KDP Select: 4 indie novels I’m watching
Like most self-published authors with debut novels, I’ve been following KDP Select, and the debate surrounding it, since before my book was uploaded to Amazon.
In an earlier post on this site, I said I wasn’t inclined to enter the program, citing exclusivity and giving the book away for free as my main reasons for my unwillingness.
Still, the KDP Select program is not something I can just ignore, particularly since so many authors, all of them indies, have been using the program. Truth to tell, I haven’t seen any authors with a large publishing house using the program.
So, I have been watching four other debut novels, all of which I’ve read, by different indie authors, all of whom are currently in the KDP Select program. Some are further along than others, and while their results are not exactly the same, they’ve all seen a greater level of success and are still doing well relative to others who are not in the program.
I will list them in the order they were found in the Amazon Best Seller ranking when I started to write this post. None of the books are free for everyone right now, just Amazon Prime members.
The book doing the best right now of the four is The Ninth District, by Douglas Dorow. As of this writing, the thriller was at No. 192 of all paid books, the big-time list, and sat at No. 2 for Police Procedurals in both categories, and No. 18 for Suspense.
The next book is Blood Orchids, by Toby Neal. This book has been much higher but was still at 1,103 as of this writing, as well as No. 1 and 2 in Drama/United States categories. It was at No. 28 in Police Procedurals.
Book three is Black Beast, by R.S. Guthrie. While no longer a debut novelist (Lost is his follow-up to Black Beast), Guthrie is, nevertheless, still a part of the self-publishing crowd. Black Beast was at No. 16,732, with no other rankings.
The fourth book is The Fall of Billy Hitchings, by Kirkus MacGowan. His book, too, was much higher, and was at 17,211 as of last look. There were no other individual rankings. Sporting a new cover, The Fall of Billy Hitchings has been in the KDP Select program the shortest period of time of the four.
You would have to get their take (and I’m guessing we will see blog posts at some point), but those numbers are nothing to sneeze at, because they do represent sales. In addition, too, many more of their books were downloaded for free, perhaps in the thousands. While it pains me to think of such a thing (free books), it still does put their novels in the hands of readers who could be interested in paying for a subsequent book later on.
At least that’s the theory.
In my case, I made a point to buy each book before or after it was offered for free. I am not an Amazon Prime subscriber (though I have been, and found the $79 annual fee not worth my while come renewal time). And it seemed hypocritical not to purchase the books when I was expecting others to pay for mine.
All of these books are good. I personally think it’s a shame to ever give the digital version away. Discounting is fine, but even 99 cents seems too cheap. Unfortunately, it’s looking like KDP Select is the best way, if not the only way, to get noticed, however. Of course, if the majority of indie authors do it, I’m not sure what the ultimate benefit will be.
Just getting into the KDP Select program has not guaranteed success. I know for a fact that MacGowan has been following a layered approach, by not only offering his book on KDP Select, but by tweeting an incredible amount (and not just about his own book), blogging, guest blogging, and maybe other things I’m not aware of. I’m sure the others have done a bunch of marketing around their books, too. In other words, KDP Select seems to be the least time-consuming part of this process.
I’m still holding out and will continue to watch and see what others manage to do. I wish all four of these authors good luck—they all have talent and promise as authors as far as I’m concerned.
