Kindle Unlimited is now 4 times bigger than Nook (in term of royalties payout)

[Xianxia]

http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/for...investors.html

fiscal 2016 first quarter ended August 1, 2015

NOOK
The NOOK segment (including digital content, devices and accessories) had revenues of $54 million for the quarter, decreasing 22.4% from a year ago. For the quarter, digital content sales declined 28.0% to $37 million and device and accessories sales declined 6.2% to $17 million.

digital content sales / total revenue = $37 mil / $54 mil = 68%

fiscal 2016 second quarter ended October 31, 2015

NOOK
NOOK sales of $43.5 million decreased 31.9% due primarily to lower content sales. NOOK EBITDA losses of $21.3 million declined $15.1 million versus the prior year as the company continues to reduce expenses.

$43.5 million x 68% content sales ratio = $29.58 million content sales

$29.58 mil content sales x 65% royalties payout rate = $19.23 million, divide by 3 months = $6.4 million payout each month

Kindle Unlimited payout right now is at about $27 million a month to all publishers.

Source: In the month of October, the payout was $12.4 million to self-publishers + $1.164 million in All-Star bonuses to top self-publishers who enrolled. So about $13.564 million to self-publisher.

Self-publishers are only half of the total payout. Small/medium publishers as well as Amazon Publishing is the other half. So total payout is about $27 million a month.

Refer to this Kindle Unlimited chart:

http://authorearnings.com/wp-content...8.48.37-PM.png

Self-publishers 47%
Amazon Published 26%
Small/medium publisher 19%
Uncategorized Single-Author Publisher 8%
Big Five Publishers 0%

Small medium publishers are paid full royalties for Kindle Unlimited according to the CEO of Kensington

http://www.idealog.com/blog/what-oys...subscriptions/

GalleryP, the payment pool that you are mentioning is only for self-published writers and not books from traditional publishers. Traditional publishers were paid full royalties from the subscription services otherwise they wouldn't agree to make their books available.

What does this all mean?

It means that Kindle Unlimited might very well be #2 in ebook royalties payout because I don't think Apple ebookstore is 4 times bigger than Nook

#1 is Kindle
#2 is Kindle Unlimited ($27 million a month right now)
#3 is probably Apple
#4 is Nook ($6.4 million a month right now)

[fjtorres]

That breakdown on KU is a bit old.
I've seen more recent reports/rumors that Amazon has been reducing the tradpub count in KU. Most of the growth in the catalog (it's almost doubled) over the past year has been on the Indie side.
So the KU total is probably a bit lower.

But the core point stands: just as Amazon UK is the second largest ebook vendor globally, KU is very likely the second largest revenue generator for ebooks in the US.

The competition really needs to up their game; sometimes it seems Amazon is competing against a vacuum.

[Xianxia]

Big 5 Publishers ebook revenue are down because of 2 reasons

1. High prices (thanks to the return of agency pricing)
2. Kindle Unlimited ($300 million royalties payout this year, none to the Big 5)

[Xianxia]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

That breakdown on KU is a bit old.
I've seen more recent reports/rumors that Amazon has been reducing the tradpub count in KU. Most of the growth in the catalog (it's almost doubled) over the past year has been on the Indie side.
So the KU total is probably a bit lower.
But the core point stands: just as Amazon UK is the second largest ebook vendor globally, KU is very likely the second largest market for ebooks in the US.

The competition really needs to up their game; sometimes it seems Amazon is competing against a vacuum.

Small/medium publishers "borrows" might be down overall compare to self-publishers but since they are paid full royalties instead of "by the KENPC page", it will even out.






p.s.

2014 payout to self-publishers who enroll in KDP Select

KOLL/KU Global Fund for July was $2.785 million (average payout $1.80), 31 days of KOLL, 14 days of KU --------1.547 million borrows
KOLL/KU Global Fund for August was $4.7 million (average payout $1.54) full month of KOLL and KU--------3.052 million borrows
KOLL/KU Global Fund for September was $5 million (average payout $1.52) full month of KOLL and KU-------3.29 million borrows
KOLL/KU Global Fund for October was $5.5 million (average payout $1.33) full month of KOLL and KU ---------4.14 million borrows
KOLL/KU Global Fund for November was $6.5 million (average payout $1.40) full month of KOLL and KU--------4.64 million borrows
KOLL/KU Global Fund for December was $7.25 million (average payout $1.43) full month of KOLL and KU --------5.07 million borrows

2015 payout to self-publishers who enroll in KDP Select

KOLL/KU Global Fund for January was $8.50 million (average payout $1.38) full month of KOLL and KU -----------6.15 million borrows
KOLL/KU Global Fund for February was $8.00 million (average payout $1.41) full month of KOLL and KU ------------5.67 million borrows (28 days February)
KOLL/KU Global Fund for March was $9.30 million (average payout $1.34) full month of KOLL and KU ---------------6.94 million borrows
KOLL/KU Global Fund for April was $9.80 million (average payout $1.36) full month of KOLL and KU -----------------7.21 million borrows
KOLL/KU Global Fund for May was $10.8 million (average payout $1.37) full month of KOLL and KU -----------------7.88 millon borrows
KOLL/KU Global Fund for June was $11.3 million (average payout $1.35) full month of KOLL and KU-----------------8.37 million borrows

KOLL/KU Global Fund for July was $11.5 million (average payout per KENP is $0.005779)---------------------------1,989,963,661 pages (KENP) read
KOLL/KU Global Fund for August was $11.8 million(average payout per KENP is $0.00514)--------------------------2,295,719,844 pages (KENP) read
KOLL/KU Global Fund for September was $12.0 million (average payout per KENPC is $0.00507)--------------------2,366,863,909 pages (KENP) read
KOLL/KU Global Fund for October was $12.4 million (average payout per KENPC is $0.004809) ---------------------2,578,498,648 pages (KENP) read



KDP Select All-Stars Bonuses to top self-publishers who enroll in KU


Amazon US

Author ranking Bonus amount
1-10 $25,000
11-20 $10,000
21-30 $5,000
31-50 $2,500
51-100 $1,000

= $500,000

Title ranking Bonus amount
1-10 $2,500
11-50 $1,000
51-100 $500

= $90,000



Amazon UK

Author ranking Bonus amount
1-10 £2,000
11-20 £1,500
21-30 £750
31-100 £500

= £77,500

Title ranking Bonus amount
1-10 £500
11-50 £250
51-100 £100

= £20,000



Amazon Germany

Author ranking
Bonus amount
1-10 € 7,500
11-20 € 5,000
21-30 € 3,500
31-50 € 2,500
51-100 € 1,500
101-150 € 500

= euro 310,000

Title ranking
Bonus amount
1-10 € 750
11-50 € 500
51-100 € 250

= euro 40,000


Illustrated Kids' Book bonuses US

Title ranking
Bonus amount
1-5 $1,000
6-10 $750
11-30 $500
31-50 $250
51-100 $150

= $31,250

Illustrated Kids' Book bonuses

Title ranking
Bonus amount
1-25 £100

=£ 2500




Add them all up at the current exchange rate, it's $1,164,000 a month in KDP All-Stars bonuses.

Top self-publishers who enroll in KU could earn as much as $300,000 a year in just All-Stars bonuses. Just need to be among the top 10 KU-enrolled self-publishers each month.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Xianxia

Small/medium publishers "borrows" might be down overall compare to self-publishers but since they are paid full royalties instead of "by the KENPC page", it will even out.

Even out how?
Their payout is fixed and there are less tradpubbed titles as a proportion of the catalog. Maybe even in absolute terms.

I'm really just quibbling; the Indie side alone outclasses everybody but Apple and even that is just giving Apple the benefit of the doubt because of their heavy skew towards the BPHs.

[mitford13]

Started to see grumbling in the forums yesterday that the Harry Potter books are gone from KU/KOLL. That's a big change--those books, along with Hunger Games, have been a big part of Amazon's program advertisement for a long time...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

I've seen more recent reports/rumors that Amazon has been reducing the tradpub count in KU.

Do Amazon have any control over it? My understanding is that it's the author or publisher, rather than Amazon, who decide what goes into it.

[Cinisajoy]

HarryT,
You are 100% correct.
Amazon is just a distributor. They do not set prices. They do not pick who can be borrowed. They do not say rather a book has DRM or not. As a matter of fact, the royalties are not even set in stone except for certain price points for indies and small publishers.
99 cents and 1.99 are always 35%. As is anything over 9.99.
Between those price points the author can choose 70% less a small delivery fee or they can choose 35% with no delivery fee.

The author/publisher chooses it all.
And even if an author chooses Select (Kindle Unlimited), it is only a 90 day commitment then they can decide to renew or stay published with Amazon and be able to publish elsewhere.

[mitford13]

Self-pubs and publishers enrolled through KDP do have control over enrollment, but Harry's question was about trad pub books available in KU. Larger publishers typically don't go through KDP, they have separate contractual arrangements with Amazon.

Here's a quote from Publisher's Lunch (16 July 2014) when KU was first announced:

"...Amazon already had a big, direct license for Harry Potter for Kindle Owner’s Lending Library. The company had previously offered Hunger Games for borrowing through the Kindle Owners Lending Library, though they did so without any specific permission from Scholastic, which was paid full price on each lend. Scholastic spokesperson Kyle Good confirms to us that it is “the same situation” for Kindle Unlimited — Amazon informed Scholastic they would be including the books in this program and “they have the right to do it” under their current contract, though there was “no new negotiated deal” specifically covering this usage. As with KOLL, Scholastic will get paid their full wholesale price every time one of their ebooks is opened by a Kindle Unlimited subscriber.

Other wholesale-basis publishers who declined Amazon’s offers to authorize participation have reported the same thing as Scholastic: That Amazon told publishers the etailer has the right to include ebooks in the initiative without permission, as long as they pay for each open as a regular sale. Offers made to publishers to directly authorize participation were similar to the way existing subscription programs such as Oyster and Scribd operate, where the publisher is paid full price after a certain specific percentage of any book is read."

More recently (few months ago), Kensington CEO Steven Zacharius commented on a publishing blog that Amazon was removing Kensington titles from KU at their choosing. So I would say, for some trad pubs Amazon can and does exercise a right of KU enrollment (or removal.)

The largest number of books from any one trad publisher I've seen in KU (4,000+) is Open Road Media. I would guess they have separately negotiated contract terms, but none of us really knows for sure about any of this, it's all inferences, some more educated than others, based on media reports.

http://lunch.publishersmarketplace.c...ffer-probably/

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mitford13

Self-pubs and publishers enrolled through KDP do have control over enrollment, but Harry's question was about trad pub books available in KU. Larger publishers typically don't go through KDP, they have separate contractual arrangements with Amazon.

Many thanks for the interesting and useful information.

[fjtorres]

Amazon is a just a distributor but they are under no obligation to carry everything and anything. They aren't a public utility or a common carrier as many in publishing seem to think. Being listed at Amazon isn't a right but rather a transaction. Both sides have to agree. And sometimes Amazon chooses not to carry a product if the conditions aren't to their liking. It's not common but its not unheard of, either.

They routinely disallow lots of products and when contracts run out, they renegotiate or delist. Tradpub titles in KU have separate contracts from the KDP Select titles and Amazon has reportedly been cutting back there.

For good reason.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Amazon is a just a distributor but they are under no obligation to carry everything and anything. They aren't a public utility or a common carrier as many in publishing seem to think. Being listed at Amazon isn't a right but rather a transaction. Both sides have to agree. And sometimes Amazon chooses not to carry a product if the conditions aren't to their liking. It's not common but its not unheard of, either.

They routinely disallow lots of products and when contracts run out, they renegotiate or delist. Tradpub titles in KU have separate contracts from the KDP Select titles and Amazon has reportedly been cutting back there.

For good reason.

There is one exception and that is the Amazon imprints. That is the only time, they act like an actual publisher.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

There is one exception and that is the Amazon imprints. That is the only time, they act like an actual publisher.

Separate business, though.
APub acts like a tradpub because it *is* a tradpub. And run separately from the retailer, Amazon, LLC.

Amazon is a conglomerate.
APub is as distinct and separate from the retailers as AWS, Lab126, Audible, Zappos, and Kiva.
Each unit sets its own rules and guidelines so what Audible does does not necessarily indicate how KDP or KU is going to act. Each unit is expected to grow its business and meet its own market head on.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by mitford13

Started to see grumbling in the forums yesterday that the Harry Potter books are gone from KU/KOLL. That's a big change--those books, along with Hunger Games, have been a big part of Amazon's program advertisement for a long time...

They can now be purchased directly from Amazon, instead of having to get them from Pottermore. That's probably because Apple got to sell the 'enhanced' editions directly (in their bastard iBooks format), so other retailers get to sell them as well. Not DRM free that way, however, and I have not checked to see if Pottermore still lets you push them to the respective bookstores when you purchase there.

And though Audible now carries the audiobooks, no 'whispersync for voice' as yet.

They can still be borrowed from public libraries.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tomsem

They can now be purchased directly from Amazon, instead of having to get them from Pottermore. That's probably because Apple got to sell the 'enhanced' editions directly (in their bastard iBooks format), so other retailers get to sell them as well. Not DRM free that way, however, and I have not checked to see if Pottermore still lets you push them to the respective bookstores when you purchase there.

Just to note that the HP books have never been sold DRM-free. When sold direct by Pottermore they were watermarked.