When I launched my Author Website in a Box project last June, one of the first questions that came across my inbox was how to build a bookstore on the AWinaBox site. My answer at the time was to recommend using a third-party service such as Payhip to handle payment processing and ebook delivery.

That was sound advice, albeit lacking in detail, but I knew I can do better.

When I launch AWinaBox 2.0, my answer will be to tell authors to use the template that will come bundled with the project. That launch is still a couple months away, so in the mean time I thought it might be useful to lay out the basic steps for setting up that bookstore so that everyone could use the info.

Update: It occurred to me after I published this post that “selling an author’s ebooks” and “having a bookstore” are two very different things. This post is about an author selling their own books. If you want to set up a bookstore, look into Aer.io.

I am just going to lay out the broad strokes here, and later come back and add the finer details.

The following project is moderately difficult and requires a modicum of skill, but if you can build a page on your and you can embed a FB Pixel, you can sell an author’s ebooks set up a bookstore on an author website.

What it comes down to is that you should use the buttons and code from a service such as Payhip, and embed them on your author website.

The first step is to set up an account at Payhip.

Payhip

Payhip is not the only company that will handle payments and content delivery, but their platform is relatively easy to learn, they’re not too expensive, and they cover all the basics. If you’ve never done this before, Payhip is a good place to start.

• Set up your account, including your payment info.
• Create a listing for each title you want to sell. Upload the cover, title, blurb, and the relevant ebook files.
• Proof all of your listings to make sure there are no errors.

Be sure to save the cover and the blurbs because you will (might?) need them later when you add the buy buttons build the bookstore on your site.

Oh, and BTW, I feel I should point out that you can sell ebooks by sending people to Payhip to buy them. I do not think that’s a good idea; IMO the Payhip pages have a terrible design which hurt my eyes, and I don’t think that they sell very many ebooks.

Instead, I think you should sell ebooks on your author website itself using the buy buttons and other code provided by Payhip.

Here’s how you will make that happen.

Your Site

Before I tell you to build anything, I should probably point out that if you have a page with all your books in rows, you can add the Payhip buy buttons to the existing page (and save yourself a lot of work).

Also, if you have each of your books on its own page, you could also add the Payhip buy buttons to each book’s page. This is not my preference, however; I want all the books on one page.

If you don’t have those pages, here’s how you set up a bookstore page to sell an author’s ebooks.

Start by creating a new page on your site. Give it the name of “My Bookstore”, and add a subtitle which gently reminds visitors that you make more money when they buy direct.

Below that you will need to make a row for each of your books. You’ll need to add the cover, the book blurb, and buy buttons so that they look something like this:

That first button is going to be the Payhip button (it uses Payhip’s code), and the other buttons lead to other retailers.

BTW, you do not have to use buttons (I just have a preference for them). In fact, it might be easier for you to instead use text links. I am finding that getting all the buttons to play nice requires finicky CSS, where text links are much less complicated.

In any case, you will need to add a row for each book to the bookstore page. You’ll need to make sure the covers match the blurbs, and that the buttons link to the right retail pages.

Does this make sense? Does it help?

Any questions?

image by greencandy8888 via  Flickr

You just finished reading How to Sell eBooks on an Author Website: The Beginner’s Guide which was published on The Digital Reader.

Kindle Unlimited maintained its position as one of the top five ebookstores in September 2020, paying out $32.7 million and bringing the total paid out over the past 12 months to $323 million.

Both the per-page rate and the size of the funding pool increased in September. The pool increased by $100,000, while the per-page rate reached $0.004594, up from $0.004322 in August.

Here are the per-page rates for the past 2 years.

• September 2020: $0.004594
• August 2020: $0.004322
• July 2020: $0.004294
• June 2020: $0.004547
• May 2020: $0.004203
• April 2020: $0.004226
• March 2020: $0.0046
• February 2020: $0.004547
• January 2020: $0.004411
• December 2019: $0.004664
• November 2019: $0.004925
• October 2019: $0.0046763
• September 2019: $0.0046799
• August 2019:  $0.004387
• July 2019 –  $0.004394
• June 2019 – $0.004642
• May 2019 – $0.0046598
• April 2019 – $0.0046602
• March 2019 – $0.0045124
• February 2019 – $0.0047801
• January 2019 – $0.0044227
• December 2018 – $0.0048778
• November 2018 – $0.0052056
• October 2018 – $0.0048414
• September 2008 – $0.004885
• August 2018 – $0.0044914
• July 2018 – $0.0044936

P.S. Here’s a list of the monthly funding pools. It does not include the bonuses paid out each month.

• July 2014: $2.5 million (Kindle Unlimited launches early in the month)
• August 2014: $4.7 million
• September 2014: $5 million
• October 2014: $5.5 million
• November 2014: $6.5 million
• December 2014: $7.25 million
• January 2015 – $8.5 million
• February 2015: $8 million
• March 2015: $9.3 million
• April 2015: $9.8 million
• May 2015: $10.8 million
• June 2015: $11.3 million
• July 2015: $11.5 million
• August 2015: $11.8 million
• September 2015: $12 million
• October 2015: $12.4 million
• November 2015: $12.7 million
• December 2015: $13.5 million
• January 2016: $15 million
• February 2016: $14 million
• March 2016: $14.9 million
• April 2016: $14.9 million
• May 2016: $15.3 million
• June 2016: $15.4 million
• July 2016: $15.5 million
• August 2016: $15.8 million
• September 2016: $15.9 million
• October 2016: $16.2 million
• November 2016: $16.3 million
• December 2016: $16.8 million
• January 2017: : $17.8 million
• February 2017: : $16.8 million
• March 2017: $17.7 million
• April 2017: $17.8 million
• May 2017 :$17.9 million
• June 2017: $18 million
• July 2017: $19 million
• August 2017: $19.4 million
• September 2017: $19.5 million
• October 2017: $19.7 million
• November 2017: $19.8 million
• December 2017: $19.9 million
• January 2018: $20.9 million
• February 2018: $20 million
• March 2018: $21 million
• April 2018: $21.2 million
• May 2018: $22.5 million
• June 2018: $22.6 million
• July 2018: $23.1 million
• August 2018: $23.3 million
• September 2018: $23.4 million
• October 2018: $23.5 million
• November 2018: $23.6 million
• December 2018: $23.7 million
• January 2019: $24.7 million
• February 2019: $23.5 million
• March 2019: $24 million
• April 2019: $24.1 million
• May 2019: $24.6 million
• June 2019: $24.9 million
• July 2019: $25.6 million
• August 2019: $25.8 million
• September 2019: $25.9 million
• October 2019: $26 million
• November 2019: $26.1 million
• December 2019: $26.2 million
• January 2020: $28.2 million
• February 2020: $27.2 million
• March 2020: $29 million
• April 2020: $30.3 million
• May 2020: $32.2 million
• June 2020: $32.3 million
• July 2020: $32.4 million
• August 2020: $32.6 million
• September 2020: $32.7 million

You just finished reading Kindle Unlimited Per-Page Rate, Funding Pool Rose in September 2020 which was published on The Digital Reader.

There’s a problem with how a lost of writers approach writing online; they focus on words.

This is a problem because modern web design is based on the idea that text is complimented by images. In fact, most current website themes are designed with the assumption that images will be used, so when someone publishes a post without images, it often feels wrong in some subtle way.

That is especially true with the upcoming v2.0 release of my Author Website in a Box project. The new release is going to include a design for blog posts which will make them look gorgeous – if you use a featured image with each post. If you don’t, the posts will look vaguely off.

Since I know I will be making this an issue for users, I decided to go ahead and explain how to find and use images in a blog post.

Generally speaking, there are three things you need to know about this topic:

• where to find the images
• how to choose one
• where to put it in the blog post

I already covered the first point in detail in another blog post, so I won’t repeat myself here. Instead, let’s start with choosing images.

How to Choose

The trick to using images with your blog posts is to find an image that says something about your post or its topic.

If you’ve never done this before, that might not be very useful, so let me put it a different way. Ask yourself the following questions about your blog post, and then use your answer to search for images.

• What is your topic?
• What is the subject of your post?
• Is your post connected to a specific place, profession, industry, or what have you?
• What is your opinion on the subject of your post?
• What emotion or sense do you want to convey with the blog post?

There are more questions you could ask; these are just the ones I use when I go looking for images for my blog post. I have in fact been writing about the same topics for so long that I am having trouble coming up with questions for you, but I am sure there are more.

The thing about the image sites I linked to in my other post is that most have search functions that will try to match your search term with all of the tags attached to each image. Some will even try to match your search term with their AI’s guess about the content in each image. (This is still hit or miss, but the hits are getting better.)

If you can think of words to describe your blog post, chances are you will be able to use those words, to find images.

I have some advice on how you should choose them:

• Before you choose an image, take a few minutes to consider the message it might convey unintentionally. For example, a few years back I wrote a post about Amazon hiring Dutch and Russian translators, and illustrated  it with a photo of The Hague. This was shortly after Russia invaded the Crimea, an otherwise a completely unrelated event to my post which still managed to turn that photo into a comment on geopolitics.
• When you are about to download the images, most image sites will offer multiple size options. Be sure to choose an image at least 1500 pixels wide. This will give you more pixels than you need, yes, but that is better than choosing an image which is too small.
• Also, you should consider what the image will look like on FB and Twitter.

Where It Goes

Once you have found the image you want to use, you need to decide how and where to use it.

Actually, the first thing you should do is provide an image credit link when required. Almost all of the photos I use on Flickr are licensed under Creative Commons terms that require crediting the creator, which is why you usually see an image credit line at the end of my posts.

Once you have added that image credit, it’s time for you to add the image to the post.

The very first place you should use an image is as a “featured image”. This is a special type of image which is not inserted or embedded in the post so much as it is “attached”.

Do you know how a lot of blogs have a large image either right before or right after a blog post title? That is an example of a featured image. It was placed there automatically by the the website after said image was selected by the blogger.

So how do you set an image as a featured image?

Well, that varies between blog themes, but most sites will have a spot in the right-side menu column of the “edit post” menu that specifically says featured image. It should say something like “Set featured image” and if you click it you will be taken to a menu where you can either choose or upload an image.

If you want to just use the one image on your site, that is great. Go ahead and set that as the featured image, and you are golden.

But if you want to use several images, I have additional advice.

• Be sure to only use images that stretch the full width of the post column, and not half, three-quarters, or one-quarter the width of the text. I make this suggestion because those partial-width images do not look good on smartphones or in your RSS feed. (It took me about 8 years to notice that detail.)
• I also think you should  use images sparingly, and that you should avoid making the post heavy on images and low on text. If, for example, you need four images to illustrate a point, combine them into a gallery.
• One good way to use  images is as section breaks, or to illustrate the key points in your post.

* * *

Any questions?

image by @boetter via Flickr

You just finished reading How to Find and Use Images in Your Blog Posts which was published on The Digital Reader.

Here are a few stories to read this Monday morning.

• There’s a library in Indianapolis whose street signage says “Librarey”. 
• Even the legal profession has switched to a single space after a period. 
• The UK’s new digital services tax backfired, and will mostly help the large tech companies it was intended to target. 
• Teleread’s Chris Meadows died on Tuesday.
• Quebec libraries have more than doubled their ebook buying this year. 

You just finished reading Morning Coffee – 19 October 2020 which was published on The Digital Reader.

Remember how I told you back in August that Onyx teased a 7.8″ color ereader based on the Boox Nova2?

Well, Digitimes says that the screen unit for that larger ereader is going to ship this year.

E-paper solution provider E Ink Holdings (EIH) plans to launch new colored e-paper solutions based on its second-generation Print Color Technology before year-end 2020, according to industry sources.

The new colored e-paper solutions will target mainly e-book reader and e-notebook applications and will also enable device makers to enlarge the sizes of their products to 8-10 inches instead of the current mainstream 6-inch segment, said the sources.

Due to strong demand for its colored e-paper solutions, the company is currently expanding the backend module capacity at its plant in Yangzhou, China, which will boost its capacity significantly after completion at year-end 2020, the sources said.

In case you were wondering, “Print Color” is the name E-ink uses for the tech that goes into its Kaleido screens (see the E-ink website). The reason that it’s referred to as “second-gen” is because Kaleido screens are the second generation of E-ink screens to use a color filter layer on top of a grayscale screen. (The first-gen screens were the Triton screens.)

Digitimes is not a reliable source, so you should not put a lot of hopes in this. Also, production bugs are unpredictable, and have frequently caused delays to release schedules.

But wouldn’t it be great if it came true?

Can you imagine what it would be like if Onyx or Dasung launched a 13″ E-ink monitor?

You just finished reading E-ink to Launch New Kaleido Screens by Year’s End (Digitimes) which was published on The Digital Reader.

Google just gave us another reason to set up an author/publisher account in their bookstore: Promo Codes.

The ad network giant sent out an email via the Google Play Books Partner Center yesterday which touted a new (?) promo code feature.

Dear Partner,

We’re launching a new marketing tool for publishers: promo code campaigns. Promo code campaigns can be used to offer select customers a free or discounted book without lowering your book’s list price in the store.

With promo codes, you can:

• Offer discounts to customers in 75+ countries
• Distribute free books to generate buzz or reviews
• Create deals to integrate with marketing campaigns or event promotions

With promo code campaigns, you have three different discount options:

• Free allows customers to redeem the book at no cost
• Percentage off (ebooks only) allows customers to receive a percentage discount off the book’s list price.
• Fixed price promotion allows customers to purchase the book for a lower fixed price.

After creating a promo code campaign, you can share the promotion with your customers via a code and hyperlink (URL) to the Play Store, where they can redeem the code. You can create up to 5,000 codes per campaign and up to 3 promo code campaigns per month.

You can read more about it in the Play Books help pages.

I don’t know about you, but after Google announced the launch of a 70% royalty offer last week,  I was expecting them to launch new tools and services you could use to promote sales in Play Books.

This is a good development, although I do not know if it will have much impact. Based on the response from authors last week, Play Books’ share of the ebook market is negligible. Consumers don’t want to shop there, and releasing promo codes isn’t going to change that.

You just finished reading Google Play Books Now Offers Promo Codes which was published on The Digital Reader.

Here are a few stories to read this Monday morning.

• Mike Shatzkin is heralding the death of the Big Five.  (This outcome was to be expected once the major publishers started abandoning the midlist author.)
• Library ebook lending surges in the UK. 
• A new study shows there’s a negligible increase in reading speed when text is formatted with two spaces after a period. 
• Library ebook use surges in Quebec.  Clearly the publishing industry is doomed.)

You just finished reading Morning Coffee – 26 October 2020 which was published on The Digital Reader.

It has been over two weeks since hackers had their way with B&N’s servers, and the retailer still hasn’t fully recovered.

The hack, which has since been confirmed as a ransomware attack, originated in B&N’s corporate offices before spreading to their servers, store computers, and even the cash registers. All parts of B&N were affected, and while most functionality was restored within a few days, B&N’s Nook service is still only semi-functional.

And that includes the author side, as well as the reader. I got a comment last night from an author whose book launch has been delayed as a result of B&N’s server issues:

This is even effecting the authors back end of Barnes & Noble. Unfortunately my book was supposed to go live on the 22nd, we get vague updates about how the “dashboard is working” but they are “still working on other issues”….it’s not the 26th? oof. I know one other author who hasn’t had their book live since the hack day itself. every day authors can’t sell books after the pre-marketed publish date is a wasted sales day, every day is a missed book sold opportunity.

Over on the reader side, I can report first hand that my library of Nook ebooks is still mostly inaccessible. I have two Nook accounts, and the one with my thousands of Fictionwise purchases cannot be accessed via the B&N website and it is still not syncing with the Nook app on my Android smartphone. My second, test account can be accessed via the B&N website, but it’s also not syncing with the Nook app.

Just about the only thing that can be accessed from the Nook app are new purchases made in the app itself.

This could not happen at a worst time for B&N. We going into the holiday sales period during a time when ebook sales are increasing as a result of the pandemic. This would have been a great opportunity for B&N to reinvigorate ebook sales and start turning around its digital division, but instead this is looking more like another nail in Nook’s coffin.

image by jjbers via Flickr

You just finished reading Barnes & Noble’s Nook Service Still Crippled by Hack which was published on The Digital Reader.

Amazon just made it a little easier to manage all your household spyware. They have rolled out an update for late-model Fire tablets which adds a dashboard that gives a convenient and simple way to control Alexa-compatible smart home devices such as thermostats, smart lights, cameras, switches, smartplugs, and more.

The new Device Dashboard can be accessed on compatible Fire devices by clicking on the new Smart Home button on the left end of the navigation bar. According to my source, it features quick toggles at the top to turn on or off all lights, switches, or plugs at once. Below that is a list of smart devices; this list can be customized by pinning specific devices to keep them at the top of the list. Also, recently used smart devices will be closer to the top as well.

The Device Dashboard shows the current state of each device. Adding a device to the Dashboard, however, requires the use of the Alexa app.

I can’t see it on my device, but I’m told the Dashboard is currently only available on the latest (2019) Fire 7 tablet, the new Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 8 Plus tablets, last year’s Fire HD 10 tablet, and 2018’s Fire HD 8 tablet.

The Dashboard is still rolling out, and from what I gather you will need to enable the “show” mode and Alexa features in order to use it (this may be why I can’t see it).

There’s no word yet whether Amazon plans to add the Dashboard to older models.

AFTV News

You just finished reading Amazon Adds Smart Device Dashboard to Fire Tablets which was published on The Digital Reader.

When I reported several months ago that Amazon had shut down the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library, several commenters argued I was wrong because they knew a loophole (find a book which is in Kindle Unlimited, and then borrow it using KOLL).

I still think my take was valid, while at the same time I would also agree they had a point. But in any case, the argument will soon be moot.

Amazon has quietly announced on the relevant KDP help page that KOLL is ending in just over two months.

We will no longer offer KOLL beginning January 4th, 2021. Customers may continue reading books they previously borrowed from KOLL. You will earn royalties for any KENP Read from these KOLL borrows.

In addition, KOLL will continue to display on your Historical and Payments reports.

Originally launched under the name Amazon Prime eBooks in late 2011, the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library was Amazon’s first foray into ebook subscriptions. It was only available to Kindle- and Fire tablet-owning Amazon Prime members in the US, but it was popular enough that it convinced Amazon to launch Kindle Unlimited not quite three years later.

And now the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library is going to be shut down.

That is not a huge loss, but it is deserving of a eulogy.

We would not have Kindle Unlimited with KOLL, and KU has been a boon to both readers and authors. Kindle Ulimited has launched multiple author careers while at the same time delivering great value for readers. It paid out over $300 million last year, making it one of the larger ebook retailers all on its own.

You just finished reading Amazon is Killing Kindle Owner’s Lending Library on 4 January which was published on The Digital Reader.

Here are a few stories to read this Monday morning.

• A hardware hacker built a color E-ink picture frame to prank his mother (it didn’t work).
• Dracula is often depicted in horror movies as having a close connection to Frankenstein’s monster, but few know that an early vampire story actually does have a close literary connection to the novel, “Frankenstein”. 
• Kieron Smith thinks Bookshop.org will deprive bookstores of their originality and personality. 
• Powell’s Books is launching the one thing no one needs during lockdown: a fragrance. 
• The Freewrite Traveler E-ink netbook has launched. It costs more than I paid for my iPad and BT keyboard, and does less.
• Julia Evans penned a great blog post on email marketing.
• B&N has agreed to end its legal fight with its former CEO.  (No one won.)

You just finished reading Morning Coffee – 2 November 2020 which was published on The Digital Reader.

I wasn’t going to touch this story because I thought at first that the claim was an exaggeration or misinterpretation, but I was wrong.

If you’ve been listening to the author grapevine over the past few weeks, you may have heard authors griping about Audible’s return policy. While you can usually find someone griping about something, no matter the topic, this time authors have a valid complaint.

Amazon’s audiobook subsidiary is actively promoting exchanges to potential subscribers.

What do I mean by “actively”?

Well, when I checked into renewing my Audible subscription, I saw that Audible wants me to know that if I reactivate my monthly subscription, I will be able to exchange any audiobook I am not happy with:

Also, when I visited Audible’s Memberships Benefits page, I was shown this:

And if you visit the Audible page on Amazon.com, you will see this:

While I think Amazon’s liberal return policy is a great idea because it reassures readers that they don’t have to worry about wasting money on crappy content, I share authors’ concern about actively promoting returns. I beleive that promoting this as a “feature” attracts serial returnees – people who will consistently return every audiobook they get.

This does not hurt Amazon, but it does hurt authors and publishers. Amazon isn’t refunding the credit that their customer bought, which means they get to keep the money (this is why it’s considered an “exchange” rather than a “return”). At the same time, however, Amazon is also taking money away from authors each time a subscriber makes an “exchange” of an audiobook which authors paid to produce.

No wonder they’re pissed.

You just finished reading Amazon is Actively Promoting Audiobook Exchanges as an Audible Subscription Feature which was published on The Digital Reader.

For a number of years now Amazon has been making series pages for Kindle ebooks. One of their bots would identify all of the books in a particular series, and then list them all on the same page so that a reader could buy all of the books at once, paying retail.

I can’t find my first post on the topic, but I always thought this idea was a good one because it aligned with how I buy ebooks (when I find a new favorite author, I buy their backlist).

And now Amazon has given authors the option of creating series pages on their own. A couple days ago they published an announcement in the KDP support forums:

You can now publish and update eBook and Paperback series detail pages automatically through KDP. With the launch of series in KDP, you can:

1. Create a new series: For any titles in your KDP account, create an ordered or unordered series to help readers on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de find all the books in your series on a single page.  Learn more.
2. View and organize your series: Navigate from a series title on your Bookshelf to view and manage books in your series. Review series details and titles to ensure the information is up-to-date for readers. Learn more.
3. Edit an existing series to control how it appears to readers: Adjust description. In addition, add, remove, re-order or change whether your titles are main or related content. Learn more.

If you already had an eBook series detail page available on Amazon.com, we’ve added that series in your KDP account. You can view existing series in your account by visiting your KDP Bookshelf and checking the box on the bookshelf for “View titles in series”.  If you don’t see your series in your account, you can create a new series by following the steps here.

Not all features are available in every marketplace. Series that contain paperback and pre-order books are available on Amazon.com, but not Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de. We’re working to add more series features in the future. For more information on KDP series, click here.

Does anyone know how long this feature has been available?

The code in the related help page suggests Amazon launched it at least a few months ago, but I don’t know exactly when it launched,

You just finished reading Build and Manage Series Pages in the Kindle Store which was published on The Digital Reader.

They say that the typical person is capable of reading at a speed of 300 words per minute. Given the sheer volume of news and other information thrown at us every day, that just is not fast enough to read more than a tithe of the available material.

I am actually fine with that, but others have turned to speed reading apps to keep up with the deluge. They’re using apps to read ebooks faster, and as eBook Friendly reminded me today, you can also use browser extensions to read web content faster.

I used to use an Instapaper feature for this (that let me combine a lean back reading experience with speed reading) but I can see the merits of speed reading in your web browser.

Here are five free Chrome extensions you can use to read faster.

1. Spreed

2. ShiftReader

3. Sprint Reader

4. Reeader

5. Read Fast

The extensions work in different ways, and it’s worth your time to try them all, just in case.

Several of the extensions highlight a word on a page one at a time, forcing you to advance with the highlighted word and thus read faster. Others such as Spreed will extract the content and flash it at you one word at a time.

I don’t use any of them because, frankly, I have too many things winding me far too tight. But I would love to hear about the speed reading tools you use.

What works for you?

You just finished reading Read at Triple Your Normal Speed with One of These Five Chrome Extension which was published on The Digital Reader.

A new web design project is going to involve embedding a story online, and letting readers annotate it, and said project has brought my attention back to an annotation tool.

Hypothes.is is not an annotation tool so much as it is a universal annotation platform. (It’s the kind of thing Google should be doing, but isn’t.) It is designed to work in your web browser, and it can also be integrated into websites, apps, LMS, and what have you.

Hypothesis is a new effort to implement an old idea: A conversation layer over the entire web that works everywhere, without needing implementation by any underlying site.

Our team creates open source software, pushes for standards, and fosters community.

Using annotation, we enable sentence-level note taking or critique on top of classroom reading, news, blogs, scientific articles, books, terms of service, ballot initiatives, legislation and more. Everything we build is guided by our principles. In particular that it be free, open, neutral, and lasting to name a few.

My current work process involves saving articles to Instapaper so I can take notes on paper later, but I can happily report that the Hypothes.is Chrome extension works on Instapaper as well as most websites.

I plan to integrate it into my work routine; let’s see how that turns.

Have you used it? What do you think?

Hypothes.is

image by vickysandoval22 via Flickr

You just finished reading Annotate The Web With Hypothes.is which was published on The Digital Reader.

Here are a few stories to read this Monday morning.

• Here’s what to do if your favorite children’s book didn’t age well. 
• The next unsuccessful Amazon challenger is having early success in the UK. 
• Want to build your own ereader? 
• The RIAA abused the DMCA to takedown an open source video downloading tool. 

You just finished reading Morning Coffee – 9 November 2020 which was published on The Digital Reader.

2020 was a strange year, for obvious reasons.

Many of us spent a lot of 2020 in lockdown, either trying to keep up with work or looking for a new job.

Some turned to streaming services such as Netflix (for example, I subscribed to Disney Plus so I could finally watch The Mandalorian, only to discover the writing was terrible). Others spent their time learning new skills, while many took this an opportunity to dive into new books and read more.

How did COVID-19 change our reading habits? Which countries read the most this year? And what books were we reading?

Here are a few of the highlights from the infographic.

• India reads more than any other country, followed by Thailand and China.
• Printed books continue to drive more revenue than eBooks or audiobooks. However, physical books sales did dip because of COVID-19 (not surprisingly).
• Romance is our genre of choice, with one-third of all mass market fiction books being romance novels.
• 35% of the world read more due to COVID-19.

Check out the infographic below to learn more about world reading habits in a year like no other.

You just finished reading Infographic: World Reading Habits in 2020 which was published on The Digital Reader.

Kindle Unlimited maintained its position in October 2020 of being the market that all of Amazon’s competitors (with the possible exception of Apple) wished they owned.

The KU funding pool grew to $32.9 million last month, while the per-page rate fell by about half a hundred of a cent.

Here are the per-page rates for the past 2 years.

• October 2020: $0.004538
• September 2020: $0.004594
• August 2020: $0.004322
• July 2020: $0.004294
• June 2020: $0.004547
• May 2020: $0.004203
• April 2020: $0.004226
• March 2020: $0.0046
• February 2020: $0.004547
• January 2020: $0.004411
• December 2019: $0.004664
• November 2019: $0.004925
• October 2019: $0.0046763
• September 2019: $0.0046799
• August 2019:  $0.004387
• July 2019 –  $0.004394
• June 2019 – $0.004642
• May 2019 – $0.0046598
• April 2019 – $0.0046602
• March 2019 – $0.0045124
• February 2019 – $0.0047801
• January 2019 – $0.0044227
• December 2018 – $0.0048778
• November 2018 – $0.0052056
• October 2018 – $0.0048414
• September 2008 – $0.004885
• August 2018 – $0.0044914
• July 2018 – $0.0044936

P.S. Here’s a list of the monthly funding pools. It does not include the bonuses paid out each month.

• July 2014: $2.5 million (Kindle Unlimited launches early in the month)
• August 2014: $4.7 million
• September 2014: $5 million
• October 2014: $5.5 million
• November 2014: $6.5 million
• December 2014: $7.25 million
• January 2015 – $8.5 million
• February 2015: $8 million
• March 2015: $9.3 million
• April 2015: $9.8 million
• May 2015: $10.8 million
• June 2015: $11.3 million
• July 2015: $11.5 million
• August 2015: $11.8 million
• September 2015: $12 million
• October 2015: $12.4 million
• November 2015: $12.7 million
• December 2015: $13.5 million
• January 2016: $15 million
• February 2016: $14 million
• March 2016: $14.9 million
• April 2016: $14.9 million
• May 2016: $15.3 million
• June 2016: $15.4 million
• July 2016: $15.5 million
• August 2016: $15.8 million
• September 2016: $15.9 million
• October 2016: $16.2 million
• November 2016: $16.3 million
• December 2016: $16.8 million
• January 2017: : $17.8 million
• February 2017: : $16.8 million
• March 2017: $17.7 million
• April 2017: $17.8 million
• May 2017 :$17.9 million
• June 2017: $18 million
• July 2017: $19 million
• August 2017: $19.4 million
• September 2017: $19.5 million
• October 2017: $19.7 million
• November 2017: $19.8 million
• December 2017: $19.9 million
• January 2018: $20.9 million
• February 2018: $20 million
• March 2018: $21 million
• April 2018: $21.2 million
• May 2018: $22.5 million
• June 2018: $22.6 million
• July 2018: $23.1 million
• August 2018: $23.3 million
• September 2018: $23.4 million
• October 2018: $23.5 million
• November 2018: $23.6 million
• December 2018: $23.7 million
• January 2019: $24.7 million
• February 2019: $23.5 million
• March 2019: $24 million
• April 2019: $24.1 million
• May 2019: $24.6 million
• June 2019: $24.9 million
• July 2019: $25.6 million
• August 2019: $25.8 million
• September 2019: $25.9 million
• October 2019: $26 million
• November 2019: $26.1 million
• December 2019: $26.2 million
• January 2020: $28.2 million
• February 2020: $27.2 million
• March 2020: $29 million
• April 2020: $30.3 million
• May 2020: $32.2 million
• June 2020: $32.3 million
• July 2020: $32.4 million
• August 2020: $32.6 million
• September 2020: $32.7 million
• October 2020: $32.9 million

You just finished reading Kindle Unlimited Funding Pool Rose by $300K in October 2020 which was published on The Digital Reader.

About three years back Amazon started beta-testing a new author portal called Amazon Author (not to be confused with Author Central). That new portal officially launched this past week with a somewhat confusing name and a new address.

Amazon’s author portal used to be at authorcentral.amazon.com, but it has now been replaced by a new portal at author.amazon.com. Along with the new address, the portal has a new look and new features.

I heard about the launch via the KDP support forum:

We’re excited to announce an upgrade to Amazon Author Central! With this update, we’ve made several key improvements:

• You can now manage your Author Page, claim your books, and view your reports for multiple marketplaces from a single Author Central site with a single account.
• An updated, modern look and feel makes it easier to search for titles, view your reports, and update your page.
• Amazon Author Central is mobile friendly, and works well on a phone, a tablet, or a computer.

If you already have an Amazon Author Central account, you can sign into Amazon Author Central with it and start using it right away. If you don’t have an account but have published a book, sign up today!

One key difference between the new and old portals is that now you can manage your author profiles for all Amazon sites from this one portal. Before you had to login to a different portal for each country-specific Amazon site (Amazon.de, for example).

Speaking of which, the author portals on each of Amazon’s country-specific sites have also been updated with the new features, so if for example your preferred language is French, you can continue to use the French-language portal.

So what can you do with it?

For starters, you can upload language-specific bios, and you can also quickly check what your author profile looks like on each of Amazon’s sites.

BTW, if you have not uploaded the alternate bios yet, you should go do it now. I just noticed that my bio is only showing up on Amazon’s sites in English-language markets. (I had to re-upload a copy of my bio and tell Amazon it was in French in order to get the bio added to Amazon.fr, and I will have to repeat the process if I want to have my bio on other Amazon sites.)

You can no longer create a custom author page URL or list your public events, but you can claim all your books, and you can see customer reviews. Amazon will also tell you your books’ current sales ranks, and they give you access to Bookscan (print book retail stats for the US market).

All of this is available from a clean and pleasant interface.

Have you tried it yet?

You just finished reading Amazon Launches New Author Portal which was published on The Digital Reader.

Here are a few stories to read this Monday morning.

• European antitrust regulators caught Amazon with their hand in the cookie (data) jar. 
• Educators in the UK continue to protest the rising cost of ebooks. 
• Collins dictionary choose “lockdown” as its word of the year.  This is an ironic choice given that many Americans apparently do not know what the word means.
• The Kindle Mac app reportedly no longer opens side-loaded ebooks. 
• Chicago public libraries saw a huge rise in returned books and new borrows when they canceled overdue fees. (Don’t be too surprised; we’ve seen this elsewhere.)

You just finished reading Morning Coffee – 16 November 2020 which was published on The Digital Reader.