Why I’m Putting All My Books into Kindle Unlimited

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Yes, Amazon pays you peanuts if you’re not a big name.

Today’s Kindle Unlimited is primarily designed to attract the well-known authors. Amazon changed its payment structure about a decade ago to achieve that. When I first published some of my writing on Amazon, I earned more than a dollar for each read—no matter how long the book was. That made short stories surprisingly profitable. I remember earning almost $1.50 for a ten-page story collection.

Then Amazon decided that more pages should mean more money.

We can debate whether that was the right move creatively. Personally, I don’t think page count determines quality. I’ve read short stories years ago that still stay with me, and 700-page fantasy slogs that I wish I could forget the moment I finished it.

On the other hand, I understand the argument that a short story written in a day shouldn’t earn as much as a full-length novel that takes months to complete. It’s hard to find a fair system that respects everyone’s effort.

From a business perspective, Amazon’s decision wasn’t really about helping writers, though—it was about attracting big names like Stephen King. Amazon wants those authors exclusively in Kindle Unlimited, because they bring in subscribers.

Today, authors are no longer paid per book read but per page read. From what I’ve seen, a single page earns around half a cent.

Amazon also added a reward system that gives bonuses to authors with the most pages read. The result? The top 3% of authors earn roughly 50% of the total payout according to the data that I’ve seen. And that’s how Amazon gets the “Stephen Kings of the world” on board.

For me—and for most independent authors—Kindle Unlimited brings in just a few dollars a month.

So why am I still putting all my books into Kindle Unlimited?

Because I want people to read my work, even if it means I’m basically writing for a couple of dollars. When you’re just starting out, nobody knows or cares about you. You have your family, a few friends, maybe some coworkers to get your books—and that’s it.

To get strangers to check out your writing, you have to make it as easy as possible for them. If you can, even give your books away for free. Readers who already have a Kindle Unlimited subscription are much more likely to give me a chance, as for them, my books are somewhat free.

When you’re a beginner author with no publishing house behind you, money isn’t your goal. Finding an audience is. And once you’ve find that audience, money comes in as a side effect anyway.

Kindle Unlimited gives me access to readers who might never have discovered my work otherwise. These readers could be the audience of my future.

Write For Humans, Not Machines

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Not long ago, standard SEO advice was to include a specific keyword at least once every 100 words in your website articles to make them rank better on Google.

This led to a practice called keyword stuffing — the result of Google’s early algorithm favoring pages that repeated the main keyword multiple times. People discovered that the more often they added the keyword, the higher their articles could rank.

The outcome? Millions of unreadable, low-quality articles cluttered the web. Google eventually adjusted its algorithm and started penalizing sites that overused keywords. What human readers hated soon became what Google’s algorithm hated, too.

Around the same time, headlines like these flooded the internet: “12 Things You Didn’t Know About Your Cat (Number 7 Will Shock You)”. They worked for a while, attracting clicks and views. But once readers realized that Buzzfeed-like listicles were mostly fluff designed to generate traffic rather than offer real value, engagement plummeted.

I can’t prove that Google adapted its algorithm in this case as well—but I certainly adapted. Whenever I see an article with a typical clickbait list headline, I skip it. I even avoid returning to that website altogether.

The blogs I continue to read are usually one-person sites. The authors behind them feel real and authentic. They write about their lives, work, and hobbies as if they were talking to a friend. In short: they write for humans, not machines.

And that’s the best long-term strategy. Think about it:

Google (and other search engines) are ultimately trying to connect readers with writers. Its algorithm aims to understand what humans want to read—and over time, it’s getting better at imitating human interests.

On top of that, social media has become a major driver of website traffic. And on social media, it’s humans—not algorithms—who share links to your blog.

Another trend is that the traditional era of SEO is coming to an end. Now, everything is shifting toward optimizing content for AI. But what are tools like ChatGPT trying to do? They’re designed to think and respond like humans. So, in the end, writing for humans also means writing for AI.

Finally, you don’t just want traffic, clicks, leads, or sales—you want an audience. And that audience is made up of humans. So why not write directly for them instead of trying to game algorithms and machines? After all, Google, Twitter, and ChatGPT exist to bring human eyes to your work. And you want these humans to follow you (and even buy your products and services).

What’s the point of generating massive traffic with an SEO-optimized article if it’s so poorly written that no real human actually wants to read it? You’re not going to gain a following like this and you’re not going to earn the trust that is needed to sell books or other products.

In the end, writing for humans will always be the best approach.

No Surrender, No Retreat (Movie/Show Review #2)

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I want to primarily write about entertainment that I love on this blog. On Twitter, I also post shorter reviews of films and shows I’ve recently seen. But here, it’s about building a map to the good movies.

To kick things off, I recommend a movie from the 1980s—one of the very first movies I ever watched. I remember coming home from kindergarten at age five. My brother had gotten No Surrender, No Retreat on VHS, and we watched it on a rainy afternoon.

In Germany, the movie was actually sold as Karate Tiger. But no matter the title, it’s the flick that launched Jean-Claude van Damme’s movie career. It also introduced me to Bruce Lee and, I believe, inspired my own interest in martial arts a couple of years later.

The plot is simple: a lost boy is rejected by friends, society, and family. But he finds meaning and confidence in martial arts, guided by Bruce Lee’s ghost, who teaches him that martial arts are not just a sport, but a way of life. Along the way, the movie also introduced Van Damme’s trademark split.

One standout aspect of the film is its music, which perfectly complements the training and fight scenes. The choreography still holds up today, as all the side characters clearly had solid martial arts experience.

The movie was a low-budget production, but the director made the most of limited resources. Sure, the dialogue can feel cheesy at times now, and the plot is paper-thin, but the film has a remarkable ability to motivate you to work out and practice fighting. If you have a young son, show him this movie—and maybe get him into kickboxing the next day!

IMDb rates it only 5.6 here. Likely because No Surrender, No Retreat is a classic “boys’ movie,” a type of story that isn’t really told anymore today.

By the way, the movie is currently (as I’m writing this post) freely available on YouTube: Watch here

Write A Done List

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I use to-do lists almost every day. I set goals for the year, break them down into milestones, and even make New Year’s resolutions. Sometimes I accomplish my goals and stick to the plan — sometimes I don’t.

Creating a plan and defining goals can be motivating. It helps you give structure and direction to your life. But on some days, it also feels like you’re trapping yourself in a self-imposed rat race.

  • Complete my STORY52 short story project
  • Write the next novel
  • Finish editing my last novel
  • Write at least ten tweets
  • Publish that blog post
  • Do your workout
  • And don’t forget the day job tasks and household chores
  • …

Reviewing that list every day and crossing things off until the page is empty can make me more productive, yes — but when there isn’t enough time and items remain unchecked, it can also feel like I’ve accomplished nothing. It’s draining and demotivating.

That’s why it makes sense to use the opposite of a to-do list from time to time: a Done List. It reminds you of everything you’ve already worked on and achieved.

In 2025:

  • I published my next novel, Forever
  • I set up my mailing list, including another published book, Endless, which I give away for free to subscribers
  • This blog became a reality — and I’ve already written more than 80 posts
  • My YouTube tutorial channel grew to over 10K subscribers
  • I’ve gained almost 1K followers on Twitter
  • Seven of my short stories are already available on Amazon
  • I started two more YouTube channels to document my Author in Progress journey (and yet another one is in the works)

That’s a lot of progress since March 2025, when I decided to take my writing hobby a bit more seriously.

Sure, not everything went as planned. Not every goal was achieved. And I’m far far away from being able to pay any bills with my writing. But the list of accomplishments shows a lot of progress after just over half a year of focused effort.

Create your own Done List. Look back at what you’ve achieved in the past six months — and just imagine what you could do in the next ten years.

A Quick Update on My Author in Progress Project

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The project is still alive! I haven’t forgotten about my plan to write and publish 52 short stories on Amazon so that I can share a new one each week. I’m also consistently working on my novels.

However, due to some personal issues, I haven’t published anything new for the past few weeks. For those waiting for the next release: I’ve already written 23 short stories, even though only 7 are currently available in the STORY52 project. I’m working almost daily to complete the remaining 29 stories in the series while also finishing my next novel.

Once all short stories are written, I’ll be able to maintain a more consistent publishing schedule — ideally releasing one every week next year. I’m still determined to complete the project in 2026.

Running Tests on Amazon

Amazon allows me to offer each Kindle story for free for up to five days within a three-month period. Since the first stories were published already more than three months ago, I could run some experiments with them.

In these, I set the price to free for the maximum of five days — without announcing it anywhere. I stayed completely silent on social media, my blog, and even among friends and family. My goal was to see how many downloads the stories would get through Amazon alone.

The results were disappointing: Normally, when I announce a free promotion, I get around 20–30 downloads. But when I didn’t tell anyone, the stories only received about 5–10 downloads.

As another experiment, I offered my last novel Forever for free over a five-day period — with similar results. So far, there have been only 31 downloads of the German version and fewer than five of the English one. When I ran a free promotion in July (right after the release) with announcements, I got more than 700 downloads.

What I’ve Learned So Far

These tests lead me to two main observations:

  1. My reach on social media and this blog is still limited — but it already makes a noticeable difference in download numbers.
  2. Amazon seems to promote newly published books more effectively than older releases. It’s possible that new titles receive a temporary ranking boost or better placement in the “Free” category through the algorithm.

There’s still a lot to learn about how Amazon works for indie authors and how best to leverage social media and my website. But with every test I run, I’m getting a clearer picture of how the system works.