KDP Select: Will you enroll your eBooks?

[HarryDisco]

Amazon is introducing KDP Select - a new option to make money and promote your book. When you make your book exclusive to Kindle for at least 90 days, it will be part of the Kindle Owners' Lending Library for the same period and you will earn your share of a monthly fund when readers borrow your books from the library. You will also be able to promote your book as free for up to 5 days during these 90 days.

EXCLUSIVE: During the period of exclusivity, 3 months, you cannot distribute your book digitally anywhere else, including on your website, blogs, etc. You are allowed to sell your hard copies everywhere

FUND: $500,000 in December and at least $6 million throughout 2012 when readers borrow your books from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library

MAKE YOUR BOOK FREE: option to offer enrolled books free to readers for up to 5 days every 90 days. From your bookshelf, select the book by checking the box next to the title, click on “Actions” and choose “Manage Promotions”.

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/KDPSelect

I enrolled all my 5 books. And made them free on Kindle from 9 December - 13 December

Update after 5 days free:

Bill Clinton and the Dead Bookmaker on the Golf Course: 275

Bill Clinton and The Dead Gigolo: 232

Bill Clinton and the Dead Lady on the Subway: 344

Bill Clinton and the Dead Meddlesome Mother: 236

Bill Clinton and the Deadly Poker Game: 269

[kurzon]

For my current books, it would be way too big a pain in the *ss trying to get them taken down from the various other sites.

For future books...no.  Even though I only sell a small amount on other sites, I don't like limiting my readers' options (or telling them to wait three months before they can buy one of my books).

[CraigInTwinCities]

Does making your books available in print everywhere via CreateSpace disqualify you?

I can't do this with my current books.

Might consider it for future books.

[TattooedWriter]

It's certainly something to consider.

[BrianKittrell]

Hmmm, very interesting indeed. I may do it for my next one, just let it come out at Amazon first and then everywhere else after the period to see if it earns anything. I don't want to pull my current one on the other places.

Edited to add, now that I've had some time to think about it:

I think we'll see a goldrush in December as the pilot to this program, but I doubt it will do most of us any good. I mean, 100,000 downloads... that's a bit of a low number to base the estimations on, I think. It's difficult to know how many people are Prime customers, but conservative (ultra-conservative) estimates are for around 2-3 million.

If 25% of those people exercised their freebie each month, that's about 500,000 to 750,000 downloads, making each download the equivalent of about $1 share. Sure, if there are 20,000 books in the system, you stand a decent chance. But, what if 300,000 books are in the system? 500,000? 1,000,000?

I think I shall wait and watch and see. I sell enough through the other venues to keep going. Besides, by the time I could get my book out of distribution everywhere else, there will probably be 75,000 plus books in Select.

And for those saying the distribution is a straw man argument or that this isn't an zero-sum game, this is the closest thing you'll get to one in publishing. Yes, there are a number of variables that we do not know (and we shall never know them because Amazon will never publish them), but just because we do not know a value does not inherently mean it is not a set, static value. Because our success in this particular program depends upon getting a larger share of downloads/loan-outs than other authors in the program with us, it is a zero-sum game by definition. The money is set and does not fluctuate, the number of Prime members is rather set and not a huge number of Amazon's total customers (2-3 million (max 5 million) customers in Prime compared to 121-131 million total Amazon customers estimated). Zero-sum situations are not in the best interests of the people trying to get a slice, but it's always good for the one baking the pie.

We all know that Amazon will do whatever it takes to dominate a market. For instance, Amazon wanted more content to offer. They started KDP. Things were good. Now, KDP's not the only game in town; you have PubIt! and Smashwords (and others). Now, it's time to up the stakes. Dangle the carrot before the mules and give them something to chase. In the end, I think Amazon will be the bigger winner, and the program will benefit a few at the top and make a few others a little cozy. I, for now, shall keep my eggs in separate baskets. It's just too new and a bit too aggressive to put my stuff in the pile. I'll wait until we have some real evidence, when we see regular people coming back with thousands--or, as I suspect more likely, an extra $2 tacked on for a couple thousand readers.

[portiadacosta]

Might be interesting to try out the scheme, with something new. And if there isn't any major advantage after the 90 days, withdraw it from Select [or whatever you have to do] and release it into the wild.

Will watch with interest the experiences of those who take the Select plunge. 

[David Wisehart]

I've enrolled some of my titles already, and will enroll the others after they're taken down from PubIt. Removal from B&N takes up to five business days.

Since 98% of my sales are from Kindle, I don't see much downside to going exclusive.

David

[Ben Dobson]

Does making your books available in print everywhere via CreateSpace disqualify you?

I can't do this with my current books.

Might consider it for future books.

It says it only applies to the digital format of the book.  Print shouldn't matter.

[CraigInTwinCities]

I may do this as an experiment with one of my future titles, just to see how it works for me.

Not going to unpublish anything that's already out there, though.

Considering Amazon is 85 percent of my income anyway, I'm willing to experiment with this program... my main concern being how much it'd eat into actual Amazon sales.

I'll say this: it has potential. It lets you "go free" legit up to 5 days out of 90, and lets you promote your book for free on Amazon, as a free book, during that time.

Tempting.

[Alan Parkinson]

I have enrolled Get in Get Out and Get Away

[Lisa Scott]

Interesting.  I probably wouldn't take my current books down now since 50% of my sales are in the itunes stores.  But I might consider writing something new and trying it here first for 90 days only before distributing it elsewhere.

[K.A. Hunter]

Hmmm. I was surprised to see it up this morning. I'm with the others who say I'll try new, but I'm not pulling others. Not right now. I'll be curious to see how it goes for others, though.

[EllenFisher]

Giving it a shot with the one book that isn't up anywhere else... 

[AmandaJane]

I put my Cookbook on Smashwords.com  8 days ago and they still had not yet approved and I made absolutely sure to get the formatting correct so I when this opertunity came about I jumped. I unpublished from smashword.com and enrolled.

Anyone know how or when you can set your book for free for the 5 days during the 90? It sounded like a much safer way of trying my book out for free for a while w/o having to get on itunes/smashwords when I wanted it changed back.

[EllenFisher]

Anyone know how or when you can set your book for free for the 5 days during the 90?

Go to your bookshelf, mark the book, and click "Actions" at the top.Then under "for KDP select books" you can click "manage promotions."  It looks like you can do it any time (once they approve it, maybe-- I see they are giving me till December 11 to change my mind about enrolling, so I don't know if it can go free before that date).

[Mel Comley]

I'd just like to offer a word of caution, don't put all your eggs in one basket.  

IMO Amazon has been messing the Indie authors around A LOT this year. We've all seen our sales diminish.

Just be careful and think about things from a business POV, please.

 

[Herc- The Reluctant Geek]

I just put up Virtually Real (a novella). I'm curious to see how this all works 

[Harper Alibeck]

I took a careful look at sales on other channels and decided I'd try this for 90 days. I have "Legs" on two other channels: B&N and ARe.

Going "inactive" was easy on ARe.

For some reason (hmmmm....) Pubit won't let me take "Legs" off sale this morning.

[EllenFisher]

I'd just like to offer a word of caution, don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Good advice, but since it's only for 90 days, it may be worth the risk for some folks, particularly those who aren't selling much through other platforms anyway.

We've all seen our sales diminish.

Not all of us.  It varies from author to author, and this may be the right choice for some folks.

The thing that I like about this is that it shows that Amazon is aware it's losing some market share to iTunes and B&N. That means the other platforms are definitely growing, and that's a good thing for indies!

[DDark]

Hmmmm  

Tell me more about un-publishing my titles that are enrolled in KDP Select?
You can un-publish your KDP Select-enrolled titles at any time during the term. However, keep in mind that your commitment to the KDP Select terms and conditions, including exclusivity, will continue even after you have un-published your title. In other words, you cannot un-publish your KDP Select-enrolled title from KDP and make it available on another sales channel before the title’s current KDP Select term expires.


I think i'd want to hear about someones firsthand experience doing this and if it helped increase sales in a significant way before I did this.

[Artemis Hunt]

I will be trying it with a new novella by the end of the week. Rest of my stuff are on all other channels. I sell quite a lot on ARE, Bookstrand and Nook, but I don't mind waiting out the 3 months.

[DDark]

I will be trying it with a new novella by the end of the week. Rest of my stuff are on all other channels. I sell quite a lot on ARE, Bookstrand and Nook, but I don't mind waiting out the 3 months.

Keep us updated!

[MaryMcDonald]

I've done it with my first book, and with what I call my duo-book, which is actually both of my books in one volume. I've had that one for sale since April. Hmmm...but now that I think of it, I hope it qualifies since I didn't enroll my second book and it is in that volume. Maybe I'll just add the second book to KDP Select just to be on the safe side.

For me, it was a no-brainer because my sales in other places have been almost non-existent. I know some people have great sales at B&N and I'm sure it's a much harder decision.

[jimbronyaur]

I respect this option, but I fear it...

First off, B&N has done wonders on their site and with the new Nook, why would you want to miss out on that?  I've personally seen my Nook sales grow the past two months.

Second, Amazon only accounts for about 50-60% of my sales (and for December, they are only at 47%)... why would I want to cut off 50% of my sales and customers?

Third, this option with all the free is out of hand... people complaining about their sales, etc. it's all because of this free nonsense.  Stop making things free... but value on your work and let the readers come.  I'm tired of seeing someone with one or two books that don't get to the bestseller status in their first month hurry and make everything free and then brag about how much they "sell".  Stop it.  And the Select option lets you make things free... that's going to attract a lot of people, but I think it's dumb. 

Testing the waters with one title or so may work - I get it - but those who want to take all their books down elsewhere... that scares me a little.  There are so many other vendors and other customers for a reason!  Heck, even a small place like OmniLit is accounting for 17% of my sales this month... I couldn't imagine not having my book there for those customers to enjoy.

-jb

[DDark]

Maybe I have to read the finer details when I get home from work later - but wouldn't the lending library potentially reduce sales? I know you can earn a percentage depending on downloads, but if it's available to borrow, what's the lure in purchasing?

Also is this a one time enrollment or will it still be available next year? I'd prefer to see a progress report of users who did this and maybe by week, how their sales AND ranking on amazon were impacted.