Amazon makes non-fiction ebook pricing complicated
I own a Kindle Paperwhite, and I quite like it. In fact, I like what Amazon has done with the whole ebook experience in general. It’s easy to get the book on the device of my choice, and they’ll even sync my place in audiobooks with the print books.
As an indie publisher, however, Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) makes pricing non-fiction books complicated. Why non-fiction in particular? Because non-fiction books, especially technical ones, tend to be priced higher than fiction books. Amazon does not want fiction books to have high prices.
Amazon doesn’t control ebook pricing. I can set the price to whatever I want. What they do control is the royalty rate. If I price my ebook from $2.99 to $9.99 (and a similar range in other currencies), they will pay me 70% minus a small delivery fee based on the size of the book. What happens if I’m outside of that price range? They pay me 35% (but they spare me the delivery fee).
When I think about the effect this has on my pricing, it’s a bit maddening. Maybe I think my ebook should be $14.99. If I sell it at that price, I make $1.75 less than I would selling it at $9.99, and my customer pays $5 more!
Everybody else gives you 70% with only a floor on the price. The first draft of my ebooks chapter is almost 3,000 words long partly because of this wrinkle that Amazon throws into pricing.
My approach with this book is to try to provide opinionated, actionable advice in summaries, with enough information to help you make a different decision if needed. For this case, my advice is:
If you’re selling your print book at a typical “programming book” price of around $30 or less, go ahead and put your book on Amazon at a price higher than $20. You’ll at least make more than the $7 you would if you sold it at $9.99
If you’re selling your book at a higher price point, don’t put it on Amazon at all. Their 65% cut just seems too steep to me ($49 ebook? You get $17!), so you can focus your marketing efforts elsewhere.
If you’re looking to sell your ebook under $20, go ahead and sell it at $9.99 and take the better royalty rate. This may not be as good from the perspective of the signal your price sends, but at least you’re maximizing your earnings and minimizing your reader’s cost.
Even that last bullet point isn’t totally clear-cut. By pricing at $9.99 on Amazon, you’re more-or-less forced to provide that price elsewhere. If other sales channels end up being higher volume for you, you’d be leaving money on the table.
What do you think? Would you draw the lines elsewhere?
I’m hanging out in the TechWriters discord and would love to hear your opinion or answer your questions. Say hi in #book-pub4prog.