There have been so many announcements related to Amazon initiatives in the last couple weeks that we could devote practically an entire issue of The Hot Sheet to discussing them. We’ll just hit the highlights for now.
Amazon Prime members now get free access to a rotating selection of ebooks, digital magazines, comics, and more. The new feature is called Prime Reading and is distinct from both the Kindle Unlimited program and Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. Many of the reading selections available are from house imprints at Amazon and can be read via any Kindle app (that is, you don’t need a Kindle device, as with KOLL).
Amazon doesn’t disclose how many Prime members there are, but current estimates put the figure at around 60 to 65 million. The most popular Prime feature remains free two-day shipping. Membership prices were increased in 2014 from $79 per year to $99. There are many Prime membership perks at this point; in the United States they include (but are not limited to):
- Kindle First: Get one Kindle book of the six editors’ picks each month for free
- Washington Post: six months of free access
- Prime Video: stream thousands of movies and TV shows at no additional cost
- Audible Channels: free original audio content
- Prime Music: free streaming access to two million songs
- Prime Photos: free unlimited photo storage
- Twitch Prime: free game content and ad-free Twitch viewing
Amazon also just introduced Amazon Music Unlimited, an on-demand music service that’s similar in scope to Kindle Unlimited. Subscribers have access to millions of songs (more than with Prime Music), curated playlists, and personalized stations. The standard price is $9.99/month. Amazon Prime members can get access for $7.99/month; those with an Echo can subscribe for $3.99/month. Amazon is entering a crowded marketplace that includes Apple Music, Google Play Music, Spotify, and Pandora, but Amazon appears to be banking on integration with the Echo as a way to drive customer interest and subscriptions.
Amazon will soon offer a consolidated print/ebook dashboard for self-pub authors. If you distribute ebooks via Amazon KDP and print via CreateSpace, you’ll probably welcome an integrated interface for tracking sales, now in beta. You can get a glimpse of what it may look like over at this KBoards thread.
Amazon is planning to open small grocery stores, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). The move is an extension of the AmazonFresh subscription service, which offers same-day grocery delivery, and “the new stores are designed to capture the large share of people who prefer to pick out their produce or bring home their groceries on the way from work.”
Bottom line: If you study Amazon’s business developments over the last couple years, you’ll find a strong focus on increasing the attractiveness of Amazon Prime, as well as other subscription services that provide recurring revenue every month or year. Prime memberships alone are now believed to account for $7 billion in revenue each year, and a recent survey showed that Prime memberships are popular with the more affluent. Furthermore, while Prime continues to grow year on year, other membership clubs, such as Sam’s Club and Costco, have declined. Amazon Prime members are believed to spend twice as much at Amazon as non-members.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
