Last month, Amazon revealed it planned to begin a new payment system that entailed paying some authors per page read instead of per book purchased. Today, we know a little more about those impending payments, including the dollar value that Amazon intends to associate with each turn of the page.

The Guardian, citing an email from Amazon to authors, reports that the new payment system could pay some self-published authors just $0.006 per page read.

The company says in the email that customers read nearly 1.9 billion pages from books listed through Amazon’s Kindle Owners Lending Library and the Kindle Unlimited service last month. The company said that it expects to pay authors self-publishing through those services at least $11 million for June, July and August.

According to the Guardian, that means the payments received by authors could be as little as $0.006 per page read, estimating that if an author publishes a 220-page book each page would have to be read by every person who downloads the book in order for the writer to make the $1.30 they get under the previous pay-per-download payment system.

A literary editor tells the Guardian that the new system hasn’t exactly been welcomed with open arms by authors. She says six of her clients have already left the services, citing an estimated 60% to 80% reduction in royalties.

“A lot of self-published romance authors are disabled, stay-at-home mums, or even a few returned veterans who work in the field because a regular job just isn’t something they can handle,” the editor says. “People are shedding a lot of tears over this.”

Amazon set to pay self-published authors as little as $0.006 per page read [The Guardian]

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