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Originally Posted by FicDragon
Many authors are entrenched in Amazon for whatever reason (I'm assuming financially) and refuse to sell anywhere else. I'm in a lot of author's reader groups (generally the only way to get news of upcoming releases), any time someone asks if they can get their books anywhere but Amazon or if they have plans to sell out of the 'zon system, the answer is usually a resounding "No!". There are a few who do, and I guess that's where I'll buy now.
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That's the KDP Select program, which gets them higher royalties and listing on Kindle Unlimited in exchange for exclusivity. Unfortunately for us who'd prefer to buy elsewhere, KU royalties can easily become the main source of revenue from a book so authors are reluctant to leave.
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Reddit post from /r/Fantasy is pretty much the same opinion I have:
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In my opinion, it doesn't so much sweeten the pot as spread caltrops everywhere outside the pot. Here's how I see it: As far as indie books go, Kindle Unlimited is only available to KDP Select authors. KDP Select is an exclusivity deal. So the Amazon exclusive titles are covered under the subscription, while non-exclusives now look like an extra payment. For people who already pay for the subscription, every book outside Kindle Unlimited starts off with one strike against it.
As an indie author, it's already an uphill struggle trying to attract new readers. That's one of the reasons some of us are wary of KDP Select. Amazon promises an increase in visibility at the cost of pulling your books out of all other markets. There's skepticism about whether the increased visibility is even there, though some authors swear that it helped them.
With Unlimited, now, it's gone the other way: Amazon is giving customers an incentive to avoid books that aren't exclusive--Amazon is essentially blocking indie authors from reaching customers unless those authors block their customers from buying elsewhere. I call this anti-competitive behavior.
tl;dnr: Unlimited customers won't pay for books outside the subscription. Indie authors can only get into Unlimited via an exclusivity deal. Anti-competitive.
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