No surprise, I completely disagree with the other commenter’s thoughts. Along with being a champion of Wide authors and Wide platforms, I am also the chairman of my local library board (after working in the library world for seven years). I love libraries and all that they offer to patrons (and the world as a whole). They make the world a better place, truly. It’d break my heart to think that my books wouldn’t be available in libraries around the world.

And as for Kobo Plus being unsuccessful, I think it’s a little early to call that, lol.

Now, will a price hike actually change the dynamic of the KU / Wide dichotomy? Hells to the no. This changes nothing. KU readers aren’t going to quit reading in KU bc they have to pay another $2 a month. That just isn’t a thing. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Being Wide or being exclusive – that debate isn’t affected in the slightest. I’m always gonna vote Wide, of course. 😄 But people on either side of this spectrum who think this changes anything are deluding themselves. MHO.

As far as the program, in the US, KU has NO competition. People want to say that Kobo Plus will be something, but I highly doubt it. No one is even talking about it and readers (who do know about it) seem disinterested at best. Definitely, in NO way can Kobo Plus compete with KU. No way. It’s laughable if people think that. I was wide too and in Kobo Plus for years. Made nothing. Now that it is opened in the US and looks like the talk of it has fizzled out already, I doubt Amazon is worried. Kobo Plus probably isn’t even on their radar. Yes, Kobo is popular internationally but has NO US audience at all. It would take them years to catch up to Amazon and I doubt they ever would. Like Amazon or not, like KU or not, the reality is KU changed the game and for those wishing things will go back, it won’t. This is the age of subscription services. There will be more, not less.

As for readers, all I’ve seen who sprout off doom-and-gloom about KU are other authors (mainly wide authors who hope it fails for some odd reason, maybe jealousy) and industry people who have never liked KU to begin with. It’s always an agenda it seems when people talk about KU. People who hate it will continue to wish for its demise and will be reaching so much to say a simple price hike means, “the end of KU” so they can have their few minutes of fun until they snap back into reality and see once again, KU ain’t going nowhere.

KU is growing. I know some hate to see that but it is. Even big-time indies who swore off KU years ago and trade authors are putting their work into the program. Why? Because no one is buying books! People wanna say that KU readers will run because of the price hike? They will go to say, Kobo Plus? Ha! Those thinking needs to get real.

For one thing, KU has gotten MORE readers to join since last year and its popularity has soared even more since the pandemic. Do people forget inflation and the way the markets are now? Do you think KU readers are ditching KU to start back buying individual books at $4.99 and up? In a perfect world, we can all hope that would happen, but it ain’t happening. Readers are tightening their belts. This is why wide sales are freefalling. People can no longer afford to buy books outright if they read a lot. If you read a few books a month, then yes, you don’t need KU. But if you are someone who goes through books like underwear, then KU is a blessing. Whether it’s $10, $12, or $20. Because no matter how much KU costs, it’s going to always be cheaper than buying books. That’s the reality. As an author, I wish that it was easier to SELL books as opposed to getting people to borrow them. Of course, I do, but KU has been better for me as an author than wide. And I think a lot of people look at KU with a negative lens based on their personal feelings. But people need to talk to READERS. Readers don’t have the same concerns as authors do. They just don’t. They love being able to binge-read a series and most will tell you if it’s not in KU, they can’t afford to read it or won’t.

Think like this, if I read 5 books a week and those books cost $4.99, that’s about $25 a week, which ends up about $100 dollars a month. I can get a KU subscription for 6 months for $59.99 (since the price hike). But say I am spending $100 a month on books for 6 months, I am spending $600 dollars on books in 6 months! That’s great if people have that much to spend on books, most of us can’t. That’s more than some bills people pay.

It’s not just books, people are flocking to subscription services because they are cheaper even if they get annoyed by them. My point is, authors and industry people tend to act like their opinions are those of readers. Most readers in KU LOVE the service. It’s a blessing to them and people are delusional or just doing their own wishful thinking if they think a $2 price hike is going to force people out of KU when the next option is paying $100 or more a month on books. Ain’t happening. Some readers would be paying more than even that because they read several books a week!

So, the people still hoping KU flops, they’ve been hoping it for almost a decade, ain’t happened yet. And some want to say libraries are an alternative to KU. No, they are not. Not if you love the authors in KU. I don’t know where people get this notion that KU readers are only in KU because it’s KU. No. They also love the authors there. All of my favorites are in KU so why am I going to go to the library to read authors I don’t know or am not interested in or go to Kobo Plus. Really? Have you seen their selection? It’s pathetic.

So no, KU isn’t perfect but my point is authors and those in the business need to stop acting like they speak for readers. No, readers are not going to be leaving KU in drones because of a $20 price hike if that’s what people hope. Will some leave? Sure but many leave and come back. Leave and come back and if some do leave, there will always be new subscribers.

KU is here and it’s not going anywhere. It’s been around almost 10 years, which is evidence of that and this price hike thing, it doesn’t phase KU readers who know they are getting one hell of a bargain being in the program.

As for authors complaining about the payout. Things go up and down in this business. The payout is PROOF of what I just said. More authors are in the program, not less. The more authors, the more they spread out the payout but if these people think they will do so much better wide, then they can go wide. If you are in KU, then don’t complain because you know the deal. You know how it’s paid. And many people’s income didn’t go down. Yes, the payout went down, but guess what? Me and many authors made more in the last few months than we did the months before the payout went down. So just because they payout goes down, it doesn’t mean that you made less. Many saw an increase in income or stayed the same. But of course everyone wants to focus on the few authors who say their income went down. Again, it’s a part of that hate-KU narrative. Just because your income went down, doesn’t mean it was because of the pay rate. It goes up and down. This has happened for years.

And for those saying they are leaving KU because of the payout, good. More readers and visibility for the rest of us. *smiles*