Sunday 22 March 2015

A possible effect of Kindle Unlimited that no-one's mentioned yet.

......and not a very good one from a writer's point of view, either.

So, Kindle Unlimited, right?  Readers know that they can read/listen to audio books for free for just £7.99 a month, and writers know that instead of (some) sales on their monthly download report, they're getting KU Units, which may or may not financially equal a sale, I haven't a clue, I've never got round to looking.  What happens is that you get one unit if the reader reads past 10%, I think, and more if they carry on reading.  I can't be bothered to work out the sales vs KU units, I really can't; I just look at the units and think "oh good, they liked 'em enough to carry on reading", and that's all. 

In our household we are signed up for Kindle Unlimited.  My husband decided it was a good idea as he listens to lots of audio books, and I buy too many Kindle books.  It's only recently that something's occurred to me, as a reader and purchaser, that must affect us chaps sitting on the other side, too, ie, the writers.

If I've talked to a writer a little (usually on Twitter) and I fancy their book, I generally buy it, not because I think they need my £1.50, but because every sale is good for their Amazon visibility and maybe more so than a KU download (I don't know if it is or not, please don't tell me!).  Those I buy on KU are usually the other ones I fancy (say, that I've read about on a book blog post, or seen on an Amazon browse).

Like most people, I have a Kindlefull of books, some of which I will look at within the next few months, some not for a year or more.

Kindle Unlimited is not actually unlimited at all, of course; you can only have 10 books out at a time.

As the months have gone on, this is what I have noticed.  When I see a book I fancy, I will go to download it on KU.  At this point, Amazon will tell me that I have to return one book before I can do so.  It shows me my list of ten books I currently have on the KU facility.  To download, I must return one.  Now, this is the key thing that affects all people who publish on Amazon, whose books are on KU.... 

...like many people (I imagine), I look at so many books that sometimes, dare I say it, I don't always remember exactly what it was about one in particular that appealed to me.  But, oh, I've just seen another one I really, really want to read.  So in order to download Book A I might give Book B back unread.  Intending to get it again some time, you know?  It might be that intelligent looking post apocalyptic thriller that I spotted when I was looking at Kate Mary or Dylan Morgan's books.  That edgy contemporary drama I read about on A Woman's Wisdom.  Back it will float into the huge, gaping and seemingly limitless vault that is Amazon, never to be seen again.  Never to be read, never to be followed up by its follow up.

If I had bought it, though, like in the olden days before KU, it would have remained on my Kindle.  I would have thought, hmm, nice cover, interesting title, I'll have a look, at some point that year.  I might have loved it. Reviewed it favourably. The author might have been someone I recommended to others, etc etc etc.

Example: I downloaded Dylan Morgan's The Dead Lands soon after it was published.  It wasn't an immediate 'go to' book; I thought I might not like it as the description included the dreaded words science fiction.  I had it for about eight months before opening it, at which point it blew me away.  I am now a big fan.  Had I downloaded it on KU, it might have been rejected in favour of another, and lost forever.

If this is what I, a fairly average Amazon customer, am doing, you can bet that a hell of a lot of others are doing so, too.

17 comments:

  1. I use my Kindle for travelling, but read print books at home - so as a reader it doesn't affect me. As a writer - I've not signed into KU - I just couldn't get my head round all the small print to see if it was going to be any benefit at all. But maybe someone who takes marketing more seriously will have a view.

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    1. Ah - I didn't sign up for it either, Jo, you don't get any choice. Maybe yours aren't in it because they're at the low end of the price scale - I've noticed that another friends' who are all minimum price are not available on it to. Given the choice most of us would not be in it - I'd rather have a sale than a Kindle Unlimited download! There is much controversy about it, with authors saying that Amazon is taking money/sales away from them, and indeed my sales have gone down since it began.

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  2. You make some good points that I hadn't thought of, Terry. Another thing that annoys me as a KDP author is the occasional reader who returns an e-book for a refund (I think you can do this within 7 days of purchase). As authors we never find out why they wanted a refund. It would be helpful to know what they thought was wrong with the book.

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    1. Hi Sally - I wrote the post after I'd returned a book yesterday, unread, and it wasn't the first one. I thought - hang on, people must be doing this to mine, too. As for refunds - who knows, eh? It's going to be one of two things: they didn't like it and are so strapped for cash they actually want their £1.99 back (or just those sort of people - I'd never bother, would you??), or their the even worse kind, who read quickly and return within the 7 days!!! Tight gits who won't even spend 7.99 on Kindle Unlimited!

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    2. Yikes. I just wrote a long comment. Then Google asked me to sign in, and when I did, my comment was gone. I hate having wasted so much time.

      I don't think I'll be leaving comments on this blog again. :-(

      The short version of what I was saying: Don't sweat Kindle returns. Most are from people who accidentally hit "Buy Now".

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    3. It's not this blog in particular, Rayne, it's something that happens with all google blogs - you have to sign in first, or if you haven't, highlight/copy the comment before you do so. I learned that the hard way, too!!!!

      Yes, agreed re returns. They happen, it doesn't really matter in the big scheme of it all.

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  3. It's like buying a pack of 12 chicken wings, cooking them all, eating all of them except one and then taking them back to the store and saying, "tasted funny", returning the one, getting money back and then doing it again.

    Kindle Unlimited only exists because of the sickening proliferation of utter shit being gurgled out by the wannabe have-a-go-biro brigade.


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    1. I presume you're referring to getting refunds rather than Kindle Unlimited in the first bit? Couldn't agree more, bunch of wankers. Can you imagine what these people are like????

      As for Kindle Unlimited, I daresay that is something to do with it, yes.

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  4. Yes, the refund lark. I was quite tired when I commented and wasn't clear.

    Kindle Unlimited needs to be taken down like Sea World.

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  5. I couldn't get into KU as a reader - I'm so greedy for a good read but so slow I'd be get in a right two and eight. I certainly wouldn't be sending them back just in case I missed a brilliant read. It took me years to accept I would enjoy a book on my kindle as much as holding the print version in my sticky mitts. Think this is one I'll be leaving well alone..

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    1. It all depends how you use the Kindle, Judith. I love it, I like it better than 'real' books, and read at least two a week on it. I, like many others, am an avid downloader! I belong to a Kindle reader group on Facebook (only 4 writers out of 250), and all the active members are similar to me - forever downloading stuff that they fancy. I am a mere novice; some of them have THOUSANDS of books. I download (either buy buying, by KU or on free download) at least 20 books a month. And yes - this month I've seen two books I wanted to read that were around £4 for the Kindle version. So I gave back two I haven't read in order to get them. That was when it occurred to me - if I do it, others must to.

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  6. Hi Terry - I waited to read others' comments to get a fuller picture - and it sounds dubious .. keep it simple is my motto .. interesting post though - thanks for letting us know and for others with further knowledge to comment - cheers Hilary

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    1. Hi Hilary, many thanks for reading and coming back! Not sure to what 'keep it simple' refers to (the comments seem to have moved the subject onto refunds!!) - but if you're talking about Kindle Unlimited, alas, self-published writers don't have an option whether or to have their books available on it. If we did, I imagine most of us would choose not to. I'd rather have a sale than a Kindle Unlimited borrow (that might be returned unread), any day.

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  7. Good points here and so wrong authors don't get a choice as to whether their book is in the 'Kindle Community Library' or not. You say authors get points but I am unclear as to whether points equate to cash for the authors in the end? Seems unfair, especially when Kindle already take a cut of sales and then also make money on the monthly subscription of Kindle Unlimited!

    P.S. Thanks for the mention :-)

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    1. Hi - yes, you do get a payment from it, in the form of a KU unit, but I don't know how much that is - you only get it if the reader reads past 10% of the book, though how they know, I don't understand. Kindle Prime was better, when it was just a lending library - you actually got more for a borrow than a sale.

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  8. I have done the same thing, returned borrowed books without reading so I could get another. Yikes.

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    1. Oh good, glad to hear it's not just me, then!

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