Kindle Unlimited
Discussion
Anyone else (ab)use this much? I've really started trying to read as much as possible this last year and get as much value for money as possible out of it.
I'm fairly sure I cost Amazon money...
The issue becomes finding new authors I've not read, or older authors who've added their back catalog. And then sorting the absolute dross out from the gems.
I read primarily sci-fi, fantasy and fiction - any KU authors out there that you'd recommend that may have not been noticed otherwise?
I'm fairly sure I cost Amazon money...
The issue becomes finding new authors I've not read, or older authors who've added their back catalog. And then sorting the absolute dross out from the gems.
I read primarily sci-fi, fantasy and fiction - any KU authors out there that you'd recommend that may have not been noticed otherwise?
I dip in and out of it. Find something I want to read and take up the regular month free offer. Then cancel, and inevitably get another offer of a quid for three months or similar.
The main problem I have, especially with SF and fantasy, is everything seems to be “Part X of an eleventy-million-part-series-due-to-be-completed-in-2069”. It’s a s
tty trend in those genres now and puts me off a lot of probably very good authors. I don’t mind the odd trilogy but would prefer people got back to writing stand-alone novels.
Oh, and I find it much easier to find stuff to read using the website, rather than the kindle.
The main problem I have, especially with SF and fantasy, is everything seems to be “Part X of an eleventy-million-part-series-due-to-be-completed-in-2069”. It’s a s
tty trend in those genres now and puts me off a lot of probably very good authors. I don’t mind the odd trilogy but would prefer people got back to writing stand-alone novels. Oh, and I find it much easier to find stuff to read using the website, rather than the kindle.
suffering from a lack of content right nowCheesecakeRunner said:
The main problem I have, especially with SF and fantasy, is everything seems to be “Part X of an eleventy-million-part-series-due-to-be-completed-in-2069”. It’s a stty trend in those genres now and puts me off a lot of probably very good authors. I don’t mind the odd trilogy but would prefer people got back to writing stand-alone novels.
The advantage is that if you like it, there's more to read tty trend in those genres now and puts me off a lot of probably very good authors. I don’t mind the odd trilogy but would prefer people got back to writing stand-alone novels. 
The drawback is that there does seem to be a certain amount of 'writing by numbers' where the intent seems to be to generate more pages and game the KU revenue algorithm. But you can usually tell if a series will be dross pretty quickly.
jimmyjimjim said:
But you can usually tell if a series will be dross pretty quickly.
My main wish for is for a filter on Amazon of “Only from a professional publishing house”I’ve a great deal of sympathy for authors and how hard it is to get published, my father-in-law is one. But self-published dross can get in the sea.
It's also amazing how well-reviewed some utterly crap books can be - and I don't mean bot reviews - I've read reviews that were clearly written by a human* claiming that it was the greatest work of literature ever when I'm fairly confident I could crap out better prose.
* or near derivative.
* or near derivative.
Lewis Kingston said:
My science-fiction novel, which is called Prompt Excursion, is available on Kindle Unlimited. If you do pick it up, I hope you enjoy it.
Added it to my Kindle Unlimited, sounds like my kind of book.Edited by Lewis Kingston on Thursday 11th January 11:32
Have more people bought the book or used Unlimited?
jimmyjimjim said:
Added to the wish list (KU full currently).
nellystew said:
Added it to my Kindle Unlimited, sounds like my kind of book.
Have more people bought the book or used Unlimited?
Fab! That's a good question, you know. Having just looked at the numbers, about a third of those who have acquired the book have done so using Kindle Unlimited. I'm still quite surprised by that, given that it seems to favour other genres, such as thrillers and romance.Have more people bought the book or used Unlimited?
(One thing worth bearing in mind, though, is that the KU statistics only tell you the number of pages read – not complete readthroughs or reader count – so I'm just dividing the total page reads by the length of the book to get an approximate idea of how many complete KU reads there have been.)
Lewis Kingston said:
(One thing worth bearing in mind, though, is that the KU statistics only tell you the number of pages read – not complete readthroughs or reader count – so I'm just dividing the total page reads by the length of the book to get an approximate idea of how many complete KU reads there have been.)
I read an article a while back about changes to the way that KU paid the author, intended to get round the games played by authors with short stories. I think there's a minimum page count before payment or minimum percentage (10%?) before the author gets paid?Thinking about this, that was several years ago so it's undoubtedly changed many times since then. I just found something saying the author got paid about $1.50 for an average book length. Taking that into account, I get about $30 pcm value out of my KU subscription.
jimmyjimjim said:
Glad there's a sequel in the works.
Thank you! Reminds me, I best get on with it. 
jimmyjimjim said:
I read an article a while back about changes to the way that KU paid the author, intended to get round the games played by authors with short stories. I think there's a minimum page count before payment or minimum percentage (10%?) before the author gets paid?
Thinking about this, that was several years ago so it's undoubtedly changed many times since then. I just found something saying the author got paid about $1.50 for an average book length. Taking that into account, I get about $30 pcm value out of my KU subscription.
I think that payment-per-book figure is pretty much on the money, for a complete readthrough of an average novel.Thinking about this, that was several years ago so it's undoubtedly changed many times since then. I just found something saying the author got paid about $1.50 for an average book length. Taking that into account, I get about $30 pcm value out of my KU subscription.
I've not clocked any minimums, but then my experience with it is limited. I have noticed that even low numbers of page counts show up and will accrue the associated royalties, though. If a handful of pages are read one morning, for example, the account will reflect the fractional payment accumulated that is related to them. Amazon also appears happy to pay out small amounts electronically, with restrictions only applying to a few other forms of payment.
However, there is seemingly a considerable lag on the account pages – so while it's showing just a few pages read, several readers may have subsequently bumped that number up to 600 pages or so, but that won't be shown until later in the day, or the day after. And the numbers do sometimes appear to shift around a little, presumably as various bits of data are tied together.
Lewis Kingston said:
jimmyjimjim said:
Glad there's a sequel in the works.
Thank you! Reminds me, I best get on with it. jimmyjimjim said:
I read an article a while back about changes to the way that KU paid the author, intended to get round the games played by authors with short stories. I think there's a minimum page count before payment or minimum percentage (10%?) before the author gets paid?
Thinking about this, that was several years ago so it's undoubtedly changed many times since then. I just found something saying the author got paid about $1.50 for an average book length. Taking that into account, I get about $30 pcm value out of my KU subscription.
I think that payment-per-book figure is pretty much on the money, for a complete readthrough of an average novel.Thinking about this, that was several years ago so it's undoubtedly changed many times since then. I just found something saying the author got paid about $1.50 for an average book length. Taking that into account, I get about $30 pcm value out of my KU subscription.
I've not clocked any minimums, but then my experience with it is limited. I have noticed that even low numbers of page counts show up and will accrue the associated royalties, though. If a handful of pages are read one morning, for example, the account will reflect the fractional payment accumulated that is related to them. Amazon also appears happy to pay out small amounts electronically, with restrictions only applying to a few other forms of payment.
However, there is seemingly a considerable lag on the account pages – so while it's showing just a few pages read, several readers may have subsequently bumped that number up to 600 pages or so, but that won't be shown until later in the day, or the day after. And the numbers do sometimes appear to shift around a little, presumably as various bits of data are tied together.
Yes they do make small payments, our account shows a number of different royalty payments from different countries, from both sales and KUP.
I do have a mistrust of the system though, it changed format about 12 months ago, at that point we noted a dip in of both KENP and sales. We even started to get a cluster of negative sales, ie returns, something that had never happened before in the five years of trading.
velocemitch said:
I think what happens with page reads is the kindle will download the read data at periods, but obviously only if its connected to the wifi, if for instance the reader takes a kindle on holiday (out of signal), it will only download when they get back and connect up to wifi again.
Yes they do make small payments, our account shows a number of different royalty payments from different countries, from both sales and KUP.
I do have a mistrust of the system though, it changed format about 12 months ago, at that point we noted a dip in of both KENP and sales. We even started to get a cluster of negative sales, ie returns, something that had never happened before in the five years of trading.
As is the done thing, please link your novel(s) on here so I can partake Yes they do make small payments, our account shows a number of different royalty payments from different countries, from both sales and KUP.
I do have a mistrust of the system though, it changed format about 12 months ago, at that point we noted a dip in of both KENP and sales. We even started to get a cluster of negative sales, ie returns, something that had never happened before in the five years of trading.
jimmyjimjim said:
velocemitch said:
I think what happens with page reads is the kindle will download the read data at periods, but obviously only if its connected to the wifi, if for instance the reader takes a kindle on holiday (out of signal), it will only download when they get back and connect up to wifi again.
Yes they do make small payments, our account shows a number of different royalty payments from different countries, from both sales and KUP.
I do have a mistrust of the system though, it changed format about 12 months ago, at that point we noted a dip in of both KENP and sales. We even started to get a cluster of negative sales, ie returns, something that had never happened before in the five years of trading.
As is the done thing, please link your novel(s) on here so I can partake Yes they do make small payments, our account shows a number of different royalty payments from different countries, from both sales and KUP.
I do have a mistrust of the system though, it changed format about 12 months ago, at that point we noted a dip in of both KENP and sales. We even started to get a cluster of negative sales, ie returns, something that had never happened before in the five years of trading.
Just read recent review saying, ‘like an adult Enid Blyton‘ I think that’s a great compliment
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Letter-never-know-when-Ch...
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