Amazon 70% (Approx.) Kindle Royalty Kicks in Today For Those Who Want to Play by New Rules

In January they said it was coming. Now it is here. Good news for self-publishing authors and small presses - certainly one of the things I have been planning on and waiting for. AP:

The offer comes with conditions aimed at keeping book prices low for consumers, a step Amazon hopes will allow it to remain on top of the growing e-book market against rival stores like the one rolled out by iPad maker Apple Inc.

To get the better rate, authors and publishers have to meet various criteria. The book's list price must fall between $2.99 and $9.99 and be at least 20 percent less than the lowest price of the physical edition. Some major book publishers have demanded that Amazon allow them to raise prices on e-editions to as much as $14.99.

Under the new royalty offer, books also have to sell on Amazon for the same price, or less, than they do with competing book sellers. And they have to be available everywhere the author or publisher has intellectual property rights.

The 70% is net of delivery costs. Financial Post:

Delivery costs are based on file size, and pricing is set at $0.15/MB. At today’s median DTP file size of 368KB, delivery costs would be less than $0.06 per unit sold. For example, on an $8.99 book an author would make $3.15 with the standard option and $6.25 with the new 70 percent option. This new option, first announced in January 2010, will be in addition to and will not replace the existing DTP standard royalty option.

In addition to the 70 percent royalty option, Amazon also announced improvements in DTP such as a more intuitive “Bookshelf” feature and a simplified two-step process for publishing. These features make it more convenient for authors and publishers to publish using DTP.