Should Amazon Charge Authors To Publish For Kindle?
I actually hadn’t planned to post anything about this, but a number of folks have asked me about it and I figured I’d blurt out my opinion, for what little it’s worth.
By way of background, this discussion stemmed from author Rob Guthrie’s post, Amazon Charging For Digital Publication? and a follow-up post. And let me be clear on one thing right up front: I mean no disrespect to Rob or anyone else. This is one of those “differing opinions” things. So if you agree, great. If you don’t, that’s great, too! Just be nice, either way.
Anyway, the premise is that Amazon should charge authors a steep fee (Rob suggests $500 for the first book and $100 for any subsequent titles) to publish their books for Kindle. Right now, the process is entirely free. The premise of the argument has two major planks: one, it would purportedly make Amazon a guaranteed profit up front and that it’s almost inevitable that Amazon will do this, anyway; and two, it would weed out a lot of the crappy books that indies publish (I’m an indie, so I can say that).
I’m sorry, but I think the cases for both of those arguments are failboats.
On the “it would be in Amazon’s best interests profit-wise” to charge $$$ up front, many of the arguments on the pro side revolve around how much Amazon pays for infrastructure and support costs vs. what they might be making from book sales. Basically, are they making a net profit from KDP-published (KDP is Amazon’s publishing arm for Kindle) Kindle books.
While there’s no question that there are costs involved with digital book publishing, storage, and distribution via KDP, the undeniable fact is that none of us outside of Amazon’s budget department have a flipping clue about what any of those numbers really are. And if I hear the old “Amazon is selling
Yes, storage and distribution costs money, but when you take into account the byzantine rules of business operations like tax deductions (I can’t imagine how many millions Amazon writes off), discounts for services like the 3G for Whispernet connectivity (i.e., I’m sure Amazon doesn’t pay the telecom providers what WE pay for data transfer), etc., this whole argument becomes entirely academic because we simply don’t have any data, and can’t even speculate intelligently.
As far as the profit goes, charging $500 up front would certainly be nice for Amazon’s coffers. But let’s see how the numbers work again. Here’s how many books Amazon would have to sell at different price points to gain that same $500 in terms of gross revenue, vice net profit. Sure, you can argue that there would have to be more sales to account for $500 net profit (which would be what’s left after all the operations costs are subtracted out), which is true, but let’s just stick with this because we actually know the numbers (and this only applies to KDP titles at regular prices, not the Big 6, freebies, etc.):
At $0.99: 777 (65% x $0.99)
At $2.98: 258 (65% x $2.98)
At $2.99: 502* (70% x $2.99 – $0.10)
At $9.99: 173* (70% x $9.99 – $0.10)
At $10.00: 77 (65% x $10.00 and higher)
* I’m assuming an arbitrary delivery cost of $0.10 that goes to Amazon for books in the $2.99-$9.99 range at the 70% royalty option. The bigger the file, the higher the delivery cost. This also means that, in the 70% royalty realm, the author is picking up at least part of the tab for getting the book to the reader.
To some authors, those may look like big numbers. But they’re really not, in terms of the scale that Amazon is looking at. The books that are in the top 100 are selling well over a thousand copies a day. Let’s take a specific example: John Locke sold a million of his $0.99 ebooks in five months. Amazon made $640,000 from those million book sales, and wrote off every aspect of the operating costs to store and deliver them. And yet we’re supposed to believe that they didn’t make a net profit? Pardon my skepticism. I haven’t had my coffee yet this morning.
The most important thing is that all those books will continue making money for Amazon and the author *forever*. $500 up front is peanuts in the long game. Even books with low sales numbers, over time, are going to make some money.
As for item #2, that making authors pay a steep surcharge is going to help filter out the crap…it’s just false logic. For many years, tons of authors paid lots of money, far more than $500, to have garbage printed by vanity press services. Many still do, with some folks paying thousands for the privilege of having a garage filled with boxes of horrible books. The only thing such a surcharge guarantees is that those folks who can’t afford $500 won’t be publishing with Amazon. That would probably account for a lot of undiscovered talent out there, people who don’t have $500 to blow, plus – in Rob’s hypothetical model – another $100 for every additional title.
And the assertion that “If someone’s serious, they’ll find a way to come up with the money” is, again, false logic. Just because you’re determined doesn’t mean you have any talent. In my career at NSA, I saw lots of people who were extremely determined rise through the ranks, but many of them couldn’t find their way out of a paper sack with a blowtorch and a pair of scissors. By contrast, there were many incredibly talented people who, because they were focused on the job and the mission (like most authors good authors are focused on their writing) despised jumping through hoops and never rose as high as they should have in the great scheme of things.
This hypothetical model is the same. There are probably more than a few authors out there now, making money and pleasing readers, who wouldn’t be if they’d been confronted with a major monetary obstacle to being published. Heck, I probably wouldn’t have published had such a system been in place, and for me, writing as a career never would have happened. Or, authors might say, “Screw Amazon! I’ll publish with someone else.” And that is something that Amazon does not want to have happen.
Anyway, this is another one of those things that authors will argue about until the sun blows up, but the bottom line is that – pro, con, or somewhere in between – none of us really know. It’s all pointless speculation, and the word count people are putting into these posts (I just blew a thousand words on this post) and comments are words that we should be putting into the chapters of our next books…
Should Self-Published Authors Pay For Advertising? The Perils Of Vanity Press Publishing
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Kathy Lynn Hall that’s an excellent argument. A great example of that argument for me is the fantasy writer Terry Brooks. It took me years to get through the first third of his first book “The Sword of Shannara”. The writing style was initially heavy and hard to read but as he continued writing, his style smoothed out. The only reason I stuck with the first book was because his ideas were intriguing. I’m glad now that I made it through that first novel because I’ve read and enjoyed every single one of his many books since then. If I had dismissed him based on a sample of his first book I would have missed out on an incredible author. So no, you really can’t write someone off on the basis of their initial work.
To go a little further, what appeals to one person may not appeal to another as you’ve observed in reviews. I’ve read and enjoyed books that did not have the best rating and that was possibly because my expectations were different. I’ve also read highly rated books that I did not enjoy. Writing is a form of Art. Just like everyone finds themselves drawn to certain styles of Art, they are also drawn to certain genres, ideas and styles of writing. I’m with you on this one. Let the market decide.
As a prolific reader the idea that a bar should be put in place to discourage Indie authors really troubles me. I’ve read all kinds of books which includes just about any genre, both classic and contemporary. What many of those books had in common was that a publisher had selected that specific book for publication. So instead of being able to personally decide what books and what type of writing appealed to me, some corporation made that decision for me. For less favored genres like science fiction and fantasy it meant that many, very good books never saw the light of day. One just has to look at the problems J. K. Rowling encountered when trying to publish her first book to understand that publishers are not the best at determining which books will be successful.
What digital publishing by Indie authors has meant to me is that for the first time I get to choose what appeals to ME. I’m no longer confined to content that someone else has deemed commercial and worth publishing. Granted many of the Indie books have editing issues but what they also have in abundance is a lack of conformity.
I’m suddenly reading books with highly imaginative ideas, plots, world building etc. that don’t follow a formula and I absolutely love it. I savor well-written books and read them often but quite frankly I favor quality of imagination over quality of writing. A book that excites my imagination, that challenges my concept of the world, that introduces me to new possibilities and new ways of thinking is far more valuable to me than a beautifully written book. I have found several such gems from the Indie authors I’ve read and if anything I’m sad that it took this long to find books like this.
I’ll read anything but I overwhelmingly prefer to read science fiction and fantasy. So I’m beyond thrilled that now I have so many varied offerings to choose from and so many new favorite authors to follow. It’s almost an embarrassment of riches. There is only one thing I wish for now, and that is the time to read and enjoy all the thousands of books on my Kindle and my Nook.
Having said all of this I do support better editing of Indie books if only for the reason that impressionable children (and some adults) are being exposed to horrible grammar and inexcusable spelling errors. I do feel that this issue will eventually work itself out as the poorly edited books are generally also poorly rated.
AWESOME comment!!
I couldn’t have said it better myself!
If you can ignore all of the verbal sparring in the blogosphere about free online publishing flooding the market, the truth is that the online world is very good at coming up with its own system of sifting the wheat from the chaff. Amazon’s rating system is only one example of how well the online community separates the mediocre and drab from works that truly shine. I pay very little attention to a piece of work after taking a moment to check the rating and top comments. Most people I know are similar in this regard, and I don’t think putting a price tag on creativity or dedication is going to help this sorting process in the least.
Thanks for supporting a more open publishing community!!!
I’ve been reading your posts on a number of subjects – gratefully – because you lay out the arguments in a completely understandable way, with solid information wherever you can insert it. I completely agree with your assessment here. Simply put – I don’t think it would be to Amazon’s benefit to discourage any content – good, bad or ugly. The only benefit would be to the readers possibly, but honestly they’ve already provided the look inside. That ought to be enough forewarning in most cases. So what if the story doesn’t hang together further on? This is true of many paperbacks I’ve purchased by big names. I excitedly bought the hardback of Mark Twain’s Autobiography – because I love the man – and it is a horrendous pile of unintelligible crap without format. You only have to look at the reviews for what are deemed by most to be fantastic books to see that there is almost always a divergence of opinion. Who’s to say that the “terrible” writer we Indies decide is a plight on our reputation doesn’t turn out, with the next book, a sterling example of writing that we will all hail! I think we might have gotten a bit too full of ourselves.
Why do people think that fees solve everything, all that does is weed out people who can’t afford it, not bring in those with talent. If Amazon charged a fee all it would do is help Smashwords’ sales and all those other sites who Amazon is out selling at the moment. It would mean less crap, but not necessarily more good books. If Amazon checked their titles more carefully for formatting etc, that might help and it’s not just the indies that would be thrown back either.
I doubt Amazon wants to become the vanity press such a business model would make of it.
Completely right! $500 is no barrier to entry for lousy writers. I sympathize with the idea that we are overwhelmed these days by a rising slush pile and that good writers sink to the bottom…Then there’s the counter argument that good writers, like cream, float up to the surface…Maybe they do (that still has to be proven) but one thing’s sure, a little vetting process to weed out (1) obvious spelling mistakes (spell checks these days are automatic functions on any PC) and (2) plagiarized passages (that would take a bigger computer but I’m sure Amazon could do it…eventually). Setting up a panel of editors? That means adopting the trad publishers’ model and that’s not what Amazon is now, is it?
So I guess we had better leave it be!
Totally agree with what you wrote. As you said, crappy writers have money too. And sometimes its the worst writers who will do the craziest things to get published, even if they have to sell their kidney to pay for it. This reminds me of how self publishing used to be, with pod books.
I think it’s a crazy idea, imo, and goes against the entire point of Indie publishing. Heck, Author’s with a decent fan base could just start publishing on their websites and using paypal and Amazon would lose their popular authors, the ones they actually make money from. It really makes no sense to me and I think Amazon would be stupid to do something like that.
And again, as you said, the idea that they’re losing money is bullsh*t.
Some of the most talented ppl I know have never had a spare $500 in their lives.
Good point. If I recall, many of the most talented writers ever born lived in or close to poverty for most of their lives…
I agree with everything you said, Michael, except for this: “There are those who love Snooki’s work.”
I refuse to believe this is possible.
A couple of you have hit the nail on the head (in my mind, at least – ouch!) about the crap filtration issue. The only real arbiters for what is and isn’t crap are the readers. To touch on the hypothetical case that Betsy brought up about having a panel of experts filter through the books, you could – technically, and costs aside – do something like that to weed out the books that have egregious spelling and grammar errors. But beyond that, things get pretty dodgy awfully fast.
The publishing industry has clearly shown that it can’t tell good from bad after how many centuries of operation. Twelve houses turned down J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter”, while Simon & Schuster snapped up “A Shore Thing” by Snooki. Sure there are people who hate Rowling’s books and there are those who love Snooki’s work, but I use these examples to caution people, particularly you nefarious author types (hey, that’s me, too, dang it!), about defining “quality.”
Leave it to the readers to sort out. Authors like the one in Betsy’s post who have books with some number of 5-star reviews but that are clearly poorly written are available, but most of them aren’t going anywhere, at least not for very long. The substantive critical reviews will pile up, and word will get around eventually.
The Kindle and other devices also offer the great equalizer: free samples. That’s one thing that I have a hard time forgiving people for when they leave negative reviews and yet lament, “I should’ve read the sample first.” Yes, you should! I never buy a book without reading the sample. Maybe the end of the story is disappointing, but at least you can generally be assured you’re not buying a poorly written rag – those sorts of errors almost always turn up in the sample on a novel-length work.
Lastly, one observation for B.D. — Amazon only charges the author a dedicated delivery fee for books you’ve listed under the 70% royalty option. For books under the 35% option, the delivery service is rolled up into Amazon’s cut.
Great post, Mike. I can’t understand why everyone is concerned with the “quality” of ebooks. There have always been dreadful books right along side the good books out there. The real difference is only in the point of view of that individual reader. I don’t need some stuffy reviewer or editor to tell me what I like to read. Sometimes even non-literature is fun on a boring night when TV is worse than usual.
And for heavens sake, why is anyone worried about whether or not Amazon makes a buck? Obviously they are. One last note: Amazon charges a delivery fee for each Kindle book downloaded. Given their volume, that fee probably covers both the telecom costs and much of the storage fees which are very low at this technological point. All Amazon has to do is store the stuff electronically and post it. We authors take care of the real costs: production and promotion. They don’t even need to vet the product. Damn brilliant if you ask me.
I saw the post by Mr. Guthrie making its rounds across the Twitterverse yesterday and I couldn’t help but laugh at the silliness of the whole post.
If Amazon charged an upfront cost for direct publishing, it would be shooting itself in the foot for the reasons you listed.
Plus, Amazon is a giant corporation. It’s *already* paying for a lot of its bandwidth and storage because of its other services. To be honest, the costs of KDP itself are probably negligible in the grand scheme of things. Ebooks are, what, not even a megabyte? That’s a pittance in terms of bandwidth and storage.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Amazon was running KDP off of Amazon’s “leftover” capacity, in which case they are making a killing. Operating on a loss… yeah. Sure.
I’m with you.
Why would a $500 fee dissuade a lousy writer? Far more likely it would dissuade a good one.
Also, as other posters have noted, the market would shift somewhere else. If Amazon charged a fee, a start-up would pop up in no time charging nothing for authors. Then that site would start selling books for the Kindle. There’s no way Amazon wants that to happen.
Also, Amazon is making a mint off of indie authors (including myself). I don’t mind–I think it’s great–but the idea that they are losing money seems unlikely.
It’s an interesting hypothetical conversation, but that’s all it is.
Kindle + Content = Profit for Amazon. Amazon provides the hardware, we (authors) provide the content. They understand this symbiotic relationship very well, as does Apple. If anything, Amazon will make it even easier for people to publish at low or no cost. Frankly, they don’t care about the quality of the content, no should they. That’s the job of the marketplace. Good stuff sells well, crap doesn’t.
I expect Amazon to give me a rock solid platform for delivery my content, fair royalty options, and good support for OUR customers. That’s it.
Good post and salient points. I read the original article as “I don’t like all this useless fluff crowding my space”. Yet instead of taxing people out of the market, why not just let the market decide – as it already is? If people want to buy it, they will. If they don’t, they won’t. Just because there are more books in the bookstore doesn’t mean yours is any more or less worth reading.
Michael, I would love for Amazon to do something about the flood of crappy self-published books that seem to have taken over its virtual bookshelves. Charging $500 up front is not going to solve that problem unless that $500 is spent paying for a panel of experts to vet the submissions and we both know that isn’t going to happen. Plenty of writers who produce crap books can and will pay $500 if that is what it costs.
I read one the other day that had 28 (mostly) 5 star reviews that was so badly written I had to force myself to finish it just so I could leave a more accurate review. It read like a first draft that had been written during NaNoWriMo with no editing performed after it was completed.
I know those 5 star reviews were from friends, family and other indie/self-published authors piling on, but the results are a dishonest portrayal of the actual quality of the book. I’m not the only bad review for the book, and now that it costs $2.99, I have a feeling more will be posted. It was free when I added it to my Kindle library.
By the way, I have started your trilogy. The only criticism so far in the beginning is it is a little heavy on the adjectives, but I’d rather have setting and characters painted with a heavier hand than have no color on the page at all. I’m looking forward to finishing it. I’m not much of a science fiction reader, so that says a lot for your story and character development. I will post a review once I have finished reading.
Also, I follow you and several other indie authors on Twitter. You do the best job by far. I’ve had to unfollow several because I got tired of the same post day in and day out. You provide links to excellent information from other writers and bloggers, so I don’t mind your repeat posts in the least as they are sprinkled in and amongst other valuable information.
I love it when people try to say what Amazon should and shouldn’t do, all the while having absolutely no knowledge of Amazon’s internal finances (as Mr. Guthrie has done).
There’s another factor at play as well — if Amazon charges such fees, most writers go away. If most writers go away, sales for Kindles come to a screeching halt. Amazon has a business model, at least in publishing, that puts a huge amount of raw material out there — the books — but you have to purchase the Kindle in order to use them, for the most part. Once you purchase the Kindle, you’re going to keep buying the books because they are so inexpensive. It’s a circle that keeps money flowing to Amazon. Charge those fees and it mostly stops. (yes, I know, the basic Kindle is supposedly sold at a loss, but there again, it’s the idea of selling that at a small loss and then profitting from the thousands of sales that follow, which go away if the writers go away.)
As for the “self-published crap,” more elitest clap-trap.