Are you a paying subscriber to Kindle Unlimited/Scribd/Oyster?

[Xianxia]

Are you a paying subscriber to Kindle Unlimited/Scribd/Oyster?

Just an informal survey.

[Xianxia]

I believe subscription reading will grow in popularity in the coming years. Kindle Unlimited is already huge judging by the growing payout.

I believe Amazon will pay out over $300 million in the year 2015 in royalties.

About half will go to publishers that enroll in the program (small/medium publishers as well as Amazon Publishing various imprints).

The other half will go to KDP Select authors (self-publishers).


Payout to KDP Select authors (self-publishers)

2014

KOLL/KU Global Fund for August was $4.7 mil(average payout $1.54) ------3.052 million borrows
KOLL/KU Global Fund for September was $5 mil (average payout $1.52) -----3.29 million borrows
KOLL/KU Global Fund for October was $5.5 mil (average payout $1.33) -----4.14 million borrows
KOLL/KU Global Fund for November was $6.5 mil (average payout $1.40) -----4.64 million borrows
KOLL/KU Global Fund for December was $7.25 mi (average payout $1.43) -----5.07 million borrows

2015

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

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

Each month there is also $1.2 million in KDP Select All-Stars bonuses too.



p.s. Each KENP page is about 1/2 of a regular print page (give or take). It will vary novel by novel.

So a book with 300 print pages will have about 600 KENPC pages. So the actual rate is about $0.01 per "print" page in payout.

For some author, a KU read is actually better than a sales at $4.99

http://thisblogisaploy.blogspot.com/...al-if-you.html

My first novel in the program, Nice Dragons Finish Last, has a print page count of 287 pages, but a Kindle Edition Normalized Page Count (KENPC) of 703, which is almost a 2.5x difference. This means, according to the official payment for July, that for every KU reader who reads NDFL start to finish, I earn 703 x $0.0058, or $4.07.

That's a LOT of money per read, especially when you consider that I only earn $3.42 off a sale of the same book. So under the new KU, subscribers who read my book for free actually earn me more than readers who buy the book outright. That's kinda crazy, but it's also amazing. Especially in large volume, as we see below.

[booklover6]

I am a former subscriber of Scribd. I had KU for 6 months when I got it for half price. If they have a deal for it again, I may do it. To my mind, $9.99 a month is too much. I have a list of 90 or so books that I might like to read. However, I already have an Amazon account with 10,000 books, in addition to books bought elsewhere, and I rely heavily on the library. I pay for a card at the Brooklyn library, and it is a much better deal than KU.

So for those KU books, I get them once a month via KOLL. Free.

[Blossom]

I think this service has bit the dust due to how much money they had to pay out to authors. I use to be a Scribd member but after they pulled almost my entire library I cancelled. Not interested in KU. I will renew my library membership in January though.

[ottdmk]

I'm a happy member of the Ottawa Public Library which has free memberships for residents. My wish list of ebooks there is 113 books, with 54 available right now. Plus, I'm Canadian. I don't even know if those subscription services are available here. Regardless I wouldn't be joining anytime soon.

[pdurrant]

I can't see subscription services succeeding long-term without the output of the major publishing houses.

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by booklover6

So for those KU books, I get them once a month via KOLL. Free.

I struggle to find one book a month to borrow with the KOLL. I don't think Unlimited gets anywhere near providing what I want to read, even if its selection is slightly better.

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I can't see subscription services succeeding long-term without the output of the major publishing houses.

Exactly my thought. I pay less than $5 a month to "subscribe" to the Brooklyn library and I get major publishing house books and audio books. They have also been extremely responsive to buying things I request. Well worth the money!

[Dusky Rose]

I had Kindle Unlimited for a year and read quite a few books from it. I found several that I liked so much I bought to make sure I had them to read again.

I only dropped them because my To Be Read pile is huge, and there were several series I've purchased I wanted to get to. Those were going to take me a while, so no use paying for KU until I'd burned through those.

I still keep a Wish List for KU books I run across I'd like to read some day, in case I go back to KU. I have about 150 in there now.

For me, if I was just starting out and had no real TBR pile, I'd be staying with KU. I wasn't impressed with the selection on the others at the time I looked, and pretty much gave up on my on-line library because they just didn't have much selection in what I was interested in, nor did they follow up on series very much. So I've hardly ever borrowed a library book, although I do check there before I decide I want to start a new series. If they have it, (which they usually don't) then it saves me from paying for a stinker if I don't like it.

[GlenBarrington]

I really enjoy finding new authors (new to me, at least), and while popular, creatively active, authors who can sell ebooks for $10-$20 a pop, might not need KU, the newbies do, just to get heard over the noise of a gazillion new authors.

I feel that ten bucks a month allows me to try out new writers very cheaply with no excessive costs involved. I can try a book and if I don't like it I can abandon it and move on to something else with very little cost involved.

My understanding is that the authors get paid according to how much of the book I read. I like this. PLUS, it is an incentive to come up with intriguing premises for a new book; even if the book itself isn't very good, the author gets points for coming up with something new. (My assumption is, interesting ideas are an incentive for downloading by readers)

The same old tired trope, is not rewarded as much as an interesting new idea.

[Atunah]

I had KU initially when it first came out, last year, can't recall the month, July 2014? But after a few months there was this flood of porn shorts that basically took over every category in romance especially that it was hard to find any actual books anymore. A lot of authors pulled theirs out as that payment system at the time rewarded 10 page pamphlets. I cancelled in November last year.

Then I subscribed to Scribd because of the selection. I was happy about that, but not super happy about having to read on a tablet. My eyes prefer e-ink. But because of the selection, I made it work. Then Scribd yanked about 95% of my wishlist as they yanked most romance from their program, and anything they assumed romance readers read.

On prime day this year, July, I purchased a deeply discounted KU membership for 2 years and cancelled Scribd. I have found that the selection in KU is way way better this time around with some publishers in it, other than the big 5. All of the amazon titles and of course some well known indies. Many moved their books back in and a lot of the gold rush with the short porn has gone away.

So for me KU works as of now. I also have library cards and I still buy books when I have some gift cards. I am a pretty happy reader right now.

I am loving KU this time around a lot. I like the idea of subscription as I rarely re-read stuff so I don't need to own everything. Fine with me.

[tubemonkey]

Don't subscribe and won't as long as I can get free subscriptions from the library.

[Mort1997]

At the moment I am in the middle of a free trial of KU and I am quite enjoying it. My reading habits are a little all over the place as I'll pick a book and if it doesn't engage me I just return it and move on. I have discovered an author or 2 (Rain Oxford is the one that comes to mind) and got to read the latest M J Trow Maxwell book for free (a cosy series I love)

[issybird]

No. I don't read genre fiction nor am I interested in indies (and there's a big overlap there), so there'd be no point. It's hard enough for me to find the occasional freebie to read from the Kindle Owners Lending Library.

[NickyWithNook]

I use Scribd and I really like it. I've found lots of really great books on it.

I worry about how good a business model they have. They pulled most of their romance novels because they were losing money. I don't read romance novels so it didn't affect me, but of course they could end up finding out that the service as a whole doesn't make money and shut down. For now, I'm loving it. I don't know if I'll try Kindle Unlimited if they go under. They don't have any major publishers, do they?