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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 owne

by 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.
    - chrismcb 12y ago
      I would have thought the rest of what they charge the consumer is what pays for the "kindle ecosystem." Not like the "kindle ecosystem" costs all the much to run.
      - res0nat0r 12y ago
        It's more expensive to run than you think.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - Turing_Machine 12y ago
    Be serious yourself. $0.15 (considerably less in most cases) is a trivial amount of money. Or you can go for the 30% deal and have Amazon eat the costs. You'll still be getting twice what you'll get from a traditional publisher.
- curun1r 12y ago
  > Really? They get data centers and bandwidth for free? They get it for significantly less than $0.15/MB. AWS S3, where Amazon likely stores eBooks, charges $0.12/GB with the first GB each month free. Even if you add the $0.03/TB to store the data and the $0.0000004 per request, and it's still more than 1000x times less than they're charging authors. Charging for 3G data might be reasonable, but charging that much for regular internet traffic is excessive.
Turing_Machine 12y ago
" Amazon demanding worldwide distribution rights at exchange rates set by them" No, they don't. You can choose any or all of 245 territories, and set the price individually for each one. I don't know where you're getting this information from.
- pja 12y ago
  Ah, I misunderstood the contract: https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=APILE934L348N https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=APILE934L348N "5.3.2 Currency Conversion. We may sell your Digital Book using foreign currencies. When we do, we will convert the List Price you submit to other currencies (each, a "Sale Currency") at an exchange rate we determine. We may periodically update the converted List Price in order to reflect current exchange rates. If the converted List Price would be outside of the minimum or maximum List Price we accept for the Sale Currency, your List Price will be converted so that it is equal to the applicable minimum or maximum List Price for that Sale Currency. Minimum and maximum List Prices are specified here. The converted List Price in the Sale Currency will be your List Price when we offer and sell your Digital Book in the Sale Currency. For example, your Royalties will be calculated based on the converted List Price in the Sale Currency." They're referring to the conversion for the sale price, not the author payment.
- pja 12y ago
  Addenddum: No, they don't. You can choose any or all of 245 territories, and set the price individually for each one. Not under the 70% royalty program you can't: "ii. Distribution Territory: If you select the 70% Royalty Option for a Digital Book, you must make it available to us for distribution in each territory for which you have appropriate distribution rights, and you must comply with any other restrictions or requirements we may provide from time to time for the 70% Royalty Option in the Program Policies." iow, if you're an individual author and you want to use the 70% royalty program then you have to give Amazon worldwide distribution rights.
  - Turing_Machine 12y ago
    So they give you a better deal if you give them more distribution territories, but don't force you to do it? So? That's not "demanding worldwide distribution rights".

by pja 12y ago

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.
  - chrismcb 12y ago
    I would have thought the rest of what they charge the consumer is what pays for the "kindle ecosystem." Not like the "kindle ecosystem" costs all the much to run.
    - res0nat0r 12y ago
      It's more expensive to run than you think.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- Turing_Machine 12y ago
  Be serious yourself. $0.15 (considerably less in most cases) is a trivial amount of money. Or you can go for the 30% deal and have Amazon eat the costs. You'll still be getting twice what you'll get from a traditional publisher.
curun1r 12y ago
> Really? They get data centers and bandwidth for free? They get it for significantly less than $0.15/MB. AWS S3, where Amazon likely stores eBooks, charges $0.12/GB with the first GB each month free. Even if you add the $0.03/TB to store the data and the $0.0000004 per request, and it's still more than 1000x times less than they're charging authors. Charging for 3G data might be reasonable, but charging that much for regular internet traffic is excessive.

Turing_Machine 12y ago

" Amazon demanding worldwide distribution rights at exchange rates set by them" No, they don't. You can choose any or all of 245 territories, and set the price individually for each one. I don't know where you're getting this information from.

pja 12y ago
Ah, I misunderstood the contract: https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=APILE934L348N https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=APILE934L348N "5.3.2 Currency Conversion. We may sell your Digital Book using foreign currencies. When we do, we will convert the List Price you submit to other currencies (each, a "Sale Currency") at an exchange rate we determine. We may periodically update the converted List Price in order to reflect current exchange rates. If the converted List Price would be outside of the minimum or maximum List Price we accept for the Sale Currency, your List Price will be converted so that it is equal to the applicable minimum or maximum List Price for that Sale Currency. Minimum and maximum List Prices are specified here. The converted List Price in the Sale Currency will be your List Price when we offer and sell your Digital Book in the Sale Currency. For example, your Royalties will be calculated based on the converted List Price in the Sale Currency." They're referring to the conversion for the sale price, not the author payment.
pja 12y ago
Addenddum: No, they don't. You can choose any or all of 245 territories, and set the price individually for each one. Not under the 70% royalty program you can't: "ii. Distribution Territory: If you select the 70% Royalty Option for a Digital Book, you must make it available to us for distribution in each territory for which you have appropriate distribution rights, and you must comply with any other restrictions or requirements we may provide from time to time for the 70% Royalty Option in the Program Policies." iow, if you're an individual author and you want to use the 70% royalty program then you have to give Amazon worldwide distribution rights.
- Turing_Machine 12y ago
  So they give you a better deal if you give them more distribution territories, but don't force you to do it? So? That's not "demanding worldwide distribution rights".