Recently, I received an email from Amazon that my paperbacks would now be available in Australia, and if I didn't go in and specify what I wanted those books to sell for, Amazon would choose a price for me. When I went into each book to see what Amazon thought was a good price for my paperbacks, I saw that in each case, the amount they'd chosen would leave $0 for me.
Umm... no.
So, I went through each and every book to change the price of the Australia paperbacks. But in doing this, I noted that the prices I had let Amazon choose for all the other countries where paperbacks are available (based off my US price, supposedly) left very little meat on the bone for me.
Noting this, I changed the prices for all international paperback copies. I mean, come on. I should be allowed to make a little somethin-somethin for the effort, eh? I tried not to be greedy. I mean, I make less on each paperback copy than I do on the ecopies of the same books - no matter what country it sells in.
Unfortunately, with the amount Amazon takes for doing the job of printing and distributing, my paperbacks are not as cheap as I'd like them to be. When you see the prices, don't curse me. If I could give you all the same prices the trad pubs offer, I would. I've got them all as cheap as I can make them - which is also why they aren't available for wide-distribution. To give all those other sellers a cut,. I'd have to add even more money to the price just to eke out my dollar and change.
It's the curse of being self-published, I guess. :shrug: There are quite a few of us self-pubs who don't even bother to offer hardcopy books because the expense versus the profit just isn't worth it. I don't blame them. But I wanted all of you to have a choice. There it is.
And, like I said, they're ALL now available as paperbacks in Australia. Yay!
And, if you're an author with paperbacks being printed and sold through Amazon, get in there and check your prices before you end up selling books and not getting any money for you. Jus' sayin'.
Added that to my list. Not that I've sold a paperback in...well..actually, I sold one last month. But it was in the US. And before that? Yeah...months and months. But you have a point. Stupid 'Zon.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, self-publishing in paper is a minefield of fair pricing vs. some profit.
Oh, oh. I fixed my Australian prices on the dressmaking books, but didn't even look at the others. Better go try again. Thanks for the warning!
ReplyDeleteI didn't bother with my fiction. I don't think I've *ever* sold a fantasy paperback on Amazon.