While audiobooks get all the industry headlines, ebooks are doing just fine.
5 BILLION – that’s how much Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited will have paid out to self-publishers and small presses when the October 2026 pot payout is announced in November.
Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited ebook subscription service began back in summer 2014. How they laughed. The total pot payout to participating authors was $2.5 million for July 2014.
This month, October 2026, the payout (which will not b announced until mid-November) will be in the region of $66 million (August was $66 million, September $65.9 million).
As of this month, with the September pot payout declared, the total payout by Kindle Unlimited is now at $4,994.25m. The average monthly payout through 2026 so far is $64.9 million, meaning KU will easily cross the $5 billion mark when the October numbers are announced.
A reminder this is for KDP authors only – essentially self-publishers and small presses. Larger publishers qualify for KEP and are paid a la carte rates.
The KU payout does not include a la carte payouts to indie authors, nor does it include payments to APub authors. None of this money is counted by the AAP, the PA and all the various bodes that tell us how big the book market is.
In 2026 OverDrive confirmed 379.4 million ebooks were borrowed through OverDrive across 2025.
So while audiobooks get all the industry headlines, ebooks are doing just fine.
This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsfeed,
