Happy Saturday. I don't normally do this, talk about Amazon issues with my readers, but what's happening now in Kindle Unlimited requires it. I love Kindle Unlimited. All my books are in it. It's what I use as a reader, and because I write long series I want to provide my readers the ability to read in the most cost affordable way.
You may have noticed a lot of your favorite authors have pulled their books from Kindle Unlimited. Many haven't. I haven't even though I started to notice a rapid decline of page reads early in October.
Now I rarely believe what I read on the blogs and never react to it, but this one was too crazy: Amazon had installed a page flip feature for Kindle and if your readers read with page flip in KU authors wouldn't get paid for page reads.
I didn't believe it so I emailed Amazon directly and imagine my shock when I received back the following email: "Page Flip, this is a navigational tool and using it for navigation does not count toward pages read by design. We are monitoring Page Flip usage data and it is not being used for reading in any material way. We will continue to monitor for any changes in reader behavior."
You may have noticed a lot of your favorite authors have pulled their books from Kindle Unlimited. Many haven't. I haven't even though I started to notice a rapid decline of page reads early in October.
Now I rarely believe what I read on the blogs and never react to it, but this one was too crazy: Amazon had installed a page flip feature for Kindle and if your readers read with page flip in KU authors wouldn't get paid for page reads.
I didn't believe it so I emailed Amazon directly and imagine my shock when I received back the following email: "Page Flip, this is a navigational tool and using it for navigation does not count toward pages read by design. We are monitoring Page Flip usage data and it is not being used for reading in any material way. We will continue to monitor for any changes in reader behavior."
The part I particularly liked was where Amazon said it "wasn't being used for reading in a material way." My page read counts were rapidly dwindling, and I thought, "well I may be a little Indie Author them, but this isn't NOT MATERIAL to me."
I remained in the program even as my dearest author friends pulled out. I go with the flow of the Amazon changes and wait for everything to smooth out again. Only starting at the end of October, it wasn't smoothing. It was getting worse. I couldn't understand it. People were reading my books. I was getting reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, and my page reads were ONLY A FRACTION of what I normally do per day.
Well a funny thing happened yesterday. My iPhone died( This is relevant. I promise!) and I went to the store and got a new one, and while there they sold me up for a new iPad mini. I really like how small and light it is, and I thought this would be great for reading, so I bought a new iPad too.
But we all know what new technology means. Especially if you haven't backup your old technology in like forever. It means downloading new APPS and bringing in your content. So I downloaded the Kindle app, brought in my ebooks, and tapped one of MINE just to see how it would look on the iPad mini and up popped a page I'd never seen before and it says :This book is equipped with the Page Flip Feature. It's designed to help you navigate your book without losing your reading place.
Susan falls from chair. Not only did Amazon create a feature that cuts authors out of royalties. They decided to push it to my readers with a pop up when they open my books. I opened all of them. And by the time I was done, it was no longer a mystery why my page read counts every day dropped and now was less than what I normally receive.
I remained in the program even as my dearest author friends pulled out. I go with the flow of the Amazon changes and wait for everything to smooth out again. Only starting at the end of October, it wasn't smoothing. It was getting worse. I couldn't understand it. People were reading my books. I was getting reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, and my page reads were ONLY A FRACTION of what I normally do per day.
Well a funny thing happened yesterday. My iPhone died( This is relevant. I promise!) and I went to the store and got a new one, and while there they sold me up for a new iPad mini. I really like how small and light it is, and I thought this would be great for reading, so I bought a new iPad too.
But we all know what new technology means. Especially if you haven't backup your old technology in like forever. It means downloading new APPS and bringing in your content. So I downloaded the Kindle app, brought in my ebooks, and tapped one of MINE just to see how it would look on the iPad mini and up popped a page I'd never seen before and it says :This book is equipped with the Page Flip Feature. It's designed to help you navigate your book without losing your reading place.
Susan falls from chair. Not only did Amazon create a feature that cuts authors out of royalties. They decided to push it to my readers with a pop up when they open my books. I opened all of them. And by the time I was done, it was no longer a mystery why my page read counts every day dropped and now was less than what I normally receive.
I'm pretty much left with a simple choice: Stay in KU or leave like most of my author friends. Only, I don't want to leave KU. I like the program. I just don't like what Amazon did with the new page flip read option.
So until Amazon gets it worked out--or at least takes that darn pop up from my books--I'm asking for a simple favor. If you enjoy my books, read my books, and want to keep having access to them through Kindle Unlimited Please don't use the Page Flip Feature.
Use Page Flip= author doesn't get paid.
Maybe I'm wrong to think it's as simple as asking you all to support me this way. I'm hoping enough of you want the rest of the Parker Family Saga books and His Man, and all the other books that fill out my fictional universe to do this minor thing for me.
I can't keep writing, investing the money for covers/editing/formatting/promotion, if the end result is Amazon lets you read my work without paying me. That's fair right?
As ever I wish you peace and happy reading.
So until Amazon gets it worked out--or at least takes that darn pop up from my books--I'm asking for a simple favor. If you enjoy my books, read my books, and want to keep having access to them through Kindle Unlimited Please don't use the Page Flip Feature.
Use Page Flip= author doesn't get paid.
Maybe I'm wrong to think it's as simple as asking you all to support me this way. I'm hoping enough of you want the rest of the Parker Family Saga books and His Man, and all the other books that fill out my fictional universe to do this minor thing for me.
I can't keep writing, investing the money for covers/editing/formatting/promotion, if the end result is Amazon lets you read my work without paying me. That's fair right?
As ever I wish you peace and happy reading.
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