Apple Also Throws a Monkey Wrench into Amazon's eBook Plans

Well, directly on the heels of my recent blog post, news comes out that Amazon has in fact planned to unveil a new program that will give authors and publishers the lion’s share of profit from sales of Kindle books beginning June 30, 2010. A whopping 70% will be reaped by qualifying books from publishers. The new program is said to be in addition to the old DTP royalty scheme, and will not likely replace it. In order for a book to qualify for the program, Amazon says that the list price must be between $2.99 and $9.99, in addition to being at least 20% below the list price of the physical book.

A report in The Wall Street Journal says that, in addition to the conditions highlighted above, the book must also “be made available for sale in all geographies in which the author or publisher has rights; the title will be included in a set of Kindle features, such as text-to-speech; and books must be 'offered at or below price parity with competition, including physical book prices.' "

Consequently, it is also said that “Delivery costs will be based on file size and pricing will be $0.15/MB. At today's median DTP file size of 368KB, delivery costs would be less than $0.06 per unit sold.” 

Word is that the launch of the new Apple Tablet is the main reason why Amazon is making all of these changes to its current eBook business model. That and the fact that eBook distributors will take advantage of the Apple Tablet by allowing customers to read eBooks free of restrictive devices, such as Sony Readers, Palms, Nooks, and Kindles, to name a few. What's more, Google Edition’s eBook format will allow readers to read any eBook listed by Google, on a standard web-based browser, unlike Amazon’s Kindle and B&N’s Nook. This means that a book will look exactly like the print version, with full blazing color if the publisher wishes, as well as fancy fonts, intricate book designs, and whatever other bells and whistles they choose to throw in. Apple's Tablet will likely allow for the same, and partnerships, such as with Google and other eBook distributors, are likely being forged now.

Yes folks, the eBook war is certainly heating up. And now is the time to jump in.

Comments

[Ahmad Williams]

Very interesting post! So I guess my next question is, "Since the recent amendment Amazon threw out there; are publishers forced to post their books at 2.99 on all retail sites? If so, it sounds kind of sticky, but it could either way for publisher and retailer