[Edward Nile]

Hey folk! I'm posting because I noticed yesterday that one of my sales for an ebook going for $4.99 at the 70% royalty rate on KDP netted me only $0.26. I'm not running any giveaways or promotions on this book and it still appears as costing $4.99, so I'm clueless as to what's going on. Any answers or tips on who to contact would be appreciated, thank you!

 

[scottdouglas]

Did you have a promo in the past? If someone bought it as a gift, I don’t think the credit would show until after it’s redeemed.

 

[nail file]

What region did the sale come from?

 

[unkownwriter]

What region did the sale come from?

Here's your answer. It states in the Help pages that books in certain regions don't get the 70% rate. I believe if the book is in Select (KU to the reader), that is over-ridden, but I can't remember the details. Again, Help pages.

 

[Sleeping Cat Books]

From the Help pages (as indicated above, emphasis added): "If you select the 70% royalty option, your royalty will be 70% of your list price without VAT, less delivery costs (average delivery costs are $0.06 per unit sold, and vary by file size), for each eligible book sold to customers in the 70% territories, and 35% of the list price for each unit sold to customers residing outside the 70% territories."

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200644210

 

[ShayneRutherford]

From the Help pages (as indicated above, emphasis added): "If you select the 70% royalty option, your royalty will be 70% of your list price without VAT, less delivery costs (average delivery costs are $0.06 per unit sold, and vary by file size), for each eligible book sold to customers in the 70% territories, and 35% of the list price for each unit sold to customers residing outside the 70% territories."

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200644210

Except that 35% of $4.99 is $1.74, not $0.26.

 

[LDB]

Last time I did any ciphering 0.26 is roughly 5% of $4.99. So how do you explain that with the 35% and 70% system?

 

[nail file]

Last time I did any ciphering 0.26 is roughly 5% of $4.99. So how do you explain that with the 35% and 70% system?

What's the monetary conversion rate? Just because India gives 35% doesn't mean the conversion from rupee to dollars equals the same as 35% of the US dollars.

 

[LDB]

What's the monetary conversion rate? Just because India gives 35% doesn't mean the conversion from rupee to dollars equals the same as 35% of the US dollars.

Is the price not the same in other countries? IOW, if it is $4.99 do they not make it whatever the other currency equivalent to $4.99 would be, at least approximately, i.e. $4.99 is ~4.11 Euro so it might be 3.99 Euro?

 

[nail file]

All I remember is like for India, which is 35%, confusion arises every so often on how low that payout is when converted back to USD.

So...I don't know. It's the only theory I have.

 

[zorazamora]

All I remember is like for India, which is 35%, confusion arises every so often on how low that payout is when converted back to USD.

So...I don't know. It's the only theory I have.

That would only happen if there are different exchange rates each way. This is how currency exchanges make their money. I don't know if this would apply to Amazon.

If one Bitcoin equals 32,000 dollars, then 32,000 dollars equals one Bitcoin. Of course, exchanges will sell Bitcoin at a higher price and buy it back at a lower price.

 

[鬼]

Generate a report using the button at bottom left on the older KDP Sales Dashboard. It spits out an Excel report that makes it easier to find out what happened. Region, exch, royalty %, royalty price etc.

 

[Loosecannon]

Yes on the above, generate a report.
On it will show the exact (aver.) amounts of each sales type and its currency. Then you can get each month's exchange rate for those currencies from the KDP Dashboard>Payments, "FX Rate".

 

[Edward Nile]

Hey folks! Thank you all for the replies and sorry for my late response. I will try to generate a report and see just what happened. I'm trying to find out what region the sale was made in but can't seem to track it down. The price for the book is $4.99US and I seriously doubt there's any conversion rate that would lead to me yielding so little.

I did generate the sales report for that title for that day, and according to the document it sold for the usual price at the usual rate. However, this doesn't reflect on my sales dashboard or my royalty statement (both of which say I made $0.26 off that sale) so I'm just confused at this point.

I have, however, done book promotions on the title in question in the past, to answer the first question.