Kindle Unlimited and the only Amazon numbers we know for sure.
Amazon is notoriously opaque. It does not reveal the number of devices sold or books sold or movies downloaded. It’s hard to measure the success of any one program and the algorithms it uses to construct its bestseller lists are a closely guarded secret. There are those who guess but no one knows anything for certain.
But since the announcement of Kindle Unlimited, Amazon has shared (albeit reluctantly as you will see) actual numbers which show the performance of one of its most recent consumer launches. Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service and was launched on July 18. I suspect that the launch was prematurely moved up due to inadvertent discovery of the site by enterprising people on the internet who found cached pages with the KU branding.
The way self published authors are paid for participating in KU is through a fund that is underwritten by Amazon. By tracking the amount of the fund in any given month against the individual payout, we can see a little transparency in the program.
- July 2014: Global Fund $2.875M with a $1.81 payout = 1,588,398 borrows
- August 2014: Global Fund $4.7M with $1.54 payout = 3,051,948 borrows
- September 2014: Global Fund $5.0M with $1.52 payout = 3,289,474 borrows
- October 2014: Global Fund $5.5M with $1.33 payout = 4,230,769 borrows
In September 2014, Amazon introduced a Kindle All Stars program where the top 100 authors in the KU program and the top 100 titles in the KU program received a monetary bonus. Based on the KDP FAQ page, however, it appears the All Stars program is above and beyond the Fund.
The percentage growth between July and August is almost 100% but it slows dramatically between August and September and then improved between September and October.
Kindle Unlimited launched in several different countries:
- UK – Sept 24
- Germany – Oct 7
- Spain & Italy – Nov 4
The KU service costs $9.99 per month. In order for Amazon to break even on the Fund it underwriters, there would need to be the following number of subscribers:
- July 2014: 287,788
- Aug 2014: 470,470
- Sept 2014: 500,501
- Oct 2014: 550,551
The launch into other countries hasn’t seem to improve the subscriber numbers dramatically. The percent growth in the last three months has been very modest.
It’s hard to draw many conclusions from this other than there appears to be a sharp decline in the rate of adoption of Kindle Unlimited. I have a subscription but I only borrow approximately 3-4 titles a month which means I’m not getting my money’s worth out of the program. I’m a fan of Scribd and I find a lot more content on Scribd, in part because of Harlequin’s participation but also because of HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster’s participation, than I do with KU. If I had to choose between the two, I’d drop KU.
If nothing else, it will be interesting to see the evolution of these numbers. Are you using a subscription service? If so, why or why not?
Note: If I did math wrong, let me know.
I may not be the typical Amazon customer but I am glad to throw some of my personal stats in the ring.
I have been an Amazon Prime member for several years now. I did NOT sign up for Kindle Unlimited. At first, I was intrigued but I decided to take a wait and see attitude toward the program before I signed up. I don’t use my allotted Kindle borrows because frankly I never think about it when I am buying books.
I typically buy up to a hundred books a month. Almost always digital and the vast majority of them from Amazon. After having an unnamed digital first company lose the records and thus my library of over 800 books purchased due to an error when they upgraded their site few years ago I stopped buying from most vender sites other than Amazon. Amazon provided me with the most confidence that they had adequate backup procedures in place (and I taught myself how to use Calibre).
This summer and fall have been atypical of my book buying habits. Starting in June I became increasingly concerned about the health of EC and decided to start repurchasing my old favorite titles that I lost during what I call my personal Computer Crash Debacle of 2010. I bought dozens of old EC backlist titles from Amazon each month throughout the summer until August 26. The news of their lawsuit against brought about my own personal boycott. Instead I switched to buying non-EC books by EC authors in support and again upped my buying habits. Then things kind of snowballed. In the last two months I have bought over 300 months and have another 75 on preorder throught the next 9 months.
Throughout all of this I never considered signing up or even checking out the Kindle Unlimited library. Again, I may not be the typical Amazon customer but I prefer to buy my books not borrow them. I was worried about how well the Authors were being compensated and above everything I want the creative forces behind the stories I love to get paid so that they in turn they can afford to keep creating the stories that I love.
Interesting article, I’m in the UK and use Amazon for all my ebook purchases, and I buy quite a lot. My sister is currently using the free trial on unlimited and she really likes it, but she is less likely to reread a book and most of her previous purchases were for cheaper books or books on offer.
The subscription service doesn’t appeal to me as I reread a lot of books and I just prefer to own them outright. If I was going to borrow I’d be more inclined to use the local library more, since at least that it free.
To me, the only thing KU had over Oyster and Scribd was audio. However, Scribd expanded its selection to include audio last week. 30,000 audio books became available to me overnight. And good ones at that. I practically cut my Audible wish list in half. When you throw in the Harlequin deal, and the fact that it’s the cheapest of the three, there’s just no contest.
I didn’t even do the free trial of KU because I knew it just wouldn’t work for me. I’m not a book browser. If I buy a book, then it’s the exact book I want, and I’ll usually buy at any price. So there’s little chance that the content on KU would ever be worth it to me. But I can see how, if a reader is a browser and reads a lot, that KU could be well worth it for a few months.
The problem is, after the first few months, someone who reads a lot will have gotten through most of the content they’re interested in, so their continued interest will rely on having enough new content of good quality. I think that’s the problem with the way KU is set up now. I moved several of my backlist novellas into Select, and I’m making ten times on them from KU than I made when they were widely available. But I’m certainly not going to put my new books in Select, and I would imagine a lot of authors are making similar choices. So, once a reader gets through the backlist titles that have been moved in, there won’t be much selection–except for a mountain of new shorts, which seem to be the majority of the new content being put into KU, since authors can make so much more money for very small word counts.
If someone reads a whole lot of shorts–erotica, or short stories, or non-fiction booklets, or such–then KU could be worth it for the long run. But I just don’t know if the new content will work for the majority of readers, especially since the price authors are earning for each borrow is steadily going down.
I tried KU for the free month because it came with a free Audible credit. I soon switched to Oyster when that program was finally available for Android users because they had HarperCollins and Simon&Schuster books. I would have stayed with Oyster indefinitely, but then Scribd got Harlequin in addition to those and offered a three month free trial. Now that Scribd includes so many audiobooks that are also on Audible, I’ve actually put my 10+ year Audible subscription on a 3 month hiatus for the first time ever. I’m thrilled to have Scribd as a way to enjoy titles without having to buy them and I only wish it had been available in its current configuration sooner because I could have saved a significant amount of money on ebooks & audiobooks.
I haven’t tried a subscription process yet because I work a lot and don’t have time to get my money’s worth from it. Also, I’d rather just buy a book when I want it rather than be penned into only specific titles. Seeing that it’s not included in a plan for which I’ve paid already would just stress me out.
I’ve had Amazon Prime for years but I’ve only used its lending library about three times. I forget it exists and I’d rather just have the book forever on the servers rather than worry about returning this or that or reading all of this before reading anything else. (I’m usually reading multiple books at once.) Kindle Unlimited lets you take out ten, I guess, so that would be better, but eh. I like buying books straight out when I want them. I like the satisfaction of owning a book and of supporting the author directly.
Yeah, as soon as Scribd set up browsing for audio, smacked my forehead. I expected a quantity over quality selection. Instead, they had at least half of the books I’ve used my Audible credits for this summer, and some I bought outright.
I checked out the All-Stars in the Romance section and the only author I’d heard of was Bella Andre. It seems to me that KU is highlighting something that was already happening – a big divide opening up between two halves of the market. There are people buying a ton of mostly self-published books that are exclusive to Amazon and often but not always low-priced books. Someone on KBoards has been collecting sales figures for the all star list – to make it into the top 25, you have to have around 30,000 sales/borrows in a month (per author, not per title). So these books are selling well. But they aren’t books that I see people talking about in traditional romance venues. They aren’t trad-published, but they also aren’t the self-published books which make waves in the wider romance community. They aren’t being entered for RITAs, they aren’t reviewed on the big blogs and so on. It feels like a different, parallel market.
As for me, I’ve just put all my short stories into Select, and thus KU. It’s a no-brainer when you have a 99c short story that makes 35c for a sale and (as of last month) $1.33 for a borrow. I hate having to be exclusive, but sales for those stories have dried to a tiny trickle in other venues anyway. The way that KU is set up for authors inevitably attracts shorter, cheaper works. I can’t see how that’s going to continue to attract readers, tbh.
I’ve had Scribd since they launched, and I used KU for two months. I intend to resubscribe before I leave for my cruise in December. I do reread, but only a selection of books, so a subscription service makes sense for me. I like KU because I can read on my Kindle (my preference), but Scribd is such a good deal that I shrug and read those books on a tablet.
I know there’s plenty I’m interested in on KU because I have a KU Samples collection on my Kindle, and there’s 22 books in it right now. That would keep me going for several months. :) I’m thinking that, over time, I may use KU for ebooks and Scribd more for audiobooks. It’s hard to beat that $8.99 a month for audio.
So, yeah, I’m probably going to be one of those who subscribes to both. Kind of like how I use both Netflix and Amazon Prime video and switch between the two, depending on which one has the show I want to watch.
i had a KU subscription for two months and then cancelled it. I read every book that I was interested in (everything by Bella Andre, Kate Perry, Rosalind James and others) and couldn’t find any more that interested me. They also weren’t adding much in the way of new content so I didn’t feel it was worth the $10 per month.
I signed up for the first month free of KU because there were some books I wanted that I could check out for free and then buy the Audible version much cheaper. I have another week or two to go and by then I hope to load up my Audible library and cancel. I buy and read a lot of books each month but my time is valuable and I want to read what I want to read, not what is available in KU.
I cancelled my KU subscription after the free month was up. There was not enough content that I was interested in and I didn’t find any keepers when trying new stuff.
On the other hand, I am loving Scribd. My BFF and I are sharing a subscription and, by my count, we’ve read 25 books in 5 weeks. And that isn’t counting the craft books I’ve been perusing. I’ve also found that it’s made me less likely to impulse buy the $1.99 deals that DA and Smart Bitches post because everything I’ve been interested in, I’ve been able to find in the Scribd catalogue and borrow instead of buy.
I prefer to buy books, and to use Calibre to manage my purchases, so I’m unsure if any of the subscriptions available are actually available to New Zealand readers. If I think an eBook is too expensive (traditional publishers ebooks usually are if only the UK edition is available for purchase) then I borrow from my local library. I’m always looking for new authors to read so I don’t want to be too restricted by a limited content being available. Additionally, I very rarely buy from Amazon. Less than 1% of my eBook purchases have been from Amazon, so I don’t even buy authors that now make their eBooks available only on Amazon.
Does anyone know how long the 3 month trial offer at Scribd is good? I keep wanting to join, but have so many books to catch up with right now…
I’ve had access to KU a few times and can never manage to find anything I want to read.
I cancelled my KU subscription at the end of the free month, whereas I am continuing with Scribd even though I don’t like to read on my tablet nearly as much as on my ereader. I’m kind of on the fence about Scribd because of that. Right now I’m not getting my money’s worth but I’m still figuring out the tradeoffs. The Harlequin acquisition made it a no-brainer to try, but I may wind up preferring to buy the books I really want and reading them on the ereader.
I agree with Ros that KU feels like a parallel market, although obviously with some overlap. The incentive to push short books into the program is good for authors but I don’t see how it is really good for readers unless you’re reading erotica, or maybe if SFF writers start putting their short stories in it rather than in anthologies. Short stories are difficult to write well, and I don’t see a lot of awareness of that among self-published writers.
I’m not doing a subscription service because I already have so many unread books. If I were going to get one, it would be a tough choice. The Scribd content sounds much more appealing but I read almost entirely on my ereader and wouldn’t want to change that.
There isn’t anything wrong with your math, but there is something wrong with the interpretation of your numbers. For example, the number of borrows should read:
” 1,588,398 borrows” of the titles in KDP Select
We don’t know how many loans were made from the traditionally published books. (Okay, this was implied in your previous paragraph but I thought it needed to be called out specifically.)
The reason I called out that statistic was that this sentence:
The KU service costs $9.99 per month. In order to break even, there would need to be the following number of subscribers.
should actually read:
The KU service costs $9.99 per month. In order to cover the costs of KDP Select Global fund, there would need to be the following number of subscribers.
That minimum number of subscribers would not necessarily cover all of the cost of KU. It would just cover the cost of KDP Select.
@Nate: Yes, you’re right. I meant to put that proviso in. I should have said that it’s the number of subscribers that covers the Global Fund. We don’t know how much it is costing Amazon to cover the lends of the books from not indie authors or those who participate via the fund and not through a traditional wholesaling agreement. Some of the authors that participate and that are non exclusive still are subject to the fund.
No subscription service at the moment. A lot of the books I want to read I own already (mysteries) and there were a lot of backlist titles I was interested in reading but I never finished those. I thought I was wasting my money. I own so many ebooks right now that I find a subscription service not even worth it. Where were they when ebooks first started? I sure could have used them then. I’m joking naturally.
Interesting article as always, Jane. I’m starting to pull my titles from Select and KU. (First four NZ titles gone in the next few days, and up everywhere–exciting times!) KDP Select was a good way for a new author to be noticed, but now, it feels as was said above a bit like putting yourself into a ghetto. I’ve heard from a number of good-selling authors, both fully-Select authors like myself and those invited to participate in KU without being exclusive, that they’re also leaving the program. $1.33/borrow just doesn’t make sense for somebody who writes full-length books. As others have said, it makes total sense if you write erotica or serials, though. (Or if you read them.) But I don’t think it’ll prove to be a great venue for full-length romance novels.
@Sunita: That’s my issue too Sunita – I vastly prefer to read in my reader. I signed up for the Scribd service using the 3 months free promo code but that’s all I’ve done. It’s not where I read (my reader) so I’m not really browsing their titles. I may find a use for it on audio. I’ll need to check their selection out because I usually have my phone with me and I can listen to things on that as easily as my iPod. I don’t think I’ll be getting much out of it for ebooks though. I just don’t like to read on my tablet/phone unless there’s no choice.
I’m using KU and it’s working for me — I’m an omnivorous reader (I’m pretty sure we all are) so I’ve found a lot of non-fiction that is generally outrageously expensive available there. I’ve found some romances as well which have introduced me to some new authors, although they were through recommendation comments here in Daily Deals posts, and even the ones I’ve started but not finished I’ve wound up paging ahead past 30% before returning.
I constantly have the maximum number of books checked out and have to return one to check a new one out, but they make that really easy both from my device and from my PC.
Right now I have out (and am reading): How Dogs Love Us, If You Could Be Mine, The Scandalous Adventures of the Sister of the Bride, What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions (by the XKCD folks, complete with illustrations, I will be buying this because it is Math Yes Good but my husband is reading it now), The Verbally Abusive Relationship (not for what you’d think), and Sarah’s book from SBTB, and a few more romance books — and the romance authors are all new to me, but one’s already turned into an auto-buy.
I think the ease of use makes a big difference for me, as I tend to see that “Kindle Unlimited” logo while browsing books I’m already interested in, so it turns me from a “hmmmm maybe” to a “Oh sure, definitely”.
I’ve seen some authors talk about how putting their books in KU/KU in general has really hurt their numbers, so I’d really like to know more about that.
I’ve tried KU, Oyster and Scribd and have liked them all, but ended up canceling them because all of the books put me under too much pressure. I buy so many new books that come out and I can’t read enough of the subscription books to make it worth it. Too much pressure for me! I’d rather spend the subscription amount on books I can keep and read when I feel like it.
KU started July 18, 2014 and not June 18.
I subscribed to KU for 3 months after gathering a list of KU books which I wanted to read. The KU backlist books are quite good, but I have already read many of those. During the 3 months of my subscription, I still bought and read other books, or bought a stashed more. I spent less money on buys during that time, but right now have too many of my own which I want to read and agree with the person who mentioned that to some of us, KU causes stress. So I’m going to read my own and digital public library books for awhile, and will still keep adding to the list of KU books which interest me. Likely at some time in the future, I will pop in again, resubscribe and read some of those. But it is unlikely I would stay subscribed for more than a couple of months at a time again.
I’m jumping in Rosalind James’ boat. I presently have six books on KU, and all but two will be coming off KU when my contract is up in mid-December. I have to say: it was a good run. I think it was a great way to be discovered by readers who may not have taken a chance on a newer author’s books at full price. That said, however, I’m essentially running a perma-45% sale on my books. As the per borrow price drops lower and lower, it’s simply too much of a revenue loss – putting out a quality indie book, complete with an attractive cover, developmental and copy edits, proofreading and formatting can be a very expensive prospect and at $1.33 per $3.99 book, it’s just not going to cover author costs. I think it would be great if Amazon would consider letting authors enroll their books for 30-days at a time, rather than 90-days. I’d certainly be more apt to cycle them in and out of a 30-day commitment – doing a month-long promo would be easier to stomach.
Lindsay – What I’ve heard is that Amazon is giving a higher ranking to books in KU and thus enticing authors to be part of KU or suffer a less visibility. The trade off for authors is that in exchange for the increased visibility, books over $2.99 sacrifice earnings.
Amazon pays 35% (I think) of the author set price for anything under $2.99 and 70% over anything $2.99 and above. I wrote somewhere else that those who had shorter works priced $.99 were making a killing at Kindle Unlimited because they would be earning far more for every borrow than they would be for every sale.
Amazon isn’t forcing any author to participate and it is compensating authors for each borrow. But an author has to pledge her work to Kindle exclusively for 90 days. (Unless you’re a super author like HM Ward and a few others who receive special consideration and do not have to agree to exclusivity).
Further, as Katy Regerny pointed out, this is essentially a promotion if the author’s book is priced above $2.99.
Historically, Amazon paid $2 a borrow but since the launch of KU, you can see that the payout per borrow has become increasingly lower. I suspect it will level out at $1.00. Truly anything above $.35 seems to be a good promotional deal for some.
Several people here have mentioned “owning” ebooks, but under the Amazon agreement no-one owns any ebook they pay for. All you buy is a licence to read a given title on selected devices /apps. You never own the title. It just mean sit can stick around on your device for longer.
What’s really telling with this report is the list showing the KU payouts to authors, and how the payout per borrow, averaging $2 a time when it was KOLL, is now on a clear downward path towards a dollar or less.
Not a problem for the top-sellers who are being handed compensation in the form of the All-Stars cash, but for the rest of us this is nothing more than stealth royalty cut.
A sale of a £3.99 ebook nets the author $ 2.80. A KU borrow of the same title nets the author just $1.33, and no doubt even less next time around.
And of course while indies are being shafted trad pubbed titles get full whack.
Curiously Scribd and Oyster have no problem paying ALL their authors fairly.
@Jane: The other thing I read somewhere (maybe at Kboards) was that authors seemed to be getting compensated for borrows whether the books was read at the 10percent threshold or not. If that’s the case, I would imagine that will change in the future too. Or the payout total amount will stay the same but they’ll start enforcing the threshold.
@Jane: Thank you very much, that helps a lot! I’m in the really odd space of being unable to use Prime, but can use KU, so that’s where my borrows come from.
It sounds like it’s a great tool for someone who publishes specifically through Amazon, and it HAS helped me find new authors, so I am hoping it is not as doom and gloom as “KU is taking food from my children’s mouths” as an author was putting it. I definitely do NOT want to participate in something that’s predatory towards authors, but I’ve definitely taken a lot more chances on this.
Thank you again, it’s always interesting to see how things shake out, and I’ll likely look at other sub services in the future that folks are mentioning here, because I really do find I’m reading more and more varied things — non-fiction can get really expensive (there’s a book on my wishlist over $50, and that’s the ebook!), and I tend to keep them wishlisted for Omnilit rewards or incredibly high Kobo coupons. Seeing so many in KU has been great for me.
my opinion is that no reader should feel guilty about the way she spends her money. Kindle Unlimited is a choice that authors make. They make the choice, I presume, that they believe that this will help them sell books and make money.
While it’s admirable to want to buy books in a fashion that benefits authors, not every action and author takes is for the benefit of every reader. For instance when author chooses an exclusive option, whether it is by participating in the Kindle Select program or an exclusive for Target or iBooks, they preference one set of readers who buy at a particular retailer over another. This isn’t a moral wrong. They are making business decisions.
Likewise, readers choose to spend their money in a way that maximizes their own reading experience. The books in Kindle Unlimited are there because either the author or the publisher agreed to the arrangement. If the authors believe that the Kindle Unlimited program is no longer fair for them, they have the option to remove their books after a period of time. (They have to commit to 90 days at a time).
It’s frustrating to see authors, primarily independent authors, chastise readers for buying a book on sale or for buying a bundle or for participating in a subscription service. Readers are not responsible for an author’s livelihood, they are not responsible for what kind of food goes on an author’s table or how an author’s children are dressed or what kind of vacations they take.
I do understand that if some authors don’t make a certain level of money from books that they will choose different endeavors or maybe leave writing altogether and that is sad, of course. But readers should be allowed to make their consumer decisions without the guilt of believing that they are somehow impoverishing an author.
If KU works for you, then that’s great. Don’t feel guilty for using it. The books are there because the author or publisher choose for them to be there.
@Jane: I wish I could hug this post. THIS. All of this. I get sick and tired of being told that I am somehow responsible for the livelihood of an author. I work a full time job and it has never been in expectation that I would have several author dependents to feed. Maybe they should all give me their social security numbers so I can claim them on my taxes…
@Jane: Thanks for this. I generally feel that all that is or should be required of readers is that they obtain reading materials legally.
I would also caution authors not to directly compare the money they make from a borrow to the money they would make from a sale, as if each borrow would have been a sale. They are certainly not equivalent. A person will borrow many a book that they would never buy.
I don’t have KU, but I do have Prime, and I use it to try things I am not sure enough of to buy.
@Charming Euphemism: Oh, I didn’t realize there was a difference. I guess I’ve never had KU, only Prime.
@Charming Euphemism: You said that very well! I had never thought of it that way, but it is true that I would never have bought many of the books that I borrowed under KU. However, I’m sure that many discover authors through borrowing and later come to buy their books. It looks like a good deal of Jane Haddam’s backlist is on KU which gives people a great chance to get acquainted with her wonderful Gregor Demarkian series. She is one that I always buy anyway.
As an Italian customer (and a long-time kindle customer), I’ve been given a free month trial of KU as soon as it was introduced in Italy. I’m still in this trial month, and so far I’ve downloaded 2 (two) Unlimited ebooks, and read one of them.
It’s a painfully low number considering how many books I’d love to read through this system. Unfortunately, the majority of books sold under the Unlimited label are either 1. public domain classics that I’ve already read and/or own in print form; 2. Self-published titles I’ve no intention of reading. Harmony books (Italian name for Harloquin) are not available as Unlimited and this severely limits my choice.
I don’t think I will subscribe for KU after the month’s trial has ended, because the price is not worth the number of titles I’d be reading.
I looked at KU when it first came up, just as I looked at Scribd during the free trial. But there wasn’t enough I wanted to read to make it worth my while. I don’t read as much as some — two or three books a week — but it would have been nice to save $ if there were a better selection. I am still reading my way through old Harlequins on Scribd, but I may drop that once I am done with those, too, mostly because I don’t like the interface. It’s hard to find what I am looking for if I don’t know a specific author/title and it doesn’t have a particularly useful recommendations engine.
Sounds like I might be an outlier. I joined KU at the outset and have read an average of 10 books a month through the service. There’s enough of a mix between fic and non-fic that interests me that it hasn’t even occurred to me to look at another subscription service. There are a couple dozen books on my wishlist that I know are available through KU, so I expect to remain a subscriber for a while longer.
If other writers are interested, I read every KU book I download to at least 10% to ensure you get your bit of the pot. Even if the story doesn’t grab me enough to read on (and a lot don’t), reading to 10% is not hard to do.
Amazon has launched this KU in Spain this month. Here’s it costs 9.99 €, this is 12.37 $.
I don’t care to read a book and then not re-reading it therefore, I don’t care if I have to read and then return the book.
No, my problem with KU is different.
I usually look for a certain book. I will not read anything just because it’s free or cheap. My time is limited and I don’t spend it trying to locate a good book among hundreds of self-pub books.
I think that Amazon has not explained -at least in Spain- in detail how it really woks, for instance that you borrow it and then you have to give it back. And what your rights as a consumer really are. Not for the first time I have my doubts about the knowledge or awareness that Amazon Europe has got about European Community Law. But that’s a slightly different problem.
The thing is that I have tried to find out which books, exactly, are included in this KU thing. To know if it could interest me.
Only a couple of them are something that would have interested me. So, it’s not for me, I guess.