[darryl]

I was interested to learn some weeks ago that royalties for most Kindle Unlimited books are only paid to the author if at least 10% of the book is actually read. This raises a number of issues, some obvious, some not so obvious.

Firstly, Amazon obviously has information not only about what books you buy but also whether and how much of them you have read, and no doubt extensive information on your reading habits. This is not surprising to me, and should not be surprising to anyone else. Marketing, like it or not, and I generally don't, is neverheless both the life blood and the curse of the internet. Detailed information and profiles are of great value, and you cannot expect Amazon to ignore such value. What value privacy in this age of Facebook and Twitter.

Secondly, collection of most information by Amazon can only happen when your device is connected to the Net. So, for example, if you only ever download your Amazon books to your computer and then transfer to your Kindle by usb, and your Kindle is never online, Amazon will collect only the information from the purchase, but will have no information about whether and how much of the book you have read, or your reading habits. Presumably if your Kindle does ever go online later some information will then be uploaded to Amazon, but what information is not known. For example, are details or statistics kept even after the books in question are removed from the device? In any event, if you don't connect Amazon will not have your reading progress and the Author will not be paid.

Thirdly, what happens in the case of books purchased from Amazon but altered before being downloaded to the device, for example, DRM removed. Are they still able to be recognised and monitored so the author is paid?

Finally, what about those owners of other readers who purchase from Amazon, remove the DRM and transfer the book to their own non-Kindle device? Clearly there would seem to be no mechanism here for Amazon to monitor the amount read, and thus no way authors would be paid. And I suspect this last group, unlike the former, may have significant numbers.

If you do want to ensure that your Kindle Unlimited authors get paid you will need to read them on either a Kindle or a Kindle reading application on a connected device. I'm not sure what effect removing DRM would have, but this should not be necessary if reading on a Kindle device or application.