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Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

andrewhy.de

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Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#121

Post by brazzy »

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…

> If I downloaded an 18MB e-mail attachment over 3g on my phone, essentially the same thing, I would be absolutely livid if I was charged $2.58.

Then be very careful you never accidentally do that when on international roaming (which 3G Kindles do have). You could easily end up being charged $250. And no, that is not an exaggeration (there have been much worse cases).

Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#122

Post by brazzy »

teamonkey wrote: post #64
droithomme wrote: post #60

OK, so for a $10 book, Amazon collects 30% for themselves, which is $3. For a 19MB download delivered via 3G to a Kindle, Sprint, the wireless carrier, charges .15/MB, or $2.85/19MB. This is paid to Sprint, not Amazon.com. The article errors by comparing this fee to the cost for server bandwidth using S3 to come up with his markup value, but S3 bandwidth covers the internet only and does not include fees involved wit…

If I were to buy the author's book and download it to my non-3G Kindle over my own wi-fi connection, the author would still be charged $2.85 for it. Surely the 3G Kindle owners should be paying for it - and only then if they use whispernet. Or rather, I always thought they were because the 3G Kindle touch is $50 more expensive. A cellular radio only costs a dollar or two, I always figured that most of the $50 price d…

> Surely the 3G Kindle owners should be paying for it - and only then if they use whispernet.

IMO a fair alternative would be an option for the author to disable Whispernet delivery in exchange for a much lower delivery fee. The system is already set up to do that for audio books.

Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#123

Post by brazzy »

jrockway wrote: post #119

It's not 129,000% markup. You're paying for outgoing bandwidth (at S3 prices) and you're paying for the Kindle's incoming bandwidth, which could be over an internationally-roaming 3G network. Yes, it's dumb that Amazon charges authors and not themselves, but would you prefer they take 40% instead of a fixed $2?

Realistically, how many downloads are really done via international 3G roaming? Much less than 1% I would suspect. And while it's true that there are some plans with absurdly inflated roaming costs that could still drive up the overall average to $2+, it would be beyond incompetent for Amazon to agree to such plans for their Kindles.

One factor that nobody seems to have mentioned so far: was this massive delivery fee in any way knowable to the author beforehand? I'd consider it a bit disingenuous of Amazon if they hide it.

Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#124

Post by apapli »

damian2000 wrote: post #95
xxpor wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you have a US kindle in say, the deserts of Australia? It's going to cost a LOT more than $.27. I mean a LOT.

Wrong - most deserts of Australia don't have any 3G access. But anywhere in Australia with 3G access (i.e. populated areas) all have the same data tariff, which is comparable to the US price.

Where did you read that? On my reading of the terms (and being an AU resident) I'm pretty sure whisper net doesn't exist in Australia.

Which would also suggest you don't get charged a delivery fee to AU customers..?

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A29FL26O...

Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#125

Post by jrockway »

brazzy wrote: post #123
jrockway wrote: post #119

It's not 129,000% markup. You're paying for outgoing bandwidth (at S3 prices) and you're paying for the Kindle's incoming bandwidth, which could be over an internationally-roaming 3G network. Yes, it's dumb that Amazon charges authors and not themselves, but would you prefer they take 40% instead of a fixed $2?

Realistically, how many downloads are really done via international 3G roaming? Much less than 1% I would suspect. And while it's true that there are some plans with absurdly inflated roaming costs that could still drive up the overall average to $2+, it would be beyond incompetent for Amazon to agree to such plans for their Kindles. One factor that nobody seems to have mentioned so far: was this massive delivery fee…

My guess is that you're not paying a lot for each bit transferred internationally, you're paying for the ability to be able to download content internationally. (Authors may be subsidizing the devices, as well. It makes sense, though; if Kindles were less ubiquitous, how much money would you make selling e-books.)

It's kind of like complaining that your ISP charges you the same monthly fee even if you don't download anything. The charge is for having the ability to transfer bits, not for each bit transferred.

I guess the complaint is that Amazon transfers much of their financial risk to authors via a $2 delivery fee. All I know is that I wrote a traditionally-published book and saw about $5 for every $40 the publisher charged. I would gladly take $38 instead of $5 and they could call the fee whatever the fuck they wanted.

Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#126

Post by pja »

shalmanese wrote: post #118

Why not make it $10 on Amazon and $9.50 on all the other services. That way, people who are indifferent will go for the service that nets you the highest margin while people who prefer kindle won't care that much about the price differential. Personally, I'm pretty much indifferent to iBooks vs Kindle since both are just apps on my iPad. If they're both $10, I choose Kindle simply because it's a bigger brand name. If…

You can't. Amazon reserves the right to drop the asking price on your book to the lowest price listed anywhere else. ("Most favoured nation status" is the term used to describe this kind of clause in a contract.)

Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#127

Post by pja »

kennethcwilbur wrote: post #68
dangrossman wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most Kindle purchases are coming from a Kindle, which never has a consumer data plan. 3G Kindles' cell usage is paid by Amazon.

At https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A29FL26O... it shows that the delivery charge in the UK for a 18.2MB book is $2.82. That rate is actually pretty good. According to this page, http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/affo... AT&T sells a 120-MB international roaming data package for $30/month. That implies an effective download charge of $4.55 for an 18.2-MB file. Now if Amazon's…

The author is charged the delivery cost whether the delivery happens over 3G or Wifi.

Personally, I doubt the cost to Amazon to deliver the average e-book is anywhere near their quoted rate. If they wanted to charge separately for 3G or wifi delivery I'm sure they could do so: they have simply chosen not to. Possibly it's simply inertia: the original Kindles were 3G only IIRC, so they would have had to pay steep costs themselves for data delivery back then for all downloads. Now they've discovered that authors are willing to eat those charges, why change them?

The consequence of course is that it's uneconomic to sell image-heavy works through the Kindle platform, despite the move to wifi delivery & full-colour tablet Kindles which could exploit them to their full potential. Even books like the OPs find a huge chunk of their profit margin swallowed up by these delivery charges.

Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#128

Post by nasmorn »

ImprovedSilence wrote: post #31
earl wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a guess: the author feels ripped off in the same way I feel ripped off when I buy an airline ticket and have to pay $25 to check a bag, $12 for a sandwich, etc. If amazon's fee is $4.50 they should say so instead of burying a cost almost equal to their quoted fee in fine print. Edit: also, amazon grants themselves MFN status [1] at the authors' expense. So they exploit their market size to make sure authors can't…

Agreed. Amazon charging 30%, then another $2.50 is sketchy, why not just charge 50%, or at least avertise the price as a fixed $2.50 plus 30%? Questionable on Amazons part, without a doubt.

You can actually choose to just be charged 65% in the first place.

Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#129

Post by nasmorn »

balloot wrote: post #66
Karunamon wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$3 to transmit 15 megabytes is fucking absurd, regardless of the delivery medium. Full stop, end of story.

It's not $3 to transmit a file. It's $3 to: Design a great UX Handle Credit Cards safely Give you access to a robust infrastructure that won't crash Market the site Build and research a top quality e-Reader Build data centers all around the world etc etc etc Bottom line is the guy made WAY more selling with Kindle/Amazon than with any other format, even given their large cut. That didn't just happen by magic. He is f…

No it is just a tiered pricing model. Either get 35% royalties and no delivery fee or get 70% and pay those very high fees. Almost all the things you include in the list apply to both pricing models.

Re: Amazon Digital Markup: 129,000%

#130

Post by mikecane »

The delivery fee is not hidden. I found it right away when I was investigating digital comics and why so few are available via Amazon. That fee is why. We're not bound to see comic fanzines in digital form via Amazon explode as they did with mimeo and ditto. Bit of a shame.
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