A good look at the furor over Amazon’s new KU changes and why some people are upset.
Eight days ago, Amazon announced a change to their Kindle Unlimited Program. For those who aren’t familiar with KU, it is a two-pronged program. For readers who pay $9.99 per month, you can borrow e-books enrolled in the KU program. This also includes a number of audio books as well. There is no time limit on when you have to return the books except you can only borrow 10 books at a time. If you are a voracious reader, KU can be a godsend for you because of the money you can save. As an author, KU is simply another method to help promote your books. Under the current rules, you get paid a share of the global fund put aside each month by Amazon, once 10% of your book or short story has been read. Simple so far, right?
Now, from the beginning, a number of authors have had…
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Unusual Things 
I think my favorite quote, which that article quotes from another one, is this:
“If you are an author whose book fails to grip in the opening chapter, it could prove costly.”
“Amazon is to begin paying royalties to writers based on the number of pages read by Kindle users, rather than the number of books downloaded. If a reader abandons the book a quarter of the way in, the author will get only a quarter of the money they would have earned if the reader stuck it out to the end.”
Oh no! Authors are being incentivized to write compelling stories from the first line to the last line! How will literature survive?!
I’m finding myself in agreement with over here: http://kriswrites.com/2015/06/17/business-musings-gaming-the-system/
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Max, I just finished “One Drink.”
I personally don’t care for the .44 mag. You didn’t name it, but most of the semi-autos in .44 mag are Desert Eagle, which gives you 8+1 capacity.
Do you use one in real life? I’ve only fired it in a revolver, and I just don’t like the recoil. On the other hand, I can fire hot .357 all day long in my Dan Wesson revolver; and yeah, I absolutely get why you’d want the additional capacity of a semi-auto; the DE .357 is 9+1, I think.
Loved the book, and will review it on Amazon and my blog as soon as I get caught up, which is at least a week.
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Whoa! As I type a thank you over on Mad Genius, you were over here typing as well. Crossing paths!
First of all, thank you very much for the read, and I’m glad you hear you enjoyed it. I mean, I’ll take good, bad, whatever the news is, but as one would guess, it’s always nice to hear that someone enjoyed my work. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your schedule and current backlog of books to review in order to read mine (and I hope it didn’t cut in too heavily).
As far as the gun goes, I deliberately kept some of the details sparse because I didn’t want to accidentally get something wrong, though you guessed correctly that it was a Desert Eagle. I don’t actually own one, nor have I fired one (though I have fired other firearms, both handheld and not). I got the details on what it was like however, not just by extrapolating my own experience with smaller-caliber arms, but also by doing some internet digging—hanging around on gun forums, looking for personal accounts of firing the DE, technical specs and details. I read through several user’s explanations of why they preferred the DE over other guns, though I also read over some explanations as to why it’s not a preferred revolver (and as I’ve done more research since then, I’ve already concluded that the next time Rocke appears, he’ll be carrying a 1911—though what particular model I haven’t decided—as a lot of the enthusiasts not a fan of the DE had some very good points).
Anyway, I did go through and dig into the details on the various models to make sure I could get the ammunition count right (though now, all this time later I have no honest idea what it ended up being, but I swear I found a DE that had the ammo count he did) along with the other details, and went deliberately vague on the details I couldn’t … knowing that there would be readers who would know right off the bat if I stated something that was incorrect, and that would not be good (I’m a stickler for good research myself, and I didn’t want to be a hypocrite, so I did what I could short of firing one to do good on that goal).
With Dead Silver I went far more in depth with my gun research (and also all the other research—the heavy mining equipment in that book is real down to the model number), and though I did make one obscenely embarrassing mistake (A Glock does not have a safety), everything else I went far more in depth on, right down to making sure the characters obeyed gun safety rules and used earplugs (as well as providing an explanation for what happened after not having them in One Drink).
That was probably more than you wanted to know, but then again maybe not. All I knew was that I didn’t want to release a book Larry Correia would think of the next time he spoke at a con about getting gun details right. 😀
Anyway, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to give One Drink a read, and I’m glad you enjoyed it! I look forward to seeing your review on your blog, and am excited to hear what you liked (and what you didn’t like, it’s a equal street).
Again, I can’t say it enough, but thank you, and I’m glad you enjoyed my book.
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If Rocke were a wealthy character, then you’ve got a tough job ahead of you in picking which 1911 for him to use. He seems more blue-collar to me, though: He rents a room, and his car has worn tires. In that case, I’d take a look at a Rock Island Armory. You can buy a brand-new, mil-spec, in the box RIA with three mags for less than $500. Over the past 10 years, I’ve bought four, one for me, one for my youngest son, one for my son-in-law, all the full-size Government model, and one for my daughter in the smaller 3.5 inch barrel. They are flawless out of the box, and you won’t find anyone who is critical of fit, finish, or customer service. If you haven’t discovered it already, http://www.m1911.org/ is a great resource, with lots of general about the platform and formums for specific manufacturers.
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Hey thanks for the info! That will definitely be useful! That site’s been added to my “Writing Resources” folder for future perusal!
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