KDP SELECT ALL-STARS
I researched what Amazon pays KDP Select All-Stars for pages read in Kindle Unlimited.
(My reason for doing this is to estimate how many Kindle Unlimited subscribers there are, but that will be the subject of a coming post.)
If you want to see the Amazon KDP help page where I found my information, it’s right here:
https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A2X66QXB12WV2
Amazon presently pays about one million dollars (perhaps a little more, depending on exchange rates) in KDP Select All-Star Bonuses based on KENP pages read during the month (books must be claimed through Author Central to be eligible):
- $500,000 is awarded to the top 100 authors for US pages read: $25,000 to the top 10, $10,000 to the 11th thru 20th, $5,000 to the 21st thru 30th, $2500 to the 31st thru 50th, and $1000 to the 51st thru 100th.
- $90,000 is awarded to the top 100 books for US pages read: $2500 to the top 10, $1000 to the 11th thru 50th, and $500 to the 51st thru 100th. (It pays better to be a top author than to have a top book.)
- £77,500 is awarded to the top 100 authors for UK pages read: £2000 to the top 10, £1500 to the 11th thru 20th, £750 to the 21st thru 30th, and £500 to the 31st thru 100th. (The US pays much better bonuses than the UK.)
- £20,000 is awarded to the top 100 books for UK pages read: £500 to the top 10, £250 to the 11th thru 50th, and £100 to the 51st thru 100th.
- €310,000 is awarded to the top 100 authors for DE pages read: €7500 to the top 10, €5000 to the 11th thru 20th, €3500 to the 21st thru 30th, €2500 to the 31st thru 50th, €1500 to the 51st thru 100th, and €500 to the 100th thru 150th. (Germany pays very well, and even pays 50 additional authors.)
- €50,000 is awarded to the top 100 books for DE pages read: €750 to the top 10, €500 to the 11th thru 50th, and €250 to the 51st thru 100th.
- $31,250 is awarded to the top 100 illustrated kids’ books (as Amazon deems eligible) for pages read in the US: $1000 to the top 5, $750 to the 6th thru 10th, $500 to the 11th thru 30th, $250 to the 31st thru 50th, and 150 to the 51st thru 100th.
- £2500 is awarded to the top 100 illustrated kids’ books (as Amazon deems eligible) for pages read in the UK: £100 to the top 25.
These books and authors are already earning good money for the pages read (many of these are in the millions of pages read per month), and that’s on top of sales.
Amazon obviously throws in this incentive to encourage the top authors to keep their books enrolled in KDP Select.
You’re probably wondering: If Amazon didn’t pay roughly one million dollars in All-Star Bonuses, what impact would that have on the per-page rate? In January, it would have raised the per-page rate from $0.0041 to $0.0043. It’s probably worth it to attract the most read indie authors and books into the program, as they help to attract customers to Kindle Unlimited.
Write happy, be happy. 🙂
Chris McMullen
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Chris McMullen, Author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers
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This is such surprising information to me. Since I’ve never managed to move my two books up very far on Amazon, I never realized there are some real dollars to be had for the top ranked books/authors. Your blog is a wealth of information. I just reblogged this on my site.
Thank you. 🙂 Yes, the top ranked books and authors do very well.
I’m curious: does this money go directly to the author, or does the publisher (if there is one for this particular KU book) get the money – which is then distributed partly to the author according to some contract point?
It’s for KDP Select, so most of these authors self published and collect in full. The only exception would be an indie publisher using KDP, in which I suppose it’s paid to the publisher and becomes an issue between the author and publisher.
Reblogged this on Don Massenzio's Blog and commented:
Interesting post regarding what Amazon pays out to it’s top KDP performers. Looks like an incentive plan.
Thank you for the reblog. 🙂
You’re welcome. Great post.
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Well, I have an issue with the whole flawed concept. There are so called authors publishing four books a month, and they are getting paid the all stars bonus. See as a writer and published author I know it’s not possible to write four books a month. So I doubt that the author in question is a writer. I would suggest that he or she is a front for either someone using ghost writers or quite a few writers publishing under the one name to game the system.
So they list the books at the minimum price, buy reviews and throw in a few thousand free books. Then bingo best sellers. Keep them coming and then next thing you know you are No 1 read author. Trouble is as I said it’s not possible for an individual or even several authors to write and self-publish four books a month.
So they are scamming Amazon, the reading public, and authors who have seen their page read payment drop from the original amount of $0.0058 in June 2015 to the present payment of $0.00411. Amazon says it’s because of the payment for readers in India being the equivalent to $3 per month as opposed to $10 for the western world.
Well, I doubt that greatly. My page reads from India are less than 0.01% of my total page reads.
Contrary to what Amazon might put out there this system is doomed to fail. At the moment, an author is getting 41 cents per 100 pages read. To equal royalties on a $2.99 book, that particular book would have to be 510 pages. Any author who writes 510 pages ( yeah I know they are KUL pages) and sells for $2.99 would have to have rocks in their head.
Fortunately, all of the top-selling Kindle Unlimited books that I have discovered appear to be fairly well-written and thought-out, the result of hard work of the author, for which the All-Star Bonus would be well-deserved. Unfortunately, there will always be a few people trying to take advantage of any system. Amazon usually has things in place to help catch, prevent, and deal with fraud (one reason they wait a couple of months before sending payments).
While the per-page rate has dropped 29% (from $0.0058 to $0.0041) since July, the Global Fund has also risen 30% (from $11.5M to $15M). Since Amazon is paying $3.5M more than they were in July, they have a strong financial interest to try to prevent any possible scams, and it’s very likely part of the reason that KENPC v2.0 was introduced this February.
One of my books is 678 Kindle pages and is priced at $2.99. It’s my best seller, and it’s won an Amazon All-Star bonus two months in a row now, and will likely win again next month. No rocks in my head…
That’s amazing. Congratulations. 🙂
This was a surprise for me too. So much so I’ve shared it on my Facebook page. Thanks, Chris.
Thank you. 🙂
There is no such scheme for ES (Spanish) pages read?
There is.
Where can I see the list of all stars for each month? Thanks. Thanks also for this information.
I don’t believe that Amazon publishes a list of All-Stars, but if an author makes the list, they contact the author.