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Kelly wrote: "Anyone involved in Amazon's KDP select program. I am and I'm not really sure why I'm doing it this way. Once upon a time, I thought I had my reasons, but I would love any information if you guys ar..."I did not really get much benefit from it. It postponed my ability to release Great Succession Crisis Extended digitally on Smashwords for three months and they got really mad at me because they did not consider GSC Ex different enough from GSC. So amazon made a tempest in a teapot over it that meant I had to UNPUBLISHED digitally almost everything I had written. It really did go to an absurd level.
Now for all of this hassle and inability to sell my books, what did I get? five promo days for free books where only about 250 people took advantage. Outside of those promo days, they also discounted the book down to 99 cents from regular $2.99. Which means when I did get a sale, I got 1/3rd of the royalty I would have had.
Overall, I was not happy with my experience and will not repeat it.
Kelly wrote: "Anyone involved in Amazon's KDP select program. I am and I'm not really sure why I'm doing it this way. Once upon a time, I thought I had my reasons, but I would love any information if you guys ar..."I agree with Laurel. I did not see much benefit from KDP select. I had thousands of downloads during my free days, and when the free days ended I did not see a spike in sales. And although the bulk of my sales are from Amazon, now that my books are sold in all the major venues, I am seeing goods sales apart from Amazon as well.
As far as the $.99 cent price range, I had sales, but they were not consistent and those sales did not seem to generate many, if any reviews.
I feel like the $2.99-$4.99 price range has been the best performer. That's just my personal view, I'm sure others have had success many other ways. ;)
When I was in KDP select, I cringed everytime someone said "Can I get it for Nook?" I feel like every new reader is valuable, and if you limit to only Amazon you will miss readers.
Best of luck to you whatever you decide. Fortunately, KDP select is only a 3-month long contract.
I have actually done pretty well on Kindle Select so far. Yes, the main bonus is the ease of having 5 days of free promotions. My book has over 1500 free downloads from across its five free days that I've used. If your book isn't on Kindle Select, the only way to have a free promotion is to set the price to free on other sites, at which point Kindle will match them. Laurel, are you sure that isn't what happened with your book outside of the promo days? I've never actually heard of Kindle discounting ebooks, though I know they do it with print ones. The thing is they won't let themselves be under-bid, so if your ebook is available on ANY other site, they will lower the price of your book to the lowest price of which it's available. As you said, they considered GSC and GSC Ex to be the same book, so could it be they were simply matching the price that GSC Ex was available at?
Kelly wrote: "Anyone involved in Amazon's KDP select program. I am and I'm not really sure why I'm doing it this way. Once upon a time, I thought I had my reasons, but I would love any information if you guys ar..."If you find it doesn't work for you, get out as soon as your 90 days are up. Make sure to select do not renew or else it will automatically renew it for you. I didn't and it renewed book one of my series now I can put my other books on other means but not the first one until another month. It is nice to try out but I received hundreds of downloads and only one review. From my experience, people are quick to download but slow to read a freebie. I have had better luck offering it for .99.
I did it for the first 3 months with my first book, and then moved on to other publishing venues. A year later and I am back with KDP. Despite having a pretty successful book, I was BARELY selling elsewhere. The benefits from the borrowing program for Prime members made me MUCH more money, so right now I have three books enrolled in KDP.
I have had better luck with KDP.On average, I see about 1000 copies move on a free day, and sell about 20 a day for the weeks following. I have noticed it generally is more effective if you run concurrent free days (2 or more). I have also gotten more reviews from readers who received a free promo. Not sure why that is, but I have several books out, and only one that I've used KDP on...that one outsells the others about 20 to 1.
As far as how it might work when you use a different publisher for your ebook at some point...If you commit to KDP, just stick with amazon. You can send it to other places after your KDP time is up, but if I'm being honest I sell about 95% of my ebooks on Amazon, so I finally just decided to only pub there. It's easier to keep tabs on sales and while royalty might be higher with other sellers...it really doesn't make a difference if you only sell a few copies. However, that is just my opinion based on my own experiences :)
Borrows are for people who use a kindle device (it doesn't work on other devices using the kindle app), basically all of the $ is pooled together and you get a percentage based on your individual sales. I don't know how it works for others, but I only see about 2-3 borrows a month...I get a lot more purchases so I'm guessing more people are using the app?? At any rate, for me this is a non-factor.
I have used other publishers for previous titles. I decided to go with KDP for the most recent title because I have sold mostly on Amazon even when my ebook is offered over a number of sellers (B&N, Kobo, SONY, etc.) so I decided why keep tabs on dozens of sellers when most of the sales come from Amazon anyway. I also opted to print with Createspace which makes it easy to carry over to KDP. And as I mentioned earlier, I see a lot more movement on my KDP book than the others, while I'd love to think it's a better book :) I know that even if it is people still have to find it. Bottom line, KDP free days has put my book in the hands of readers who may not have taken a chance on a newer author. And it has boosted the sales of my other books as well. So, I am pro-KDP.
At the end of the day, if you go with KDP you are not obligated to use the 5 free days and you control what days if any are free. Do advertise on the websites that share free days for sure. If it doesn't work for you, don't use the rest of the free days and don't renew after 90 days, but I would recommend giving it a shot. Also, I did it for the first book in a new series hoping to build a fan base so I won't have to work so hard for book 2...and so far, I get about 20 emails a day requesting the release date for book 2. So, I think it worked for what I wanted it to accomplish.
Good luck to you, and do feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Best,
Kristi
Kelly wrote: "Anyone involved in Amazon's KDP select program. I am and I'm not really sure why I'm doing it this way. Once upon a time, I thought I had my reasons, but I would love any information if you guys ar..."
I do KDP select so I can answer some of your questions.
1. Amazon doesn't advertise you until you get enough sales. It took me about a month before I started seeing my book under the "people who bought this also bought..." (This is their way of advertising and it works well) This is most likely where you are getting sales. For example: if someone looks at the hunger games it might say underneath "people who bought this also bought Tent City by Kelly Van Hull".
2.I have never had a borrow so I don't really know... I think it pays the same way as you regular checks.
3. The best reason to do KDP select is that amazon advertises you. They wait for you to get about 100 sales first to make sure you have something worth while and then they do the advertising. To some it may not seem like a lot of advertising, but there are millions upon millions of books on their site and the more they link your book to; the better.
The free days are usually good for the first book in a series, as you seem to be planning to use them for. it will draw out more of a crowd to read the second book since they have already read the first. For a single book it is not as good. It mostly just gets the word out.
If you do the expanded distribution on createspace, which I believe you did (PS. I just signed up for that about a week ago. Does it up the sales once the book is available in other stores? Just curious. How long did it take B&N and other book stores to buy copies of your book? This is the part that I am new to and not a lot of people choose the expanded)
But it doesn't affect the kindle/ ebook version of the book. It stays the same (As Laurel pointed out) where if your book is an ebook on any other site, they force you to take it down.
However; kindle is by far the most popular form of e-books because it is available on not only the kindle but every computer, every phone, and every apple product as well as any kind of tablet. Therefore you will get the biggest audience through the kindle/ KDP select program for the ebook part.
I do KDP select so I can answer some of your questions.
1. Amazon doesn't advertise you until you get enough sales. It took me about a month before I started seeing my book under the "people who bought this also bought..." (This is their way of advertising and it works well) This is most likely where you are getting sales. For example: if someone looks at the hunger games it might say underneath "people who bought this also bought Tent City by Kelly Van Hull".
2.I have never had a borrow so I don't really know... I think it pays the same way as you regular checks.
3. The best reason to do KDP select is that amazon advertises you. They wait for you to get about 100 sales first to make sure you have something worth while and then they do the advertising. To some it may not seem like a lot of advertising, but there are millions upon millions of books on their site and the more they link your book to; the better.
The free days are usually good for the first book in a series, as you seem to be planning to use them for. it will draw out more of a crowd to read the second book since they have already read the first. For a single book it is not as good. It mostly just gets the word out.
If you do the expanded distribution on createspace, which I believe you did (PS. I just signed up for that about a week ago. Does it up the sales once the book is available in other stores? Just curious. How long did it take B&N and other book stores to buy copies of your book? This is the part that I am new to and not a lot of people choose the expanded)
But it doesn't affect the kindle/ ebook version of the book. It stays the same (As Laurel pointed out) where if your book is an ebook on any other site, they force you to take it down.
However; kindle is by far the most popular form of e-books because it is available on not only the kindle but every computer, every phone, and every apple product as well as any kind of tablet. Therefore you will get the biggest audience through the kindle/ KDP select program for the ebook part.
E.B. wrote: "Kelly wrote: "Anyone involved in Amazon's KDP select program. I am and I'm not really sure why I'm doing it this way. Once upon a time, I thought I had my reasons, but I would love any information ..."That "Nook" thing has made me cringe too :)
TO add to this: Borrows come in with your paycheck, and as a single line item. That way you can see the payout from that, because sometimes it is more than your $2.06. I saw about 700 borrows last month so I am curious to see how that turns out!
Shaun wrote: " If your book isn't on Kindle Select, the only way to have a free promotion is to set the price to free on other sites, at which point Kindle will match them. "Actually, that's not true. You can create a coupon code any time you want to, for as long as you want it to last, on Smashwords and have a promotion that way.
KDP-S is, in my opinion, sending a message to those who use Nook and Kobo (the most popular eReader abroad, FWIW) that you do not want them in your audience. Since discoverability is really key in this business, you're also ensuring that those readers cannot discover you by accident.
Just some food for thought by someone who saw the word "exclusive" in the terms and said "Thanks, but no thanks."
All great information. I'm still a little fuzzy about the 99 cents thing, but maybe I need to re-read it. The createspace expanded distribution thing for me is good for when I get a store to actually carry the book. I've only got a couple, but when I do get them, they order through expanded distribution. I still haven't figured out how to get it to show me when someone is utilizing that except for the createspace number for sales will jump in an increment of 20, which leads me to think that was an expanded distribution order.
Oh, another thing I find really peculiar. Createspace said they couldn't print the book for less than 12.33 per copy, but then Amazon is capable of slashing the price down to 11.01 or something. How does this work? And also, how is it that you can order it from Barnes and Noble? Is that something through Amazon?
Sharon wrote: "Shaun wrote: " If your book isn't on Kindle Select, the only way to have a free promotion is to set the price to free on other sites, at which point Kindle will match them. "Actually, that's not ..."
I believe that if you want to have a free promotion on Kindle and not opt into Select, that is the only way, to make them price-match it from other sites. I haven't used Smashwords (Yet) so I can't comment on what makes it free there, but Kindle doesn't allow you to set the price below $0.99.
Kelly wrote: "Oh, another thing I find really peculiar. Createspace said they couldn't print the book for less than 12.33 per copy, but then Amazon is capable of slashing the price down to 11.01 or something. Ho..."The Expanded Distribution is how the book gets into B&N, plus a few other stores. That's also where the price changes happen, as Amazon makes the book available to other stores, and then matches (or beats) the lowest price available so that Amazon is still usually the cheapest option. I've been curious about how this affects royalties, but I haven't seen any change in what I get despite the price drops. So I assume it's a non-issue.
It's safe to say that you can't actually find it in the ACTUAL STORE though right (B&N)? Just an online buying option. Another thing that fascinates me to no end is that when someone buys a copy from Amazon through Amazon prime, they still get it printed on demand and it gets there in two days. Little stockpile sitting on the side?
From my own experiences with CreateSpace and KDP (both select and normal), I've found that the Expanded Distribution and Select options are often not necessarily the best things to engage in. Sure, ED nets you more potential placement, but it costs you extra and raises the base price of your book (primarily because of the royalty differences for Amazon printing them, selling them to B&N or whoever, then that company selling it, generally at discount.) For example, Disciple of Grief is priced at $14.99. Without the expanded distribution option, I could have marked it as low as 11.99 (and would have preferred to.) If someone buys it from B&N (or other ED site), I get $0.01. Whereas if they snag it from Amazon, it's more like $3.50 and from CreateSpace is around $5. Given that nobody's buying, anyway, I think I'd prefer to have it priced at $11.99 and just skip B&N's side of things entirely...As far as KDP Select goes, you get a little bit of leverage in their "If you liked X, you should buy Y" algorithm, and if it does exceptionally well they may toss it up in a promo or two, but I don't know that it's 100% fair trade compared to having your eBook plastered on every site imaginable. The 5 days worth of promos can be helpful for "making yourself known," but from personal experience (which thusfar has been about 300 freebie downloads, 2 reviews, and 4 sales total in a year), I don't know that it's really worth it. Your mileage may vary.
So far as when Amazon (or other retailers) discount your book, as far as I have been able to determine, price fluctuation DOES NOT impact your royalty, which is primarily based on the list price of your book. I could very well be wrong - especially as pertains to the KDP-published works, as those haven't had any discounts other than the basic free promos when I've scheduled them - but from my CreateSpace statements, at least, I receive the correct amount for a sale from a given distributor regardless of what the price was at the time of their purchase.
And lastly, regarding your book appearing on B&N or other sites, that can happen in two ways. One is, of course, marking the Expanded Distribution options. The other is companies that I call "book scalpers." There's probably some other technical word for it. But these are folks who will make a listing - often for an utterly ridiculous price (I've seen copies of Shadow of Purity listed for as much as $98) - on other websites, wait for someone to be foolish enough to buy them, then they order a copy from CreateSpace(or whoever) and ship it off. Sketchy, so far as legality and morality is concerned, but it happens. Best bet is to check the "Publisher/Seller" info on the site where the apparently odd listing appears. If it shows CreateSpace, Amazon LLC or your name, it's coming from ED; anything else is probably a scalper. You can contact the website to have them remove it, though often it leads to a very long snipe hunt that accomplishes little. :(
Oh, and one last bit. Even with Expanded Distribution, you are EXTREMELY unlikely to find a physical copy in a local B&N or the like. Unless you're friends with the employees and nag them about it, or get enough people to request a copy through the store.
Hope some of that long and rambling post was at least semi-useful... good luck!
I am currently using KDP for my novel, because I was interested in the borrowing feature, but it hasn't given me any real results at all. I'm looking to publish the e-book version of my novel elsewhere, but now have to wait until the 3 month period expires. Luckily, I thought to check to see if the program renewed itself at the end of 3 months automatically--it does--and cancelled that. Overall, I'm pretty neutral with the program. I'm sure it's useful for other writers.
I am going to hosting a debate on this. Please see the link. http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
1) Does Amazon do advertising for you on some level? I get about 8 sales a day, so I am wondering if they are promoting it somehow because frankly, who are these eight copies a day? I've already gone through all my friends and fammily.
2) How do the borrows work? I've heard that at the end of the year they dump the money from a different account into yours, depending on how much money they have in that account.
3) Is the only reason to do KDP select if you want to use the free promo days? (I haven't done this yet and don't plan to until I release the second book in the series.)
Any other info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!