Amazon might be good for readers, but it is terrible for authors. More accurately, Amazon’s near-monopoly of books and ebooks in the US market is terrible for authors.
Amazon has a program called Kindle Unlimited. It allows readers to pay a monthly fee and read a certain number of books. It does not include all books. For example, none of my books are available on Kindle Unlimited.
That’s because, in order for a book by an indie author to be eligible for Kindle Unlimited, Amazon does not allow that author to publish the book anywhere else. In other words, if you’re in KU, you can’t publish on Barnes and Noble, Apple, etc.
Many authors have gone all-in and make lots of money with KU. They keep making less money, though, because Amazon makes the terms worse and worse for authors. Authors just suck this up and take it, because they think this is their only option.
Amazon is by far the biggest platform right now. It is not the only one. As such, I would like to advertise other options. These two services cost about the same as KU, also include audiobooks, and do not require authors to be exclusive. I am a big fan of both of these services! My books are all available on these subscriptions.
Kobo Plus currently offers $7.99 a month for just books and $9.99 a month for books and audiobooks.
Everand has subscriptions for $11.99 a month and $16.99 which includes premium titles.
They are both way better than Amazon. Read for cheap and support indie authors (and screw Jeff Bezos because that’s just as important) by picking one of these!
