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Amazon Expands KDP 70% Royalty Option to Ireland, Gibraltar

amazon-logo3With little fanfare, Amazon quietly added a new country and a new territory to the 70% royalties list yesterday. Authors who sign up to sell ebooks through KDP now have the option of receiving 70% (ish) of ebook sales in Gibraltar and the Republic of Ireland.

Ireland and Gibraltar are the 27th and 28th entry on the list, which includes 27 countries and related possessions:

  • Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Guernsey, India, Italy, Ireland, Isle of Man, Japan, Jersey, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Mexico, New Zealand, San Marino, Switzerland, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, and Vatican City.

Form some reason, the UK and Great Britain were both listed. That would seem royal redundant to this colonial.

Amazon’s list is rather eclectic. Belgium is on the list, but not the Netherlands. Spain is on the list, but not Portugal. What’s more,the above list doesn’t come close to matching the list of countries where Amazon supports a local language.

What’s even more interesting to this blogger is that the specific terms vary between countries in ways that don’t make obvious sense. For example, nearly all of the countries are found in Europe, but 4 of the 8 of the countries outside of Europe (Brazil, India, Japan, and Mexico) only pay the 70% rate if authors agree to give Amazon an exclusive on an ebook. That requirement doesn’t extend to Canada, NZ, or Australia, which were added to this list after BIJP.

Does anyone see a pattern to Amazon’s expansion?

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Comments


Mackay Bell July 1, 2014 um 1:58 pm

I suspect they’re experimenting to see what works best for them. It might have little to do with the individual countries, and more to do with testing different percentages without a lot of scrutiny. Smaller countries probably won’t make the international news (except on the Digital Reader, bless you!).

But interesting to note an uptrend, flying in the face of what self-publishing critics have been predicting. It’s in Amazon’s best interest for self-published writers to write as much as possible, and 70% seems like a generous deal, so it might encourage more writers to go with Amazon. I don’t think there’s a lot of pressure to raise the rates even higher, since they already sound like a good deal. But if they lower them, there will be complaints, and possibly defections from Amazon, or writers who simply don’t bother to publish.


Greg Strandberg July 2, 2014 um 12:30 am

I have a Bezos mindset – I’ll take every penny I can get.


Paul Durrant July 2, 2014 um 1:57 am

I think it may have to do with where they have an agreement with a local telecoms company for their 3G access.


Ebook Bargains UK July 2, 2014 um 1:26 pm

Yes – the pattern is clear.

Amazon’s international Kindle expansion is at a standstill.

The latest offering is nothing more than an amusing PR gesture that the Zon-centric blogs will leap upon to prove Jeff loves them, but in reality shows just how indifferent Amazon is to its indie authors.

The 70% rule was introduced to keep indies on board when Apple launched with 70%. Prior to this Amazon was quite happy to charge authors 65% for the privilege of selling through their site.

The rule was extended to include Canadian, Australian and New Zealand authors who were using KDP through Amazon.com.

The Brazil, Japan, India and Mexico sites were launched much later, and Bezos took full advantage of indie interest in Select to bring in the exclusivity rule for the new sites.

Yes, the Canadian and Australian sites came after, but to have imposed the Select = 70% rule on authors previously getting 70% regardless was not a realistic option.

The list of places that get the 70% are simply territories attached to the existing Kindle sites. Buyers in San Marino and Monaco use Kindle FR, Austrians use Kindle DE, Andorrans can use Kindle FR or Kindle ES, etc.

Counting the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, etc (where again buyers will have accounts with Kindle UK or Kindle FR) as countries for the purpose of the KDP list is farcical in every way.

Though not as farcical as counting Great Britain and the United Kingdom separately. You couldn’t make it up…

As for Gibraltar. This latest addition to the list should help boost Hugh Howey’s Author earnings numbers no end as we indies tot up our sales from the 30,000 people in the two and a half square miles this piece of rock occupies.

Though to be fair it does give us a better chance of us all becoming indie millionaires than relying on the 70% we get from sales in the Vatican, with a population of just 800.

Gibraltar, along with San Marino, Monaco, Andorra, etc, have populations equal to a quite midweek afternoon in a shopping mall.
Why not list each individual US state as a 70% royalty experience while you’re at it, Jeff. Or even each town in each state? That would look a lot more impressive and be just as meaningless.


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