Quote:
Originally Posted by Quoth
Almost no indie author (statistically) makes even half a minimum wage on KU (KDP Select) and they'd sell more books not being Amazon only (at no extra outlay). Also KU gives less income than regular book sales on Amazon. It's a scam to benefit Amazon.
Disney animators get paid enough to live on.
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Disney animators are salaried employees. They work at Disney's orders, and their work product belongs to Disney.
Indie authors are producing their own product, on their own terms, and Amazon is just one of the bigger stores they can stock their stuff into for customers to find. They're also responsible for any formatting, editing, cover... It's their own stuff they're trying to sell.
Comparing apples to organges.
As to indie authors making money on KU, I think some do very well, and some don't. <shrugs> I've seen authors talk about it lovingingly, and some hatefully.
Mostly, the authors I've seen complaining (and know talk of their work) are the ones who aren't very good at what they do. There's a LOT of really bad writing in KU to start with, and I wouldn't be surprised if I found out that a lot of readers bail out of a lot of KU books early. Cover can be great, summary interesting, and a few pages in the reader realizes it's a waste of time.
I've found some good stuff on KU, when I had it. Mostly first books in an established series, where the author was charging 99 cents just to get the reader (hopefully) on a roll. But I dumped a lot more books than I fell in love with. They were just crap.
So, I think KU is an iffy thing, and a lot depends on the author's skill.