Weekly Write-Up: 6th May 2020
Welcome to the SPF Weekly Write-Up, where each Wednesday we collect together the self-publishing news of the week so you don’t have to.
This week: UK VAT on ebooks is scrapped, the Kindle Storyteller UK award is now open, and Hello Books is on the horizon.
UK VAT on eBooks Eradicated
It had already been announced that the UK would scrap the 20% VAT on ebooks in line with paperbacks, though the move wasn’t expected until the very end of 2020. But, given that everyone is stuck indoors thanks to coronavirus and both consumers and creative types need all the financial relief and escapism they can get, the government has decided to scrap the VAT effective immediately!
Well, since May 1st actually.
Amazon announced that they would decrease the prices of the books they publish by 16.7% (not sure how that works, but I’m no accountant), but indie authors should be free to set their own prices – whether that’s keeping them at the same level and pocketing the extra 20% or passing the savings onto their readers (who likely won’t even know there’s been a change).
You can read more here.
Kindle Storyteller UK Award Now Open
That’s right! A couple of weeks ago I wrote that the Kindle Storyteller UK award would be going ahead in 2020, having not heard anything from Amazon about it given all the disruption as of late.
Well, the competition is open now! There’s a £20,000 prize up for grabs, not to mention a fair bit of exposure if you win. If you’re publishing a book between 1st May and 31st August, simply add “StorytellerUK2020” to your keywords for your book to be eligible.
Read more about the competition here.
Hello Books
For those who haven’t heard about it yet, Hello Books is a new promotional service from Mark and the team that’s designed to get your books into the hands of the right readers.
It’s still in the process of being put together, but if you think you’d be interested in such a service you can sign up to be notified about it here.
Tom Ashford
Tom Ashford is a professional copywriter, author of numerous dark fantasy and sci-fi novels, and the Head of Content at the Self Publishing Formula Blog. His books include the Blackwater trilogy and the Checking Out series.
He lives in London with his wife, in an apartment that doesn’t allow pets. Find out more about Tom here.
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