Changes to KDP All-Star Bonuses (Ninja Style)

[BelindaWhite]

KDP just made a few MAJOR changes to their KDP All-Star Bonuses. Only... well, not everyone got the email. (I for sure didn't.) They just put the notice on the KDP community page as an 'announcement'. How many people check that page regularly? (Again, I for sure don't.)

Anyway, the bottom line is this: They are now offering bonuses to more territories. That's where the good news ends.

The bad news (as I see it):
1. Author bonuses are no more. Deleted. Gone. As of May 1, 2022. G'bye. If you can't qualify with a single book, you don't get a bonus.
2. Old rules: Bonuses are determined by who gets the most page reads. Period. End of story. Now? Well, now there is a 'super secret sauce formula' that only KDP knows. It includes other things that indicate readers love your book, other than just page reads.

Anyone else tired of not knowing the rules of the game yet? And having major changes to a system we rely on snuck in on us without a formal notice? (I know I sure am.)

[Eric Thomson]

I gotta say, it's nice to be able to watch this sort of thing from a distance and not worry.

[Jeff Tanyard]

Sounds like author bonuses are going the way of the NYT bestseller list.  Which doesn't surprise me, frankly, now that Bezos is no longer running the show.

[Hopscotch]

I gotta say, it's nice to be able to watch this sort of thing from a distance and not worry.

I can afford to feel the same way as there's no chance I'd ever sell enough to be noticed for Amazon manna.  But I console myself knowing that my stuff is too richly deep, complex and high tone for the average Kindleer.  Well, for any paying reader at all, it seems.

[Writer]

2. Old rules: Bonuses are determined by who gets the most page reads. Period. End of story. Now? Well, now there is a 'super secret sauce formula' that only KDP knows. It includes other things that indicate readers love your book, other than just page reads.

I assume the secret sauce is customer ratings and reviews but they don't want to say so outright, because it would encourage review manipulation. This way, it requires a little reading between the lines, but they're crazy if they don't think authors will read between those lines.

It's not relevant to me, since I'm nowhere near an All Star, just interesting to guess what KDP's goals are with the changes. Maybe they're trying to spread the money around to more authors so the same ones at the top don't automatically get the bonuses every month? But they'll still have the most popular individual books, so I don't see what difference this makes?

[writeway]

I never got a bonus but to me, this might be a good thing because maybe it will even the playing field to where the same tiny percentage of authors won't keep getting the bonuses all the time. Also, I wouldn't hold my breath expecting Amazon to be too transparent. I am guessing they wanna keep their new qualifications for bonuses to themselves so folks won't be trying to game the system to get bonuses. But, I am all for the system being fairer where more authors get a chance to get bonuses and be recognized. Now it will go by the book and authors won't automatically get bonuses (author bonuses) based on their entire backlist or sales history. So seems like more authors will get a shot at bonuses from now on.

[writeway]

2. Old rules: Bonuses are determined by who gets the most page reads. Period. End of story. Now? Well, now there is a 'super secret sauce formula' that only KDP knows. It includes other things that indicate readers love your book, other than just page reads.

I assume the secret sauce is customer ratings and reviews but they don't want to say so outright, because it would encourage review manipulation. This way, it requires a little reading between the lines, but they're crazy if they don't think authors will read between those lines.

It's not relevant to me, since I'm nowhere near an All Star, just interesting to guess what KDP's goals are with the changes. Maybe they're trying to spread the money around to more authors so the same ones at the top don't automatically get the bonuses every month? But they'll still have the most popular individual books, so I don't see what difference this makes?

I was thinking that too but that would be horrible if they go by reviews and ratings. You already have folks paying for fake reviews and doing all this unethical stuff to get reviews. Can you imagine how bad it will get if reviews become a factor for bonuses????? Yikes! 

[writeway]

I gotta say, it's nice to be able to watch this sort of thing from a distance and not worry.

I agree. I feel sorry for any authors who will be hurt by this but I never got a bonus to begin with so I have no dog in the fight. At least not right now. I'm guessing probably 95% of KU authors have never gotten a bonus. So thinking positively, maybe more authors will be recognized under the change and have more of a shot to get bonuses now. We shall see.

[j tanner]

Looks like another change prompted by gaming of the system. (Author teams writing under a single name and such.) Transparency is always the first thing to go...

[writeway]

Looks like another change prompted by gaming of the system. (Author teams writing under a single name and such.) Transparency is always the first thing to go...

 You're probably right. I wouldn't be surprised at all if some folks getting those bonuses weren't on the up and up. Every time Amazon changes something it's because authors can't behave.

[angela]

This change may not affect things much.

But it might lead to:
- Longer books
- Release of boxed sets of full series before the individual titles
     - Amazon excluding boxed sets from bonuses
          - Full series being presented as long saga single books
- Authors splitting catalogs into more pen names, either new ones, or restoring the old pre-bonus ones

I expect it would reduce the overall spend on AMS, but only by the top authors who got significant bonuses, so that may not be very much at all in the grand scheme of things.

Amazon wants fresh new product and customer retention.

We assume they know what they're doing, but it's possible somebody tossed a dart and came up with this.

[LindsayBuroker]

I assume the secret sauce is customer ratings and reviews but they don't want to say so outright, because it would encourage review manipulation. This way, it requires a little reading between the lines, but they're crazy if they don't think authors will read between those lines.

I've mentioned this elsewhere, but I have a hypothesis that how quickly readers finish books will play into it (and may already play into the recommendation engine).

With a handful of exceptions, I tend to have pretty similar ratings averages across my books (and if you skim down the genre Top 100 lists, almost every book has roughly a 4.5 average), but I've had some that get a big organic boost in visibility and rank well on Amazon and others that don't do nearly as well, even when I've put more ad money behind them. It may just be that some are more what the market wants than others, but I've noticed the ones that do extra well are also the ones readers say are page turners and that they were up all night reading.

I'd guess a number of things will go into Amazon's choices, and that you'll still have to sell well to be in consideration, but it will be interesting to see if there's a noticeable change, or it's still just the really popular (most pages read) books getting selected.

[LindsayBuroker]

I expect it would reduce the overall spend on AMS, but only by the top authors who got significant bonuses, so that may not be very much at all in the grand scheme of things.

I don't think the bonuses affect how much anyone spends on advertising, especially lately (it used to take a lot fewer pages read to get the bonuses). By the time people are getting the $500 bonus, they're making piles from all the page reads and sales, and $500 might not even cover a day's ad spend. The people getting the significant bonuses are having six-figure months before they're factored in.