Your boycott isn't hurting who you think it is.
Near the end of February, I decided to make the jump from having my ebooks available wide (available from many retailers) to bringing The Light Keeper series to Kindle Unlimited. I was very excited for this change and the potential for new readers, and then within a couple of days, everyone was screaming not just to boycott Amazon, but to cancel their Kindle Unlimited subscriptions.
Here is something you may not know. Traditionally published authors can sell their ebooks (for A LOT of $) AND they can be on KU. Indie authors have to choose. If we want to participate in Kindle Unlimited, then we must be exclusive to Amazon. Meaning if our books are found anywhere else, such as pirating websites, we are punished. This was the primary reason that I waited so long to join KU in the first place.
The truth is many readers feel that paying for an indie author's book is a gamble. Some are great, and some were published with little thought. So, even if our books are only $0.99 compared to the $9.99 trad books charge, readers pass us by. Kindle Unlimited takes the risk away. The readers pay their subscription and can read whatever books they want, and if they don't like them, they don't have to finish reading them. If you're a subscriber, then you already understand the benefits.
The way Amazon pays the authors who participate in KU may surprise you. Each month, they allot a large sum of money to a pot. The size of this pot depends on how many KU subscribers there are. The pot is then divvied out to all the authors. Based upon how many books are being read on average, Amazon determines the worth of a page swipe. Each time you swipe through a page on your borrowed book, the author receives a fraction of a penny. It may not sound like much, but if you go through the whole book, it typically equates to a few dollars, oftentimes more than what that author may charge to purchase the ebook.
Readers canceling their KU subscriptions isn't hurting Amazon, as they barely make money on that program in the first place, but it is punishing indie authors. You see, less subscribers means the pot will be smaller and Amazon won't be able to pay the authors as much. While I am new to the program, it is where MANY authors make almost ALL of their monthly income, money that their families depend on. To give you a little insight, for March, 48% of my income from Amazon has come from page reads. It's likely only so low because I'm still trying to let the world know I exist. I assure you, it is much higher for more established authors.
As a little author in a big ocean of books, I am asking you to reconsider if you plan to cancel your subscription.
Why won't I and other authors take our books out of Kindle Unlimited? It's not that easy. I can remove my books, but I cannot list them anywhere else for 90 days. That means for 90 days, the only sales I can make will be on physical and audiobook copies. So, again, for authors whose income mainly comes through page reads, you can understand why that is not so feasible.
"I don't want to keep my subscription. How else can I support indie authors?"
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What you should not do: Do NOT pirate books!
Not only can this get the author banned from selling on Amazon if they are in Kindle Unlimited (losing all of the income from the past 60 days), it also does nothing to support the author.
Indie authors fund every aspect of the book by ourselves. I pay the cover artist, the editors, the interior artist, I spend hours formatting the book. We authors dedicate months of our lives to turn an idea into a story you can read.
When you pirate a book, it's saying the author's time and effort doesn't matter. I may only make a few dollars off each sale, so your one pirated book can't hurt that much, but people are trying to make this the alternative to having a KU subscription and when hundreds, thousands, more people start to pirate instead of buying, producing books becomes unaffordable. Indie authors will publish less or stop publishing altogether, and soon, all there will be are AI-generated books.
Please speak out against pirating!
I am but one of thousands of authors trying to make my dream come true. I cannot tell you what to do, I only ask that you take a moment to stop and think about what goal you are trying to achieve. Research if your actions will lead to the desired effect. Save your money, if that is your goal, but turning to theft (pirating books is theft) is not the answer.