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Author from original post here! For clarification, this is not a new thing, but something I learned to do from this post: https://bsky.app/profile/kristadb1.bsk

Author from original post here! For clarification, this is not a new thing, but something I learned to do from this post: https://bsky.app/profile/kristadb1.bsky.social/post/3kb4wbixaux2x https://bsky.app/profile/kristadb1.bsky.social/post/3kb4wbix... In her case, she ordered author copies (that gives you no royalties, of course) and got the same copies sold again to herself as author copies. In my case, I also ordered author copies, but they were resold to a normal customer after I returned them. From an order of 50 author copies, I returned 14. Packaging was fine, so it wasn’t a problem with how they bumped up during shipping. They were misprinted, or had folded covers (they tear easily after a fold, really bad), some were printed beyond the bleed area (that’s what bleed is for, you can’t be printing beyond it), and a few were printed slightly off angle. One particularly bad copy was even cut an inch smaller than it should’ve been, trimming every single page and cover, text and all. So yeah, that’s why I returned them. But I do give you that some of those defects would go completely unseen by someone at a warehouse. You flip through the book, all pages seem to be there, but how is a person there supposed to know what the margins of the book look like? But most errors would not pass a regular printing press QC, particularly the damaged covers. Also, Amazon both prints and distributes these books, so QC is in their hands from the start.

sparky_z 3y ago
Thanks for chiming in! If you don't mind, I'm trying to understand the exact accounting implications of this for you. In the context of self-publishing, what does it mean to order "author's copies"? Are they: A) offered for free, like they would be as part of a traditional publishing contract? B) Sold to you "at cost" of printing and shipping without any markup? C) Sold above cost but with a discount greater than or equal to size of the royalty? D) Sold above cost but with a discount smaller than the size of the royalty? E) Sold at full retail price but without any royalty? I very much doubt A because then Amazon would basically be operating what amounts to a free vanity press. But maybe they'd throw in a couple as a perk. I also doubt B because then they would be operating a revenue-neutral vanity press, but maybe it would still be worth it to them if they counted on gettong enough non-author sales to make enough margin to fund the operation. I also doubt D or E, because if so, then why would anybody order "author's copies" of their book?. Just get your friend to order them for you and reimburse them and you'll come out ahead. I would guess the answer is C. But in that case, it seems to me that you are getting implicit royalty on those "author's copies", but those royalties are baked into the discounted price rather than being distributed to you later. (I suppose this might also have advantageous tax implications for you on those implicit royalties, compared to the alternative where you just order normal copies and get your royalties later.) Am I wrong about this?
- systoll 3y ago
  According to Amazon, it’s ‘B’. B & C look the same from outside, of course. You’re not paying retail printing prices, but they might eke out a couple pennies of profit. For customer sales, the royalty is 60% minus the print fee. The minimum retail price is 5/3 the author price, and still gives the author nothing.
  - joabaldwin 3y ago
    Yep, it’s B, supposedly sold without a markup, although I’m sure someone must be making some money. They do limit the number of author copies to 1000 (per year I guess? Haven’t checked), so that people don’t just abuse that and sell all outside of Amazon.
RecycledEle 3y ago
I assume Amazon thought the author was too picky, so they shipped him another 14 books from their inventory and put the 14 he returned into inventory. I frequently get books that have the errors this author described. It's normal in cheap books. I've even seen those errors in guilt-edged, leather-bound collectible books.
- Apocryphon 3y ago
  You're replying to the actual author of both the post and the book.

sparky_z 3y ago

Thanks for chiming in! If you don't mind, I'm trying to understand the exact accounting implications of this for you. In the context of self-publishing, what does it mean to order "author's copies"? Are they: A) offered for free, like they would be as part of a traditional publishing contract? B) Sold to you "at cost" of printing and shipping without any markup? C) Sold above cost but with a discount greater than or equal to size of the royalty? D) Sold above cost but with a discount smaller than the size of the royalty? E) Sold at full retail price but without any royalty? I very much doubt A because then Amazon would basically be operating what amounts to a free vanity press. But maybe they'd throw in a couple as a perk. I also doubt B because then they would be operating a revenue-neutral vanity press, but maybe it would still be worth it to them if they counted on gettong enough non-author sales to make enough margin to fund the operation. I also doubt D or E, because if so, then why would anybody order "author's copies" of their book?. Just get your friend to order them for you and reimburse them and you'll come out ahead. I would guess the answer is C. But in that case, it seems to me that you are getting implicit royalty on those "author's copies", but those royalties are baked into the discounted price rather than being distributed to you later. (I suppose this might also have advantageous tax implications for you on those implicit royalties, compared to the alternative where you just order normal copies and get your royalties later.) Am I wrong about this?

systoll 3y ago
According to Amazon, it’s ‘B’. B & C look the same from outside, of course. You’re not paying retail printing prices, but they might eke out a couple pennies of profit. For customer sales, the royalty is 60% minus the print fee. The minimum retail price is 5/3 the author price, and still gives the author nothing.
- joabaldwin 3y ago
  Yep, it’s B, supposedly sold without a markup, although I’m sure someone must be making some money. They do limit the number of author copies to 1000 (per year I guess? Haven’t checked), so that people don’t just abuse that and sell all outside of Amazon.

RecycledEle 3y ago

I assume Amazon thought the author was too picky, so they shipped him another 14 books from their inventory and put the 14 he returned into inventory. I frequently get books that have the errors this author described. It's normal in cheap books. I've even seen those errors in guilt-edged, leather-bound collectible books.

Apocryphon 3y ago
You're replying to the actual author of both the post and the book.