Last week, amazon announced that it would no longer be able to buy books or manage their subscriptions through the kindle app, which means readers will have to go to the normal amazon website. why did they decide to do this? And what impact will it have for both authors and readers?
You may have seen a bunch of articles this week about Amazon’s decision to stop shopping through its Kindle app. it comes as a result of google charging 15% for all transactions (for digital goods) made through apps available on google play, and apparently amazon didn’t have that anymore!
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That said, this move is not a surprise to many people. Apple has blocked in-app purchases that bypass its payment gateways since 2011, and goes even further by disallowing links that redirect to a web page hosted by a third party for payment.
but what impact will this have on both readers and authors?
well, since this is how things work on ios based devices and the sky hasn’t quite fallen yet, this is unlikely to cause anything catastrophic. However, it is important to note that as of January 2022, Android still dominates the mobile trading market share with around 70%! That means blocking direct book sales from the Kindle app on Android devices is likely to cause more inconvenience to authors than blocking them on iOS.
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There are several possibilities as to what that would look like.
The first and most obvious effect will be that it will hurt authors by reducing the comfort that readers previously had in buying their books. As the writers of the series already know, the Kindle app and device will often “suggest” the next volume after customers have finished reading the previous one. that alone probably helps drive reading of the series, as the quick and easy “buy now” button makes the purchase an impulse buy while the story is still fresh in the reader’s mind.
There will undoubtedly be a drop in full reading if those readers are now forced to go through a slightly more inconvenient process of purchasing the next book, not the least of which is the fact that they will be affected by amazon. advertising-filled website and platform, leading some who came with the intention of buying a specific book to get distracted and buy something else (from someone else!) instead.
But since Amazon hasn’t released figures on how many people buy through the Kindle app, it’s impossible to know for sure what downturn authors will face, and thus how badly it could affect their overall book sales. only time will tell, so it’s important to start paying attention to historical read-through rates and daily book sales to spot any potential declines.
Alternatively, however, there is a possibility that some authors may benefit from this change. because while the changes mean you can no longer buy books or manage paid subscriptions through the kindle app, it’s still possible to use existing subscriptions, which suddenly makes kindle unlimited the only way to get a new book without having the existing app and going through a bunch of extra steps.
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this has the potential to benefit those authors who are part of the kindle unlimited program, as the ku platform will now become the only form of transaction you can do through the kindle app. again, it’s impossible to know how much difference that will make; but it should make authors publishing on kindle unlimited a little less concerned about the impact of this change.
another potential change could be an increase in book sales through google books. Of all the “broad” distribution platforms, Google Books has often been overlooked, but will now be much more relevant on the Android platform. Even if the convenience of buying a book through Google hasn’t directly increased, the fact that the ease of buying books from Amazon has decreased may make some readers give Google a try. if they have to take extra steps to buy a book anyway…
Will that translate into an increase in sales? I doubt it, and it’s impossible to say without knowing how many sales the kindle app generated, but authors who publish ‘wide’ could celebrate as they could finally start generating more sales through google books. as we discussed in our initial podcast with erin wright, creator of the wide for the win group on facebook, there is a strong case for putting more and more effort into different distribution platforms and this move by amazon (even though google is forcing their hand ) certainly isn’t going to hurt that argument.
but one important thing to remember is that amazon did not build dominance of their kindle platform overnight, and it will take more than this move by google to bring them down. Purchases are still possible on Kindle e-readers and Kindle Fire tablets, and that means there will always be a hardcore group of Amazon customers buying books using these products, and thus they won’t feel the impact of this move at all. Authors who have won readership among these Kindle devotees will likely see that the hard work pays off.
There are still many unknowns, but one thing is for sure: the industry we are in continues to change, evolve and grow, and we must be aware of it. darwin’s theory of evolution is not survival of the fittest, but rather survival of the most adaptable to change, so stay on top of what’s changing in the industry, because what might seem like daunting change to some authors it could be a new opportunity for you. .
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