So guys, I sent out an email to my mailing list, but I thought I should put it up here, too – because, well, this big fiasco is the reason that I gave out my schedule and then turned around and said I couldn’t release the way I’d planned. (I’m updating that post, btw, and since I’ve yanked most of my books from KU, I’ll need to go back through and update the book pages with the other retailers as they become available.)

Anyway, this is what was sent out tonight:

First, I’d like to thank all of you for being such awesome readers!

I’d also like to tell you guys a bit about what’s going on behind the scenes at Amazon. As you guys know, I’ve been in the Kindle Unlimited program for a year now – my books have been exclusive to Amazon, and you guys have been able to borrow them with your KU subscription. During this time, I have been able to make a fair wage from Amazon in exchange for my exclusivity, and it’s been a win/win situation for many readers as well as authors.

Amazon has recently made changes in how they are going to pay authors enrolled in KU. Instead of paying per borrow, they are going to pay per pages read. They gave us two weeks notice of this new change, and only today gave us the figures of last month’s pages read – something that worked out to about half a cent per page.

Guys, this is like your boss saying that instead of making $15/hr, you’re going to make $1.50/hour, effective immediately.

These changes are almost certain to devastate the incomes of many authors, authors who rely upon their royalty income to pay the mortgage and put food on the table for their families. The Release the Rate campaign is asking Amazon to release two crucial, yet simple pieces of information to their indie authors –

1. How many borrows are we recieving per book? This information was provided to us up until yesterday, so why are they withholding that information now?

2. What do they expect to pay per page going forward? If it is equal to or less than the $.0057 based on the June Select fund and pages read, this will decimate many people’s incomes and make it difficult to impossible to remain in the Kindle Unlimited program.

The majority of my titles have already been pulled from the program, and the remaining ones will also be removed (so if you’d like to borrow them, go ahead and set them to your borrow list now before they go back to paid only).

What can you do?

1. Let your friends and family know via social media that Amazon needs to #releasetherate. (This is a good post to share.)

2. Email jeff@amazon.com to let him know how you feel about Amazon’s new practices.

3. My books will continue to be available on Amazon, just not in the Kindle Unlimited program (unless something changes). If you have an particular retailer you also like to purchase from, let me know so that I can make sure that they carry my books, too.

Thank you for reading this email and for reading my books. Even though this is a bit of a set back, I am still committed to bringing you all fantastic gay romantic fiction.

Much love,

Kady xx