Customers who order our books through Amazon might be dismayed to know that surprisingly little of what you pay actually goes to us, or to the author. (Remember that every penny paid to Comely Bank Publishing is passed on to the author.)
I was checking our accounts tonight and discovered that Amazon now take around 40% of the purchase price of your book – sometimes slightly more, sometimes slightly less. For that, they... well, they don't do a lot, really. There's no nice bookshop where you can see the book you're buying first. Bookshops also have to stock our nice books until you have the pleasure of finding them. All Amazon do is tell us to send the book to you then take a hefty share.
That share seems to have got a lot heftier recently, too. I think they'll claim this is something to do with tax in Luxemburg (ironic given Amazon's tax-paying records) but whatever the reason, you, and we, are being ripped off. So much so that it looks like we can no longer afford to give customers the big discounts that we offer at the moment. What we do is to reduce the price by the postage cost, but once Amazon removes its 40%, we're left with almost nothing to cover our costs. And so, from 1st March 2016, we're going to have to ask customers to pay the postage charges for some books if you order through Amazon. We'll continue to supply bookstores as before.
On the other hand, if you buy direct from us, we'll continue to offer the prices post-free. And watch out for special offers, and book groups in particular should buy from us – we really will try to give them a good deal. In fact, buying direct from us seems quite a good idea genrally, all things considered. You know where we are...
I was checking our accounts tonight and discovered that Amazon now take around 40% of the purchase price of your book – sometimes slightly more, sometimes slightly less. For that, they... well, they don't do a lot, really. There's no nice bookshop where you can see the book you're buying first. Bookshops also have to stock our nice books until you have the pleasure of finding them. All Amazon do is tell us to send the book to you then take a hefty share.
That share seems to have got a lot heftier recently, too. I think they'll claim this is something to do with tax in Luxemburg (ironic given Amazon's tax-paying records) but whatever the reason, you, and we, are being ripped off. So much so that it looks like we can no longer afford to give customers the big discounts that we offer at the moment. What we do is to reduce the price by the postage cost, but once Amazon removes its 40%, we're left with almost nothing to cover our costs. And so, from 1st March 2016, we're going to have to ask customers to pay the postage charges for some books if you order through Amazon. We'll continue to supply bookstores as before.
On the other hand, if you buy direct from us, we'll continue to offer the prices post-free. And watch out for special offers, and book groups in particular should buy from us – we really will try to give them a good deal. In fact, buying direct from us seems quite a good idea genrally, all things considered. You know where we are...
