Picturing Kindle Unlimited Readers

One of the best moves I’ve made since publishing my novels was to enroll them in Kindle Unlimited. For those who aren’t familiar with KU, it’s a program in which members pay a monthly fee and in exchange can read any book published on Kindle that’s been enrolled in the program at no additional charge.

So, for $9.99 per month (U.S.), a reader has access to more than a million books. For avid readers this is a great deal. For their part, the authors are paid by the page. For every 1,200 pages read, the author makes about $5.00.

Now, back to the title of this blog. I enjoy looking at my daily stats to see how many pages have been read. And then I begin to imagine the readers:

I see a woman my age with a cup of tea. She’s curled up on the sofa with a cat in her lap while snow falls outside her window. She knows she should go to bed, but darn it, Paula is in a pickle and maybe the next chapter will provide some resolution.

There’s another woman in California. She’s on the beach stretched out on a striped towel and when she comes to the part about nude jugglers, she gets a case of the giggles. A handsome lifeguard comes over to make sure she’s okay and ends up asking her out for drinks. That’s good for her, but hey! Come back and read some more, lady!

And how about the man in Indiana who reads in bed? He can’t believe his lady friend talked him into this, but he’s kind of into it now. He thinks Paula should take things slowly, and he likes the dialogue. He’ll finish the book before he turns off the light.

Okay, so maybe my imagination’s working over time. But that’s what I do.