Some of you may have heard about Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader. After months of being sold out the device is now back in stock (22-Apr-2008).
Authors in the USA receive a 25% royalty for each digital book sale.
According to the Teleread web site:
“The gauntlet was thrown down in February by Random House c.e.o. Gail Rebuck, who in a meeting with agents proposed a royalty of 15% of net receipts on digital sales. That’s higher than the standard 10% royalty rate on hardbacks, but significantly lower than the 25% currently received by authors in the US for e-book sales.
“Little, Brown c.e.o. Ursula Mackenzie followed suit, writing to agents to say that the Hachette publisher would also be seeking to pay 15% royalties on digital editions. Both publishers emphasised that the rates would be short-term and subject to break clauses.”
Many readers here in the UK would love the chance to own a Kindle and would definitely not be amused if the UK launch was delayed by greedy publishers not rewarding the authors properly for their hard work.
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