Post-Show bump and Amazon Metrics
Something about conventions many authors see is the small sales spike they can track after a successful show. My paperback sales are up like 900% after a big weekend comic convention. All of those sales are on Amazon, even though I begged every person I talked with to buy on my site and provided a link and a QR code while explaining that Amazon takes a significant chunk. My line is, “Support creators and not billionaires. The cost is the same for you, but the difference is significant to me.”
Many people pledge lip service to the arts, but the math shows that buyers are more than comfortable ripping the author’s income in half and giving it to a 1%er eating wagyu on a rocket-ship. I’m actually not bitter about it, even if it sounds like I am; truly, I am thankful for every sale I make. However, I think most buyers/readers don’t understand how the math shakes out and have not entertained the idea of a customer arbitrarily giving half of their paycheck to a wealthy person they’ve never met. To that end, I made an explainer graphic.
I know the argument that pro-Amazon people are going to make is, “But shipping is free.” But is it? Really? Amazon covers the shipping costs by charging for Amazon Prime memberships, and remember that it just increased the cost of that (in 2024) by a factor of nearly 300% of the inflation rate. The cost is almost $150 per year and that offsets shipping fees—plus Amazon is privileged with dramatically lower shipping rates than authors have access to… even if we use media mail discount shipping (the lowest rate USPS offers).
Add on top of that the cost of Prime video (+$36 to revert to the ad-free streaming they used to include in Prime,) an Audible subscription ($180), and a Kindle Unlimited plan ($144) and you can see where Daddy Bezos is earning from streaming/digital and offsetting those delivery costs. So are you really getting free shipping? Not so much.
I’m not dragging anyone for using Amazon. I actually love my Prime membership because it gets me access to features like subscribe and save… but I’m aware that my shipping costs are being offset by the membership fees. Authors are businesses, certainly, but they are also creatives and artists, and it can feel a little insulting when readers will fall in love with something you created and then immediately cut your royalty money into 3 pieces and give 2 of those to a billionaire when they can be supporting the author (who is often trying to afford a pack of ramen and rent).
The fact that Amazon is competing over the artificial sentiments of “free shipping” has bearing on both her Etsy or personal store and also specialty things like her new Kickstarter. She’s got to charge shipping or she’ll lose money (I know I had one package on my last KS that cost me triple what the pledge was just to ship—plus I had to pay to produce the book, too.) Comparing shipping is not even a fair contrast since 1. Amazon is recouping money from customer services, plus over-inflating author charges to pay for shipping, and 2. Amazon is charged a rate low enough that the USPS refuses to disclose it and info is hard to discern because Donald Trump raised questions about it inciting a media frenzy and guaranteeing a partisan view of government waste spending… however an independent commission found the USPS lost about $1.50 per parcel! And Amazon sent 1,540,000,000 packages about the time of that study (late 20teens) which means taxpayers contributed about two and a quarter billion dollars to Amazon’s shipping bill. Susie Author in the suburbs can’t compete with that.
The contrast is more startling when you look at e-book and Audible. Many people prefer the convenience of Kindle as a reading platform and don’t understand that you actually get more options when you buy ebooks direct. You can still read an ebook sent via bookfunnel, Etsy, or payhip on your kindle! And even better, it won’t keep trying to upsell you on other goods and services and bog down your device trying to discern what other books it ought to try selling you. It’s faster, more portable, has fewer ads, no privacy intrusion, and you get to genuinely support the artist.
Here are charts for both ebook and audible vs a direct distribution and set at the non-exclusive rates at Amazon (since that is a general requirement to having non-exclusive agreements.) The ebook and audiobook are the same book as the paperback book charted above (it’s A Kiss of Daggers.) Not only are these numbers more lopsided since there is no printing cost—but there is also no shipping cost!
The difference when it comes to Audible credits is even crazier as I am in wide distribution (The average cost to have an audiobook produced is a little north of $3,000 and this expense belongs to the author. That amount can be reduced to nothing if a producer will do Royalty Share, but then your royalty rate is cut in half.) Below is my royalty earning per book on an Audible credit in my current rights agreement, which is nonexclusive. (It’s no wonder Brandon Sanderson completely rejected Audible as a platform and refused to let his books be available there.)
One final note out there for all the math junkies who may be wondering how my numbers make sense: Zon isn’t exactly honest in how they present data. On a paperback they only take 40% and give authors a 60% royalty, but they don’t talk about net vs gross and use language to obfuscate data. While they percentage, that is always off the top, and authors have to pay fees out of their end, which drives figure down…. That is why Zon’s 40% is earns them an extra $2.40 more than the author makes with a 60% earning in the example. They do this with ebooks as well, charging a delivery fee for digital goods. I understand that our current Indie author systems have had a significant investment by Zon which built the network… but also, at some point it all go out of hand and is now limiting the reach of indies, especially as they have built in pricing controls that don’t allow creators to compete with inflation (not to mention AI!)
I am convinced that people are so stuck on convenience and familiarity that they honestly do not understand how much buying author-direct changes the financial outlook of writers. Do you want to free a full-time writer from wage-slavery? Buy direct from their author site or from his or her event table.
Support Book-makers over Billionaires! Buy direct.
My direct sales portal is https://authorchristopherdschmitz.myshopify.com/
Fellow Authors… there is absolutely an ignorance issue at play. Our readers simply don’t know how much we pay to the almighty Zon—feel free to share this article!
