Good Numbers from KU.. How are yours?

[Gymjunkie]

Hey guys,

just read this article about payments from Kindle Unlimited and that was a great positive surprise. I'm not a huge fan of putting eggs in one basket but this seems like a can't miss thing now (while the payment levels per page are at this rate). Here is the article and some others in the links there:

http://thisblogisaploy.blogspot.ie/2015/08/lets-talk-numbers-its-official-if-you.html

How are your results? No need for exact numbers if you don't want to share but general trend up or down would be interesting to hear!

 

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[MTF]

The new system greatly benefits novel writers at the expense of short fiction writers (including authors of children's books) and most non-fiction writers. It was the other way around before, so overall it's still the same bad system that shouldn't exist in the first place at all.

I personally opted out and believe that every Fastlaner should stay away from KDP Select as well, just because staying out of it sounds like a better long-term strategy (you can probably make more in the short-term, but not necessarily in the long-term because this program is extremely likely to get worse with each month). If you'd like to stay in KDP Select, I think it's a good idea to at least keep all of your books ready to publish on other retailers in case you want to opt out and quickly start selling on other sites.

 

[Gymjunkie]

The new system greatly benefits novel writers at the expense of short fiction writers (including authors of children's books) and most non-fiction writers. It was the other way around before, so overall it's still the same bad system that shouldn't exist in the first place at all.

I personally opted out and believe that every Fastlaner should stay away from KDP Select as well, just because staying out of it sounds like a better long-term strategy (you can probably make more in the short-term, but not necessarily in the long-term because this program is extremely likely to get worse with each month). If you'd like to stay in KDP Select, I think it's a good idea to at least keep all of your books ready to publish on other retailers in case you want to opt out and quickly start selling on other sites.

I don't see that short fiction writers are getting stiffed at all.. it's their choice to write short instead of long.. no one else's. Payment rate doesn't differ either..

I like it at the moment. Per-page is fair payment, for both short and long fiction.. I do agree it will get worse probably as rate goes down, but for next 3-6 months I'd just use it and get as many readers as possible. Maybe even keep one or two books there for long time in same principle as perma-free (just to reach that group of readers using KU).

 

[joanna]

The people who'll be hurt the most by the change are those who relied on the fact that with a 10-20page book, a reader only had to flip through 1-2 pages for a borrow to count. At the current payout in most cases if you write engaging content and get the read-throughs on a book, you'll often better off even on a short fiction. And you have to remember that an engaging series of say 4 x 15k books can yield better read-throughs than a single 60k novel.

The system isn't perfect that's for sure, but it's now rewarding content favoured by readers vs books that are just good at marketing themselves without any substance inside.

 

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[GiroudJD]

KU2 is terrible. Killed permafrees, killed writers of shorts, killed new authors.

Everything of mine is wide now. Amazon used to be 95% of my income. Now it's 50% or below most months.

I sleep much better at night knowing I don't have to rely on Amazon's whims to pay my bills.