Publish Exclusively on Amazon?

This marks another lively debate within the indie author community. There are several ebook sales platforms, each with different royalty structures and different steps for uploading books. Although you'll get perks for giving your title over to Kindle Direct Publishing Select, the exclusive deal from Amazon. Then there may be long-run drawbacks to ignoring the other markets. Many also fear the creation of an ebook monster by giving exclusive control of a great portion of the market to just one publisher. The choice for most authors comes down to numbers. That is the number of readers reached and the total revenue earned in the process.

Amazon offers KDP Select authors a 70% share of retail sales including the emerging markets of India and Brazil among others. They also require that your book is available for free borrows through the Kindle library and Kindle Unlimited program. This earns you a percentage of the global market fund based on the number of times your book is borrowed and how much of it is viewed by each of these readers. It's only May the 4th as I'm writing this, and already Amazon is showing a 3-million dollar global fund to be divided among KDP Select authors. Amazon markets your book internationally and gives you promotional tools to offer readers such as discounts or free downloads for limited periods.

There are other major players in the market for selling your books that you may want to consider. Kobo shows most of the sales for Canada and iBooks is making significant gains in the global market. Smashword, Nook, Google Play and others offer the chance to reach readers who do not own Kindles. Joanna Penn and other authors believe it's a mistake to forfeit your share of the market gained by publishing through these platforms. Her experience is that it takes time for the other markets to show a profit, but that it can outdo the gains from Amazon's global market shares and higher royalty payments. She also finds it wise to secure multiple sources of income to retain independence instead of relying on just one.

Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords agrees. He also believes it's quite possible for a single entity to gain such control of the market that it could offer a lot less to authors. Author JA Conrath disagrees. He's enjoying fabulous sales on KDP Select and says it eclipses those of other markets. Hugh C. Howey points out that traditionally published authors are exclusive to their big publishing house. This looks at the author's perspective of not having other sales outlets with traditional deals. Although there aren't any traditional publishers vying for exclusive contracts with any and all authors, or it may be a problem to that side of the industry as well.

Howey also presents the problem of making it to the best seller list. (Something I won't have to consider for some time.) As a KDP Select author, all of your sales contribute to your ranking with Amazon. Those concentrated numbers make it easier to be among their best sellers. It does prevent you from being eligible for other best sellers lists such as the New York Times and USA Today. That raises the question of how much it's worth to make these lists. It definitely drives up sales, and grants the author more marketability as a speaker to attach this prestige. Is it enough to simply hold the title of Amazon best selling author?

I'm facing this decision for my first release. I believe the Amazon exposure is better with their exclusive deal. As such, that will be the route I take for the first 90 days with Eusta Diddoo – Runaway Pony Episode 1: Fired Up. I hope to see some sales, learn a bit about marketing strategy and keep it as simple as possible in the early going. Working with a single seller should help in that regard. Amazon allows pre-ordering for titles even if the editing isn't complete. That's where I am. The book cover is finished, but all I have to upload is a manuscript. That's okay. Amazon will take manuscripts for their purpose and accept upload of your finished draft before the release date.
After the first 90 days, I'll release it on all the other platforms. Then every other book will go directly to the entire market. I don't want to be exclusive to anyone. I want to take full advantage of all the possibilities available to an indie author. Wish me luck.

Thanks for dropping in
- Jonra Springs