Within a few hours of receiving the email from Amazon about KDP Select, I had a dozen more emails from clients and associates. Not the first time we’re startled by the stark light coming from O Most Powerful Amazon.
So off we march into two general camps.
Camp 1. Amazon-Centric Authors
You’ll find me here. It’s not that I don’t want my books available in all digital readers. I do. But I have only so much time to upload, groom and market on an individual platform. They all take time. Amazon provides such robust tools for authors, I haven’t made it through all the ways I can market in their system. My books are selling well in Kindle and I need every possible remaining hour to write. At this point I have zero investment in any other platform.
Camp 2. Other Authors
Members of the other camp tell a variety of stories. They may have gotten into Smashwords, or Nook, or the iBookStore, and be very invested in one or more of those platforms. If they are established anywhere besides Kindle, it’s going to be a tough decision to remove books from platforms and make them exclusive to KDP Select.
What I Did and Why
As soon as I grokked what Amazon was offering, I went straight to PubIt (that’s Nook) and removed the two books I had managed to load there. That took a big three minutes including taking a look at my sales record which, of course, was still at “zero” since I have not had time to groom or market for the Nook.
The Why
For 90 days I am more than glad to experiment. Do you get that the half a million dollars set aside for December is divvied out among the authors who participate in KDP Select? This is the first 90 day window. There will never be fewer authors participating than there are right now. I hope you don’t do what I did. Get it?
The Future
We’ll see how all this lending goes. Yes, there are huge ramifications floating in the Amazon-colored sky. What is happening to the whole lending system? I grew up in Carnegie libraries. What about Amazon’s ever-growing clout in publishing? Sure, it’s dangerous ground. Eyes wide open. Amazon is formidable and doesn’t seem to care much about rules. For now, however, they need authors, so I’m being fed well at the table of giants.
The Challenge
It’s the same challenge in every corner, people. To thrive today as authors, we need to be intrepid experimenters. We need to keep our eyes on our readership and our hearts in the next (ever better) book. As a lifelong writer, my experimental time and energy is going to the place where I find the biggest readership and the most respectable royalties. And for both of those, I say it’s about time.
Suzanna Stinnett
Get The 4-Hour Publisher here.
Get Turn Your Blog Posts into eBooks here.
Bay Area Bloggers Society and ePub Clubs
Join the Independent Authors Network
Join World Literary Cafe
Read The 4-Hour Publisher
Well, maybe not so subtle …
I didn’t really put 2 and 2 together when I first got the email about it. But now that I’ve had time to digest it, it does seem like Amazon’s going after tablet market domination. KDP Select may just be the first of many planned rollouts designed to cause dazzle and defections. LOL.
I’ve enrolled our two ebooks in the program. I’m curious to see whether sales or revenues increase over the next 90 days.
Eric Bryant, Director
Gnosis Arts Media Group
I think you’re right, Eric. There’s no other reason to demand exclusivity except to curve people toward Kindle with its exclusive authors. I’m curious about the sales as well as what they’ll do next.
Keep me posted!
Suzanna Stinnett
I also wondered about this new KDP select, so I decided to publish my third ebook ONLY on Kindle, as well as use KDP select, we’ll see what happens!
I agree it is a lot of work to use many ebook platforms (including e-junkie), and I get 90% of my sales from Kindle…so it will be interesting at best!
I am very new to self-publishing but I believe I am having much success with KDP and their select program. I did have my book at Nook and Smashwords for about a month in December-when I released my first book. I had only two sales at both places. My sales have been so much better at Amazon.
I love the KDP select program-not a big fan of the exclusivity of it, but I don’t feel I’m giving up much considering the very lackluster sales at the other places.
February and March were both fantastic months for me. I averaged about 250 sales a day in March and I ‘loaned’ out more than 150 books. At 1.70 a loan, I’d say that was pretty cool! So far this month, I’ve ‘loaned’ 64 copies.
I am told that the ‘loaned’ books are somehow tied with the sales and help your rankings. I’ve been in the top ten in three categories (don’t know how that works, but I’m not complaining!) for Amazon’s Top 100 best sellers list for over a month now.
I am not bragging, because again, I’m new and not sure if this is normal or not. I think its pretty good for a new author, but I have absolutely nothing to compare any of it to. I’m learning as I go, lol.
In a nutshell, I love the program! I’m quite happy with KDP. I do wish they would get rid of the exclusivity because I get a lot of requests from people with Nooks. I try to explain they can get the Kindle app for free to read on smartphone or computer, but they’re as devoted to their Nooks as I am my Kindle! lol Maybe next month I’ll drop the select again for a while and see how it does at B & N.
Overall, I’m quite pleased with the program. ;o)
Suzan Tisdale
So great to hear how it’s going. Do keep us updated, we all benefit from hearing how people are making these tools work! Thanks,
Suzanna