Adrian J. Smith's Blog
July 9, 2025
What Prime Days mean for an author…
Since the beginning of 2025, there has been a lot of chatter about authors and author income and how best to support authors. Many people have boycotted Amazon in February, and there’s another boycott going on right now because of the July Prime Days going on. And so this chatter has come up again, but in a new way. Specifically surrounding the purchase of paperback books.
But I need you to know that the issue is a whole lot more complicated than you might think.
This comes up because of several small indie websites that have popped up to sell books, marketing that they’re better than Amazon. Except… they’re really not. And actually, all they’re doing is supporting bigger distributors like Amazon and actually taking even more money out of authors pockets.
Let’s read a story, shall we?
Pumpkin is a brand new indie sapphic author, and she’s getting ready to publish her debut novel. Now she’s choosing to go into Kindle Unlimited, which means her eBook will be only available on Amazon. But that still leaves the question of what to do with her paperback.
OPTION A
Pumpkin makes the decision to stay with Amazon and only upload through Amazon because she’s overwhelmed with all of the things that go into being an author that she didn’t know about and because she needs one less decision to make when it comes to her first book.
So she uploads her paperback to Amazon, and she happens to click the “Expanded Distribution” button, which means she makes only 40% off each paperback sold, but it also means that other stores can carry her book. Amazing, right?!
A small indie online only bookstore sees that she’s uploaded her book to Amazon expanded distribution and snags it. They put it up on their website for sale.
When a reader named Spice decides to buy the book from the small indie website, wanting to support an indie store and say FU to the ‘Zon, what she doesn’t realize is that that book is still coming from Amazon, and Amazon is still making 60% of that sale on the book and the author is making 40%.
Who gets what?
Say the book costs $20.00 and it costs $4.00 to print (we’re doing easy math here, peoples!)
Indie bookstore will buy the book for $12.00 at a 60% discount from Amazon. They will then sell the book at $20.00 for a profit of $8.00 for the sale.
Pumpkin will earn 40% off that sale – the print cost… so Pumpkin will earn a whopping 80¢ … not even a whole dollar. (($12 * 40%) – $4 = $0.80)
Amazon will earn $7.20 ($12 * 60% = $7.20).
OPTION B
Pumpkin makes the decision that she wants to upload directly to Amazon, but that she also wants to use another distributor to widen her net. So she also uploads her book to IngramSpark.
The same small indie bookstore comes in and uploads that book to sell on their website at a 55% wholesale price. (For the record, the industry standard is 40%-55%.) IngramSpark will make 15% off the sale of the book, and Pumpkin will earn 85% off the sale of the book.
Spice goes to buy the book now, and while yes, she bypasses Amazon and accomplishes her goal, she’s still not doing what will make the author the most cash in hand.
Who gets what?
Say the book costs $20.00 and it costs $6.00 to print (Ingram notoriously has higher print costs.)
Indie bookstore will buy the book for $11.00 at a 55% wholesale discount. They will then sell that book for $20.00 and earn $9.00 profit on the sale.
Pumpkin will earn 85% off that sale – the print cost… so Pumpkin will earn a whopping $3.35 of the sale of that one ebook. (($11 * 85%) – $6 = $3.35)
Ingram will earn $1.65. ($11 * 15% = $1.65)
OPTION C
Pumpkin now knows and understands what she’s doing. She uploads her books to retailers directly to maximize her income. She also uploads directly to her own store that she runs on her website. She buys her author copies through an independent printer, which costs her $4.00 to print, the same as Amazon, but the quality of the book is better.
Add in, she can now sell these books on her website for $25.00 because they’re signed and she’s personally mailing them. This adds time to her work hours for the week, but she feels it’s worth it.
What does she earn now? $21.00 per paperback sold.
Recap
Pumpkin EarnsRetailer EarnsIndie Store EarnsOption AAmazon Only$0.80$7.20$8.00Option BIngram Spark$3.35$1.65$9.00Option CDirect from Author$21.00N/AN/AWhat’s the right decision?
This isn’t an easy or uncomplicated question to answer. And a lot of it is going to depend on the goals for the author. I’ve been an indie author since 2021, and I’ve been publishing books since 2013. That’s a hella long time.
I want you to buy your books from wherever you feel comfortable. That’s why I’ve worked hard to make sure that my books, specifically paperbacks, are available as widely as they can be.
But you need to understand that oftentimes when you’re buying from these indie bookstores and thinking you’re bypassing Amazon, you’re really not. You’re still contributing to the conglomerate, and in a way, that is taking more money from the author’s pocket.
2025 has been a hard, hard year for authors. Many are losing income. I, myself, have lost some income from 2024, by about 15%. Not all of that can be attributed to people boycotting Amazon. PLEASE UNDERSTAND THIS. The conversation is way the hell more complicated than that.
There’s politics, market saturation levels, release dates, marketing before and after releases, managing to hit the tropes and the market well, quality of book, timeline of releases, methods of word of mouth marketing and following and so much more involved.
Please also note that sometimes authors don’t care about the maximum profit on a single book but rather than ranking a book has on Amazon or the number of reviews. Why? Because the higher those numbers are (more reviews and closer to a number 1 rank), the more people will see the book and the more people will read it.
Which in turn means more money in the author’s pockets. Every author has different goals and strategies for how to sell their book.
What can you do?
I encourage you, if you want to best support authors, to really dive deep into where indie bookstores get their books from, especially when they claim it’s a way to avoid Amazon. Because they are, in fact, not avoiding Amazon.
I also encourage you to talk to authors and actually ask questions about these things if you’re interested in them. We know a lot of information, and we also know that it overwhelms readers who just want a damn good story to avoid the world with (which is exactly what we want to do, too).
The best way to support me is to buy directly from my website.
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