Digital Content

Indie authors have recently reported a drop in Kindle sales with the advent of Kindle Unlimited.

Author HM Ward participated in the program and says her total revenues fell by 75%. (Please note that the data provided in this post is pretty vague. There is no hard data to help draw conclusions.)

Other authors, including those who did not participate in the program, reported loss of revenue as well.

This evidence is anecdotal and incomplete, and the dips in income could be attributed to other factors. The Digital Reader notes that sales also took a dip at this time last year.

While it is entirely possible that we did identify the respective causes, it is just as likely that we fell for the post hoc logical fallacy. Given that we are looking at what could be a cyclical market trend, I think we need to consider the possibility that both declines have the same cause. Read more here.

Economic markets are complex, and it’s impossible to isolate the effects of a single factor and make a truly scientific conclusion. Something larger could be at work. Do ebook sales always take a hit at this time of year? Or is Kindle Unlimited responsible for the steep drops in reported sales? Or something else entirely?

If KU is the problem, what does that mean? And more importantly, how does an on-demand style program fit into the book world?

For years, people have predicted that digital content sales will shift to a “Netflix” style format. Instead of buying an ebook or movie, people would be able to subscribe to a service and choose from a variety of books to read on demand. That’s what Kindle Unlimited offers. Scribd also made this service available this year.

Look to other digital media. The transition has already begun in the movie and TV industries: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu…. Even individual channels are finding ways to offer their content on demand to subscribers. That’s what is happening in the ebook world.

With the advent of subscription services, ebook “sales” may be a thing of the past.Tweet This

That sounds scary. Authors are used to judging their performance based on sales, not on reads. More troubling is the seeming drop in revenue. Is this drop permanent or temporary? Only time will tell. Changing from straight-up sales to on-demand reading is a huge shift in how the book market works. It is bound to have a large impact as the transition happens. It’s going to cause instability.

The change to on-demand ebooks is going to happen, and indie authors are already one step ahead.Tweet This Indies have already bucked the traditional publishing system and opted for the new thing: selling their books themselves. Well, the new thing is now passé. Sales are out. On demand is in. Don’t make the same mistake that traditional publishers make. Make the best of the changing ebook world and don’t cling to the olden days.

The olden days are already gone.

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