E-Book Royalty Calcumatic: Notes

Disclaimers

  1. I wrote this page as I’m an author who was considering self-publishing. I am an Associate (meaning: junior) member of SFWA.
  2. I currently work for one of the companies on this page, but not in a capacity directly related to publishing or e-books. I did not write this in any way relating to my work; I wrote this page for my own personal edification as an author.
  3. I used to work as a bookseller for Kepler’s. I would like them (and other indie bookstores) to survive the e-book revolution.

Do You Have a Cover Image and ISBN?

Note: different formats of e-books require separate ISBNs, but not all sellers require them. Apple does.

All sellers recommend cover images; only Apple requires them.

Pricing

Apple: iBooks’s royalty structure isn’t on a public page, but there are numerous posts about their royalty payment (e.g., here). Unlike Amazon’s 70%, there don’t seem to be any gotchas.

Amazon: Amazon’s royalty structure can be found here. Note that 70% applies only to certain pricing and books delivered only in certain territories, and 70% books also are charged delivery costs. This means that poorly-optimized files may cost you money.

Barnes and Noble: Barnes and Noble’s royalty structure can be found here in Service Policies -> Pricing and Payment Terms.

Google: Google’s royalty structure can be found here.

Other Online E-Book Publishing Venues

Kobo: Kobo requires Smashwords as an aggregator and specifies no royalty arrangements, so you’re getting whatever Kobo decides to pay less Smashwords’s cut. Because I can determine Smashwords’s percentage but not Kobo’s, I can’t add them to the calcumatic page. Update: Kobo’s terms have changed. Please hold.

Sony: Sony requires an aggregator and specifies no royalty arrangements, so you’re getting whatever Kobo decides to pay less the aggregator’s cut. Because I can determine Smashwords’s percentage but not Sony’s, I can’t add them to the calcumatic page.

Fictionwise: Fictionwise is currently re-vamping their system, but previously they required exclusivity, which won’t fly in the current marks.

Smashwords: Smashwords is not only an aggregator, but also has an online store. Word from authors is that most of their sales come from other sources; it seems that mostly authors visit their pages.

ISBN

In the US, there’s only one place that sells ISBNs: Bowker, which can be found at myidentifiers.com. Note that they are not set up for sales of small numbers of ISBNs.

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