Find solution
Is Amazon Kindle worth the money?

How much money does Amazon make on every Kindle book sale?

  • Specifically, what's Amazon's revenue share with the publisher?  How does this compare to Apple's revenue share for iTunes digital books and music sales, respectively?

  • Answer:

    Amazon currently takes a 65% cut for each Kindle book sold. Right before the Apple iPad was officially revealed, Amazon announced a new program to move to a 70/30 model (effective June 2010) for Kindle books. The drop from 65% to 30% cut + delivery costs ($0.15/MB) has some conditions. For example, the price of the book has to be between $3 to $10, at least 20% below cheapest physical book and can't be priced higher in other digital bookstores. For Amazon's announcement of new royalty program: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1376977 For more on Amazon's current royalty program:  http://dtpforums.amazon.com/dtpforums/entry.jspa?externalID=2&categoryID=12 Apple roughly sticks to a 70/30 model for digital goods such as apps, etc. (30% cut, not 70%).  It has been assumed that Apple will do the same for digital books with the launch of iPad. In terms of what the content creator actually gets, it's pretty complicated when dealing with any online retailer. For example, while Apple pays 29 cents for each typical 99 cent music download, the remaining gets distributed to the label, artist, writer, producer, etc. And let's not forget about the Copyright Royalty Board, which caused a stir a couple years ago whilst threatening to increase mechanical royalties for downloads (currently at 9.1 cents for songs and 24 cents for ringtones).

Anonymous at Quora Visit the source

Was this solution helpful to you?

Other answers

Amazon doesn't make any money as a publisher, because they're not one. Kindle Direct Publishing offers royalties that vary between 35% for books priced less than $2.99 in most markets and 70% for books priced $2.99 or more. Createspace's pricing model is based on how much the author wishes to charge over the cost of publishing the book, not a specific percentage.

Shawn Bell

Depends:   1.     Amazon as Publisher In addition to being a retailer, Amazon also is a publisher operating over a dozen imprints, mostly in genre. The profit margin for each book it publishes depends on the advance offered the author, the agreed royalty rate and the actual retail price. 2.     Amazon as Book Retailer This is Amazon retailing ebooks from major publishing contracts. The wholesale discount may be 50, 60% and higher with additional "co-op" (marketing payments) and other side clauses. However, Amazon may often discount the book so its effective gross margin is much lower than 50-70% as result. 3.     Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) this is the program most commonly refered to, whereby a self-published author or small publisher can upload titles and receive 70% of the retail price (Minus "digital delivery fees"). In this case Amazon makes just over 30$ gross margin (Not net - there is also overhead!). This is the same as all other "app stores" We have no way of knowing what Amazon’s true margin is. Amazon’s overall profitability is very low, but that is primarily a function of it investing in lot of new product lines that have nothing to do with books, in other words profits from selling books are invested in other areas without us outsiders being able to tell how the cash flows around.

Andrew Rhomberg

Currently Kindle's royalty is 70% for any ebook retailing between $2.99 and $9.99, otherwise the royalty is 35%.

Nick Pendrell

I'm not sure the 65% cut comment is correct.  Publishers using the wholesale model can pick the price they want, and then Amazon can sell at the retail price it wants.  Amazon buys many best sellers for $14 and sells them for $10 as loss leaders.  Amazon buys many back catalog items for $2 and sells them for $4.

Mark Casey

Related Q & A:

Just Added Q & A:

Find solution

For every problem there is a solution! Proved by Solucija.

  • Got an issue and looking for advice?

  • Ask Solucija to search every corner of the Web for help.

  • Get workable solutions and helpful tips in a moment.

Just ask Solucija about an issue you face and immediately get a list of ready solutions, answers and tips from other Internet users. We always provide the most suitable and complete answer to your question at the top, along with a few good alternatives below.