Peter Lawson asked Gail Carriger:

Gail, as a reader who has bought both your dead tree and electronic books (alas not of the same story), from which do you garner the most money? As a buyer of your work I reckon it'd be better to ensure that I choose the way that supports the author the most. Kind regards form Melbourne, Australia

Gail Carriger Aw, thank you. I love getting this question because it comes for a place of patronages and wanting to understand how the book industry works. It's complicated enough that is did a blog post so if you want a full listing that's here: https://gailcarriger.com/2017/07/03/5...
But basically (copied from that):

For my indie (self-published) projects (the publisher will be listed as GAIL CARRIGER LLC) here it is in order of “the most money comes directly to me” via royalties…

1. Directly from my website (via the Gumroad interface)
2. Amazon digital (USA) or Kobo
3. B&N | iTunes digital (USA) and other smaller venues
4. Subscription venues (like Audible)
5. Libraries (if you requested & they order it because they didn’t have it)
6. Amazon print
7. Elsewhere print
8. Reprints (anthologies/audio collections/storybundles)

I genuinely do not know the order of…

1. Traditionally published (digital/print/foreign editions & translations)
2. 3rd party indirect sellers (Amazon & elsewhere e.g. Book Depository)

Yes, I can figure out how much I am theoretically owed via my contracts but with advances, flash sales, discounts, distribution, wholesale deals, subscription models, returns, and licensing fees this is unbelievably difficult to tease out. Also it's different for different editons and sometimes print runs.

This probubly differs depending on the author. So I can only speak to my own earnings. I can say that the very nicest thing you can do for any author is review a book after you buy it. It helps us get seen more and gives us a chance to find new readers.

Thanks again for asking!
Gail

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