A couple of things came to my attention yesterday that involve the publishing industry. No, I’m not talking about the rantings and foaming at the mouth by a couple of folks who really want to be relevant but only come across as desperate and bitter. The first item to catch my attention was a blog by an author taking about what happened with her agent when she decided to go indie. The second was a round of posts on the KDP boards and related blogs. That’s what I’ll start with first.

Saturday, Cedar wrote a post about Kindle Unlimited. There is a lot of good information in it about the program. However, as she admits, there is still a lot to be discovered about just what sort of impact the program will have on sales, number of downloads under the program and the overall impact on the bottom dollar. There is also a lot of conflicting information out there about the program and that is causing a great deal of consternation on the interwebs. Add in the usual Amazon haters with all their naysaying. Is it any wonder there are worried indies and small press publishers out there?

On the KDP boards, the main issues brought up was anger that books were enrolled in the program without first getting the okay from the authors/publishers. Since many of those objecting were already enrolled in the KDP Select program, this is a knee jerk reaction brought on by Amazon itself. For once, Amazon dropped the ball and didn’t give those in the Select program an early heads up with the details needed to understand what this new program might be. Worse, the only way — so far at least — to opt out of the program is to opt out of Select.

So, what’s the big difference between Kindle Unlimited and the Kindle Only Lending Library? Numbers, basically. Well, numbers and audio books. Where the numbers differ is that KOLL allowed Prime members to borrow one book a month. There was no limit on how long you could hold onto the book but you couldn’t borrow another until that book was returned. With Unlimited, it is my understanding that you can borrow up to 10 books at a time. Again, there is no limit on how long you can hold these books. But, as with the KOLL, you have to return books once you reach that magic number of 10 before downloading anything else under the Unlimited program.

Since audiobook downloads won’t impact most authors in the program, at least not right now, I’m not going to address that.

The major questions as an author that I have about the program all come down to the bottom line. How will the ability to download my books under the Unlimited program impact my sales? Right now, I’ll be honest, I see my sales taking a hit and the “borrows” have taken a big jump. That is, in my opinion, because the Unlimited program is free for 30 days. What the result will be when folks have to pay $9.99/month for the service very well could be something else.

One thing that has become clear from what I’m seeing with my numbers/ranking and what I’m hearing from others is that overall author and title ranking isn’t being negatively impacted on the whole. It appears that those titles downloaded under the Unlimited program count as “sales” when it comes to rankings. I could be wrong, but that is how it seems to be right now. That’s important because it isn’t skewing, at least right now, the Top 100 rankings in any genre/sub-genre.

The other area of confusion is what we will be paid for each download under the Unlimited program. It is my understanding that we will be paid just like we were for downloads under the KOLL program — payment will be out of the fund Amazon puts up each month and will depend on how many books are in the program, etc. Yet I have seen other sites claim that you will be paid what you would if the book had been sold under regular circumstances. Common sense tells me it will be like the KOLL payments if for no other reason than the Unlimited downloads aren’t impacting my monies earned to date. To mean, that means they can’t tell me how much I’ve earned under the program because they won’t know until the end of the month when all the factors are considered.

There is one other thing I can say right now. Yes, my “sales” have dropped since the program began. But when I factor in the downloads under Unlimited, there has been little impact. I’ll be watching for the next few months and gathering data. Then, and only then, will I decide whether the program is worth continuing or not.

The second item that caught my eye was this blog post by Claire Cook.  I’m not going to rehash the entire article in detail. Instead, I’m going to suggest you read it carefully and then reread it. Ms. Cook describes the sequence of events that led to her decision to leave traditional publishing and go indie. There is the much too common tale of rotating editors, an editor leaving on maternity leave just months before book launch leaving her with a young and rather inexperienced assistant. Then there came the email from the assistant telling her that she, the assistant, was leaving to start a takeout food business. So, there she was with a basically orphaned book. And things kept going downhill.

Add in emails and messages from bookstores telling her that her backlist from another publisher was next to impossible to get. Then that publisher sold, adding more bumps in the road. Finally, after more bumps and bruises, Cook decides to go indie. She’d done a little indie work before but this was the big jump. She was going to take back control of her career. She talked to her attorney, letters were sent to get rights back where they’d reverted, etc., And all was happy in the world.

Until it came to her agent.

Cook never names her agent. Instead, she describes the agent this way: “powerful literary agent from a mighty agency that I both liked and respected.” The agent had been kept in the loop about what she planned and had read and given input into the book Cook was about to publish on her own. From what I can tell, the agent never raised any red flags in their discussions about there being any potential problems. Cook evidently didn’t think so, at least not until the agent called her with what basically turned into a list of demands. In order for Cook to continue being represented by the agency, she ” would have to turn over 15% of the proceeds of my about-to-be self-published book to said agency. Not only that, but I would have to publish it exclusively through Amazon, because the agency had a system in place with Amazon where I could check a box and their 15% would go straight to them, no muss, no fuss.”

Note, that the agency wasn’t giving her any assistance in self-publishing the books. Nor would there be any extra push from Amazon regarding placement or other marketing perks. Oh, and it was made clear the sub-agents of the might literary agency wouldn’t be spending any time trying to sell rights to her work. In other words, she would get to pay 15% of her royalties for the right to say she was represented by the agency and get no other benefit from it.

This is when she drew the line and said no. More letters from attorneys and legal fees incurred but she divested herself of the agency as well.

I applaud Cook for writing this post. What she went through is not unheard of. But it serves as a good warning tale for the rest of us. If you have an agent right now, find out what their policy is about indie work. If they want 15% of your profits and they aren’t doing anything to earn that monies, either renegotiate your contract or get out of it. If there is a clause in your contract that you can only self-publish through them, make sure it is worth your while to do so. They have to be offering something of value. Just putting the book up on Amazon or elsewhere isn’t enough.

In other words, protect yourself. There are alternatives out there and those who have long filled traditional roles in publishing are worried because the industry is changing. Sometimes that worry turns into innovative thinking. Too often, however, it turns into attempts to hang onto what they had, no matter what the cost to the other party. Since you are that other party, keep your eyes open and protect yourself. In the meantime, why aren’t you writing?