Nobody is blameless in this state of the eBook Revolution piece from The New York Times about Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited eBook subscription service severely limiting author’s dreams and draining their bank accounts.
After “democratizing” the publishing landscape Amazon quickly turned the level playing field it had created into a corral for anxious Indie authors who had jumped at the captive readership that Kindle Unlimited promised.
Unfortunately, the price of admission to this select club was their “independent” status when the authors agreed to the online retailer and former publishing champion’s demand for exclusivity…a demand made only of the independents who participate in the program.
As soon as these indies wise up, abandon Amazon’s “tilted” playing field and once again distribute their titles to the other eBook retailers then we can rebuild the open market and maybe even experience again some of the excitement that fueled the first heady days of eBook publishing.
