Amazon’s ebook subscription service, Kindle Unlimited, launched in July 2014; for $9.99 per month, Amazon customers can have “all-you-can-eat” access to more than 1 million ebook titles and thousands of audiobooks. It remains one of the most important services to keep an eye on for both traditional publishers and self-publishing authors.
For those who aren’t aware of KU basics, here’s a quick recap:
- None of the major publishers offers its titles through KU. It is populated predominantly by small to midsize publishers and self-published authors.
- KU pays self-published authors based on pages read. For indie authors with titles available in KU, Amazon sets a monthly per-page payment rate retroactively. (Yes, that means authors don’t know what they’ll earn in KU until Amazon tells them—after the reading takes place.) Furthermore, authors can enroll titles in KU only by being exclusive to Amazon through KDP Select.
- Amazon must continually root out scammers. Some unscrupulous people have accumulated falsely high page reads in KU by deceptive means; Amazon has to remain vigilant to prevent underhanded tactics that hurt all indie authors, since there’s a fixed amount of money to go around each month.
Despite the flaws, indie authors, as well as some small and midsize publishers, are going all in with Amazon on ebooks and KU because it makes financial sense, at least in the short term. But the question remains: Does it pay to stay enrolled?
- Established authors have less to gain by being in KU and exclusive to Amazon. Bestselling authors, especially, favor having their books distributed as widely as possible; they have a reliable fan base and a steady stream of sales for new releases as well as backlist. Joanna Penn is one established author who goes wide, not exclusive, but does make exceptions for some of her titles with little to no audience outside of Amazon.
- Established authors are more likely to view KU as a short-term marketing tool. They enroll specific titles in KDP Select and KU for ninety days knowing they may earn less overall for that title, but accept that fact as the cost of marketing. KU page reads do contribute to a title’s Amazon ranking, and thus can make a title more visible and discoverable. Indie author Lindsay Buroker said in December 2015, “KU really only helps if you can leverage it into being in the top 100 in your category, and if you’re selling a book or two a week it’s probably not going to change anything.”
- New or unestablished authors have less to lose. Without an audience in place, authors may benefit both from the increased visibility that comes from KU reads and from the income from those reads. Lindsay Buroker has a good explanatory post on this.
- For an outlying perspective: Hugh Howey has been an advocate for KU and exclusivity. Read his blog post.
Bottom line: To see charts and data about the historic performance of KU payouts, we highly recommend taking a look at Written Word Media’s comprehensive description. As long as Amazon represents 80 to 90 percent of most indie author ebook sales, there’s little risk to new authors to enroll in KU for ninety days at a time. That said, other ebook retailers have (understandably) tried to discourage authors from going exclusive, saying that sales aren’t being given a reasonable chance to grow at other channels. Lindsay Buroker and Joanna Penn have written about opportunities through Apple’s iBooks and Kobo.
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.
