GoodeReader writes about Amazon trying to coax publishers and agents into the Kindle Unlimited all-you-can-eat (kinda) eBook subscription service.
It isn’t going to happen. The traditional publishers don’t want in, even if they’re offered perks and their titles do not have to be exclusive, because Kindle Unlimited has already snared a lot of the unpredictable Indie eBook competition that was challenging the status quo. Additionally, Kindle Unlimited’s Prime-oriented algorithms have dampened the energy that once powered the emergent Amazon eBook market.
Instead, publishers and agents can see this move by Amazon as a sign that the Kindle Unlimited model is going to fail completely without them. So long as traditional publishers dictate pricing in the wider marketplace, Kindle Unlimited looks like a low-rent answer to a question mainstream readers never asked.
And with Amazon’s habit of changing deals after you sign? No. These publishers have all been burned before, and now they passively reap the benefits of Kindle Unlimited’s toxic effect on Amazon’s vast stock of Indie titles.
1 comment
One thing is for certain: when change comes to an industry, the OG’s are always the last to see it and adapt and that’s what you’re seeing here.
OTOH, maybe this is that or maybe this is just a negotiation to get a better deal. Regardless, publishers are facing a ticking clock because it’s just a question of time before their authors begin to question why they’re financing the publishers’ lifestyles and EVERYONE becomes an Indie.