Specialist and minor authors are being damaged by Amazon’s online royalties scheme that punishes those who do not want to sell their books at knock-down prices, critics warned.
If authors sell their books
directly through Amazon’s Kindle site the company will hand over 70pc of all
sales, providing the cover price is between $2.99 and $9.99 (£1.98 and £6.60).
Any books priced above that will be given only 35pc
royalties.
The Telegraph - 10 Mar 2013
Writers who are likely to have a small readership, particularly in niche
markets, are being penalised if they want to sell their books at a high price.
If authors sell their books directly through Amazon’s Kindle site the company
will hand over 70pc of all sales, providing the cover price is between $2.99 and
$9.99 (£1.98 and £6.60).
Any books priced above that will be given only 35pc royalties. Critics say
the move is designed to keep the price of books down on Kindle to make it more
attractive in an increasingly competitive online market.
But it is feared the move is preventing small time or specialist authors from
earning even a modest income from their efforts and could drive some small
independent publishers to the wall.
I don't see how this is news. These have been the standard roytalty rates in the US, Australia and NZ for ages. Prior to introducing these new rates in NZ, the standard rate was 35 pc - half of the 'new' 70 pc.
ReplyDeleteAnd these are self-published books. How else are they going to get distribution? If these authors had a publishing contract, they'd probably get less in the hand. The cover price might be higher, but their percentage would be lower - more like 25 pc to 50 pc, and that's sometimes percentage of net, not cover price.
I suspect it isn't the self-published authors who are complaining but those who represent the publishers.
If authors or publishers don't like Amazon's terms, they don't have to do business with them.