Comments on: Does Amazon give publishers just 35% of Kindle edition book sales?

By: tomlinton

tomlinton — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:49:41 +0000

%s are meaningless
Does an Amazon contract
make you money ?
On Kindle will your bottom line
be as good ?
Or better?

By: John

John — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:14:53 +0000

I vaguely remember the negotiations between the house I was working in and Amazon. I know Amazon wanted a 50% discount and we were trying to figure out if that was acceptable. Our CFO said it was crazy since it was roughly a 50% discount off retail and most of our agreements were around the 40-45% mark. I can’t believe Amazon were able to strong arm their way up to a 65% discount with the major houses for something that is basically a distribution agreement. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a contract with them, so I can’t vouch for what they’re doing now. I also know no one in the industry was talking about the agreements they reached with amazon before the launch, and these were all publishers who were in the search inside program so there weren’t any files to transfer. Maybe they added conversion costs?

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:06:21 +0000

Do publishers get more than that from print books?

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:04:32 +0000

And before anyone says how terrible that is, you should look at what people get from print versions. 5-10% is not uncommon. I’d love to get 35% of the selling price.

By: Joshua Tallent

Joshua Tallent — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 14:15:20 +0000

Yes, Amazon only gives 35% to publishers, big or small, who go through the DTP system. I recently heard from a reputable source that if you are a big publisher, and you work with Amazon on Search Inside, and you give them certain types of files for your books (I think ePub) then they are willing to make deals at 45%. No one is getting more than that, as far as I know.