Ninety-Nine Cents

Ninety-Nine Cents

The book industry has some very good writers as well as authors.  Yes, there is a difference between the two.  I’ll break it down for you.

A writer is someone who has written a story or an article, whether for publication or not.  An author is someone who has put their name to a story or an article.  A writer can be a freelance writer, a ghost writer, and even an author.  An author is the one who gets all the credit for the writing of a story or an article.

The question of the day is, “Why would an author sell their published works for $0.99 cents?  Is there work not of value?  Why belittle the writer and the author?  Would you allow your employer to pay you $0.99 an hour for an eight hour day of work or even $0.15 cents a day?  No, you would not…that would be an insult to your knowledge and your intelligence.  Then why would you allow you to pay yourself so little?”

Now let’s touch on FREE for a moment.  Giving your book away for free for a limited time (1-2 days) or even a promotion or in a contest (5-10 readers) is not a bad thing.  It gets your book seen.  However, if you’re advertising your book for free on a consent basis, you are definitely not going to make any money.   We all know that most of us are in the writing slash authoring business to make money.

It’s time to do a little math.  Amazon pays authors 35% or 70% royalties for published eBooks.  Authors make the choice on which they prefer between the two.  If the author chooses the 35% route, Amazon will receive the remainder thus giving the author 35%.  If there is a publisher involved in that eBook, meaning, the publisher uploaded the book, the publisher and author may split the 35% thus leaving the author with $0.18 on that eBook.  In order to make even $180.00, the author would have to sell 1,000 eBooks.  That means 1,000 downloads and heaven forbid if the reader returns the eBook.  We’ll touch on that in a moment.

Let’s look at the larger scenario.  If the author chooses the 70% route, Amazon will receive the remainder thus giving the 70%.  If there is a publisher involved in that eBook, meaning, the publisher uploaded the book, the publisher and author may split the 70% thus leaving the author with $0.35 on that eBook.  In order to make even $350.00, the author would have to sell 1000 eBooks.  Again, that means 1000 downloads and heaven forbids if the reader returns the eBook. 

Amazon has a policy that a reader is able to return an eBook within a seven day period.  Once that book is returned whether it has been read or not, the author will lose his or hers royalty for that book.  It doesn’t matter if the book is $0.99 or $9.99, the loss of that royalty does hurt the author.  Royalties add up, thus making up the authors self-employment paycheck.  Barnes and Noble does not have a return policy on eBooks…Amazon should adapt that same policy.

In order to receive the royalties of 70%, your book has to be$ 2.99 or above.  If you choose to price your books at $0.99 to $1.99, you will only receive the royalties of 30%. 

In viewing both of the charts below, why would you not want to place value on your work?  Why do you choose to work harder and not smarter?  From the charts below, you can see why authors have chosen to go the self-published route opposed to the publisher route.  Being self-published the author stands to make more money, but that author has to be willing to put in the work for that said money.

Before the royalties reach the author with a publisher, that money has to go through two hands and then to the author.  Hopefully, the author is able to make enough money to recoup the cost of the editor and the cover designer, along with the purchase of at least 50-100 books to have on hand.  If not, the author is losing money and should re-evaluate their marketing strategy.

The bottom line is this, “If you do not value your craft, how do you expect others to value your craft?”  You put in blood, sweat, tears, and countless hours, days, nights, weeks, months, and maybe some years into writing your book to get it to the place of being published, don’t discount yourself.  You and your craft are worth more than you devalue both to be.

Chart One: Royalties

Price of eBook	$0.99	$1.99	$2.99	$3.99	$4.99	$5.99	$6.99	$7.99	$8.99	$9.99
Amazon /Barnes&Noble  @ 35%	$0.35	$0.70	$1.05	$1.40	$1.75	$2.10	$2.45	$2.80	$3.15	$3.50
Author /Barnes&Noble @ 35%	$0.35	$0.70	$1.05	$1.40	$1.75	$2.10	$2.45	$2.80	$3.15	$3.50
Amazon /Barnes&Noble @ 70%	$0.00	$0.00	$2.06	$2.76	$3.46	$4.16	$4.86	$5.56	$6.26	$6.96
Author /Barnes&Noble @ 70%	$0.00	$0.00	$2.06	$2.76	$3.46	$4.16	$4.86	$5.56	$6.26	$6.96
Publisher @ 50% of 35%	$0.18	$0.35	$0.53	$0.70	$0.88	$1.05	$1.23	$1.40	$1.58	$1.75
Author @ 50% of 35%	$0.18	$0.35	$0.53	$0.70	$0.88	$1.05	$1.23	$1.40	$1.58	$1.75
Publish @ 50% of 70%	$0.00	$0.00	$1.03	$1.38	$1.73	$2.08	$2.43	$2.78	$3.13	$3.48
Author @ 50% of 70%	$0.00	$0.00	$1.03	$1.38	$1.73	$2.08	$2.43	$2.78	$3.13	$3.48

Chart Two: # of Downloads

# of Downloads	1000 @ $0.99	1000 @ $1.99	1000 @ $2.99	1000 @ $3.99	1000 @ $4.99	1000 @ $5.99	1000 @ $6.99	1000 @  $7.99	1000 @ $8.99	1000 @ $9.99
Author Royalty from Amazon /Barnes&Noble @ 35%	$990 $347 Split	$1990 $697 Split	$2990 $1047 Split	$3990 $1397 Split	$4990 $1747 Split	$5990 $2097 Split	$6990 $2447 Split	$7990 $2797 Split	$8990 $3147 Split	$9990 $3497 Split
Author Royalty from Amazon /Barnes&Noble @ 70%	$990 $693 Split	$1990 $1393 Split	$2990 $2093 Split	$3990 $2793 Split	$4990 $3493 Split	$5990 $4193 Split	$6990 $4893 Split	$7990 $5593 Split	$8990 $6293 Split	$9990 $6993 Split
Author Royalty from Publisher @ 50% of 35%	$174 $87 Split	$349 $174 Split	$524 $262 Split	$699 $349 Split	$874 $437 Split	$1049 $524 Split	$1224 $612 Split	$1399 $699 Split	$1574 $787 Split	$1749 $874 Split
Author Royalty from Publisher @50% of 70%	$347 $173 Split	$697 $348 Split	$1047 $523 Split	$1397 $698 Split	$1747 $873 Split	$2097 $1048 Split	$2447 $1223 Split	$2797 $1398 Split	$3147 $1573 Split	$3497 $1748 Split