Sure, you know how much
you pay for a book on your Kindle, but do you know how much an author gets from that sale? For most it's probably some meager single-digit percentage, with the publisher taking the rest of the roughly 35% of revenue Amazon doles out. The remaining 65% goes straight into the site's coffers, but that's about to change. On June 30, Amazon is launching a new option in its Digital Text Platform (DTP) publishing scheme that would give authors and publishers 70% of the revenue, with Amazon taking just 30% -- effectively flipping the ratio on its head. The catch? There are plenty:
- Distribution costs are now paid by the publisher, but that should be on average a few cents per book.
- These books must sell for between $2.99 and $9.99 and must be priced at least 20% lower than a comparable physical copy of the book. (This is good news for readers, putting a greater incentive for lower-priced digital volumes.)
- The book must support the "broad set" of Kindle features, including text-to-speech.
- This will only be available for books that are in-copyright and only for those sold in the US.
This is an obvious reaction to the competition from places like
Scribd, which pays publishers 80%, and publisher-friendly upstarts like
Skiff, but it's also an interesting push to force more books to enable Kindle's text-to-speech. That is currently
something of a sore spot amongst those who provide the content, so while we're sure authors will love the extra money coming here, we're wondering whether their publishers will take it given the possible loss of lucrative audiobook revenue. Will this help Amazon in the upcoming war of the e-readers, or will it hurt? We can't wait to find out.
posted January 20th 2010 7:36AM
watch us delete your bookshelf... without permission.
rolfmao.
This is a desperate move by Amazon, they recognize the approaching end of their Kindle as the reality of Apple's rumored tablet grows
@Xega
A desperate move? LOL. This doesn't sound desperate to me, it sounds like they're doing great and can afford to give more to the authors of the books.
"only for those sold in the US"
EU put the fear in them for anti-competitive suits? :)
@Wwhat : No, right for North America and Europe are sold separately, so they need to make a separate deal.
Maybe, but this new thing is not available for the EU, so it's possible there is a reason why they don't roll it out there simultaneously, separately.
I look forward Skiff e-reader.
kindle? ugh........
@ju1bxmmh Ah yes, a new source of gift-horse for AMAZON indeed... After the WSJ fiasco, then the rumors of Harper Publisher signing in with paid ebooks to iTunes, then this one? Well, well that's why amazon is having a competition now with Skiff don't they?
It will be the thinnest e-reader to hit the market, weighing just over a pound and sporting an 11.5" touch screen. Now you can hear amazon ebook reader fans scratching their head.s now: More skiff detailsS: http://bit.ly/skiff-reader-amazing-details
@celinemagnums:
"It will be the thinnest e-reader to hit the market, weighing just over a pound and sporting an 11.5" touch screen. Now you can hear amazon ebook reader fans scratching their head.s now:"
I'll be more interested if I can get it for under $300. It is irrelevant for an e-reader to have a screen bigger than that of a mass market paperback. And touchscreen? Even more irrelevant.
I do like the flexible screen, though.
Great move by Amazon, way to go!!! You can expect expect this kind of progressiveness from Amazon.
I think Amazon has forseen the competition in the e-readers market which is set to intensify in 2010.
Profit margins will get thinner so it makes sense to entice more publishers to make their books as Kindle friendly as possible, so that Amazon can strengthen its leading position.
http://seventoten.com
Isn't that the iTunes app pricing model? Methinks Amazon is running scared ahead of Apple's whatever announcement next week. Shouldn't we all wait and see if it's really the game changer and not just another AppleTV?
@Famous Grouse
Uh, no. Businesses don't become successful and stay successful by 'waiting and seeing'
@Famous Grouse
Too true. At the moment people are way too caught up in the hype to think straight.
@MikeZ
Mike, you think a company like Amazon just changed their pricing model on a knee-jerk reaction? Don't be ridiculous.
@Famous Grouse
That is so blatantly obvious I'm a little stunned the Wizards at Engadget didn't put it in the title.
This is about one thing and one thing only: Steve Jobs.
@pukerocket It's certainly not a knee-jerk reaction but I think there is a definite link to Apple. By matching the revenue-split model in conjunction with encouraging lower prices they seem to be hoping that customers will choose them over the automated "buy on App Store/iTunes" mentality. However (if this is true, and IF Apple start selling e-books) it would mean that the take-home for publishers would be less from Amazon than Apple so I wonder where they'll release first...
Lolo kindle
I have a simple formula for determining if an ebook is priced fairly: It should be priced no more than 3x its resale value. Triple markup seems more than fair. So a kindle book's resale value is $0.00, and this means that the fair price for a kindle book is 3 * $0.00. When Amazon starts selling its ebooks for this price I'm all over it, but until then it's blatant price gouging.
Letting the producers keep 30%? where have i heard that before...
@Wesscoast I don't know, but it doesn't occur on any of these models. Author (real producer) gets less (probably much less) than 10%, in the new deal Publisher gets 70% and they got 35% in the old deal.
Go Amazon!
I wouldn't ever consider text-to-speech as an alternative to an audio book. Good voice acting is half the fun of audio books.
Text to speech and audio books are not anywhere near the same thing!
Until artificial intelligence turns computers into emoting actors, listening to Zarvox read Xenocide to you is not the same as a clearly superior human narration of said book. Audible.com has nothing to worry about here.
@Leicaman
It isnt supposed to replace audio books, but for some of us that like the ability to listen while driving then pick up at the same spot physically reading when we get there its nice. I don't get why more publishers don't allow it, it makes me get through books and download the next one that much faster!
Since I don't want Robbie the Robot to read to me, I too don't think audiobooks have much to fear, especally since Amazon owns Audible, which in turn pretty much owns the online audiobook space. More interesting to me is if the language remains that Amazon has exclusive ebook publishing rights?
still waiting for the day when they get some international publishers onboard. 3 or 4 shipments from Japan more than pay for this little device with the shipping alone.
Does "the 'broad set' of Kindle features" mean active links to footnotes? When a Kindle book uses them, it's a BIG advantage over paper books. But if they're not active links, it's actually worse than a paper book.
Better. The reason I stopped using my Kindle were the silly prices for new titles. If they want $19 for bits then I'm gonna get the hard copy for my shelf and probably pay less.
@IanKen:
"Better. The reason I stopped using my Kindle were the silly prices for new titles. If they want $19 for bits then I'm gonna get the hard copy for my shelf and probably pay less."
Just FYI, but this deal won't eliminate books priced over $10, though it will reduce them.
I can only hope that Europe gets the same pricesystem in a few months.
We can't even use the webbrowser and magazines have all their images removed. (Which isn't such a big deal but I would love to see full functionality)
I have no other complaints about my Kindle and I read more and it's even less straining on my eyes than a normal book.
My battery hasn't been charged in a week and it's still 75% full (I read about 2-3 hrs a day)
I think this is a solidly smart move. Last year, the Kindle brand didn't have to distinguish itself from many competitors. This year, Kindle will have to emphasize it's distinctiveness as a value over a host of other e-readers. It's advantages? Text-to-speech is a differentiating feature, Amazon's wide customer base + it's reputation for low prices, Name recognition in the market, and access to content. While I see a lot of e-readers, not many have those pieces lined up.
The itunes store made the iPod, Amazon's Kindle store will keep the Kindle competitive... that's where the brand's value lies. While you can scour the internet for free content, people want convenience. A seamless way to access content is worth more than any other feature you can pack in an e-reader. Amazon has that, others... well we'll have to wait and see.
This is great.