Jay’s answer to “Hi Jay! This is actually a non-book related question but more of Amazon's pricing. I believe yo…” > Likes and Comments

I just researched about it a while ago and I can definitely say that the $2 surcharge is definitely Amazon's cause and they're the only one who pockets the entire $2. I am an aspiring indie author as well so I am trying to research stuff like this. Just learned that you, as an author, only gets 35% of what the buyer's pay if the buyer is a non-US customer. (70% if US residents) and all non-US, Germany, UK and Australia will be charged additional $2 for selected titles in the Amazon Store (When I bought Thunder, it doesn't have that extra surcharge. Weird. Also I checked your other books and it seems that for now, Stories is the only affected item in your catalog with the surcharge unless the other Something Like books already dropped their prices.)

It's just sad that Amazon sells your latest book for $7.99 while for the rest of the online stores you've mentioned, it's $5.99. And you get your share as if it's just $5.99. Good thing Stories is also available in Smashwords. I can get the book there at your intended price wherever we are in the globe. And I believe you get higher percentage if we buy from there. And there's mobi format for my Kindle too :P

From what I've read, Amazon drops the surcharge once enough copies of a book have sold internationally. It doesn't make sense to me, but it is one of the reasons I make sure to give people options on where they can buy.

I just finished talking to an Amazon representative and they told me that it was the Publisher who chose to charge $2 more for non-US buyers:

Uday: I reason is , I see that the address of residence updated under your account is a Non US address.
Uday: So the publisher offers the book fro non us customer for $7.99 and for the US customer for $5.99
ME: So this is the publisher's choice to offer the book $7.99 for non-US customers?
Uday: Yes you're exactly right

I don't believe them since I just read an article about a publisher who denied this as well. LOL! Nevermind :P