Amazon Advantage

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Chicken Warrior

Ahead of Your Time
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Hi everyone,
I've been a lurker on these forums for a long while now, but I've been driven to actually register to ask a question, which may or may not be stupid.

Is it REALLY true that Amazon takes over half of the profit off books sold through its Advantage program (and in addition to the annual $30 fee?) Is this how most small POD publishers distribute with Amazon? If so, how can they charge the same as on Amazon as on their own websites and still make a proffit? 55% is a huge amount off the list price, especially when 70% of that is actual production costs (which is sometimes the case with POD).

I know there are other programs where publishers pay flat out fees ($100 per title, I've heard), but it still seems incredibly expensive to me. Is Amazon really such a vital source of sales that publishers have to submit to this selfish lunacy?

Or am I complete confused?

Thanks for any info,

- CW
 

L M Ashton

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Welcome, Chicken Warrior! :welcome: You might want to make your way over to the newbie board and introduce yourself. And if you do, explain the name - it sounds like it's got an interesting history/reason/something. :) And please, jump in elsewhere, too. We don't bite. Much. Honest.


Um, sorry, no answer for you. No doubt someone brighter or more informed will be along shortly to answer your questions. :)
 

tjwriter

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You might head down to the section on the main page called "The Book World" where you find information on self publishing. There you search on Amazon Advantage to see about previous discussions.
 

pupman2

Amazon's Absurd Demands

Chicken Warrior, you're right. Borders buys books from me at only 40% discount, for example, yet they have hundreds of stores, thousands of employees and a lot of advertising to pay for. Amazon has no advertising, has one facility and surprisingly few employees. There's no comparison. Amazon refuses to accept the USPS' delivery confirmation: books are delivered to Amazon's facility according to the USPS scanner, but Amazon claims they were not because nobody at Amazon "signed" for the package. Amazon refuses to order enough books so that you can use slow media mail to save over $1 a book in shipping as opposed to Priority mail or FedEx. The choice in my case is spend $2 per book to ship Priority, or <$1 for Media Mail. Because MM is slow and unpredictable, Amazon often has a back order of books, but people want their books NOW, not two weeks from now.
Bottom line, books I sell on my website I clear over $14 on. The exact same book on Amazon I clear barely $2.60 on. Thanks, Amazon!
As for Ingram, I refuse to supply them regardless...they return books loose in a box and charge me shipping, the books arrive damaged and are a loss, then Ingram turns around and reorders the same number of books they just returned.
 
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