Amazon is testing “Kindle Unlimited,” an ebook subscription service for $9.99/month

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

If they don't ever see you read any of it, the author won't get paid. Although since it is a borrowed book, I assume you will turn it on to return the book and at that point, I assume they grab the data they want/need.

It seems possible to read books on Kindle Unlimited without the author being paid, but I assume that the percentage of those that will do so is small enough not to matter.

For example, if you have a Kindle device that has Wi-Fi permanently turned off, you can still load books to it via USB. The Manage Your Content and Devices page at amazon.com allows download & transfer via USB of KU books. You can even return books from there when you are done with them. In that case I don't see how Amazon can know how much of the book was actually read.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by jhowell

It seems possible to read books on Kindle Unlimited without the author being paid, but I assume that the percentage of those that will do so is small enough not to matter.

For example, if you have a Kindle device that has Wi-Fi permanently turned off, you can still load books to it via USB. The Manage Your Content and Devices page at amazon.com allows download & transfer via USB of KU books. You can even return books from there when you are done with them. In that case I don't see how Amazon can know how much of the book was actually read.

What is to prevent you from load via usb, and never deleting, but returning nethertheless. Or resideloading after a sync? Would not think that Amazon would make it that easy. Shouldn't they have someone read this here and adjusting accordingly?

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

What is to prevent you from load via usb, and never deleting, but returning nethertheless. Or resideloading after a sync? Would not think that Amazon would make it that easy. Shouldn't they have someone read this here and adjusting accordingly?

One of the reasons that "lending" and "borrowing" has been so slow to catch on with publishers and authors is because of the fear of shenanigans. As authors, we have to trust/pray that people are willing to buy our books because 1. Those who don't want to, won't and 2. We can't really rely on Amazon to plug all the holes. 3. We can't even rely on the vendor to close most of the holes.

For the most part, retailers are so eager to get these programs going, there are gaping holes a mile wide, especially when they first offer these things. It took Amazon years to really implement an algorithm to track returns and do something about it (reliably and repeatably for most users rather than randomly testing/noticing/etc). Same thing with looking for certain patterns of returns (read book one, return, read book 2, return, etc).

In short, I doubt Amazon has a lot of protective features just yet. They rely on the average customer who just clicks and uses the device without storing, sharing, porting, turning on and off, etc. They hope for the customer who turns on a subscription (of any kind) and then forgets about it--getting charged month after month for something they may not even be in the habit of using. Subscriptions work, in large part, because customers do this sort of thing. They forget what they are paying, they only occasionally remember to check a status and they are rarely using the full service/abilities of a sub.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

One of the reasons that "lending" and "borrowing" has been so slow to catch on with publishers and authors is because of the fear of shenanigans.

Shenanigans?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

What is to prevent you from load via usb, and never deleting, but returning nethertheless. Or resideloading after a sync? Would not think that Amazon would make it that easy. Shouldn't they have someone read this here and adjusting accordingly?

Maybe they aren't concerned because there are easier ways to pirate ebooks en-masse?
http://www.cnet.com/news/kindle-e-bo...y-accelerates/

Why would anybody pay $10 to pirate a few hundred indie titles one by one when you can get BPH ebooks by the thousand for free?

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

What is to prevent you from load via usb, and never deleting, but returning nethertheless. Or resideloading after a sync? Would not think that Amazon would make it that easy. Shouldn't they have someone read this here and adjusting accordingly?

I don't think they can. A book I returned once after downloading was removed from my Kindle for PC library, but remained on my computer.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Maybe they aren't concerned because there are easier ways to pirate ebooks en-masse?
http://www.cnet.com/news/kindle-e-bo...y-accelerates/

Why would anybody pay $10 to pirate a few hundred indie titles one by one when you can get BPH ebooks by the thousand for free?

Ah, maybe you are right about that. Have not been up to date on current pirating methods - completely missed the going back to agent pricing to no agent pricing and now trying to get back to agent pricing.

Interesting article - the one thing that stuck out was the pricing: once a paperback comes out, the ebook should go down to that price as well. Why doesn't it?

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

What is to prevent you from load via usb, and never deleting, but returning nethertheless. Or resideloading after a sync? Would not think that Amazon would make it that easy. Shouldn't they have someone read this here and adjusting accordingly?

What is to prevent you from doing the same thing to KOLL, library loans, and loans from friends (or via lendle.me)?

There is no way to stop people from backing up a file. And you cannot have a file spontaneously self-destruct.

And it's much easier to pirate via torrents.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

And it's much easier to pirate via torrents.

Or the website that hosts thousands of pirate ebooks in epub, side-by-side with links to *buy* the Kindle editions of the same books.

Apparently he makes a nice chunk of change off the Amazon affiliate fees.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

The authors are paid out of a single "pot of cash" that is divided up across all books borrowed in a given period. The price of the book does not matter. They take all the borrows and some pre-set amount (this month I think that amount is 2 million) and divide it across the authors.

And I bet some people might also read the book through KU and then decide they want to add author x's book to their permanent library and so the author's might gain a bit more income from sales generated that way too.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by crich70

And I bet some people might also read the book through KU and then decide they want to add author x's book to their permanent library and so the author's might gain a bit more income from sales generated that way too.

...And I would bet that this is EXACTLY what Amazon is hoping for.

Shari

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by shalym

...And I would bet that this is EXACTLY what Amazon is hoping for.

Shari

Well, the authors at least.

If you look at the KU promo, Amazon is promoting it as a way of exploring the world of books. Maybe it's not just hype. Maybe that really is their goal: get people to explore KU, discover new authors, then buy other stuff from the store.

Everybody keeps thinking they will add BPH titles over time...
I'm thinking... maybe not. Maybe they don't want more than a token supply of tradpub titles...

Looking at the numbers, KU lists about 20% of the full Kindle catalog and 20% of the KU catalog is tradpub. Awfully convenient. Like they had everything planned for ages and were waiting for their Select catalog to hit half a million.

I think KU exists to remind readers that there is plenty of good reading to be found outside BPH-land and change their buying habits.

(And make some money while at it. )

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Well, the authors at least.

If you look at the KU promo, Amazon is promoting it as a way of exploring the world of books. Maybe it's not just hype. Maybe that really is their goal: get people to explore KU, discover new authors, then buy other stuff from the store.

Everybody keeps thinking they will add BPH titles over time...
I'm thinking... maybe not. Maybe they don't want more than a token supply of tradpub titles...

Looking at the numbers, KU lists about 20% of the full Kindle catalog and 20% of the KU catalog is tradpub. Awfully convenient. Like they had everything planned for ages and were waiting for their Select catalog to hit half a million.

I think KU exists to remind readers that there is plenty of good reading to be found outside BPH-land and change their buying habits.

(And make some money while at it. )

Absolutely. I think that sums up the way I feel about KU as well. It is not a bad thing and I would not mind it to stay that way.

Reading Whool, Shift, and Dust trilogy right now by Hugh Howey. Each parts omnibus is in KU. Not intending to buy them though - maybe if I want to reread them later and they are no longer in KU by then.

[Barty]

For KU to succeed it has to be a good deal for authors as well as readers. Musicians complain loudly that the money they get from streaming services like Spotify is just pitiful. I don't blame the BPHs for taking a wait and see attitude.

How can authors tell if the system actually works as specified and they are being properly compensated per their contracts. There does not have to be malice on Amazon's part -- all software has bugs that take time to be exposed, identified, fixed. And Amazon's interests and authors' and publishers' interests do not align perfectly. Amazon wants to make getting books as frictionless as possible and wants to err on being lenient to customers, whereas publishers want a rigorous, secure system with strict accounting. Can they trust Amazon to plug all the holes?

[fjtorres]

One author's early results on KU:
http://noorosha.com/kindleunlimited/

Ultimately, the boost in sales I’ve seen from putting 2 titles into KU has surpassed the total earnings for all my books on Nook, iTunes, and Kobo combined. That’s potentially a pretty powerful incentive to put my books back into the KDP Select program.

On principle, I dislike the idea of being exclusive to Amazon (or anyone, for that matter), even if it’s only for 90 days. I want to give readers more opportunities to find me, and I’d love to have a following on non-Amazon sites to fall back on, should the ‘Zon decide to slash the amount they pay out in borrows. On the other hand, Amazon still accounts for 85% – 90% of my total revenue, so any boost I can get on that channel will inherently deliver greater results. I also don’t see Amazon cutting KU payments to authors any time soon – they do want to build market share in book streaming, after all. If things get bad, authors have the option to jump ship, so why would Amazon want to run the risk of losing all their content?

At the moment, this is all speculation. I’ve only had 4 days of numbers to play with, and the results have, so far, been promising – if not spectacular. So I’ll be keeping an eye on how my two KU books perform over the next few weeks and make a more informed decision when I’ve got more data.

More, plus pretty charts at the source.