Yep, it’s time to say bye. Ever since I first started deep diving into the writing world, I’ve heard stories about authors having problems with Amazon. From books being banned, author accounts being shut down, and TWs red-flagging a book. Now I’m not here to debate the pros and cons of KDP and KU. Nor am I here to convince you to end your subscription. I’m just here to talk about what I’ve seen and why I’ve decided to end my own KU subscription. You do you.
I started wide and honestly, I’m never going to do anything else. Yeah, it’ll take me longer to gain readers, but I want all of my books to always be accessible to everyone. I want my books in libraries, just everywhere. And the bigger the problems got between Amazon and authors, the more I felt like it was the right decision for me. I DO have my book in Kobo Plus. They don’t ask for your book to be exclusively in Kobo Plus. So for fellow wide authors, it’s a good deal, so far.
As a reader, I was fine with paying for KU because I had the time to read enough KU books to make it worth it. However, now I don’t. I ARC and beta read more now than I did when I first got KU. And I also am more connected with different reader/author groups. There are so many books on my Kindle now that I’ve gotten for free from author sales or giveaways. Not to mention Libby is great. So now only read 1 or 2 books a month from KU.
Amazon has lowered how much they pay an author per page read. Add that to all the crazy stories I’ve read and now this price hike, bye KU. If the price hike were going to the authors, I maybe might’ve stayed. But this doesn’t seem to be the case. (Some are saying it’s to get people to move to Vella which is more expensive and others say the price hike is because so many people have left KU.) So I’m just not going to do a subscription anywhere once I’m done reading through all the current loans I have. If I REALLY want a specific book, I’m going to buy the ebook so the author makes more from my reading it. It’ll probably be cheaper for me a month.
Links
- If you’re curious about Kobo Plus and their prices, here’s their link: Kobo Plus eBook & Audiobook Subscription | Rakuten Kobo United States