Kindle Unlimited: Why Some eBooks Are ONLY on Amazon
Have you ever wondered why some ebooks are only available in the Kindle store and not on other platforms like Apple Books, Nook, or your library’s ebook lending service?
I’m going to give you the TL;DR right here at the beginning: It’s because they’re enrolled in Kindle Unlimited. If you want more detail than that, keep reading!
What Is Kindle Unlimited?
Kindle Unlimited (KU) is a monthly subscription service for readers. The current US price is $11.99 per month. More than 4 million books are enrolled in KU at any given time, and subscribers have access to all of those books and can read as many as they want.
The only caveat is there’s a limit to how many Kindle Unlimited books you can “borrow” at once. The current limit is 20, but that has changed over the years. If you try to borrow more than that, your Kindle or Kindle app will prompt you to return one of the books in your KU library before you can borrow the new one.
Kindle Unlimited Books Must Be Exclusive to the Kindle Store
When an author (or publisher—but for the purpose of this post, I’ll just say author from here on out) enrolls a book in Kindle Unlimited through a program called KDP Select, they agree to make that ebook exclusive to Amazon. It cannot be sold, loaned, or given away via any other platform—not even directly from the author via their website, and libraries can’t purchase copies during the enrollment period.
If an author is found to be in violation of this rule, consequences have ranged from having that one ebook removed from KU or the Kindle store to all the author’s ebooks removed from the store to the author’s Amazon account being shut down entirely, which means they’re unable to even sell paperbacks in the Amazon store.
This exclusivity is ONLY for ebooks, however. Paperbacks, hardcovers, and audiobooks can be sold anywhere.
Why Do Authors Choose to Make Their Book Exclusive to Amazon?
The simple answer for why authors choose Kindle Unlimited is income. Love it or hate it, there’s more money to be made on Amazon than anywhere else.
As an indie author who moved my Totally 80s Mysteries series from being “wide” (industry speak for not exclusive to Amazon) to KU, I can attest to this. When my books were “wide,” only about 5% of my book sales came from platforms other than Amazon. When I removed the books from the other platforms and enrolled them in KU, my income tripled almost overnight.
At First Glance, KU Seems Like a Bad Deal for Authors … but It’s Not
Let’s talk about how Amazon pays authors. When an ebook is sold on Amazon, the author is paid a percentage of that sale. In general, they receive 70% royalties for a book priced at $2.99 or higher, and 35% for a book priced below $2.99. When an ebook is read in Kindle Unlimited, the author is paid for each page that’s read. The amount paid per page varies a bit from month to month, but it’s typically between $.004 and $.0045 per page.
Here’s where things get interesting. Due to that pricing structure, if an ebook is priced at $2.99 or above, the author will almost always be paid LESS if someone reads the book in KU versus someone purchasing the ebook, unless the book is more than 500(ish) pages.
So why would authors choose Kindle Unlimited if they make less money? Because ebook purchasers and KU readers are two different markets. By and large, people who subscribe to KU don’t typically buy ebooks. They also usually read A LOT of books. The thinking is: Why pay up to $10 for one ebook when you can read an unlimited amount of KU books for only $12 per month?
I’m in that camp. I read 10-20 books each month in KU, but I only buy two or three ebooks a year. And I only buy ebooks that aren’t enrolled in KU.
As an indie author, approximately 70% of my monthly Amazon income comes from KU page reads. Other authors I’ve talked to in my genres (romance and cozy mystery) have similar numbers.
Want to Try Kindle Unlimited?
If you haven’t tried KU and would like to, you can get a 30-day free trial here. There’s also usually a deal for the first two months. You’ll find books in every genre in KU.
If cozy mystery books or closed-door romance novels are your jam, try my books out by clicking the images below! You can also learn more about cozy mysteries in this blog post and discover what closed-door romance is in this one.
