[ThatGurlthatlife]

So maybe I'm really late on this one. Haven't seen it mentioned, or maybe I overlooked it, if so, I'm sorry for bringing it up again. But anyone else notice that Amazon is now charging a .08 cents delivery fee for books priced $2.99 or higher and getting the 70% royalty option. So no full 70% anymore, and considering I've already sold over 1,000 books this week that's a lot of .08 cents!!!! $88 to be exact. By the end of the month...whew....I don't even want to think about it When did this start! I need to pay closer attention to my sales reports

Found this article too: http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2012/06/15/why-does-amazon-pay-only-18-royalty-some-ebook-sales/#.UOw4kG_AeSo

Didn't realize that they were padding the price in other countries that you don't even get the 35% you're really getting more like 18%!!!

 

[Guest]

They have been charging the delivery fee on books with the 70% option for a long time now. As far as I remember, that delivery fee has always been part of the program. I assume it's how they finance the free Whispernet still available on older models. 

 

[ElHawk]

No, I hadn't noticed that. Is there a way to print or download something showing how much you've lost in delivery fees per month?  That way you might be able to claim it on your taxes as a cost of doing business, and recoup it that way.

 

[Joe_Nobody]

It's always been there as far as I know. I believe its set up based on the size of the book and not the selling price.

 

[Remington Kane]

No, I hadn't noticed that. Is there a way to print or download something showing how much you've lost in delivery fees per month? That way you might be able to claim it on your taxes as a cost of doing business, and recoup it that way.

I love the way you think!

 

[Becca Mills]

It's always been there as far as I know. I believe its set up based on the size of the book and not the selling price.

It's definitely been part of the deal since I first published in April.

 

[ThatGurlthatlife]

No, I hadn't noticed that. Is there a way to print or download something showing how much you've lost in delivery fees per month? That way you might be able to claim it on your taxes as a cost of doing business, and recoup it that way.

Hmmm....I will be doing that. If it isn't on the report, then I'll add it up myself. It's ALOT of money. And then only getting 18% instead of the 35% in certain countries. We're being robbed, and I want that money back. I will definitely be claiming delivery fees on my taxes. Good thinking!

 

[TexasGirl]

You can't write off a delivery fee unless on your taxes you are saying you earned the amount before the fee and then deduct the fee. And that wouldn't be wise as the amount you say you earn would not match your 1099 from Amazon.

It's no different than their cut. You don't say you earn $2.99 for the book and then deduct their 30% from your taxes. You just put in the amount you made.

If you didn't notice the delivery fee before, it might have been smaller and a later update bloated the book.

 

[Shelley K]

The delivery fee is based on the file size, not price. Compress your cover image, get rid of the bloat, and get your files as small as possible to keep the fees down.

 

[Amanda Brice]

You can't write off a delivery fee unless on your taxes you are saying you earned the amount before the fee and then deduct the fee. And that wouldn't be wise as the amount you say you earn would not match your 1099 from Amazon.

This. You're not paid the delivery fee. It's automatically subtracted from your royalties. Don't try to deduct it as an expense from your taxes, because it's not an expense. And it's not something Amazon is slipping in without telling you -- it's in the TOS.

And it's not new. There have been delivery fees for all books at the 70% level since as long as I've been self-publishing, so at least since April 2011 and I know it wasn't new then either. The fee is based on the size of the file, and can range from as little as a penny or two to 25 cents or more, depending on how graphic-intensive the file is.

 

[PhoenixS]

... considering I've already sold over 1,000 books this week that's a lot of .08 cents!!!! $88 to be exact. By the end of the month...whew....I don't even want to think about it When did this start! I need to pay closer attention to my sales reports

The dashboard clearly shows the estimated delivery fee that will be figured in when you choose royalty percent and price. It should not be a surprise.

The fee is assessed only on the 70% option and is based on file size. It's been attached for the 2 years I've been doing this. If you've only been using the 35% option, you may not have noticed before. But look at the column for Delivery Cost on the dashboard where you choose the price per region. It spells it out plainly.

No one is being robbed. You agree to the terms and the amounts shown every time you click "Publish."

 

[Zelah Meyer]

There's an 'average download cost' column on the downloadable monthly Excel spreadsheet reports from KDP.  If I compare delivery cost to word count, I'm paying about one cent per 10k words.  (In case anyone is looking to compare methods - I upload in html and don't have any interior image files.)    

 

[Amanda Brice]

No one is being robbed. You agree to the terms and the amounts shown every time you click "Publish."

This. If you're suprised about this fee, you haven't been paying close enough attention to your sales reports, not to mention to the estimated royalty chart wvery time you hit "publish."

These fees are not a surprise. They're spelled out very clearly right from the start.

 

[Moon Dance]

I first noticed this when I was going through my November sales report. That and the fact that the same book marked at 70% royalty can be lowered to 35% also. Delivery fee? I've yet to figure that one out. My feeling is if it's 70% don't mess with it - or if you are tell authors about it up front.

 

[Lyndawrites]

I was all set to post that the delivery fee was increased in November 2012, when I checked and noted that the file size had also increased. It went from 0.89MB to 1.12MB and the fee rose from 15 cents to 17 cents.

Would correcting a few typos cause that much of a jump in file size?  

 

[Guest]

Would correcting a few typos cause that much of a jump in file size?

Those would have to be some big words.

 

[TexasGirl]

I decided to double check my own file size.

I have a book that is very image heavy with 50 photographs of how to tie balloon animals. It was .72 in August 2011 for an 11 cent fee, same as in my Nov. 2012 post.

 

[Pearson Moore]

As others have noted, the fee depends on file size.  Last time I checked the fee was $0.15 USD per megabyte of file size.  I sell books containing hundreds of images and I am charged fees ranging from about 10 cents (for my novel) to 82 cents for the largest book, LOST Thought University Edition.  The fee is disclosed right there on the upload page at Amazon.

 

[Lyndawrites]

Those would have to be some big words.

That's what I thought. Wossgoing on?

 

[AndreSanThomas]

The delivery fee has been there since at least 1/1/12 when I first published. It's right there in the T&C and it calculates when you set your pricing so that you can see if you're maybe better off taking the 35% option (with no delivery fee).  If your book is just text and a cover, even a very large book is only a few cents.  It would take a very graphics heavy file to make the 35% option more appealing.