Tag Archives: KENP pages read

Jul 17 2017

Kindle Unlimited KENP Read for June, 2017

Image from ShutterStock.

KINDLE UNLIMITED PER PAGE RATE FOR JUNE, 2017

The per-page rate for KENP pages read for Kindle Unlimited was $0.004223 in June, 2017.

It’s only a couple percent less than the rate for May, 2017, which was $0.00433, but it’s a continued drop from April, 2017’s rate of $0.00457.

On the other hand, the KDP Select Global Fund for June, 2017 was $18M, which is a slight increase over May’s fund of $17.9M.

I don’t just look at the per-page rate only. I look at both numbers, the per-page rate and the KDP Select Global Fund.

The per-page rate goes up and down. When it happens to go down two months in a row, or when it approaches its relative low, it’s easy to panic (and I usually read discussions, comments, and articles of authors who do). But it usually goes up and down. Enjoy the highs, survive the lows. Focus on your current and future writing projects, keep marketing, and let these tasks keep your mind off the per-page rate when it hits a valley.

But even when the per-page rate drops or hits a valley, the KDP Select Global Fund has very steadily risen. Amazon just paid out $18,000,000 in royalties for June, 2017, and that’s ONLY considering pages read through Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Prime for KDP Select books. That figure doesn’t include traditionally published books like Harry Potter that are included in Kindle Unlimited, it doesn’t include All-Star Bonuses (I have contacted KDP about this very issue), and it doesn’t include royalties for sales. This is a huge amount of royalties for KDP Select authors to receive collectively each month:  That rate reaches over $200M annually.

The steady growth of the KDP Select Global Fund shows me that Kindle Unlimited continues to thrive, that there is a huge active market here. And many of these customers are indeed reading KDP Select books.

Copyright © 2017

Chris McMullen

Dec 16 2016

Kindle Unlimited Per-page Rates for 2016

ku-per-page-2016

Kindle Unlimited rates (in dollars) for KENP pages read in 2016

WHAT DID KINDLE UNLIMITED PAY FOR PAGES READ IN 2016?

In 2016, Kindle Unlimited began by paying just over $0.004 per KENP page read, but finished strong, paying over $0.005 per KENP page read in the final months, showing a steady increase over the last four months.

Here is a breakdown by month, from January, 2016 thru November, 2016 (in dollars):

January 0.00411
February 0.00479
March 0.004779
April 0.004957
May 0.004686
June 0.004925
July 0.00481
August 0.004575
September 0.00497
October 0.00519
November 0.005375

The KDP Select Global Fund showed continued growth throughout the year (the following figures are in millions of dollars):

January 15
February 14
March 14.9
April 14.9
May 15.3
June 15.4
July 15.5
August 15.8
September 15.9
October 16.2
November 16.3

This means that Amazon is paying approximately $186,000,000 in royalties for Kindle Unlimited (and Amazon Prime) pages read in 2016, just for KDP Select books (the traditionally published books in Kindle Unlimited evidently receive a separate payout), and that’s on top of the royalties that they receive for sales.

Actually, Amazon paid even more money because on top of the $186,000,000 they also pay All-Star bonuses (when I inquired, KDP informed me that the All-Star bonuses are paid separate from the global fund).

Paying nearly $200 million in royalties for borrows (primarily) through Kindle Unlimited, this is a very significant share of the royalties paid for e-books.

The KDP Select Global Fund continues to rise (now over $16 million per month), and the per-page rate has also steadily risen the past four months. This data suggests that Kindle Unlimited is growing stronger. Of course, the number of e-books enrolled in Kindle Unlimited also continues to rise (across most categories) significantly.

Chris McMullen

Copyright © 2016

Chris McMullen, Author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Click here to view my Goodreads author page.

  • Volume 1 on formatting and publishing
  • Volume 2 on marketability and marketing
  • 4-in-1 Boxed set includes both volumes and more
  • Kindle Formatting Magic (coming soon)

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Mar 16 2016

Kindle Unlimited KENP Read up 17%!

Kindle Unlimited up 17 percent

IMPROVEMENT IN KENP READ RATE

Here is some good news for KDP Select authors and for Kindle Unlimited subscribers (indirectly, since this good news for authors benefits the readers, too).

The KENP pages read rate rose up to $0.00479 per page in February, 2016 up from $0.00411 per page in January, 2016.

It’s not because there were 2 more days in January. (Being leap year, there were 29 days this February.) The ratio 29/31 would only account for less than half the difference.

We had two reasons to expect the KENP per-page rate to increase:

  • KENPC v2.0 began February 1, 2016, with a perceived decrease on average. A small reduction to the total number of KENP pages available to be read would result in a corresponding increase in the per-page rate.
  • January, 2016 appeared to reflect holiday traffic. It’s typical for some of that holiday traffic to taper somewhat. The per-page rate dipped a bit in the holidays with a high volume of pages read, and the per-page rate rose back up following the holidays.

Regardless of the reason, and regardless of how long this lasts, a 17% boost to the KENP per-page rate for Kindle Unlimited (and Amazon Prime) borrows is nice to see.

The KDP Select Global Fund dropped 6.7%, down to $14M in February, 2016 from $15M in January, 2016. This is probably due to a decrease in the overall volume of Kindle Unlimited pages read following the holiday season.

In other countries:

  • United Kingdom: £0.00305 per page (British pounds). Up 16% from December’s £0.00262.
  • France: €0.00474 per page (Euro).
  • Spain: €0.00474 per page (Euro).
  • Canada: $0.00499 per page (Canadian dollars).
  • India: ₹0.104 per page (Indian rupees).

Write happy, be happy. 🙂

Chris McMullen

Copyright © 2016

Chris McMullen, Author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Click here to view my Goodreads author page.

  • Volume 1 on formatting and publishing
  • Volume 2 on marketability and marketing
  • 4-in-1 Boxed set includes both volumes and more
  • Kindle Formatting Magic (coming soon)

Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.

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Jan 16 2016

Kindle Unlimited Pages Read & Global Fund Trends from July, 2015 thru December, 2015

KU Trends Jan 2016 GF PR

KINDLE UNLIMITED FOR DECEMBER, 2015

First, let’s look at the Kindle Unlimited payments for December, 2015. Then we’ll look at trends for the past six months.

What did Kindle Unlimited pay for pages read in December of 2015?

Kindle Unlimited paid $0.00461 per KENP page read in the United States in December, 2015. That’s a 6.3% drop compared to $0.00492 per page in November.

However, this was compensated as…

The KDP Select Global Fund was $13.5M for December, 2015. That’s a 6.3% increase.

The KENP pages read continue to drop somewhat, while the KDP Select Global Fund continues to increase significantly.

This suggests that:

  • More readers are joining Kindle Unlimited and/or on average they are reading more pages.
  • More books are having more pages read each month, on average.
  • Kindle Unlimited is continually increasing its share of the total e-book market.
  • But while Kindle Unlimited readers and pages read are on the rise, they payment per page has been dropping.

The holiday season may have impacted both the payment for pages read and the KDP Global Select Fund.

According to a December 1 press release, Amazon had a record Black Friday weekend for the sale of Amazon devices, over 3 times the previous year. Amazon had several new devices out and really pushed them.

So perhaps Kindle Unlimited subscriptions and pages read were both pushed upward considerably during December, and if so, perhaps the payment for pages read will settle down a little in the near future.

Another important figure to keep in mind is that over 40,000 books are added to Kindle Unlimited each month. There are now approximately 1.2M books in Kindle Unlimited.

More books means greater selection, which may help to attract more customers. (Indeed, the Global Fund trends suggest this is happening.)

The competition probably helps more than it hurts, e.g. through customers-also-bought lists. When customers finish one Kindle Unlimited book that they enjoy, they tend to search for another like it.

KINDLE UNLIMITED BREAKDOWN BY COUNTRY

Here is a breakdown of how much Kindle Unlimited paid per page read in various countries:

  • United States: $0.00461 per page (US dollars). That’s a drop of 6.3% from November’s payment of $0.00492.
  • United Kingdom: £0.00306 per page (British pounds). That’s also a drop of 6.4% from November’s £0.00327.
  • Germany: €0.00389 per page (Euro). That’s a drop of 8.5% from November’s €0.00425.
  • France: €0.00429 per page (Euro). That’s a drop of 6.3% from November’s €0.00458.
  • India: ₹0.1008 per page (Indian rupees). That’s a drop of 6.2% from November’s ₹0.1075.

It pretty consistently dropped about 6.3%.

KINDLE UNLIMITED PAGES READ TRENDS JULY THRU DECEMBER, 2015

The following graph and table show the trends in Kindle Unlimited payments for KENP pages read from July, 2015 thru December, 2015.

KU Trends Jan 2016 PR

  • $0.0058 per page in July, 2015
  • $0.0051 per page in August, 2015
  • $0.0051 per page in September, 2015
  • $0.0048 per page in October, 2015
  • $0.0049 per page in November, 2015
  • $0.0046 per page in December, 2015

KDP GLOBAL SELECT FUND JULY THRU DECEMBER, 2015

The following graph and table show the trends in the KDP Select Global Fund from July, 2015 thru December, 2015.

KU Trends Jan 2016 GF

  • $11.5M in July, 2015
  • $11.8M in August, 2015
  • $12.0M in September, 2015
  • $12.4M in October, 2015
  • $12.7M in November, 2015
  • $13.5M in December, 2015

Write happy, be happy. 🙂

Chris McMullen

Copyright © 2016

Chris McMullen, Author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Click here to view my Goodreads author page.

  • Volume 1 on formatting and publishing
  • Volume 2 on marketability and marketing
  • 4-in-1 Boxed set includes both volumes and more
  • Kindle Formatting Magic (coming soon)

Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.

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Dec 16 2015

What Did Kindle Unlimited Pay for Pages Read in November, 2015?

Image from ShutterStock.

Image from ShutterStock.

KENP PAGES READ FOR NOVEMBER, 2015

November, 2015 marks the first month that Amazon KDP is paying different royalty amounts in different countries for KENP pages read.

Here is the breakdown for November, 2015 by country:

  • United States: $0.00492 per page (US dollars). That’s an increase of 2.3% from October’s payment of $0.00481.
  • United Kingdom: £0.00327 per page (British pounds). That’s also an increase of 2.3% from October’s £0.003196.
  • Germany: €0.00425 per page (Euro). That’s a drop of 5.1% from October’s €0.00448.
  • France: €0.00458 per page (Euro). That’s an increase of 2.2% from October’s €0.00448.
  • Canada: $0.00608 per page (Canadian dollars). That’s a drop of 5.0% from October’s $0.0064. (Remember, these are Canadian dollars, not US dollars.)
  • India: ₹0.1075 per page (Indian rupees). That’s a drop of 66% from October’s ₹0.3163.

Are these changes to Kindle Unlimited pages read payments good or bad?

The most significant change occurred for India: KENP read for India dropped by 66% (from ₹0.3163 to ₹0.1075). As of today, 1 USD equates to 66.944 Indian rupees. So while ₹0.1075 may seem like a big number compared to $0.00492, it’s actually much less. Converting from ₹0.1075 (Indian rupees) to US dollars, it equates to $0.0016 per page read. (Compare this to October: The October payment of ₹0.3163 was equivalent to the US figure of $0.00481 per page read, using slightly different exchange rates from October’s reporting period.)

So we make about 1/3 the usual rate for Kindle Unlimited pages read in India, but every other country is within 5% of the US rate of $0.00492 per page. Why? It’s based on the local market. Whereas Amazon charges $9.99 per month for US subscribers to Kindle Unlimited, Amazon charges approximately $4 per month (after conversion) to customers in India.

Did you know that the population of India is approximately 1.3 billion, a close second to China’s 1.4 billion? Compare that to the United States, in third position with 0.3 billion. There are a lot of potential readers in India, but their subscription price is 2.5 times less. So the per page rate is now much less, too.

The US rate is slightly higher this month, and no doubt it’s because Amazon is paying different rates in different countries. India went down; the US went up. There was compensation.

I see positive indicators for Kindle Unlimited again this month:

  • The payout rose to a record $12.7M. That’s up 2.4% from October’s $12.4M payout. That’s a sign of either more subscribers or more pages read by the average customer. Either way, more pages are being read. Isn’t that what authors want? Our pages to be read?
  • The US pages read rate increased 2.3%. Although this is likely due to redistributing the payout by country (i.e. compensation for the significant reduction in India), it’s still nice to see the rebound.

Does it strike you as odd that Amazon is paying $0.00492 per page in the United States? It’s a mere $0.00008 per page from being $0.005. Wouldn’t $0.005 per page have psychological value? But while $0.00008 would scarcely make a difference to most authors, it would have cost Amazon approximately $200,000 to raise the per page rate from $0.00492 to $0.005.

Write happy, be happy. 🙂

Chris McMullen

Copyright © 2015

Chris McMullen, Author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Click here to view my Goodreads author page.

  • Volume 1 on formatting and publishing
  • Volume 2 on marketability and marketing
  • 4-in-1 Boxed set includes both volumes and more
  • Kindle Formatting Magic (coming soon)

Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.

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Nov 15 2015

Kindle Unlimited: Global Expansion and Impact

Image from ShutterStock.

Image from ShutterStock.

KINDLE UNLIMITED NEWS

Amazon’s payment for Kindle Unlimited KENP pages read has dipped a hair below $0.005 per page.

There is a downward trend for KENP pages read, although is a reason behind the most recent dip, and, as we shall see, there may be good signs to offset this trend.

  • July, 2015: $0.0058
  • August, 2015: $0.0051 (11% drop)
  • September, 2015: $0.0051 (1% drop)
  • October, 2015: $0.0048 (5% drop)

It started in July at $0.0058, likely to match the projections forecast when Amazon shared their pages read data for June.

It dropped 11% from July to August, likely because there were changes in the readership and/or reading habits when the Kindle Unlimited changes were implemented, and perhaps also Amazon was adjusting KENP settings and measurements.

We saw nice stability from August to September. When we finally see some long-term stability, that will be nice. I think we’ll get there.

The drop from September to October has a simple explanation: Amazon expanded Kindle Unlimited globally, introducing it to India. The subscription price is much cheaper in India (around $4 US per month).

This global expansion pulled more readers into Kindle Unlimited, which is a good thing. But the lower subscription price in India effectively lowered the pages read rate by 5%.

That’s about to change. Starting in November, Amazon will pay different pages read rates in different countries. So pages read in India will likely pay less than pages read in the United States, for example.

Does that mean the US pages read rate will rise back up to $0.005 per page? Good question! Maybe it won’t go up, or up much, maybe it will. But hopefully it won’t drop as much next month, if at all.

But I continue to see good news in the data. For example, the KDP Select Global Fund keeps growing:

  • July, 2015: $11.5M
  • August, 2015: $11.8M
  • September, 2015: $12M
  • October, 2015: $12.4M

I see two potentially good points for authors in these numbers:

  • continued increase in the number of Kindle Unlimited subscribers
  • continued increase in the number of Kindle Unlimited pages read

Not everyone is seeing growth, but overall, I’m seeing improved pages read data for my books on average.

Of course, there is another piece of data equally important: 38,500 Kindle Unlimited books added in the last 30 days. There are now over 1.1M books in the program (it was closer to 0.6M when Kindle Unlimited started). There were 85,000 Kindle books added in the last 30 days, so competition for sales is even more fierce than for pages read.

Most authors must keep writing, publishing, and marketing to keep up in the current marketplace. Otherwise, most likely, both sales and pages read will drop.

Write happy, be happy. 🙂

Chris McMullen

Copyright © 2015

Chris McMullen, Author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

Click here to view my Goodreads author page.

  • Volume 1 on formatting and publishing
  • Volume 2 on marketability and marketing
  • 4-in-1 Boxed set includes both volumes and more
  • Kindle Formatting Magic (coming soon)

Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.

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