Amazon listens to authors; changes KU pay to per-page model

[howyoudoin]

A disadvantage of paying per page is that it incentivises the author to write long drawn out novels where the reader has to wade through tedious descriptions of the furniture and layout of rooms.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by howyoudoin

A disadvantage of paying per page is that it incentivises the author to write long drawn out novels where the reader has to wade through tedious descriptions of the furniture and layout of rooms.

Which passages will cause the reader to give up and try something else.

Padding makes stories worse for readers and is counterproductive in a service where there is no reason to stick with a boring book; no upfront costs urging you to stick with it "just a bit longer".

As I said above, books that readers don't finish (Like THE GOLDFINCH) are not good fits for KU.

A 60,000 word book that readers abandon halfway will not generate any more income than a good 30,000 word book that everybody finishes. Instead, it will generate bad reviews and less total income.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

A lot of authors have been lobbying for this. Very publicly.
For example:
http://www.hughhowey.com/new-ku-payout-structure/

In that article, Hugh says:

To those who write works with a mind of maximizing their earnings according to Amazon’s algorithms, take note: It’s not a good idea. Not in the long term. Write the stories you enjoy and that you think readers’ will love. This remains the best way to game the system: Write great works.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by twowheels

In that article, Hugh says:

...and that's why I love Hugh.

Shari

[howyoudoin]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Which passages will cause the reader to give up and try something else.

Padding makes stories worse for readers and is counterproductive in a service where there is no reason to stick with a boring book; so upfront costs urging you to stick with it "just a bit longer".

As I said above, books that readers don't finish (Like THE GOLDFINCH) are not good fits for KU.

A 60,000 word book that readers abandon halfway will not generate any more income than a good 30,000 word book that everybody finishes. Instead, it will generate bad reviews and less total income.

I am well aware of this, but in spite of this bit of common sense and logic we've had best sellers like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which is what prompts me to make the observation.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by howyoudoin

I am well aware of this, but in spite of this bit of common sense and logic we've had best sellers like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which is what prompts me to make the observation.

Bestsellers are tricky creatures to use as examples. As demonstrated by THE GOLDFINCH: a lot of them get there from sales that are gifts, impulse buys, and social buys from people who are only buying on spec. Not true fans who know what to expect.

That is where one hit wonders come from: people who don't finish a book they probably shouldn't have bought in the first place. The Stephen Kings who sell a million to people who know exactly what to expect are few and far between.

Publishers care about sales, not reads.
Authors need to worry about both, especially the Indies who make the bulk of the KU catalog. That alone makes the switch a good move, long term.

[murg]

Originally Posted by howyoudoin

A disadvantage of paying per page is that it incentivises the author to write long drawn out novels where the reader has to wade through tedious descriptions of the furniture and layout of rooms.

"The shadow from the lamp cord cast a pall over the shadow from the lamp itself, barely illuminating the framed picture on the wall, while the doorway remained in deeper shadow, with just shadowy hints of what was in the shadows beyond. The victim had obviously committed suicide, or at least that's what someone wanted the world to believe. There was no stool or chair or anything for the victim to have propped themselves on before taking the leap into a shadowy death, although that it could have been kicked aside into the shadows at the periphery of the room. The victim's bruises stood out as shadows of an attempt at defending itself. The fact that the noose had a right-hand twist to it, and the victim was the last remaining orphan from its hand added yet another clue that this was no simple suicide, but a murder staged in the shadows of a dark, sad, shadowy room, by perpetrators who clearly crawled out of the shadows of the shadowy underworld, slithering this way and that ion the shadows to avoid the clear light of the day."

Do you mean like that?

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It is the publisher who sets it. Perhaps the article means that Amazon set a "default start reading" position if the book creator hasn't included one?

The publisher CAN set it if the publisher takes the time to do so--otherwise Amazon software looks for chapter one. I know this because if you have a prologue, you better know how to tell the software to start there (or at the cover, etc.) But without an explicit command, Amazon will just look for chapter 1.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

But KU isn't *selling* books.
You don't get a permanent license.
And you don't pay per book.
There's no reason why the rules of selling should apply. And they aren't doing discrete lends like video stores, either. Rather they are using the "Netflix model".

You pay for access to the library--whether you use it or not.

What Amazon is doing is changing how they allocate the revenue generated to a finer-grained metric. Before, a title was considered to be read once the subscriber reached the 10% marker. Now they are moving to a more precise measurement of usage and allocating the pool money based on it.

Remember, the payment to authors isn't fixed but rather it floats.
The pool size for each month is fixed ahead of schedule and the payout will vary depending on subscriber usage. A lot of authors object to that uncertainty and stay out of KU.

But for those that join, the uncertainty is part of the deal.
KU is as much about generating attention as it is about delivering money, so it is as much a marketing mechanism as a revenue source. Author payment is in cash and visibility; before, the system favored short form overwhelmingly over long form in both visibility and cash.

Now it is more balanced but visibility still favors short form.

It may be an attempt to get authors to put more books in the program -- rather than short stories. I know when I went exclusive for 90 days back when, I did it with short stories (anthologies). I did eventually try it with a novel, but overall the benefits were not there.

In reality I think authors are going to be paid less with this model. At a guess, many of the books are "tried" and "sampled" but not read completely. Amazon already KNOWS whether the majority of books are being read a quarter of the way, halfway or to the end. I'm guessing they are happy to change the payment because from their data, indications are they will pay out less than before, not more.

It may encourage authors to try novels in the program in the hopes of making more money and that also helps Amazon because novels have always sold better (generated more interest) than short stories.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I'm guessing they are happy to change the payment because from their data, indications are they will pay out less than before, not more.

It's a fixed pool so Amazon pays out the same no matter how they distribute it.

On a per page model they may pay less on some individual titles and more on others but as the announcement says, the pool money will be divided by the total number of pages read. All of it.
Before, they didn't pay for 9% reads. Now, they'll be paying out on even 1 page reads.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

It's a fixed pool so Amazon pays out the same no matter how they distribute it.

On a per page model they may pay less on some individual titles and more on others but as the announcement says, the pool money will be divided by the total number of pages read. All of it.

I put that badly. Yes, the money available is the same, but it will slant to finished books (which is not a bad thing). And in that regard, I think SOME authors are going to make less than before. It's not all that hard to sample through 10 percent. I often sample that far before abandoning a book. If I were reading KU books, most authors would have been paid for the "borrow." But I abandon probably 75 percent of books I sample. So if they are now paid by the page, the authors who were getting a full payment at 10 percent are not going to get paid very much if readers do a lot of sampling.

Shrug. I'm not saying it's a bad idea. I don't really know. So long as Amazon requires exclusivity it's a deal killer for me as an author. From a reading standpoint, I gave SCRIBD a try. I don't like it enough to pay for it. I want to read from the entire pool--not pay 10 dollars a month to browse a select list that sometimes doesn't have what I want (which means another 10 dollars to buy a specific book). I do read a lot of indies, so KU should work for me--but I also read trad authors...and in that respect it would mean I'd end up paying more for books than I currently pay. I don't always get to read the books I want now, but I'm certainly not going to subscribe and then feel forced to get my monies worth by staying inside KU.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by murg

"The shadow from the lamp cord cast a pall over the shadow from the lamp itself, barely illuminating the framed picture on the wall, while the doorway remained in deeper shadow, with just shadowy hints of what was in the shadows beyond. The victim had obviously committed suicide, or at least that's what someone wanted the world to believe. There was no stool or chair or anything for the victim to have propped themselves on before taking the leap into a shadowy death, although that it could have been kicked aside into the shadows at the periphery of the room. The victim's bruises stood out as shadows of an attempt at defending itself. The fact that the noose had a right-hand twist to it, and the victim was the last remaining orphan from its hand added yet another clue that this was no simple suicide, but a murder staged in the shadows of a dark, sad, shadowy room, by perpetrators who clearly crawled out of the shadows of the shadowy underworld, slithering this way and that ion the shadows to avoid the clear light of the day."

Do you mean like that?

That is pretty good for a tried attempt at lengthening things out - even if you may have tried to make fun of it. Write a whole book like this AND keep the reader hooked is going to require a high skill and should be rewarded. All so often there is not enough scenery, only the bare bones story.

[Turtle91]

Lets pretend I'm an indie writer.... I write a 30,000 word book filled with:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed quis iaculis nisl. Duis tempus mollis lacinia. Phasellus id nunc ut sapien consequat fermentum. Quisque ligula tellus, dapibus ut felis vel, convallis ultricies lorem. Ut viverra molestie ligula. Curabitur vel malesuada ante. Mauris quis ante nec odio venenatis pulvinar sed a eros. Phasellus eleifend vulputate turpis at rutrum. Ut scelerisque aliquam risus, in fermentum dui venenatis sit amet. Nulla in justo varius, consequat ex eget, venenatis dui. Nam nec turpis convallis tortor porttitor finibus ut et lectus. Cras euismod, leo non interdum finibus, nisi diam gravida lacus, a faucibus diam dolor at urna.

I then go into the settings and create a TOC and put it at the end of my book - and designate it as the "start reading".

I then create 10-15 fake accounts and rate my book with 5 stars.

People get my book, open it, it opens to the last page, I get credit for people having "read" my book...I get paid max amount.

repeat multiple times with different author names....

I'm RICH!!!

[eschwartz]

Nope -- they have only read the last page, so you get one page's worth of money.

And that is even assuming Amazon won't helpfully move the SRL to begin with.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by murg

"The shadow from the lamp cord cast a pall over the shadow from the lamp itself, barely illuminating the framed picture on the wall, while the doorway remained in deeper shadow, with just shadowy hints of what was in the shadows beyond. The victim had obviously committed suicide, or at least that's what someone wanted the world to believe. There was no stool or chair or anything for the victim to have propped themselves on before taking the leap into a shadowy death, although that it could have been kicked aside into the shadows at the periphery of the room. The victim's bruises stood out as shadows of an attempt at defending itself. The fact that the noose had a right-hand twist to it, and the victim was the last remaining orphan from its hand added yet another clue that this was no simple suicide, but a murder staged in the shadows of a dark, sad, shadowy room, by perpetrators who clearly crawled out of the shadows of the shadowy underworld, slithering this way and that ion the shadows to avoid the clear light of the day."

Do you mean like that?

Please tell me that you made that up and didn't quote it from a real book!