KDP Select & The Stone Garden

So I decided to take the plunge and experiment with KDP Select. For those of you who don’t know what that means…well, who really does? KDP is short for Kindle Direct Publishing and now they have this thing where if you publish your ebook exclusively with them for three months, you get to do a promo for your book all by your little self. Oh, also, Amazon customers enrolled in that Prime thing can borrow the book for free. Some writers swear they’ve sold tons of books signing up for KDP Select. Other writers don’t see the point. What I wanted to know was “Does enrolling actually get you better publicity?” As a test, I offered my short story “The Stone Garden”. I didn’t advertise at all. Got two books sold in three weeks. And absolutely no Prime member borrowed it (you get paid every time the book is borrowed). So, my answer was “no”. Time to do some promo. KDP Select authors have five days in which they can offer their books for free. Yes, a measly five days. I offered my book for free this morning and am now getting a strong stream of downloads. And not just from the US, but also UK and Germany. Lesson: Amazon customers like freebies (well, who doesn’t?). Question: Why doesn’t Amazon let its writers do their own promos all the time?

The Stone Garden

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