It wasn't a big check -- but it was a check!
The way Kindle Direct Publishing pays is you get a check approximately sixty days after the period in which the sales took place. I think they reserve the right to not cut a check if it's less than $100, but our check was less than that.
Here is some other information about Kindle Royalties:
Price: .99 to 2.98 - 35 % Royalty on sales (No delivery Costs)
Price: 2.99 to 9.99 - 70 % Royalty on sales (Less delivery costs)
Price: 10:00 to 200.00 - 35% Royalty on sales (No delivery Costs)
The delivery costs will be at least $0.15 per book. It will be more if you have a lot of graphics. As a test, I uploaded some very graphic-intensive documentation I did some years ago and it was only slightly more than the minimum of $0.15 minimum. (I should mention here that I didn't actually make the documentation available -- it was just a test. Technically, I wouldn't have the rights to publish it and it is completely obsolete now.)
In my opinion, Amazon does this to inflate the cost of Kindle books. Most independent authors are going to be (dare I say) greedy enough to go for the higher royalty. This allows the big publishing houses to charge just as much for the eBooks as the real books despite the (arguably) lower cost of producing them.
I'm still weighing the pricing structure at Amazon. I'd love to know if setting a book in the .99 to 2.98 range results in enough additional sales to offset the lower percentage on the royalty.
What do you think? Are you much more likely to buy a book from an author you haven't read if it hovers around a dollar?