Who Controls Your Amazon E-book Price?
2/27/12 Update: I’ve gotten a final response from KDP Executive Customer Relations, which states that the price on my book was reduced because another retailer (Kobo) was selling it for $.99 at some point, “over the last couple months.” That would, I assume, be the issue referenced in the 6th paragraph below.
Take from this what you will.
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As most of you know, I’ve self-published a few e-books. The most popular has been Goblin Tales [Amazon | B&N], a collection of five goblin-related short stories. I priced it at $2.99, which seemed fair, and means I receive Amazon’s 70% royalty rate, earning roughly $2/copy sold.
From a strategic standpoint, Amazon’s decision to offer 70% royalties to self-published authors was brilliant. A lot of authors who might not have otherwise self-published started putting both backlist and new titles up for sale. Over the course of several years, Amazon has become (in my opinion) the major player in self-publishing and e-books.
A certain champion of self-publishing recently decried all of the “whiny bitches” complaining about Amazon, and argued how Amazon treats authors so much better than commercial publishers.
While there are certainly advantages to Amazon’s program, anyone who thinks Amazon is in this to help authors is a fool. Amazon, like pretty much any other business, is in this to make money. As for how they treat authors, let me share what I’ve experienced over the past week and a half.
Amazon can and will adjust your price as they see fit.
On Saturday (2/11), I noticed that Amazon had marked Goblin Tales down to $.99. I don’t know why, and I don’t know when exactly this change was made.
This wasn’t the first time I’d had trouble controlling the price of my own e-book. I put Goblin Tales on sale over the holidays, then returned it to $2.99 in early January. Rather, I tried to do so. Only Kobo was slow to raise their price, and since Amazon’s Terms of Service allow them to match any competing price, Goblin Tales stayed at $.99 with its reduced royalty rate for several more weeks, earning me about 1/6 of what I normally made for each sale (35% royalties based on the $.99 price-matched price).
So when I saw that Amazon had dropped the price again, my first step was to check other listings. Everywhere else, the book was on sale for its list price of $2.99. I saw no external reason for Amazon to drop the price.
I also heard from another author that several of their books had also been cut to $.99 without warning or explanation, making me suspect this was either a database glitch or an arbitrary price cut.
I’ll give Amazon credit – the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) team responded to me fairly quickly, and restored the price to $2.99 by Valentine’s Day. But they also pointed to section 5.3.2 of the current Amazon/KDP Terms and Conditions, which gives them:
…sole and complete discretion to set the retail price at which your Digital Books are sold through the Program.
So what’s the big deal? Don’t retailers put things on sale all the time? Well, sure … which leads me to my second lesson.
Amazon can calculate royalties based on the sale price, not your list price.
With my DAW books, if a bookstore offers a sale, I still get my royalties based on the cover price. Amazon is selling Libriomancer for pre-order at almost half-off, but I’ll get paid my full amount for every copy sold. Not so with self-published titles. Looking at my reports for last week, my royalties were slashed by 2/3 for every copy sold, because Amazon paid me 70% of the $.99 sale price, not my list price.
According to the KDP Pricing Page, royalties should be based on the list price ($2.99) unless the price adjustment was due to a price-matching situation (dropping the price to match a competitor’s price) … but my royalties report still shows a 67% cut.
When I followed up with the DTP team, they responded thusly:
The price at which we sell your book may not be the same as your list price. This may occur, for example, if we sell your book at a lower price to match a third party’s price for a digital or physical edition of the book… In this case, if you have chosen the 70% option for your book, your 70% royalty will be calculated based on our price for the book (less delivery costs and taxes).
Of course, this wasn’t actually the case, as there was no lower third-party price. I asked them again to show me where their Pricing Page or Terms of Service allow Amazon to arbitrarily cut your book’s offer price and reduce your royalties based on that change. I haven’t heard back from them.
Sometimes going it alone sucks.
If a retailer pulled a stunt like this with one of my commercially published books, DAW/Penguin would stomp them. If DAW tried something funny in my royalty statements, my agent would be all over that crap. Given that my agent represents a number of authors, including folks like Brandon Sanderson, Charlaine Harris, Tanya Huff, etc., he’s got some pull.
But self-publishing puts you in charge of every aspect of your career. Meaning when Amazon messed with one of my books, it was on me to challenge them and get it fixed. They did restore the price, as I said, but what exactly would I do if they said “Deal with it.” Sue them? That’s theoretically an option, sure … but I still remember how much it cost, in time and money and energy, the last time I had to fight a court battle.
I’ve now sent four e-mails to their KDP team, and they have yet to get back to me with a straight answer as to why or how this happened. At this point, I figure getting the price restored is probably the best I’m going to get.
Diversification is a good thing.
Fortunately, in the end, this incident had little real impact on my finances. Goblin Tales sold sixteen copies at the reduced rate, meaning I was underpaid by a whopping $21 or so. Barely even worth a blog post, right? But the impact was minimal because:
- Most of my titles are not self-published, so if Amazon messes with those titles, the bulk of my income stream is unaffected.
- I discovered the problem fairly quickly and took steps to get it fixed.
I certainly intend to keep my e-book collections up on Amazon. I’m even planning to publish another one. I’m not telling people not to publish through Amazon; I am telling you to go in with your eyes open, and to understand that despite what the cheerleaders might suggest, Amazon is not pro-author. They’re pro-Amazon.
One final note.
According to Section 2 of their Terms and Conditions, Amazon “reserve[s] the right to change the terms of this Agreement at any time in our sole discretion.” On February 9 — just two days before the Goblin Tales glitch — they added the following:
KDP RELIES ON COMPLEX SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES. WE STRIVE TO MAKE OUR SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES ERROR-FREE AND EFFICIENT, BUT WE CANNOT GUARANTEE THAT THEY WILL BE, AND WE WILL HAVE NO LIABILITY ARISING FROM SYSTEM OR PROCESS FAILURES, INTERRUPTIONS, INACCURACIES, ERRORS OR LATENCIES.
Bottom line? They make the rules, they can change the rules whenever they feel like it, and they aren’t liable when they break the rules.
Mel
February 20, 2012 @ 10:26 am
What a mess. I’ll file this under “yet another reason I do not have or want a kindle”.
Jana
February 20, 2012 @ 10:28 am
I have little regard for Amazon after some of their 500# gorilla stunts, but they are the best game in town for selling my backlist. Still, with terms such as these I start to twitch when some authors sing their praises with such enthusiastic fervor. With great power comes great responsibility. Apparently Amazon missed that class lesson somewhere along the line.
The Raven
February 20, 2012 @ 10:38 am
Amazon was founded by hedge fund managers.
Prudence MacLeod
February 20, 2012 @ 10:41 am
Thanks for sharing. Not too sure what I’ll do if they mess with me, but I’ll keep my eyes open.
Joshua D
February 20, 2012 @ 11:02 am
I like that even though it is their system, they don’t take responsibility for errors….
AND WE WILL HAVE NO LIABILITY ARISING FROM SYSTEM OR PROCESS FAILURES, INTERRUPTIONS, INACCURACIES, ERRORS OR LATENCIES.
Obvious issues with internet failure aside, if your system messes up then actually you should take responsibility for that.
BEG
February 20, 2012 @ 11:04 am
how about B&N? I prefer purchasing thru them, as I despise the kindle format. But I’d also like to see the author get the maximal cut…
Kelly McClymer
February 20, 2012 @ 11:04 am
I feel like I’m becoming an Amazon apologist, which is certainly not my mindset. Basically, you’re complaining because there was a glitch, you brought it to Amazon’s attention, and they fixed it. I am frustrated by glitches, too. For example, my dishwasher broke last week, and I have to wash dishes by hand in the winter, when the skin on my hands is a little dry and not in the mood for immersion in hot water. This glitch will get fixed when the new dishwasher arrives and the installer installs it (not magic, and not immediate, but one of life’s little reminders that stuff happens).
I’d like to expand on your statement about anyone thinking Amazon is in it for authors being a fool. Yes, of course. As is anyone who thinks an agent/editor/publisher/bookseller/PR company/Twitter/FaceBook/Microsoft/Lowes/dishwasher repairman is in it for the author/user/customer. We have a symbiotic relationship with each other, but we’re all looking for our own bottom line — and doing so well means we all benefit. Doing so badly, means one of us suffers. Usually the little guy (in publishing, that’s generally the author 🙂
If your agent-author or publisher-author agreement comes back to bite you (as has happened to many an author): oh well, you signed it; you’re stuck with it for 35 years, or until your contract allows you to revert your rights. If your Amazon-author agreement comes back to bite you: oh well, you clicked the little box in agreement, now you can unilaterally terminate the agreement and be done with them, not in 35 years, not when they agree to revert, but with a click of a button.
This may change. And if and when it does, that’s when I’ll click the little button to terminate my deal with Amazon (or B&N, or any of a dozen other entities which have annoyingly grabby TOS language that I put up with because I am able to terminate with a click of a button).
At the moment, Amazon is offering authors the best deal going (so I guess that is good for Amazon’s interests *and* authors’ interests). B&N is stepping up their game and is extremely attractive, too (without the international marketplace, though). I look forward to seeing others put the pressure on Amazon to keep treating authors well (except for the infrequent and yet personally frustrating glitches) by treating authors well.
It will really suck for authors if everyone starts treating us badly…again 🙂
Jim C. Hines
February 20, 2012 @ 11:06 am
Exactly. They do a lot of things really well, but they’ve also pulled some stunts that are simply Not Okay. At the same time, an author who doesn’t sell through them would, at least in the current environment, lose the majority of his/her e-book sales.
Jim C. Hines
February 20, 2012 @ 11:07 am
Kelly – read more closely, please. They fixed the price. They have not fixed the royalties, and according to their terms of service, they don’t have to.
Jim C. Hines
February 20, 2012 @ 11:09 am
Royalties are roughly the same from B&N and Amazon. My personal preference is for readers to purchase e-books wherever is most convenient and best for them.
Ali
February 20, 2012 @ 11:13 am
That is really disturbing. I’ve been wondering what happened with this, and I’m glad that you posted about it. That is really very frustrating and not a fair business practice in my opinion.
Thank you for sharing your experience, Jim. I appreciate it.
JanArrah
February 20, 2012 @ 11:19 am
OK, Kelly.. no Mr. Hines is NOT complaining about a glitch, he is complaining about Amazon’s RULES that allow them to randomly change the price of a book without notifying the author and at whatever whim they feel is important which means they COULD hurt the livelihood of self-published writers. Mr. Hines himself admits he was barely impacted by this problem, BUT there are other writers that are NOT published by the major publishers who write good stories and can be hurt by Amazon’s POLICY.
I personally don’t understand why ANYONE would want a Kindle after the numerous crap Amazon has pulled with the Kindle. For instance, when you purchase a book from Amazon, YOU DO NOT OWN THAT BOOK. You are merely licensing it from Amazon, so if Amazon has a problem with the publisher/writer/whomever in the long chain, they can and HAVE pulled books off peoples Kindles without refunding a single dime. Not to mention that the Fire has had countless problems.. I’m still amazed at the number of people that want/buy anything Kindle.
Not saying that every e-reader doesn’t have their problems (I work for B&N and sell the Nook, I understand it’s not perfect), but it really is BETTER than the Kindle.
Kelly McClymer
February 20, 2012 @ 11:22 am
Jim, you’re not the first author I’ve heard about going through this. Amazon has no obligation to pay you a royalty on your cover price, only on the selling price. They sold your copies for what they sold your copies for, and you got 70% (not 35%, because you set the price at a 70% rate) of the income they received. That’s the extent of your recompense (Amazon eats an extra 35% and you get double those royalties for the glitch — or contractually matched — price).
Consider that the equivalent of your publisher choosing to sell discount books to Sams Club. Sure, you don’t have any say in how many copies/how big a discount, but you do get a contractually negotiated, much smaller royalty on a (hopefully) larger sales volume. I remember being shocked at how piddly the royalties are for “special ” and “discount” and “promotional” sales. But that was before I started thinking of publishing as a business *and* an art.
I think we authors should advocate (and I have) that Amazon give us more control over our promotional pricing, so that this happens less often. Kobo is infuriatingly slow to change, and I’ve found myself at their mercy more than once after a sale. I even took my books out of distribution there because of it.
It could be the Amazon bots found some old cached Sony or Kobo sales page with the 99 cents price on it, and matched that. Or they could simply have made a mistake. It is important to pay attention to these things, as you’ve done. But understanding the limits of liability is useful for authors (especially authors like those who recently found out that a Dorchester/Leisure publishing bankruptcy means authors who haven’t managed to legally wrangle their rights back may not get paid royalties *or* get their rights back until the court proceedings are ground through (traditionally at a snail’s pace).
Kelly McClymer
February 20, 2012 @ 11:37 am
Jon, I understand complaining about TOS terms you don’t like. But contract terms are contract terms, and all publishing deals come with them (believe me, I’ve signed my share after many bleary eyes hours of examining each and every clause (most of which — from the author’s perspective — are incredibly unfair :-)). For example, some publishers are currently asking writers to sign non-compete clauses that will essentially prevent them from publishing a book *that the publisher rejects*. I’ve been in the business for a long time, and that’s a new (and horrible) twist for authors. I assume it is so horrible it will quickly go away, but who knows. Authors I know have signed deals on worse terms.
B&N has the same “matching” TOS for Nook. As does Apple for the iBook. I assume Sony and even the turtle-like Kobo, does too. Even though I don’t like it (I’m kind of a control freak myself), I understand from the site’s point of view why this is so. There are certainly authors who might deliberately set a price lower at once place and disadvantage the other etailers (although I’d guess it would usually happen by accident — going through and updating all the sites where I have my books listed is a chore I need a checklist to follow through on and I groan when it comes time to put up a new book).
It’s really no different from parking in a hotel garage, where the signs say nothing that happens to your car is their liability. Is there anyone else besides me who wonders if a hotshot valet slams a Porche into my poor economy car that I’m out of luck? It always seems unfair to me that they don’t have cameras and attendants to prevent car theft or accident-prone valet incidents. But where else am I going to park that doesn’t have the same rules?
Jim C. Hines
February 20, 2012 @ 11:39 am
Kelly – I think it depends on what you mean by obligation. Aren’t they obligated to follow the terms on their Pricing Page, which state that they will pay, “The Royalty Rate indicated above, times the amount equal to the Digital Book’s List Price less Delivery Costs, for sales to customers in the Available Sales Territories indicated above.”
I would say that they’re obligated to pay based on the $2.99 list price because that’s what they’ve said they will pay. They didn’t have to offer those terms, no … but having done so, they’re obligated to follow them.
At least until they decide to change them.
Kelly McClymer
February 20, 2012 @ 11:50 am
Jim,
I like the way you read the contract clause. But, unfortunately, the other clauses mean that this clause only pertains if the other clauses aren’t in play. I hate this about contracts (sneaky clause precedence is why I always read and *attempt* to comprehend my contracts clause by clause). For example, the non-compete contractual clause by some bigger publishers is actually snuck in somewhere where you could possibly miss what it means if you weren’t looking for it.
I decided I would hire a very informed lit attorney for future publishing contracts (but, ironically, if the lit attorney overlooks something and I sign a term I didn’t want to sign…attorney’s not liable for the mistake, and I’m bound by it — clearly, the devil invented contracts).
Matt Forbeck
February 20, 2012 @ 11:53 am
While this sucks, I see the same thing in traditional publishing contracts all the time. Often the publisher has the right to remainder your books or sell them off at a huge discount — without the author having any say in it — and if this is done you get a lower royalty then too. Not saying Amazon’s in the right here, just that regular contracts aren’t much (if any) better.
Evil Wylie
February 20, 2012 @ 12:04 pm
@Matt Forbeck – Yes, publishers have the right to remainder books or sell them at huge discounts — but there are often clauses that prohibit them from doing such things willy-nilly. For example, books may not be remaindered for a period of one year from publication. Amazon is claiming the ability to lower your prices for any reason, at any time — and, even if it’s a computer error, they take no responsibility. That’s a huge problem.
Evil Wylie
February 20, 2012 @ 12:10 pm
@ Kelly McClymer – Authors have free autonomy to sign with any publisher they want, and contract terms vary from publisher to publisher. Authors can shop their manuscripts around, request clauses be added/removed, etc. It’s a competitive environment, and if you believe otherwise you have spent too much time on Joe Konrath’s blog. Amazon, however, controls 70% of the ebook market. If an author refuses to sell their books via Amazon because of a disagreement over the KDP terms and conditions, they are potentially losing out on 70% of their ebook royalties.
Sheryl Nantus
February 20, 2012 @ 12:23 pm
Just as an aside – last week there was a problem with the recordkeeping for KDP – the spreadsheets given to the authors didn’t match the on-screen totals, resulting in some authors losing over 2000 sales. A few days later Amazon modified the sheets and all matched up, but it was noted that there is *no* provision for an audit of Amazon accounting in the KDP terms.
Every publishing contract, AFAIK, has this clause. If you think your publisher isn’t paying you what you’re due you can use this to have an audit done and see.
Amazon doesn’t have anything like this.
Just sayin’…
--E
February 20, 2012 @ 12:28 pm
Matt Forbeck:
When the publisher remainders a book, you they are doing the best they can to get any money at all, for both you and them. No publisher will remainder books until they have to. They hate remaindering books. It means they have failed to accurately gauge the sales potential of the book. The author is not losing any money–those books were sitting in a warehouse, not selling. The pittance earned on a remainder sale is better than nothing.
Whereas when Amazon reduces the price of your ebook and pays a royalty on that reduced price, they are screwing the author. Maybe the reduced price will sell sufficiently more copies that the author nets more–this might be the ebook equivalent of remaindering. However, remaindering a book is a role that correctly belongs to the publisher of the book, which in the case of a self-published book is the writer.
Amazon is pulling a rights grab. It’s not up to them to decide how much they feel like paying you today. Jim priced his book at $2.99 and expects to receive 70% of that for each copy sold. Amazon’s decision to discount the book shouldn’t be his problem.
Except maybe it is, depending on how one reads the contract. My point is, with this move, Amazon is claiming the prerogative of Publisher. If the contract does indeed give them the right to set the price and payment at their whim, then self-publishers should be aware that they are not SELF-publishing with Amazon. Amazon is their publisher, who graciously allows them to do all the work of editing and cover design.
Trey Taylor
February 20, 2012 @ 12:32 pm
Jim do you know if other self-publishing platforms(Smashwords,Lulu,etc.) have had the same issues? Thanks for a very informative post though man, I’m working on my first novel and self publishing was the route I’m thinking of going just to build an audience and then possibly try for a traditional publishing deal after I have built an audience of readers. I like to hear the good,bad and ugly of the self publishing world,thanks again man.
Chrysoula
February 20, 2012 @ 1:06 pm
I’m not sure why it’s so hard to understand that most people simply don’t care about the finer points of the legalities concerning what they can actually easily acquire and easily use vs what MIGHT happen in a possible future. License agreements are a fact of life for most people. The POSSIBILITY of something happening they can’t control is also a fact of life. People are used to it. Coping is built in. Convenience, which is often rare even now, is to be treasured. Understanding this isn’t rocket science.
On topic, I do hope enough fuss is made that they’ll choose to be more responsive. And I do wish all writers had access to an advocate as meaningful as an experienced agent.
Chrysoula
February 20, 2012 @ 1:18 pm
Authors have free autonomy to sign with a any publisher who offers them a contract, and might be able to negotiate if the publisher is willing. However, the competitive environment favors publishers, not authors. And I have never been to Konrath’s site.
I do wish more people would be cognizant of the idea that there are fundamental differences in the world of Big Publishing for those who already have an agent and those who couldn’t make it past that gate. (And saying ‘those people aren’t good enough to be published then’ is extremely… Innocent.)
Steven Saus
February 20, 2012 @ 1:28 pm
I think Jim makes a great point that this wouldn’t happen with a bigger house. (Which to me, reminds me of the adage about paying attention to how your date treats the waiter…)
That said, I’m curious to see how one of the groups that is a proponent of indie publishing will respond. They’re very vehement about piracy… but I think this is a far worse problem for small/indie publishers than pirates.
It’s also another good reason to get your eBooks direct from the authors whenever possible.
Lsura J. Underwood
February 20, 2012 @ 1:29 pm
Jim, thanks for the article. Yet another reason to keep telling my ebook publisher, no, I don’t want to do the Amazon exclusive thing…
Bottom line. Amazon is a corporation. Their happy stockholders are more important to them than their happy customers.
One always needs to read the fine print.
Vickie Taylor
February 20, 2012 @ 1:50 pm
Here’s a counterpoint for you:
I have published 15 books through traditional publishers. Never once was I asked what price I wanted to set for my books.
The Raven
February 20, 2012 @ 3:07 pm
“this wouldn’t happen with a bigger house.”
Yet.
Joe Selby
February 20, 2012 @ 3:08 pm
To what are you making a counterpoint? Making a counterpoint suggests that the original blog post has taken a position that you might refute where it actually relates the experiences of the author. If he had continued by making the point you’re trying to rebut then a counterpoint might be appropriate. He did not, so you are making a counterpoint to a factual event, which doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Jillian Dodd
February 20, 2012 @ 3:21 pm
In the reverse side of that, I hear a lot of authors using Amazon’s price matching against them to get their books to free without joining their KDP Select. I think if you are going to play that game with them, what do you expect? I’ve never had Amazon touch the prices of my books, but I set a price and leave it at that. When book two came out, I lowered the price of book one slightly everywhere. I am thrilled that Amazon, B&N and other outlets allow me to self publish my books.
Jim C. Hines
February 20, 2012 @ 3:26 pm
“I think if you are going to play that game with them, what do you expect?”
Well, I’m not actually “playing that game” with them, and I expect them to at least follow their own terms of service.
Jillian Dodd
February 20, 2012 @ 3:31 pm
Sorry, I was under the impression from what you wrote above that you were playing around with prices. And they were matching them. I never said you went to free, but I’m on lots of self pubbed forums and know there are a lot of authors playing that game. And it sounded to me like they did follow their terms and handled your problems quickly. But you are right in the fact that they do hold a lot of power over us.
Jim C. Hines
February 20, 2012 @ 3:34 pm
I lowered my list price at Amazon and all other outlets to $.99 over the holidays, both to see whether a sale would improve the numbers, and as a kind of gift to my readers. I returned the price to $2.99 after the holidays.
All of this was done in accordance with Amazon’s own policies and procedures, and none of it accounts for why they decided to lower the price again a month later.
Liz Calafiore
February 20, 2012 @ 4:45 pm
I’ve been reading a lot about Amazon’s tactics in regards to books and publishing. You, Jim, and all your other commenters are more knowledgable than I, but I do have an analogy. They remind me of Wallmart. Most people thought/think Wallmart prices are wonderful. I guess they are, but many people who can well afford to go to smaller stores don’t. Wallmart employees are not allowed to unionize. They have a job, but their medical for such as large profitable business is relatively ” light.”. Where there used to small businesses throughout America in small towns, there is now Wallmart, leaving the people with no choice, the small businesses driven out of the market. Now there’s Amazon. Good for many consumers, but death to many small businesses. Yes, Amazon makes books/ ebooks affordable now. They’re also going into publishing now. Many of the small book stores have closed. Borders is gone, and Barnes and Noble is fighting hard. Wonder how the publishers will fare. Wonder how authors and readers will fare. Me? I have a Nook because I liked the idea of a store that I can walk into for help. I only use Amazon in a pinch, and I never shop at Wallmart. I’m sure both organizations will not miss my patronage, but my local stores might.
Vickie Taylor
February 20, 2012 @ 6:47 pm
The original poster’s point was that an author can’t control his/her book price at Amazon. They have the right raise or lower it at will.
My counterpoint was that the same holds true for traditional publishing–authors have no control over the price of their work(s).
Laura J. Underwood
February 20, 2012 @ 7:58 pm
Can’t even spell my own name.
Jim C. Hines
February 20, 2012 @ 8:05 pm
I honestly don’t know – sorry. I haven’t worked with Smashwords yet. I haven’t run into problems using Lulu, but I haven’t used them for very much, and the fact that I haven’t had problems doesn’t mean problems don’t exist.
Kate
February 20, 2012 @ 8:39 pm
I would also point out that if it was a glitch, it was a glitch affecting more than just Jim. My press had three titles affected in January 2012, which dropped the price and the income received on those sales, without our permission or acknowledgment. Amazon will not reinstate those royalties, and does not have to.
Basically, Amazon offers an extremely convenient shopping ecosystem. As a businesswoman, I applaud them for their decisions and think they’re incredibly savvy and cutthroat.
As a publisher and as someone who rather despises and fears the idea of a hegemony in the creative distribution sector, I’m scared witless by Amazon.
Moses Siregar III
February 20, 2012 @ 11:54 pm
One point to add to this is that if you set your books at the 35% royalty rate, then you always earn 35% of your list price, even if Amazon discounts your book and sells it for less than your list price. The more you know …
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Ramona Grigg
February 21, 2012 @ 7:51 am
@JanArrah I’m a Kindle Fire owner and I love everything about it. I read the reviews on both the Kindle and the Nook before I bought it and from the reviews the Kindle fit my needs better than the Nook. Not to hijack this thread, but since you work for B&N and sell the Nook it seems a little disingenuous for you to be knocking your competition on a thread that is about Amazon Publishing and not about eReaders.
Stephen A. Watkins
February 21, 2012 @ 11:23 am
As an MBA who has studied both Walmart and Amazon in that perspective: your analogy of Amazon as being like Walmart is exactly correct. The stories of how the two operate and how they each achieve their low price points are very similar. Basically, their tactics are the same, and that tactic is to offer lower prices to customers by squeezing suppliers – which they can do because they are so large.
As an author (not published or self-published yet), I recognize that the role authors play in this game is that of supplier, and the market is fast becoming a Monopsony in which Amazon is effectively the only game in town. Consequently, I’ve very few doubts that the Amazon supplier squeeze on authors is coming. These draconian TOS are, I think, just the herald.
Elizabeth Moon
February 21, 2012 @ 11:49 am
Actually, regular contracts ARE better because the publisher is constrained from changing the rules as it goes along. Amazon has now decided it can change not only the price, but the rules governing price, without notice or consent. That pretty much breaches the whole idea of contract–something two willing parties agree on and stick to thereafter because it’s written down. I know what my royalty rate is with regular sales, discounts, and remainders; the publisher cannot change that without amending the contract–and getting my signature on the line.
Amazon has decided that a contract is something other than an agreement between willing parties. It’s whatever they want, and you have no say once you’ve ever agreed to sign with them for what you thought was a stable agreement. That’s not how contracts are supposed to work. What you signed it what’s binding–on both parties.
Brenda Hiatt
February 21, 2012 @ 11:50 am
I am also no apologist for Amazon and agree with Kelly and others (including Jim) that the main reason Amazon has been “good” to authors is that it benefits AMAZON’S bottom line. No surprise there. But I will say that I know of a LOT of authors who have used Amazon’s price matching to get around the $2.99 minimum for the 70% royalty there (in other words, dropping their prices to $1.99 or .99 at B&N, Smashwords, etc. but NOT Amazon, then waiting for Amazon to match, so they still get the 70% royalty on the lower price). This is definitely in violation of Amazon’s TOS, but I have yet to hear of them retaliating in any way. That’s probably because they’re still making money from those authors and it’s not worth their while (financially) to police such things. At the moment, in my own experience of publishing 6 backlist titles via KDP (and elsewhere), Amazon seems to be far more responsive to authors than either B&N or Smashwords. It’s kind of nice to be treated like a customer instead of some interchangeable cog in a huge company’s machine. That said, I definitely do NOT want Amazon to become the only game in town, so I very much hope the other vendors (and publishers) will step up and become more competitive. That will be to the advantage of all (except Amazon, of course).
Vickie Taylor
February 21, 2012 @ 12:06 pm
Do you have a publishing contract that actually specifies the price your book will be sold for, Elizabeth? Because I’ve been around awhile and I’ve never seen such a thing.
Yes, a tradi contract specifies royalty rate (%) and conditions for certain types of sales, there is typically absolutely nothing that prevents them from doing a reprint of the book and selling it at any price they want. And I have seen them do it.
After 23 years in business management, I’ve learned how to read a contract.
That said, I also am in absolute agreement that we need a competitive environment in book publishing, and that means there is a role for B&N and the traditional publishers. This will all sort itself out in a few years.
Jim C. Hines
February 21, 2012 @ 12:14 pm
Vickie,
The fact that a contract doesn’t specify a price doesn’t have much to do with what’s being discussed here. The focus of Elizabeth’s second sentence is Amazon changing the *rules* governing price.
I don’t think anyone in this conversation has claimed that a traditional publishing contract specifies a sale price for books.
DAW cannot randomly decide to change the terms of its contract with me. They can’t arbitrarily say they’re going to pay me $X per book one day but only $Y per book the next.
Amazon is doing exactly that.
-Jim
--E
February 21, 2012 @ 1:00 pm
Vicky, the publisher of a book sets the list price, from which the author’s royalty is determined. Remainders are a different piece of the contract.
When a person self-publishes, they are the publisher. They set their price.
What Amazon is doing in this scenario is declaring themselves the publisher. If someone is self-publishing to get away from evil overlords, why would they want Amazon to take over as their publisher?
Vickie Taylor
February 21, 2012 @ 1:23 pm
I hear what you’re saying, Jim, and we’re not disagreeing on many things…just a few. In fairness, Elizabeth’s post above references *both* price and the rules governing price. I just don’t want it to get lost in all this furor over not allowing Amazon to become a monopoly (by pointing out the disadvantageous parts of their ToS) that big publishers are out for themselves, too. All big businesses are.
There are also many disadvantageous terms to traditional publishing contracts–such as the fact that the author has NO say in the price seems to me much more heinous than the possibility that an outlet *might* change the price from time to time.
And as an example of the games that can be played even in the light of a standard contract that has been vetted by literally hundreds of literary agents and attorneys…there is currently a very large traditional publisher who, for a number of years, had a contract that stated authors would get 50% of net on digital sales.
50% sounds pretty good, right? Except they used the term net, which is also pretty standard. In their case, what they did is have the North American arm of the publishing company (a legal entity in itself) license the digital books from the European parent company (also a legal entity) for 6% of the cover. So then the “net” became 6%. Authors got 50% of net, so it worked out to 3% of total.
Abra-cadabra! 50% becomes 3% and over a thousand authors get screwed out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
At least if Amazon changes my terms to a point that I’m not willing to accept, with one click of my mouse I can take my book elsewhere. Not so with traditional contracts which often lock authors in for many years.
As I said above, I believe competition is healthy and I do NOT want to see Amazon take over the world. I just want to be fair here, and make sure people realize that authors have always been in the crosshairs when it comes to getting the short end of the stick (how’s that for mixed metaphors, lol!).
We all have choices. We can all help each other by sharing information so that we can make the best choices…but in the end we need to respect that right to choose.
Vickie Taylor
February 21, 2012 @ 1:37 pm
Hmmm. WalMart also lowers the price of their books. Are they a publisher, too?
Now I know that is not a fair analogy from the author’s perspective…because authors still get paid royalties on the cover price. But it does make one think about all these definitions being bandied about!
The publishing world is changing. We all just need to stay informed, make the best decisions we can for our careers, and hold on tight!
And I am not self-publishing to get away from evil overlords. For the most part, my previous publishers were wonderful to me (as was defined by the publishing world at the time I signed with them). I had an agent I adored (still adore). I walked away from it all because I believe it was the right thing to do for my career on many levels. That does not mean it is right for anyone else. I respect people’s right to choose. Every publishing opportunity–self-pubbing, traditional pubbing, small press, whatever–has advantages and disadvantages. Each author must do his/her best to understand those advantages/disadvantages and them balance them against her own goals.
Jim C. Hines
February 21, 2012 @ 1:39 pm
It’s not that this isn’t a fair analogy; it’s that it’s not an accurate analogy. Walmart has no ability to lower the list/cover price of books, though they can discount the sale price. This doesn’t affect the royalties the author receives. Nor can Walmart suddenly turn around and say “Now that we’ve sold these books, we’ve decided not to pay the publishers what we originally promised.”
Vickie Taylor
February 21, 2012 @ 1:49 pm
And when Amazon tried the discounting thing, the publishers threw a fit, which is how we ended up with the agency model, no? So now the e-books from traditional publishers are priced so high that they don’t sell (in order to preserve the print sales from these publishers). How does that benefit the author?
Okay. I’m done. I’m not stalking off made or anything. Just need to get some writing done! It’s been an interesting discussion. I hope people will keep an open mind and really read all points of view.
the only one protecting authors from “big business,” whether that’s Amazon or legacy publishers, is *authors.* By sharing information in forums like this. Traditional publishing is certainly not looking out for anyone’s career any more than Amazon is.
As long as we maintain competition in the industry, we will have choices, and that is what will keep us solvent.
ellie
February 21, 2012 @ 4:17 pm
Jim,
thank you so much for sharing your experience of Amazon, which I think will give many authors pause for thought. Only this evening I have been going through the contract for Kindle Direct Publishing and the clauses are DRACONIAN and so weighted towards Amazon that in a court of law I don’t think they would stand up as they breach the conditions of fair trading.
Some of the clauses such as the ‘price-matching’are also legally dubious. Amazon can do this at their whim, without any notice or explanation and again I think many would consider that unfair practice.
I wonder how many authors who are considering self-publishing with KDP, actually bother to read the small print, which is actually full of sly little clauses and hard-to-understand legalese, even for those with some experience of law.
I would advise any author to go into this, as you say, with eyes wide open.
Clause 10 ‘General Legal Provisions’ states that anyoen who is thinking of suing them, must do so in Washington ‘WITHOUT REFERENCE TO RULES GOVERNING CHOICE OF LAWS OR THE UN CONVENTION ON CONTRACTS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SALE OF GOODS.’
In other words, Amazon is riding rough-shod over the UN Convention
Says it all really.
Susanne Alleyn
February 22, 2012 @ 9:59 am
All this reinforces my decision to never, ever e-self-publish any major work of mine without going through my agent, who (representing Sedaris, Ray Bradbury, William Styron, etc) has a lot more clout than I do when it comes to disputes with publishers, including the 8000-pound gorilla that is Amazon. The novels I control the rights to are on Kindle with the agency as my “publisher” and watching my back. I don’t begrudge them a penny of their 15%. Wouldn’t have it any other way.
More Amazon Pricing Horror Stories « The Undiscovered Author
February 22, 2012 @ 11:45 am
[…] I’m linking to another such story, this by established, traditionally-published author Jim Hines whose self-published book of short stories has been given the Amazon pricing […]
Writing on the Ether | Jane Friedman
February 23, 2012 @ 5:01 am
[…] In a coincidence of timing, writing community specialist and University of Cincinnati professor Jane Friedman, who hosts the Ether here at her site, posted her excellent warning, Authors: Don’t Pay Money for BEA Book Promotion, just as I’d been reading an arresting series of comments on a blog post titled Who Controls Your Amazon eBook Price? […]
Sideswiped
February 23, 2012 @ 5:38 pm
I work for a small regional publisher. Unlike us, when Amazon serves as publisher, the ebook realm means their investment is virtually nothing. It gives them the luxury of accepting every publishing opportunity. They do not have to pick winners and losers. They have no reputation to uphold as a publisher of quality books. They can sell and make money on them all, and it doesn’t matter which ones sell best. And no matter how many they sell, an infinite number remain in their virtual warehouse. They could price a book at one cent and still profit. In the 2.99 to .99 discount scenario, Jim didn’t specify whether he noticed an increase in numbers sold, but if the price reduction tripled sales, Amazon and author both increased profits. And you can be sure that Amazon is closely tracking statistics on how discounts impact sales, and will make informed choices.
So with all those advantages, why aren’t we switching to e-publishing? Some genres, like the books we produce, are not currently well-served by the ebook format. The vast majority of our sales have been through independent bookstores and other means. The small amount of our Amazon sales don’t come close to making up those lost due to brick-and-mortar retailer closures. We represent the collateral damage from Amazon’s domination. We are trying new sales strategies, but if, despite our efforts, we and others like us go out of business, Amazon won’t be picking up the slack because they don’t serve our markets. Our genres could simply disappear.
Worth Noting: Amazon is an Author’s Friend — Or Maybe Not « An American Editor
February 24, 2012 @ 4:03 am
[…] […]
Dave Bell
February 24, 2012 @ 1:12 pm
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there were that sort of clause on not being liable for system failures. That looks suspiciously like internet legal boiler-plate, written by a lawyer who doesn’t appreciate the difference between what Amazon controls and what they don’t. There’s some of the same sort of problem in those copyright-grab TOS clauses: your work is on a back-up somewhere, and there’s no practical and safe way to remove it. There’s a technical reason to retain a right to keep copies, but the lawyers struggle to put it in terms that a court would understand.
And maybe this clause hasn’t been tested in court.
None of that makes such clauses right, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon just had a lot of complaints about system and process cock-ups.
Dave Bell
February 24, 2012 @ 1:18 pm
I have heard, from a source I’ve hitherto found reliable, that there are clauses in contracts which can reduce the royalty when a retailer gets a big discount out of a publisher. But I’m not sure if that’s happening in the USA or the UK.
Walmart would be one of the retailers one might expect to put the screws on a publisher. And maybe they can say that they’re doing a bigger share of the logistics work.
James D. Macdonald
February 24, 2012 @ 2:13 pm
Along with that … looking at the spreadsheets from Amazon for some of my backlist titles — with the cover price set by me at $2.99 and the 70% royalty rate, with the price never changed anywhere at any time, some of the sales are listed at 35% and some at 70%. Why some are at the reduced royalty rate is a mystery to me.
Jim C. Hines
February 24, 2012 @ 2:24 pm
From their pricing page under the 70% option, it says:
“Your Royalty on sales to customers outside the Available Sales Territories will be as provided under the 35% Royalty Option (i.e., at the 35% Royalty Rate calculated as indicated for that Royalty option).”
So that’s one possibility… I’ve got a few of those sprinkled through the reports too.
Kate
February 24, 2012 @ 2:34 pm
You’re not the only one there, and I’m fairly certain it’s not just the “outside available sales territories” thing, either, based on actually calculating out the numbers – it appears that the price was dropped and the royalty concurrently, in at least a few cases.
Wayne Borean
February 24, 2012 @ 8:25 pm
Amazon is a business. It exists to make money. At some point I expect Amazon to decide that it can’t afford to pay self published writers 70% royalties. Not today. Not this year. But at some point.
Amazon works on very thin margins, if you don’t believe me check out their filings on the Securities and Exchange Commission website. They supposedly have one of the more efficient supply chains, so if they want to make more money, the only place left to squeeze is their suppliers. The other day they hit Independent Publishers Group with a change in contract terms. No one except Amazon and IPG know the details, all we know is that IPG is claiming it was going to cost them money, money which would go to Amazon.
Right now independent writers make up too small a portion of Amazon’s business (or so I believe) for hitting us to have much of an effect on Amazon’s profitability. As more writers dump traditional publishing, and as more readers move to eBooks, that is going to change.
My only suggestion is to plan ahead. Look to your options. Check out the other eBook stores. Do what Baen books does, and sell books directly from your website (or get together with a group and put together a group sales site). Future proof yourself.
Also don’t count on Amazon to be around forever. No one thought Kodak would ever crash either, and the company is in Bankruptcy now. We don’t know how long Amazon will last. Something new will replace it someday.
Wayne
Teresa Nielsen Hayden
February 25, 2012 @ 12:15 am
Why did they drop your price? Because they’re using your book as a loss leader. They pull that s— on self-publishers all the time because most of them don’t have the clout to fight back. Amazon’s long-term strategy is to try to capture as much of the flow of ebook transactions as possible. Getting readers into the habit of buying ebooks from Amazon, and getting readers locked into the Kindle format, are part of this strategy. Both goals are served by selling good books at extremely low prices
Why do you think Macmillan went head-to-head with them? Amazon wanted to control the ebook prices of hot new hardcovers so they could set them low and attract more readers to ebooks, the Kindle, and Amazon, which is ducky for them but no good at all for publishers. Thing is, early sales of hot new books are a major profit center for publishing houses (insofar as any profit made in trade publishing can be dignified with the word “major”). The weedy little profit we make on hot new books is what lets us buy good books that aren’t blockbusters, or first novels from promising authors. It also helps pay for all the editing, production, design, marketing, promotion, etc., that our authors get for free. The loss of that occasional jolt of real income would destabilize and possibly kill off a good chunk of the conventional publishing industry.
The best single article I know of about this subject is Susan Piver’s The Macmillan vs. Amazon Throwdown, in which she explains how the same problem with retailers led to the collapse of the recorded music industry. I wrote about her piece at some length on Making Light, with some additional remarks in comments 142-144.
Amazon doesn’t care. The book trade isn’t dear to their hearts. Books are just the product line they started selling first. I hear they’re putting thumbscrews on their wholesale suppliers across the board, same way WalMart does with theirs.
Michelle Dear
February 25, 2012 @ 7:28 am
No one should get into bed with Amazon or any other business thinking that the organization is looking out for any other entity but that business. And rightly so. That is the nature of a corporation. It is how they stay in business. Whether they do so ethically or not, and with experience in the industry in which they are doing business makes a difference.
I have upset a number of people recently by supporting some of your statements. Amazon is a product distributor, not a publishing entity. They are in their infancy in this industry, and have not taken the appropriate time to establish themselves professionally to make correct decisions in the market. The result has been knee-jerk decisions that have proven unethical. Those decisions have hurt the independent authors, and those authors have no recourse. As you have stated, few authors, including yourself, have received any response, or positive responses regarding the issues that have caused them grief.
Both the legal department and the supporting silos for this new “publishing arm” (if you could call it that) of Amazon are immature. The legal side can’t write a TOS to save its life. The supporting silos are running around with a lack of information, education and experience. I would imagine that the individuals in these silos feel the pain as well.
Bezos has been making a number of very bad decisions of late which have been publicized, but no one has been paying attention. These decisions are within different sectors of the company. For those who have been in business for as long as I have, we know that these problems, if not mitigated, snowball quickly.
Had they taken the time to properly establish themselves as true publishers, and made this a true win-win for authors and themselves alike rather than strong-arming authors, they would have come out as heroes. But now, over the last two years, they have attempted to castrate the big six and their authors, and now, they are doing the same to independent authors.
Look back over the last 15 years. There is always a brilliant idea that comes out of nowhere and creates an upset in that particular industry. We don’t see it coming because we are unaware of it. Sometimes it sticks and sometimes it doesn’t. It causes other companies to fail horrifically in that particular business.
Always have a plan A, B and C. And if you are an independent author, you are not just an author–you are a business person as well. You wear all hats; CEO, CFO, CMO, and CIO to name a few. You must be business-savvy, you must mitigate risk, and you must know every facet of the publishing industry that would otherwise be managed for you in traditional publishing. No one is going to help you–you must do it for yourself.
Create a group of support. Learn from each other. Band together, because you aren’t going to be able to do it alone. Leverage the knowledge of those around you so you don’t reinvent the wheel. Otherwise, you will get stomped.
Take a lesson from what happened to ITG (acronym may be wrong). They recently pulled 5,000 ebooks off the shelf (Amazon) because they tried to force their new contract to lower ebook prices. They are going to do it to all small press publishers. So if you go through a small press, make certain you have a backup plan.
Otherwise, you are setting yourself up for failure.
Nancy C
February 25, 2012 @ 12:07 pm
I checked my royalty statements and I get paid based on the price I set and not the discounted price Amazon sets. Sucks to be you.
Elysabeth
February 25, 2012 @ 1:24 pm
Having a kindle has nothing to do with listing your books on Amazon.com or any other venue. My friend has a nook and I have a kindle (won it actually) and we both have our books listed as available for kindle and nook (or she did until she decided to put hers exclusively with amazon and has already reupped for another 90 days). I’ve still got one story on Nook and smashwords (which will put it in the correct format for other ereaders) and the three short stories I’ve published or republished are listed in the KDP select program for now (I did have two of them on nook and smashwords until a couple of weeks ago).
As on the other hand, you don’t even need a kindle to read the ebooks on amazon.com kindle store – all you need to do is download the app to your phone, tablet (yes ipads can read kindle books) or computer and you still have the available market of whatever is being sold in the kindle store.
So, having a kindle or wanting a kindle doesn’t really fit with the topic of fixing ebook prices – just saying – E 🙂
Elysabeth Eldering
Author of Finally Home, a YA paranormal mystery
“The Proposal” (an April Fools Day story), a humorous romance ebook
“The Tulip Kiss”, a paranormal romance ebook
“Bride-and-Seek”, a paranormal romance ebook
Elysabeth
February 25, 2012 @ 1:26 pm
Jim,
From what little bit I’ve sold on Nook as opposed to Kindle – the royalties are pretty much 40% across the board for any sales – whether the book is listed at $2.99 or $0.99. I’ve still got my YA novel listed with them but have put my short stories with the KDP select for 90 days – on a trail basis. Just to see what happens. No one else has my short stories that I know of (I took off smashwords and nook which are the only other places I had the stories published to begin with) so I shouldn’t see dropping in price or price matching going on right now (or at least I shouldn’t).
As far as price matching for the other story I have listed on smashwords, I offered a coupon which kept my price listed the same across the board but if they had the coupon code, they could get a story for free and no price was changed to do so. This gave them the option of downloading any format they needed.
I did lower my YA from $3.99 to $1.99 for a week before Christmas across the board – nook, kindle and smashwords – as a gift to my readers. I then promptly raised it back to $3.99 and then just recently have reduced the price to $2.99 across the board. When I took my other short stories off nook and smashwords (a couple of weeks ago) to list in the KDP select program, I decided to leave my YA novel on the three, but it is also in print (yeah I know createspace is part of amazon and I’m probably shooting myself in the foot, but right now I don’t have much choice as the cost of printing books through Lulu.com is much higher and it’s what I can afford right now).
Thank you for opening my eyes to the other side of the coin.
(I see Joe hasn’t responded to your posting, but on the other hand, I don’t think you responded to his either but I could be wrong – just saying – there are always two sides of the coin and that is basically what the publishing world – a coin toss – heads you go this way; tails you go that) – I appreciate hearing from the different sides as it helps me in my endeavors. E 🙂
Elysabeth Eldering
Author of Finally Home, a YA paranormal mystery
“The Proposal” (an April Fools Day story), a humorous romance ebook
“The Tulip Kiss”, a paranormal romance ebook
“Bride-and-Seek”, a paranormal romance ebook
Elysabeth
February 25, 2012 @ 1:30 pm
I’m not sure who left the comment and I can’t locate it right now – but about selling ebooks on your website – I’m curious how you would sell them on your website, formatted for any of the ereaders out there? How do you go about doing that? Admittedly, I have a lot to learn about self-pubbing ebooks, et cetera. – E 🙂
Elysabeth Eldering
Author of Finally Home, a YA paranormal mystery
“The Proposal” (an April Fools Day story), a humorous romance ebook
“The Tulip Kiss”, a paranormal romance ebook
“Bride-and-Seek”, a paranormal romance ebook
Jim C. Hines
February 25, 2012 @ 1:37 pm
I’ve only done a few direct sales, but I’ve sold the .epub file, which seems to be the closest thing we’ve got to a universal e-book format, at least for the moment.
Elysabeth
February 25, 2012 @ 2:13 pm
Will you please explain what you mean by direct sales? and how did you create the epub file (I know that is the format that nook uses but not sure what the other ereaders use since they are not heard of so much today in the ereader world – mostly nook and kindle are what readers use to get their ebooks – not that the other ereaders aren’t out there still, just that they don’t get as much mention as nook and kindle).
Do you have a direct link on your website to the epub version with a paypal button or how does it work selling ebooks from you website? –
My buy now buttons are for print books not ebooks – as I don’t know how to get a direct link to sell them myself from my website. E 🙂
Elysabeth Eldering
Author of Finally Home, a YA paranormal mystery
“The Proposal” (an April Fools Day story), a humorous romance ebook
“The Tulip Kiss”, a paranormal romance ebook
“Bride-and-Seek”, a paranormal romance ebook
Jim C. Hines
February 25, 2012 @ 2:20 pm
I taught myself to make the .epub files mostly by reading my friend Steven Saus’ posts about it. He’s got them tagged here: http://ideatrash.net/search/label/ebooks That includes a few e-book related rants, but also a lot of how-to information. There are programs out there as well that help you convert your document to .epub format.
I don’t have a direct link. I don’t *want* to do direct sales, but I also know not everyone can buy the e-books through Amazon, B&N, etc., so I told people if they were unable to buy ’em elsewhere, e-mail me and I’d work it out. Basically, they PayPal me the $2.99 and I e-mail them the file. You could do the same thing with just a PayPal button on your website. I think you can even automate the e-mailing of the file, but I don’t know what software is required or how to do that piece.
mythago
February 26, 2012 @ 10:38 am
Actually, Vickie, if your traditional publisher suddenly decides to rewrite your contract mid-stream, you can have your lawyer have a little chat with them.
I don’t understand the argument that we should cut Amazon some slack here because traditional publishers aren’t always angels.
mythago
February 26, 2012 @ 10:42 am
This. I am pretty amazed at some of the things in that TOS, and suspect that rather few of them would hold up under a real legal challenge.
But most authors, particularly self-published authors, are not lawyers, can’t afford lawyers and don’t have time or resources to fight. Amazon is perfectly aware of this.
Author discovers that Amazon can reprice his indie Kindle books however they want and cut his royalties, at will | TUMBLR TRANSLATOR
February 26, 2012 @ 7:00 pm
[…] Who Controls Your Amazon E-book Price? […]
Martain Chandler
February 26, 2012 @ 7:14 pm
Collective action is our only hope. Let me know where to send the money when the Independent Writer’s Collective is founded.
Who Controls Your Amazon E-book Price? « Parallel Words
February 26, 2012 @ 7:39 pm
[…] does, that’s who, according to fantasy author Jim C. Hines. Check out his article HERE. Like this:LikeBe the first to like this […]
Author discovers that Amazon can reprice his indie Kindle books however they want and cut his royalties, at will – - AboutLifeX - Living News AggregatorAboutLifeX – Living News Aggregator
February 26, 2012 @ 7:50 pm
[…] Who Controls Your Amazon E-book Price? […]
jblogexplore
February 26, 2012 @ 8:23 pm
[…] This is the worst of it. Author Jim Hines, who normally goes through traditional publishing, tried using Amazon to self-publish some books as ebooks. He discovered that Amazon was slashing the prices he set, and then giving him his royalties according to the lower price. He tried to find out why, but got an unclear response. Amazon might have intended to keep his price competitive, but that’s not what they were doing. They might apologize and say it was a mistake of bureaucracy or computers or human error. Of course they will, after the Internet communities go wild with this story. And it didn’t harm Mr. Hines too much, financially speaking. But they did do it. […]
Steven Saus
February 26, 2012 @ 8:39 pm
It’s worth noting the conversion programs are still iffy, depending on what you have to start with. 🙂 If searching through the posts is problematic, the eBook is available
Doing it directly from your website is quite possible; I talk about SimpleIPN and eJunkie in this post, and the “not 99 cent method” using PayPal and GDocs is here.
Steven Saus
February 26, 2012 @ 8:40 pm
Don’t tempt me, Martain. 🙂
Malika Bourne
February 26, 2012 @ 8:59 pm
I have reading alot of buzz on this subject. I had no idea what to think because I wasn’t informed. I appreciate all the infomation that clarified so much for me. thank you, Malika
Author discovers that Amazon can reprice his indie Kindle books however they want and cut his royalties, at will | Distant Mongolia
February 26, 2012 @ 10:17 pm
[…] Who Controls Your Amazon E-book Price? […]
Author discovers that Amazon can reprice his indie Kindle books however they want and cut his royalties, at will - Bring you health life. - Health life
February 26, 2012 @ 10:47 pm
[…] Who Controls Your Amazon E-book Price? […]
Sadly I have a Kindle because...
February 27, 2012 @ 4:15 am
…as it happens, I really wished to purchase a Nook and support B&N instead of Amazon, so I bought a refurb.
Two weeks after it arrived, it suddenly sprouted the dreaded bug where I could not add or remove files no matter what I did.
Since I had bought it, in large part, to study school notes and a big exam was coming up the following Monday, and I found this out the Friday I was due to go off to a hotel for the weekend to sit and study, I was not pleased. On the phone with tech support, I did six hard resets – no dice. Finally they had me mail it off. I explained that I needed it THIS WEEKEND and yes, it was a refurb and I understood they didn’t have the refurbs in stores, but this was such a catastrophic failure mode that they should be willing to please supply me a new one – cost differential of no more than $40 at the time – for the massive amount of trouble I was going through and had just gone through, given that this device was warranted to work. Nope.
They sent me a replacement and I resold it unopened and bought a Kindle, because the risk of this happening again was just too worrisome for me to be willing to give the Nook another try.
Not happy supporting Amazon very much, and I still mostly use it for studying academic materials, buying (through Amazon or third parties) independent ebooks, and pirating books I already own in hard copy, because I have a bad back and it’s much easier to carry them for re-reads that way.
Tom Francis
February 27, 2012 @ 7:58 am
First of all, I loved the Goblin Books – I bought the dead tree versions from Amazon a while back before I bought my Kindle. Those were a lot of fun to read – well done.
I’m confused about something though. If I read your explanation properly, Amazon gives you 70% of the price that the book is sold at. So if the original eBook price was $2.99, 70% of that is $2.10 or thereabouts. What you are asking is that Amazon give you the royalty of $2.10 on an eBook that sold for .99¢? Do I understand that correctly? I’m only trying to understand the situation. I do understand your point about Amazon arbitrarily changing the eBooks price – I just don’t understand the other part.
Jim C. Hines
February 27, 2012 @ 8:01 am
Hi Tom,
Thank you! Very glad you enjoyed the books!
According to Amazon’s terms of service, as I understand them, royalties should be based on the list price. Since my list price is $2.99, I should get about $2 per book. (They knock off a few cents for delivery charges.) Even if they arbitrarily reduce the price to nothing, royalties are still supposed to be based on my list price.
The exception is if they lower the price due to price-matching, meaning a cheaper version is available elsewhere. Then they base the royalties on the reduced price.
They’re saying they lowered my price to match a competing price that hasn’t actually existed for more than a month, which I find odd, to say the least.
Does that make any more sense? I’ve gone five rounds with customer support trying to figure this out. You’re definitely not alone in not understanding it all.
Jim C. Hines
February 27, 2012 @ 9:01 am
Hi Teresa!
Amazon’s final response to me claims they lowered the price because they’re price-matching and someone else had a lower price within the past few months. I don’t know if that’s true, or if they’re just giving that as an excuse to cover a glitch, or something else entirely. But even if their answer is 100% honest, the fact that they’ll price-match to something several months old is … iffy, to say the least.
They’ve definitely got their own strategy, and they’ve been quite effective at dominating e-books. Personally, I don’t want anyone to have that level of power over publishing…
Thanks for the links, too!
Link Souffle « The End Of Nowhere
February 27, 2012 @ 10:00 am
[…] C. Hines has an excellent post up about Amazon and their E-book Pricing. It’s a good reminder that Amazon is not looking out for authors, they’re looking out […]
George
February 27, 2012 @ 10:21 am
Jim, I am not an author, but I am very concerned about artist’s rights and access to the marketplace. As a consumer, I am very much more likely to buy a book or song directly from the creator rather than from a distributer like Amazon or iTunes, partly because I am disturbed by the evil TOS, and partly because I want to feed the author, not the evil beast that is most distribution chains. I may be outside the norm for consumers, but I would like nothing better than to see more authors and artists sell directly to the public, and starve out the iTunes and Amazons of the world, or at least threaten them enough to gain some real negotiating power against them, and I don’t understand why more content creators don’t experiment with direct distribution from their own website or even from their paypal/email account. The deal that authors got in the past (pre-internet) was terrible, but it was the only game in town. Then along came the internet, and the potential for global author to consumer distribution, but instead of that, what we have is a slightly better version of the old model. Sure, anybody can write a book and get it distributed now, but it is really just a giant version of the old model. When contrasted with a giant corporation and all the overhead and salaries and lawyers et al, I prefer to put my content out as drm-free downloads, accept the losses of freeloaders that have no intention of ever paying the author (equivalent to the distribution chain freeloaders that contribute nothing to creation or promotion) and take the profit directly from consumers who want to seek out the value or karma of buying content directly from the author. It is a leap of faith, but more authors, artists and content creators are seeing how it can payoff.
Rachel Willmer
February 27, 2012 @ 1:24 pm
Hi Jim
If you want to get a headsup when this happens again, you could open a (free) account on my ebook search site http://luzme.com; and add your books to your watchlist. Then you’d get notified whenever Amazon or Kobo or whoever changes the price they’re selling your books for.
Rachel
Jim C. Hines
February 27, 2012 @ 1:36 pm
Thanks!
Tom Francis
February 27, 2012 @ 1:43 pm
Ok – got it now. I have a friend who has self-published through Amazon and he has some strange stories as well – administrative kinds of stuff that makes you want to pull your hair out.
Good luck with it, I hope it works out in your favor.
Amazon can change self-published e-book pricing at will | Ebooks on Crack
February 27, 2012 @ 1:52 pm
[…] you’re not guaranteed to be in control of your e-book pricing. Fantasy author Jim C. Hines recounts a recent pricing snafu with his e-book Goblin Tales, self-published through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Hines […]
Anya Yana
February 27, 2012 @ 2:42 pm
Yes, as writers we do have to watch what’s going on.
Amazon just pulled 5000 titles the other day because basically they had a hissy fit and wanted to get their way by strong-arming a larger publisher in a royalty dispute. Read the Feb. 24th post.
http://allonbooks-thekingdomofallon.blogspot.com/
If they can do that to a larger publisher, what’s to stop them from doing it to us?
Looks like they’ve already started trying to pull it over on us.
First google, now Amazon. Jeeez.
They just must think we are all idiots.
Amazon can change self-published e-book pricing at will (Updated) | Ebooks on Crack
February 27, 2012 @ 11:52 pm
[…] you’re not guaranteed to be in control of your e-book pricing. Fantasy author Jim C. Hines recounts a recent pricing snafu with his e-book Goblin Tales, self-published through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Hines […]
By the rivers of…Amazon | Thistle In The Kiss
February 28, 2012 @ 10:06 am
[…] post is not just to annoy you with poorly remembered Boney M. lyrics, but draw your attention to this article which, in short, shows just how much control the largest online bookseller in the world, […]
You Must Stop Wooing Monsters « extribulum
February 28, 2012 @ 10:58 am
[…] Hines has the latest report on Amazon’s latest “we price at lowest sale price to be found anywhere, and […]
Wayne Borean
February 29, 2012 @ 3:10 am
Elysabeth,
You asked two separate questions, I’ll take the hard one first.
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1) Web Site Sales – Most websites use pre-packaged software. Jim’s website uses Word Press (I looked). I also use Word Press. Other common packages are Drupal, Joomla, and Geeklog. All four are generically referred to as a “Content Management System”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system
They also use a plug-in based architecture, allowing programmers to extend their capabilities. I run Word Press, and I know that it has several automated sales modules, which can take payment through Paypal or other processor, and if the goods are electronic, ship it either via email, or by providing the buyer with a one time link via email. I wasn’t ready to use the ones I saw, so didn’t do anything at the time, but they are there, and Word Press plug ins are dead easy to install. The main problem would be setting up your books, and getting PayPal etc. going.
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2) ePub files are easy to produce if you have a Mac, just buy Apple’s Pages word processing software. It does an excellent job.
I’ve also used the Calibre eBook management tool, which is free as in Speech and free as in Beer. It works really well, and you can download versions for most operating systems from their website.
http://calibre-ebook.com/
In neither case would I trust the output, even though both programs are great as far as I’m concerned. Format conversions of any sort are always problematic. You have to inspect the file before shipping.
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My personal opinion is that if producers of writers software want to keep their customers happy, they have to follow Apple’s lead, and provide support for the major formats. That is where Apple is going to fall down. They use ePub, so they’ll support it, they don’t use mobi, so they won’t support it.
If someone like Mariner Software (Storymill) or Literature and Latte (Scrivener) adds support, it will buy them a lot of new customers.
Wayne
Wayne Borean
February 29, 2012 @ 10:20 am
Elysabeth,
Here’s a Word Press plug in for Digital Sales. It has a lot of stuff a writer might not need, I think the original was designed for someone selling Online Course materials, and the ability to sell eBooks added on later, but I can see how those features would be useful for your Beta readers.
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http://www.copyblogger.com/premise-2/
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They’d probably be useful for a lot of things. Just found it a couple of minutes ago, so I’m still thinking about the implications.
Wayne