What's Up With Kindle Unlimited?

Over the last several days, blogs and forums have blown up with posts from indie authors who’ve had their books delisted and accounts closed from Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited (KU) program. For those few people who don’t know, KU is a $10/month subscription service where readers can borrow any book registered in the program. Authors are paid for every page read, or at least clicked on. Sounds like a good plan, doesn’t it? More readers means more potential fans, book buyers, and exposure for authors.

Like many good plans, this one is horribly flawed. I first wrote about one of the flaws several weeks ago when it came out that scammers had created a click-and-bait-link at the front of their books which immediately took readers to the back. Amazon’s bots assumed that all pages were read, so the author was paid for every page in the book.

There's a variation of this scam, however, and Amazon’s attempts to stop the cheaters has created another big problem by shutting out some  KU authors completely. A blog from the Active Voice describes the experience of one writer whose account was closed. A letter from Amazon accused her of paying a click-farm to borrow her books and drive up her royalties. The practice is called scam plaguing, and a number of outfits apparently indulge in this behavior. This writer, however, did no such thing. You can read more about what happened HERE.

The same thing happened to author P.J. Bayliss. She insisted she was innocent and appealed to Amazon to reinstate her account, which they eventually did. The thing is, she still doesn’t know who or how these click-farm bots picked her. You can learn more HERE.

An even more most disturbing example comes from K.M. Simmell, who reports that not only was her account closed, but someone started using her ID to attempt to open a bank account. This author is currently waiting for Amazon to finish its investigation and hopefully reinstate her. You can read her story HERE.

What really struck me was the number of comments these blogs received from authors who have also had this happen to them. Given that Amazon has about 70% of the ebook market, authors could lose much needed income through no fault of their own.

As I posted in one of my comments, those scams are fraud, and fraud is illegal. Amazon shouldn’t be trying to fight the problem on their own. It’s like trying to put out a blaze in your house with a fire hose. Why not call in experts in fraud detection, and stop victimizing the innocent? Maybe they have, who knows? But one thing is clear, until this is sorted out, I won’t be joining KDP Select or KU anytime soon.

Debra

Are the Predictions Making Your Head Spin Yet?

I like to keep up with news about the writing biz, but right now many articles and blogs are focusing on predictions for 2016. Truth be told, I don’t have any predictions and won’t even try. I’d rather let things unfold and see what happens. But I am curious to learn what others have to say. This week, I read only four viewpoints before my head started to spin. This one example will explain why.

Jane Friedman wrote a piece on issues to watch for in the coming year. They’re not quite predictions, but she is looking ahead. Among her five issues, is the subheading “Sorry, But Print Sales Aren’t Surging”, where she questions (as do others) a New York Times piece about ebook sales slipping and print being far from dead. She refers to stats to support her argument. The Times article also refers to stats to support its premise.

Then there’s a Digital Book World blogger who’s stepped boldly forward to offer ten predictions for the coming year. The first one on his list is “Continued Regrowth of Print Sales”. Do you feel that tingling in your head yet? Amazon is referred to in both blogs, although not at opposite ends of the spectrum. Digital Book World believes that Amazon will operate more quietly thanks to all the bad PR from highly public battles in 2015, but that they will continue to pursue an aggressive marketing plan. Friedman thinks they’ll continue to tinker with programs such as KDP and Kindle Unlimited. Aggressive planning and tinkering don’t mean the same thing, and my point is who really knows? They are after all only predictions, right? Maybe I shouldn’t take any of it too seriously.

Of course, it’s good to know what’s going on in the industry, but I’ve found over the years that it’s pretty tough to find across-the-board agreement on anything. When it comes right down to it, no one really knows everything that’s going on, what the coming trends will be, or which publishing choices will earn a writer a decent income. Varied viewpoints are inevitable and even necessary, but for new writers they can also be a confusing slippery slope. For 2016, how about we just set some writing goals and get down to work while the year unfolds in its own unique way.

Happy 2016 and wishing you that you’ll accomplish all of your goals!!

Debra

About Patience and Learning

I’ve come across a number of blogs this week by experienced writers advising new writers to slow down, learn the craft, and stop trying to cheat their way to fame and fortune.

For those of you who are aware of subscriptions services like Kindle Unlimited (KU), you’re also probably aware that many (though not all) writers have lost incomes and, according to Kristine Katherine Rusch, have quit. Rusch and many others cite gaming the system as one of KU’s problems. Rusch refers to gaming the system as elevating book sales by doing something non-writing related, and she’s plenty angry about it. Apparently, people are studying Amazon’s algorithms to find ways to increase sales. Personally, I’m puzzled why writers would even bother spending time analyzing algorithms when they should be spending precious time and energy writing better books. Sure, algorithms might help improve a writer’s sales, but algorithms change, and then more time must be spent trying to figure things out. Even now, KU has changed how authors will be paid in an attempt to sort out the problem.

A second, quite aspiring blog comes from author Elizabeth Hunter who advises self-published writers to fully embrace the concept of owning their work by not bitching about poor sales, discoverability issues, and vast competition. She encourages writers to take full control of self-publishing and be proactive in improving their situations rather than whining about how hard it is to sell books. It’s great advice, but is it as easy as she makes it sound?

Lastly, I’ve chosen to share a poignant blog by Hope Clark, owner of the fundsforwriters newsletter and a mystery writer herself. Hope is a pretty positive person in her weekly blogs, but this week she too laments about writers who want quick money without putting in the time to hone their skills. She wants writers to stop focusing on commercialism and get back to the basics of digging deep to write and rewrite the best story possible until it is truly ready to be shared with the world. Incidentally, she also quotes a really striking bit from John Steinbeck who addressed the dark side of success.

Each of these blogs essentially says the same thing. If writers want a career, then they must be patient. They must take the time to learn the craft, to learn the business, and to keep learning as change is inevitable in this business. These authors wouldn’t bother blogging about their concerns if they weren’t seeing huge numbers of people trying the quick, easy route, and that’s a shame.

Debra

What James Patterson's Up To and What I'm Up To

Not long ago, I wrote a blog about why I’m not prolific, but James Patterson sure is. The man has written, or co-written, over forty bestsellers. Recently, he signed a contract to write 17 more thrillers (11 adult and 6 for young people) by the end of 2012, for an undisclosed sum. Probably in the millions. I’m guessing he doesn’t do the housework, grocery shopping, and laundry at his place.

Meanwhile, the rest of us plug along as best we can. This week, I received one of the most thoughtful and in-depth reviews of Fatal Encryption I’ve ever had. I don’t know the reviewer personally, but she and I happen to be on the same forum, and I asked her if she’d review my book, and she agreed. Anyhow, the review by Fran Lewis is at http://tinyurl.com/ohg2xk

Also, I might have mentioned that I was featured on a blog by The Park Avenue Princess. She offered a giveaway of Fatal Encryption, which ended September 17th. The Princess reported that she had a great number of hits and the winner was very excited to have won a copy of the book. The contest went so well that she’ll be featuring me again, this time with respect to my first Alex Bellamy novel, Taxed to Death. I’m busy preparing something for this feature and will let you know when the contest is underway.

Lastly, I’m very honoured to be a future guest on author Lorna Suzuki’s blog. She’s given me quite a few questions to answer, so I’m busy working on those too. Her blog should be posted by the end of September, but I’ll announce the exact date later.

Thanks to all of those who participated in the giveaway. I really do appreciate it.

FATAL ENCRYPTION, http://tinyurl.com/ddzsxl
TAXED TO DEATH, http://tinyurl.com/czsy5n

More Blogs Than One

I love starting a new blog, though technically, my latest blog is not a new one. I set it up Wayword Wind at the end of last summer because I wanted a green blog to go along with my blue one (Bertram's Blog -- writing), my purple one (Book Marketing Floozy -- promotion), my red one (Pat Bertram Introduces -- character interviews), and my orange and yellow one (Dragon My Feet -- books and reviews). I never quite knew what to do with the lovely green blog because it seemed as if the others already deal with the topics I'm interested in, but it's been sitting there taunting me all these months.

At one time I thought of posting quotes and then giving a commentary, but I really don’t have much to say on any subject except writing. I discovered this recently when I started yet another blog simply because I like the WordPress theme. (Do you see a pattern here?) I call it The Mind of Pat Bertram, but since I seldom post to it, you can see how little is actually on my mind. Then I thought of turning Wayword Wind into a blog for posting my progress with Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way program, but since I haven’t actually been doing the program, there's really nothing to say about it.

Then I realized I have several photo essays that I've posted on various sites, so I brought them all together under one roof. And green is the perfect color to set off the pictures. So, now I have all my blogs organized. Now I just need to figure out how to organize my time so I can post to all of them!

Actually, you can help. If you'd like to do a character interview, you can find the questionnaire here: Character Questionnaire.

If you have book information, a book review, or anything bookish that you'd like me to post on Dragon My Feet, or if you have an article about book marketing, leave me a message in the comment section. I'll be glad to have you as a guest!