The Kindle Unlimited KENP rate for September 2018 showed a strong seasonal rise of 6.6% to $0.0048 from $0.0045 in August while the KDP Select Global fund rose by just 0.4% to $23.4 million from $23.3 million in August.
Previous years have also seen an upturn for the KENP rate in the autumn, with $0.0045 in August 2016 and $0.0049 in September 2016; and $0.0041 in August 2017 and $0.0044 in September 2017.
In the UK market the KENP rate for September 2018 rose by 8.8% to £0.0037 from £0.0034 in August.
Although the KDP Select fund for September 2018 saw a monthly increase of only $100,000 to $23.4 million, that total was 20% up on the $19.5 million paid out in August 2017.
The KENP rate has been following a steady trend this year, with $0.0044 in January, $0.0046 in February, $0.0045 for March, April and May, $0.0046 in June, $0.0045 in July and $0.0045 again for August before the September rise to $0.0048.
Kindle Unlimited has now paid out a total of nearly $769 million to authors since it launched in July 2014.
For September 2018, using the calculation of dividing the total KDP Select fund ($23.4 million) by the US KENP rate ($0.0048) to get an idea of the total number of KENPs read during the month results in 4.87 billion KENPs, down by nearly 6% from 5.17 billion in August.
Previous monthly figures include 5 billion in July, 4.9 billion in June, 5 billion for May, 4.7 billion in April, 4.66 billion in March, 4.54 billion in February, 4.75 billion KENPs in January, 4.42 billion in December 2017 and 4.3 billion in November.
The total paid out by the KDP Select Global fund for the first nine months of this year now totals $197 million. The first nine months of 2017 saw a total of $163.9 million paid out, so the year-on-year total increase for the first nine months of 2018 so far stands at 20%.
If that level of increase continues then we will probably see a total of around $265 million over the whole of 2018.
The US KENP payout figures for 2016, 2017 and 2018 are:
2016
- January: $0.0041
- February: $0.0047 (KENP v2.0 introduced)
- March: $0.0047
- April: $0.0048
- May: $0.0046
- June: $0.0049
- July: $0.0048
- August: $0.0045
- September: $0.0049
- October: $0.0052
- November: $0.0053
- December: $0.0052
2017
- January: $0.0047
- February: $0.0049
- March: $0.0046
- April: $0.0045
- May: $0.0043
- June: $0.0042
- July: $0.0040
- August: $0.0041 (KENP v3.0 introduced)
- September: $0.0044
- October: $0.0045
- November: $0.0046
- December: $0.0050
2018
- January: $0.0044
- February: $0.0046
- March: $0.0045
- April: $0.0045
- May: $0.0045
- June: $0.0046
- July: $0.0045
- August: $0.0045
- September: $0.0048
The monthly KDP Select Global fund totals for 2016, 2017 and 2018 are:
2016
- January: $15 million
- February: $14 million (KENP v2.0 introduced)
- March: $14.9 million
- April: $14.9 million
- May: $15.3 million
- June: $15.4 million
- July: $15.5 million
- August: $15.8 million
- September: $15.9 million
- October: $16.2 million
- November: $16.3 million
- December: $16.8 million
Overall total for 2016: $186 million
2017
- January: $17.8 million
- February: $16.8 million
- March: $17.7 million
- April: $17.8 million
- May $17.9 million
- June $18 million
- July: $19 million
- August: $19.4 million (KENP v3.0 introduced)
- September $19.5 million
- October $19.7 million
- November: $19.8 million
- December: $19.9 million
Overall total for 2017: $222.6 million
2018
- January: $20.9 million
- February: $20 million
- March: $21 million
- April: $21.2 million
- May: $22.5 million
- June: $22.6 million
- July: £23.1 million
- August: $23.3 million
- September: $23.4 million
Total so far for 2018: $197 million
The annual total figures for Kindle Unlimited since it started are:
2014: $31.735 million (Jul-Dec)
2015: $131.6 million
2016: $186 million
2017: $222.6 million
2018 (so far): $197 million
Grand total of $768.935 million