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Feb 15 2018

Kindle Unlimited per-page rate for January, 2018

Background image from ShutterStock.

KINDLE UNLIMITED PER-PAGE RATE FOR JANUARY, 2018

In January, 2018 the Kindle Unlimited per-page rate was $0.00448.

It has dropped down a bit, after a steady climb for several months, which culminated in a brief appearance above half a penny per page ($0.00506) in December, 2017.

It isn’t unusual for the per-page rate to drop from December to January:

  • December, 2016 paid $0.00524, dropping to $0.00457 for January, 2017.
  • December, 2015 paid $0.00461, dropping to $0.00411 for January, 2016.
  • Prior to that, KDP Select didn’t use the per-page model, yet it was still common for January’s royalties to drop compared to December.

So you shouldn’t PANIC. This is normal.

Why does January typically pay less than December? Amazon sells a ton of Kindle devices for the holidays, and many customers try their free month of Kindle Unlimited. More customers are probably reading a high volume of pages at this time, too. Whatever the reason, the per-page rate is still looking good compared to six months ago, when it had dwindled down close to $0.004 per page. Amazon introduced KENPC 3.0 and the per-page rate recovered nicely. It’s still up 12% over that low point.

On a related note, the KDP Select Global Fund hit a record high, $20.9 million, the first time it has ever climbed over $20 million, and up a clear million from December.

So even though the per-page rate is down, Amazon still paid a million more dollars in royalties for Kindle Unlimited (and Amazon Prime) borrows of KDP Select books (and that’s on top of what they paid for sales, and also on top of the All-Star bonuses which are awarded separately).

Two years ago, January, 2016, the per-page rate had dropped down to what was at the time a record low (and it has since only returned to that point once). In comparison, January, 2018 is looking pretty good. While it has taken a typical drop from December, bear in mind that December was at a relative high, a rare appearance above $0.005. It’s more that December was unusually high than January is atypically low.

Write more books, write engaging content, learn effective long-term marketing strategies, and little fluctuations in per-page rates will hardly seem to matter.

Write happy, be happy. 🙂

Copyright © 2018

 

Chris McMullen

Feb 17 2017

Kindle Unlimited per-Page Rate for January, 2017

Image from ShutterStock.

Image from ShutterStock.

JANUARY, 2017 PER-PAGE RATE FOR KINDLE UNLIMITED

The KENP per-page rate for Kindle Unlimited dropped down to $0.004754 for the month of January, 2017.

But I’m not worried:

  • The per-page rate (and Prime borrows before that) generally take a noticeable dip in January. It’s not a surprise. (What’s a surprise is that it didn’t drop in December.)
  • The per-page rate in January, 2017 is much higher than it was in January, 2016.  It was at an all-time low of $0.00411 one year ago. Compared to the previous January, $0.004754 is sweet.
  • The per-page rate has been fairly consistent. It was over half a penny per page for a few months in a row, at a lengthy relative high, and before that, $0.004754 would have seemed like a good number. Again, it’s typical to see a drop in January, so I wouldn’t panic.
  • The KDP Select Global Fund hit a new high, climbing up to $17.8M for January (from $16.8M in December). It’s also typical to see the Global Fund rise in January. It’s a good sign: Amazon paid $1M more than usual, which shows that Kindle Unlimited is holding strong.

Copyright © 2017

Chris McMullen