In mid-June, we announced a change to the way we will pay for authors’ participation in Kindle Unlimited (KU) and the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL) (https://kdp.amazon.com/community/ann.jspa?annID=786). Starting today, the payout of the KDP Select Global Fund will be based on the number of pages KU and KOLL customers read.
KDP authors can now see the Kindle Edition Normalized Page Count (KENPC V1.0) for each of their KDP Select titles on the "Promote and Advertise" page in their Bookshelf (https://kdp.amazon.com/bookshelf). Please keep in mind that, because it is based on settings specific to this program and intended to normalize the count across all KDP Select titles, KENPC may well vary from page counts listed on a book’s Amazon detail page or page counts for a print book. As measured using KENPC, during the month of June, KU and KOLL customers read nearly 1.9 billion Kindle Edition Normalized Pages (KENPs) of KDP Select books.
So, let me get this straight....
I sign my books up to sell exclusively on Amazon and therefore I cut your competitor's throats for you because we have this special relationship. But the truth is, since I did this I can't help but notice that Letters From Greece, sells more copies on KU and well, I'm excited to see sales.
Except that one day I thought to compare numbers and realized that you paid me less for my KU sales than my regular sales. Still, I like having any sales at all so I shrug and keep on keeping on. Because you know I can be very true in a good relationship and I thought that was what we had.
But now this.
So people can download my books all they want on your program but if they don't read the book, they can own it and I never get paid. Or if they read a chapter and decide they don't like it, they still own it and basically I still don't get paid.
Oh, and let's not forget the novellas. Shorter page count so despite what my price point is I get paid only for pages read.
I'm going to bet that Amazon did some serious research and realized that a majority of their readers buy the books and don't read them. Or finish them.
This is breaking my heart Amazon. I always thought you were writer friendly. I thought you had my best interests at heart. I thought you cared about this relationship as much as I did.
Thank you kindly but no thank you. I'm going to start selling my books along all platforms now. I'm not interested in this relationship anymore.
I suddenly realized that you never really were on my side at all. And you just figured out a way to screw the little guy in the ass. Without lube.
Time to go.
Oh, is that what that letter said!
ReplyDeleteSince I've never received a penny for any of my books, I didn't bother to read it.
But I did cancel our reader membership in KU. Evidently I'm primarily a collector; I don't bother to read a lot of the books I DL and KU and I were just not getting along.
And now I hear Scribed is cutting Romance novels. So sad.
I don't particularly care for this modern era. Hell, we had washers (altho a lot of them were wringer washers and telephones (altho many of them, if not all were party lines) back in my day. We also had indoor flush toilets. So I would have been happy to stay back then. Even the wars were cold.
Well, I reckon this should be another. Sorry to hijack your thread, Lori.
Well, that's just a kick to the head right there - why would they expect people to be exclusive to them when they do shit like that? Another reason for me to give them the arse, after the postage fiasco. Good for you Lori, taking your business elsewhere. You know I'll but it from where I can and if it's not going to be Amazon, sobeit.
ReplyDeletePS - thanks for the visual on the lube comment lol
PPS - Carolyn, those certainly were the better days, right? Shame my time machine is on the fritz or I could take you back with me.
Increasingly, I've been wishing that we still lived in simpler times; I'm with you there, Carolyn!
ReplyDeleteI'm not at all suprised that Amazon is doing this. They're interested in only making a profit and dominating the world and they don't care who they step on. The library world has been buzzing about Amazon for awhile now.
Lori, does this mean that your books might be available as .epub docs in the future? I refused to get a kindle because of Amazon's proprietary nature so I have a Kobo. Admittedly I prefer print over electronic any day but I'll get an ebook if that's my only choice.
My deepest sympathies for your Amazon Ass Screwing.
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ReplyDeleteI'm taking this month off from doing anything major because we have company coming and nano is here (and my office is moving)... but... Carolyn and I are going to explore what it would take to sell our own books. We'd sell so many less but at least we'd no longer have any bullshit.
ReplyDeleteAlthough we'll have them all back up on Kobo, All Romance and B&N probably too.
I'm wondering why nobody else seems to be upset that Amazon is doing this. Maybe it's an industry standard that I was unaware of?
I found this very interesting until she got to the data stuff, lol.
ReplyDeletehttp://dearauthor.com/features/industry-news/scribd-ku-and-what-those-changes-mean-via-carolyn-jewel/
What the heck am I doing that gets my comments deleted by an administrator?
ReplyDeleteLOL CTL! It was a duplicate comment so I deleted the copy. I swear you didn't say or do anything.
ReplyDeleteThis is what I get for trying to be neat ;)