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Kindle Unlimited Per-Page Rate, Funding Pool Up in September 2017

For the second month in a row, Amazon has increased the royalty rate for Kindle Unlimited while also bumping the funding pool by $100,000 from August 2017.

The Kindle Unlimited Global Fund for September 2017 was $19.5 million, and the royalty rate was $0.0044253, a major increase over August ($0.00419 per page) and July ($0.00403 per page).

Both of the rate hikes followed the introduction of KENPC v3.0 on 1 August, suggesting that Amazon may have finally beaten the KU scammers.

The rates were up in most markets:

  • US: $0.0044 (USD)
  • Germany: €0.0030 (EUR)
  • UK: £0.0034 (GBP)
  • Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy: €0.0044 (EUR)
  • Canada: $0.0044 (CAD)
  • India: 0.0816 (INR)
  • Brazil: R$ 0.0107PY)
  • Australia: $0.0036 (AUD)
  • Mexico: $0.0736 (MXP)

Not counting the bonuses, KU has paid out $213.1 million in the year ending September 2017. This market has grown to the point that it is bigger than any ebook retailer short of Apple, and with the way it is growing it will soon be bigger than any three ebook retailers (with the exception of Amazon and Apple, of course).

We are approaching the point that – demand for exclusivity or no – authors and publishers aren’t going to be able to ignore Kindle Unlimited. (Heck, I think we are already there.)

P.S. Here’s a list of the monthly funding pools. It does not include the bonuses paid out each month.

  • July 2014: $2.5 million (Kindle Unlimited launches early in the month)
  • August 2014: $4.7 million
  • September 2014: $5 million
  • October 2014: $5.5 million
  • November 2014: $6.5 million
  • December 2014: $7.25 million
  • January 2015 – $8.5 million
  • February 2015: $8 million
  • March 2015: $9.3 million
  • April 2015: $9.8 million
  • May 2015: $10.8 million
  • June 2015: $11.3 million
  • July 2015: $11.5 million
  • August 2015: $11.8 million
  • September 2015: $12 million
  • October 2015: $12.4 million
  • November 2015: $12.7 million
  • December 2015: $13.5 million
  • January 2016: $15 million
  • February 2016: $14 million
  • March 2016: $14.9 million
  • April 2016: $14.9 million
  • May 2016: $15.3 million
  • June 2016: $15.4 million
  • July 2016: $15.5 million
  • August 2016: $15.8 million
  • September 2016: $15.9 million
  • October 2016: $16.2 million
  • November 2016: $16.3 million
  • December 2016: $16.8 million
  • January 2017: : $17.8 million
  • February 2017: : $16.8 million
  • March 2017: $17.7 million
  • April 2017: $17.8 million
  • May 2017 :$17.9 million
  • June 2017: $18 million
  • July 2017: $19 million
  • August 2017: $19.4 million
  • September 2017: $19.5 million

Self-Publisher Bibel

image by Images_of_Money

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Comments


Tom Wood October 15, 2017 um 10:49 am

A writer on one of the online forums pointed out that by NOT being in Kindle Unlimited you are denying access to your books to those 2.5-3 million readers. (The total number is vague and was inferred from the data by Data Guy, not sure if he’s revised it lately.) Those are avid readers, not one-shot buyers. True, they could buy anyway, but their first motivation is to read from the KU library.

Will Entrekin October 15, 2017 um 5:45 pm

That’s ridiculous given that, as you note, "they could buy it anyway." "Denying access" would be "not supporting the Kindle platform." Members of Kindle Unlimited are a subset of Kindle readers, not vice versa.

I bought an annual membership last summer when it was a great deal via Prime Day, but I let it lapse this year. I just didn’t use it that much, and I didn’t find the ten-books-at-a-time system intuitive (I never remembered what I had out and wanted to prioritize reading, so every time I went to "borrow" a book I had to choose between returning a book that had interested me but that I’d forgotten in my queue or just not adding to my queue).


Mackay Bell October 15, 2017 um 2:25 pm

I don’t think everyone in KU is a avid reader. Amazon offers a lot of incentives to join, and it doesn’t cost much. I’m a slow reader, so I find the 10 book KU limit a pain, since I’ll see books I want to read eventually, and then have to bump something else out to get it from KU. Overall, just me personally, I would rather buy a book cheaply (under $3.99) than grab it from KU. If it’s .99 cents and I’m interested, I buy it instantly. The books that are $5.99 and in KU will go into my KU cue and might get bumped out without being read. The same book, if it was $2.99 I would have bought (and the writer would be paid whether I get around to reading it or not). So don’t assume KU is a magic bullet, you might lose some readers you would have gained with low pricing.

Does KU work well for some writers? Yes, by all reports. But clearly Amazon wouldn’t raise page rates if it was being flooded with stuff. They’re trying to keep enough incentives to keep writers and new works. Seems it works best for writers with a big backlog who can put some titles on KU, some perma-free and some priced properly.

As a self-publisher with just a couple titles, I didn’t get enough KU reads to make it worth being exclusive. I’m having more luck with a perma-free intro to my series and being on Amazon and iBooks (cheaply priced). Not that I won’t rule out KU in the future if I can figure out how it makes sense for my writing.


Mark Williams – The New Publishing Standard October 16, 2017 um 3:04 am

From the author’s perspective the points made by Will and Mackay, above, are telling.

"…I had to choose between returning a book that had interested me but that I’d forgotten in my queue…"

"…I’ll see books I want to read eventually, and then have to bump something else out to get it from KU."

Each download immediately counts as a sale for chart ranking purposes, even though these books will never be opened, let alone read, and no payout will be made.

The chart bump gives individual authors a psychological boost and of course potentially further downloads and actual sales from the increased visibility.

At a macro level that increases visibility of KU titles across the Kindle store, putting books that have not been paid for on ranking par with books for which full price has been paid.

No surprise themn that KU is doing well.

But readers have no way of telling which titles have earned their position by paid sales and which have been jumped up the charts by free downloads from KU subscribers eager to grab their ten-title allowance.

Tom Wood October 16, 2017 um 7:30 am

Which, from the writer’s perspective, is all the more reason to be in KU. Visibility is king.


Kindle Unlimited Funding Pool Jumped in September 2017 | The Digital Reader November 15, 2017 um 9:19 pm

[…] and per-page rate rose in October 2017. Amazon paid out $19.7 million (up from $19.5 million in September 2017), plus bonuses, at 0.45601 cents per […]


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