For those who don't know, Kindle Unlimited is an "all you can eat" subscription program Amazon has for book lovers. It costs $9.99 and you can read as many books as you like. Not every book you can think of is in Kindle Unlimited, obviously, but a lot of self-published ones are.
So what's the problem you might ask?
The problem is that KU is broken. Not for readers mind you, but for the authors. Not the "business model" but rather the computer system itself.
The way the system works is that when someone borrows your book from KU, the author gets paid per page that is read. A full-length novel has around 350-450 KU pages by my estimates. When an author enrolls their book in KU it must remain there for 90 days, at which point they can unenroll it. The best way to think of KU is as a secondary (subscription based) marketplace to the regular Amazon store. [for accuracy, authors enroll in KDP Select, which puts their books on the KU marketplace, but for simplicity, I'll refer to simply "being in KU" to reflect this].
Many authors are complaining that the reporting system is not accurately counting those page reads (meaning, authors are not getting paid what they should). There's a giant thread on this topic over at kboards which you can visit here.
Now, the big issue is that no one has access to the raw data other than Amazon. So authors have to make assumptions based on trends in their page reads. So if you have, say, 500 page reads every day for a year, then suddenly no page reads for a month, it's clear something is wrong. Even though, technically, you as an author cannot prove it. This system is a "faith based" one on an author's part, assuming that Amazon is being honest and accurate regarding pages read.
I had a serious issue in September when my page reads crashed to zero for two weeks. Then everything went back to normal.
Now, in the past two weeks, I'm getting extremely odd page reads. I never get below 100 KU page reads in a day (and if I do, I get zero, meaning no one is reading one of my books), but for the past two weeks, every day has been under 100 KU reads with some days having very strange numbers like 19 or 6.
So it looks like, yet again, something is amiss with the KU reporting/tracking/monitoring of page reads (meaning, readers are likely reading my, and other authors' books, but we aren't getting paid for (some of) those reads).
Authors between a rock and a hard place
This puts authors between a rock and hard place. Do you stay in a system that, when it works, is great. But when it's broken, you're literally not being paid?
I was able to live with the September glitch, but as it seems to be happening again, I now have to seriously consider withdrawing my books from KU in the near future. I know many authors already have begun to do so.
Amazon has never admitted to issues with the KU system other than nebulously saying there were minor reporting issues (one-to-two percent error in 'pages read' reporting) that were being resolved.
Two weeks of zero page reads in September was not a one-to-two percent error for me.
Readers need to understand Authors have no choice
One of the reasons I'm writing this post is so that my readers understand if and when they can't get my books through KU.
Many authors (especially self-published) love being able to get our work into readers' hands in a way that least hurts their pocket book. But authors are already taking up to a 50 percent hit when placing our books in KU and then to have page reads not recorded or counted, it's simply too much. [note: I'll reemphasize the issue of reporting is an assumption, as stated earlier, there's no way an author can definitively prove their page counts are off.]
So I'm going to have to make some tough decisions in the future. I've already decided that my next book will not be going into KU. Depending on Amazon's response to the current glitches, I'll likely be pulling my existing books out of KU as well in the near future.
So I apologize to readers who find that frustrating, but I also think many of them will not only understand, but support the decision. Readers want authors to get paid, I think many of them would be shocked to hear that sometimes we are not.
I'm not trying to bash Amazon
This isn't a bash Amazon post. I love Amazon. Heck, last month they bumped their payout per page read by 20 percent, give or take. They are trying to make all this work, I believe that. I do not believe they are intentionally seeking to under pay authors. The system simply isn't reliable when it breaks, though...and this seems to me to be the second time it has broken in the past three or four months.
I can say that I no longer trust that the page reads Amazon says I'm getting are actually what I am getting.
Maybe it's for the best?
Ultimately, maybe tracking page reads accurately is simply too difficult a technological process. Maybe we will all have to return to the days where you simply purchased a book outright, which is very easy to track/monitor/report on.
I've definitely reached a point now where if Amazon doesn't articulate what is going on with the KU system, there's really no choice but to leave it as an author.
If there were anything we authors could do to assist Amazon make this system work, we'd do it. But it really is out of our hands.
All I can hope for is Amazon figures out what is causing these glitches and can reassure us, as authors, that the problem is taken care of.
I'm currently in the process of writing my next novel and really didn't want to take time out of my day to write this post but it's important to me that my readers understand why I may have to leave KU.
Also, for those with healthy wallets, if you want to ensure that an author you love gets paid, consider purchasing their book. It's not a gaurantee that they will get reimbursed if you are reading their book through KU.
Love Amazon, not loving Kindle Unlimited right now.
So what's the problem you might ask?
The problem is that KU is broken. Not for readers mind you, but for the authors. Not the "business model" but rather the computer system itself.
The way the system works is that when someone borrows your book from KU, the author gets paid per page that is read. A full-length novel has around 350-450 KU pages by my estimates. When an author enrolls their book in KU it must remain there for 90 days, at which point they can unenroll it. The best way to think of KU is as a secondary (subscription based) marketplace to the regular Amazon store. [for accuracy, authors enroll in KDP Select, which puts their books on the KU marketplace, but for simplicity, I'll refer to simply "being in KU" to reflect this].
Many authors are complaining that the reporting system is not accurately counting those page reads (meaning, authors are not getting paid what they should). There's a giant thread on this topic over at kboards which you can visit here.
Now, the big issue is that no one has access to the raw data other than Amazon. So authors have to make assumptions based on trends in their page reads. So if you have, say, 500 page reads every day for a year, then suddenly no page reads for a month, it's clear something is wrong. Even though, technically, you as an author cannot prove it. This system is a "faith based" one on an author's part, assuming that Amazon is being honest and accurate regarding pages read.
I had a serious issue in September when my page reads crashed to zero for two weeks. Then everything went back to normal.
Now, in the past two weeks, I'm getting extremely odd page reads. I never get below 100 KU page reads in a day (and if I do, I get zero, meaning no one is reading one of my books), but for the past two weeks, every day has been under 100 KU reads with some days having very strange numbers like 19 or 6.
So it looks like, yet again, something is amiss with the KU reporting/tracking/monitoring of page reads (meaning, readers are likely reading my, and other authors' books, but we aren't getting paid for (some of) those reads).
Authors between a rock and a hard place
This puts authors between a rock and hard place. Do you stay in a system that, when it works, is great. But when it's broken, you're literally not being paid?
I was able to live with the September glitch, but as it seems to be happening again, I now have to seriously consider withdrawing my books from KU in the near future. I know many authors already have begun to do so.
Amazon has never admitted to issues with the KU system other than nebulously saying there were minor reporting issues (one-to-two percent error in 'pages read' reporting) that were being resolved.
Two weeks of zero page reads in September was not a one-to-two percent error for me.
Readers need to understand Authors have no choice
One of the reasons I'm writing this post is so that my readers understand if and when they can't get my books through KU.
Many authors (especially self-published) love being able to get our work into readers' hands in a way that least hurts their pocket book. But authors are already taking up to a 50 percent hit when placing our books in KU and then to have page reads not recorded or counted, it's simply too much. [note: I'll reemphasize the issue of reporting is an assumption, as stated earlier, there's no way an author can definitively prove their page counts are off.]
So I'm going to have to make some tough decisions in the future. I've already decided that my next book will not be going into KU. Depending on Amazon's response to the current glitches, I'll likely be pulling my existing books out of KU as well in the near future.
So I apologize to readers who find that frustrating, but I also think many of them will not only understand, but support the decision. Readers want authors to get paid, I think many of them would be shocked to hear that sometimes we are not.
I'm not trying to bash Amazon
This isn't a bash Amazon post. I love Amazon. Heck, last month they bumped their payout per page read by 20 percent, give or take. They are trying to make all this work, I believe that. I do not believe they are intentionally seeking to under pay authors. The system simply isn't reliable when it breaks, though...and this seems to me to be the second time it has broken in the past three or four months.
I can say that I no longer trust that the page reads Amazon says I'm getting are actually what I am getting.
Maybe it's for the best?
Ultimately, maybe tracking page reads accurately is simply too difficult a technological process. Maybe we will all have to return to the days where you simply purchased a book outright, which is very easy to track/monitor/report on.
I've definitely reached a point now where if Amazon doesn't articulate what is going on with the KU system, there's really no choice but to leave it as an author.
If there were anything we authors could do to assist Amazon make this system work, we'd do it. But it really is out of our hands.
All I can hope for is Amazon figures out what is causing these glitches and can reassure us, as authors, that the problem is taken care of.
I'm currently in the process of writing my next novel and really didn't want to take time out of my day to write this post but it's important to me that my readers understand why I may have to leave KU.
Also, for those with healthy wallets, if you want to ensure that an author you love gets paid, consider purchasing their book. It's not a gaurantee that they will get reimbursed if you are reading their book through KU.
Love Amazon, not loving Kindle Unlimited right now.
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