UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion
Author Zone - Readers Welcome!
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No more Amazon checks/cheques!
Fortunately, I'm a tightfisted skinflint, so I get by :)
David, Mwa ha ha hahargh!DM Well done, those are fine figures and if you're living off your earnings you are clearly a) doing well and b) have balls of steel!
Cheers
MTM
Not really, I just charge a lot of money for the books.*grin*
D.M. Andrews (GoodReads Author) wrote: "Not really, I just charge a lot of money for the books.*grin*"
Mwah ha haargh. You charge lots of money for your books? There! You DO have balls of steel.
Cheers
MTM
M.T. wrote: "D.M. Andrews (GoodReads Author) wrote: "Not really, I just charge a lot of money for the books.*grin*"
Mwah ha haargh. You charge lots of money for your books? There! You DO have balls of steel...."
MT, I'm liking this maniacal laughter thing you've got going on! I may put you in my next book.
I prefer Mwuhahahaha!:)
Have you got a cape you can swing around as you do it?
David wrote: "I can never quite get my head around why some books sell better in the US than they do in the UK when they're written by UK authors.Any ideas?
I'm lucky if I get a handful of sales in the US in ..."
I only get sales other than in the UK, once in a blue moon. I suppose that's hardly surprising when most of my stories are about growing up in an obscure Midlands town in the 1950s and 1960s ;-)
I suppose that would be ex-pats?I still don't understand what makes someone buy a book, i don;t understand what makes me buy a book!
No idea, David, but I guess that may be the case. If we can ever crack the conundrum of why people buy what they do, then next year Rodders we'll be millionaires!
Ah and the evora would be mine... I don't have a black cape but I definitely laugh manucally with an a. I do like the mwuh ha ha hargh too though.Cheers
MTM
PS, Amazon have sent me £30 booyacka!Cheers
MTM
didnt you see any in that supermarket?
Well, it's my sum total earnings for October, November and December on .co.uk it turns out rather than an almost instant payment from .com. As you can see, I'm doing really well and earning a massive income from my books... Mwah ha hahrgh! It was £21 in December (two book clubs read it) and about £4.50 the other two months.Mwah ha hahargh.
Cheers
MTM
If anyone wants me to cast an eye over their product page I can do so ... might be something I could suggest ... then again, might make no difference ;)
D.M. Andrews (GoodReads Author) wrote: "If anyone wants me to cast an eye over their product page I can do so ... might be something I could suggest ... then again, might make no difference ;)"Very kind, D.M., all input gratefully received:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jambalaya-ebo...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Steady-Past-Y...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crutches-For-...
Well, covers are OK, and the books look well-written. I have a humour book, and it doesn't sell too well. Perhaps Americans don't relate to this form of humour, especially as it's very focused on English locality?One of your books is ranked quite well (in the UK), so you must be getting at least a few sales a week on it?
Is it just me or does anyone else think it's a bit of a swizz that Amazon can't just pool all our sales so that we get paid for what we've sold regardless of where the sale was? With all the new zones they're opening up, it'll take ages for each one to hit the threshold. I don't know why they have to insist on it being $100 dollars or 100 euros when in the UK they'll pay on anything over £10 per month. I've not yet received any payments other than for UK sales, although I should hit the US threshold this month. I have a smattering of european sales that are just going to languish in Amazon's vault for years before they reach 100 euros! Since they're letting us change to electronic transfer, I can't understand why they keep the high limit. You don't think they're being a bit greedy, do you?
Oh Bev. You might say that, but I couldn't possibly comment! Pffft!They have the technology. They just choose not to use it. You don't need to ask yourself why.
The threshold exists primarily for cheques. I remember years ago I'd get cheques from affiliate programs for $10.00 and if I took it to the bank they'd charge a min. of £5 conversion fee - hence the options for thresholds came in.
But it shouldn't still apply with the transfers, should it?
Ignite wrote: "But it shouldn't still apply with the transfers, should it?"Exactly! The UK threshold was £100 if you wanted a cheque but if you opted for electronic transfer, the threshold dropped to £10. So since they've let us all change to electronic, I can't see why they don't lower the threshold. I can see the point for cheques, after there is a cost implication for them there, printing, posting, admin etc, but electronically? Surely some clever computer just does it?
I thought the EFT threshold was £10/$10?Ah, just checked - it is 100. Strange. Maybe it changed - sure it was $10 at one point...
One of my (non-writing) sites has a PayPal Donate button, and I regularly get amount coming through of $5 - $10, US or Euros. They simply deduct a commission before it reaches my account; it's not much - 3 or 5%, something like that. Pennies, anyhow.Really can't see why there should be a $100 threshold on EFT transfers. It can only be for the purpose of lining their own pocket with the interest.
Tim wrote: "Really can't see why there should be a $100 threshold on EFT transfers. It can only be for the purpose of lining their own pocket with the interest...."
It is.
Cheers
MTM
Have any UK authors received an electronic payment from Amazon US yet?I got a paper cheque through the post yesterday for December.
I wonder how much of a lag there is on all this.
I had my Amazon US paper cheque through yesterday as well (December sales).I believe EFTs do not start until April in the UK. So we may have just received our very last cheques! (unless I get a UK one as well this month)
No, still paper cheque. So that's another twelve quid in HSBC's coffers :(
They can charge up to £30 for a cheque conversion (minimum of £6)
Interesting that as an associate, Amazon is quite happy to pay me by eft the minute my referral payments get over $10. So they can do it, they just choose not to. I can't help thinking that the indie writers should walk. We earn seven tenths of bugger all each but collectively... ah... now we're talking. If I could find a way to defect to apple... actually, I think British people are allowed to submit to kobo directly now.Cheers
MTM
M.T. wrote: "Interesting that as an associate, Amazon is quite happy to pay me by eft the minute my referral payments get over $10. So they can do it, they just choose not to. I can't help thinking that the ind..."Have been kobo'd since January, tho the sales aren't as good as on kindle - I've been posting about getting the GR reviews linked to kobo on the Writers Cafe thread, just in case you'd not seen it/done it
Karen wrote: "Have been kobo'd since January, tho the sales aren't as good as on kindle - I've been posting about getting the GR reviews linked to kobo on the Writers Cafe thread, just in case you'd not seen it/done it ."I have linked mine but it does strange things because it only links to reviews of the e-book isbn which doesn't seem to be all of them. I think it's because some reviews are on the paperback. Just one of those things. I guess.
Thanks for the Writers Cafe heads up, I'll go and have a look.
Cheers
MTM
I've had some books on Kobo since July, when they first let me come and join. I haven't been paid at all yet, but I'm sure I read somewhere that the threshold is 100 Canadian dollars and then you get the EFT, or else they pay you six monthly regardless of your earnings. Well, six months has come and gone and according to their dashboard, I've earned £71.37, which must be just over the 100 Canadian dollars threshold. Perhaps I got it wrong and it's £100? I know it's not a lot, but as MTM says, seven tenths of all of us is a tidy old sum in the no doubt high interest vaults of Amazon and Kobo!Has anyone here actually had a Kobo payment yet?
Not yet - it says '45 days' after the end of the month, so maybe that applies to the 6 months too?
Stone the crows, step back in amazement and knock me down with a feather. I've just had an email from Kobo saying that they have sent an electronic transfer which should land in my bank in the depths of night on the 26th March! I'd treat myself to a Mars bar if it wasn't still Lent.
Will the transfer from Kobo cover the cost of a Mars bar? :)
Apparently they're sending me 70.51 GBP, so I could get quite a few Mars bars. I always give up chocolate and crisps for Lent and normally it's easy but this year I've really struggled with the chocolate avoidance. I blame the weather. Anyway, the Kobo GBPs will go towards a wood burner I'm hoping to get fitted in the summer, so next winter when the gas runs out and the power stations all fail, you can all come round mine to keep warm. I'm going to have a 'bring a log' party.
I really do wish that Amazon would extend the direct deposit system to us lowly authors in Australia. This morning I went to the bank and deposited 200 worth of GBP cheques. The exchange rate for cash would have given me $275. But the banks don't pay the exchange rate for foreign cheques, they pay a much lower rate to cover themselves if the exchange rate should fall before the cheque is cleared (that's the explanation I was given). So instead of $270, I got $185. And then they took out a fee of $15 for the transaction!!! That's on top of the 30% tax Amazon took out because I haven't worked out how to do the tax thing yet.Sigh!
I feel for you Katie. Still, could be worse: you could be in Cyprus...I have some books on Kobo. Don't think they sell much, though I never check to be honest ;) Woodburner sounds like a good idea - though the government will probably put preservation orders on every tree in the country if the grid goes down :(
Blimey, I really really should do the Kobo thing... I keep telling myself that once I've finished the trilogy I'll do x y and z... ain't gonna happen soon.
Okay, there's an update on this guys - Amazon are screwing us! I've had an EFT payment from .com today and on current rates there is a difference of 164.00 euros.
I went over to the Kboards and there is a thread about it. http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topi...
I've changed back to cheque payment, I'd rather pay 32 euros than lose hundreds of euros every month.
Someone queried it with Amazon and this was their response:
Hello,
If we pay you in a currency other than the Sale Currency, we will convert the Royalties due from the Sale Currency to the payment currency at an exchange rate we determine, which will be inclusive of all fees and charges for the conversion.
I hope this helps. Thanks for using Amazon KDP.
Regards,
Pravin
Kindle Direct Publishing
Dick Turpin did at least have the decency to wear a mask and carry a pistol
But then someone else said it was because KOLLs weren't figured into the payment.
Yes, that's why people are saying there was a discrepancy (mine was paid separately too). I don't check my payments against sales so don't know if I've lost money or not ... but then as I don't make that much, I guess it's irrelevant.
M.A. wrote: "Okay, there's an update on this guys - Amazon are screwing us! I've had an EFT payment from .com today and on current rates there is a difference of 164.00 euros.
I went over to the Kboards and..."
Got the wrong glasses on - I misread their closing statement as 'thanks for accusing Amazon...'
I was just pleased to get some extra cash as we've just had the gas/electric bill - we're now at home most of the day. AAAAGH
Concerning, but having read through the thread on kboards, I'm hoping it is mainly an issue due to KOLL not being included (and not going missing!).Something to keep an eye on. Let us know if you have any issues. I've not received any EFTs yet. Indeed, never had an email about payments from Amazon in my life. Am I supposed to???
I'm afraid if my book sales were my only form of income I'd have starved :-(
Seriously your figures look good and I'd not be surprised if you were in the top 25%of indie writers