Why I Joined KDP Select

Since its introduction last month,Amazon's KDP Select program has caused a fair bit of controversy. On its face,it sounded good: a program that would let Amazon Prime members borrow your bookfor free, in exchange for a cut of a $500,000 fund. Select members also get fivepromotional days, courtesy of Amazon, in which their book is available forfree, but the company helps get the word out about it. But there was a catch: If youwanted to join KDP Select, the novel had to be available exclusively in digitalform to Amazon. So if you've gone to the trouble to get it published elsewhere,such as Nook, iBook and Smashwords, you had to depublish the book from thoseoutlets. This, to me, was a deal breaker. Myobjections were twofold. One, I worked hard to make the novel available toeveryone—even in print—that wanted to buy it. True, my Amazon purchases vastlyoutnumbered my Nook ones, but I felt it was important to sell in multiplemarkets. Secondly, I worried the benefits would be relatively minor. Yes, I'dget a cut of 500k, but how many Prime member were going to borrow my book whenthey could buy it for $2.99? Since Prime members can only borrow one book amonth, it seemed more likely they would favor more expensive novels than mine.As for the free promotion, I would be giving away my book for nothing. How wasthat going to help me? Boy, was I wrong. Joe Konrathsuccessfully used his free promotions on KDP Select to make more than $100,000in three weeks(http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2012/01/100000.html).Jeff Bennington, meanwhile, the author of Reunion and Twisted Vengeance, has used his freepromotional days to get three of his novels onto bestseller lists. How doesthis happen? Well, for starters, Amazon'salgorithms help promote your book, so instead of relying on ads or word ofmouth, it gets a much wider audience than it normally would. While in theory,interest in your book should wane the day after your promotion, that's not whathappens. Because so many people download it—and do so in a short period oftime—Amazon's algorithms indirectly continue to help promote the novel. As aresult, you could find yourself selling a lot more books the day after a freepromotion than you did before. That's the theory, at any rate. Once I saw what kind of successthis was spurring for others, the lure of KDP Select was too much. I decided Ineeded to take the plunge. To be honest, I'm a little scared.My first "free" promotion will be tomorrow, Jan. 17, and I worry that a) no onewill download it for free or b) everyone will download it and the book willthen stop selling afterward. While there are plenty of success stories outthere, there are many private failures as well. Some authors say they'venoticed no uptick after a free promotion, or that actual sales of the book havedeclined. As for the other concern—aboutexclusivity—it still bothers me. I was happy to publish on Nook and Smashwordsand have been pleased with every sale there. But realistically, those salespale in comparison to what I see on Amazon. I've sold more than 1000 books, andonly 40 of those were on Nook. For iBook, I've sold a grand total of 7 books.So while the idea of making the book available everywhere is appealing, it'sclear that most of my readers are buying it on Kindle. Why not take advantageof KDP Select? So I made the jump. As I said, thebook will be available for free on Jan. 17. If you haven't taken the plungealready, it's a good day to buy it. If you have and you liked the book, feelfree to buy copies for your friends. It won't cost you a dime. As for this experiment with KDP,let's see where it goes. No guts, no glory, right?