Good morning everyone!
This is a post I’ve been kicking around for a while now. The problem was, I couldn’t think of how best to explain my thoughts on Kindle Unlimited until recently.
As I’m sure many of you have either heard or maybe even experienced, there are mixed feelings about Amazon’s new Kindle Unlimited program. Basically, it allows the user to “borrow a book that is KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) Select for one month for free. If they read 10% of the book, then the author gets a percentage of a funded account.
Sounds reasonable, right?
Here’s where it starts getting interesting.
For an author to have their books available to KU, they need to be in KDP Select, meaning offering them exclusively through amazon for a minimum of 90 days. The problems come in when some authors claim they lost a large amounts of sales because of the program.
Here’s my thinking: KU eliminated the “impulse buy” that many people partake in for books in the KDP Select program. As you may know, impulse buys are generally a large part of any business’ income. As proof, how many times have you gone to a cash register and not bought a magazine, candy, or other item set up by them? See what I mean? Many businesses relay on impulse buys to help their income up to 25% in some cases. As with anything, it changes per person and situation and product, so doing our research is important.
The kicker with this is (And this is just my opinion, so please feel free to disagree), I prefer readers that will return for my other books instead of impulse buys. Yes, impulse buys can lead to bigger things, but that’s not guaranteed. Just look at your kindle, nook, or other device and count how many free or discounted books you have yet to read. I have close to a thousand books on my kindle, and most of those were freebies that I intended to read. Many I still do, but what are the odds I’ll actually do that?
It’s a quandary many of us face. I have two of my recent books in KDP Select and its done well for me. Yes I’ve given away hundreds of free ebooks through the program. I’m sure many of them were impulse buys, but here’s where I worked it differently.
If you’re on Goodreads, you’ve been invited to free, discounted, and release book events, am I right? I do that. Each time I put one of my books for free for a day or two, I started an event and invited all of my friends. They in turn invited others or shared the event. All I asked was if they wanted, I would appreciate them leaving an honest review. If they did or didn’t like it was fine. I left it up to them, and for the most part it worked. My sales increased as did the reviews for my novella over a month’s time.
As far as the borrows go, I nearly always have as many borrows as I do sales, but I haven’t received payment from those yet. I’m good with that, since I want readers to come back if they like my books. I consider it as a no risk investment on the readers’ behalf. Would they have bought those books anyway? Maybe, maybe not. It’s a risk versus reward factor we have to ask ourselves if we’re comfortable with it.
The flip side to this is the authors that have been negatively affected by KU. Honestly, I’m a sponge when it comes to the mechanics, why, and where of things like this. As an author, it’s part of my job. With all of that in mind, I can understand how someone could lose sales if they’re in the program. Especially if they rely on the impulse buys for up to, or even beyond, the 25% marker. The good news is if you choose to enter KDP Select, it only lasts 90 days and you can then opt out. Remember, each of us will have different experiences, so be sure to weigh the pros and cons related to your books.
But what if they’re not in KDP Select?
Since KDP Select means you sell your ebooks only through Amazon, and they’re not eligible for the KU program, I don’t see how they would be affected by KU. The books would continue to be offered at their previous prices and locations where readers have found them before. There could always be something I’m missing, but all my marketing experience and common sense tells me there’s something else involved. Could Amazon being doing something to their visibility? Many authors and readers use them instead of other outlets and they constantly tweak their algorithms, so anything is possible.
What do you think? Have you used Kindle Unlimited? If so, how was your experience? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
Elicia Hyder
I’m currently considering KDP Select, so I’m glad you posted this. I just published my first novel a week ago and it has done quite well, but aside from the benefits of being able to do a freebie promotion and being able to use PPC advertising on Amazon, I don’t really see how it can be beneficial. I agree 1,000% with people buying novels on impulse and not reading them. Word of mouth is still our most power advertising tool and I’m not sure how that would be improved by KDP Select. I’m really disappointed that Amazon is now treating non-KDP Select authors as 2nd class citizens on the site.
CP Bialois
Thanks for commenting! 🙂
Oh yeah, it’s definitely a tough decision. If your book is selling well, it could give it a boost or not, depending how many pick it up. It adds a new dimension to things.
One thing I do like is if enough free copies go out, then it switches on Amazon’s algorithms to promote the book more (Roughly one free day eveyr three weeks). It makes it a litttle easier to get copies in people’s hands instead of convincing them to buy them. It’s still an impulse, but with five days out of ninety, I like the balance it offers..
Honestly, I can’t say whether amazon does ignore authors not in their program or not. It may simply be the people reached their saturation limit for their reach instead. Who really knows? From my own experience, when I left KDP Select and published through Smashwords and Nook a couple of years ago, my sales dropped big time. We need to diversify, and that ususally means a lot more work I wasn’t prepared for. That was a fun learning experience. It’d be so nice if there was a one-size-fits-all guide to this. lol
John D. Ottini
I have no problem with the Kindle Unlimited, all of my books are in the program.
BTW – You forgot to mention something important. You do receive royalties when people borrow your books for free. It’s not the regular royalty but rather a percentage of a pool of money provided by Amazon in the KU Fund which is different every month.
CP Bialois
Thanks for commenting! 🙂 True, I only mentioned on the subject, but don’t forget the readers have to read ten percent of the book. If they don’t, no money is dispersed for that copy. Honestly, I don’t look at that as a viable option (For me at least) as they’re impulse buys that few purchasers bother reading. If it works for others, great. Nothing wrong with that. 🙂
John D. Ottini
Just because you don’t believe it’s a viable option for you, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t mention the royalty aspect of the program in your article. 🙂
I’m not sure I agree with your ‘impulse buy’ theory, but it was still an interesting article. 🙂
CP Bialois
Thank you for the advice. To be honest, this was meant as a brief overview of the service and how I prefer to use it, not an indepth article on the royalty aspect, otherwise I would’ve added more.
This is what’s great about different points of view, we all see things differently. 🙂
John D. Ottini
Not to flog a dead horse, 🙂 but since you mentioned the positive and negative aspects of Kindle Unlimited (from your point of view), I think that excluding the royalty aspect of the program removes one of the positive reasons (from an author’s perspective) to participate in the program. Why would someone join the program and give exclusivity to Amazon if there was no compensation involved?
You are right in saying that it’s important to hear different points of view. That’s what’s great about this blog and being a member of FWA in general.
CP Bialois
In fact, I did mention it when I said I haven’t received payment for the loans yet. It was part of my point about no risk for the readers and how they may not have bought the book anyway (Impulse buys).
I have to admit I’m more interested in the fact that you refuse to let this go while not mentioning that the reader needs to read 10% of the book for the author to recieve any potion of the pool from the lending library. Which, given how the marketing rule of 1 % (1 out of a hundred will look at a product/sample) seems to apply to free books (Readers and authors constantly say they rarely read them due to the amount of books they compile), doesn’t make it a viable option when using the free days to activate Amazon’s algorithms can be more effective.
I orignially signed up for KDP Select in 2011-2012 for the promise of the share of the pool for loaned books under Amazon Prime. When few were borrowed, I continued my research and learned about the algorithms and found working them was far more effective in selling my books and getting them into the hands of people. So, from my point of view, it’s not a positive reason to become involved. It’s also why I welcome these discussions so any and all thoughts can be heard.
Add to it that there is no way to tell who actually reads the 10% and we’re putting our faith in Amazon to be honest when there have been numerous cases of them not reporting the proper sales figures before. Does that mean they’re being secretive or deceiving us? No, I don’t think so, but basing a business model strictly on another’s word is risky at best. Most authors I know use the feature to draw attention to their books by saying, “FREE with Kindle Unlimited” or something similar and not at a main sales platform.
If focusing on KU loans works for you, fantastic! I wish you nothing but the best. As I tell everyone, take what works for you and leave the rest. 🙂