Select program - Yes or No? #Amazon #Indie

 

Changes in KDP Select: in the KDP FAQs on Amazon's site, it states:
 "All content made exclusive to Amazon in KDP Select must remain for sale on our site only; it cannot be available for free or for purchase in digital format anywhere else, including publishing the content of your book on the web, including on your own website, blog, etc. However, you may choose to make up to 10% of your book available on other sites as a sample, as well as continue to distribute your book in physical format …" Means you can use excerpts here and there now. Finally! I was recently tagged on Facebook with this blurb by a best-selling author friend of mine. She’d previously warned me to be careful about putting any parts of my Select books out on the internet – blogs, promo sites, etc. Even my own website. Now I admit to breaking this rule over the past when I wanted to share certain parts of my story on my website or a blog. It worried me that I might be defying an Amazon mandate – not something I wanted to do. But we all know how portions of a story can captivate a potential reader.
That rule had been one of my personal hang-ups with the Select program. Therefore, I’m glad it’s been rectified.
I know many other authors refuse to be restricted by Amazon’s market manipulation and so won’t give up their right to sell on various sites. And I say - your choice! Those authors believe they can more than make up the monetary difference by being diverse rather than having 5days every 3 months of free promos, Prime lending revenues and the countdown deals.
Personally, I’m very happy with having my books in the Select program. The three reasons already stated are, of course, huge. And would be on the top of my list as to why I’ve elected to go this route. Another importance for me is that I have been with the Freepartay group for a few years now and having my books available at any time for their promos has been necessary.
Maybe the most relevant (and to be truthful) embarrassing reason I’ve stayed in Select is because I’m so strapped for time. I can’t seem to slide out of my writing and marketing commitments long enough to organise all the necessary changes publishing in more than one market would entail. Phew – that’s a long one!! Sentence I mean. But it is a fact.
When I think of having to release all my 20-plus books on those other sites, I cringe. For a challenged techie like myself, it would mean a lot of work, probably many mistakes since they seem to haunt me when I try anything new and mega frustration I’d rather bypass. (Wuss, that I am.)
So, until I can either afford to pay someone to take on that grind or it becomes critical to have my books available elsewhere, I will continue supporting the KDP Select program and be glad they treat me as well as they do. ******