On books priced between $2.99 & $9.99, Amazon pays a 70% royalty, minus a delivery charge of $0.06. So a book selling for $9.99 earns the publisher or the self-publishing author around $6.95. Below and above that threshold and they pay a flat 35% with no delivery fee, so a book selling for $0.99 earns the author $0.35 (rounded up slightly).

In Mr. Locke’s case, when he was selling the books for $2.99 he earned $2.04 per book. If he sold 100 books, he earned $204.00. At $0.99 cents, he’s earning only $0.35, but is selling 20x more books: 2000 x $0.35 = $700. 350,000 books sold has netted him “only” $122,508, not the almost quarter million I mentioned earlier. I’m sure he’s not complaining!

The problem with Kindles is they don’t do images very well, same with two or more column layouts, like you see in magazines, newspapers and many PDFs. This makes it difficult for the nonfiction writer who specializes in technical writing. However, non-image nonfiction laid out in a single column would be fine. I’ve bought (and recycled) far too many technical books that become obsolete (how long should I hold onto my books on Quattro Pro or Lotus 123?) to purchase many more, but a digital copy for $2.99 (or less) would make it trivially easy.

The best thing about the Kindle eBook program is how easy Amazon has made it for authors to sell eBooks through their program.

The big publishing houses are doomed, doomed, doomed, but they’re going down fighting. Already they are starting to refuse releasing back catalogs to authors interested in selling directly to readers.

I foresee a time where either the big houses change their ways and become an editing, marketing and design company for authors, or disappear altogether. Both will force them to move off of Manhattan. There just isn’t enough to cover the lease payments on those offices! I suspect they’ll end up going the way of the Dodo, as change doesn’t seem likely. Much more likely, is the scenario where authors will work more like a contractor. They write the books and sub-contract editing and cover design to others for a cut of the profits, and Amazon helps with marketing. It is easy to see Amazon set up a system for editing and design for self-publishing authors for either a flat fee or a percentage of the profits.

Hope your thinking goes well!

That whole topic got me thinking. Nonfiction won’t sell in that kind of volume, but I’ll bet I could do better than I did on paper. I won’t say anything more, except that I’m thinking.

Amazon wants people to sell books at the $2.99 and below threshhold. At that rate, they take 30% off the top or (using Locke as an example) $0.297 per book sold. They then take another 6% of the remainder so another $0.04158, bringing the total paid to the author $0.65142 per book. Amazon makes $0.3358 per book. At 350,000 books sold since January, he’s earned about $228,000. Much better than if he was flogging ink on paper. Makes me wish I could write!

Exactly. By going digital, you’re giving up your rights of possession. Which means you have almost no rights. So you should gain something, and if you’re only paying 99 cents, then those rights of possession matter to you a lot less. I can’t re-sell the book, but if I re-sell a $25 book, I’m probably lucky if I get $5 for it. So do I really care if I can’t re-sell my 99c e-books for a dime?

Authors stand to make more. Publishers might stand to make more too. Or maybe a little less. The cynic in me says the accounting gets a lot simpler–three line items, basically–so there goes the funny money. My publisher always said I was welcome to come and examine their accounting in person any time. Except they were in Boston. Sure, I’m in St. Louis, I’ll be right over! They knew I wasn’t going to take them up on it.

But you’re completely right. What value are the publishers adding, exactly? Editing. But I know where to find good freelance editors. Marketing, but that’s a service to the author, not the purchaser. Filtering, but there are other ways to get that too.

If most books cost a dollar or two, a reader might make sense. But ten dollars for an e-book is out of the question. The product seems too ephemeral to me. Can it be backed up? What if the file gets corrupted? I can’t give my old copy to a friend, but for a dollar I can urge him to buy one and not feel too bad if he doesn’t like it. It sounds like the authors might make more money. If the publishers don’t like it, well, what are the publishers doing for their money anyway?