PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
The world’s largest e-tailer Amazon has launched its 70 per cent royalty e-book self-publishing scheme in the UK.
Amazon has offered the Kindle Digital Text Platform in the US since June which provides royalties of 70 per cent of book sales to publishers or authors directly, less download delivery costs for the 3G service.
The scheme has preconditions which include keeping the price below £7 and the book must be at least 20 per cent cheaper than a dead-tree book if one exists. This is in contrast to the common occurence of digital books costing as much or even more than a hard cover.
Inflated prices of digital copies hasn’t been limited to e-books, digital delivery videogames have likewise experienced the same effect as publishers are keen to molify the traditional distribution and retail channel. Amazon’s scheme directly targets the practice, giving authors and publishers a powerful incentive for providing cheaper e-book versions.
The Kindle also recently saw the launch of the first paid application, Hasbro’s Scrabble for Kindle. The game is particularly well suited to the device with a full keyboard and no fast graphics updates for the e-ink screen.
