I'm awful glad that I'm the patient type! Soo, my ebook: POLICE DON'T MOVE! was released on Amazon a couple of days ago. I busily took the URL and spread it out there for all the right marketing reasons. Then 2 days later, what does Amazon do? They change the URL for the book, leaving all the interested parties with a 'not found' screen. AARRGGHH!
Obviously I have now retraced my steps and am getting the new link spread all about, but what a nuisance.
And so with great fanfare (again), here is the link to buy it
Has this happened to any other authors out there?
Showing posts with label author royalties. Show all posts
Showing posts with label author royalties. Show all posts
Saturday, 23 February 2013
Wednesday, 6 February 2013
Ebook Royalties - a New Battleground?
As the time to publish my ebook draws near, I have been looking at the royalties offered by the big names in the ebook reader market.
Amazon's Kindle store is the definite industry leader, with around 70% market share. Interestingly they also have one of the better deals for authors. Provided that you price your ebook between $2.99 and $9.99, they pay back 70% of the sale price in all of their major markets. While this $10 ceiling has angered a lot of established authors - used to selling a heap of printed book at well over double that; it remains the equal best royalty deal out there. There is a slight annoyance though. Kindle tends to charge customers in smaller markets a hidden 'delivery fee'. Hidden? Well they say it's free, but they add anything up to $2 onto the agreed cost of an ebook, and then the customer gets it electronically delivered 'free'. Not my idea of free - yours?
Apple's iBooks comes in next with around 15% of ebook sales. They also offer a 70% give back to the creator of the work. They take their time with publishing though, with a lag time of around 3 weeks from submission to availability in the iBook store. In contrast Kindle promises a turnaround of just 3 days.
The remainder of the market is basically split up amongst the other known electronic reader distributors.
Sony with a small percentage of the market elect to retain 50% of the sale price of the books in its catalog. It would be interesting to hear their justification for keeping half of the books gross price - simply for hosting it on their site. I do not believe I will release my ebook with them, and I believe from what I read, that I am far from alone. Barnes & Noble with a similar market share also think it reasonable to snatch 50% as a commission. Nope, not them either.
Lesser known players like Kobo and Copia currently match the big guys and return 70% of the sale price to the author. Finally an outfit called Gardners manages to split the difference by offering a 60% return to the creator.
So from what I have learnt so far, for around 90% market penetration, and a 70% return of the sales price, it is advisable to go with Kindle, Apple, Kobo and Copia.
What do you think? I'd welcome feedback from both fellow writers and avid readers.
Amazon's Kindle store is the definite industry leader, with around 70% market share. Interestingly they also have one of the better deals for authors. Provided that you price your ebook between $2.99 and $9.99, they pay back 70% of the sale price in all of their major markets. While this $10 ceiling has angered a lot of established authors - used to selling a heap of printed book at well over double that; it remains the equal best royalty deal out there. There is a slight annoyance though. Kindle tends to charge customers in smaller markets a hidden 'delivery fee'. Hidden? Well they say it's free, but they add anything up to $2 onto the agreed cost of an ebook, and then the customer gets it electronically delivered 'free'. Not my idea of free - yours?
Apple's iBooks comes in next with around 15% of ebook sales. They also offer a 70% give back to the creator of the work. They take their time with publishing though, with a lag time of around 3 weeks from submission to availability in the iBook store. In contrast Kindle promises a turnaround of just 3 days.
The remainder of the market is basically split up amongst the other known electronic reader distributors.
Sony with a small percentage of the market elect to retain 50% of the sale price of the books in its catalog. It would be interesting to hear their justification for keeping half of the books gross price - simply for hosting it on their site. I do not believe I will release my ebook with them, and I believe from what I read, that I am far from alone. Barnes & Noble with a similar market share also think it reasonable to snatch 50% as a commission. Nope, not them either.
Lesser known players like Kobo and Copia currently match the big guys and return 70% of the sale price to the author. Finally an outfit called Gardners manages to split the difference by offering a 60% return to the creator.
So from what I have learnt so far, for around 90% market penetration, and a 70% return of the sales price, it is advisable to go with Kindle, Apple, Kobo and Copia.
What do you think? I'd welcome feedback from both fellow writers and avid readers.
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