Drop in low priced paperback royalty is a bit insane.

[TimothyEllis]

I just got the email telling me that paperbacks priced under 9.99 would now get a 50% royalty instead of 60%.

Fine, until you apply that pricing on the submission form.

The first book I looked at which was affected was priced at $8.20US.

But if you up it to 9.99, the US gets 60%, but nowhere else does.

So I kept putting it up, and only when I get to $11.30US do all the stores convert back to 60%.

That's pretty insane.

Instead of just tagging it to 9.99US, they applied separate thresholds to every single store.

The other thing is, that lost 10% makes a huge difference in what you actually get.

So now the question is, do we just increase the price so all the stores are back on 60%, or do we just put up with the 50%?

How many sales do we lose if we put them up, given the reason they're under 9.99 anyway is they're short?

Not sure. I've got 8 to check. The first I put up, and it had the highest number of paperback sales of any of my books with 37.

Forgot to post this, and changed all 8 to $11.30US.

In spite of them saying $9.99 is the price, it's not. $11.30 is the minimum to get 60% now in all stores if they base off the US store price.

What happens when exchange rates change is anyone's guess.

For now though, my cheapest paperback in Australia is now $19.40 for a $2.99 kindle.

[Bill Hiatt]

It would definitely be more rational to have the price in your principal market be the governing factor.

In my case, virtually all my paperback sales are in the US, so it doesn't affect me much. But for people with paperback sales in diverse markets, it could be a real headache.

[alhawke]

It's surprising that they're affecting pricing with Amazon at $9.99 in Australia. Paperbacks are like double the price in Australia vs the US.

[Bill Hiatt]

This will influence my decision about whether or not to put my shorter works out in paperback. My Substack writing is creating a growing stream of novellas. I was going to put them all out in paper at some point. Now, maybe not. My novel paperbacks are all comfortably above the $9.99 zone.

[Lynn]

I have a chap book and planned to do more for an older series of short novelettes. I'm not looking forward to deciding this issue. I hate to price 9.99 for a 2.99 story but it might happen.

[Bill Hiatt]

I wonder if this is Amazon's way of discouraging short paperbacks. After all, it already raised printing costs, so it doesn't seem as if it would be a cost issue. Perhaps someone miscalculated, and someone else has now realized that Amazon is somehow not doing as well on short paperbacks as it thought. But if so, it would seem adjusting the printing costs would make more sense than lowering the royalty.

[Hopscotch]

Europe offers the curious experience of seeing the natives on public transit and in sidewalk cafes reading not on their idiot phones but reading short PPBKs of the old slip-in-your pocket size.  Presume this popularity means the Zon isn't applying the new royalty rate to Europe?

[TimothyEllis]

Europe offers the curious experience of seeing the natives on public transit and in sidewalk cafes reading not on their idiot phones but reading short PPBKs of the old slip-in-your pocket size.  Presume this popularity means the Zon isn't applying the new royalty rate to Europe?

Honestly, I don't understand why we can't do PoD in that same size.

The last thing I wanted was the current sizes of paperbacks.

The mass market size was the perfect size.

[TimothyEllis]

And the madness is now revealed.

I upped all price on all my paperbacks affect so they'd get the same royalty as now.

But because exchange rates change all the time, I just got the same email again, because the se store now fell below the required price to get the full royalty.

And this will likely change for all of them over time.

So what to do. Grossly increase the price to compensate for any exchange rate variation? Or just accept that sometimes you get paid grosely less for a while?

Either way, basing the royalty on prices which change with exchange rates is just a nightmare.

[TimothyEllis]

And today, the single store which went out of range, is back in range....

BUT...

All the Euro stores are now out of range.

It looks like instead of a US$9.99 minimum price, it's going to be $11.99 or maybe even higher. I'm using $11.30 now, and it's not enough.

[Bill Hiatt]

Given the current international economic situation, I'd expect exchange rates to be more fluid than usual.

[cecilia_writer]

I don't think I have the energy to fine-tune this at the moment so might have to standardise to a higher amount than I want to. I don't sell a lot of paperbacks anyway in fact the most I've sold was at a local event. Thanks Timothy for mentioning possible new prices.
Luckily I had already unpublished some books of short stories with a view to merging them into one,, though. A little less work to do.

[Bill Hiatt]

That may be the secret for paperbacks of short works--group them into longer units and sell the unit rather than the individual pieces. I've been thinking of doing that with some of my old shorts, anyway. It would create a disconnect between paperback and ebook if the old ebooks are left up, and issuing one combo will lose all the existing reviews for any of the component parts. It might be better to note in the product descriptions how to find the other editions in such a case rather than creating identical products that can be linked.

[alhawke]

I've just decided to increase all paperback pricing over $9.99 in the US (actually, in order to meet the market minimum, 11.99). My smaller paperbacks don't sell well. So, I might as well bring them up at a higher premium as a niche product.

I'm guessing Amazon wants to cut resources for POD for all the "small fries". It doesn't think it's worth their resources, I'm guessing.

I agree with ^^ regarding mass market copies. I think there is a market out there for cheaper inexpensive small sized books, but apparently not on the Amazon retailer store.

[cecilia_writer]

I've decided to standardise at GBP8.99 (most of my paperback prices are based on GBP though there are a few based on USD, probably because of my own carelessness) and I've so far worked through about half of my 50 books.

[Post-Doctorate D]

I just logged into my account and it told me that, as a result of the royalty change, I will be getting 0 royalties when the change goes into effect.

But my paperback is priced at $19.99 USD, so it's above the $9.99 cut off, right? 

Anyway, I did some math and it appears to me that the 50 or 60% royalty rate is a bit deceptive because the printing costs come out of your royalties.  So, for my paperback, my effective royalty is 10% whereas Amazon gets a full 40% for doing jack squat.

[TimothyEllis]

I just logged into my account and it told me that, as a result of the royalty change, I will be getting 0 royalties when the change goes into effect.

But my paperback is priced at $19.99 USD, so it's above the $9.99 cut off, right? 

Anyway, I did some math and it appears to me that the 50 or 60% royalty rate is a bit deceptive because the printing costs come out of your royalties.  So, for my paperback, my effective royalty is 10% whereas Amazon gets a full 40% for doing jack squat.

That makes no sense. Go to the pricing page and take an image of the US price box. Without seeing what you're seeing, none of that makes any sense.

It is possible for the 40% royalty on extended distribution to come down to nothing. But not the 60% if you priced it right.

Also, check the other currencies. You can be fine in US$, but not in some other currency. I found that out when changing prices on my low cost books. And you get the email for the other currency, not for the US.

[cecilia_writer]

Most of my books are fairly short, 60,000-70,000 words, and the GBP8.99 (USD12.08!) price works for everything except one which I have increased to GbP9.50. But I have tried to make them affordable all along and so the royalties have always been quite minimal. I have a lot of older and possibly less well-off people among my core readership.

[Post-Doctorate D]

That makes no sense. Go to the pricing page and take an image of the US price box. Without seeing what you're seeing, none of that makes any sense.

Attached is what I see.  It's from the only paperback I have.  Right now, it shows a $2.07 royalty at the 60% rate.  If it dropped to 50%, I calculate my royalty would be $0.06 which isn't much but is more than zero.  But, since it is priced at $19.99, it should not be affected by the change because it is more than $9.99.

[TimothyEllis]

Why is the printing cost so high?

How many pages is that?

I just checked one of mine and the 40% is lower than I remembered. But I don't use that at all.

The US looks fine, albeit the printing price is high. What do the other currencies say? Because it's likely one of them is triggering the warning.

[Post-Doctorate D]

Why is the printing cost so high?

How many pages is that?

744.

The US looks fine, albeit the printing price is high. What do the other currencies say? Because it's likely one of them is triggering the warning.

I found it now.  The royalty in Australia is 0.  But I have it set to adjust international pricing based on the US price, so if the US price is well above the minimum, you would think their system would be smart enough to adjust accordingly for the others.  But, alas, I forgot this is Amazon.   

[TimothyEllis]

Why is the printing cost so high?

How many pages is that?

744.

The US looks fine, albeit the printing price is high. What do the other currencies say? Because it's likely one of them is triggering the warning.

I found it now.  The royalty in Australia is 0.  But I have it set to adjust international pricing based on the US price, so if the US price is well above the minimum, you would think their system would be smart enough to adjust accordingly for the others.  But, alas, I forgot this is Amazon.   

The exchange rate for Australia is around the 1.5 mark. It makes all of my books way overpriced here.

No surprise that is causing a problem for the bot that is looking at your pricing.

744 pages and $19.99 seems under-priced to me.

But then, I'm used to seeing half the size as $24.99 here.

[Post-Doctorate D]

744 pages and $19.99 seems under-priced to me.

But then, I'm used to seeing half the size as $24.99 here.

I thought $19.99 was pushing it.  As a buyer, for twenty bucks, I would expect a hardcover.

[Post-Doctorate D]

Also, I forgot about my book of poetry.  I have that in paperback too and that has a number of places where the price is going to be too low after June 10th to get royalties.  I guess I can raise the price.  No one is going to buy it at any price anyway.

[TimothyEllis]

Also, I forgot about my book of poetry.  I have that in paperback too and that has a number of places where the price is going to be too low after June 10th to get royalties.  I guess I can raise the price.  No one is going to buy it at any price anyway.

That's my thinking on mine. Any paperback sale outside the US is a bonus anyway. May as well make something on it.

[Bill Hiatt]

Maybe Amazon needs to start using AI to adjust the prices in such a way that markets where the royalty drops to zero get bumped off to prevent that. 

[LilyBLily]

Thanks for the tip. Just went through and repriced all my paperbacks. Amazon has been messing with them. I've never priced a print book at $14.24, but many of them were. And so on. With Amazon, sometimes we have the illusion of control, but it's only an illusion.

It really doesn't matter; very few people buy my paperbacks on Amazon.

[Bill Hiatt]

Thanks for the tip. Just went through and repriced all my paperbacks. Amazon has been messing with them. I've never priced a print book at $14.24, but many of them were. And so on. With Amazon, sometimes we have the illusion of control, but it's only an illusion.

It really doesn't matter; very few people buy my paperbacks on Amazon.

The prices with .24 at the end are the remnant of another change. I think it was the earlier cost adjustment for some print sizes. We were notified, but perhaps your email got lost in cyberspace. It happens.

[Bill Hiatt]

That makes no sense. Go to the pricing page and take an image of the US price box. Without seeing what you're seeing, none of that makes any sense.

Attached is what I see.  It's from the only paperback I have.  Right now, it shows a $2.07 royalty at the 60% rate.  If it dropped to 50%, I calculate my royalty would be $0.06 which isn't much but is more than zero.  But, since it is priced at $19.99, it should not be affected by the change because it is more than $9.99.

Isn't the math wrong?

19.99-9.93=10.06 60% of 10.06 is 6.03. Where is the 2.07 coming from? Am I just missing something obvious?

[Post-Doctorate D]

That makes no sense. Go to the pricing page and take an image of the US price box. Without seeing what you're seeing, none of that makes any sense.

Attached is what I see.  It's from the only paperback I have.  Right now, it shows a $2.07 royalty at the 60% rate.  If it dropped to 50%, I calculate my royalty would be $0.06 which isn't much but is more than zero.  But, since it is priced at $19.99, it should not be affected by the change because it is more than $9.99.

Isn't the math wrong?

19.99-9.93=10.06 60% of 10.06 is 6.03. Where is the 2.07 coming from? Am I just missing something obvious?

Amazon deducts the printing cost from your royalty share.

So, 60% of 19.99 is 11.994 minus 9.93 = 2.064 which Amazon kindly rounds up to 2.07.

[Hopscotch]

Amazon deducts the printing cost from your royalty share.  So, 60% of 19.99 is 11.994 minus 9.93 = 2.064 which Amazon kindly rounds up to 2.07.

Gee, vague memory that was the share I used to get from tradpub.

[Bill Hiatt]

That makes no sense. Go to the pricing page and take an image of the US price box. Without seeing what you're seeing, none of that makes any sense.

Attached is what I see.  It's from the only paperback I have.  Right now, it shows a $2.07 royalty at the 60% rate.  If it dropped to 50%, I calculate my royalty would be $0.06 which isn't much but is more than zero.  But, since it is priced at $19.99, it should not be affected by the change because it is more than $9.99.

Isn't the math wrong?

19.99-9.93=10.06 60% of 10.06 is 6.03. Where is the 2.07 coming from? Am I just missing something obvious?

Amazon deducts the printing cost from your royalty share.

So, 60% of 19.99 is 11.994 minus 9.93 = 2.064 which Amazon kindly rounds up to 2.07.

I guess that's the way it's always been. It would be better for us if the print cost were subtracted from the retail price, and we got 60% of the remainder, which is the way I was doing it. Somehow, I had convince myself that was the way it was actually being done.

[Post-Doctorate D]

That makes no sense. Go to the pricing page and take an image of the US price box. Without seeing what you're seeing, none of that makes any sense.

Attached is what I see.  It's from the only paperback I have.  Right now, it shows a $2.07 royalty at the 60% rate.  If it dropped to 50%, I calculate my royalty would be $0.06 which isn't much but is more than zero.  But, since it is priced at $19.99, it should not be affected by the change because it is more than $9.99.

Isn't the math wrong?

19.99-9.93=10.06 60% of 10.06 is 6.03. Where is the 2.07 coming from? Am I just missing something obvious?

Amazon deducts the printing cost from your royalty share.

So, 60% of 19.99 is 11.994 minus 9.93 = 2.064 which Amazon kindly rounds up to 2.07.

I guess that's the way it's always been. It would be better for us if the print cost were subtracted from the retail price, and we got 60% of the remainder, which is the way I was doing it. Somehow, I had convince myself that was the way it was actually being done.

That's because that would make the most sense and be the most fair.  That was how I tried doing the math initially as well.  But, this is Amazon, and authors aren't vendors, we're customers.  They promise us great royalties, but then they claw that back if you're using AMS to get those sales in the first place.  And, for print, no doubt they are using their own printing facilities so, beyond the cost of paper, ink and equipment maintenance, they are getting a good chunk of the printing cost as well.  So, they take it from us all the way around.