New 70% Royalty Option from Amazon
January 20, 2010 by Paul Mayson · Leave a Comment
We saw it coming. The soon to be biggest book publisher in the world, Amazon.com announced a new deal for authors and publishers today. Starting June 30, 2010, if you choose to publish your book on the Kindle, you’ll get a 70% royalty. That sure beats the standard publishing contract, right (7-15%)? Here are some details:
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced details of a new program that will enable authors and publishers who use the Kindle Digital Text Platform (DTP) to earn a larger share of revenue from each Kindle book they sell. For each Kindle book sold, authors and publishers who choose the new 70 percent royalty option will receive 70 percent of list price, net of delivery costs. This new option will be in addition to and will not replace the existing DTP standard royalty option. This new 70 percent royalty option will become available on June 30, 2010.
Delivery costs will be based on file size and pricing will be $0.15/MB. At today’s median DTP file size of 368KB, delivery costs would be less than $0.06 per unit sold. This new program can thus enable authors and publishers to make more money on every sale. For example, on an $8.99 book an author would make $3.15 with the standard option, and $6.25 with the new 70 percent option.
Some of the catches are the maximum you can charge for your book in $9.99, and you must price the digital book at least 20% less than the physical book. Overall, a good deal for authors.
I wonder if Carolyn Reidy is doing alright. This must be tough.
