Amazon has announced a new program for its Kindle Digital Text Platform (DTP) that will let publishers earn a larger share of revenue for Kindle books they sell. Publishers enlisting with the new program will receive 70% of list price (net of delivery costs).
It could be that Amazon's timing with this news has nothing to do with Apple's upcoming mythical tablet, but because the new 70% royalty option actually becomes available much later this year -- on June 30, 2010 -- it's probably some sort of damage control in anticipation of the deal Apple will give the publishers for books and magazines sold through the Tablet. The reasoning is simple: One week before Apple tablet is announced, you give your partners a better deal and some time to think in case they planned to jump ship.
Now, publishers and authors know that they currently get 7-15% of the list price for physical books, and 25% for digital books. 70% sounds like a huge bump, but it's not that simple.
To be able to get the 70% royalty deal, the list price for your title must be both between $2.99 to $9.99 and 20% below the lowest physical book price; the title also must be "offered at or below price parity with competition, including physical book prices". The title also needs to be included in a broad set of features in the Kindle Store, e.g. text-to-speech. Finally, the title must be made available for sale "in all geographies for which the author or publisher has rights."