Nancy Hendrickson

Amazon announced yesterday that publisher royalties for Kindle books will pop from 35 to 70-percent starting later this year.

“Amazon Announces New 70 Percent Royalty Option for Kindle Digital Text Platform, Enabling Authors and Publishers to Earn More Royalties from Every Kindle Books SoldSEATTLE, Jan 20, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced details of a new program that will enable authors and publishers who use the Kindle Digital Text Platform (DTP) to earn a larger share of revenue from each Kindle book they sell. For each Kindle book sold, authors and publishers who choose the new 70 percent royalty option will receive 70 percent of list price, net of delivery costs. This new option will be in addition to and will not replace the existing DTP standard royalty option. This new 70 percent royalty option will become available on June 30, 2010.

Delivery costs will be based on file size and pricing will be $0.15/MB. At today’s median DTP file size of 368KB, delivery costs would be less than $0.06 per unit sold. This new program can thus enable authors and publishers to make more money on every sale. For example, on an $8.99 book an author would make $3.15 with the standard option, and $6.25 with the new 70 percent option.”

Read remainder of press release

My all-time favorite used bookstore online is having a Holiday Sale of signed books.  I notice there’s a copy of Diana Gabaldon’s latest in the Claire-Jamie series – An Echo in the Bone.  Gotta have it!

At 12:00:01 GMT Thursday, November 26 (4:00:01 Pacific, November 25), the Scott Polar Research Institute will begin releasing the last journals of Captain Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova expedition.  The journal will be released day-by-day, starting today – 99 years from the date of the original entry.

Beginning with the entry for November 26, 1910, which will be published right now, the blog will then follow the expedition day-by-day until Scott’s famous final entry, probably written on March 29, 1912.

Scott’s journal covers the period from November 1910 when the expedition left New Zealand, through the scientific missions of 1911 and the journey to the South Pole, ending with the death of the polar party in 1912, just 11 miles from the next depot of food and fuel.