Kindle vs. Kindle Unlimited

Pssst..c’mere. Just for a second.

Have you ever seen something posted in a group that is so wrong you really felt compelled to correct the person BUT they’re a bit of a diva (without reason to be) so you know it’s just going to cause a kerfuffle?

No, I’m not talking about politics here. We all get pissy over stuff like that when we see it in a politically based group but then, if we’re smart, we take a step back…check out that person’s page just to be sure they’re ‘real’ and then we make a decision on whether or Stand Our Ground to just give a silent finger as we walk out the door.

I am driven to say something in this group but, like I said; Diva. I’d say ‘Karen’ but in this case that might be a compliment.

Anyway. Here’s how this really breaks down:

Kindle-is a book retailer…duh. If you sign up with Kindle you have three options: You can sell your book for between $0.99 and $2.98 to receive 35% of the retail sale price. You can sell your book for between $2.99 and $12.99 to receive 70% of the retail sale price. It can get tricky there because you have to pay attention and make sure you’ve checked the “70%” box if you’ve priced your book $2.99 and up. If you miss that box you automatically receive the 35%. So pay attention.

Also, while you’re there, you now have the option to sell your book in .epub and .pdf along with standard .mobi if you want to. You do not have to. You may choose to have DRM (Digital Rights Management) on your book or not. Again, kind of a small box so…pay attention to what you’re doing.

Prime Reading– is an invitation only program. IF your book is in Kindle Unlimited, you may be asked, by Kindle, to have your book in their Prime Reading program. You may also submit your book for consideration to the Prime Reading Program IF it’s in Kindle Unlimited. For this, the author will get paid the same crappy amount of money for “pages read” that they get in Unlimited.

Everybody good so far?

Kindle Unlimited-is a program within Kindle that you opt into. You must go through the steps to put your book into Unlimited and have it accepted by Kindle. You do not have to put your book into Unlimited. You are not stuck there just because you put your book up for sale on Kindle. It is completely voluntary unlike the old friggin’ Lending Library which you couldn’t get out of if you priced your book over $2.98. No joke, it was mandatory. If you wanted 70% of sales, which starts at $2.99 you were forced into the Lending Library.

Unlimited pays a crappy rate. It pays by “KENP”….Kindle Edition Normalized Pages. That are READ obviously. Kindle is keeping track for you, yes it is, it’s “paying” the author for each ‘page’ you read. If the author is lucky the author will receive, roughly, one HALF a PENNY for every ‘page’ read.

Take, for example, “The Heart of War”, which has a Special Edition permanently in Unlimited…so far. If you buy the book at $4.99 I will receive $3.49. If you read the entire thing in Unlimited I will receive (roughly) $2.60.

Oh, yes, and for my $2.60 my book is Exclusive to Kindle. It cannot be available in that exact manner in e-book on any other site. I may have it in paperback on as many sites as I like but not e-book. Hence, the Special Edition…if you’re going to do this you must how to play Bezos’ game or you’re screwed from the onset just like tens of thousand of authors before you.

Everybody say it loud and proud with now: What a crappy deal!

So, for you Kindle Unlimited people out there who are always complaining that “not every book is available”…now you know why. 1- it’s a voluntary program entered into by the author/publisher, 2-it’s a crappy deal for said author/publisher.

Therefore, it is best used as marketing tool. That means books come into Unlimited, stick around for the three month mandatory period then fly away from Unlimited. The good news there, for the reader is, if you tag/download that book while it’s in Unlimited you will still have Unlimited access to it once the book is officially no longer available in Unlimited.

Yes, the option to stay in the program indefinitely is available to you. You can just the Select period rollover into the next three month period automatically if you like. (Again, please be mindful of the boxes because Unlimited does this automatically if you do not uncheck the box and then ‘save’.) Many authors do offer at least one story permanently in Unlimited as a lure for Unlimited lovers. This is a story we are willing to lose money on just so we have the chance at catching your attention. That means it may not be our best, or even one of our best, stories. It’s just a little something to get you to check us out. Not “The Heart of War”, I put a boatload of effort into that for Unlimited…shameless plug, I know, sorry.

The books I currently have in Unlimited, with the exception of “Heart” are all due to come out of Unlimited the end of this month to the beginning of November. Yes, I have unchecked and saved! When those time periods roll around it will be up to me if I’m going to take them back into wide distribution or if I’m going to let Unlimited keep them. That will depend on how well they do in Unlimited.

As of this writing…they’re all coming out when the three month period is up…except “Heart”. I was going to leave The Doc Mini-Series there for another round and possibly even permanently but its performance has been underwhelming. I may play Bezos’ game here….make the series into one book and offer that e-book up on other retailer sites. Yes, I’ll include some bonus material just to be sure. The individual books will stay in Unlimited just as they are now and unavailable anywhere else.

Ok, enough about me.

Do you see the difference between Kindle (itself) and Kindle Unlimited now?

I know, you may not even have known Prime Reading existed. I didn’t and I’ve been a Prime member for years. I heard whispers of it from other Prime members but today was the first time I actually found out about it in doing my due diligence for this here blog post.

That’s something I wish the person so confidently tossing out false information in that group would have done.