Kindle+ Pays Once per Page, Read or Listened

Amazon's help pages say a page read and then listened to counts once, and audio is paid from the KDP Select Global Fund with added money Amazon has not sized.

Kindle+ subscribers can now read an ebook and listen to its audiobook in the same subscription, but authors are paid only once for each page, whichever format comes first. Amazon's Royalties in Kindle+ help page says an author earns "the first time a subscriber reads or listens to a given page," and that returning to the same page "in the same or a different format" counts as re-reading.

PT reported the Kindle Unlimited rename on October 21. Since then, KDP's help pages have filled in how the audio side is paid.

One page, one payment

Amazon gives two examples. A subscriber who reads pages 1 to 50 of an ebook and then listens to pages 51 to 100 of the audiobook earns the author royalties for all 100 pages. A subscriber who reads pages 1 to 50 and then listens to the same 50 pages earns the author nothing extra for the listening. The rule runs the same way if the subscriber listens first.

When someone reads and listens at the same time, which Amazon calls Immersive Reading, the author is paid for the pages once. "If rates between the formats differ, you earn at the higher rate," the page says.

The same fund pays for both

Listening is paid from the KDP Select Global Fund, the pool that already pays for pages read. Amazon's KDP Select page says reading "continues to be paid through the fund as it is today" and that, to support the new audiobook catalog, "we're investing additional funds in the KDP Select Global Fund. These are new funds for the expanded audio selection."

Amazon has not said how much it is adding or for how long. Since each author's payout is a share of total pages read and listened to, the per-page value depends on whether the added money keeps pace with the added listening.

The reports have changed as well. The KENP report now has separate Kindle+ Read and Kindle+ Listened columns. Audible earnings, including Audible Plus, stay separate and "aren't impacted by Kindle+ enrollment," according to KDP's audiobook royalties page.

Which audiobooks are in

KDP's virtual voice audiobooks are included automatically when the matching ebook is enrolled in KDP Select. An author who does not want that audiobook in Kindle+ has two choices, according to Amazon: unpublish the audiobook or take the ebook out of KDP Select.

ACX audiobooks can be added if they meet the enrollment rules. Amazon requires exclusive Audible distribution rights, the Pay for Production model and Read and Listen (Whispersync for Voice) enabled, and the matching ebook must be in KDP Select. ACX audiobooks can be unenrolled separately from the ebook.

What to watch

The first month paid under the new rules is October, and KDP says monthly KENP totals are finalized near the 15th of the following month. Authors with both an ebook and an audiobook in Kindle+ may want to compare their Read and Listened columns once those figures settle, to see whether audio is adding new pages or mostly replacing pages that would have been read.

Sources

KDP Help: Royalties in Kindle+
KDP Help: KDP Select
KDP Help: KDP Select Enrollment
KDP Help: KENP Report
KDP Help: Pricing, royalties, and reports for audiobooks