Tired of ebook pricing

[hoichi]

Originally Posted by theducks

Then why are the advances so big?
With smaller advances, the royalty checks should just start sooner.

How big, exactly? What's an average check for a first novel?
Anyway, these days a big advance is probably the main appeal of working with a publisher. I mean, in the age of ebooks distribution is no big deal. But getting an advance and being able to write full-time is.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by theducks

Then why are the advances so big?
With smaller advances, the royalty checks should just start sooner.

Because each book is a gamble. The publisher pay the advance because they gamble that the book will sell well. All books do not sell well but since that cannot be predicted in advance you have to support a lot more books then eventually will make a profit.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by theducks

Then why are the advances so big?
With smaller advances, the royalty checks should just start sooner.

Or is it ...
When there is a 'Winner', the publishers keep a lions share?

The advances for midlisters aren't big at all. (Low 4digits.)

But yes, the publishers get *two* lion's share worth of bestseller profits.
In 2012 Random House made so much money off 50 Shades they gave every single employee a $5000 xmas bonus and still reported record profits.
http://www.stevenpressfield.com/2012...bonuses-story/

The big "advances" you see quoted from time to time as going to big name authors are a smokescreen. What happens is that the publisher quietly agrees to an upfront lump sum they *know* will never earn out at the "standard/quoted" and officially non-negotiable royalty rate instead of openly paying a higher royalty rate. For example, instead of agreeing to something like a 24% royalty on a Steven King book expected to sell 10m copies, they agree to an advance equivalent to a 20% cut of 10m copies and a nominal 12% royalty so the book would have to sell 18-20M to "earn out" before King sees any "royalties".
Publishers do this because it allows them to proclaim to all comers that the royalty rate is non-negotiable and because some authors have royalty-matching clauses in their contracts.

And of course, they get to count King's books in with the mid-list titles that really don't earn out, of which there truly are a horde. But the once that truly underperform are the ones that belong to authors who don't get a follow up contract at all.

Hollywood accounting isn't limited to movies.

[BadBilly]

Originally Posted by Tom Swift

I went to Amazon to check the Kindle price for the next Clive Cussler book (my guilty pleasure) and was pleased to see the price for Kindle books for this author had dropped to reasonable prices, in this case $11.99. I tried to order it but it said that it was not available in my area (China). Fine. I logged into Amazon and since my account is in Canada, the price all of a sudden jumped to $16.89 for the exact same book. I turned on my US VPN and the price dropped to $11.99 when I had signed out of Amazon. When I logged in again, the price jumped back to $16.89.

Enough. Sick of this crap and 19th century region restrictions. I don't live in Canada so why am I paying Canadian prices? I can buy a book in the US and have it shipped to China. I live in China and the bloody thing is not even available here. I wish I worked for an organization who doesn't need to make money by selling products.

Sorry, just venting.

Publishers buy rights from authors. Those rights allow them to publish and distribute the book in certain territories. If the publisher did not pay the author to distribute in that territory or, if the rights were purchased by another publisher, the book is not legally available for sale there. Since you seem to think that respecting the author's rights is BS, why don't you just go download a bootleg copy?

[dublincheri]

My objection is not the book price itself but our government's insistence that an ebook is subject to 23% VAT while the paper version is tax free.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dublincheri

My objection is not the book price itself but our government's insistence that an ebook is subject to 23% VAT while the paper version is tax free.

If you're in the EU, it's not your government that's to blame, but the EU's VAT Directives. Ebook downloads are classified as a "service" rather than a product under a ruling that was originally intended to ensure that VAT was paid on digital music downloads and, as a service, they are subject to the full rate of VAT. Ebooks got caught in it as a side-effect.