Amazon Says, “Bigger Is Better!”

As of July 1, Amazon.com changed its compensation schedule for authors who participate in the Kindle Select and Kindle Owners’ Lending Library programs. These programs pay authors out of a monthly pool of royalty money; heretofore, each author got a proportionate slice of the “kitty” based on the number of times a book was used. But now the slice is based on the number of pages that are read.

So authors of big books (epic novels and technical manuals) will be paid more than authors of short books (poetry and children’s stories) if their books are used by the same number of readers. 

In a blog post on June 24, the Authors Guild observed, “At first glance, it appears that tying royalties to pages read will only incentivize authors to produce books that compel readers to keep reading. It’s not so clear whether that will result in better books.” Indeed not!

Who knows? Amazon's scheme may inspire a new generation of Tolstoys and Dostoevskys to spin yarns that run over 1,000 pages. Want to try your hand at it?

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Joe Allison and his wife, Judy, live in Anderson IN, where Joe serves as Editorial Director of Discipleship Resources & Curriculum for Warner Press, Inc. Joe has several nonfiction books in print, including Swords and Whetstones: A Guide to Christian Bible Study Resources. He's currently writing a trilogy of Christian historical novels set in the Great Depression.

Visit Joe's blog at http://southernmtns.wordpress.com