Exclusively on Kindle

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[image error]ccording to Amazon having your book exclusively available via the Kindle through their KDP Select program allows you the opportunity to make more money, but is alienating potential readers who don’t have a Kindle worth the potential better earnings?

In a lot of ways, having my book exclusive to Kindle has been both a blessing and a curse, it’s certainly easier and a lot less tracking to do, I hardly ever look at my Kindle sales, but at least I know that if I want to track how well my book is (or isn’t doing) I only have to look at Kindle. I don’t have to check Nook, or Apple, or Smashwords or really anything but Amazon. If I’m so inclined. It also means a lot less work when it comes to publishing too. I don’t have to format my book a thousand different ways. I seriously hated using Word for Smashwords, I do all that formatting for Nook, Kindle and the paperback version of my novel all in InDesign and you expect me to use Word now?

Depending on what program you use, I know that Scrivener exports to both .mobi (Kindle) and .epub (iPad and nook) but neither one quite guarantees the level of quality you could get from doing it yourself. I say could because doing it yourself is still a pain in the ass. Thankfully following in the footsteps of iBooksAuthor, Nook has taken a progressive step in the right direction allowing authors to write and publish their books from their new nook Press program. Which I’m eager to try out (but haven’t as of yet).

I renewed my KDP Select ‘contract’ a few months ago, when it was up (I don’t remember the exact date) for both Goddess and Bridge of Memories, but the truth is, the ends have yet to justify the exclusive means. KDP Select sounds nice on paper, and really the week I had my books free was a great sales tool, but it exclusivity comes at a fairly high price, and for some authors, especially ones who want to cast the widest net possible, it just isn’t worth it.