Kindle Unlimited

[psychotick]

Hi Trick,

I think you're getting things a little confused. KU is simply a part of Select. If your book is in Select it's in KU automatically. Therefore if you think that KU would become mandatory for some indies, what you're really saying is that Amazon would require some indies to either put their books in Select or not publish them at all with Amazon. As for the trade published their books cannot be in KU because according to the rules they cannot be in Select since a trade published book is by definition published elsewhere.

Again I don't see that happening. First it's damn near impossible to determine which books fit into the requirement for Select based on sales numbers as in your scenario when you're often talking about books that haven't yet been published and so have no sales numbers. Second since a book can only be published in Select if it is not published anywhere else this would amount to an anti-competitive practice. And as Amazon's share of the ebook market nearly amounts to market dominance the regulatory agencies would become very upset.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Trick]

@psychotick, we can agree to disagree. If KU proves effective at moving the work of no name authors, Amazon will want that to apply to all no name authors. Select only requires exclusivity for 90 days at a time. Since Amazon corners the market on ebooks, plenty of newbs will be willing to accept temporary exclusivity to see how well their book does. All I'm saying is that I think new arrivals will eventually be automatically enrolled in Select for the first 90 days. If they don't sell well enough through KU, which is a great deal for customers if not for self-pubs, Amazon may give them a lower maximum price outside Select and KU.

The only other thing I'll say is that you may be underestimating the power of the American Corporation. Regulatory agencies are governmental and thus slow moving. If they oppose Amazon's practices it will take years to resolve and I'd bet on Amazon to take the win even if they have to concede on some details. It's happened before.

 

[psychotick]

Hi Trick,

If KU proves effective at moving books I'll move more of my books into Select to take advantage of it. However it likely won't. KU is an advantage to Amazon first and foremost since it allows them to sign up customers.

Also KU is not necessarily a bad thing for authors. As I said before my 0.99c book if it's borrowed on KU returns around $2 to me as an author, but only 0.35c if it's sold.

And as for your regulatory agencies being slow - maybe. But they have teeth. Microsoft got basically broken into four companies because they looked like becoming a monopoly company. I don't think Amazon wants that to happen, and they are far and away the dominant company in the ebook sector. Becoming more so as they buy up other publishers. Add some anti-competitive practices to their CV and they paint a bulls eye on their own back.

Cheers, Greg.