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Starting next month, the e-commerce giant will pay independent
authors based on the number of pages read, rather than the
number of times their book has been borrowed.
The move is aimed at authors enrolled in Kindle Direct
Publishing platform – which lets authors set list prices, decide
rights and edit the book at any time – and is applicable to
ebooks made available via the Kindle Unlimited and Kindle
Owners' Lending Library programs.
Self-publishing has transformed what it means to be an author.
Simply uploading a document and adding a cover layout to it can
turn anyone into a published writer on ebook platforms such as
Kindle and Smashwords.
Amazon said on Monday the move would better align payout with
the length of books and how much customers read.
"We're making this switch in response to great feedback we
received from authors," Amazon said on its self-publishing
portal. (http://amzn.to/1dbpx3u)
Amazon uses a complex method to determine payments for
independent authors - payouts are based on a fund, the size of
which is set by Amazon every month.
Under the new plan, authors will get a share of the fund
proportionate to the number of pages read.
While independent authors have largely embraced Amazon's
self-publishing platform, the company has in the past been
involved in bitter fights with large publishers.
The company had a stand-off with publisher Hachette Book Group
and some authors last year over pricing. The fight ended when
Hachette and Amazon reached a multi-year agreement for e-book
and print book sales in November.
(Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Savio D'Souza)
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