Yesterday I found an article shared by Cora Carmack that I thought would make an interesting discussion. It was in regards to the changes Amazon is making with their Kindle Unlimited program.
For those of you who may not be aware or know about the program, basically you are loaned or borrow books from Amazon for a monthly rate of $9.99. This includes many, but far from all ebooks available on amazon. basically you get a book, and when you are done, return it and get another one. Regardless how many books you read the cost stays the same.
I have yet to try it but I have heard mixed results from those that have. Many, myself included, aren't that into the selection. Many books available are indie authors and books are novella length. I have always been more a full novel gal plus I have so many other books that I own or my library has FREE that i just do not see it for me at this time.
Anyways, for authors they would get royalties every time someone read at least 10% of their book. so if they have a 60 page novella, click through 6 pages worth. this can be done simple through title page, and an introduction sometimes! While an author who wrote a full length novel, say 300 pages, their readers must get through at least 30 pages. So it seemed to possibly encourage episode stories or novellas more. Now please be sure, everything I state here is from what I understand of the program, mainly talking to others, so if I am off, I apologize and please feel free to correct me.
Now in July of this year Amazon is making a few changes. The first is that authors will now be paid based on pages read. So the more pages read, the more you get. This has mixed reactions based on cost to just buy the book, length, following, etc a book or author might have. Personally I feel it seems more fair but I do not know all the details that go into payout shares.
What i do not like is the second major change. To have your book be a part of the unlimited program, you must give Amazon exclusive selling rights. No more Smashwords, website sells or B&N. Only Amazon can sell you book. This I DO NOT agree with. Force monopolizing business is wrong. So yet again, Amazon being a control hog has me agitated with their antics.
So what do you think? With various sale prices, and length or material, how would you make it fair? Is is possible? Have you used Kindle Unlimited and if so what do you think or it. Do these changes effect your opinion?
I use Scribd and like it very much. I can't use Amazon's program. What I do know is that lately they've made a lot of changes and because of them I can now hardly afford to buy books on amazon any longer. I think that won't do the authors any good. Making e-books cost between $22 and $36 for example is crazy, authors will definitely lose sales because of it. An average author doesn't earn much and this way it's even harder to make money by selling books. Authors are precious, they should be cherished instead of exploited if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea about this program, but it seems like a terrible deal. Why use this when there's the library?? For free and with more popular books?
ReplyDeleteI haven't used Amazon's unlimited kindle thing, I'm in the same boat as you not being a fan of the selection. Paying authors by the page seems to make a lot more sense/ sounds way more fair but I cannot get on board with requiring exclusive rights! That's just completely whacko! If I did use the unlimited service I would probably boycott it if they implement that, I suppose I'll boycott it by continuing to ignore it's existence. :/
ReplyDeleteI agree with you re: using Kindle Unlimited, I would never join as I have access to more than one library that have ebooks. This is not the first time Amazon has tried to be a monopoly, and it think it is completely unfair to writers to have to do it. I have heard that some of the bigger writers have more choice (as in, maybe do it for a month to try, or only with 1 book). From everything I have read on writer's blogs, authors should never limit their marketplaces and Amazon is not available in many oountries. I think Amazon is getting desperate as Apple and other platforms are growing their sales. Hopefully the "by the page" clause will not hurt the authors. Maybe they are doing this thinking that people are trying out books and sending them back without reading hardly any. But isn't that the point of the program, to try out books?!
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