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swolf said:
Also, it looks like that bonus money is coming out of the pool, which will mean a reduced per-borrow amount.
I highly, highly doubt they'd pull the All-Star money from the Global Fund. It makes no sense, as they already find themselves having to feed millions into the GF every month to keep the payout from dropping precipitously.

Besides, All Star will always be a known number. It will be static forever while the GF fluctuates.
 
Vaalingrade said:
I highly, highly doubt they'd pull the All-Star money from the Global Fund. It makes no sense, as they already find themselves having to feed millions into the GF every month to keep the payout from dropping precipitously.
Makes sense to me. And it doesn't say anything about it being a separate fund. The only money mentioned is the 2.7 million added to the pot.

Vaalingrade said:
Besides, All Star will always be a known number. It will be static forever while the GF fluctuates.
Not sure how that matters. It would be a fixed number taken from a fluctuating pot.

I'm not saying it is or isn't part of it, but I haven't seen any evidence either way.
 
tunskit said:
Finally, many authors outside the U.S. derive most of their qualified borrows from the KOLL and have not been able to benefit from the growth of KU. This has meaningfully altered their ability to compete within the wider pool of KDPS loans. To adjust for this, we are adding an additional bonus of $80,000 to be paid out on all KOLL loans outside of the U.S.
I second Midnight Whimsy. What does the above mean? very confused....
 
They're adding an extra 80K split between all the non-US Select authors. Which means in theory, KOLL payments to non-US authors are going to be slightly higher.
 
As a British author, I like the initiative. But, like other posters, I'm confused.

"Finally, many authors outside the U.S. derive most of their qualified borrows from the KOLL and have not been able to benefit from the growth of KU. This has meaningfully altered their ability to compete within the wider pool of KDPS loans."

My book are available for Kindle Unlimited in the US store. I just can't use the program myself.
 
Darren Wearmouth said:
As a British author, I like the initiative. But, like other posters, I'm confused.

"Finally, many authors outside the U.S. derive most of their qualified borrows from the KOLL and have not been able to benefit from the growth of KU. This has meaningfully altered their ability to compete within the wider pool of KDPS loans."

My book are available for Kindle Unlimited in the US store. I just can't use the program myself.
My guess is that Amazon are assuming that most of your borrows are on .co.uk and so you aren't getting a lot of borrows in KU. This is a false assumption for many of us. My UK sales and borrows are pitiful compared to my US ones. I have never done well at home.
 
It's for stuff like French and German authors writing in their native language. They're getting less per borrows without the benefit of increased borrows (or negligible benefit) from KU.
 
I'm not sure what they are getting at either, but it does explain the discrepancy on my August report.

The borrow rate is $1.54 on dot com. It's ÂŁ1.26 in the UK - equivalent (at current exchange rates) to $2.03.

I'd be interested in knowing what the UK borrow rate is for US authors. The same? Different?
 
Can anyone guess what it would take to be #100 on the authors all-star list? Would you have to have 10,000 total books borrowed or even more to be #100? or could it be even less like 1,000 total books borrowed? I'm just wondering so I know if I have any shot at all at getting in the top 100 and letting any of us lesser known authors have a shot at getting the bonuses.
 
rosclarke said:
Let's be honest about what this is: another bribe by Amazon to persuade authors not to sell books through any of Amazon's competitors.
That's pretty much how I see it. A sparkly bit to keep us dazzled. So far I'm seeing a lot of "wow, Amazon did another great thing," and not a lot of "oh, the payout is down to $1.54."
 
rosclarke said:
Let's be honest about what this is: another bribe by Amazon to persuade authors not to sell books through any of Amazon's competitors.
Right. A business incentive. Nothing evil or underhanded about it. Go with Select, for whatever reason, or don't, for whatever reason.
 
Congratulations Onedayatatime! Be careful not to get arrested for accepting a bribe ;)

One thing worth mentioning based on a few posts in this thread is that according to the initial email it's based on Sales, KOLL borrows and KU borrows combined. A lot of people seem to think it's just borrows and it's a KU specific thing.

Also... where's my email Amazon?  :(

 
I think this is an absolutely terrible idea.

With the fall in borrow payouts, it should be clear to everyone that the money for this fund is coming from the pot. As such, it takes a system which already has a pretty steep power curve, and makes it more extreme.

Because visibility in the KOLL/KU charts is a function of the Popularity List, and the Pop List has an extreme tilt towards consistent sellers, it means that borrows already predominantly go towards those doing extremely well. The All Stars bonuses just add another layer of cream to those at the top, and pay for it out of the pot meant for all.

Anyone that knows me or has read my posts here knows that I have a generally positive disposition towards Amazon, but I think this is a really bad move for authors in general. There will be some winners (100 of 'em) and good for them. But it's bad for everyone else who isn't one of those 100, because borrow payouts will be lower to fund this. And it also puts pressure on authors to go all in with Select instead of mixing and matching.

Congrats to anyone who does well out of this. I don't begrudge them at all. But for the rest: are you really saying you prefer a system with $1.54 borrows and a bonus for the Top 100, rather than a system with $2 borrows? I know I don't.
 
dgaughran said:
Congrats to anyone who does well out of this. I don't begrudge them at all. But for the rest: are you really saying you prefer a system with $1.54 borrows and a bonus for the Top 100, rather than a system with $2 borrows? I know I don't.
Yeah, I got to agree with that.
 
Discussion starter · #39 ·
dgaughran said:
Congrats to anyone who does well out of this. I don't begrudge them at all. But for the rest: are you really saying you prefer a system with $1.54 borrows and a bonus for the Top 100, rather than a system with $2 borrows? I know I don't.
I agree. That was exactly my thought as soon as I read the letter from Amazon.
 
dgaughran said:
Congrats to anyone who does well out of this. I don't begrudge them at all. But for the rest: are you really saying you prefer a system with $1.54 borrows and a bonus for the Top 100, rather than a system with $2 borrows? I know I don't.
I should be getting some of the all-star pie. But I'd prefer $2 borrows. Although some quick and dirty maths suggests that this would add about 20p a borrow if it was thrown in the pool instead. Based on the number of borrows I'd actually come out ahead with $1.74 borrows.

Then again, I'm not sure I agree that it's clear this is coming out of the "pot", only because I don't really think the pot exists as such. Amazon is just throwing money at Select. If they wanted a $2 borrow rate it would be a $2 borrow rate and if they wanted to have a $2 borrow rate and the all star incentive, then they'd do that. That's my take anyway. It's not a finite pool being split up. It's just whatever the hell they decide to do to incentivice the program.

I think you're spot on with "And it also puts pressure on authors to go all in with Select instead of mixing and matching" though. I also agree that it's going to set up a rich getting richer feedback loop, but then again that loop is pretty much part of their infrastructure already through charts and also-boughts... so, sames as it ever was.
 
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