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Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

andrewhy.de

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Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#81

Post by alanfalcon »

res0nat0r wrote: post #43
ImprovedSilence wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point, but don't you think It'd be nice if they advertised the price for said fee, or at least provided a chart for fees/mb? It seems like it is a "hidden cost", not outlined in detail, leaving the client in the dark, which appears to be the problem here.

The terms are plainly outlined in this table right here, which I found after 10 seconds of Googling: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A29FL26O...

It helps to know what you're googling to find. Amazon's documentation is a mess (IMO) with half of it in PDF or other inaccessible format (.mobi) so that it's easy to get confused and lost in the process, especially for a first time author doing this on the side.

Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#83

Post by MBCook »

Getahobby wrote: post #61
MBCook wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But isn't that factored into the 30% cut they take before the delivery charges? I love my Kindle and I really like Amazon, but this is the first I've heard of the delivery charge part. Considering that it's around 25% of the price of the book... it really does seem like a rip off on their part.

Just to clarify, it is only 25% of this particular book. Sounded to me like the delivery charge was fairly independent of the cost of the book.

I think you're right, and that actually worries me more. Amazon likes to sell books for under $10, many ebooks I've bought are $5 or $7.

Maybe it has something to do with the book it's self (i.e. they charge $0.07 per image), but do they mention how this is calculated anywhere?

If I sell an ebook for $2, they take $0.60 in general, and then they decide that it costs $0.80 to deliver... that means they're taking 70% of the cost of the book. So if I'm successful and have to pay taxes, I may be making like $0.12 per book.

I don't remember every seeing this cost mentioned before in the few articles I've seen about selling Kindle books. I'd love to know how it's calculated.

Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#84

Post by tytr »

This kind of thing only works when users looking for "ebooks" are channeled through Amazon. Paid placement on Google may help them in that regard. What happens when users learn they can download ebooks elsewhere?

It's nonsensical to pay a fee for distribution when the distribution channel is the internet.

Project Gutenberg's and Archive.org' ebooks are better than this e-paper or super hi-res screen nonsense. Reading books on these devices is dog slow and awakward. It is just text. It should be searchable using Boyer-Moore algorithm. Fast. searchable ebooks.

Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#85

Post by res0nat0r »

dandelany wrote: post #80
res0nat0r wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hosting a static file in S3 you have to point people to manually find and download themselves is much cheaper because you don't have the built in captive audience, WhisperNet and everything else which comes with the Kindle ecosystem, so comparing the two only via a flat dollar cost is naive.

It's ridiculous to include the cost of the entire "Kindle ecosystem" with a fee called "delivery fee" - as other posts have mentioned, this is what commission is for. WhisperNet is another story - this is legitimately a part of the delivery - however, it's just 3G service that they leased from AT&T, and to assume it costs them even close to $2.58 per delivery is just ignorant. If I downloaded an 18MB e-mail attachmen…

> Amazon is known for having very reasonable data storage/transfer fees in their other services, so it's very clear to me that they're just taking a huge margin here.

Exactly. They are trying to run a for-profit business. The T&C for data charges is clearly laid out in a simple table I found within 30 seconds of Googling. I'm not sure where the expectation of charity comes from that they shouldn't be making a profit, you don't have to use Amazon or Kindle if you don't want to. Do you think the new Macbook Pro costs Apple $2200 to make?

Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#86

Post by MBCook »

res0nat0r wrote: post #71
redditmigrant wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are completely missing the point. They do charge a commission. The problematic part here is that this $2.58 is called "delivery fee". Im sure all the ecosystem costs a lot of money, and they are free to charge whatever they think the ecosystem is worth, but calling it "Delivery fee" seems disingenuous.

I don't believe it is disingenuous at all. It could have been lumped in with the other charges, but they are explicity stating this is how much it costs you as the publisher if you wish to use their infrastructure to publish your content digitally. I think it is disingenuous to assume that $2.58 is some number pulled out of the air to rip the author off. The current meme right now is to assume all digital content del…

Someone else said AT&T is the whispernet provider. AT&T's smallest data plan is $15 per 250MB (overages are the same rate). The author says they are being charged $2.58 per 18.1MB, which is $35.63 for 250MB.

So Amazon is charging 237% of the ridiculous rate AT&T uses to try to force people to upgrade to a higher plan.

And that's despite the cost that most Kindle users (I'm guessing over 90%) get their books through their computer or WiFi, and don't accrue any cellular charges.

Plus... this is Amazon. I'm pretty sure that given the amount of data Kindles may use they would have been able to get a better deal out of AT&T than your average individual consumer.

And again, this is all on top of the 30% they take that should already cover all of this.

Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#87

Post by reedlaw »

dandelany wrote: post #80
res0nat0r wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hosting a static file in S3 you have to point people to manually find and download themselves is much cheaper because you don't have the built in captive audience, WhisperNet and everything else which comes with the Kindle ecosystem, so comparing the two only via a flat dollar cost is naive.

It's ridiculous to include the cost of the entire "Kindle ecosystem" with a fee called "delivery fee" - as other posts have mentioned, this is what commission is for. WhisperNet is another story - this is legitimately a part of the delivery - however, it's just 3G service that they leased from AT&T, and to assume it costs them even close to $2.58 per delivery is just ignorant. If I downloaded an 18MB e-mail attachmen…

Probably Amazon is charging more to offset the cost of their unlimited free 3G usage. Before I had a 3G phone, I purchased a 3G Kindle partially to take advantage of this incredible offer. With a 3G Kindle in the US I could freely browse the web anywhere with no limit.

Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#88

Post by jmedefind »

freerobby wrote: post #24
ChuckMcM wrote: post #14

This is confusing. Here is someone with a FANTASTIC first outing of a book and he's whinging about it? The author raises $8K on Kickstarter, sells his book for $10, and is complaining that the 'gorilla' is taking a bigger percentage of the take? Using his numbers: of 73%/11%/12%/1% his money was $1117/$231/$333/$20 respectively. So he made three times as much money selling through Amazon as he did on the next closest…

You assume all of the Amazon traffic was organic. He directed all of his marketing efforts to the book on amazon.com; presumably he could have captured a good number of those purchases elsewhere. I think the real issue is less about costs and more about how Amazon hides big revenues behind "delivery fees." Most platforms (Apple, Google, PayPal, even Amazon in the AWS world) that take a percentage cut + special fees s…

It seems to be the delivery fee is setup as a way to encourage publishers to keep their books to a reasonable size.

Otherwise you could have lazy publishers using high resolution images out of sheer laziness and not caring since it wouldn't cost them anything extra.

Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#89

Post by derleth »

res0nat0r wrote: post #85
dandelany wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's ridiculous to include the cost of the entire "Kindle ecosystem" with a fee called "delivery fee" - as other posts have mentioned, this is what commission is for. WhisperNet is another story - this is legitimately a part of the delivery - however, it's just 3G service that they leased from AT&T, and to assume it costs them even close to $2.58 per delivery is just ignorant. If I downloaded an 18MB e-mail attachmen…

> Amazon is known for having very reasonable data storage/transfer fees in their other services, so it's very clear to me that they're just taking a huge margin here. Exactly. They are trying to run a for-profit business. The T&C for data charges is clearly laid out in a simple table I found within 30 seconds of Googling. I'm not sure where the expectation of charity comes from that they shouldn't be making a profit,…

> They are trying to run a for-profit business.

So... are we morally barred from complaining, or is it merely to be considered gauche?

(This reminds me of the people whose entire conception of "Free Speech" is "I can say anything and if you criticize that's an infringement of my rights.")

Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#90

Post by RobAtticus »

MBCook wrote: post #86
res0nat0r wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe it is disingenuous at all. It could have been lumped in with the other charges, but they are explicity stating this is how much it costs you as the publisher if you wish to use their infrastructure to publish your content digitally. I think it is disingenuous to assume that $2.58 is some number pulled out of the air to rip the author off. The current meme right now is to assume all digital content del…

Someone else said AT&T is the whispernet provider. AT&T's smallest data plan is $15 per 250MB (overages are the same rate). The author says they are being charged $2.58 per 18.1MB, which is $35.63 for 250MB. So Amazon is charging 237% of the ridiculous rate AT&T uses to try to force people to upgrade to a higher plan. And that's despite the cost that most Kindle users (I'm guessing over 90%) get their books through t…

Do yourself a favor and don't investigate the actual cost of things you buy on a regular basis, because you will be absolutely livid when you find out some of the margins being made off of you.
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