Amazon Tweaks Kindle Store Royalty Program Ahead of Apple Tablet Launch

[nep61]

Amazon today announced a revised royalty program for its e-book Kindle Store, significantly increasing the potential return to authors and publishers in exchange for commitments to meet certain feature requirements. The move, which takes effect on June 30th, essentially bumps the royalty payments to 70% of an e-book's list price, up from the existing 35% rate that will remain in effect for publishers who do not wish to meet the requirements of the new program.Amazon will require that works offered under the new increased royalty program meet certain standards, including list prices of between $2.99 and $9.99 and at least 20% under physical book prices, as well as support for Kindle features such as text-to-speech.

The announcement comes just one week before Apple's media event where it is expected to introduce its long-awaited tablet device. e-Book functionality is expected to be included on the new device, with Apple reportedly in talks with book publishers to offer their content on the tablet. Apple currently offers developers whose applications appear in the company's App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch 70% of revenues, sparking speculation that Amazon's e-book pricing change is an effort to match what it expects Apple could offer publishers for distribution through the iTunes Store.

Article Link: Amazon Tweaks Kindle Store Royalty Program Ahead of Apple Tablet Launch

"The move, which takes effect on June 30th"
Looks like that's the day we'll all see the iPad / iSlate whatever it's called...and maybe a new 4th Gen iPhone... maybe the iPhone 3GS+
Sweet

 

[LagunaSol]

Wow, Amazon is only paying them 35% right now? That's pretty ridiculous.

It's funny how the haters like to paint Apple as complete ******s for their 30% cut in iTunes, but I haven't heard much outrage over Amazon's 60%+ cut in Kindle.

Funny ha ha, not funny unusual.

 

[lapis]

Good -- maybe more new releases will go to Kindle

It's been very frustrating as a Kindle user to have top titles (Agassi's & Kennedy's books to name two off the top of my head) wait to go to the Kindle, presumably because they are not making enough. I hope this helps.

 

[dAlen]

What a rip off... 35% and it was digital and not even a printed copy!
Thieves - and here we hear about pirates, etc. [yeah, show your colors. "Artist are the ones hurt by piracy." - yes, hurt by the corporate piracy!]

Amazing the greed, and the fact that they went up to 70% shows it was never an issue to begin with... I mean we are talking digital text here, not HD or 4k movies!

Wake up and smell the corporate coffee... mmmm, never tasted so good!

Peace

dAlen

'live and learn'

 

[Wordslinger29]

The biggest problem with ebooks is piracy. It's the main reason some authors are reluctant to embrace the format. The novel is the only source of income for an author, as opposed to a musician who can make money from concerts, merchandise, and labels licensing their music to movies and commercials. Most authors are lucky to get a book published, let alone also have it turned into a movie or TV series, and that's the only other source of income an author can look forward to besides royalties.

DRM when it comes to ebooks is unfortunately a lose-lose situation. Ebooks with DRM are basically rentals for the consumers, since there's no guarantee future ebooks readers will use today's formats. A standard ebook format without DRM will hurt the authors because piracy will become an issue as it did with music.

 

[*LTD*]

Amazon: "Apple nuke incoming! Hold on to something!!!"

^^ Steve Jobs ^^

Brilliant reference.

Steve "Kong" Jobs to his team on the 26th:

"I want you to remember one thing, the fans back home is a-countin' on you and by golly, we ain't about to let 'em down. I tell you something else, if this thing turns out to be half as important as I figure it just might be, I'd say that you're all in line for some important promotions and personal citations when this thing's over with. That goes for ever' last one of you regardless of your race, color or your creed. Now let's get this thing on the hump - we got some releasin' to do!"

 

[NAG]

"The move, which takes effect on June 30th"
Looks like that's the day we'll all see the iPad / iSlate whatever it's called...and maybe a new 4th Gen iPhone... maybe the iPhone 3GS+
Sweet

I somehow doubt Amazon knows when Apple plans to ship unannounced products. This is probably a combination of guess work and trying to milk content providers as long as possible.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

It's funny how the haters like to paint Apple as complete ******s for their 30% cut in iTunes, but I haven't heard much outrage over Amazon's 60%+ cut in Kindle.

Funny ha ha, not funny unusual.

What a rip off... 35% and it was digital and not even a printed copy!
Thieves - and here we hear about pirates, etc. [yeah, show your colors. "Artist are the ones hurt by piracy." - yes, hurt by the corporate piracy!]

Amazing the greed, and the fact that they went up to 70% shows it was never an issue to begin with... I mean we are talking digital text here, not HD or 4k movies!

Wake up and smell the corporate coffee... mmmm, never tasted so good!

Peace

dAlen

'live and learn'

It could be why you never heard an out cry is Authors were happy with that cut. It was more than likely a hell of a lot better than they were getting from the publishers when they sold there books. Heck it could be a digital copy at the 35% rate they were getting more money than if a paper back copy of the book was sold.

 

[okrelayer]

if this iTablet has ability to download apps from the app store, (keeping in mind if the price of the tabslate is with in reason for what it is) i could just download the kindle app, and have a kindle inside of this fancy new touch device.

I have already bought a handful of books from the kindle store, reading off of the iPhone. So that would be quite attractive to me, to have a kindle-style ebook reader made by apple with more functionality, and still have the ability to read my kindle books

 

[QEII Student IT]

They know something that we don't know. This is a huge move.

I agree, no company would bump prices up that much on the basis of a rumour, Amazon must know that something big is coming that they need to adapt in order to compete with.

I wonder what it could possibly be...

 

[PsyD4Me]

If I can't hold the book in my hands, I don't want it.

My opinion anyways. But ya, I hope the i-Apple-Tablet-thing is a lot better than just a spiffy Kindle.

your opinion is in the minority if you look at the sale of the Kindle and the Nook.

One reason why people will prefer the Kindle to the tablet is the size of the tablet

 

[John.B]

Hey, authors, we've been ripping you off all this time, but now that we have a little competition (and may have gotten word on the QT about Apple's impending royalty rates) we decided to cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you!

/sarc

LOL!

(I always say that a little competition goes a looooong way!)

 

[Stately]

I don't think there are many people who predict the phantom tablet will solely be an eBook reader like the Kindle.

More likely, it would be one feature of a multi-function media device, much as the iPod touch plays back music, video, and handles eBooks (the Kindle app, Stanza and others), as well as plays games.

A popular consensus is that the tablet would be a supercharged iPod touch, which would make it decidedly not like a spiffy Kindle. Based on previous rumors about features, pricing, component choice, etc., it is unlikely that the device is a pureplay eBook reader.

It's gonna blow people away, mark my words . .

 

[mdriftmeyer]

As an author I'd still target the Apple product first and foremost.

Market size will dwarf the Kindle and BN Nook, combined.

 

[HiRez]

Pretty hilarious and pathetic to see all these companies scrambling to copy Apple products and services that don't even exist yet. Too bad none of them bother to take the next step, asking themselves "If I were Steve Jobs, what would I do next?". In other words, try to learn how to think like him instead of merely imitate him.

 

[Lesser Evets]

HAHAHAHAHAHA

I mean, tragic.

I was saying in another thread that how Apple swings will dictate a huge amount of the business. The company might not be the 500 lb. gorilla, but when it gets in the room, people act like a 1000 lb. gorilla trotted in.

Wow. Authors and book publishers everywhere should give Steve Jobs a big hug the next time they see him...

SERIOUS!

 

[nep61]

I somehow doubt Amazon knows when Apple plans to ship unannounced products. This is probably a combination of guess work and trying to milk content providers as long as possible.

True. But I was just pointing out the date falling in line with previous release dates of the iPhone... And with the "take effect" date being June 30th, seems to make logical sense that that would be the release date of a NEW device and perhaps a 4th Gen iPhone... just a hunch

 

[ChrisA]

What the world really needs is a standard e-book format. I will never buy an e-book that is tied to just one brand of reader. Some of my paper books are 50 years old. I don't expect Kindles or iPad/iSlates to even exist out side museums 50 years from now.

A simple way to explain it is "An e-book should be as durable as a paper book" I'd expect any book I buy to last a lifetime, at least.

That said I'm willing to rent books. at say 10% of their selling price.

 

[John.B]

It's gonna blow people away, mark my words . .

Agree 100%!

The one thing I know about a new Apple product like this is that it is going to be far beyond what I expected.

Apple may not succeed with every product (and if you aren't occasionally failing then you aren't pushing the envelope).

But Apple always adds their own twist, they don't do simple "me too" products. This is not going to be a Kindle copy that runs apps, its going to be far beyond that.

 

[John.B]

I somehow doubt Amazon knows when Apple plans to ship unannounced products. This is probably a combination of guess work and trying to milk content providers as long as possible.

Amazon is in communication with the same publishers that are in communication with Apple over content for the new Tablet. Simple as that.

 

[wally626]

Huh? The Kindle, and therefore the Kindle Store, supports neither colour nor video. The Kindle is an e-ink reader. That's very different from a tablet, and a tablet is very different from it.

Kindle documents can be read on things other than the Kindle, the Kindle does support gray-scale images and if they do not want to fail completely they will have to eventually start support color, if not on the Kindle then at least for Kindle documents on other devices, if they stay with e-ink video is going to be tough, but for viewing on Macs, Windows PC's, Phones, tablets etc. they will need to update the format.

 

[JGowan]

For Amazon to do this now, it simply shows that somehow they just got wind of the same 30-70% deal that Apple is offering publishers for the tablet. The same cut that App developers have been getting rich on through the APP STORE. Methinks Steve was able to make a convincing argument that the publishers needed to do bidness with Apple. I love it! You can almost smell the sweat and fear from Bezzos! Ha!

 

[swarmster]

Kindle documents can be read on things other than the Kindle, the Kindle does support gray-scale images and if they do not want to fail completely they will have to eventually start support color, if not on the Kindle then at least for Kindle documents on other devices, if they stay with e-ink video is going to be tough, but for viewing on Macs, Windows PC's, Phones, tablets etc. they will need to update the format.

Paperbacks don't support colour and they're not going to "fail completely".

But my point wasn't really about colour, but your comment about video and file sizes. If the Kindle store ever adds video, it's going to become a very different store, and the Kindle a very different device. Amazon probably won't be getting a "free" data connection from the phone companies so you can download your HD clips, so the $0.15/MB charge will no longer apply. Looking at it another way, Apple's App Store doesn't charge you or the devs per MB because the phone company isn't charging Apple like Sprint charges Amazon. AT&T charges you for data directly.

You can argue whether Amazon would ever want to remove/add features from/to their device (remove free data, nice e-ink screen/add wi-fi, data plan) just so they can do video. But it's weird to argue that $0.15/MB is ill-conceived when all they're trying to do with their store is sell you text and display it really well, and would clearly be making a lot of changes if their whole device concept ended up changing.

 

[cmaier]

For Amazon to do this now, it simply shows that somehow they just got wind of the same 30-70% deal that Apple is offering publishers for the tablet. The same cut that App developers have been getting rich on through the APP STORE. Methinks Steve was able to make a convincing argument that the publishers needed to do bidness with Apple. I love it! You can almost smell the sweat and fear from Bezzos! Ha!

"somehow got wind of?" As you point out they may just be making the assumption that Apple is offering publishers the same deal they offer app developers (the same 30-70% split). That's not a secret.

 

[John.B]

"somehow got wind of?" As you point out they may just be making the assumption that Apple is offering publishers the same deal they offer app developers (the same 30-70% split). That's not a secret.

I think (and this is nothing more than a WAG) that the publishers/authors that were offered a better deal by Apple (in advanced negotiations for day 1 content on the new tablet) went to Bezos and Co. and demanded they get a similar deal with sales of ebook content for the Kindle.

This announcement today is merely Bezos reacting to the new market threat from Apple. Nothing more, nothing less. Bezos is not in the business of frittering away profits; if he's reducing his margin on Kindle content it's strictly to protect market share for the hardware. This is not something he would do on a "hunch".