"Amazon vs Wargames Vault? Not even close." Topic

So I've done some experiments publishing a few short stories under Amazon's ebook program and some wargaming stuff through Onebookshelf (Wargame Vault / rpgnow etc).

And I must say, the difference is night and day.

*Amazon has NO way to get paid digitally. Maybe this is a Scandinavian thing but checks were an anomaly even when I grew up.
Onebookshelf let's you get paid through Check or Paypal at your choice.
(What makes this more astounding is that Amazon runs their own digital payment service)

*Amazon only pays you when you have over 100 bucks in sales.
Onebookshelf pays out automatically when you have over 100 in sales. If you have less than that, you can still cash out at your discretion, they just charge you a buck for it.

*Amazon measures that 100 dollars per marketplace. Got 50 dollars of sales each in the US, UK and Canadian stores? No check for you.
Onebookshelf doesn't care about that stuff. You made a hundred dollars, you get a hundred dollars.

*Royalties.
Amazon gives you 70%. IF you charge between 2.99 and 9.99. Those might be pricepoints you recognize as "Not what wargames tend to cost". Go outside of that, and it's 30% royalties.
In other words, you make more royalties on a 9.99 ebook than a 19.99 one.
Onebookshelf is 65% if you also publish elsewhere and 70% if you are exclusive (All numbers off the top of my head)

I'm sure there's more stuff I am forgetting, but from a table top gaming perspective, it's not even close.

You can argue that Amazon has a bigger exposure of course, but does that actually help in a niche product like ours?
I imagine most people stumbling across your book on Amazon aren't actually gamers, while on Wargames Vault, they are guaranteed to be.

Anyone out there sell through both Amazon ebooks and Onebookshelf and can compare?

Interesting. Plus you last statement about guaranteed to be a gamer at wargames vault is true. Know your market.

That's the thing. The ONLY benefit of Amazon, as far as I can tell, is a bigger audience but I am doubting that would actually help you any, unless you're a big enough dog for people to specifically look for your company on Amazon.

Weasel, it sounds like a bit of an apples and oranges comparison.

Amazon has different rules depending on the country you're in. In the US and Canada, Amazon will pay you for each and every sale – there is no $100 USD threshold, and they pay by direct deposit into a bank account, regardless of which Amazon marketplace it sold to.

Amazon does not, at this point IIRC, allow sales of PDF files, which is something that's very important to me with wargames rules – the formatting and pictures all add to rules quality and playability. This is the main reason I would not sell wargames on Amazon. I know that Osprey sells both print and kindle versions of their rules on Amazon.

As far as pricing goes, it all depends on your market. Fiction books tend to be priced very differently from wargames rules. I expect that the results would weigh very heavily in Amazon's favour if you tried to sell the same work of fiction on both Amazon and Wargames Vault.

I should have clarified, I am talking about the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing for PDF's, not for print books.

I'm also referring to Amazon KDP in my comments above.

Just to clarify further, you can't sell PDFs through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. The books are converted to .MOBI or .KF8 by Amazon KDP as part of the upload and listing process. While KF8 does have some fixed-formatting capabilities – it does not display the format properly on smaller devices.

yeah, it's not really PDF's. I guess I was meaning "electronic format" and not using the correct terminology.

They do maintain thresholds though. From their FAQ:

"Your royalties accrue separately for each Amazon marketplace and must meet a minimum amount in your selected payment currency prior before you can receive payment. If your royalty earnings fall below the threshold, we will keep a running total and issue payment once the amount exceeds the minimum threshold. Your payment occurs sixty days after the end of the month in which your royalties meet the threshold."

How does all this compare to LuLu for publishing materials?

I know at least some of the RPG folks publish on lulu. I'd love to hear some experiences though .

I've been very happy with Wargames Vault.