Kindle Unlimited

[Devor]

Amazon has announced a new ebook subscription service. You'd pay $9.99 a month for unlimited access to a huge number of books.

https://smile.amazon.com/Kindle-eBo...f_=ku_lp_jf_0&ref_=ku_lp_jf_0&startPlayback=1

What do people think of it? Both as authors and as readers.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

It's not all books. Our little, tossed-out-there-on-a-lark, 9-page short story is one of their "600k Available Titles."

As an author, given that they so-far seem to count a book (or what not, I don't even know) as "read" at 10% I think is a good thing especially for authors who have works appearing in anthologies. So far, that little bit is promising.

As a reader, it's not all books and it's just getting off the ground... so I'm not jumping in the pool just yet.

 

[Philip Overby]

I don't read fast enough in order to pay 9.99 a month. It also looks like they're only choosing certain titles. It reminds me a little bit of that old service where you could get as many CDs as you wanted if you paid some kind of fee. I think it'll be a good idea, but I hope they include trad and indie stuff across multiple genres in order for it to be appealing to me.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I'm still trying to work out how it's different from Amazon Prime.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[wordwalker]

I don't think they're "choosing" titles for it, they're entering everything that's on the KDP Select plan. So for authors it's an escalation of the "to Select or not to Select" choice.

 

[stephenspower]

it's pretty bare bones right now, but they're trying to compete with oyster and scribd before they get too much of a foothold. i would estimate that in 3-5 years time subscription revenue will be 25% of all book revenue, especially for genre titles. i also think that in order to maximize the number of titles that people read in a month to get the $10's worth, there will be a boom in shorter books, the agatha christie-length airplane reads that you can kill in 3 hours.

 

[Graylorne]

It's what wordwalker says; as a self-publisher you must enroll in the KDP Select plan to be eligible.
I'd rather spread out. Now I'm at KDP and also at Smashwords with all its channels, including Oyster and Scribt. I'm not ready to give that up and 'sell' myself to Amazon.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

It's what wordwalker says; as a self-publisher you must enroll in the KDP Select plan to be eligible.
I'd rather spread out. Now I'm at KDP and also at Smashwords with all its channels, including Oyster and Scribt. I'm not ready to give that up and 'sell' myself to Amazon.

Just a head's up, in case you haven't heard, but there's been some issues with Scribd and their practices in recent months.

Writer Beware®: The Blog: Scribd's New Ebook Subscription Service: Partnering with Publishers, Profiting from Piracy

 

[soggymuse]

Amazon is also apparently very shady:

"Amazon wants you to pay $140 for a glorified library card" - American Library Association

"Kindle Unlimited offers nothing from big presses, and no guarantee the authors will get paid fairly for their work. Libraries buy the book up front for a higher price (and a better binding). Kindle Unlimited offers the authors a variable percentage of a as-yet-undetermined-and-unannounced amount of money.

While Amazon touts Kindle Unlimited at “Netflix For Books!” the reality is Netflix signed contracts with everyone whose work they offer so that actors, screen writers, best boys, and the rest of those people get paid for the shows and movies you watch. Amazon does not.

That means your favorite author isn’t being compensated for their time or work. If you love a book series and want to see the next one get published: buy the book or hit the library. Starving authors quit writing because they like eating." - britegreenstar

I don't know how accurate the latter is because I haven't looked at Kindle Unlimited myself, but I thought I'd pass it on so authors can double-check before signing up for a potentially damaging service.

 

[PaulineMRoss]

I don't know how accurate the latter is because I haven't looked at Kindle Unlimited myself, but I thought I'd pass it on so authors can double-check before signing up for a potentially damaging service.

I've been following the furore about KU over on the KBoards, where a lot of very astute self-publishers hang out. My impression is that folks who have good sales outside Amazon are incensed about KU, and folks who are already in are quietly pleased about it. That suggests that it's going to be a reasonable deal for (some) authors, at least in the short term. At the moment, there's a lot of volatility as readers sign up for the free month's trial and start downloading their maximum ten books, so sales are down and non-KU business is down, and rankings are shooting up and down. That will all settle down in two or three months.

The problem with it is an ideological one. When an author uploads a book for sale on Amazon, the author has full control over the price. With a subscription system, Amazon determines the return the author gets. Up to now, it's been reasonable (around $2 per borrow, pre-KU, and unknown for KU but likely to be similar). But in the future Amazon has the power and the right to vary that. Plus, you have to sign up exclusively to Amazon, which is restrictive.

I don't think it's the end of civilisation as we know it, but it'll be interesting to see how it all pans out.

 

[MichaelSullivan]

So here's the big story about Kindle Unlimited. It is the first time I've seen Amazon treat self-published authors as second class citizens, and I'm pissed about it. Why do I say this. Well consider how authors are in KU and paid.

• Distribution - self-published athors have to be exclusive with Amazon. Traditionally published titles can be in KU and any other venue including Oyster and Scribd.
• Payment - Self-published authors get a % of a poll set by Amazon. Traditional publisehd titles are paid as if a full sale were made...in both cases the reader has to read 10%.

Self-published authors should be outraged...but aren't. The reality is Amazon is giving them a short shift because they will "take it." Traditional publishers would NEVER go into KU with the terms that self-published authors are submitting to. Bottom line...self published authors are subsidizing the better terms that traditional is getting.

 

[stephenspower]

I agree with you, Michael, that self-published authors are getting shafted. KU is clearly an attempt to get in front, however, awkwardly the coming rise in streaming books. Oyster and Scribd are just the vanguard. No one, would join, though, if it were just self-pubd authors, so Amazon has to negotiate favorably with traditional publishers. It will be intersting to see how the Oysters pick up the slack with self-pubd authors, perhaps by picking up some of the biggest (if they haven't already).

 

[MichaelSullivan]

There are plenty of Self-published authors all ready on Oyster and Scribd. It's only those that are in KU (which requires exclusivity) that can't be on those platforms. Normally they do so through smashwords or Direct2Digital.

 

[Snowpoint]

I have never bought an e-book, or a self published book. I'm looking at this and thinking: "I'm not willing to pay $3 for book that might be bad, but maybe I am willing to pay $10 to scope out few dozen authors and find some I like."

I'm not exactly part of the e-book demographic, but I think this might turn people who are normally unwilling to try e-books (me) into someone willing to give them a shot.

 

[stephenspower]

Check this out: Kindle Unlimited "Bestseller" List Encourages Exclusivity, Works Against Independence

I'm not sure you need a subscription to read it, but here's the upshot:

A Monday night check of Amazon's Kindle Bestseller list reinforces what we found in our Monday morning post: Kindle Unlimited looks to be having a significant effect on the etailer's hourly bestseller list, since KU checkouts are being counted as "sales" for bestseller rank purposes.

...

The contrast to Amazon's weekly ebook list for the week ending July 13 provides the starkest contrast. That week, 25 non-exclusive self-published titles made the Kindle top 100. Now that group is down to 12 titles. Self-published books and bundles that are not exclusive look to losing the most bestseller lists positions as an immediate result of Kindle Unlimited.

Similarly, KDP Select "exclusive" titles are benefiting -- in bestseller rank, if not in royalties. 13 Select titles are in the top 100 now, whereas only 7 Select titles made the weekly list. Unlimited is benefiting Amazon Publishing titles, too, with 15 titles in the top 100 Monday night, versus 7 titles on the weekly list.

...

Self-published authors are being faced with tough choices: For the best shot at making the Amazon bestseller list, they need to accept the undetermined pro-rata share of a monthly KU pool rather than a predictable royalty. Their second best shot at bestsellerdom is through the lower royalties (and low retail prices) offered by Amazon Publishing. Truly independent self-published authors look to be losing bestseller slots -- to the authors who might be getting paid less by Amazon, and to the backlist regular house authors who are boosted by having their books in KU.

 

[Trick]

Apparently Amazon wasn't making enough money already. I was looking forward to publishing on kindle and now I'm far more leery. I may avoid it altogether now.

 

[Chessie]

I do love my Kindle and read on it regularly. But I won't be getting the KU. Its a great idea for readers but it does seem unfair to authors who have their works on the listing. At least authors are being given a choice to sign up for it or not. It will be interesting to see how this all develops over the next few months, but I will say its disappointing to see Amazon sell their books for pennies. Writing is hard work and authors should receive appreciation for the stories they share with the world. I say no bueno, Amazon.

 

[Steerpike]

Authors don't have to take part in KU just because they're selling on Amazon, however. If you're self-published you have to be part of Kindle Select, right? So just don't sign up for that.

 

[Mythopoet]

There's some interesting analysis of Kindle Unlimited from super star indie author Hugh Howey on his website. Of particular note, the first comment on the post has this to say:

As a “small” indie author, this change is awesome. In the 4 days that we’ve had KU, my borrows have QUADRUPLED, which in turn has raise my sales rank, which in turn has lead to more full price sales as well. I roughly expect that KU is going to push my earnings up 50% or more per month.

We certainly live in interesting times.

 

[Devor]

The first thing that occurred to me when I saw the announcement for KU was that it targets the same audience subset that self-publishers do. People who read a lot, people who take risks with their reading, people who explore things out of the norm. This is going to make it easier for them to do that.

It cuts some of the risks involved for readers. I think it's going to be good for the industry.