Amazon offers new royalty program for self-publishers

Amazon has introduced a new royalty rate for self-published Kindle authors, offering a rate that's nearly double the older (but still available) 35% rate. At 70%, less negligible wireless delivery charges, that's a substantial increase!

In addition to existing publishing requirements, those who wish to join this program must sastisfy the following additional items:

• The author or publisher-supplied list price must be between $2.99 and $9.99
• This list price must be at least 20 percent below the lowest physical list price for the physical book
• The title is made available for sale in all geographies for which the author or publisher has rights
• The title will be included in a broad set of features in the Kindle Store, such as text-to-speech. This list of features will grow over time as Amazon continues to add more functionality to Kindle and the Kindle Store.
• Under this royalty option, books must be offered at or below price parity with competition, including physical book prices. Amazon will provide tools to automate that process, and the 70 percent royalty will be calculated off the sales price.

The last item is pretty interesting, it exchange for a higher royalty they are asking that you guarantee you don't sell an eBook cheaper at one of their competitors.

More information is in the official press release.