Amazon authors to be paid by the page

[Mandy Muffin]

Talk about going full circle.  In early days of book serial publication, authors (Dickens was a good example) were paid by the length of their books, as they published them in newspapers.  Accordingly, Dickens wrote some tomes to increase his fees.  Now Amazon is getting push-back from authors who participate in the Amazon E-book lending program.  I am a member through my Prime free-book-a-month benefit. Amazon has a larger program that offers unlimited reading for a flat fee per month. 

It seems some authors write lengthy books while others do not, so they want more money.  Amazon technology now is such they can measure the pages actually read by readers, so they can pay by the page read. They will pay authors accordingly.  So we are back to the old system of newspaper reimbursement of authors that they published.

http://www.bidnessetc.com/45962-amazoncom-inc-now-pays-authors-by-t...

[Eaglewoman]

I have read so many books lately that I think could have told the story with 1/2 the pages. Some just go on and on. 

[Mandy Muffin]

Although I don't think James Patterson has to worry, he has made a fortune writing terse, relatively short books that are all action and meant to be read in 2-3 hours.  I hate to see anything that encourages writers to expand their stories and pad the pages with excess verbiage just to make a few extra bucks.  At least with E-books they are not also killing trees. 

[Lip Service]

Not too warm on the idea of keeping such a close watch on what readers do, neither for author compensation by the page

As a reader it is the enjoyment of the book as a whole that is most memorable

Some large works go very fast and so slim one very slow (and maybe more delectable). Some books you don't want them to finish and some you end you throwing across the room out of exasperation

I have come to enjoy some obscure authors that don't have much following because I found that their work has a special flavor that resonated with me