Quote:
Originally Posted by Sirtel
Authors are being cheated, because when you borrow a book from KU, the author will get paid per pages read. So if you never read a KU book, its author will get nothing. The money you pay for the subscription goes to Amazon, not to authors.
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Exactly. KU pays poorly to authors compared to regular sales. If you remove DRM on KU then the author might not get anything. A KU title somehow stripped of DRM and read a not-Kindle or a Kindle that never has WiFi on is counted as not read. No payment to author.
KU relies on Whispernet (WiFi or Mobile) direct connection to Kindles and monitoring of page turns. It invades privacy and pays authors less than a regular sale, even when it works as intended.
Amazon gets most of the subscription.
A real Library has to buy the ebooks it simultaneously loans. The UK & Irish libraries ALSO pay about 30p (40c?) per loan per title.
Amazon doesn't buy the books for lending. It decides on a pot and pays a small proportion to authors based on pages read.
It's a nasty exploitive system. Even if you don't sign up to KDP Select as an Author / Publisher (which gives Amazon exclusive rights) Amazon can still loan your title without paying you.
The best thing customers can do is ONLY borrow ebooks from your real library, not Amazon or Archive Org's Open Library and otherwise buy ebooks, but don't use Prime Reading or subscribe to Kindle Unlimited.