Amazon Discusses Kindle Unlimited & Kindle Select Participation: Digital Book World, Day 2

Digital Book World 2015 Grandinetti

If you’ve been watching publishing news over the last 24 hours, then you may have seen a flurry of articles summarizing the Digital Book World session featuring a conversation with Russ Grandinetti of Amazon.

These were some of the most memorable takeaways for me:

  • In describing (with complete sincerity and seriousness) the indie author community: “They’re awesome. It’s an incredibly vibrant community. They like caps locks sometimes—we view that as a feature not a bug. … [Authors are] among the biggest sources of input in how we build and evolve.”
  • Regarding Kindle Unlimited, Amazon’s ebook subscription service: He was reserved on the matter, and said that Amazon didn’t have any particularly strong “answers” or insights about ebook subscription services, or their long-term effect on “a la carte sales” since it just launched in August 2014. However, he said that if you look at a customer’s buying patterns 60 days before KU and 60 days after, these customers are spending more money on books after enrolling—25% more on average.
  • Regarding digital subscription services in general: He emphasized that in every single digital media category, subscriptions are playing an important role—you can’t find that it doesn’t succeed at some level. (Think: Netflix, Spotify, etc.) “Books will not be immune to this.” He mused, “How can it grow the business and be incremental?” He also added, “A la carte sales of books is so healthy in digital,” but that it’s not the case for other media, such as music. However, of course, it’s early—it’s only 6 months in. One thing Amazon measures: Can they get people to read more? They watch how often people read, how many times per week, and the amount of time they spend reading. He noted that subscription will be a choice that a publisher considers at some point in a book’s lifecycle. It might start a la carte then go to subscription, or maybe the first in a series goes to subscription. Publishers will have to make the same kind of strategic business decisions that are made for movies and TV.
  • Related to indie authors’ reports of dwindling sales as a result of Kindle Unlimited (KU)—and therefore abandoning KDP Select: He emphasized KDP Select is a very short term of exclusivity (3 months). “We look every month at the titles that come up for renewal.” He shared some stats I had not heard: Authors enrolled in KDP Select renew in excess of 95%. Also, the total number of titles enrolled in KDP Select has grown by 35% since KU launched. He said that a la carte book sales through KDP Select are growing faster than titles not in Select, and that if you add in the money that authors earn from KU/KOLL, earnings over the August 2014–December 2014 period are more than double what they were during the same period in 2013.
  • On Amazon Publishing: He said they are focused on happy authors, and it’s a primary way they judge success. They “rigorously survey” their authors and ask how they’re doing. (When I tweeted this, Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware questioned it, since she’s been an Amazon author for a while now, but has never been asked for feedback.)

You can find good recaps of the discussion here:

More on Ebook Subscription Services

Later in the day, an entire panel was devoted to ebook subscription services, focusing more on what’s happening with Scribd and Oyster, who debuted their services before Amazon’s. Both Scribd and Oyster carry Big Five publisher titles, unlike Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited. Some interesting stats were shared.

  • According to Nielsen, people who use ebook subscription services are buying adult nonfiction and kids’ books. It’s a very small percentage of the market, though: 10% (and only 4% if you exclude Amazon).
  • Subscribers spend more on books than non-subscribers (meaning they still buy books, more books than others). Perhaps cannibalization concerns will wane.
  • Romance, new adult and some deep backlist have done well in subscription for Simon & Schuster. Their Scribd business tends to be more genre fiction, while Oyster tends to be nonfiction. 
  • The long tail shines on Oyster; more sales come from backlist. 80% of books read are based on recommendations/discovery within the system, not search. However, keep in mind that these services don’t typically get access to current bestsellers or new titles—there’s usually a one-year delay (and that’s still a very broad generalization).
  • Subscription sales can represent a very high percentage of an ebook’s sales—in some instances, 35%-75% of ebook sales.
  • Guy Gonzalez commented on Twitter, aptly, that the panel hit well on discoverability, but there wasn’t a single mention of libraries, or any discussion of revenues.
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Calee at Xist Publishing

With a catalog of almost entirely kids content, we’re seeing subscription services outpace our retail sales. When I started Xist Publishing almost 4 years ago, I knew parents would grow to love ebooks because it means the end of library late fees. Parents and kids love to check out a stack of picture books, read through them and return for more. But they invariably end up behind the couch or the kids get the flu and the late fees rack up. eBooks subscription services save the trip and sometimes have even larger collections than small libraries.

Since the libraries didn’t have the capabilities to quickly build large digital catalogs (that looked great) for kids, these services have stepped up. Did you know that of the top 10 grossing kids apps on Apple, three of them are ebook subscription services? Subscription payments have been a boon to our authors and illustrators and we look forward to seeing the market grow more in 2015!

Jane Friedman

Calee: Thanks so much for jumping in and shedding light on the children’s market when it comes to ebook subscription services!

In some categories/genres—like in children’s—the subscription business model behaves in a very unique/different way than the adult mainstream fiction/nonfiction market. Books for programmers/computer science folks are another interesting niche, where O’Reilly has been running a subscription service called Safari for years now, and very successfully. It allows readers/users to find just the chapter, chunk, or reference bit they need across several books, and eliminates the need to make a full purchase just for the small piece of content that’s needed.

Stephanie Guerra

Victoria Strauss is right. I’m an Amazon author and have never been “rigorously surveyed” about my satisfaction.

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[…] Amazon Discusses Kindle Unlimited & Kindle Select Stats. […]

Phyllis T. Smith

Re Amazon Publishing surveying authors on how they are doing–my novel was published by Amazon Publishing in May 2014 and I was asked to respond to an exhaustive survey questionnaire about my satisfaction a few months later.

Felipe Adan Lerma

Very nice summary and observations Jane, thanks! I renewed a few weeks ago for a second 90 day round, and am still seeing better results being in Kindle Unlimited (KU) than not. This wasn’t the case before KU. I tried being in Select three times over the years with very little positive results. The current enrollment, which included KU, has been much different. Thanks again 🙂

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[…] The past few weeks, debate about the impact of Kindle Unlimited on authors sales has swirled. Jane Friedman reports from Digital Book World, where Amazon talked about KU and KDP Select. […]

Jan Hurst-Nicholson

Re Amazon survey. I’ve been published with Amazon since 2010 and have 10 books in Select, but have never been asked to take part in a survey. I’ve also got children’s books in Select, but have not seen and decent sales. I was wondering when sales of children’s e-books would take off. Perhaps the subscription service might help.

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[…] was the next book I found on Amazon Kindle Unlimited with WhisperSync (which means free audio book when you have the Kindle Unlimited subscription). […]