Kindle Needs A “Subscribe This Author” Button – TechCrunch

When Amazon launched the Kindle Unlimited service last July, the idea was popular indie authors That could use the service as a way to gather royalties and raise Their author profiles in tandem. The all-you-can-eat reading service was supposed to help, not harm, the authors.

The opposite has been the case. After the launch of KU and prolific number of writers have seen sales drop precipitously. The Digital Reader found a number of examples Including writer HM Ward Whose sales fell by 70 percent. She wrote:

Ok, some of you already know, but I had my serials in it for 60 days and lost approx 75% of my income.Thats counting Borrows and bonuses. : O My sales dropped like a stone. The number of Borrows was higher than sales. They did not compliment each other, as expected.Taking a huge pay cut ass while I’m still working my butt off, well that’s not ok. And we Effected KU whole list, not just KU titles. At the time of enrollment I had about 60 titles total.I he planned giving it 90 days, but I have a kid in the hospital for long term care and I noticed we were spending was going to Exceed my income-by a lot. I could not wait and watch further Top plummet thing. I pulled my books. That was on Nov 1, & amp; since then we net revenue has gone up. I’m now at 50% of where I was pre-KU. During the time I was in KU, I had 2 new releases. Neither preformed vastly dif ferent than before. They actually earned far less (Including Borrows).

But Ward added an interesting aside near the end of her post she would love to offer her readers a paid subscription is her work.

Ward, with 60 pieces in the Kindle store, is a rare case of a writer who is making a living from her writing through sheer volume. Most writers have one book in them at best but, as most experts note Kindle, the best way to make money is to write, publish, and repeat – ad infinitum.

To subscribe allowing users it is writers like Ward they will be doing everyone a solid. Ward and other writers will get a steady stream of income, readers will get the work of Their favorite authors automatically if and Amazon has a captive source of revenue. Patreon, created by Jack Conte, is a perfect example of this dynamic. That service allows fans to pay a small amount every time an author Creates a piece of content, be it a song, a blog post, or a podcast. To Ensuring That the creator is paid the consumer Ensures the content keeps coming.

KU THUS far has been a dud. The selection is awful at best and laughable at worst. While some titles, like the Harry Potter series, seem like a great deal, the rest of the KU pool is an undifferentiated mess. By creating a sea of ​​free content, Amazon has the value of Real paid content. That’s horrible for writers who are trying to live off of Their writing.

Should Amazon Kindle kill or reduce Unlimited and instead allow subscriptions. It makes sense for everyone Involved and it’s a great way to change the way writing is Consumed on a mass scale.