Earnings

Worried about registration or publication costs? StreetLib only earns money from sales when you do!

Earnings from ebook sales

To cover distribution costs, for each sale, we retain 10% of the cover price, excluding VAT, while online bookstores retain a 30% sales commission.

This means that you will keep 60% of the cover price for every book sold, excluding VAT. The VAT applied depends on the sale’s country: for example, Italy applies a 4% VAT to book sales (ebooks, audiobooks, and paper books).

Here is an example - let's take an ebook with a cover price of €2,99:

if the purchase is made by a user who resides in Italy, where the VAT rate applied to ebooks is equal to 4%, your profit will be €2,99 / 1,04 * 0,60 = €1,725;
if the purchase is made by a user who resides abroad, you must consider the VAT rate provided by the country in which the user resides: to calculate your earnings from the sale, divide the cover price by the country's VAT rate and then multiply the result by 0,60.

Exceptions

The earnings shown for ebooks are valid for all bookstores except for those that apply the Wholesale model and the earnings made from Amazon sales.
Since the commission charged by StreetLib is lower than the other stores, earnings coming from sales on the StreetLib store are 75% off the cover price, net of VAT

Earnings from sales of print editions

For each sale, on the cover price excluding VAT:

the sales commission ranges from 45% to 51% depending on the distribution channel (online store, wholesaler, physical bookstore);
StreetLib retains 10% for book distribution;
part of the retained price is for printing costs, which vary depending on the characteristics of the book (number of pages, type of paper, size, etc.);
the remaining amount is your profit.

You can use our printing costs & royalties calculator to get an idea of costs and earnings. Give it a try by entering the graphic information of your book and the cover price; the calculator will show you what the printing costs will be and how much you will earn for each sale, depending on the country of sale - earnings can vary depending on the country because printing and shipping costs will differ from one country to another.

Earnings from audiobook sales

We apply a 20% commission on the earnings from audiobook sales, net of VAT, and store commission. For more details about sales methods on audiobooks distribution platforms and apps, please write us at support@streetlib.com.

Withholding tax for self-publishers residing in Italy

For self-publishers residing in Italy, the withholding tax will be applied to the net income, which is equal to:

20% to 75% of earnings (not 100%) for all authors who are 35 years old or over
20% to 60% of earnings for authors who have not yet turned 35

The platform is set up to automatically track the accounting and pay the withholding tax as required by law - authors don't have to worry about anything. The only thing you need to do is fill in your billing profile carefully.

The amount corresponding to the withholding tax will be shown in the pro forma invoice that StreetLib issues at the end of each quarter. Here is an example:

The tax stamp: for Italian taxation, the tax stamp of €2 is mandatory for amounts exceeding €77,47 and is charged to the author. To avoid the author having to send the receipt with the stamp, we pay it and will deduct it automatically from the net earnings.

For self-publishing authors with non-Italian residency

Withholding rates differ from country to country. You can avoid paying the withholding tax or paying it in full by sending us the certificate of residence provided by the Tax Authority of your country of residence. For more information read here