On this week’s Self-Publishing News podcast, ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway explains what Amazon’s switch from Kindle Unlimited to Kindle Plus means for authors. That includes a separate royalty pot for audiobooks, pay per page listened, and which ACX and Virtual Voice titles qualify. He also looks at the midnight launch parties for Sarah J. Maas’s latest book and what the bookstore revival could mean for indie authors.
Listen to the Podcast: Amazon Rebrands Kindle Unlimited
About the Host
Dan Holloway is a novelist, poet, and spoken word artist. He is the MC of the performance arts show The New Libertines, He competed at the National Poetry Slam final at the Royal Albert Hall. His latest collection, The Transparency of Sutures, is available on Kindle.
Thoughts or further questions on this post or any self-publishing issue?
If you’re an ALLi member, head over to the SelfPubConnect forum for support from our experienced community of indie authors, advisors, and our own ALLi team. Simply create an account (if you haven’t already) to request to join the forum and get going.
Non-members looking for more information can search our extensive archive of blog posts and podcast episodes packed with tips and advice at ALLi’s Self-Publishing Advice Center.
Read the Transcript
Dan Holloway: Hello, and welcome to another week of self-publishing news. And Kindle Unlimited is back in the news. So last week, of course, we saw that in October of this year, the total payouts from Kindle Unlimited since it launched have now surpassed $5 billion, and that is in its 16-year history. So big milestone and fabulous to see, and it is, it turns out, going to be the last time that Kindle Unlimited makes a payment, because Kindle Unlimited has just announced that it is now becoming Kindle Plus.
Kindle Unlimited Becomes Kindle Plus and Adds Audiobooks
So Kindle Plus, and there is … Amazon has a fabulous sort of why we changed our name, what it means thing that many of you will have had an email explaining. And they noted that Plus these days is clearly associated in the consumer mind with streaming services, so they have decided to have Plus after the name because everyone knows what Plus means.
But basically it is the same service, but it has an addition, and it is now adding audiobooks. So this is a really interesting development. As I say, there are some really good FAQs in the email that got sent out and on Amazon’s website. But some important notes on what it actually means for us as creators.
So what it means in terms of payments is we are assured that Amazon is investing extra funds into Kindle Plus. So I’ve been reporting a lot, including last week, on how payments have been increasing year on year, month on month through Kindle Unlimited. We are assured that the Kindle Unlimited pot sort of remains as it is, untouched.
It will continue in its current trajectory, and funds set aside for payments related to audiobooks are being invested in addition to that. That is at least the current position. Whether it remains over time remains to be seen. So that’s the first point on royalties: there is a separate pot, so you shouldn’t see a diminution in your per-page-read returns from e-books.
Secondly, audiobooks that are in Kindle Plus will be paid on a per-page basis as well. So it will be on a per page listened as opposed to a per page read, but likewise, what you get paid will depend on how much of the book people have listened to. So that’s the first point, royalties.
Which Audiobooks Qualify for Kindle Plus
The second point is which books are eligible. So those books that are eligible are ones that are made available through ACX, or with Virtual Voice from e-books that are eligible or are submitted to KDP Select. So if your e-book is in KDP Select, and you have decided to make it available in audio format through Virtual Voice, then it will automatically be enrolled into Kindle Plus.
ACX books, it’s slightly more complicated. And what we know so far is that, first of all, there is exclusivity, as you might expect. So, just as there is with e-books in Kindle Plus, there will be with audiobooks. So only titles that are exclusive to Audible and Read and Listen will be eligible.
But there is a further qualification, in that at the moment, any ACX-created books that were created with a royalty share of any sort with your voice artist are not eligible. So there is a note saying that Amazon are looking at how to split royalties in those cases, and how to make it so that those books can become eligible for Kindle Plus.
But at the moment, it’s only ACX titles where you have paid outright for the voice narration that are eligible. I guess that makes the back end very much simpler, because they simply pay the royalty out to the single rights holder in these cases.
So there we are, Kindle Plus. There is sort of no particular long-term plan as to what this is going to look like for consumers. At the moment, though, it is included in your $11.99 Kindle Plus subscription. So there we go, Kindle Plus, the new name for Kindle Unlimited.
Midnight Launches Bring Readers Back to Bookstores
And we go from high-tech digital to low-tech, and last week was, of course, Halloween. And not only Halloween, but also the launch of Sarah J. Maas’s new book in the “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series, which was called “A Court of Splintered Harmony.” So it was very much spooky romantasy season last week, and in accordance with that, we have lots of stories about the continued thriving of independent bookstores and their collaborations with authors.
So really interesting, the number of midnight launches that there were for “A Court of Splintered Harmony.” So the figures that I have, according to The Bookseller, are that in the US there were 1,500 of them, with 150,000 tickets sold. And in the UK, there were 300 launch parties, and 150 of those were through Waterstones, but many were through local bookstores, including our local independent romantasy store in Oxford, where they had a midnight opening.
And they were actually featured in The Bookseller article, talking about what a success that midnight opening was and how they had to stay open for longer than they had expected. So this is the first time I’ve seen this kind of midnight opening and these kinds of figures since “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” and that was in July 2007, so nearly 20 years ago.
So it really is that we are going through a time of renaissance for people going and wanting to queue up outside bookstores for the launch of their favorite books, especially in romantasy, dark romance, romance in general, and fantasy in general. People are really, really keen for having something more than getting the book when it comes through the door from Amazon on launch day.
They want to go and be part of a community, and they want that community to involve, you know, dressing up, special editions, merchandise, parties, food and drink, and so on. And this is providing all sorts of ways for authors to provide more for their fans and more of a direct connection. It fits in with all kinds of self-publishing 3.0 trends, like direct selling, like special editions, and, as I say, providing merch and so on.
Obviously, there are caveats, rather like there are with Brandon Sanderson’s huge success with crowdfunding. Sarah J. Maas is obviously an outlier. But we know that independent stores in particular are very, very keen to deal with indie writers, and they’re keen to put on special events for indie writers.
And this is a really great way not only of sort of engaging your community, but of tapping into a particular moment where there is a desire for, as I say, more than just buying the book, but buying all sorts of other things around the book and being part of a community of fans. And for me as an author, I find that great, because I’ve always enjoyed meeting readers, meeting my audience, speaking, and getting involved in a good themed party.
So how long it lasts, I don’t know, but at the moment it is definitely very much something to think about. And it will be very, very interesting to see — January 27 very soon is the launch of the final book in the “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series. Are the numbers for that and the midnight parties going to be up or down?
That will give us a very clear indication of whether this is a trend that continues or not. But for the moment, certainly if you write in those areas, think about looking at your local bookstore scene, getting involved with it, and asking how you and your community can come together. And on that very positive note, I will leave you and look forward to speaking to you again at the same time next week.
Thank you.
