Think I sold a book in India but I still don't understand Amazon's accounting

1148 Views 12 Replies 9 Participants Last post by gljones, Dec 31, 2012

JGrover

Discussion Starter · Dec 30, 2012

So I was checking my royalties for December and November. In November I sold a copy of Creature and Crypts at 35%, I have it checked at 70% royalties. So I looked deeper and noticed that a sale in India is only worth 35% unless the title is enrolled in Select. This title is not. So that makes sense. So looks like I sold a book in India, yay me.

Then I noticed for December one of the copies sold for my fantasy book Web of the Spider Queen came in at 35%, well that book is enrolled in select and I have 70% royalties checked, just went in and looked. So what gives? That book should have been a 70% royalty gain but it's not. Not really getting what's going on and how I can know. Ug.

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intoanna

· #2 · Dec 30, 2012

(I'm fairly new to KDP so someone please jump in if I'm getting muddled)

I think that it's not necessarily an India sale.

Although the India sales go in with the .com numbers so do all the other global sales where a country doesn't have a dedicated site. So if you've got the book ticked as 70% but you only get 35% the chances are that someone from Tunisia or Iceland has bought a copy.

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gljones

· #3 · Dec 30, 2012

intoanna said:
(I'm fairly new to KDP so someone please jump in if I'm getting muddled)

I think that it's not necessarily an India sale.

Although the India sales go in with the .com numbers so do all the other global sales where a country doesn't have a dedicated site. So if you've got the book ticked as 70% but you only get 35% the chances are that someone from Tunisia or Iceland has bought a copy.

I think you got it. I had the same question, so I pinged amazon. The way I understand it is if someone in "who knows where"istan buys your book, you get the 35% rate, regardless of anything else.

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Rin

· #4 · Dec 30, 2012

Edit: Same information as above post.

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Mike McIntyre

· #5 · Dec 31, 2012

Wow, Vatican City pays 70%...
I wonder if the Pope has a Kindle.

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AndreSanThomas

· #6 · Dec 31, 2012

What they said, plus, your biggest English speaking Kindle wielding country that doesn't pay 70% is Australia.

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Rin

· #7 · Dec 31, 2012

AndreSanThomas said:
What they said, plus, your biggest English speaking Kindle wielding country that doesn't pay 70% is Australia.

I can't get on a train without seeing a least one person with a Kindle. ^_^ I always feel like there needs to be some sort of "secret" Kindle-owner's fistbump or something.

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JGrover

Discussion Starter · #8 · Dec 31, 2012

Ah that makes more sense now. I didn't realize other countries besides India fell into the amazon.co sales and didn't pay 70%.
You need to keep formulas, graphs and charts to figure all this out sometimes. I know many on here already do.

Thanks everyone for clearing that up.

-John

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Emma Daniels

· #9 · Dec 31, 2012

Actually it's not Australia who doesn't pay the 70%, but Amazon, probably because we are so far away and this 'maybe' costs Amazon more money. Since so many countires are getting their own Kindle stores I hope we get one down under too one day. We still buy and publish through the US, and are therefore grouped into the Amazon US and India catagory.

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JB Rowley

· #10 · Dec 31, 2012

Emma Daniels said:
Actually it's not Australia who doesn't pay the 70%, but Amazon, probably because we are so far away and this 'maybe' costs Amazon more money. Since so many countires are getting their own Kindle stores I hope we get one down under too one day. We still buy and publish through the US, and are therefore grouped into the Amazon US and India catagory.

Yes, why there is no Amazon.com.au really flummoxes me. However, I believe (according to a report in SMH in April 2012) Amazon is looking at warehouse locations in Australia. Maybe things will change if that report translates to reality.

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gljones

· #11 · Dec 31, 2012

Actually the thing that I can't understand is that an ebook is an electronic file. Who cares what location the customer is in. It takes 15 seconds to get the book the customer regardless of if they are in NY or Siberia.
So I guess I don't understand the reason behind the 70% vs. 35%.

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Terrence OBrien

· #12 · Dec 31, 2012

There is no reason to expect royalty rate to be based on any specific marginal cost. Lots of other considerations affect it. I don't understand either. I dont expect to understand. Amazon just doesn't confide in me.

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gljones

· #13 · Dec 31, 2012

Terrence OBrien said:
There is no reason to expect royalty rate to be based on any specific marginal cost. Lots of other considerations affect it. I don't understand either. I dont expect to understand. Amazon just doesn't confide in me.

There probably is some reason for it, I just don't know what it is, and I probably don't want to know what it is either as it will be a bunch of accounting stuff I won't understand.

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