2d • 💬 General Discussion
Amazon’s KU is now Kindle Plus (Kindle+)
🤔 What are your thoughts on the recent launch of Kindle Plus?
As you may (or may not) have heard, Kindle Unlimited has been rebranded as Kindle Plus (aka Kindle+). Currently, the monthly cost ($11.99/mo in the US) stays the same for subscribers, and they can still read (and/or now listen) as much as they want from the catalog, borrowing up to 20 titles at a time. The rebrand looks to be a move to compete with other monthly subscription services that include audiobooks in their memberships, most notably Kobo+.
The Kindle+ program now allows publishers and indie authors to opt in to the program for their audiobooks (both AI-narrated and human-voiced). Some believe the option is also designed to encourage more indie authors to use Amazon’s AI narration services (the offer of these services has caused an ideological divide in the indie author community). — Full disclosure, I’m not divided. I am vehemently opposed to generative AI, so AI narration is a definite no for me.
Questions are being bandied about online regarding the royalty structure of the new model. Amazon sent out an email to KDP users that outlined the basic details. Of particular note is the no royalty payments for audiobook listens that occur after a subscriber has already read the book via Kindle+. This payment (or should I say “non-payment”?) policy, however, adds nothing new to the core workings of KU. It simply extends the prior KU “no royalties on rereads” policy to the new model (by treating a subsequent listen as a reread). Of course, if your audiobook is not added to Kindle+, you would get paid on the Kindle+ subscriber read AND the audiobook download (if the subscriber were to buy the audiobook as well). So this policy will certainly take money out of some authors' pockets.
Amazon is promoting the new program to readers as "New name. Same great reading experience." But does that "same great" experience hold true for its authors? Kindle+ is in infant stages yet, and a lot remains to unpack with the new payment terms and conditions. We'll see how this progresses.
Could be a good discussion for a monthly Topical Call. Let me know if you’d be interested in a deeper dive into the rebranded program.
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Amazon’s KU is now Kindle Plus (Kindle+)
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