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The Alliance of Independent Authors - Partner Member
We are a Partner Member of the Alliance of Independent Authors, which uniquely represents the interests of self-publishing authors and requires best business practices from those who provide them with services.

W3X XHTML

The XHTML and CSS
code that we implement in
creating each of our
clients' ebooks is
independently checked
and verified by the W3C as being fully compliant


W3 XHTML

Operating Systems

We guarantee that our conversions are 100% compatible with the major operating systems used
by desktop and laptop
computers and mobile
devices

cashreg

Pricing your self-published ebook,
book or audiobook, and royalty payments

When deciding to market a work through just one ebook online channel or to increase its sales potential by adding it to the library of two or more online retailers, publishers, authors and literary agents will of course want to take into account the revenue they may expect from each channel.

We summarize below the payment terms that apply in respect of the major ebook retailers at the time of writing. Other relevant information can be found in our FAQ section.

Setting your ebook's retail price
Give careful thought to the price at which you choose to sell your ebook, as that can affect the level of royalties you receive. In the UK, VAT is not payable on printed books or ebooks but its equivalent does operate in eurozone countries.

The most popular price band is £1.99 to £5.99 . The Kindle Bookstore, Apple iBookstores and other retailers and distributors will deduct any sales or VAT tax payable from your when calculating your royalties. So in the case of a title from the UK priced at £4.99, the 70% royalty rate on sales in principal territories will produce a payment to you of £3.49 or its foreign currency equivalent. Sales in other territories, such as India, produce a royalty of 35%.

Please bear in mind that in all cases, we do not claim, deduct or withhold any part of net royalties on any of the ebooks or paperbacks that we produce.


US tax liability and exemption
As part of the registration process, we are able to arrange for clients resident in the UK or who reside overseas but have a UK bank account to be exempt from the 30% tax withholding that Amazon are obliged to implement in respect of American citizens or residents of the USA.

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
If you already have a customer account (for buying books, etc), you can extend it to include a KDP account, which we can initiate on your behalf. Thereafter you will be able to access that account at any time to check on sales and royalties accruing.

Amazon KDP pay a royalty of 70% of the retail price (keeping 30% as their share) in respect of sales to the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Switzerland on ebooks retailing at between $2.99 and $9.99 or the equivalent in other currencies.

A flat-rate royalty of 35% regardless of retail price is payable on sales to customers in countries and territories not named above. A 35% royalty applies to sales in all countries and territories on titles priced at less than $2.99 or more than $9.99.

Where a title has already been published in the form of a paperback or hardback, we suggest that the retail price of the ebook version should be at least 25% lower.

In respect of 35% royalty titles only, Amazon KDP impose a token delivery charge per download of 10p ($0.15, €0.12) per megabyte (1MB) of the ebook's file size. As a rough guide, a 100,000-word novel may have a file size of around 2MB to 3MB.

Amazon KDP offer online access to sales and income figures through your online KDP account pages. They make royalty payments 60 days following the end of each calendar month sales period, by electronic bank transfer to a UK or European Union bank account designated by the KDP account holder.

Apple iBookstore
The Apple iBookstore only accepts ebooks (aka iBooks) in epub format.

We upload any epub-format conversion that we have produced to the iBookstore on a client's behalf using our own umbrella client account. In that event, we transfer at six--monthly intervals and without deduction the net royalties payable by Apple to the client via bank credit (UK banks only) or PayPal after they have been credited to our UK bank account. That arrangement is explained in more detail in our Terms & Conditions.

Apple iBookstore pay a flat-rate royalty of 70% (retaining 30% as their share) on sales in their 51 territory specific stores, which include USA, UK, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. DRM protection is provided by default.

Apple make royalty payments every 45 days following the end of each calendar month sales period, by electronic bank transfer to direct account recipients.

Kobo Books

Kobo Books operate in more than 100 countries. Based in Canada, Kobo are owned by Rakuten (Japan's biggest ecommerce group) and pay royalties of 70% on the suggested retail price set by the client.

UK trade distribution
Where a client has specified extended distribution for an epub-format title, we shall supply the ebook files and metadata to our partner trade distributor Gardners Books. Royalties payable by Gardners are 50% of the suggested retail price set by the client.

POD hardbacks and paperbacks
The net royalty payable by Amazon KDP and IngramSpark will depend on the work's printing cost per copy, which will of course vary according to the format and page count. The formula for calculating the royalty per sale is:

Recommended retail price minus 40% trade discount, minus printing cost per copy, equals royalty.

Google Play Book Store
The royalty payable by Google is 50% of the separate recommended retail price applied to the ebook plus audiobook.

While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information provided here, eBook Versions accept no liability for any misinterpretation, misdirection or loss resulting from its application or adoption.




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Nielsen
Our clients' ebooks
can be assigned a unique
ISBN identifier issued by the official licensing
authority. They may also
be registered with the Nielsen BookData database, which serves booksellers and
libraries in more than
100 countries.

Bowker
Our clients' ebooks
are registered with the BowkerGlobal database,
which serves more
than 100 countries.

idpf
Our Kindle and ePub-
format ebook conversions
conform 100% to the official coding protocols specified by Amazon and the International Digital
Publishing Forum
respectively.

UJ
We are a London firm
and all work is produced
in-house. To ensure confidentiality and consistency, we do not outsource coding or
other work to
third
parties in the UK or overseas.