I’ve been doing some nitty-gritty work this past week.
Mostly it’s been stuff like (finally!) getting the new cover of MASQUE onto a paperback version (after updating the inner to have pretty graphics and a new font). I got the proof back a couple days ago, so I’ll be able to approve it today (yay!) and you’ll all be able to purchase the new paperback!
Apart from that, though, I’ve been trying to find a better way of managing Amazon royalty payments.
If you’re not a US or UK citizen, you can’t get payments via EFT. In other words, we Aussies (and several other nationalities as well) were finding that we had to wait months on end for a cheque to finally arrive in the mail. But, yanno, they finally did arrive, and hooray!
Payday!
Not quite. You see, after that, we would have to take it to the bank. The bank would then offer you a rate of conversion (which was guaranteed not to be anything like as good as the actual rate of exchange); after which they would charge you $15-$40 for the trouble of receiving your deposit (depending upon which bank you patronise).
By this point, your $100-$150 cheque is now looking an awful lot smaller. Still, payday, right?!?
Not quite. Because now your bank will make you wait anywhere from 4-6 weeks (?!?!) before you get your money.
What can you do about this if you’re an Aussie like me?
Up until today, the short answer would have been ‘Nothing’. You’d just have to accept the fact that the royalties you earned half a year ago won’t actually be accessible as money until half a year after you earned it. Or, of course, you could go through the insane annoyance of setting up a US based bank account (Payoneer or the like) and accept the fairly hefty charges that apply (for ex. $30-odd per year to keep the account, a fee of 1% of every deposit, a fee of 3% of every withdrawal, at the very least). You’d get your money faster, but you’d still be paying through the nose for it. And when you start making real royalties, that 1% and 3% that doesn’t seem so much now? Yeah, it’s gonna hurt.
It was mentioned recently on the ALLi FB group that there has been a slight change in the KDP payment options. I, of course, went to check it out and found that it was quite true–there is now an option for Aussie authors to receive wire transfers directly to their banks for amounts of over $100.
You heard that right, my fellow Aussies. We can get our royalties in mere days instead of months. I checked on Commbank’s website to see what sort of fees were associated with receiving an international wire transfer, and found that it was just $11. ELEVEN BUCKS. Less than it takes to deposit a foreign cheque and I get my royalties almost straight away?!?
Honestly, it seems like the best of both worlds!
Okay, so it’s early days yet. I still have to find out if there are any hidden fees/costs attached, but in the mean-time, I’m tickled pink! Keep your eye on the blog over the next couple of months, and I’ll update you with my findings when I have some to report.
If you already knew about this, move right along now. Nothing to see here…
If you want to know how to change your settings, read on!
*Go to your KDP dashboard
*Select [Awesome Self-Publisher]’s Account from the top right-hand side of your window
*Scroll down to Amazon Marketplaces
*Select Wire from the first drop-down list
*Select your home currency from the second drop-down list
*If you’re already set up with a bank account in your home Amazon store, it should auto-populate. Just make sure you check that it’s all fine.
*If you’re not already set up, you’ll have to enter the details from the account you would like your royalties wired to
And that’s it. That’s seriously it. Go ahead and enjoy your hard-earned royalties!
I’ll update this post when I’ve confirmed that the fees are exactly what I’ve been told they are.
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