Amazon will soon implement a plan which will essentially sell eBooks page-by-page, paying its authors for every page read. From 1st July, authors who self-publish through the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing Program – an eBook only outlet that gives authors 70% royalties on their works – will earn money for every page that remains open long enough to be read on an e-reader, making page-turning cliffhangers a revenue generator. Dan Brown is said to have ordered a case of Bollinger in anticipation.
The scheme, however, could be seen as Amazon finally rewarding authors of longer works, since it was previously seen as pushing novellas and short stories. As The Atlantic puts it:
Amazon’s letter to writers who publish through its Kindle Select program explained that the formula was changing because of a concern “that paying the same for all books regardless of length may not provide a strong enough alignment between the interests of authors and readers.” Amazon is being clever: While the authors of big, long, and important books felt that they were shortchanged by a pay-by-the-borrow formula, they probably didn’t expect that Amazon would take their proposal a step further. Instead of paying the most ambitious, long-winded authors for each pagewritten, Amazon will pay them for each page read.
A market in which authors are constantly fighting and searching for new ways to coax readers into turning that page could change the future of written fiction forever. What would entice you to turn the page?
Thank you Gizmodo for providing us with this information.
