So this is the third time this year, or not, like since Spring, that I’ve had to make a video about a self-publishing platform making a change to how much authors are getting paid or what they have to spend to publish. I called it in the last one. I said, I bet as soon as this video airs a change will be made. And the next day someone commented on that video “what do you think about the new KDP change?” and I said. “No no no no nononnonOOOOOOOO!”

If you’re new here, I have been self-publishing since 2015. I’ve seen platforms come and go and yes, they change their pricing policies. Often. So if you are starting out and you don’t love a platform for it’s pricing policy. Wait a minute. Or if you only pick a platform because of their royalty rate… they could change it.

This latest change has to do with Amazon KDP which is how many many self-publishing authors get their eBooks and print books on to Amazon.com. What about audiobooks? Well that’s a whole separate called ACX? Why is it different? Great question. If I ever meet Bezos it is my like top 5 questions I will ask him. 1. Why? 2. How dare you? 3? Why are KDP and ACX different?

Anywhoo, prior to this change any eBooks you publish with Amazon KDP priced under 2.99 and over 9.99 had to be at the 35% royalty rate. If you priced your book at 2.99 to 9.99 you could elect the 70% royalty rate. Why wouldn’t you? I did a whole video on it.

As of the time you are watching this video until they change it again (always check the timestamps on videos) the 70% royalty range has been expanded up to 12.99. So if you price your eBook below 2.99 or above 12.99 it has to be 35%. If you price it 2.99 to 12.99 you can elect the 70%.

Except for me getting to say I told you so, this change didn’t impact me much. If anything, I’ve been considering lowering my eBook prices to see if that would increase sales. I feel like the economy isn’t great. Budgets are tight. So the ability to charge more at the current royalty rate wasn’t appealing.

However, the biggest positive here is for authors to charge and earn more. Specifically those who do omnibus packages for their eBooks. If you have a COMPLETE series. COMPLETE. You can package books 1-3 into one large eBook as a new product and you’d want to charge more for that. Because it is 3 books.

I’ve considered doing this. When I finally finish the Feminina series, I will let you know. I’ve considered it for the Author Your Ambition series, but I already have to do SO MANY UPDATES every time these companies change their policies.

Okay, that’s the news with Amazon KDP. Have you taken advantage of this higher pricing option? Are you going to follow the new rule for my predictions and go buy a copy of Fake Out Make Out. Because my guess is this will happen again before the year ends. And then you’ll have to get a second book 😉

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200634560

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