.99 list price, as it will be likely more than 3 mb if it has pictures. So the size will exclude you from having $0.99, maybe even $1.99 if book is over 10mb. You maybe looking at a $2.99 minimum price for the cookbook - regardless of 35% or 70% option. And yes, I know that you cannot price 70% at $1.99, but if you could the 70% option would be better, at $2.99 it will be much better.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

The delivery fee can be ignored. Well, for regular novels it can be ignored. Example: LOTR one volume is less than 4 mb in size. Delivery fee would be $0.60. Already at $1.99 at 70% royalty you would make more money with the 70% option compared to the 35%. For normal novels I don't see how delivery fees would make you want to chose the 35% option. Specialist books that are image heavy (e.g. a cookbook with tons of pictures) - the incentive of free delivery is worth considering.

Edit: few things: you are probably not elegible to price your cookbook at $0.99 list price, as it will be likely more than 3 mb if it has pictures. So the size will exclude you from having $0.99, maybe even $1.99 if book is over 10mb. You maybe looking at a $2.99 minimum price for the cookbook - regardless of 35% or 70% option. And yes, I know that you cannot price 70% at $1.99, but if you could the 70% option would be better, at $2.99 it will be much better.

My cookbook has no pictures as photography is not one of my strong suits.
It is at the formatters to turn a pdf into a workable epub.
I was thinking some do $2.99 @ 35%. Yes, illustrated books.

[eschwartz]

Did you convert your document into a PDF for them to convert it back into something usable???

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Did you convert your document into a PDF for them to convert it back into something usable???

I scanned it in as a pdf. It was originally on paper.