The page as score: creative writing and the gamification of royalties on Kindle Unlimited

Authors

• Jaimeson Machado Garcia Universidade Federal de Santa Maria https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3398-6828
• Ana Claudia de Almeida de Campos Universidade de Santa Cruz do Sul https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4687-7951

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17058/signo.v51i102.21406

Keywords:

Creative Writing, Gamification, Royalties, Kindle Unlimited, Amazon

Abstract

This paper analyzes how KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) Select transforms the traditional royalty system into a gamified economy in which writing and reading are mediated by metrics, algorithms, and continuous performance. It is based on the hypothesis that the platform establishes a form of aesthetic governmentality, converting authorial freedom into productive engagement and the symbolic value of literature into measurable data. Through a theoretical-analytical approach, grounded in studies on gamification (DETERDING et al., 2011), combined with an analysis of data from the KDP Select Global Fund (NOBLIT, 2025), the study observes that although the global fund has expanded more than twentyfold since 2014, the value paid per page read has remained stable, revealing a diffuse and self-regulated competition. It concludes that KDP Selectturns the act of creating into a measurable performance and reading into economic data, establishing an economy of permanence in which the author, transformed into a player, must produce incessantly to continue existing within the literary game.

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