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Amazon has decided to take the next step in online literature.

Starting July 1, it will pay authors &#8212 in its Kindle Library &#8212 by the number of pages read and not the number of times a book is checked out.

As you might imagine, this is going to put some pressure on authors.

David Wong, executive editor of believes authors will have to try even harder to keep their audience engaged.

“When you’re writing online you know exactly &#8212 not just how many people read your thing &#8212 but you know how many people progressed to the next page, you know how long they were on the page,” Wong explained.

When Wong wrote his book and posted it for free on his blog, he knew he wouldn’t be paid, but still tracked how long people kept reading.

“I had to write knowing that if their attention dropped for even one minute, they were gonna be gone because it’s the Internet,” he said. “They’re one click away from all of the free pornography that’s ever been made.”

So does this mean everybody is going to have to write porn now? ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Radio’s Dave Ross asked.

“I think once upon a time… you had to ask yourself the question of, ‘OK, is this chapter going somewhere? Is this sub-plot keeping people interested?’,” he said. “And I think that’s always been the rule for writing. You don’t want to be wasting the audience’s time, but it’s just turned up to eleven now. Even if they’re reading your book on the subway, they’ve got a phone with them where they’re a tap away from all their favorite TV shows or social media or whatever.

But is Amazon trying to improve the reader’s experience or save money by only paying authors per page turn? The company has had relationship issues with a publisher over authors’ rights and payment.

“I think as a creator, you can’t be too afraid of that,” Wong said. Authors will know whether people are buying books just to buy books or if they’re buying them to actually read them.

But that’s why Dave Ross wanted to know if this is going to turn all literature into porn, because books like Thomas Piketty’s are pretty important and yet nobody’s going to write them if the authors don’t get paid.

“I think if you’re selling a lot of books that people aren’t necessarily reading or engaging with, that’s just a flaw in the market,” Wong explained. “If they bought it and it didn’t change their mind, or they didn’t read it and didn’t get a chance to be influenced by it, then the only lesson you’ve taught them is that these books are boring and you shouldn’t buy the next one.”

³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Radio’s Chelsea Hawkins contributed to this report.