Amazon’s Digital Text Platform (DTP) program allows you to compete on a level playing field in the ebook space, even if you have never spoken to a traditional publisher about your title. If you have a business book, a recipe collection, a memoir, a romance about vampires and wolverines, Amazon says, simply upload your title and get it out there.

(Don’t know how? Read my guide to creating Kindle-ready files. Not sure what all the fuss is about? Read my guide to the Kindle. Not sure if you want a Nook or a Kindle? Read a comparison here.)

New Pricing

Recently Amazon announced that content providers (publishers, authors, who ever holds the rights to a title) can opt in to their new pricing scheme that returns 70% of the purchase price to the content provider.

This is way better than the 50% which has been standard fare for ebooks until now.

Of course, this being the book business, all is not as simple as that. There are a few wrinkles:

1. Your book must not be priced over $9.99.
2. That 70% is off the price the book actually sells for. Amazon could discount it and your 70% would be of that discounted price.
3. You, the content provider, pay $0.15 per megabyte as a delivery charge (which saves Amazon or the reader from footing the bill).

Now, before you allow publishing industry professionals to get your peeny in a panic ¹ let’s stop and think about what this means from the perspective of the reader and the independent content provider (AKA self, or small-publisher).

The $9.99 Price Point

I have a Kindle, and let me tell you, it rankles when publishers price ebooks at or above the price they charge for a large-format, beautifully typeset trade paperback book.

The Kindle early-adopters let Amazon know, loud and clear, that they were not  happy when publishers started insisting Amazon price the books above $10. In fact, there was an impromptu boycott a few months back.

Amazon listened.

²

Traditional publishers were appalled. Some of them took their balls and ran away home, or over the fence to where Apple, playing with its shiny new iBooks store and promised to yes, price books at $14.99 if that was what the publishers wanted. Who cares what iPad readers wanted? If they want the books badly enough, they’ll pay, said Mr Jobs and the publishers from their plinth on high.

Amazon, however, responded to YOUR READERS’ CONCERNS by keeping the price of the books low. knowing full-well that few people want any particular title badly enough that they are willing to pay more than they consider ‘normal’ for it.

If you think you need to charge more than $10 for your book, then consider Amazon a place where you offer a deeply-discounted preview and go sell the higher priced version somewhere else. It’s not an exclusive program. (You can check out the terms and conditions here).

70% Of What?

Book people are rarely numbers-people, I think we can all agree on that ³. Nobody goes into the book publishing, editing, agenting or selling business because they love accounts and the concept of percentages.

But even at that it is amazing how convoluted they manage to make the numbers in the publishing and bookselling industry.

Traditionally, publishers offer authors something like “10%”. That sounds pretty poor compensation for someone who put all the actual creative work into a book, but then you realise that what the author is actually offered is 10% of the net proceeds (that’s the money that publishers get after everything is paid — all the promotion and costs to produce the book — and all the discounts applied. With big-box retailers demanding 55% discounts, that 10% royalty comes out to pennies a copy. ⁴

Amazon is offering  70% of the net proceeds

Yes, they may offer your title at a discount and yes you may make less on each copy. Are these numbers you can live with?

100% of list price: 70% of $9.99 = $6.99

25% discount: 70% of  $7.49 =  $5.24

50% discount: 70% of $5 = $3.50

That $0.15/MB Delivery Charge

This is new.

One of the things that confounds non-Kindle readers, when I whip out my Kindle and attempt to convert them, is the idea of how the books get to me. Do I have to attach it to my computer? (No, it’s wireless). Do I have to sign up for a wireless plan (No, Amazon covers the cost of their Whispernet wireless transfers for me)

Well, now the content providers are going to shoulder some of that cost.

If you chose the 70% plan, you will also pay $0.15/MB out of your profit every time someone downloads your book.

For the numerically challenged, Amazon uses this example:

If your book has a file size of 0.400 megabytes and a List Price of $8.99, the Delivery Cost will be $0.06 (0.400 MB x $0.15 = $0.06), and your Royalty will be $6.25 (($8.99 – $0.06) x 70% = $6.25).

Richard Curtis at eReads says they had a look at their books and had:

determined that a typical book is about 2 megabytes: a large one might be 3 MB.

Something to consider.

The Original Amazon Plan, Still An Option

You can still opt for Amazon’s 35% of list price program too, if you can stomach that 35% number.

In this program you get 35% of the list price, no matter whether or not Amazon offers your book at a discount. It’s a lower percentage, but it never varies.

Depending on your circumstances, that might work for you. ⁵

Not The End of The World. The Start Of Something New.

Most people who get worked up about this stuff in media old and new, are people in the publishing business – either publishers, authors or booksellers.

You rarely hear regular readers getting their proverbial peenies all knotted up over distribution deals and rights issues.

Readers simply want to spend a few hours reading a good book, and still be able to afford another book when they’re finished.

To me, as a reader, and a content provider and someone who has been invited into publishing’s gated community for a few cocktail parties but no more, I think Amazon has done a good thing here and I’ll certainly be opting for the their 70% model.

How about you?

Barnes and Noble have released a new eReader, which looks suspiciously like the Kindle with a few “Look I’m Different” features.

(I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. Not at all. I just wonder why it has to be white and rectangular and look like a clone. Surely there are other designs?)

Here’s a side-by-side comparison, based on B&N’s site comparison and a Kindle user’s experiences (mine!).

I’m glad there’s competition, because it means that Amazon will have to improve the Kindle and someone else might invent something that breaks the mold and is wonderful. Of course, as an early adopter I’m rolling my eyes at the prospect of that, but I went into this with my eyes open!).

As a reader, I think it’s a good thing, because it probably means that more books will be available in ebook format and in multiple ebook formats. There seems to be a move towards making ebooks multi-platform and maybe more hardware will encourage that.

I’m also not sure if I should be concerned that the booksellers are now also the manufacturers of the device that holds the books AND, in many cases, the publisher of the content as well.

If you’re lucky enough to have a Kindle or a Kindle 2, there is no need to go spending good money to put your own content on there.

If you have PDFs, HTML docs, word processor documents that you’d like to carry around on your Kindle, you can either pay 10c a doc to have Amazon convert and email them to your Kindle OR you can use this handy, free method.

STEP 1
Download the free Mobipocket eBook Creator software. Install it and fire it up. (Update 1: Txvoodoo, in the comments, suggests downloading the Publisher version rather than the Home Version. That’s the one I used. It gives you more options, and of course a little more complexity, but it’s still simple to use. Update 2: Just discovered calibre for ebook conversion and library management. I like it. Read my thoughts on Calibre).

STEP 2

Select the file type of your original document (Word, PDF etc.) from the top right group ["Import File Type"].

Browse to the file on your computer, then click on ‘Import’,

Mobipocket imports the file but you’re not quite done yet.

STEP3

After importing, you should arrive at a screen like this:

Your publication’s title appears in the main pane. In the left sidebar are links to things you can change about the ebook: you can add a cover image, table of contents, and metadata (that is, information that is not printed in the book, but will show up in libraries and on readers, such as publisher, author, publication date, etc). You should modify as much or as little as this as you need. If yours is a document for your own use, and this is your first time through, just make sure it has the right title and author in the ‘metadata’ settings and move on.

STEP 4

On the same screen as Step 3, click on “Build” in the top tool bar. The program will give you this screen:

You can choose more or less compression and you can choose to encrypt or password protect your book if you want. First timers/Personal users: just use the default settings and click “build”.

STEP 5

All going well, you should end up at a screen like this.

Make sure “Open folder containing eBook” is selected and click “OK”.

In that folder you’ll find various versions of the file. The one you need for the Kindle is the one with the PRC extension.

Make note of where this folder is (so you can find it again), plug in your Kindle and drag the PRC file from this folder over to the ‘documents’ folder on your Kindle.

NOTES

Pay attention to the formatting after you create your eBook, especially if you are creating documents from your own content that you intend to sell. Sometime formatting issues creep in, and you’ll need to check for odd line-breaks and page breaks etc.

On Tuesday, Feb 24, Amazon will release the Kindle 2, the second version of its Kindle ebook reader, and the media are already full of stories about ebooks. The time has never been better to release your content digitally and, to capitalize on the news, to release your content in a Kindle-ready format.

What Is The Kindle | Who Are Kindle Readers | How Do I Do This?

What Is The Kindle?
The Kindle is an ebook reader, a stand-alone gadget, that allows readers to download content wirelessly (via Amazon’s free Whispernet wireless network) to the gadget, and begin reading within minutes.

The important things about Kindle are that a, the screen uses eInk technology and really looks as good as paper, and b, that Amazon makes it so easy for readers to buy content. Hear about a book? Whip out your Kindle, look it up in the Amazon store, download a free sample chapter, finish the chapter and, if you liked it, click on the ‘buy the book’ button. The content is on the Kindle in minutes, and stored in the reader’s Amazon digital ‘locker’ forever, for easy access.

The novelty of the device makes this a great time to get your content into the marketplace. Amazon is converting content and adding to the catalogue, but it is still incomplete. By making your content available to a hungry audience before the store is fully stocked, you stand a greater chance than ever of being noticed.

While Amazon hasn’t disclosed how many Kindles have sold, analysts estimate that half a million Kindles sold in 2008. The launch of the Kindle 2 should see another boom, as buyers who were holding off for the next version scramble for their Kindle. So, while it’s not a huge market yet, it is high profile.

Who Are Kindle Readers And Should I Care About Them?

Amazon has said that Kindle readers tend to buy 1.76 Kindle titles for every print book they buy, with no decrease as yet in the number of print books they buy. Also, crucially, the Kindle costs $359, so Kindle owners are readers with discretionary income to spend. Shouldn’t they be spending it on your content?

How Do I Make My Content Available?

There are two ways to get your content onto a Kindle. One is through the Amazon Digital Publishing Program. You set the price and receive 35% of that price every time someone downloads a copy through the Amazon store.

If you like to keep more control over your content, and don’t mind inconveneiencing your customers a little, you can convert your files to Kindle format and offer them at your website. Kindle owners will then have to plug their Kindles into their computers and drag and drop the file onto the gadget. (You should be very sure that your content is irresistible to chose this option, because one of the things Kindle owners love is the freedom from the tyranny of their computer).