Writers Tricks of the Trade January-February 2015 | Page 22

PRESS “CONTROL” THEN CLICK BUY TO PURCHASE THE BOOK
PUBLISH OR PERISH? (CONT’D)

www.scribd.com

SINCE SCRIBD LAUNCHED IN
2013, THEIR READERS HAVE
CLOCKED MORE THAN 17
MILLION HOURS OF
READING TIME ACROSS ALL
GENRES.

THEY HAVE BUILT A VERY
POPULAR OPEN PLATFORM
FOR PUBLISHING AND
SHARING DOCUMENTS OF
ALL KINDS.

TO DATE, PEOPLE ALL OVER
THE WORLD HAVE SHARED
MORE THAN 60 MILLION
DOCUMENTS VIA SCRIBD,
FROM LANDMARK COURT
FILINGS TO BUSINESS
PRESENTATIONS TO
ACADEMIC PAPERS FROM
SCHOLARS AROUND THE
WORLD.

THEY CLAIM TO HAVE 80
MILLION READERS PER
MONTH.

looked at as one of the biggest experiments in reshaping reading ever
undertaken. The question now is whether Kindle Unlimited will foster a new
generation of readers, as Amazon hopes, or will those readers drown in bad
work? Will it put most indie authors on a treadmill of writing and promoting
that only a few can hope to escape, or will it be a tool for liberation? These
questions are shaking up the independent publishing community.
Don’t look for it to go away any time soon. Scribd had received an
additional $22 million in financing in the last week of December 2014,
bringing its total funding to $48 million. Rest assured, Amazon did or will
take notice. Since Scribd began its service a little more than a year ago, it
says it had monthly subscriber growth of 31 percent.
Historically when artists became more popular, their works got more
expensive. Writers began by writing cheap paperbacks and then graduated
to pricier hardcovers as the acclaim built.
With Kindle Unlimited some authors are getting more popular by
becoming less expensive, which makes them more popular. This seems to
confirm Amazon’s argument that “lowering e-book prices will help — not
hurt — the reading culture.”
However, taking a closer look, Kindle Unlimited could be “a double-edged
sword.” For one thing, not every writer is equipped with a huge supply of
work from all years of going unpublished. Those that do are able to drop
prices and, by sheer volume of sales, increase income.
Authors like multi-published Kathryn Le Veque say, “Most readers like to
read their favorite books over and over. I’m getting a crowd that not only
borrows my book, but will then buy that same book to keep.” Also, she says,
some of her books are not available in Kindle Unlimited, “so there are some
they must buy in order to read.”
Authors have no control over the payment for books that are borrowed in
Kindle Unlimited, which changes every month. Although it started high, the
amount has begun to drop.
With 50 books currently in publication, Le Veque has stated that she also
has to worry about the service embracing more and more work. A higher
number of books in Kindle Unlimited “is not what we want to see as authors,
because that drives down the royalty even more,” she said. Or so it seems.
Amazon has not explained itself to the writers’ satisfaction.
Cont’d…

JAN-FEB 2015

PAGE 14

WRITERS TRICKS OF THE TRADE