Amazon Expands 70% Royalty Option to Japan, Brazil – But There’s a Catch
Here’s an old piece of news that appears to have gone unreported (I missed it at the time, at least).
Remember when Amazon launched the Kindle Store in India, and then started offering the 70% royalty option for any KDP ebooks sold there? That deal came with a catch; in addition to certain pricing restrictions authors and publishers could only take the better terms if they also agreed to put their ebooks into KDP Select and give Amazon an exclusive on the ebooks.
When I covered that story back in September 2012 I predicted that Amazon would extend the requirement of exclusivity to the not-yet-launched Kindle Stores in Japan and Brazil, and it looks like I was correct.
Yesterday a reader looking at the pricing and contract info for KDP when he noticed something new. (Thanks, Robert!) I can’t see that this has been reported yet, but apparently Amazon has indeed started offering to pay authors and publishers more money for KDP ebooks sold in Japan and Brazil:
70% Royalty in Brazil, Japan, and India: Digital Books enrolled in KDP
Select will be eligible to earn 70% royalty for sales to customers in
Brazil, Japan, and India. The List Price you set for Brazil, Japan, and
India must also meet the 70% List Price requirements for sales to
customers in Brazil, Japan, and India. If your Digital Book is not
enrolled in KDP Select or you do not meet the 70% List Price
requirements, you will earn 35% royalty.
Amazon launched Kindle Stores in Japan and in Brazil in late October and in December 2012, respectively, but it’s not clear to me when the royalty option was expanded to include each store.
I think we now have an explanation as to why the 70% royalty option was limited to a handful of ebook markets (US, Canada, and Europe); Amazon was holding out for a way to insert this exclusivity requirement. They’ve always wanted to be the only ebookstore, and this now appear to be the carrot they will use to get it.
It seems to me that Amazon feels pretty confident that they are dominating the global ebook market, but I’m sure that does not come as any surprise.
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