KDP Select for Amazon Kindle Exclusive Authors
KDP Select has just been created for Amazon Kindle authors who are willing to have their ebooks be exclusively available on Amazon. Authors who participate must keep their ebooks in the program for at least 90 days to be eligible for a rewards sharing bonus through the Kindle Owners Lending Library and can earn a share of the $6 million fund in a year's time. Both Indie authors or those traditionally published can enter a single book or multiple titles, but they can't distribute them elsewhere as ebooks. They can, however, sell them elsewhere as paperbacks. December's monthly fund is $500,000. KDP Select just launched today with many top authors already enrolled including; J. Carson Black, Gemma Halliday, J.A. Konrath, B.V. Larson, C.J. Lyons, Scott Nicholson, Julie Ortolon, Theresa Ragan, J.R. Rain and Patricia Ryan.
The way it works sounds similar to how some waiters "pool their tips" in that the greater sales for the whole group creates greater money for each individual although there are ratios involved and not every author makes the same bonus. Amazon monitors the proceeds from the collective revenues of the group and then distributes the extra money made to all participating authors with a sharing percentage factored in.
From the press release; The monthly royalty payment for each KDP Select book is based on that book's share of the total number of borrows of all participating KDP books in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library. For example, if total borrows of all participating KDP Select books are 100,000 in December and an author's book was borrowed 1,500 times, they will earn $7,500 in additional royalties from KDP Select in December. Amazon expects the fund to be at least $6 million for all of 2012, in addition to the $500,000 allocated for December 2011. Enrolled titles will remain available for sale to any customer in the Kindle Store and authors will continue to earn their regular royalties on those sales…. …With KDP Select, authors and publishers will also have access to a new set of promotional tools, starting with the option to promote their enrolled titles for free for up to five days every 90 days.
Have to admit, it sounds pretty tempting. But what if an author already has multiple titles for sale at Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Smashwords, Sony, Kobo and other retailers? Those authors will certainly be reluctant to pull their ebooks from those shelves. And how might Barnes & Noble and Apple respond? Probable there are some intense board room meetings happening right now to counter attack this effort from Amazon to further dominate the market. It wouldn't surprise me if other retailers come up with a similar fund-sharing scheme or some new ideas altogether.
Feels like the battle for ebook supremacy just went into overdrive and makes me very interested to know how the others will respond.
More from Amazon on this announcement at their site;
Reach a new audience – Distribute books through the Kindle Owners' Lending Library and reach the growing number of US Amazon Prime members.
Earn a whole new source of royalties – Earn your share of $500,000 in December and at least $6 million throughout 2012 when readers borrow your books from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.
Promote your book for free to readers worldwide – The newly launched Promotions Manager tool will allow you to directly control the promotion of free books.
Instant feedback – Check real-time performance of your books in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.
For Indie authors who want to enroll in KDP Select: You can enroll existing books by visiting the bookshelf. You'll be able to enroll a single book or easily enroll multiple books at the same time.
In my opinion, this makes the most sense for authors introducing new titles. New books can be enrolled during the publishing process. Simply select the "Enroll this book in KDP Select" option and proceed to publish the book as you normally would.
Interested? Visit the website at http://kdp.amazon.com or get more info at http://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/KDPSelect.
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I was tempted until I learned you can't read these "borrowed" books with Kindle reader apps. Only on the Kindle DEVICE. I have hundreds of books on my iPad, but no Kindle. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
Up until now, everything Amazon has done has empowered the Indie author. This doesn't so I doubt it will be seen as a bright idea in the long run.
"Impact on authors:
Forces the author to remove the book from sale from the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Smashwords and others, thereby causing the author to lose out on sales from competing retailers.
By unpublishing a title from any retailer, the author destroys any accrued sales rank, making their book less visible and less discoverable when and if they reactivate distribution to competing retailers
Makes the author more dependent upon Amazon for sales. Do you want to become a tenant farmer, 100% dependent upon a single retailer? As some of you history buffs may know, tenant farming, and the abuses of power by landlords, was a primary contributor behind the great Irish potato famine.
Impact on competing retailers:
Harms other retailers by denying them access to your book.
Many authors will permanently stop distributing to Amazon's competitors once they become fully dependent upon Amazon for the lion's share of their earnings
Motivates more customers to purchase at Amazon since Amazon has this exclusive content.
Discourages formation of new ebook retailers around the world[.]"