Posted on 02/01/2014 2:51:31 PM PST by RoosterRedux
Having raised existential questions about why we need brick-and-mortar stores, Amazon is now looking to help out its physical competitors. The e-tailing giant is reportedly planning to offer its popular Kindle tablet as the centerpiece of a new checkout system.
On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the plan will provide credit card readers as well as Kindles. Citing “people briefed on the company’s plans,” the Journal noted that the rollout is not yet set in stone and could be “delayed, altered, or canceled.” On the other hand, it could be ready as soon as the summer.
In December, Amazon bought the technology and engineering team of the San Francisco-based startup GoPago, a mobile payments company that developed point-of-sale systems designed around smartphones and tablets. The GoPago system included an app, a tablet, a credit card reader, a locked cash box, a printer, and even insurance. The GoPago business and customer relationships were purchased separately by mobile payments service provider DoubleBeam.
Smaller retailers first
Given that the world’s largest virtual store has no significant brick-and-mortar retailing experience, Amazon would likely have to leverage its online presence with retailer coupons or discounts to compete with the likes of NCR, VeriFone Systems, Square, and others. Smaller retailers are expected to be the initial targets and, to entice the pitch, Amazon might also offer website development, data analysis, and other services.
(Excerpt) Read more at venturebeat.com ...
It varies from bank to bank for other forms. I’ve had Wells Fargo notify me about things it thought was fishy going on with my debit card.
Got a trial of some sort for Prime several years ago, haven’t looked back.
Prime may be great if you shop a lot of Amazon. I shop Amazon less often, my circumstances currently requiring frugality. Often the things I want are covered under a “buy $XX worth, get free shipping” plan which often, if not always, turns out the most overall economical method. And then although they said it was going to be a week, the items commonly show up in two or three days anyhow.
If you write an ebook and market it online with them they roughly take 2/3 and give you the remaining 1/3. Pretty greedy suckers if you ask me...
You need to update your facts.
Yes, from .99 to 1.99, they pay a 35$ royalty.
But from $2.00 and up, they pay a 70% royalty.
Now try finding a traditional publisher that pays anywhere near either of those rates.
Amazon has probably made more writers millionaires than all the big publishers have combined.
“The market will take care of this.
I am sure Target has lost tons of customers because of their information theft issues.”
I hope so. The problem is that the “market” becomes our personal 401K because of short term greed and incompetence of a few.
I’d much prefer to see those that harm society (regardless of their status or politics) charged and making sand out of boulders instead of just making 35mil this year instead of 50mil last year.
I will never say to anyone, or state that their beliefs are wrong. I will ask them, if that kind of economic thinking is what Americans need to get the wrong stuff fixed?
One major problem is that the bigoted, racist, typically wealthy, over class that owns our politicians, the media, and Hollywood have been working overtime putting a bulls-eye on the majority who call themselves Christians, while promoting an agenda giving others a pass.
Yeah, same here.
You need to update your facts.
Yes, from .99 to 1.99, they pay a 35$ royalty.
But from $2.00 and up, they pay a 70% royalty.
Now try finding a traditional publisher that pays anywhere near either of those rates.
It’s not that simple...https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A29FL26OKE7R7B
How about we ask the opinion of a published author who uses Amazon? Any input, Matt?
The ebooks are a real licrative deal for Amazon; you do all the work and submit the finished product; they make 2/3 the profit. There’s not the usual costs of publishing and promotion as with a standard book. That’s my chief complaint. Its money for almost nothing for them.
How do you get your ebooks publicized and sold?
I don't care an iota about brick and mortar book sales. They are all going the way of Borders. Their dinosaur business model is dragging itself along on momentum. I don't even care what's on the back cover of my printed books, they are not sold to shelf browsers. I care much more about how my covers appear as thumbnails, that is where the decision to buy is made, or at least the decision to click on a thumbnail and continue toward a purchase.
NOT TRUE. Kindle books selling for $2.99 and above are eligible for 70% royalties. That means a $6.99 Kindle returns $5 to the author.
Show me a "real" (dinosaur) publisher in NY that pays 70% royalties to new, untested, unproven indy authors. More like 10% royalties, IF they get a contract.
Below $2.99, and if an author opts to sell his books on B&N Nook, the top Amazon e-book royalty drops to 30%, but that's still better than 10% from a "real" (snicker) publisher.
How does he do that with books?
See #33.
It costs zero to upload a book to Kindle. Zip, nada. It might be trash or treasure, but the “gate” is wide open to indy authors. In fact, largely due to Bezos and Amazon, the “real” publishing world gatekeepers are no longer even relevant. Anybody can publish anything, for free.
Promotion and selling is still up to the author, but at least it’s an open and level playing field. No more years wasted playing “entice an agent” and groveling on your knees up and down 5th Avenue kissing the P.C. backsides of covens of liberal witch gatekeepers.
How does that work when you have the days that you give them away? Does Amazon do it for free as a promotional item?
Not arguing with you on that. You have more experience than I on selling books. I guess ebooks are a whole different venue. Anyone can publish and an automated system is set through Amazon who get to profit if your book sells without lifting a finger through their automatec delivery system. I know there’s a few admins....okay what I’ m really saying is dang I wish I’d thought of it first...: )
It’s not that simple...
https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A29FL26OKE7R7B
It covers every country, every language, every promotion, delivery costs to other countries, etc.
But I two friends who are best-selling Kindle authors. They been in the top ten in their genre (Murder Mysteries and Science Fiction, respectively) and on the New York Times Best Seller List. As far as the murder mystery guy, Amazon even paid to have all five of his books converted to audio books.
They will both tell you that on their $2.99 books, Amazon pays them $2.09 per copy sold.
On their $3.99 books, they get $2.79 and on their $4.99 books, they get $3.49.
Here’s a quote from a website about authors and publishing.
*******
As of this writing, royalties for paperbacks can either be approximately 8 to 10 percent of the list price or 15 to 25 percent of the net sales amount (net sales is the list price minus the production costs, which tend to be $2-4 per paperback copy).
So, if a book is $18, an author using the royalty method can expect to receive between $1.44 or $1.80, while an author using the net sales method (if the production costs are $5.00, for example) can expect to receive between $1.95 or $3.25.
*****
Note the percentages paid and the royalty per copy from a traditional publisher. Also note that one of my friends makes more per copy on a $2.99 book than a ‘published’ author make on a $18 book. And they’ve both sold tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of copies of multiple books
Now who would you want to ‘publish’ your book? HarperCollins or Amazon?
How does that work when you have the days that you give them away? Does Amazon do it for free as a promotional item?
1. Get their name out there if they are a new author, or
2. Get readers hooked on the first book in their multiple book series.
And in most cases, the author takes the hook on this, but remember, it doesn’t usually cost them anything. Just loss of sales, but if you aren’t selling much, then ...
This is also why you see authors price the first book in their multiple book series at .99 and then the rest are $2.99 to $4.99. If the book catches their interest, then most readers will spring for .99.
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