Amazon.com Lending Library (MERGED)

[NathanWrann]

This week I made my book, Dark Matter Heart, available for the Kindle Owners Lending Library (Free to read with Prime) for a few reasons:

1) Book 2 in the series is going to be out in mid-January. I'm hoping that people will "borrow" the book, become interested in the series and buy the sequel.

2) It gives me something to announce. Since the book has been out for 7 months my "announcements" about it have dropped off. I can only mention it on Facebook or twitter so many times before the same old "news" is just "same old news". Now I can post that it's available for "FREE". That potentially puts it on the radar to non-PRIME members who might check it out and buy it.

Some drawbacks:

1) It has to be exclusive on Amazon so I had to unpublish it from B&N and Smashwords. Sales hadn't exactly been stellar at either of those (Still waiting for reports from Smashwords) so it's not too big of a hit but now I can't send out coupons for reviewers via smashwords.  But when book 2 is released I'll be able to e-publish a combo version of the two books to get around this restriction.

3) Discovery. Discovery is just as hard in the Kindle Owners Lending Library as it is in the regular Amazon/Kindle store. I've had the book up for free for about 4 days and not a single "borrow" yet. The usual suspects are clogging up the tops of the charts and there's probably very little searching going on for books at the bottom of the charts, even when filtered by category. Which brings me to my next point:

4) The categories for the Kindle Owners Lending Library do not match up with the categories that we select when publishing our books (just like the categories don't match up in the regular Amazon rankings). The categories are based off of "tags" (I guess). So when I browse through the KOLL I have a lot of trouble finding my book because I don't know what category it's in.

5) At the same time that I made my book available in the KOLL I also dropped the price temporarily to .99 (to raise interest with Book 2 coming out in a few weeks). This may hurt its desirability as a book to be borrowed. It would make more sense to borrow a regularly priced $9.99 book than a .99 book. BUT if my book shows up on lists of KOLL books and readers see that it's only .99 they might just decide to buy it instead of wasting a "borrow" on it.

My thoughts on the PRIME program and KDP Selects in general:

1) I don't see anyone signing up for PRIME solely based on the KOLL. But, like many people, I have PRIME already for the shipping benefits. The streaming video and now KOLL are bonuses.

2) KDP Selects (a big pot of money that gets distributed among the books in the KOLL based on how many times they're borrowed compared to all other books in the KOLL. For example if there are 3 books in the KOLL: "Book A", "Book B" and "Book C" and the KDP Selects is $100. If "Book A" was borrowed 20 times, "Book B" was borrowed 10 times, and "Book C" was borrowed 5 times. The total number of borrows is 35. "Book A" = 57%, "Book B" = 29% and "Book C" = 14% so "A" gets $57, "B" gets $29, "C" gets $14. Which means that there is the potential for my book to make more in KOLL than in regular sales. However, I think that this is going to be a case where the rich get richer (Books with a lot of buzz, marketing, popularity and familiarity: i.e. Konrath, Hunger Games etc). When the pot gets diluted (more books picking up a handful of borrows) those big players will begin to bow out because they can make more through single sales. 

[M T McGuire]

That's an interesting point about the stellar players, but I'm not sure they will bow out because it will always be in their interest to have a couple of titles in there to hook in new readers and doubters...

I hear you about announcements. My book has been out for just over a year and the second book is coming out in April 2012. I've written a short to go with mine and I'm working on another one which is a related event. Sadly I take a long time to write a book and my Real World is too busy and cluttered to give my writing the time it requires...

I doubt anyone will borrow my short, I've clicked on allow lending but it doesn't seem to be in the libary although since I'm an Amazon.co.uk user I doubt I will be able to check very easily. Amazon prime is just postage here and as most of the purchases I buy qualify for free postage there's no real point to my joining. I think it's around £79 here, too which is more than $79.

Cheers

MTM

[Richard Bard]

Nathan, I'm intrigued my your comment about epublishing a combo version of books 1&2 in order to get around the exclusivity provision. I'm facing the same situation as you with two books.  As a test, I placed BRAINRUSH-1 in the library.  It's doing fairly well, but I worry about the fact that Nook and other ereader users can no longer access it.  I've decided to keep Book-2 out of the program until I get a better feel for the results. I assume the "combo" you referenced is an ebook that includes both books in one file. Clever. Are you certain that doing so doesn't breach the contract terms?
Richard

[sgroyle]

"But when book 2 is released I'll be able to e-publish a combo version of the two books to get around this restriction."

- Bad idea...

KDP Terms Here: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=APILE934L348N#Select

The relevant lines are:

1 Exclusivity. When you include a Digital Book in KDP Select, you give us the exclusive right to sell and distribute your Digital Book in digital format while your book is in KDP Select. During this period of exclusivity, you cannot sell or distribute, or give anyone else the right to sell or distribute, your Digital Book (or content that is reasonably likely to compete commercially with your Digital Book, diminish its value, or be confused with it), in digital format in any territory where you have rights.

The bold was my input.

[Richard Bard]

"Bad idea..."

sgroyle, thanks for the excerpt. I have to agree. I wouldn't advise doing it without an okay from KDP first. Treat Amazon as a valued partner. They deserve it.

[NathanWrann]

I agree Sgroyle and Richard Bard. Thanks for the info.

[sgroyle]

Treat Amazon as a valued partner. They deserve it.

Yep. That's my approach. A valued, exclusive, partner

[*Sandy Harper*]

Does anyone know how to check performance of your book in Kindle owners' lending librarry?

I just signed few days back for one of my books in KDP select. Thanks.

[J. Tanner]

Does anyone know how to check performance of your book in Kindle owners' lending librarry?

Log into KDP and look at your Reports. "Units Borrowed" is on the far right of each line item.

[*Sandy Harper*]

Log into KDP and look at your Reports. "Units Borrowed" is on the far right of each line item.

Please bear with me. I appreciate your response, Tanner. When I go on report page, do I have to click on "Month-to-date unit sales" etc. I still don't see units borrowed on either page. Is it possible that nothing is borrowed yet and that's why it is not showing? Thanks.

[Dingo]

Yes, click on Month To Date Unit Sales and it's the last column. And, I hope your last column has a number in it. Mine is still a zero.

[M T McGuire]

No-one's borrowd mine yet either. It is a 4,000 word prequel so I'm wondering if it's in the Library even. Amazon Prime is just a postage option here in the UK so I'm not actually a member and have no way of knowing.

Cheers

MTM

[*Sandy Harper*]

Yes, click on Month To Date Unit Sales and it's the last column. And, I hope your last column has a number in it. Mine is still a zero.

Thanks Dingo.  Mine is still zero too. I have no idea how it works. It involves membership and buying kindle?? We will find out. Wish you all the best.

[morgan_n]

The smart writers (me not included) joined KDP Select when it first started. There would have been fewer people in the "pool", thus a bigger of the total $ for those involved. I dithered about the ethics of the arrangement  - monopoly building, etc. Still, better now than down the line when everybody! is in the pool. Anyway, I've had a handful of "borrows". I wonder when we'll hear what a borrow at a particular time is worth.

 

[morgan_n]

Sorry for including my cover-image links twice. I forgot that I had a "signature".

[*DrDln* (dr.s.dhillon)]

Am I right in thinking that these books are really not free because you have to pay for prime membership--Is it not $79???

[morgan_n]

According to the KDP Select terms, there is no relation between the price of a book and the amount we receive per borrow. So, a  5-page story would get the same per borrow as a 500-page e-tome. Also, does anyone know how to interpret the strange figures in the royalty reports, e.g. the "avg. offer price"?

[Adele Ward]

From a publisher's perspective, I liked the idea of putting the books in a lending library. We put our print books in libraries so this seemed good and right. But after enrolling I saw that it was different. They demanded exclusivity - we shouldn't sell our books anywhere else for 90 days. That's nothing to do with being in a library, and I find it unacceptable so won't continue with the library after this experiment. There's also no 'due date' so really this is a book club. Which is fine too. But Amazon need to be clear about what exactly this service is or it confuses everybody. Finally, you have to be in this to offer free 5-day promotions. So it's muddled up with that too, and a lot of people aren't sure what KDP Select is and why we're in it. Is it a way to give books away free? Is it a library? Is it a book club? It all needs to be more clear and a few of these different types of service need to be differentiated so people join the one they want to be in. I'd like just to be in a lending library, even with no due date, and be able to sell on a number of websites.

[lauralouise]

MT McGuire I'm in the UK too and I've had the same issue- I'm not sure whether it has worked signing up for PKDP select in the US because I can't see pricing information or any sign of being able to borrow the book when I'm on the US site. It means I'm also wondering whether running one of the free promotions won't apply to the UK site, because UK readers can't get it at US prices and aren't eligible for borrowing yet. Have you tried a free promotion yet?

[morgan_n]

Is anybody having problems with sales reports; i.e sales not showing up?