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KU 3

57K views 332 replies 117 participants last post by  Linn 
G
#1 ·
Just got this, and don't see a post yet, delete if I missed it please
Hello,

Today we are releasing our next iteration of Kindle Edition Normalized Page Count - KENPC V3.0. This release makes a number of improvements to how we determine the length of books relative to one another and how we measure pages read. We expect payouts to the vast majority of authors to be largely unchanged as a result of these updates. In addition, we will pay at least $18 Million from the KDP Select Global Fund in July.

We are constantly working to improve our programs and increase the fairness of how we allocate the KDP Select Global Fund. Our goal remains to build a service that rewards authors for their work while continuing to attract more readers and encouraging them to read more and more often.

As always, we welcome feedback and ideas about how we can improve Kindle Direct Publishing and Kindle Unlimited. You can contact us here: https://kdp.amazon.com/contact-us. To learn more about KENPC V3.0, go here: https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/AI3QMVN4FMTXJ.

Best Regards,
The Kindle Direct Publishing Team

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#104 ·
MyraScott said:
I just conducted a test on a book that doesn't get many page reads and had none for today. I opened the book and clicked to the end, basically viewing 3 pages.

Page reads registers - 3

Fake page reads are now going to have to load each page instead of bypassing stuffed content to the end page, I think...
This is promising because (I HOPE) that means when someone reads to the end, but likes to re-set to the beginning for re-reads (pretty common for shorter works and especially for romances - even more common I think for spicy romances) or other purposes, that we won't lose the pages already read by that user (on all new borrows, at least). I have seen pages read disappear (resulting in a negative pages read count) on a book at the beginning of a month and my only thought as to an explanation was Amazon thought I was cheating (wasn't) and stole them from me or the reader returned to the front of a book. On my romances, I've had lots of reports of readers doing multiple reads.
 
#108 ·
Mike Leon said:
I appreciate Amazon at least acknowledging the problem, but I suspect this might make the stuffing problem WORSE, not better.

Before, scammers were using bots to check out enormous books and skip to the last page. Now that there is a limit to the viable page count, they will simply change up their strategy. Instead of checking out 10 9000-page books, they'll check out 30 3000-page books. It will probably only take them a few days to adjust their tactics.

The problem for us authors is that pages read does not factor into also-boughts or bestseller lists. Check-outs do. ...And now the scammers will be checking out a much larger number of books. So we're going to see even more scam books topping bestseller lists.

Also, in order to adapt this new strategy, scammers will need a lot more devices and/or KU accounts (assuming they don't all just perpetually cycle through the 30-day free trial somehow). At least some of them will probably pay Amazon [$10/month x the number of bot accounts] which is more money for Amazon.

So more money for Amazon, no change for scammers, a drop in sales rank for legitimate authors...
The 3k cap has going on for awhile.
 
#112 ·
Bbates024 said:
My understanding was that previously a single title was capped at 3k pages, that didn't stop someone from checking it out in KU and going through it forty times. Now each individual reader is capped at 3k per title, as well as still having the 3k limit on the total pages per book.
I don't think so. I don't think it's ever been the case that one reader can generate more than one total payout, even back in KU1.

Has anyone else tried to replicate Myra's test? I'm a KU member and would be glad to borrow and jump ahead in someone's little-borrowed book to test how many pages show up. Just drop me a link.

ETA: Three people contacted me, and I tested four books -- jumping from the beginning to the end on three of them, and on the last, paging very rapidly through the first few chapters, the idea being to see whether the system gives credits for pages gone through faster than any person could actually read them. Results pending. That's probably all the testing I'm up for (don't want to get ID'd as a baby click-farm myself :eek: ).
 
#113 ·
Bbates024 said:
My understanding was that previously a single title was capped at 3k pages, that didn't stop someone from checking it out in KU and going through it forty times. Now each individual reader is capped at 3k per title, as well as still having the 3k limit on the total pages per book.
No, you couldn't get paid for more than one full set of pages per reader. I checked out my own book and read it on three different devices. 418 pages read total. Start over again, no pages recorded.
 
#114 ·
Becca Mills said:
I don't think so. I don't think it's ever been the case that one reader can generate more than one total payout, even back in KU1.

Has anyone else tried to replicate Myra's test? I'm a KU member and would be glad to borrow and jump ahead in someone's little-borrowed book to test how many pages show up. Just drop me a link.
Check your PM
 
#115 ·
that didn't stop someone from checking it out in KU and going through it forty times
Yes, it did. People have done experiments all through the KU deal, and it was shown over and over than once someone had read a page, it would not count it again. That was one thing Amazon managed to do, at least.

I'm about to go crazy, as my stuff is still on my old hard drive, not on this new-to-me one, so I can't check to see if any of my KENPC has changed. Argh! Last time something was adjusted, I lost pages. I'm hoping that didn't happen this time (I don't do anything to pad my page counts), but I don't hold out much hope. Been burned too many times before, and I am not a scammer.
 
#122 ·
MyraScott said:
I just conducted a test on a book that doesn't get many page reads and had none for today.
I opened the book and clicked to the end, basically viewing 3 pages.
Page reads registers - 3
I just did the same test: opened the KU book and then used the TOC to advance to the end. The bad result: all pages read. Nothing has changed.
How did you read? I used the online reader.

Best, Matthias
 
#125 ·
Someone on this forum opened my book, read a few pages, then skipped to the end and read a few pages. that was a couple of hours ago. On the dashboard, it says 0 pages read. on the "month to date" tab, it says 270 pages read. On Book Report, it says 0 pages read.

I'm not sure we can believe anything Zon is telling us today.
 
#126 ·
Of my books done my "old" way with Mobi Creator, a couple lost 3 pages, but most stayed the same. I'm one of those who had a big loss when they adjusted KENPC count before, 20-25%, so maybe they figure they've skinned me enough. I've only done 2 with Vellum so far. The 32,000-word novella stayed the same. The 53,000-word short novel is the only one of my books that lost enough to make me unhappy - about 10%.
 
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