[ilamont]

Self-published authors who went “all in” with KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited are furious about this. You can see the discussion on Kboards:

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,234330.0.html

A few days ago someone shared a link that showed the free KU books in one of the categories filled with scam books, but it looks like a lot of them have been removed:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_pg_97?rh=n:283155,n:!...

The other issue this brings up is how Amazon has been pushing authors to join KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited and the Spotify-style payout structure. It’s a raw deal for most authors, the exception being prolific/well-known authors (and the scammers). Anyone joining the program gets some nice marketing tools, but they have to remove their books from other marketplaces (Google Play, iBooks, etc.) and end up cannibalizing the sale of digital downloads which pay more (typically 70% of list for titles priced $2.99 and above).

Like Spotify, Kindle Unlimited is great for audiences and the platform owner. The publishers/creators who can scale do OK. Everyone else gets the scraps.

[wmeredith]

>Like Spotify, Kindle Unlimited is great for audiences and the platform owner. The publishers/creators who can scale do OK. Everyone else gets the scraps.

Meet the new boss... same as the old boss.

[kbenson]

> It’s a raw deal for most authors, the exception being prolific/well-known authors

I've been reading almost exclusively authors I've never heard of before (but they are rated fairly high). In that respect, you may be right and they may have been known, but they were unknown to me. Usually I would stick to my own short list of who I think are the best in a genre, occasionally venturing outside of that to see who's getting accolades recently. I imagine if you put some effort into it and got a push from some fans you could break into a wider audience on KU without too much work.