Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeB1972
Doesn't the fact that they can (and have) change the payout algorithms entirely at their own discretion and the fact that the "formula" is undocumented make it arbitrary (by default).
I'm not saying KU is a bad thing as it stands, just that this is the most worrying thing about it.
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Yes, they can change the payout at their discretion.
And participants enter and leave at their discretion.
That makes it a wash.
It's not like the deep discount clauses in tradpub contracts where the publisher can make more money by wholesaling books cheaper in order to pay lower (or nil) royalties and the author has no recourse.
I don't think anybody is saying KU (or Amazon) is perfect.
But they do allow participants the flexibility to say no.
There is no ball and chain, long term commitment in KDP Select. It's all temporary, 90 days (or less, in case of duress) at a time.
The tech disruption is still ongoing and nobody, not authors, not publishers, and not even Amazon knows where things are headed. So Amazon stays flexible and gives their ebook suppliers similar flexibility. (They even cut special deals, paying more for titles they want in KU, when they feel like it.)
We're all in the grip of the law of unintended consequences and nobody knows how things are going to shake out in the long term. Some things work, some don't; KU 1.0 turned out to be heavenly for short form writers and hucksters. The former was good, the latter less so. So Amazon changed the rules. Some left, some came in, and the system rebalanced.
The ebook business isn't done changing; at a minimum, somebody somewhere will get serious about giving Amazon a real challenge. And then we'll see more change. Some will survive the change, some won't.
The flexible players stand a better chance of surviving so why cast in concrete things that will probably have to change?
Any moment now, somebody with deep pockets could choose to buy Nook, drop the Glowlight to $50 and raise Indie "royalties" to 90%. Think that wouldn't lead to a stampede?
Don't like how things look?
Wait a while.
But stay flexible while you wait.