KDP Select - my experience so far

Peter Cook in 'Bedazzled', about to do a bit of devilish temptingI was an early adopter of KDP Select; my first 90 day contract ends 6th March 2012. Initially I was dubious as to how I would benefit, but trusted that Amazon would make it worth my while, and I sold so few copies via Smashwords I had little to lose.

Tentatively, at the end of January I tried a two day giveaway of Replica , at the same time raising the price to £1.99/$2.99, thus moving up to the 70% royalty from 35%. It did pretty well; from selling 395 copies in January, it sold 744 in February, plus 40 loans to Amazon Prime members at $1.60 each. So mid-February, I made Remix free for two days and increased the price. Remix sold 4,343 copies that month, plus 325 loans at $2.01. I have sold more books in other months, but I have never made so much money.

What KDP Select does is increase visibility and allow you to reach readers who might not otherwise come across your books. Amazon benefits from the upheavals in the charts, with a constant supply of new books showing up to tempt buyers.

Many see KDP Select as part of Amazon's evil scheme to gain world domination. Let me quote  Robert Bidinotto on the subject:

Gosh, what a devious plot Amazon has going: 
They keep throwing MONEY at us authors, and keep offering us NEW OPPORTUNITIES, always trying to make us HAPPY, so that we continue to deal with THEM rather than their competitors!
How can we POSSIBLY allow this ruthlessly manipulative scheme to continue?? 
Shouldn't we be giving Amazon's inferiors a fighting chance???

Nah. I  shall be signing on for another 90 days.