On Amazon I have my ebook prices set to net me a 70% royalty. Cha-ching. The way it really works is not so simple, though. Regardless of the country of the Amazon marketplace that sells the book, the buyer still has to be located in a qualified 70% territory. I looked up that list of territories and it’s surprisingly short. And Amazon doesn’t tell you where the buyers are located like, say, Kobo does. So if I, for example, sell a short story for $3 and only make $1, that means they’re from… not to be xenophobic, but… from some other country. Other than making less money, that’s really cool. Which country could it be? A secret international fanbase is developing, perhaps?
The first story I ever sold was through Kobo and it was to someone from Japan. I love my Japanese fans. If you’re out there, know that I’m a fan of Vampire Hunter D, Legends of the Galactic Heroes, and Ryunosuke Akutagawa.
If you are from a land distant from my own, let me know how to write in a way that panders to your people and I’ll try to make it happen. I always thought it was awesome when in the YouTube comments of an obscure band’s music video somebody would go “WE LOVE YOU HERE PLEASE COME TO INDIA.”