In several groups this week, a lot of my author friends started reporting worst-ever months and a drastic drop in income due to a sudden drop in page reads. For authors in Kindle Unlimited, page reads could often be as much as half the income generated from Amazon Kindle.
Today, I saw a *hypothetical* explanation that seems on-point.
Amy Hopkins posted in the Nanowrimo Facebook group:
PSA: the new page flip function on kindle allows you to read a full book in that mode. If the book was borrowed through ku and you read the book without zooming in periodically, the author WILL NOT BE PAID for that book.
*does not apply to purchased books
**zooming in only on the final page doesn’t seem to have been tested
Then I saw the article confirming this idea on The Passive Voice:
Page-flip messing up KU page reporting? Author Randall Woods comments,
It appears that it may be tied to the new page-flip feature they rolled out back in June or July. Evidently you can download a book, read the entire thing in page-flip mode, and it will only register as ONE page read. Several people are trying it with their own books and they all report the same thing.
So, probably not a huge issue to fix for the future, but what to do about all those lost page reads?
For Amazon’s response as well as contact info, you should read this post, which has lots of info pulled from Kboards. My guess is, Amazon will find a way to fix the issue as quickly as possible, but I doubt they’ll reimburse all the authors for all the money lost in the meantime.
FREE PUBLISHING CHEATSHEET
Go from zero platform to #1 bestseller in 90 days or less with my book, Guerrilla Publishing. Download now for free and get access to my new companion workbook and book launch roadmap (this is advanced stuff you won’t find anywhere else).
Click Here to download the free guide!
I’m a philosophy dropout with a PhD in Literature. I covet a cabin full of cats, where I can write fantasy novels to pay for my cake addiction. Sometimes I live in castles.
