6 ms·

>What are these "extremely onerous terms"? There aren't any. They will pay you 70% of retail, on time, every month. No they won't. 70% royalties is only avail

>What are these "extremely onerous terms"? There aren't any. They will pay you 70% of retail, on time, every month. No they won't. 70% royalties is only available if you sell your book for less than $9.99, otherwise it drops to 35%: https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A301WJ6XCJ8KW0 https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A301WJ6XCJ8KW0 That's what you might call an "onerous term".

Turing_Machine 12y ago
Stross is almost certainly getting 15% or less from his publisher, so no, 35% isn't an "onerous term". The Kindle editions of virtually all of Stross's books are less than $9.99 anyway, so this doesn't even apply.
- anon1385 12y ago
  https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=APILE934L348N https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=APILE934L348N >You must set your Digital Book's List Price (and change it from time-to-time if necessary) so that it is no higher than the list price in any sales channel for any digital or physical edition of the Digital Book. >But if you choose the 70% Royalty Option, you must further set and adjust your List Price so that it is at least 20% below the list price in any sales channel for any physical edition of the Digital Book. Additionally, Stross can't even tell us which of the terms he believes are onerous: >You will not, without our express, prior written permission: (a) issue any press release or make any other public disclosures regarding this Agreement or its terms
  - Turing_Machine 12y ago
    1) Amazon doesn't want you to charge their customers more than you charge their competitors' customers (i.e., not rip off their customers). Not "onerous". 2) Amazon wants you to sell your ebook for less than the paper edition (i.e., not rip off their customers). Also not "onerous". And of course you CAN do both of these things. You'll just get 35% rather than 70%. Which is still more than 2X what you'll get from a traditional publisher.
- Turing_Machine 12y ago
  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st_relevancerank?keywords=charles+stross http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st_relevancerank?keywords=cha... I see exactly two books that are more than $9.99. Both are $10.99. If Stross published those himself and dropped the price to $9.99, he'd be getting $6.99 per copy. As it is, he's likely getting $1.60 or so per copy.
  - cstross 12y ago
    If I did that, I'd be foregoing all sales through channels other than Amazon. Amazon are a big channel, but just about under 50% of total, although in my US ebook editions they're about 80% of the 50% of my sales that are ebooks. Also note that Amazon have the right to drop your price on that scheme to anything they think will ship more copies -- including zero, by pushing it as a promotional freebie, or $0.99, as a daily deal. Which means I don't get $6.99 a copy; I get $0 per copy, or $0.69 per copy.
    - Turing_Machine 12y ago
      "If I did that, I'd be foregoing all sales through channels other than Amazon. " No. Amazon does not require exclusivity. "Which means I don't get $6.99 a copy; I get $0 per copy, or $0.69 per copy." No. If Amazon discounts your book, you still get paid based on the retail price.
      - cstross 12y ago
        Wrong. (Wrong on both details. I know authors who've been discounted to zero and sold as a daily deal for $0.99 and no, they did not get paid on the basis of the cover price. And again: if you want Amazon's best remuneration deal, you're required not to sell to their competitors.)
        Oletros 12y ago
        Wrong what?
judk 12y ago
It depends of you look at it as a "bonus" for low-priced books (to drive volume fornimpulse purchases), or a penalty for high priced books. 35% seems higher than competiting publishers with major marketing power.
- sp332 12y ago
  Since most ebook dealers wanted their books to be priced higher, it was certainly a penalty. Amazon aggressively moved the price of ebooks downward.
pja 12y ago
Note also that Amazon charges ordinary authors an onerous per kb delivery charge under the 70% royalty option. You get to pay the charge whether the Kindle owner buys the book over 3G or Wifi, even though Amazon only incurs the costs when delivering 3G data. The contract is also full of delightful potential gotchas like Amazon demanding worldwide distribution rights at exchange rates set by them, without reference to any externally defined rates. The whole thing is incredibly biased in favour of Amazon over the author. This should be absolutely no surprise whatsoever given Amazon's history: At one point, they were charging EU authors their local VAT rate, whilst only paying 3% VAT in Luxembourg: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/oct/21/amazon-forces-publishers-pay-vat-ebook http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/oct/21/amazon-for... (they may have given up on this particular piece of blatant gouging, but I'm sure they're trying to make up for it elsewhere).
- Turing_Machine 12y ago
  "onerous per kb delivery charge" $0.15/megabyte. Most ebooks are considerably less than one megabyte. "even though Amazon only incurs the costs when delivering 3G data." Really? They get data centers and bandwidth for free?
  - Turing_Machine 12y ago
    Of 357 ebooks currently on my Kindle, 280 are less than 1 megabyte in size.
  - pja 12y ago
    Really? They get data centers and bandwidth for free? Meanwhile Amazon Cloudfront charges $0.12 per Gb. What was that about data centres and bandwidth again? Be serious: $0.15 per Mb is a massive rip-off compared to the actual cost of delivery, unless the download is over 3G in which case it's merely an obnoxious markup rather than an outright rapacious one.
    - res0nat0r 12y ago
      That bandwidth price is helping to pay for much more of the kindle ecosystem than just bits from s3.
res0nat0r 12y ago
Shouldn't the word onerous be replaced with something like, "not great"? No one is forcing anyone to publish their books via amazon. If you don't like it, don't do business with them.

Turing_Machine 12y ago

Stross is almost certainly getting 15% or less from his publisher, so no, 35% isn't an "onerous term". The Kindle editions of virtually all of Stross's books are less than $9.99 anyway, so this doesn't even apply.

anon1385 12y ago
https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=APILE934L348N https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=APILE934L348N >You must set your Digital Book's List Price (and change it from time-to-time if necessary) so that it is no higher than the list price in any sales channel for any digital or physical edition of the Digital Book. >But if you choose the 70% Royalty Option, you must further set and adjust your List Price so that it is at least 20% below the list price in any sales channel for any physical edition of the Digital Book. Additionally, Stross can't even tell us which of the terms he believes are onerous: >You will not, without our express, prior written permission: (a) issue any press release or make any other public disclosures regarding this Agreement or its terms
- Turing_Machine 12y ago
  1) Amazon doesn't want you to charge their customers more than you charge their competitors' customers (i.e., not rip off their customers). Not "onerous". 2) Amazon wants you to sell your ebook for less than the paper edition (i.e., not rip off their customers). Also not "onerous". And of course you CAN do both of these things. You'll just get 35% rather than 70%. Which is still more than 2X what you'll get from a traditional publisher.
Turing_Machine 12y ago
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st_relevancerank?keywords=charles+stross http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_st_relevancerank?keywords=cha... I see exactly two books that are more than $9.99. Both are $10.99. If Stross published those himself and dropped the price to $9.99, he'd be getting $6.99 per copy. As it is, he's likely getting $1.60 or so per copy.
- cstross 12y ago
  If I did that, I'd be foregoing all sales through channels other than Amazon. Amazon are a big channel, but just about under 50% of total, although in my US ebook editions they're about 80% of the 50% of my sales that are ebooks. Also note that Amazon have the right to drop your price on that scheme to anything they think will ship more copies -- including zero, by pushing it as a promotional freebie, or $0.99, as a daily deal. Which means I don't get $6.99 a copy; I get $0 per copy, or $0.69 per copy.
  - Turing_Machine 12y ago
    "If I did that, I'd be foregoing all sales through channels other than Amazon. " No. Amazon does not require exclusivity. "Which means I don't get $6.99 a copy; I get $0 per copy, or $0.69 per copy." No. If Amazon discounts your book, you still get paid based on the retail price.
    - cstross 12y ago
      Wrong. (Wrong on both details. I know authors who've been discounted to zero and sold as a daily deal for $0.99 and no, they did not get paid on the basis of the cover price. And again: if you want Amazon's best remuneration deal, you're required not to sell to their competitors.)
      - Oletros 12y ago
        Wrong what?

judk 12y ago

It depends of you look at it as a "bonus" for low-priced books (to drive volume fornimpulse purchases), or a penalty for high priced books. 35% seems higher than competiting publishers with major marketing power.

sp332 12y ago
Since most ebook dealers wanted their books to be priced higher, it was certainly a penalty. Amazon aggressively moved the price of ebooks downward.

pja 12y ago

Note also that Amazon charges ordinary authors an onerous per kb delivery charge under the 70% royalty option. You get to pay the charge whether the Kindle owner buys the book over 3G or Wifi, even though Amazon only incurs the costs when delivering 3G data. The contract is also full of delightful potential gotchas like Amazon demanding worldwide distribution rights at exchange rates set by them, without reference to any externally defined rates. The whole thing is incredibly biased in favour of Amazon over the author. This should be absolutely no surprise whatsoever given Amazon's history: At one point, they were charging EU authors their local VAT rate, whilst only paying 3% VAT in Luxembourg: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/oct/21/amazon-forces-publishers-pay-vat-ebook http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/oct/21/amazon-for... (they may have given up on this particular piece of blatant gouging, but I'm sure they're trying to make up for it elsewhere).

Turing_Machine 12y ago
"onerous per kb delivery charge" $0.15/megabyte. Most ebooks are considerably less than one megabyte. "even though Amazon only incurs the costs when delivering 3G data." Really? They get data centers and bandwidth for free?
- Turing_Machine 12y ago
  Of 357 ebooks currently on my Kindle, 280 are less than 1 megabyte in size.
- pja 12y ago
  Really? They get data centers and bandwidth for free? Meanwhile Amazon Cloudfront charges $0.12 per Gb. What was that about data centres and bandwidth again? Be serious: $0.15 per Mb is a massive rip-off compared to the actual cost of delivery, unless the download is over 3G in which case it's merely an obnoxious markup rather than an outright rapacious one.
  - res0nat0r 12y ago
    That bandwidth price is helping to pay for much more of the kindle ecosystem than just bits from s3.

res0nat0r 12y ago

Shouldn't the word onerous be replaced with something like, "not great"? No one is forcing anyone to publish their books via amazon. If you don't like it, don't do business with them.