Kindle Unlimited is now Kindle+, and it includes audiobooks

So, the story summary is below, but I have some concerns. Since the royalty share option is not yet available, I fear the up-front costs of the ACX pay for production model may push new authors into the AI “virtual voice” route. This smells like Amazon abusing its market power to take a greater slice of the pie for itself. Which, given how many actors are already feeding themselves on crumbs, would be nothing short of a tragedy.

On 22 October Amazon renamed Kindle Unlimited as Kindle+. The price stays at $11.99 a month in the US, and subscribers can still borrow up to 20 titles at a time. What's new is that audiobooks are now included, though for now only for US listeners.

For self-published authors, two kinds of audiobook qualify. Audiobooks made with KDP's AI "virtual voice" go in automatically if the ebook is enrolled in KDP Select. Human-narrated ACX audiobooks can be enrolled from the KDP Bookshelf, but only if they're exclusive to Audible, have Whispersync for Voice turned on and were made on a Pay for Production deal. Royalty Share titles aren't eligible yet.

Listening is paid by the page from the KDP Select Global Fund, the same as reading, and Amazon says it will add money to the fund to cover it. It hasn't said how much a listened page pays.

Amazon's announcement: https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/article/Kindle-Unlimited-is-now-Kindle-KDP-audiobooks-now-included

Cover photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash.