E-retailer Amazon is gearing up to introduce a new system whereby it will pay some Kindle authors based on the number of pages users read from their book.

Come July 1, the new system will go into effect where self-published authors will get paid on the basis of pages read vis-à-vis the old system of copies sold, i.e., downloaded.

"Beginning July 1, 2015, we'll switch from paying Kindle Unlimited (KU) and Kindle Owners' Lending Library (KOLL) royalties based on qualified borrows, to paying based on the number of pages read," says Amazon.

Why the sudden change from Amazon, you wonder?

"We're making this switch in response to great feedback we received from authors who asked us to better align payout with the length of books and how much customers read," reveals the company.

Authors will get paid on a per-page read by customers basis, but the royalty will only be valid for the first time the customer reads the book.

Currently, Amazon sets aside a sum of money each month through which it pays the authors who publish directly via the e-retailer. This sum is divided between all the authors. To figure out an author's share, Amazon would measure the number of downloads or borrows. The author's share is tabulated accordingly.

The new model by Amazon is applicable to books published directly via the e-retailer, which are read as part of its KU and KOLL programs. The model will apply to the Kindle Select books which are self-published via the company's Kindle Direct Publishing program.

A concern of the new model is that many of the authors may alter their style of writing and make individual pages more gripping as this would be more lucrative. This would keep people reading and result in financial gain. However, the downside is that authors may not put too much stress on the complexity and subtle nuances of a narrative.

Amazon did not reveal whether some of the bigger publishers who are part of the programs will also be paid on the basis of per-page read or otherwise.

Photo: Mike Seyfang | Flickr