Alive is available through Kindle Unlimited
This week has brought a major announcement to the world of Amazon book sales. Amazon unveiled a new program called Kindle Unlimited that facilitates unlimited, Netflix style, digital book borrowing for a ten dollar monthly membership fee. Essentially the books remain the property of Amazon. Should the subscription expire I presume the books would be reclaimed somehow, although I am not certain how that would work. Many famous authors have opted to allow their books to participate in the program including J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Myer. These publishing power player have arrangements to offer their books for lending without the exclusivity clause that us less widely acclaimed authors are subject to.
The program is offering a 30 day free trial here. If you are an avid reader who typically spends more than ten dollars per month on reading material it may be worthwhile.
What this means for me as an author is complicated and not entirely transparent. Only one of my books, Alive is offered exclusively on Amazon. My other titles are shorter selections and are more widely offered. Due to the structure of amazon’s Kindle Select program Alive will be available for free download through Kindle Unlimited unless I choose to withdraw form the program in order to sell my book through other vendors such as barns and Noble or the Itunes bookstore. I welcome readers to download and enjoy my book. The tricky part is royalty payments. If you are a wonderful reader, or fan, and you choose to procure a copy of Alive for your reading pleasure through this new program, you pay nothing except your monthly subscription price (which is free for the first 30 days). It sounds like a good deal because it is! Now as a participating author I don’t receive a dime unless you actually read at least ten percent of my book. (Yes, Amazon knows. I think it is a little strange too!). Once the ten percent mark is passed ( flip, flip, flip) Amazon owes me a royalty fee of some sort. At this point this amount is variable. The beauty part for the reader is that you are not obligated to pay this fee. You are a member, and once a member you will only ever owe your monthly fee.
If you are curious about my titles not offered through this program I will post links to them here. Both are discounted to only 99 cents. I suspect may authors will have certain books that are available through Kindle Unlimited and others that are not.
I am not endorsing this program, or trying to dissuade you the reader from trying it. No matter what Amazon decides I will continue to attempt to weave beautiful stories for my readers. If you choose to enjoy them in any format or though any authorized vendor I am flattered, thrilled and I feel your support!
Either way, happy reading!
