Smashwords: Amazon Lowers Kindle Unlimited Payouts

Listen humans ... It's a business.

Panzer stopped in for a visit at the Smashwords blog today. Our kitty traveler can't seem to go anywhere lately without tripping over news about Amazon and his trip to the Smashwords blog is no different.

According to a post by Smashwords founder Mark Coker, Amazon is changing how their KDP Select global fund will handle their Kindle Unlimited (KU) author payouts. The payouts will now take into account the monetary exchange rates in the different countries where an author's ebooks are sold. This will undoubtedly mean a lower payout rate for authors. Mr. Coker points out that he stated this would happen back in March of this year.

Panzer says, "Not too surprising to an astute cat like me. Amazon is a business and the purpose of a business is to make money. You can't make money, if you give it all away to your workers. Kind of like the purpose of a human is to feed this kitty and, if you eat all my food, I'll be one unhappy kitty. And that ... is why I'm not part of KU and you can buy my ebooks at all the e-retailers."

Note: Included in the Smashwords post is a link to the original Amazon press release. One cup of tea should suffice for your reading today.

Smashwords: Amazon Lowers Kindle Unlimited Payouts:

Are Kindle Unlimited Royalty Changes Unfavorable for Authors?

My eyes hurt from all that reading.

Panzer was awakened from his afternoon nap by loud hissing and snarling. Our kitty boy hopped into the Panzermobile and headed into the Catosphere. Following all the noise lead him to a new Amazon announcement about their royalty payment to authors in the Kindle Unlimited program

 First our fearless kitty stopped at the Publishers' Weekly site. There in a post by Calvin Reid he learned that according to an Amazon announcement they have changed their royalty terms for KU. Amazon said they did this because authors were complaining about the previous terms. In particular authors said their royalties were lower in the plan as opposed to before they entered the plan. Based on the authors' input, Amazon made the change. However, Amazon said even with the old terms 95 percent of their KDP Select authors renewed their titles in the program.

Next our kitty boy headed over to the GalleyCAT site. There he found a post by Dianna Dilworth that quoted a post at the Melville House blog site saying the new changes are unfair to authors. Whereas in the old plan Amazon paid for a 10 percent read of an ebook, now under the new plan they will only pay for the pages actually read in an ebook.

Panzer says, "Hmmm. I was thinking of putting my new book Cat Wisdom for Humans in KU. Now I'm not so sure."

Note: Get a b-i-g cup of tea. Below are links to both posts and the GalleyCAT post contains a link to the Melville House post. So ... you're in for a l-o-n-g read.

To read the Publishers' Weekly post, tootle over to Amazon updates KU and-KOLL royalty terms

To read the GalleyCAT post, tootle over to Kindle Unlimited Royalty Changes Are Unfavorable for Authors | GalleyCat

12 Thoughts On Kindle Unlimited

What to do?

Panzer made his first ever visit to the Steve Scott Site today.

Panzer doesn't know if you've heard, but everybody in the Catosphere has been talking about the Kindle Unlimited program. Some people support it and believe it's the best marketing tool since Kindle Select. Others hate it and won't join for the same reason they wouldn't join Kindle Select and restrict their sales only to the Kindle Store.

So, when my bad boy heard that Mr. Scott had a post with his views on the Pros and Cons of the Kindle Unlimited program, he took the Panzermobile right over to the site. Mr. Scott addresses the payouts from having your book in the KU program, how category rankings are impacted, how sales numbers might decrease if you don't join and more pros and cons to total twelve.

Panzer says, "Should I or shouldn't I join? I'm so confused. I don't know what to do!"

To read the post and make up your own mind about the Kindle Unlimited program, tootle over to Kindle Unlimited

A Newbie's Guide to Publishing

"Yay!"

Today Panzer found a post at Joe Konrath's blog about Amazon's change to their Affiliates Program. Joe's take on the situation is different from Ed Robertson's yesterday. Joe doesn't see this new twist as "gloom and doom" for free ebooks. He sees the Kindle Select Program continuing with no interruptions for authors using the program to promote their ebooks to readers.

So, if you want to know why the FREE ebook is not going the way of the dinosaur, read Joe Konrath's opinion at A Newbie's Guide to Publishing