Ebook publishers really vary on their terms and royalty percentages, though in general, smaller ebook publishers seem to be more flexible and many offer higher royalties.
Here are a couple of examples:
eHarlequin - (x) On copies of English language electronic editions of Publisher or its Related Licensees sold in North America:
. on the first 100,000 copies of each such edition, six percent (6%) of the Cover Price;
. on the next 100,000 copies of each such edition, seven percent (7%) of the Cover Price;
. on the next 100,000 copies of each such edition, eight percent (8%) of the Cover Price;
. on the next 100,000 copies of each such edition, nine percent (9%) of the Cover Price;
. on all such copies of each such edition thereafter, ten percent (10%) of the Cover Price;
(x) On copies of English language electronic editions of Publisher or its Related Licensees: four percent (4%) of the Cover Price in any country outside of North America.
(x) On copies sold of non-English language electronic editions of Publisher or its Related Licensees: two percent (2%) of Cover Price in any country.
Double-Dragon eBooks - 30 % of the cover price less credit card processing fees for eBooks sold from our site, 30 % of the amount received from a reseller, and 8 % of the retail price for POD print books.
Ellora's Cave - Royalties: 37.5% for digital releases; 7.5 % for print books.
Length of grant of publishing rights: Life of copyright
Includes digital, print, audio, translation, and secondary/subsidiary rights.
Wild Child Publishing - 40% of sales
Wolfsinger Publications - 75% of sales less charges for any handling costs, service fees, or discounts when paid in full by the distributor, bookstore, vendor, organization.
Imajin Books - 50% of sales collected, no charges; term - 5 years.
These are just a few examples of how widely varied author royalties are, and one thing I do advise is to check the other terms very carefully.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
How important is ebook pricing?
There has been a lot of discussion of what the perfect price point is for an ebook. The answer? You may have to play with the prices if you've published your own ebooks to determine where the best price lies.
A strong proponent of $0.99 and $1.99 ebooks, author JA Konrath, held those views up until last year, when Amazon raised the royalty level to 70% for ebooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99. Konrath took the plunge and raised his prices and has reported that this hasn't hurt his sales in the least. In fact, he reports he made over $100K last year on his ebooks, across multiple retailers. Not bad income for an author who is self-publishing his own books now, after being published by the big guys for years.
This past week, I've been asked by three authors to advise them as to why their ebooks aren't selling. The first thing I did was head over to their Amazon page, where I discovered ebook prices all over $9. And these are authors with only a couple of books. One only had a single title. You can bet they probably aren't widely known--compared to names like Konrath, Hocking, etc.
Along with high ebook prices, I noted that one author had overly busy book covers. I believe that will hamper his sales. Another author had a poorly worded description. The major problem is that all three authors are published by midstream traditional publishers and this means they don't have much--if any-- say in the pricing, covers or description.
My advice to all three: try to get your ebook rights back and publish these ebooks on your own. Or at least find an ebook publisher (like Imajin Books) that will work with you, price your ebook lower, update your covers and description if needed and give you a higher percentage of royalties. Because without getting that price lowered, you won't have much of a chance selling more ebooks.
In Konrath's latest blog post, he talks about an author who reached the NYT bestsellers list multiple times, who was just offered a $200K two-book deal. After Konrath crunched the numbers and pointed out that her ebooks would be priced higher, it appears this author would be better off publishing these on her own--especially since she obviously already has a platform and a built-in fan base from her existing titles--and setting lower prices.
Kindle Nation Daily conducted a recent survey. Here are some of the results.
"Kindle owners are buying ebooks with ever-increasing frequency, with 13% buying 60 or more paid ebooks a year, 22% buying 30 to 60, and 33% buying 15 to 30."
"A general Kindle reader "buys 4.9 print books and 46.6 ebooks a year. Slightly over half of her ebook acquisitions are free or priced at less 99 cents."
From the survey, here are the top 4 defining factors in purchasing an ebook:
1. ebook is by a favorite author
2. ebook is significantly cheaper than hardcover or paperback edition
3. ebook is priced at $3.99 or LESS
4. ebook comes highly recommended by someone you trust
In the end, the pricing issue really boils down to one thing. Publishers and authors should give readers what they want, and they want less expensive ebooks.
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