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Amazon's Proposed Per-Page Payout for eBooks
This is only for books in the Kindle Unlimited program, and only applies to when a book is "borrowed" in that program. If the book is purchased, then this payment structure doesn't come into play.
Patrick wrote: "This is only for books in the Kindle Unlimited program, and only applies to when a book is "borrowed" in that program. If the book is purchased, then this payment structure doesn't come into play."Thanks for clarifying, Patrick. I went back to the original article, and see that I did indeed miss this important point:
"This per-page model applies to books published through Amazon that are read as part of the Kindle Unlimited and the Kindle Online Lending Library programs."
Either way, I don't think the average reader of the article gets how this impacts very few of the total book sales on Amazon. For my first novel, the number of KU/KOLL downloads was about 1% of the total, even before I offered the title for free.
What Patrick said ^The new structure is only for books in KU. The pay per page is good news for those with longer works (which Amazon is trying to entice into KU) and should make the KU payout equivalent to the royalty from a sale. Assuming your book is read to the end of course. What you won't know is the percentage of your book being read, Amazon will change it's reporting and only tell you total number of pages read per title in KU. Obviously it would be great for authors if they knew, for example, that their book was being consistently abandoned at the 20% mark.
I think I read somewhere that a stat was going to be made available that shows a book's completion rate percentage in the program. I could be wrong, though.It would be cool to have, though. If 97% of my readers were finishing my book, then maybe more people would be inclined to read it than, say, a book selling millions of copies that only had a completion rate of 30%. Just sayin'.
Current advice from Amazon is that your dashboard will display total number of pages read for each title but nothing else. They are keeping completion rates and number of downloads to themselves at this stage. Which is disappointing, it would be great data to have access to.
I wonder how they'll get this info. I'm not in the program (as a customer), but if I were, there's no way for them to know how far I read because I keep my Kindle's WiFi off all the time to make the battery last longer. I download and transfer books via my desktop computer. I can't remember the last time I had the WiFi on and hooked up to Amazon.
So what's next?A sales pitch saying: Yay! so many readers finished 10% of my book, so it's good enough to be bought? ;)
Whether they produce stats or not, it's a good venture of Amazon's either ways -it boosts the rankings even when sales are low.
Noorilhuda wrote: "So what's next?A sales pitch saying: Yay! so many readers finished 10% of my book, so it's good enough to be bought? ;)
Whether they produce stats or not, it's a good venture of Amazon's either ..."\
I think the interest in the stat isn't to cheer unfinished books, but just the opposite... to assess that books are NOT being read and to try to fix the problem. However, I feel that without feedback as to why the books get tossed aside, the stat may not help much anyway.
Al wrote: "I wonder how they'll get this info. I'm not in the program (as a customer), but if I were, there's no way for them to know how far I read because I keep my Kindle's WiFi off all the time to make th..."
They can probably get the whole backlog of data from your Kindle any time you sign on. It doesn't have to be right after you finish the book. But I'm wondering what happens if you read half today, get involved in some kind of emergency in real life, and then come back three months later and finish it.
They can probably get the whole backlog of data from your Kindle any time you sign on. It doesn't have to be right after you finish the book. But I'm wondering what happens if you read half today, get involved in some kind of emergency in real life, and then come back three months later and finish it.
Noorilhuda wrote: "So what's next?A sales pitch saying: Yay! so many readers finished 10% of my book, so it's good enough to be bought? ;)
"
You're not going to know that. Amazon are going to report total number of pages read only, NOT completion rates. So for example, if you have a 200 page novel, Amazon might report that you had 200 pages read for the month. What you won't know is if 1 person read the entire book, or did you have 20 people who abandoned it after 10 pages?
And under previous Amazon strategy of KU/KOLL program authors were not paid - I think with the new announcement, Amazon just pre-empted a 'Taylor Swift'-kind of backlash from authors on people reading major portions of book for free!
@A.W. no, under current KU/KOLL, author gets a royalty after 10% of book is read. Under the new strategy, the royalty/ 'payment' goes beyond 10%. It is for 'any' number of pages read.
Adding some clarity directly from the Amazon FAQ:Through June 30th, 2015 : "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. 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."
After July 1st, 2015 : "Under the new payment method, the amount an author earns will be determined by their share of total pages read instead of their share of total qualified borrows."
It seems like this system is the most equitable way to pay-out, since it relates directly to the time spent by readers on your book as a percentage of all books read through KU/KOLL.
Noorilhuda wrote: "@A.W. no, under current KU/KOLL, author gets a royalty after 10% of book is read. Under the new strategy, the royalty/ 'payment' goes beyond 10%. It is for 'any' number of pages read."
Please re-read my post. That's what I said, that you are paid by number of pages. The 10% threshold disappears and you are paid strictly on pages, whether that is one or 1,000.
You inferred people would have a new sales pitch of "x% of people read my book" but under the new system you won't know that. Amazon (at this point) does not intend to disclose how many people borrowed your point or what point they abandon your book. You will only see total number of pages read for the month.
Noorilhuda wrote: "And under previous Amazon strategy of KU/KOLL program authors were not paid"
I don't know where you get this from? Under the current system (which changes on July 1) all authors are paid so long as readers make it to the 10% mark. If you have books in KU and you're not receiving a payment then it would imply that readers do not read through to 10% not that Amazon is withholding payment.
Michael wrote: "I just read this article about a proposed change to Amazon's structure to pay self-published author by number of pages read, instead of for a title sold.The author of the article claims his infor..."
One must be part of KDP-S in order to be in Kindle Unlimited. This structure, which is *not* what people signed up for/agreed to, is just one more reason why I think KDP-S is a rip-off for authors.
If you opt in to Scribd and Oyster, you know that you are getting pro-rated payments up-front. You can make an informed decision. Those who opted into Kindle Unlimited were told that they would get full royalties once a reader passed the 10 percent mark. Now the rules of the game have changed midway.
Sharon wrote: "just one more reason why I think KDP-S is a rip-off for authors... Now the rules of the game have changed midway."I'd be interested to hear your rebuttal to the new policy, since I actually thought this structure seemed more fair:
Case #1: An author who has his book read only 10% would get paid the same as someone who had her book read all the way through. Now, everyone gets paid more equitably.
Case #2: An author who writes 10 short stories gets paid 10x for a 10% read of his catalog than one who writes one novel.
Case #3: An author asks all of his KU/Amazon Prime friends on social media to download his 300-page book and simply flip through the first 30 pages to get his payment. It seems easier to game the system the old way.
This seems to even everything out. The more pages you write, and the higher quality you write them, the more you get paid, since readers will stick with your book.
It just seems like a no-brainier. If you write a good quality story, you don't need to worry people won't read it all. On the other hand if you published scrap...you only have yourself to blame.
Michael wrote: "Sharon wrote: "just one more reason why I think KDP-S is a rip-off for authors... Now the rules of the game have changed midway."I'd be interested to hear your rebuttal to the new policy, since I..."
I think that I was pretty clear in my post, but maybe not. If you opted into Kindle Unlimited under the original terms, the rules have been changed midway. That's not acceptable; it's a violation of the original contract.
Should the author of a paperback be paid a smaller royalty because the person who bought it abandoned it partway through?
Yet if the person rent it at a library the author doesn't see a penny. If the person bought the book, they have the option to sell it back, and again, the author doesn't see the money. EBooks and prints are different.Oh and if they bought the eBooks at Amazon, they can return it even if they have read it so there again, the author doesn't get a dime.
Anyone signed up for KU has the option to pull out if they don't like the new rules. personally I think it's a good thing. I do well with loans on my books, but my 500 page thriller has only ever earned the same royalty as a 20 page short. That will no longer be the case.
@Sharon, yes, but look at the market and exposure potential of being on Amazon versus being on Scribd or Oyster. Especially for self-pub authors, until they make it big, KU/K-S is a good way to get people to download your book (for free or at a lower price) who would never have done so other wise.
I agree with David. I recently published a 900 page book and didn't put it into the KDP select programme for the very reason that by the time a reader had finished 10% of my book they'd have completely finished many others and I didn't feel that this was equitable. As of today I have enrolled this book to qualify for KU. I do however hope that Amazon will also come up with a way for authors to see how many copies are actually downloaded, not simply a total of how many pages are read.
I just love the new way of quantifying worth. What if someone just turns pages without reading ?
Vlad wrote: "I just love the new way of quantifying worth. What if someone just turns pages without reading ?"I believe Amazon has said that each page will need to remain displayed for a reasonable amount of time to be counted. That would discourage (but not eliminate) gaming the system. Hopefully, they know reasonably well how long a page should be displayed for a really good speed-reader.
How is this going to work for short stories - some of mine are very short, around 4000 words or so (Twelve Kindle pages)?
Tony wrote: "How is this going to work for short stories - some of mine are very short, around 4000 words or so (Twelve Kindle pages)?"The way I understand it, you will get the portion of the fund that amounts to the total pages read for all of your collections in the program. Thus, if one person reads your 12-page story and then goes on to read someone else's 120-page story, he will earn 10x the payout of the fund. But, if you have 10 such stories, and that person goes on to read all 10, you will have earned as much as the 120-page author.
Here are some scenarios from the Amazon FAQ:
...if the fund was $10M and 100,000,000 total pages were read in the month:
The author of a 100 page book that was borrowed and read completely 100 times would earn $1,000 ($10 million multiplied by 10,000 pages for this author divided by 100,000,000 total pages).
The author of a 200 page book that was borrowed and read completely 100 times would earn $2,000 ($10 million multiplied by 20,000 pages for this author divided by 100,000,000 total pages).
The author of a 200 page book that was borrowed 100 times but only read halfway through on average would earn $1,000 ($10 million multiplied by 10,000 pages for this author divided by 100,000,000 total pages).
G.G. wrote: "Yet if the person rent it at a library the author doesn't see a penny. If the person bought the book, they have the option to sell it back, and again, the author doesn't see the money. EBooks and p..."Not true; the library bought the book.
Noorilhuda wrote: "@Sharon, yes, but look at the market and exposure potential of being on Amazon versus being on Scribd or Oyster. Especially for self-pub authors, until they make it big, KU/K-S is a good way to get..."This is an extremely US-centric perspective. The most popular reader abroad is not the Kindle; it's the Kobo.
Sharon wrote: "Not true; the library bought the book..."Good, they bought it so you got paid ONCE. You don't get more money as people borrow it. As long as the book stays in good shape, they could end up lending it to 1000 people and you would still end up only getting your tiny initial payment, while with Amazon, with the same amount of people, you'd get it 1000 times.
G.G. wrote: "while with Amazon, with the same amount of people, you'd get it 1000 times. "Maybe yes, maybe no. Remember, Amazon has not said they are going to show you how much of the book a given person reads, they are just going to pay out on an alleged aggregate.
In any event, this program still requires that you go exclusive with Amazon, which means that people with non-Kindle readers are not going to be able to discover your book. In fact, if they discover that your book is *only* available in a format that does not match their eReader, they are likely to assume that they are not wanted in your readership. I can't speak for anyone else, but my ePub titles outsell .mobi (Kindle) titles by a factor of 5:1; this has been consistent for several years now. I'm not willing to spite my audience or potential audience by putting all of my eggs in one basket.
Others are welcome to run their business differently, of course.
Public libraries must operate within a very restrictive budget, supported in part by local tax dollars and private donations. The books, included in their lending inventory (print, electronic, and audio on CD), are usually chosen via a selective process. Any author should be happy to have any format of their work available for loan in any library. Many readers frequent their local library and often purchase a copy of a book to add to their personal collection after having initially come across it on a library shelf.
okay, I'm clear for now.it's not a perfect system, it's clearly perfectible.
but it's better than most of what already is out there today, plus what you lose in various cases (you name them) you gain on the other hand by avid readers who borrow your book, read a bit, like it and buy it :)
all in all, I think it's a good way to get paid as an author.
is it better than print ? it remains to be seen.
J.R. wrote: I do however hope that Amazon will also come up with a way for authors to see how many copies are actually downloaded, not simply a total of how many pages are read. From what I've seen on loans of my books so far this month, JR., your kindle report page will show how many books have been loaned, and which titles. Each title has a KENPC (page count), which can be found on your dashboard under the promote and advertise button. The two figures are then multiplied to arrive at the total number of pages for which you will be paid. If the borrower doesn't read the entire book, you get paid for the amount they do read.
Reason, if ever one was needed, to write a gripping book.
Edit: Seems I was mistaken; it no longer shows the number of books loaned. Shame, it would be easy to show both figures.
Sharon, I thought you were arguing because you were on the program and you didn't like the changes. Instead, it seems you're complaining because you don't want to go Select. This is more about going Select or not, and doesn't have much to do with the changes they made since you already opted for a greater distribution. I can't argue with that. My books aren't on Select either for the same reasons. I didn't want people to be left out. Yet, I'm tempted to try it with my next publication. That would only delay the other stores by three months, so not such a big deal.
As for trusting the amount of money Amazon will attribute for each book, I do. I doubt they'd risk landing in a class action suit.
G.G. wrote: "Sharon, I thought you were arguing because you were on the program and you didn't like the changes. Instead, it seems you're complaining because you don't want to go Select. "No, that is *not,* in fact, what I am arguing. What I am arguing is that it is NOT what people who signed up for Kindle Unlimited agreed to and is therefore a breach of contract for everyone who signed up prior to the change of terms. I hope it is clearer now.
It's not actually a breach of contract because you can opt out. I'm sure that they specified somewhere that the agreement is subject to change. Of my four books, I've signed up only one short-story collection for KDP Select, and it's an underwhelming success there despite good reviews. I'm not sure I'll keep it there, but it didn't sell on expanded distribution, either, so I'm hoping that someone who's signed up for KU will accidentally click on it and read some of it. That, however, may be optimistic.
Ken wrote: "I'm sure that they specified somewhere that the agreement is subject to change..."While interviewing legal staff, I suspect every job candidate is asked, "do you know the phrase, 'terms are subject to change.'"
I see this on just about every online agreement I've ever committed to for just this very reason. Companies want/need to change terms occasionally without having had the foresight originally to know what those future changes might be. In this case, they received overwhelming feedback from authors in the KDP select program, and they were able to implement it across the board.
Michael wrote: "In this case, they received overwhelming feedback from authors in the KDP select program, and they were able to implement it across the board."
I'm sure you'll forgive me for doubting that there was a huge surge of "Please pay me less." :-)
Sharon wrote: "I'm sure you'll forgive me for doubting that there was a huge surge of "Please pay me less."Did Amazon say they would be paying less? I assumed that the fund was the same and that the payout would be identical. How much did they say the fund reduction would be? If you could point me to that, it would be appreciated.
I can say that if you don't trust Amazon, then you definitely should NOT opt into the program. The entire program is based on trust. We trust that they are actually funding to the extent that they are. We trust that they are accurately conveying the number of downloads of ebooks. We trust that they were fairly counting the 10% threshhold before and that they will fairly count the number of pages read from now on. We really don't have any way of keeping them accountable for all of the metrics, so we either have to trust their business integrity or not use their services.
Sharon wrote: "I think that I was pretty clear in my post, but maybe not. If you opted into Kindle Unlimited under the original terms, the rules have been changed midway. That's not acceptable; it's a violation of the original contract.All authors enrolled in Select were notified of the changes and told that they could opt out before the 90 day contract ended. Some have chosen to do so. Some are waiting to see what happens. Amazon in their contract with authors, whether in Select or not, says they have the option of changing the terms. If they do, you can choose to accept them or leave.
Considering that Amazon normally puts $3 million in the pot for KU authors to split, then usually bumps it up to $7-$11 million at their discretion, which they are not obligated to do, authors don't really have a legal expectation of the payouts they've been getting.
The whole point of this is to close a loophole whereby 10 page erotic shorts were being paid a royalty equivalent to that of a 500 page novel. A 99c "book" was receiving over a dollar in royalty for each borrow. Amazon decided to stop funding the scammers at the expense of authors, that's all.
For my two books that are enrolled in Select, it appears I will be making slightly less than what I make on a sale for the shorter work (60K) and slightly more for the longer work (85K).
What I've been hearing from communities of authors writing short works, many of them are considering pulling out, while others are arguing that readers consume short works faster and more often than novels, and that it is difficult to tell whether their incomes will be significantly affected. Access to better data would be incredible, for sure.However, as far as 'scammers' go, lumped into that rather overarching category would have to be the authors of children's books which will now make pennies per borrow.
At 1.9 billion pages read in june, according to KDP's emails that came out as a follow-up (after, mind you, mountains of authors demanded to know what the number was) if Amazon manages the $11m pot for July as they expect, that'll average half a penny per page, assuming they don't bump it to attract more authors back to KU. Their new Kindle normalized page system appears to calculate roughly 160 words per page, so if you write a full length novel at around 90k words, one read all the way through pays out $2.81. Not bad, better than before. What if they paid out .004 per page? Or a third of a cent? A full length novel now pays out $1.68. Yes, still better than before, but this is accomplished essentially by paying writers of ALL short works, not just 'scammers'.
More than this, however, is that this payout only applies to the KDP indie authors. Mainstream publishers are still getting retail royalties for borrows.
Al wrote: "I wonder how they'll get this info. I'm not in the program (as a customer), but if I were, there's no way for them to know how far I read because I keep my Kindle's WiFi off all the time to make th..."Sorry Al, Amazon is big brother incarnate. They know exactly how far you've read in each ebook you've purchased or rented through KU. They know the last word you highlighted!
Jacqueline wrote: "Sorry Al, Amazon is big brother incarnate. They know exactly how far you've read in each ebook you've purchased or rented through KU. They know the last word you highlighted!..."
Amazon isn't the only one. Scribd and many others use the same info to pay authors, and I'm sure that all of the other ebook distributors have access to the info as well. Besides, in Orwell's 1984, Big Brother was the all-powerful government trying to control people and their thoughts and behavior, not the business community, which just wants to sell you something.
Amazon isn't the only one. Scribd and many others use the same info to pay authors, and I'm sure that all of the other ebook distributors have access to the info as well. Besides, in Orwell's 1984, Big Brother was the all-powerful government trying to control people and their thoughts and behavior, not the business community, which just wants to sell you something.
I am following the posts about KDP Select. Has anyone opted out? If we do, do we lose reviews or get affected in any way?
Simon wrote: "What I've been hearing from communities of authors writing short works, many of them are considering pulling out, while others are arguing that readers consume short works faster and more often tha..."Unless Amazon decides they don't want children's books, cookbooks, poetry, and other works that either don't have standard word/page counts, or are not read all the way through in a linear fashion, those authors are not going to benefit at all by being in Select. There were some hints in June that they might evaluate children's books differently than straight prose, but I haven't seen anything about it since July 1.
As for page counts, for my novels the page counts were about 200 words per page. I've seen everything from 136-250 words per page reported.
For comparison purposes, my two books in select:
60K words, 208 print pages, 321 KENPC
85K words, 290 print pages, 424 KENPC
Lisa, you can opt out at any time. There are no repercussions. Your book will still be available for sale, just not for borrow. You can then upload it to other sales platforms in addition to Amazon.
I opted out, and then opted back in later for one book only. You don't lose reviews. You do lose the 70% royalty in some foreign markets (it drops to 35%), but retain it in most of the important ones.
Ken wrote: "Jacqueline wrote: "Sorry Al, Amazon is big brother incarnate... Besides, in Orwell's 1984, Big Brother was the all-powerful government trying to control people and their thoughts and behavior, not the business community, which just wants to sell you something. "..."Just a phrase that's become idiomatic, Ken. Nevertheless, Amazon's goal is to control our thoughts and behavior when it comes to purchasing practices. It might not be political (yet). They aren't your friendly neighborhood bookseller anymore. Book are a means to an end and readers are a resource to whom they can sell higher profit items. Amazon doesn't care about authors. Money is king. The only reason they changed the payout for KU is that short works were eating the profits and not drawing in the money for other sales as they'd hoped. Yes, they track that, too.
I earn the bulk of my living through Amazon and I'm grateful to them for that, but I also understand that someday they will bring me to my knees as a an author just as they're doing to major publishers.
I only want people to be aware. Use Amazon in the way it is most profitable for you , but don't waste time complaining about what they do (not you personally, Ken). It's not about you. It's about profit and long term goals.
With business, it's always about profit in the long run. That's what they're in business for. I know that, so I'm never disappointed when a business that says it cares about me acts in its own self interest. The best way to keep Amazon from becoming a monopoly is to not list your books exclusively with them. Three of my four books, the major ones, are also listed with Smashwords and Lulu (hardcover). I'm sometimes tempted by Amazon and its KU payouts, but then I start wondering what will happen to authors when Amazon has all the books.
The author of the article claims his information came from a letter from Amazon to self-published authors, but I never saw this letter.
I'm curious to know how others think about this, but to me it seems like Amazon is trying to get an even bigger cut from indies, since they can still charge the same price for each title, while only paying out the full royalty if someone reads the entire book.