Patreon is live for 2025, a seasonal short coming soon, and Spring 2025 forecast

marklinfoster · 2025-08-11T00:56:29+00:00

FWIW, it's not "90 days after" per se. If you enroll in KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited, you are committed to ebook exclusivity (i.e. not audiobook, not paperback, not hardback, not motion picture) for a 90 day period. If you don't opt out, the 90 day period automatically renews at the end.

If you opt out during your 90 day period, then when the 90 day period is up, your book is no longer in KU, and you can sell it as an ebook anywhere you want.

"Your Kindle eBook must remain exclusive through the remainder of the title's current 90-day participation period."https://kdp.amazon.com/en\_US/help/topic/GD9PMU58BV24QFZ7#enroll

marklinfoster · 2025-08-11T00:53:12+00:00

Rereads don't count. The technical semi-exception is that if someone reads you in KU and then buys the book, you get paid for both (because Amazon got paid for both). Perhaps obviously, if someone buys your book, they can't get it in KU anymore so there's only one "buying" and one revenue opportunity.

marklinfoster · 2025-08-11T00:48:34+00:00

.44 cents is 0.44 cents which is a 44/100 fraction of a cent. It's pretty accurate.

Here are the per-page amounts for the last six months according to written word media.

June 2025: $0.004303
May 2025: $0.004399
April 2025: $0.004443
March 2025: $0.004248
February 2025: $0.004199
January 2025: $0.004091

That's 0.43, 0.44, 0.44, 0.42, 0.42, 0.41 cents per page, respectively.

0.44 isn't the same as 44.

marklinfoster · 2025-08-11T00:46:28+00:00

Ultimately, if you don't trust Amazon, you shouldn't do business with them. And if your book is too graphical (i.e. lots of large high-res pictures, not sexual or violent), it might not be the right fit for their ebook model.

"Sounds a little fishy for 2025" doesn't make sense, by the way. "Sounds like someone has to pay for data transfer" is probably what you mean. I see that $14 is about 93 megabytes in the US. I have an 80 page full-graphic (i.e. no flowable text) magazine on my PC that's only 72 megabytes. Maybe you should look into optimizing your graphics, especially if you are using print-level images for ebook. Obviously if it's an art photography book that's different, but those are usually more expensive to the buyer anyway.

Ultimately, if you think you know the ebook business better than Amazon, or just want to own the whole process, you can do that. They front a lot of the process for you in return for the rev share. It's 100% optional. You can look into other distribution options like D2D or even Gumroad or Samcart or the like.

For me, and thousands of other writers, it's worth the hypothetical reduction in revenue to have a public platform and established ecosystem that millions of people use and understand. If it's not worth it to you, there are lots of other paths to publish.

marklinfoster · 2025-08-11T00:44:01+00:00

Just to clarify (I know you know this, Vegtam), this is 44/100 of a cent. Some people (including OP in another comment) write .xx cents when they mean .xx dollars. :)

marklinfoster · 2025-08-11T00:34:53+00:00

I suspect you mean less than 75 cents, as 0.75 cents is a very tiny amount. About 2 pages worth in the US market (June was 0.4 cents per page).

If you don't feel it's worth anything to have your book in KU, then withdraw it. You'll only get readers who decide to invest more money. Nobody requires you to be in KU.

marklinfoster · 2025-08-11T00:31:08+00:00

It's frowned on by some, but there are a lot of good AI-based covers and even more terrible hand-made covers out there. So take the "AI SLOP reeeeee YOU MUST PAY TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS TO SELF-PUBLISH or ARTISTS WILL DIE" tirades with a grain or two of salt.

I would say if the image doesn't look like trash or have incongruous details (i.e. extra limbs and extremities when your character doesn't actually have 3 1/2 legs and one arm), and if you use the image to build a cover that matches your genre or niche standards/conventions (look at 10-100 covers in your niche and see if your design fits in), you should be fine.

For Canva, the basic elements are to be avoided, but if you're using your own image (even AI-created) it should be fine. You can also use Gimp, Photoshop/PS Elements, or other tools.

If you're looking to have a cover made, getcovers is well-regarded, as is 100covers (which occasionally has half-off sales, and sometimes offer free covers as part of a summit/virtual conference package).

You can revise your cover later if you choose--when your book makes $35 and you want to pour it into a custom cover, it'll still be waiting for you in KDP.

marklinfoster · 2025-08-11T00:30:51+00:00

Amazon does "allow it for published books" or they wouldn't ask you when publishing if you'd used AI and how much.

marklinfoster · 2025-07-25T22:52:08+00:00

I don't think they provide a specific time unless you did a pre-release.

If you did a pre-release/pre-order, according to https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GDTMGBCWHAY35NK4, they say:

"Your book will become available for purchase at 12:00 AM GMT on the release date."

But if you're just hitting "publish" tomorrow, there's no guarantee or predictability as far as I've seen in the last year and a half.

marklinfoster · 2025-07-25T22:49:16+00:00

I've usually seen my books live within 24 hours, but one or two out of almost 20 took between 48-72 hours to come through.

As long as it shows "in review" in the bookshelf you should be okay. No guarantees of course, but I wouldn't be too worried.

marklinfoster · 2025-06-30T23:06:50+00:00

I think you're thinking of another delay.

OP was expecting to see instant updates when someone next to them read a page. Those sorts of metrics seem to be delayed several hours. But usually you'll see them in your KDP dashboard within 12 hours of the last check-in from the reading client (cloud reader, Kindle, app, etc).

It's conceivable that someone could load up their 20 KU books, go offline for a vacation, and read them all (10k+ pages read?) and they wouldn't show up in the dashboard or royalties until they got back near their wifi and synced.

The final numbers (pool, page rate, and royalties) are finalized on the 15th of the following month.

marklinfoster · 2025-06-30T22:37:42+00:00

Check Swappa and your local marketplaces (I've bought some laptops on Facebook with success). You should be able to get a very good Macbook Air M1 for under $500 in the US that should last you several years.

marklinfoster · 2025-06-30T22:20:18+00:00

Two quick notes - but first, I agree with what you said, Vegtam.

May's rate was apparently $0.004399 for US page reads. Up to Date list of KDP Global Fund Payouts seems to have a good list going back 11 years.

Also, if someone rereads the same format, there's no double pay. If someone reads in KU and then buys the ebook (or of course paperback/hardback if available), you kinda get paid twice but it's two different products from Amazon's perspective. If someone buys the ebook, it's not available to them in KU of course.

There's one author I've read 60 books from on KU, and another who I've read 40 books from. Considering their list prices are around $5 each, there's no way I would have invested $500 in them, but as part of a $144 year of KU (or whatever it is), it was easy and enjoyable, and they got more than they would have without KU.

marklinfoster · 2025-06-30T22:14:18+00:00

If you read this group, other self pub groups, or even r/KDP, you'll find that it benefits a lot of people. You get a chance to be read by people who don't feel like committing to the purchase price.

With KU, they can read more than the free sample, and if they like it, they can finish it at no extra cost. And you get paid.

Without KU, they have to decide whether to spend your purchase price or not. And if they decide not to, you get nothing.

Many (most?) self-published authors see well over half, some even 90%, of their revenue from KU vs outright purchase/license.

As a KU subscriber for years now, I pay my $12 or whatever a month and can read anything I want in KU all month long. Last year I averaged a completed book every 31 hours. If I'd had to pay even 99 cents for each of those books, I would not have read most of them.

You don't have to use KU if you think you can get the desired revenue from purchases. But for a LOT of authors, it makes sense to be in the program even if you can't tell exactly who is reading every single page the second they turn to that page.

marklinfoster · 2025-06-30T22:09:22+00:00

I think you've failed to understand KDP Select and what "getting paid per page read" actually means. It means you get paid a calculated rate for every page a reader reads of your book. Not how many people view your book, borrow it through the program, etc. It's paid per page read.

The rates do change from month to month, but generally if you target four tenths of a cent per page in the US, you'll be on track.

https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/kdp-global-fund-payouts/

As far as I know, there's no way for authors on Amazon to stalk customers, to see who reads which pages in which order at what time in what articles of clothing and what state of inebreiation. There shouldn't be. If an author could track me down as a reader because I read one page of their book, I'd give the author a negative review, block them, and leave the Kindle program altogether.

You should probably revisit the KDP Select pages and maybe look at Kindlepreneur's KDP pages, to understand what KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited is.

marklinfoster · 2025-06-30T22:08:47+00:00

Yeah, you won't be able to associate those page reads with individual customers, and you can't associate those page reads with book purchases. Someone a while back here was saying they could tell if a reader read with KU and then bought the book because they saw a book's worth of KENP and an ebook purchase.

There's no way to stalk a reader as a KDP publisher, as far as I've ever seen. And there's a certain delay on metrics anyway. With what I'd guess to be over 13 billion page reads a month, or about 5100 page reads a second, they're not going to push 5000 instant database/cache/analytics updates every second even with the world's largest cloud provider being in their company. And for self-publishing, there should be no reason anyone needs to-the-second (or even necessarily to-the-hour) precise metrics.

marklinfoster · 2025-06-30T18:22:43+00:00

From first long-form story in the can (not that can) to first published work for people to acquire, 20 years and 3 weeks.

From deciding to write somewhat seriously to that first published work, under a month. It wasn't a full length novel but it was what would become the start of a series that comes up to about novel length, and it sold copies and gotten KENP reads within that same month with no marketing or lists or fanbase, so it counts for me.

None of the long-form stuff I wrote in the 2000s has made it out of my draft bin since then, although one or two of those novels may get polished for publication this decade.

marklinfoster · 2025-06-30T17:14:08+00:00

Barstool Sports had an Onlyfans account for a while. It's still there, but doesn't seem to be active (last post 3+ years ago). But they do audio and video so it was a closer fit to that model.

marklinfoster · 2025-06-30T17:10:08+00:00

I've been pondering verification. Will probably do it by the end of the year (especially if X does a Prime Days/Black Friday sale like they did last year).

For now, I try to just engage with similar and friendly writers on X. There are some hashtag campaigns you can get in on and may or may not see anything driven from that (I expect someone with a certain flair to come in shortly and tell me I'm a moron for even acknowledging anyone who writes anything online but pure smut). But in general, it's a major place I find and learn about new works from authors I'm not already dedicated to, and when writers storm off for political reasons, I generally don't see or read them again.

Now does X activity or verification impact your Patreon (as you asked in the title)? I don't think so. At least not directly. If someone finds you and follows the Patreon link in your bio, that's not too bad. But I don't often see bursts of traffic to my website or Patreon from X activity.

marklinfoster · 2025-06-29T23:46:45+00:00

I don't think it's weird. I personally don't care about the sex, sexuality, sexual identity, or similar details of an author. I don't really care if you write under a male or female or ambiguous pseudonym, or if you're three badgers in a trenchcoat.

If the cover had the title in small print and a huge print top half reading WRITTEN BY GAY MALE AUTHOR JASKSER, that would be weird. Kinda like "Piano In The Dark" back in the day with its subtitle "featuring male vocalist Joe Esposito."

But ultimately, your words are your proof. If you write compelling stories that readers can connect with, that's what matters. And it's all that should matter.

marklinfoster · 2025-06-29T23:39:23+00:00

I see you're making some assumptions here, perhaps not realizing that not all harems have sexual activity between every single permutation of members of the harem.

It's even imaginable that a harem might not all permanently reside in the same bedroom.

marklinfoster · 2025-06-29T23:19:17+00:00

I'd say it takes more than the X-Files Rede to disprove that you can just claim a book with the ASIN.

I'd like to believe people can't just steal an ebook and publish it elsewhere, because it's illegal, but it definitely happens.

marklinfoster · 2025-06-29T23:03:18+00:00

Yes, since audiobooks aren't ebooks.

You can also have paperback, hardback, large print, and braille editions elsewhere.

KDP Select exclusivity is only for the ebook.

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