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In October 2024, Amazon announced that Kindle Vella will be winding down in February 2025.
One of the decisions that needs to be considered when your new book publishes is whether or not to enroll it in Kindle Unlimited. It’s a legit question to ask: Is Kindle Unlimited worth it for authors? So, let’s get to answering it here.
In this article and on this video podcast, I discuss the following:
What is Kindle Unlimited?
Kindle Unlimited is a subscription-based offering from Amazon. Read as many e-books as you like for a monthly flat fee.
Imagine a vast virtual library waiting to be explored, with a promise of unlimited reading adventures at your fingertips. That’s Kindle Unlimited in a nutshell. It’s like embarking on a never-ending maze of stories, mysteries, and knowledge, all within reach of your Kindle app.
Kindle Unlimited promises an expansive collection to cater to every reader’s taste – including business books by many authors. It’s an opt-in model for authors, so just because a book is on Amazon, doesn’t mean it will also be on Kindle Unlimited.
For authors, it gives them the opportunity to get their book in front of more readers that otherwise may not have purchased the book.
Read next: An option to publishing short stories: Amazon’s Kindle Vella (How-to!)
Advantages of Kindle Unlimited for readers
Unlike the traditional pay-per-book model, Kindle Unlimited offers a subscription-based service that allows readers to consume as many books as they desire, all for a fixed monthly fee. If you read a lot of books – or start a lot of books – it’s a money saver and great program for readers.
It can be hard to choose the right books when browsing Amazon and a Kindle Unlimited subscription makes that easier – as you can read as many books as you like – as long as they are listed.
The advantages for authors
Books published through Kindle Direct can participate with the click of a button. Enrolling your book in Kindle Unlimited allows you to run countdown deals. For every enrollment period, you can run one countdown deal for the United States and United Kingdom each. So for one week, you can lower the price and offer a discounted price for your book.
To get started, click on Promote and Advertise.
Then on the Price Promotion section.
Then choose the pricing intervals and dates.
Countdown deals early on especially can also help you reach best-seller status quicker.
How Kindle Unlimited pays authors
Authors get paid from Kindle Unlimited based on pages read. So instead of buying a whole book – no matter how much people read – the revenue is based on how much they actually read.
Here’s an example of how those revenues looked for my marketing strategies books – which all are available as direct purchases and Kindle Unlimited offerings.
Out of the $1,078 in revenues, just $12.54 came from Kindle Unlimited readers. But, if the goal of your book is marketing, it’s another way to get your message in front of people.
Read next: Amazon now offers free samples on Kindle books and makes making money even harder for writers
Final thoughts on Kindle Unlimited for Authors
Whether or not Kindle Unlimited is worth it for authors depends on what the goal of your book is. I like the extra revenue they bring in, but overall, they are more of a marketing tool for me. I use them to share my message, build my brand and drive awareness to grow other revenue as well.
I’m seeing more and more business books with higher prices, though. That seems to indicate their goal is direct revenue. When a business book offers content that is valuable and actually helps people build their business, that makes sense. What’s $80 for a book if it gets you on the track to that next million?
So, when you are publishing your book on Amazon, go for that best-seller status – another marketing tool! – and see what methods are best for you and your goals specifically.
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