Please help a math teacher with some fuzzy math

[Learnmegood]

Hey everyone,

Forgive me if this has already been answered ad nauseum, but I have a question about Amazon's DTP royalties.

I was looking at my last 6 weeks report, and the royalty was much less than I had expected.  I have my book set at $2.99 on the 70% program.  70% of $2.99 is $2.09.

But on last week's sales, there was an "average list price" of $2.74 and an "average offer price" of $2.48.  It looks like I was getting $1.71 per book, which is 70% of $2.45.

Maybe my question is not so much about the math.  I figure that I am getting paid 70% of the "average offer price" minus "average delivery cost" of 3 cents.  But I'm wondering why the average list price is lower than my set price, and why the average offer price is SO much lower than my list price.  This was not the case in other weeks.

Thanks!

John

[KathyBell]

Drat, I thought I - the science teacher - was going to get to help the math teacher, but this really doesn't count because I'm just going to ask you a question.

Is your book selling somewhere else at a lower price? Kobo, iBookstore, Band N? Because then Amazon will discount to that price and you will only get 70% of that price.

I am soooo looking forward to the semester change, kids in my classes are like popcorn right now.

[Jeff]

The 70% only applies to U.S. sales.

[meljackson]

I can't help you with your math but do you mind if I tell my third grader that even math teachers can have problems with math?? lol she's having a LOT of trouble right now and it's causing some tears and stress.

Melissa

[Judi Coltman]

English major here - and, um, no clue.  Just wanted to chime in.

[PeggyI]

Economics major here. I can discuss the macro vs micro solution. But I don't do math . . .

[Learnmegood]

Things will be ok unless the square root rears its ugly head...

[Learnmegood]

Oh, and to answer Kathy's question, it IS priced lower in other places. I set it to free at Smashwords as an experiment, to see if Amazon would make it free. But I don't know why Amazon would then lower it to $2.48...

[LarryEnright]

I think Jeff already pointed this out, but from the DTP site:

"Note: 70% royalty option is only available for sales in the US and UK. Sales outside the US and UK receive 35% royalty"



Larry

[daringnovelist]

The sales that are not in the 70 percent option are not listed on the same line as those which are.  So the problme is likely discounting. If the price is not discounted now, you will never know how far it was discounted or for how long.  They don't break it down - just give you an average.

Camille

[rudykerkhoven]

When I had my book at 3.99, but unknowingly left it at 2.99 at Smashwords (and therefore everywhere else) I had the same issue.  Amazon automatically set my price down to 2.99 as if it was on sale, but I only received 70% of the sale price, as opposed to the full price.  I'm sure somewhere in the small print for the 70% royalty option that it states that the author only receives 70% of the price paid, not the price set.

This isn't the case for the 35% sales, however.  It was always 35% of the 3.99 price.