The lede is buried in section "5. Reader Memberships with a 50% Author Revenue Share":
> A Leanpub Reader membership ($19/year) or a monthly Standard or Pro plan is now required for (almost) all free purchases of books, bundles, courses and tracks.
> 50% of the revenue from every Leanpub Reader membership goes to authors of the books, bundles, courses and tracks which were purchased for free using the Reader membership. This way, authors can earn money from free purchases.
> Paid purchases of books, bundles, courses and tracks do not require a Leanpub Reader membership and still pay 80% royalties.
Leanpub has essentially added a paywall for works that were previously free to download, and will split reader membership revenues with the authors. While this seems equitable, it's also a big change in the product direction.
I'd be interested to hear from authors who have self-published using Leanpub intending to maximise readership rather than revenue, and what this might mean for them.
e.g. Try adding a free ebook to your cart, for example this one[1] (no relation, just the one I tried to download). Your cart will now contain 2 items: the ebook and a "One Year Reader Membership - $19.00" with no way to remove it.
[1]: https://leanpub.com/clean-architectures-in-python
