Amazon Prime members will be able to read more books for free, thanks to Amazon's new initiative to encourage self-published authors to offer their books as part of the Kindle lending library. Publishers that join the program, called Kindle Direct Self-Publishing (KDP) Select, will get a share of a $500,000 per month fund that Amazon is providing through at least the end of next year. The caveat for self-published authors that they must offer their ebook exclusively on Amazon for 90 days after joining the program, but once they do, they'll get a percentage of the fund based on how often their book is borrowed. For example, if a book accounts for 1.5 percent of all books lent under the program for the month, the author will get that percent of the fund — or $7,500 in this case. It's hard to say how this will work out for up-and-coming authors — competition for a sizable percentage of that fund might be fierce, but it's an interesting model nonetheless. Sign-ups start today.