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KENP - Kindle Unlimited - Understanding it
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I have contacted Kindle Support about this issue and asked them to verify whether or not my kindle is reporting in as it should be. If it isn't, I've asked them if they can tell why. It is possible that my device has some setting enabled (or disabled) that is preventing it from reporting the pages I read. I do tend to disable things on devices that "phone home." (I don't own a "smart phone" for exactly that reason.) So this instance could be me, in which case I can (presumably) fix it.
I'll report whatever reply I get.
Owen wrote: "I have contacted Kindle Support about this issue and asked them to verify whether or not my kindle is reporting in as it should be. If it isn't, I've asked them if they can tell why. It is possib..."
I tend to go offline on my own kindle until I need to update and sync books or download. It extends battery life. So, I can't blame the reader(humans) for that, but I do sync and download quite frequently. That you should go three months without scarcely a download is unbelievable. Particularly when the feedback (I note) is so positive.
Frankly, the one book I put back in KDP Select has never had a single page read, and I'm thinking I'll put it back with the other markets after the 90 days. You would expect that after a couple of months, someone with Kindle Unlimited would read a page or two, even if by accident. But it's a flatline all the way. Amazon may indeed be honest, but I don't trust that their monitoring is all that it should be.
My books pages read numbers had consistently been in excess of 300/day, until 10 days ago when it totally flat lined, even though sales of the ebook continued. The first couple of days I thought was an anomaly, 10 days - that's a problem. Has anyone had luck contacting KDP??
My KU pages read have always been consistent. There are ups and downs/spikes, but the average stays pretty consistent. It's scary to hear reports of flatlines, because true flatlines seem unlikely.I think that KU subscribers do vary a lot by genre - readers in my genre (romance) use KU a lot, mostly because they're voracious readers.
Kathi wrote: "My books pages read numbers had consistently been in excess of 300/day, until 10 days ago when it totally flat lined, even though sales of the ebook continued. The first couple of days I thought w..."You will have runs where people are not reading. It happens to everyone. You should be grateful that you're getting good numbers. Most authors are not getting near that level. Unless you know for certain that someone read on a specific date and their page reads did not come through, I wouldn't worry about reporting it. If anything, too many people reporting speculated problems will not help those like Ellison who have specific data backing their claim that need resolution.
Kathi wrote: "My books pages read numbers had consistently been in excess of 300/day, until 10 days ago when it totally flat lined, even though sales of the ebook continued. The first couple of days I thought w..."Kathi, this might be an obvious question, but have you checked whether your Select enrollment period ended? That happened with a few of my books recently--I realized I had unchecked the "auto renewal" box for Select!
This is a bit distressing to hear, but not too surprising. I don't suspect foul play, however. It just seems like glitches.
I've received a couple of very kind replies from KDP since I last posted an update, along the lines of "We haven't forgotten about you, we're working on it. Thank you for your patience." Their customer service is wonderful and I definitely appreciate not being forgotten.However, today I received an email that there could be a connectivity issue with Owen's kindle in particular.
They wouldn't have known there was an issue at all had I not brought it to their attention (with just one example). That says to me there are likely other readers/kindle users who, for a number of reasons (wi-fi fluctuations, airplane mode, general internet connectivity after download) are not registering with the KU system.
As a solution KDP asked me to ask Owen to flip through my book again once he's made sure of his internet connectivity and I thought, 'Don't a lot of people read on an airplane for example, and perhaps even finish a book? Would they all have to flip through the book again to make sure the author gets their share of the KU pot?"
Well there it is, according to KDP for an entire 3 months I had one KU reader and he just happened to be off the grid :)
ech well that explains why though still have sales my numbers are still flat.. after 4 months i just about gave up
Previous post deleted. Please do not discuss personal sales figures. Thanks.
Libby wrote: "That's quite disconcerting... They need a better system than this, if they expect us to trust them. Your average reader doesn't know enough about the system to do that, and why should they?"As disconcerting as this appears, no system will ever be prefect. And we have no gauge as to the scope of this of issue, so it would seem premature to draw conclusions. But given the nature of the issue, it would behoove KDP to offer more in-depth info to authors so potential problems can be better identified.
I agree with Owen. Regardless of me trying to make sense of this, Amazon is constantly improving on the best model there is, but it will never be perfect.I wasn't being facetious when I said I am glad to have not been forgotten. Even in my confusion and frustration I like Amazon :)
Libby wrote: "Yes I do wish they'd show borrows as well as pages read. Then at least you'd have a rough idea of whether something had gone wrong. But of course, then you'd have the problem of people who borrow and don't read...."Absolutely. This is simple step that would help a great deal. Obviously, it can't sort the people who borrowed but never read from a malfunction (which my device had), but it could point to problems if the instance of book being borrowed, but not read at all appeared unusually high.
I would prefer that Amazon work out some sort of system that would test a device when a person signs up for KU. This could be (I suppose) as simple as a "welcome letter" that downloads to a device and requires the user to read and confirm their membership before they can borrow anything.
As we are only a few motnhs into the program, I hope it will evolve in these directions.
Robert wrote: "An old thread but still pertinent? Does this mean all orders were..."If you didn't have any "KENP reads" (pages read by KU subscribers who read for free with monthly subscription), that just means you sold 72/51 books, but no one subscribing to KU read your book. Congrats on the sales!
Robert wrote: "Really? First thing I do when I download a book is at least read the first page and that would show wouldn't it? Hardly credible. But thanks for the reply."Are you downloading it from your KU subscription, Robert? That's the only time 'pages read' counts towards a royalty payment. If you purchase a book and download it, your royalty amount is from the purchased book, not pages read. I hope I'm explaining that well enough.
Mod
Once someone has picked up your book, free or not, it is their copy. You won't be able to see their pages read register in Kindle Unlimited.
Gail and Dwayne had it right: If you buy an e-book and read a few pages, that's not a KENP event. Only page reads by Kindle Unlimited subscribers matter in that category. Likewise if you peek at the 'look inside' for a book.Promos like being free for Prime Reading also don't count. Your 5-day free promo was for the e-book, right? Again, not part of KU and so would not result in KENP reads.
With zero KENP page reads, I wonder, are you signed up for Kindle Unlimited? It's not automatic, and you have to commit to being exclusive to Amazon for a period of time. Seems like you've had decent results with sales so I would encourage you to verify your KU status and sign up if you're not already there. I make about 65% of my royalties in KU.
Good luck with your books!
Robert wrote: "Sorry, confusion here. What I meant was, if I download an eBook to Kindle the first thing I do is open it up, see if it starts with a foreword or preface, maybe read those and move on to the story ..."The people who download a free book are usually not KU subscribers. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any way to determine if the people who downloaded your free book actually read it. I rarely do free promotions, but I did one in November because one of my books is about the JFK assassination and it was the 60th anniversary of the event. I got 92 downloads of the book, which obviously earned me $0 in royalties. However, over the next few weeks, I sold a few copies of the next book in the series and one person purchased the trilogy. I think the only real advantage of giving books away for free is that it leads to sales of your other books, plus I did pick up a new 5-star review of a book that has now been out for 6 years. In December, I did pick up a few hundred KU pages read for the book, but those wouldn't have been by the people who downloaded the free book.
What E.A said. My first book is free in Prime Reading right now, and the only way I can measure the result is (a) my category rank is moving up and (b) sales and KENP numbers of books 2-N are doing better.
Mod
Hi Robert! I could be completely offside here, but I'm pretty sure Amazon won't give you credit for reading your own book on KU. Seems like a no-brainer for them.
Mod
If anyone here is a member of KU and would care to borrow one of my books and read a few pages to see if I get page reads on the KDP dashboard as an experiment that would be great."
No links please.
As to your terminology, I think you have it correct and I just misunderstood. It's possible there is a delay in reporting, wouldn't be unusual for Amazon.
Robert - I just checked your listings, and it appears 'Alien Spring' and 'Euthanasia' are not in KU. If you go to your author page, you'll see that the other three are 'Free with KindleUnlimited membership.'
Hope that helps.
Mod
As an admin in this group I'm required to follow the rules, Robert. The rules are no links.
Since KENP my earnings in KU are more than sales earnings. That is per book and per month.
I have noticed a few spikes. I assumed that these may be readers doing an "all night, one session book read." Now I feel a little naive.
Dodgy servers and offline reading seem simpler likelehood.
It is very disconcerting and for you it must be infuriating.
They will likely deny errors, until they identify them.
We should all be concerned.