Kindle Unlimited... Authors in trouble?

[Tony I]

Amazon is rolling out a new service called Kindle Unlimited. Essentially, it will be $9.99 a month for unlimited rentals for over 600,000 titles. It is the "Netflix for books."

"Amazon might give readers something to get really excited about: A digital ebook and audiobook subscription service that provides Kindle users with all the content they can consume from a potential library of over 600,000 titles for just $9.99 per month"


http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/16/amazon-tests-kindle-unlimited-a-netflix-for-ebooks-and-audiobooks/

Self published authors will also see their entire royalty structure changed. I am concerned about this.

"To qualify for royalty payment
You're eligible for royalty payment from Kindle Unlimited each time a new customer reads more than 10% of your book for the first time. A customer can read your book again as many times as they like, but you will only receive payment for the first 10% read."


https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=AI3QMVN4FMTXJ


is the self publishing industry going to turn into the music industry, where musicians get paid only pennies to have their music played on services like Spotify? Another lesson in the lack of control commandment..

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

"To qualify for royalty payment
You're eligible for royalty payment from Kindle Unlimited each time a new customer reads more than 10% of your book for the first time. A customer can read your book again as many times as they like, but you will only receive payment for the first 10% read."

I don't have an issue with this. Is it any different if they just bought the book? The still get unlimited reads. And frankly I'm cool with people getting able to read 10% of my books for free -- it gives me more opportunity to convince them to continue reading.

is the self publishing industry going to turn into the music industry, where musicians get paid only pennies to have their music played on services like Spotify? Another lesson in the lack of control commandment..

Always a big concern which is why all authors should be building their own platform and list... just in case the wolf becomes "big and bad"

 

[Magik]

is the self publishing industry going to turn into the music industry, where musicians get paid only pennies to have their music played on services like Spotify? Another lesson in the lack of control commandment..

In the music business, CDs and downloads have dropped dramatically, but you know what has steadily increased over the last five years? Vinyl sales. Vinyl sales have tripled over the last five years and will continue to go up.

Yes, the value of the ebook will go the way of MP3s at some some point, but print books aren't going anywhere. What is more likely to happen at some point (Amazon is already starting to lean in this direction, they give MP3s free with vinyl purchases) is when you buy the print book new, you get the ebook free with it, which is a fantastic idea and a great value to the consumer. The #1 mistake authors make is constantly focusing on themselves, the writer, instead of the reader.

Based on what I read though, the major publishing houses are going to fight Amazon over this. The only reason Spotify is able to get away with what they do is due to loopholes in the publishing laws that were written many years ago, way before the internet. BMI and ASCAP are going to be getting together with government soon to try and get these holes plugged. I predict Spotify will be something different in five years, if they even exist at all.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. There will always be an angle for those smart enough to find it. However, I will say that having your book out there in only digital form will become more precarious as time goes on, not to mention all the money authors are leaving on the table due to people like my dad who refuse to buy ebooks.

 

[PSDSH]

Adapt or die. Business is constantly evolving and you have to roll with it if you want long term success.
I love this Kindle idea btw! I'm a big fan of ebooks.

 

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[ChickenHawk]

A few thoughts:

My gut feeling is that initially at least, the library will consist primarily of books in KDP select. (As a refresher, authors publishing their books in KDP select agree to make their books exclusive to Amazon. In return they get the opportunity to offer their books for free five days in a 90-day period, and agree to allow their books to be loaned out.)

Even if you're not inclined to set up your own mechanism for selling your books, this is a good reason to establish a presence elsewhere by selling on Barnes & Noble, ITunes, Kobo, etc. That way, all your eggs aren't in the Amazon basket. Unfortunately, the Amazon basket is quite large compared to the others no matter what you do.

At the bare minimum, you MUST gather and maintain an email list of those who enjoy your work. That way, you always have a way to reach them, regardless of what Amazon does.

Earlier this year, Amazon drastically reduced the royalties they pay for audiobooks. It wouldn't be surprising to see them tweak the royalty structure in other ways. Odds are any tweaks will be more likely hurt the authors, rather than help them.

For me, this comes down to the usual mantra. Must write faster! Right now, the royalty structures are good, and every week of earnings under this structure is money in the bank. If nothing else, this makes me inclined to put out more books asap, not less.

 

[M&N]

Unlimited ebooks and audiobooks for $9.99 month...just think of how much knowledge you will be able to get for such a small price, delivered instantly whenever you click. Man I love technology, I'll be definitely a customer if they don't limit this service to the US. Btw, it's a perfect example of an amazing offer.

On the other hand, as someone who published nearly 40 ebooks on Amazon, I'm moving away from this business. Sure there are some benefits but in general depending on a markeplace sucks in sooo many ways , lesson learned.

 

[Magik]

Even if you're not inclined to set up your own mechanism for selling your books, this is a good reason to establish a presence elsewhere by selling on Barnes & Noble, ITunes, Kobo, etc. That way, all your eggs aren't in the Amazon basket.

This is what I'm doing right out of the gate. I'm putting it everywhere

Unfortunately, the Amazon basket is quite large compared to the others no matter what you do.

They will have challengers though. Just wait until Apple steps up their game and releases some sort of super e-reader. It will happen eventually.

For me, this comes down to the usual mantra. Must write faster! Right now, the royalty structures are good, and every week of earnings under this structure is money in the bank. If nothing else, this makes me inclined to put out more books asap, not less.

And get those books in print! It is more work (and a larger cost up front), but you can make more profit per unit from a print book than an ebook, if you do it the way MJ did it. I'm going to launch a Kickstarter this year to try and finance a print run.

 

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[Gymjunkie]

Based on what I read though, the major publishing houses are going to fight Amazon over this. The only reason Spotify is able to get away with what they do is due to loopholes in the publishing laws that were written many years ago, way before the internet. BMI and ASCAP are going to be getting together with government soon to try and get these holes plugged. I predict Spotify will be something different in five years, if they even exist at all.

No way Spotify dies.. they can start signing some deals with Telecom companies to come to people's house in bundle etc and that would be huge eventually.

The good thing for musicians is that at least the songs can be consumed billions of times literally. No one just listens to song once, good songs get played very often so even those small royalties can build up eventually. Now for books, that's not the case. So I really hope royalties are way better for authors than musicians.

And vinyl sales are no indication of success. They are just a tiny tiny market still, a collectable. Print books will become these things too. I still see myself buying some of them, but def. not all.

 

[Emanuel]

This service has been around for decades. It's called the library

 

[Blhhi]

This service has been around for decades. It's called the library

You've got to be kidding.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

[HASHTAG]#kindle[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#amazon[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#author[/HASHTAG]

Testing.

 

[randomnumber314]

And frankly I'm cool with people getting able to read 10% of my books for free -- it gives me more opportunity to convince them to continue reading.

Do you think that will change the writing format of books going forward? In other words, do you foresee people calculating the 10% threshold and intentionally leaving a cliffhanger so readers will continue reading, just so that they will get paid?

The reason I ask is that TMF was a bit slow for me for the first half, but I loved the second half. If I knew that I would have to pay only if I went past XX page, I might have stopped reading thinking your book was another RDPD/Dave Ramsey/Insert-name-here book.

 

[Veloce Grey]

Do you think that will change the writing format of books going forward? In other words, do you foresee people calculating the 10% threshold and intentionally leaving a cliffhanger so readers will continue reading, just so that they will get paid?

The reason I ask is that TMF was a bit slow for me for the first half, but I loved the second half. If I knew that I would have to pay only if I went past XX page, I might have stopped reading thinking your book was another RDPD/Dave Ramsey/Insert-name-here book.

I think most business books are a little slow in the first parts. Often because the author feels such a need to establish credibility and tell their own story, which can sometimes go on a bit.

What I do with a new book is go straight to kindle's most highlighted passages and skip through those to test a few paragraphs and see what the book is made of. If there isn't any useful stuff in/around the most popular highlights then generally the book itself isn't worth the time to read.

Of course this means I may miss the odd gem but given limited time I'm prepared to risk that, knowing this tactic will pay off long term by helping me avoid the many lemons I could end up wasting energy and time reading.

 

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[ChickenHawk]

The reason I ask is that TMF was a bit slow for me for the first half, but I loved the second half.

Totally off topic, but I loved the first part of TMF . It really spoke to me, because I'd been struggling for some time on the slowlane path and was incredibly frustrated. As a writer, this also goes to show...what appeals to one reader won't appeal to another. I see that all the time in the reviews of my books. Sometimes, back-to-back reviews totally contradict each other.

Funny, one of my favorite parts of TMF was the Sidewalker section. It didn't really speak to me personally, because I've always been careful with money, but OMG, did that section entertain me.

 

[Angus]

all industries are going to somewhat change in the following years
for example, with 3d printers a lot of industries will have to adapt or die (as already said above me)
it already happened to the music industry, going with the flow is essential

 

[COSenior]

If you back up one section from the second link cited in the OP, you'll find that only books enrolled in KDP Select are eligible to be borrowed with this service. Royalties will be structured the same as borrows in the Kindle Owner's Lending Library, which is averaging a couple of dollars per borrow at present. If your book is priced at $9.99, that's not so great, but at the common $2.99 level, it's virtually the same as a purchase. If you don't want your books included in the subscription service, you can withdraw them immediately from KDP Select.

*If you do not want your book(s) in Kindle Unlimited, you have the option to immediately remove your book from KDP Select. To do so, please include the ASIN for your book when you complete this Contact Us form. We will remove your book from KDPS right away and contact you to confirm.

Consider also that months after you remove your book from KDP Select by not re-enrolling (which allows you to publish elsewhere), you could still receive payment for a book that was downloaded during the time it was enrolled:

*It may take months for a customer to read more than 10% your book, but no matter how long it takes, you'll still be paid once it happens. This is true even if your KDP Select enrollment period has lapsed, and you chose not to re-enroll.

This service will be awesome for people who have had to budget their purchases, but would read voraciously if it weren't too expensive. More readers reading more books = more potential eyeballs on your book.

So many indie authors are giving away thousands of books for free to gain a readership--how is this worse than that? As far as I'm concerned, this is a tempest in a teapot. Smashwords did it months ago. I'm with @ChickenHawk -- must write faster. Ride the wave until it deposits you on shore, and then retire or start a new business on the profits reaped.

That said, I maintain that writing/self-publishing is NOT FastLane--it's too time-intensive, and you have to keep producing. Passive income (for a while only unless you're talented enough to become timeless) maybe, FastLane, no.

Thanks for calling my attention to this, btw. Now I can read more of the top-selling books in my genre to keep abreast of trends. I'll be enrolling in a few minutes.

 

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[mosdef]

this is also an opportunity to get more people reading your book=making a name for yourself. After that you can sell you book other way!

 

[Faithlaine]

hummm, what is TMF ?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

hummm, what is TMF ?

[HASHTAG]#TMF[/HASHTAG] = The Millionaire Fastlane .

 

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[Thriftypreneur]

Since I'm letting my old pen name die, I threw books 2 & 3 of my trilogy in Select to see if this service does anything. Leaving book 1 as perma-free since it's available in other locations and I don't feel like going around and pulling them all.

As far as some speculation on how this service will work, I think this is Amazon's combined answer to similar services out there, plus preparing to remove/reduce perma-free listings on their marketplace down the road. As such, I think you'll see a ton of writers start throwing all their book 1's into this service, since it's kind of an Amazon only perma-free, while leaving their other titles out of select to obtain higher royalties. However, people who distribute to multiple vendors won't be able to use such a strategy. I think it's these folks who are going to feel the impact of this new service the hardest since it'll be an issue to chop up availability of series across multiple platforms.

 

[Magik]

Ride the wave until it deposits you on shore, and then retire or start a new business on the profits reaped.

That said, I maintain that writing/self-publishing is NOT FastLane--it's too time-intensive, and you have to keep producing. Passive income (for a while only unless you're talented enough to become timeless) maybe, FastLane, no.

I agree with you, but I'll take it a little further:

--Being a content creator is definitely not the easy way to do it versus creating one product for the masses. The content creator is in a constant state of creating, while the person who creates one product or service only does it a few times. However, it takes many of those multiple tries to get it right so that it is producing, and even still, they have to tweak and evolve as competitors come to the market and new needs/challenges arise. So the big difference is whether or not you have to constantly create something new or constantly evolve and tweak one business. Neither are necessarily easier, just different, and regardless of what you are doing, the most competition there is, the more important excellence and execution become. The other drawback is these ecomm/sales funnel guys can sell their business and bow out, content creators can't. Fiction writers can sell the film rights though, which is where the real gold is (my ultimate goal) because it almost guarantees your work will remain in print.

--Writers who keep their eyes peeled have big opportunities beyond what they are publishing. When you engage the marketplace and become a gold miner, you are better able to understand the challenges/needs there are and then can create something to meet those needs, thus creating a fastlane business and selling shovels. If you have a large enough email list built, one email gets you clients for that business. So, publishing can lead to bigger things and can lead to the Fastlane, if executed properly.

 

[Jonleehacker]

I'll be curious to see if this service catches on with consumers in numbers large enough to make any impact on publishers and authors. Somehow I don't think it will. With Netflix the shows aren't really available any other way, and people are used to consuming tv and movies in a monthly subscription with cable TV. With books, I just think it's too different. People want the book they want, rather than trolling through just to find anything to amuse them, like we do with Netflix.

And, just to demonstrate my predictive powers, I was convinced that twitter and facebook were just passing fads that would never really catch on

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

And, just to demonstrate my predictive powers, I was convinced that twitter and facebook were just passing fads that would never really catch on

Ha! Mad props for coming clean on the [HASHTAG]#Fail[/HASHTAG].

 

[Magik]

I think it's these folks who are going to feel the impact of this new service the hardest since it'll be an issue to chop up availability of series across multiple platforms.

I agree somewhat on this, but there are potential problems doing it this way.

The problem with playing in Amazon's pool exclusively is you give up control to be a part of their system, which is dangerous to me. It will yield royalties short term, but could end up hurting years down the road as competitors (like Apple and Google) step their game up. The other issue is by doing this, you're pretty much waiving the self published flag, which is not necessarily good. I remember buying MJs book, and I had no clue it was self-published, which is what I want as an author. By being everywhere and having a print edition of your work, and having a website for your publishing company, and stellar covers for your books, you come across as more legitimate, which can lead to more sales and more interest. I remember reading on a semi-famous person's FB page that she has a Kobo and see even name dropped a few books she's reading. That stuck in my mind for sure.

Granted, this is just one strategy, and it all depends on what your ultimate goal is. There are so many angles to this. By being in the free pool, you have better chances to build an email list, plus have a better chance of pulling royalties short term. As usual, I think it comes down to properly executing within whichever system you choose. I'm enjoying seeing the business evolve. Exciting times indeed!

 

[Thriftypreneur]

The problem with playing in Amazon's pool exclusively is you give up control to be a part of their system, which is dangerous to me.

Agree, but this is Amazon's intention. They clearly want all readers and writers under their roof. It's been known for quite a while that self-publishing has some glaring issues with the commandment of control.

The other issue is by doing this, you're pretty much waiving the self published flag, which is not necessarily good. I remember buying MJs book, and I had no clue it was self-published, which is what I want as an author. By being everywhere and having a print edition of your work, and having a website for your publishing company, and stellar covers for your books, you come across as more legitimate, which can lead to more sales and more interest.

I don't see how using this service will make one author seem less legitimate than another. Any self-pubber can make their book listing look as polished, or even more polished, than any trad publisher's listing on Amazon. Lots of self-publishers publish under their own publishing brand making it nearly impossible to tell that they're self-published.

There are so many angles to this. By being in the free pool, you have better chances to build an email list, plus have a better chance of pulling royalties short term.

I don't really see this as a short-term play for Amazon. Given the amount of readers who visit their site daily, this service will dwarf its competitors in no time flat. An interesting thing about it is that it allows authors to basically list an Amazon-only perma-free that they get paid royalties on. In the current perma-free setup, you don't earn anything for a download, but in this setup, you will.

Just reading the news on this service so far, readers are going bonkers over it. They love it. This service is likely going to change the game of self-publishing since Amazon is the 800lb gorilla readers and authors can't get away from.

 

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[britnidanielle]

I'm not sure how you get paid, but I've already had 9 books "borrowed" under Kindle Unlimited. So it'll be interesting to see what happens with that.

If they never read more than 10%, like @MJ DeMarco said, it's really not an issue. They can read the same 10% under the preview link on Amazon (or the Kindle App--under "DL Preview" option. I've done it a million times). So....I don't see how giving away 10%, when it's already given away, is that different.

The BIGGEST difference is that you're not making a straight $2/sale (I'm assuming) like you would if you were selling a $2.99 book.

We'll see.

 

[joanna]

Do you think that will change the writing format of books going forward? In other words, do you foresee people calculating the 10% threshold and intentionally leaving a cliffhanger so readers will continue reading, just so that they will get paid?

The reason I ask is that TMF was a bit slow for me for the first half, but I loved the second half. If I knew that I would have to pay only if I went past XX page, I might have stopped reading thinking your book was another RDPD/Dave Ramsey/Insert-name-here book.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet - the 10% is essentially available for free as the "Look Inside" feature. People are already where possible trying to leverage that cut off point with cliffhangers and whatnot

Also as a consumer I would hate to see Spotify go. It's the only way I listen to music these days. And in fact it got me to listen MORE thanks to the mobile and offline features (a happy PRO user here). On a side note, since my parents used to run a music store I did see a bit of the industry dealings, and the royalties were never huge for those who didn't get to have a smash hit. In fact the lion share went to the producers, while people like my dad had to deal with the customers groaning at the high CD prices, unaware that the commission he made was laughable too. *rant over*

If authors need to start looking for alternatives to increase their income so be it. As it has been mentioned, print books are not going away. And your fans often will get an extra copy to put on the shelf and maybe have you sign for them I do think that there is a line where authors will just stop signing up to Select if the royalties get too low. The exclusivity is a high price to pay, and Amazon does need to entice authors somehow to give up that right.

 

[AroundTheWorld]

Readers in some markets are insatiable. I can see them going for this service... allows them to fill their own personal "library" with reading material.

 

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[Selfy]

Is this good or is this bad?

Please enlighten me.

Especially for someone who wants to churn up the books.

Already I have seen a spike in borrowed books. I still get paid the same though for the 2.99 price point -- I get $2 on it. What does this change exactly?

 

[Selfy]

double post. mayn.