True Author Revenue Share on Amazon

April 8, 2013 9:24 AM

I recently read a blog post / article written by a best-selling Amazon author who noted that after all of Amazon's small print, he was only getting about 20% revenue share on the sale of his work (comparable to the traditional publishing industry) rather than Amazon's frequently lauded 70%. Can anyone find the post / article in question?
posted by whimsicalnymph to Work & Money (6 answers total)

This won't help you with the blog post finding, or maybe it will, but I can tell you the exact circumstance under which that would happen. First, the author would have to be earning the 35% royalty option. This occurs at certain price points and in certain countries. Second, the author would have to be non-US and either based in a non-tax-treaty country or fail to send in a valid W-8BEN form to reduce tax withholdings.

If those circumstances were true, the author would earn ~24% per sale. Might be that this info aids your search.
posted by Sternmeyer at 9:41 AM on April 8, 2013

Perhaps it was this article, which points out that amazon charges the author for the bandwidth used to deliver the book, which can cost a lot for books with a lot of images.
posted by moonmilk at 9:49 AM on April 8, 2013

Best answer: Was it My Amazon bestseller made me nothing?
posted by theuninvitedguest at 10:11 AM on April 8, 2013

Response by poster: Yes!
posted by whimsicalnymph at 12:38 PM on April 8, 2013

If that is the right article, then I'll note for anyone who reads this far but doesn't bother clicking the link: the article doesn't match the capsule version in the OP. The author wasn't self-published, His indie publisher passed along 50%, after expenses, which worked out to about $3/book. The Kindle version currently sells for $9. So he got 33%. It seems likely that Amazon passed on ~70% to his publisher.
posted by Good Brain at 5:15 PM on April 8, 2013

For what it's worth: I'm an indie author with books on Amazon, and both of my books are priced at $2.99. As far as I've been able to tell, I have indeed received 70% royalties for sales... if they're from customers on the US store that actually originate in the US. It gets wonky with sales in India (through the US store) and a couple of other international affiliates because I don't have my book on the Kindle Select program (which would require me to be exclusive with Amazon).

FWIW, Amazon provides monthly Excel spreadsheets showing indie authors like me what our breakdowns look like, but they're a bit difficult to decipher. I don't know if authors get to see it when they go through a publisher or other third-party when uploading the book. I know at least one author who says he doesn't get to see his sales, but he put his up through a company that did his cover & formatting & such for him.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 6:34 PM on April 8, 2013 [1 favorite]