B&N Press Announces a Flat 70% Royalty on eBook Sales
Barnes & Noble has always offered ebook royalty terms which were better than Amazon’s, and now they’re a lot better.
I’ve just learned that B&N has changed its royalty terms. It used to pay 65% or 40% depending on the price of the ebook, but now ebooks distributed through B&N Press will pay a flat 70% royalty. And in related news, B&N Press now also sends payments 30 days after the end of the month, rather than 60 days.
The changes took effect at the beginning of the year, and will be reflected in royalty payments sent out in February.
Barnes & Noble is the second ebook retailer to improve its royalty terms in recent months; in August of last year, Play Books started a beta test where it offered 70% royalty in the US, Canada, and Australia. That program expanded in October 2020 to cover 60 plus countries.
In comparison, Amazon has a coercive royalty fee structure which pays a 35% or 70% royalty, and still includes the laughable "delivery fees". These are essentially the same terms that Amazon first offered over a decade ago, coincidentally proving once again that the dominant player does not have to innovate.
image by MikeKalasni via Flickr
