As an independent author, I offer my books on all the major online booksellers: Amazon, Kobo, Google, Apple Books and even Barnes & Noble (yes, they’re still in business). I also distribute through a couple of aggregators that ensure my books can be found at smaller booksellers as well.
However, let’s be honest with ourselves as readers and authors. Amazon is where I make an overwhelming majority of my sales. It just makes sense. People know and trust Amazon. Frankly, many readers start there and use it as a search engine. And if you have a Kindle or the Kindle app (which still owns the e-reader market), you’re buying your ebooks from Amazon. That’s cool. I don’t care where readers buy their books as long as they have the opportunity to find and buy mine.
This isn’t a rant about the size of Amazon, its ability to make or break author careers with a single algorithm update or even whether it should be considered a monopoly. No, I’m ranting instead about Amazon’s policy, which allows readers to “return” ebooks for a refund after they’ve read the book!
Amazon is many things. But it. Is. Not. A. Library.
I’m going to give you a peek behind the curtain. If you purchase “A Killer Secret” for your Kindle, I do not get the entire $7.99 sales price. Instead, I get a 70% royalty. Sounds great, right? I wrote the book, I should get the lion’s share of the profit. Exactly. That’s why I became an indie author. However, I don’t actually get that 70% cut. Amazon charges about $1.60 per download back to the author. So I make $3.99 every time someone purchases my ebook on Amazon.
It’s hard to make a living at $3.99 a pop. Now consider this. Under Amazon’s current customer policies, you may return your ebook purchase even if you read the entire book! And that $1.60 download fee? I don’t get that back. But what I do get is a bill from Amazon for the returned book.
Amazon is not a library, and authors (especially indie authors) can’t afford for people to return their ebooks even after they’ve read them.
Should you ever return a book?
I understand that sometimes even when you’ve read the description, a book turns out it’s just not for you. I get it. It happens. That’s why most authors use the “Look Inside” feature, so you can at least read a chapter or two before you make your purchase. I wouldn’t even be mad if someone returned a book if it was 25% read. It’s the fact that you can return a book you completed that irks me. You’ve used the product. You’ve gotten hours of entertainment from it. I believe it’s unethical to then return it.
I know it isn’t against Amazon’s current rules. And I know this gets into consumer behavior, which is a whole other can of worms. However, if Amazon changed its policy, it would be easier for authors to continue to make a living with their writing, and therefore readers would continue to have more book options to choose from.
You can help.
There is a petition on change.org right now to ask Amazon to change its policy. You can help by adding your signature. It only takes a minute, and it could make a tremendous difference in the lives and livelihoods of many, many indie authors. Don’t make me whip out my old Sarah McLachlan CD.
Add your signature here: https://chng.it/WKd2Y45vbR
Thanks!
Jeff Berney
