New Kindle Rewards Program

[Wonder]

I bought a couple books last night and noticed the site listed "points" for the purchase. Seems they've got a new rewards program in beta:

https://goodereader.com/blog/kindle/amazon-announces-new-kindle-rewards-program-in-beta

Users can earn five points on Kindle books and two points on print books. Once enough points have been accrued, they can be redeemed for eBook credit.

[TimothyEllis]

Who's paying for that credit?

Amazon?

Or the author?

[Maggie Ann]

From what I've seen, Zon is giving incentives instead of reward points on my Amazon Visa. I think they are trying to phase out those cards and encourage customers to use Amazon Pay.

[Hopscotch]

Noticed this line in the text Wonder cites:  "The average Ebook costs around $12.50..."  So why isn't this average where we should price our ebooks?  In that figure lies the fair reward for writers no matter what the Zon does w/its "points."

[notthatamanda]

How's paying for that credit?

Amazon?

Or the author?

I don't know in this case but when we had Amazon Prime for a year they offered credits on ebooks and emusic if you selected NOT two day shipping. They paid royalties on the ebooks and emusic but the shipping costs savings made up for it I guess. That was before Amazon had as many local warehouses and their own fleet of delivery vans.

[alhawke]

Noticed this line in the text Wonder cites:  "The average Ebook costs around $12.50..."  So why isn't this average where we should price our ebooks?  In that figure lies the fair reward for writers no matter what the Zon does w/its "points."

I've upped most of my books to $4.99 from $3.99 this year. If I can up it more, I'm all there.

As far as this point stuff, when the author central debacle was going on, I saw the points listed by all my books. Then it disappeared. Along with many of my categories that I've given up asking Amazon about--at the moment.

Then the interface changed to a new look for pricing my books on Amazon. Tomorrow will probably be another change to the product page. Then another. I kinda tire of the changes, to be honest. Not sure why they're doing one every month. I'm all for change if they sell more books, but I feel a bit pessimistic about that.
{edit, addition: The new pricing look disappeared today after only being up for a week. Too bad, I actually liked the new product page look.

[writeway]

The points thing doesn't affect our royalties so I am not concerned with it. It's just a rewards program for customers. As for 12.50 for an ebook, I don't know what that's about but I'm not charging that much for an ebook, and as a consumer now way I'd buy an ebook that high. i'm all for authors being paid fairly (of course) but the outrageous prices of ebooks from trade pub is why so many buy from indies now. I had books with trade and the ebooks were 15.99. Ridiculous. I don't think one ebook should be that high. Maybe a long box set but no I wouldn't price my ebooks that high and on Amazon you can't anyway. The most you can go up to is 9.99. Also, I don't know how the 12.50 is the average cost of ebooks because none of the ones I see are that high outside of trade and I don't even buy trade books anymore.

[TimothyEllis]

As for 12.50 for an ebook, I don't know what that's about but I'm not charging that much for an ebook, and as a consumer now way I'd buy an ebook that high. i'm all for authors being paid fairly (of course) but the outrageous prices of ebooks from trade pub is why so many buy from indies now. I had books with trade and the ebooks were 15.99. Ridiculous. I don't think one ebook should be that high. Maybe a long box set but no I wouldn't price my ebooks that high and on Amazon you can't anyway. The most you can go up to is 9.99. Also, I don't know how the 12.50 is the average cost of ebooks because none of the ones I see are that high outside of trade and I don't even buy trade books anymore.

It's just an average thing.

Trad do price at 14.99 and higher. And there's enough of their books on Amazon that all the 2.99 books just bring the average down to 12.50.

The other thing is, that's not an Amazon stat.

It's a blog stat, and probably coming from Trad stats.

When the normal for Trad books is 14.99, and some Trads are now down in the 6.99 bracket, the average for Trads probably is 12.50.

[David VanDyke]

Noticed this line in the text Wonder cites:  "The average Ebook costs around $12.50..."  So why isn't this average where we should price our ebooks?  In that figure lies the fair reward for writers no matter what the Zon does w/its "points."

"Fair Reward" is what the market says, not what we say.

Feel free to price your books up there and see what the market says. I'm guessing it will say "no" unless you happen to be a Big Name Author.

Me, I'll keep min at 4.99 or so and make a living.

[She-la-te-da]

I'm with David on the pricing thing. Plus, Amazon limits the higher royalty rate to 9.99, so going over that is effectively choosing the lower rate. I'd rather sell more and make more at the lower price than be up there with the "real" authors (AKA, trad pub).

[Bill Hiatt]

As I see it, the rewards program will probably be a positive thing for us. The rewards don't end up being huge, and Amazon is probably confident that the increased sales volume will more than make up for it.

Anything that incentivizes ebook sales (and book sales in general), will be to our benefit, even if only slightly. In particular, this is true of bonuses ("Spend $10 on Kindle books between Oct 31 and Nov 9 and earn 300 bonus points. Activation required.") Normally, you'd have to spend $60 to get those 300 points, so it looks like a deal, which means people close to ten bucks might be tempted to fill out that number with a less expensive (and probably indie) ebook.

Of course, the program is designed to encourage people to buy ebooks, since the bonus is bigger than it is on paper books. That's probably slightly to our advantage as well. 

[Hopscotch]

Of course, the program is designed to encourage people to buy ebooks, since the bonus is bigger than it is on paper books. That's probably slightly to our advantage as well.

Wonder if the Zon could be persuaded to do a similar incentive program just for indie books?

[Bill Hiatt]

Of course, the program is designed to encourage people to buy ebooks, since the bonus is bigger than it is on paper books. That's probably slightly to our advantage as well.

Wonder if the Zon could be persuaded to do a similar incentive program just for indie books?

I guess we can dream. But probably Amazon would do something divisive, like including only the books in Select in the program. And it wouldn't do even that without seeing a way that such a program would work to its own advantage.