Amazon’s Royalties Come With Unacceptable Strings Attached

Peter Brantley wrote last week about Amazon’s “gift” to authors — the promise of a 70% royalty — and how it comes with unacceptable strings attached.  This week, Brantley has been backed up by the Society for Scholarly Publishing.  Joseph Esposito,  writing on The Scholarly Kitchen, says:

“Under the Amazon plan, the publisher or author sets the price of an ebook and gets a royalty of 70%.  Sounds good so far. But if another vendor is selling the same book at a lower price, Amazon has the right to match it, without further consultation with the author.  If the author prices the book at $9.95 and a competitor begins to sell it for $5.95, Amazon immediately lowers the price, and thus the royalty paid to the author.”

Technology has been touted as a way to give authors more freedom in how they produce and sell their work, and how they get paid for it.  But some of that technology is at the same time creating new problems for authors and publishers in rights and royalties management.