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alexandraerinOkay, so there's a discussion going on around the internets about the pricing of e-books and what's undervaluing authors and what's overpricing electronic media, and I'm going to weigh in on that (again), but probably only after I've got my own little e-book venture put to bed. (I'm not as far along as I thought I would be, when I was planning on getting the PDFs out this weekend... 18 hours of sleep happened instead of that, which was probably a good thing, but I'm on track to get everybody's pre-ordered e-books out tomorrow and open up sales.)
But all the discussion of price points and the value of an author's work and all that, it's got me really curious. There are some figures available for things like typical royalty rates and all that, but what I really want to know is: for authors who I'm not paying directly, how do I know that I'm putting money in their pockets?
I stopped buying books put out by small presses and from authors I know from Borders after reading about some of the games Borders plays in terms of actually paying anything out on those sales. Likewise I save my super price busting coupons for big name authors. J.K Rowling is not starving in a gutter somewhere because all the grocery stores used her book as a loss leader.
But when I buy a Kindle book from an author who's on Kindle through the auspices of their publisher, what percent of the sale is the author getting? I know Amazon's rates, but if the publisher owns the electronic rights than I assume the money's going to be going to the publisher and then they will be cutting the author in on that action. What kind of a slice does the publisher take of that? (Or to put it perhaps more realistically, what kind of a slice do they allow the author to receive?)
When I used the first two months of credits from my Audible subscription to get the audiobooks of N.K. Jemisin's Hundred Thousand Kingdoms books, I thought it was great that I could use this service to support her... but was I putting any money into her hand at all?
I'm paying a $7.99 subscription fee to get a book that's got a list price of $15 or $20. If I bought a hardcover book marked down like that, it would probably put little or no money in the author's hands unless they're a mega-super-rockstar who can dictate that they get paid a set price per copy regardless of discounts. I assume Audible's got a different deal, because these books aren't actually marked down (even if they're listed that way), they have a standing offer to get one audiobook a month for $7.99... but on the other hand, that's such a great price for an audiobook compared to going to the store and buying a box full of CDs that it feels like a steal, and if a book is steal then 9 times out of 10 the author is the victim of that theft. (Outside of self-publishing, where we tend to be the beneficiaries.)
Are my Audible purchases supporting N.K. Jemisin, or are they only supporting Audible?
I would love it if people could come forward and share numbers. Not how much money anybody takes home in royalties or how big an advance anyone got or how many copies sell in each market... that last part could be important, but it also is very likely to change, especially as new markets become more profitable and convenient.
What I would like to know is what you get when someone buys your physical book through Amazon, what you get when someone buys it for Kindle, or through Audible, or through a publisher's own e-book store, of from other sources.
I'm not demanding anyone volunteer this information, if it makes them uncomfortable. I just think it's important to get some numbers out there, for multiple reasons.
One, it'll let us as readers and consumers and patrons of the art of literature spend our money most efficiently without undercutting the one indispensable person at the heart of any novel. Two, it might leaven the discussion on pricing with some context. Three, if we as readers and as authors can get a better sense of the landscape than the patches we see immediately before us, maybe we can all navigate it better.
But all the discussion of price points and the value of an author's work and all that, it's got me really curious. There are some figures available for things like typical royalty rates and all that, but what I really want to know is: for authors who I'm not paying directly, how do I know that I'm putting money in their pockets?
I stopped buying books put out by small presses and from authors I know from Borders after reading about some of the games Borders plays in terms of actually paying anything out on those sales. Likewise I save my super price busting coupons for big name authors. J.K Rowling is not starving in a gutter somewhere because all the grocery stores used her book as a loss leader.
But when I buy a Kindle book from an author who's on Kindle through the auspices of their publisher, what percent of the sale is the author getting? I know Amazon's rates, but if the publisher owns the electronic rights than I assume the money's going to be going to the publisher and then they will be cutting the author in on that action. What kind of a slice does the publisher take of that? (Or to put it perhaps more realistically, what kind of a slice do they allow the author to receive?)
When I used the first two months of credits from my Audible subscription to get the audiobooks of N.K. Jemisin's Hundred Thousand Kingdoms books, I thought it was great that I could use this service to support her... but was I putting any money into her hand at all?
I'm paying a $7.99 subscription fee to get a book that's got a list price of $15 or $20. If I bought a hardcover book marked down like that, it would probably put little or no money in the author's hands unless they're a mega-super-rockstar who can dictate that they get paid a set price per copy regardless of discounts. I assume Audible's got a different deal, because these books aren't actually marked down (even if they're listed that way), they have a standing offer to get one audiobook a month for $7.99... but on the other hand, that's such a great price for an audiobook compared to going to the store and buying a box full of CDs that it feels like a steal, and if a book is steal then 9 times out of 10 the author is the victim of that theft. (Outside of self-publishing, where we tend to be the beneficiaries.)
Are my Audible purchases supporting N.K. Jemisin, or are they only supporting Audible?
I would love it if people could come forward and share numbers. Not how much money anybody takes home in royalties or how big an advance anyone got or how many copies sell in each market... that last part could be important, but it also is very likely to change, especially as new markets become more profitable and convenient.
What I would like to know is what you get when someone buys your physical book through Amazon, what you get when someone buys it for Kindle, or through Audible, or through a publisher's own e-book store, of from other sources.
I'm not demanding anyone volunteer this information, if it makes them uncomfortable. I just think it's important to get some numbers out there, for multiple reasons.
One, it'll let us as readers and consumers and patrons of the art of literature spend our money most efficiently without undercutting the one indispensable person at the heart of any novel. Two, it might leaven the discussion on pricing with some context. Three, if we as readers and as authors can get a better sense of the landscape than the patches we see immediately before us, maybe we can all navigate it better.
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on 2011-03-21 05:10 pm (UTC)no subject
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on 2011-03-23 07:36 pm (UTC)