{"id":1736,"date":"2015-06-17T15:49:42","date_gmt":"2015-06-17T19:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/selenakitt.com\/blog\/?p=1736"},"modified":"2015-06-17T15:49:42","modified_gmt":"2015-06-17T19:49:42","slug":"the-new-kindle-unlimited-what-it-means-for-authors-readers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/selenakitt.com\/the-new-kindle-unlimited-what-it-means-for-authors-readers\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Kindle Unlimited – What It Means for Authors & Readers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Well, authors and readers, the heyday of erotica shorts filling Kink<\/del> Kindle Unlimited may be coming to an end. I hope you made hay while the sun was shining, authors. And readers, I hope you got your fill of the all-you-can-eat buffet that was\u00a0Kink<\/del> Kindle Unlimited while it lasted, because many of the erotic shorts that glutted the program may be going back to sales-only and being distributed wide, if the rumblings of authors about this new “pay-per-page” system<\/a> is any indication. I know some (non-erotica) authors who think this is a great thing!<\/p>\n

It’s not.<\/p>\n

For erotic or non-erotic authors, this is a slide toward being paid by the word. And not words SOLD, like our old friend Charles Dickens, but words READ. If I go into a restaurant and order a steak, but I fill up on drinks and chips and salsa, do I get to send the steak back because I’m no longer hungry? No. If I buy a DVD but never open it (I have Keanu Reeves in “The Day the World Stood Still” AND “Pumpkinhead” on my shelf still in shrinkwrap… sad…) do people not get paid for it? Uhhh no. If I get sick in the middle of a movie and spend 3\/4 of it in the bathroom, do I get my money for admission back? No. If I pay for concert tickets and my car breaks down on the way, do I get my money back? No.<\/p>\n

So why in the world would an author not get paid for a sale\/borrow, based on the initial interest of the consumer to buy\/borrow it? Why\u00a0are authors opting into Kindle Unlimited (the best place for a self-published author to make the most money with the vendor who happens to have the largest share of the ebook market) now going to be paid by “pages read?”<\/p>\n

Because Amazon’s been losing money on Kindle Unlimited. And this is a way to “spin” it to make it look as if Amazon is actually listening to authors, while screwing both short and long writers. Yay! Oh wait…<\/p>\n

Amazon said:<\/p>\n

One particular piece of feedback we’ve heard consistently from authors is that paying the same for all books regardless of length may not provide a strong enough alignment between the interests of authors and readers. We agree. With this in mind, we’re pleased to announce that beginning on July 1, the KDP Select Global Fund will be paid out based on the number of pages KU and KOLL customers read.<\/em><\/p>\n

So those of you who were complaining that “short erotic dino porn” was glutting up the Kink<\/del> Kindle Unlimited program and eating up all your precious borrows in the global fund pot?\u00a0 Be careful what you wish for. You got it now. I guess we’ll see how many people are actually reading to the end of your 500 page epic fantasy tome. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

I predict that many “shorts” authors will opt out. (Poor Chuck Tingle<\/a>\u00a0– from $1.30 a borrow to… probably less than a $0.99 buy would net. But I guess we’ll see! Not that I’m dissing Chuck Tingle – if there’s an audience for Sharknado, there’s an audience for anything!) Not that you should, but many may, just out of fear. But shorts are, in our attention deficit world, not necessarily a bad thing. Erotica writers have always written short – and we’ve generally been paid more for it, too. (Much to the chagrin of authors in other genres!) But for those, like this guy, who say that anything under 30 pages is a “scam?”<\/a> Dude, go tell O’Henry that<\/a>, eh?<\/p>\n

I know there are scammers out there who have been taking advantage of the\u00a0Kink<\/del> Kindle Unlimited program – writing (literally) 500 words, throwing it up there with provocative covers and blurbs to make people one-click, and boom! Just opening it is 10%, so they now collect $1.30ish per borrow. And that sucks. There are always a few bad apples, right? But let’s not lump shorts writers in with scammers, okay? To each their own. If my readers want to read a hot little short about an illicit relationship between stepsiblings, why not? That’s not a scam. Nor is it or should it be penalized, simply because it’s short.<\/p>\n

The SkyJump in Vegas costs you $119 and lasts a few minutes<\/a>. I rest my case. \ud83d\ude1b<\/p>\n

I predict that mystery, thriller\/suspense and horror writers will make a killing. People read those books to the end to find what happens! I predict short chapters with “cliffhanger” endings. I know people have been complaining about serials and cliffhangers – but I think we’ll see more of them. Because cliffhangers! I predict the sweet spot will be 25-35K. 50K at most. I predict pages of short, snappy, untagged dialogue! \ud83d\ude09 Oh the places authors will go…<\/p>\n

As a publisher (and self-published author) I had some questions for Amazon about the new system. Below is a summary of what I was told. I’m providing it to you as information. Do with it what you will!<\/p>\n