Yes, new reads can be a lot more. Mine have clocked over 20 cents on occasions and one guy's reads were worth 50 cents every time. But if you keep reading the same author, they do drop down.

If someone reads the same author a lot, they drop to a few cents, and down to one cent if you're a regular reader - based on my observations, anyway.

I think it may also depend on how much reading the person does across the whole platform.