ClarkesworldDec 16, 2022
In an absolutely devastating announcement (right before the holidays) Amazon has informed us that they are ending their Kindle Subscription program in Sept. 2023 and trying to get magazines to switch to Kindle Unlimited. Asking for more details, but this is bad. Magazine subscriptions are guaranteed revenue from each subscriber. KU is not like that. It will effectively cancel thousands of subscriptions since there's no migration path.
Show threadClarkesworldDec 16, 2022
It's hard to even say how much we'd get from a single subscriber. This completely removes our ability to control our price if we want to be in the dominant ebook ecosystem.
I've scheduled an appointment to talk with Amazon later this afternoon. Have many questions. Fellow editors of mags on Amazon: feel free to DM/email me. We should be talking.
Show threadGraydon

@clarkesworld Amazon's whole business model is about controlling prices. ("you buy at our price and you sell at our price".) That's why Bezos got all that investment a decade-plus back; he could convince the investors he could pull it off.

Which sucks flint, but from Amazon's point of view this is The Plan, rather than an unreasonable oversight.

Dec 16, 2022 at 6:12pmWeb