KDP Select: Will you enroll your eBooks?

[Doomed Muse]

I will probably try it with a new book in Jan or Feb. I definitely want to wait and see what the first month of results might look like and to give Christmas a chance to happen.  My sales through other venues have been slowly picking up all year, so I'd like to see what the holidays does with those before I make any exclusivity choices.

[JRTomlin]

I'm enrolling my historical novels today. I'll talk to my co-author and decide about the others.

Being in the library is worth it to me although I'm not thrilled with their putting a limit on how much authors can make. But I'm willing to see how that works.

[JonathanDAllen]

Exclusivity is a bitter pill to swallow when you're still trying to make a name for yourself. I just don't think there's enough information out there yet to show whether the trade-off of receiving a piece of the money is worth handicapping my releases to such an extent. That said, I submitted an erotica that I had written under a pseudonym, as it was effectively Kindle-exclusive already and can give me some more information on the pros and cons.

[Judi Coltman]

I just enrolled Is It Just Me?  I've never understood Smashwords (I know OK?) and haven't sold a single copy through any of SW's avenues.  Soooooo, I pushed the enroll button.  Let's see what happens.

[Courtney Milan]

On a slightly different note, I throw this anecdote out as food for thought. I talked to someone who worked for a law firm that used to have accounts with both Lexis and Westlaw, the two legal document repository/search/retrieval services available. Both services are insanely expensive. One year, the firm decided to get rid of one. So they went to both accounts and said, "We are only going to use one of you. Make us your best offer for the next two years." Westlaw gave them an amazing deal, and everyone was happy.

Two years later, the contract came up for renewal. And they went to Westlaw and said, "Make us your best offer!" And Westlaw gave them a really, really crappy deal. But now, all their attorneys were used to dealing with Westlaw only, and didn't know how to use Lexis, and they were locked in to the service.

When I see something like this, I think in terms of audience, not sales. I don't want to lose Nook readers. The fewer Nook readers I have, the more dependent I am on Amazon, and the less likely I am to get a better deal in the future. As far as I can tell, KDP select seems like a way for Amazon to quickly figure out which authors aren't making much money on other venues. I don't want Amazon to think that it's the only game in town for me. I don't see that as benefiting me.

[jackblaine]

For those of you who have enrolled, does the 90 days start today if you enroll today?  And, why the heck won't B&N let me unpublish?  Are we assured that that won't screw things up even though Amazon is giving a grace period?

[aaronpolson]

I enrolled some of my books--those already exclusive on Amazon.

I'm not willing to go all in at this point, but experimentation is important.

[Asher MacDonald]

Just so I understand this, there's $500,000 in money Amazon will disperse, so if there are 500,000 downloads of KDP books that means Amazon pays $1 per download? That's making the math really simple, but I think that is how it works.

I wonder if Prime Lending titles that have a normal price that is more expensive will see more action? I'd be more inclined to download the $9.99 ebook for free than the $2.99 ebook.

[Kent Kelly]

Well, I regard it as a mutual business partnership.  They’re not my boss.  Last time I checked, I’m not an Amazon employee; but if I pull a salary and get some insurance info from them I will let you all know.  

They already have about 98% of my sales, so from my perspective they’re asking “Do you want more exposure?” and my answer is “Yes.”  As a caveat, my home business isn’t just e-books so I don’t feel as if I’m committing to financial exclusivity per se.  I believe this business decision is one that will be unique to each author and we all can make our informed decisions that will make the most sense to us as individuals.

The principle of Amazon making money off me doesn’t matter much to me – I’m here to (ideally) reach out to readers and (mundanely) pay for my son’s daycare.  As long as I’m getting a fair slice of pie for my contribution, they can make all the money off me they want.
 

[CaedemMarquez]

For those of you who have enrolled, does the 90 days start today if you enroll today?  And, why the heck won't B&N let me unpublish?  Are we assured that that won't screw things up even though Amazon is giving a grace period?

I have this same question regarding Pubit ceasing unpublishing. The website will not allow me either.

I've enrolled one book to test the waters.

Do any of the bigwigs here know what will happen if B&N continues to not allow us to unpublish?

Caedem

[Phoenix Sullivan]

Oops, lots of threads on this popping up. Sorry if this comment is a dupe for some of you.

I'll be releasing the first in a series next week, so this couldn't come at a better time. And since we use an Amazon aStore within our Steel Magnolia Press site, I can still advertise the book through the site and in our newsletters.

Vol 2 in the series won't release till April, so Vol 1 will need a second 90-day commitment if I want to make it free during the release of Vol 2. But wow, I think having more control over the promo periods is easily worth the trade-off FOR THESE BOOKS. The Vet Tech Tales are memoir-esque essays with an over-arching storyline, so not fiction.

I'm not yet sold on established series for this effort, or for books in certain genres, such as Romance where SMP authors get a lot of sales in the other stores. I'm sure we'll pilot a campaign for one of the SMP romances in the next 30 days, though.

This is going to be fun: more data to collect and analyze. Yay!

[& gone]

Just out of curiosity, who thinks this new program will tank indie book sales for at least the month of December? I'm neither for or against the program, I'm just curious as to what you all might think.

[isaacsweeney]

I have an ebook that hasn't sold anthing in a few months -- probably because I don't promote it at all. I'm going unpublish from Smashwords and then enroll that. Because I can. And because I'm going to use it as a marketing tool for my other ebooks.

[JRTomlin]

Just out of curiosity, who thinks this new program will tank indie book sales for at least the month of December? I'm neither for or against the program, I'm just curious as to what you all might think.

Why on earth would it "tank" indie book sales? Few readers will even know about it. No, I don't think so, but we won't know until we try it out. I hardly think that killing sales is what Amazon has in mind and generally they know what they're doing.

Well, I regard it as a mutual business partnership.  They’re not my boss.  Last time I checked, I’m not an Amazon employee; but if I pull a salary and get some insurance info from them I will let you all know. 

They already have about 98% of my sales, so from my perspective they’re asking “Do you want more exposure?” and my answer is “Yes.”  As a caveat, my home business isn’t just e-books so I don’t feel as if I’m committing to financial exclusivity per se.  I believe this business decision is one that will be unique to each author and we all can make our informed decisions that will make the most sense to us as individuals.

The principle of Amazon making money off me doesn’t matter much to me – I’m here to (ideally) reach out to readers and (mundanely) pay for my son’s daycare.  As long as I’m getting a fair slice of pie for my contribution, they can make all the money off me they want.
 

My feeling exactly. I think the ability to go free mainly helps authors with a series. I have a new novel in this series coming out soon and about 90% of my sales are on Amazon, so why not, especially if there are more tools coming down the road.

[foreverjuly]

I was just able to unpublish from BN after being unable to do it earlier.

[Andrew Biss]

I was just able to unpublish from BN after being unable to do it earlier.

Yep, me too.

[Yonderer]

Nope.

While Amazon sells more than my "other" outlets, allowing Amazons system exclusive rights seems to violate the old adage about "Putting all your eggs in one basket."

Also... does limiting the exposure of a work, ie. marketing exclusively through Amazon, make any "marketing sense" for an Indie Author? I don't know. The truth is, before it could be of any benefit the "sales" would first have to make up for the loss of exposure/sales through all those "other" outlets.

My effort is to expand the exposure of my books, not restrict it.

I'm slowly gaining an audience, and slowly gaining sales at those "Other" outlets... so I will not turn away from those customers for something that truly only benefits Amazon, and carries little if any benefit for myself, an Indie Author.

[modwitch]

I'm in.  And there was a whole thread earlier on why I'm in, so I won't rehash it here  .

[Robert Bidinotto]

I have as much or more to lose in this "gamble" as anyone here, given the fact that HUNTER is (a) my only title, and (b) a Top 20 bestseller (#13 overall, #12 in fiction, as of 11 a.m. today).

I was approached by KDP. And I thought about it.

And I enrolled.

I won't reiterate what others have said, pro and con. All valid. But here are some considerations I haven't heard:

1. Will book borrowing cannibalize my sales, thus hurting my sales rankings, and thus costing me more than I could gain? Well, maybe. IF we assume that Amazon Prime members are going to be BUYING my book. But are they?

How many Amazon Prime people are going to buy my $3.99 book in a given month, when they they can borrow a $12.99 book for free? There's only so much reading time per month for most people, even Prime members. So, will they spend money on this no-name Bidinotto guy, or will they borrow Lee Child for free? I'm betting the latter: that the Prime members are borrowing big-name titles from the bestseller lists. These are sales I won't get, from dedicated Amazon readers. Don't I want to introduce HUNTER to these prime (literally) readers?

2. On the other hand: Who would BORROW a $3.99 book like mine when he could borrow Lee Child's much more expensive one? Well, in my case, 29 Prime members, in just the first few hours that I've been enrolled today. Would they have BOUGHT my book if they couldn't have borrowed it? What percentage of them would have? Who knows?

All I can tell you is that the issue of whether Prime members will borrow cheaper books is settled, at least for me: They are.

I'll watch closely. If I see borrowing skyrocketing, but my sales and ranking correspondingly nosediving, I'll bail out and try to protect my ranking. But I suspect this may be a "wash."

3. Someone mentioned establishing a good rapport with Amazon & KDP right now. Folks, let me tell you, these folks have been very, very NICE to me, especially for the past ten days. Life-changingly nice. I have every reason to believe that showing a cooperative, helpful attitude in return will pay dividends in more promotional attention in the future. I've seen first-hand what happens when Amazon turns its billion-watt spotlights on a book. I rather like that exposure, and I believe that participating in arrangements like this one can only open more doors for HUNTER and its sequels.

4. Finally, in my case, my sales via other venues were and remain paltry. A dozen sales via Smashwords over five months. 20 Nook sales this past week, while my Kindle sales for those seven days alone have topped 19,000. So, what am I losing? Duh. No-brainer.

So, let me just add those points to the mix of this discussion. For those of you who are not selling well through non-Amazon retailers, this may be a good deal. Or not. It's a risk, like everything in life. At the moment, I'm risking a hell of a lot more than most of you. And I'll certainly let you know what the results are, because I have nothing to hide, and I'd like to help as many of you as I can with whatever I learn from this process.

[Dan McGirt]

I would consider enrolling a new title in KDP Select for a limited time. As a promotional opportunity, it is interesting. As a long-term proposition, it does not seem attractive based on the present terms: the exclusivity requirement and the lack of a guaranteed minimum payment. I certainly wont' pull existing titles from other stores to enroll them in KDP Select. I prefer to have my books available in as many channels as possible.

Of course, as a Kindle owner and Prime member, it's fantastic. 

[smreine]

This isn't as good as I hoped it would be, but it's not bad. (I was really hoping for preorders.)

I don't think it's the right option for most situations. It's going to be fun to experiment with, though. Although I don't sell a lot on the other platforms, I DO sell, and I would hate to shut those readers out. But what about having the first 90 days of a release be Kindle exclusive, and then expanding to other platforms after the promotional period has passed? That might be doable.

What we'll probably see with this, ultimately, is more of the same -- authors who haven't sold well in the past will continue not selling well, whether or not they have the additional exposure; the juggernauts who sell copies in weep-worthy quantities will lend a lot, too, and enjoy a nice slice of the lending pie.

I'm going to be interested to see how other authors' experiences with this turn out.

[genevieveaclark]

On a slightly different note, I throw this anecdote out as food for thought. I talked to someone who worked for a law firm that used to have accounts with both Lexis and Westlaw, the two legal document repository/search/retrieval services available. Both services are insanely expensive. One year, the firm decided to get rid of one. So they went to both accounts and said, "We are only going to use one of you. Make us your best offer for the next two years." Westlaw gave them an amazing deal, and everyone was happy.

Two years later, the contract came up for renewal. And they went to Westlaw and said, "Make us your best offer!" And Westlaw gave them a really, really crappy deal. But now, all their attorneys were used to dealing with Westlaw only, and didn't know how to use Lexis, and they were locked in to the service.

When I see something like this, I think in terms of audience, not sales. I don't want to lose Nook readers. The fewer Nook readers I have, the more dependent I am on Amazon, and the less likely I am to get a better deal in the future. As far as I can tell, KDP select seems like a way for Amazon to quickly figure out which authors aren't making much money on other venues. I don't want Amazon to think that it's the only game in town for me. I don't see that as benefiting me.

This seems highly relevant.

[& gone]

Why on earth would it "tank" indie book sales? Few readers will even know about it. No, I don't think so, but we won't know until we try it out. I hardly think that killing sales is what Amazon has in mind and generally they know what they're doing.

Is it not possible that they're in it to make money off of the Prime memberships? A membership is $79. I'm in no way a mega-reader, but I read 3-4 books a month if I can. If each of those books were just $2.99 each, that would mean I spent $107.64 on e-books in a year. That in itself makes the Prime membership pretty attractive. Now you add into that the holiday season where I can get free shipping on tons of stuff and it looks really good.

Basically what I'm saying is that it could be Amazon's goal to sell more Prime Memberships which could possibly mean more readers getting free books year round instead of purchasing. That doesn't sound to far out of the realm of possibility to me.

Like I said before, I'm not for or against it, and I'm certainly not trying to sway anyone one way or the other. It was just a thought.

I sincerely wish you the best of luck!

[J. Tanner]

Buzzard's Last Day was only on Amazon anyway so I went ahead and enrolled it. After Christmas seems like a good time to try free, no?

[Bards and Sages (Julie)]

Just out of curiosity, who thinks this new program will tank indie book sales for at least the month of December? I'm neither for or against the program, I'm just curious as to what you all might think.

That is a good question.  Last year, indies benefited because thousands of people got Kindles for Christmas, and then turned around and snatched up cheap books.  This year, thousands of people are going to be getting the Kindle Fire for Christmas...and it comes with a year of Prime FREE.  All those people who otherwise might have been snatching up lower priced indie books now have the choice to borrow higher priced bestsellers for free.