Paid-by-the-page ebook subscription model a boon for genre writers - The Globe and Mail

Three years and 12 entries later, the series has found an audience, mostly through Kindle Unlimited (KU), a subscription service that offers readers access to hundreds of thousands of ebooks for $10 per month.

"Cozy mystery readers are enthusiastic readers. They read a lot," Davis, who writes under a pseudonym, said. "It's not at all a competitive community. My fellow cozy authors, we all support each other, we all promote each other's books, because we all appeal to the same people."

They're so enthusiastic that Davis has been able to set aside her pattern-making business and focus entirely on designing knitting-themed murders.

The subscription model works for reader and writer alike, she said. Readers can read as much as they want for a flat rate, and writers get paid by page read.

That new system is having an effect on how some writers approach their craft by encouraging them to write faster, longer and crazier. The longer a writer can keep a reader hooked, the more money they stand to make, Davis noted.