
This is driving me crazy, so I have to put it out there. I’m
sure I’m not the only one whose noticed that Amazon’s rankings are largely being
driven by boxed sets. This directly correlates to their new policy of paying
authors per page (roughly a half-a-cent per page) rather than per book read in
Amazon’s Select/Kindle Unlimited program.
Honestly, I applauded when the new per-page policy
arose. For example, before the new payment roll out I made as much money in the Kindle Unlimited program on my 40K
word novella as I did on my 95K word novels. That didn’t give me much financial
incentive to write full-length novels, though I did so because that’s what my
readers told me they wanted. As a result of the new policy, I am making more on
the Select program than I am on direct e-book sales. But my rankings on individual books are not reflecting the improvement.
Know why?
With Amazon’s new KU policy, author and book rankings are
driven by the number of pages read—so if you write a very good novella, you’ve
got no chance of making the rankings. In addition, if you write an awesome
full-length book, and you're a little known indie author, you are basically up a creek without a paddle because the 99 cent boxed sets are
topping the charts.
Who cares if you labored for six months researching and
writing the next blockbuster? It probably ain’t going to rocket up Amazon’s charts, at
least not in the historical romance genres that I write in. You want to increase your rankings?
Put your book in a a boxed set with a half-dozen other authors and slap it up
there for 99 cents.
It makes me sick to be laboring on new content with the fact that my new releases will be competing with sets. Case in point, I did make Amazon All-Star with a set that included six authors--it was an awesome month, but still my new releases are suffering.
When will Amazon separate boxed sets from single-title
books? This would not only solve the problem of bullshit rankings for those who have gone exclusive with Select, it will help
readers find good books in the genres they like to read.
The other problem? If you’re writing historical romance,
like I am, it’s almost impossible to make a living unless you put your books in
Kindle Select. That means being exclusive. No iBooks, no Barnes & Noble, no
Kobo, etc. I would love to be on other platforms, but I can’t take an 80% drop
in pay to give it a whirl.
Maybe Mark Coker of Smashwords was onto something when he
published the April Fools article that said (in jest) Amazon had eliminated
authors by offering readers a multiple choice story that writes itself, asking
the reader a series of questions.
Are you an author who’s feeling the crunch? I’d love to hear
your stories too!
~Amy