Amazon reduced the KU payment again in December 2015, from .0049 per page in November to .0046 per page. That means the breakeven point for the average $4.99 Castalia House book is now 733 pages. That is down nearly 21 percent from July 2015, when it was .0058 per page and the breakeven was 579 pages. Therefore, we will be not be renewing the following books in the Kindle Select/KU program when their enrollment expires:
- Quantum Mortis: A Man Disrupted
- Quantum Mortis: A Mind Programmed
- One Bright Star to Guide Them
- Big Boys Don’t Cry
But the bottom line is the bottom line. There isn’t a 1-for-1 correlation between a “lost” sale and a KU read. It’s more like 1:2 with me. When I moved books into Select/KU, I got 2 borrows for every lost sale at a rough average, which means the break-even point is actually half what you might think. There’s also the halo effect, or virtuous cycle (better ratings mean more sales which mean better ratings).
Yes, I am aware of that; that is why SJWAL remains available on KU despite being less than 400 pages. However, with the four books above, we did not see sufficient Kpages read to make up for the decline in sales we also saw for those four books.
Also, I’m not pleased to see the direction Amazon is continuing to take KU; I believe they should maintain a hard floor of .005 and seek to increase it on a monthly basis if they can.
They are never going to get the mainstream publishers on KU, and if they continue to lower the page rate, they will lose the better independents. I doubt we are the only publisher beginning to pull books from KU.
I hope that these and future shorter titles will continue to remain available in electronic format.