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Publishing and Promoting
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Another great reason to join KDP Select
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Starting this week, KDP also starts the "Countdown" promotion program which allows an author to lower a book's price to a specified period of time for up to six days. This is offered as an alternative to the regular, know-to-everyone free promotion.Say you have a book priced at $2.99 and you want to promote it by discounting it to a price of $0.99, Amazon will sell that book at $0.99 but still keep the 70% royalty rate you have elected for the price of $2.99. As we all know, if you price a book outright at $0.99, you are only eligible for a 30% royalty.
It looks like Amazon is putting money where its mouth is.
Now they just need to add presales and pre-publication listings for indies!!That is exciting news. Almost enough to make me want to re-enroll with Select, at least for some of my titles. (Others I'm selling too well on BN to change).
Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the lending program only available to Amazon select members? Which is getting more and more expensive...THe reason I ask is because its been reported that Amazon has lost a lot of their select members due to price increases. And Amazon also recently announced that they are raising the minimum price on free shipping, even to select members.
Nick wrote: "Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the lending program only available to Amazon select members? Which is getting more and more expensive...THe reason I ask is because its been re..."
Nick, I think you are right on both accounts, assuming you meant to say Amazon Prime, not Amazon Select. Select is a KDP program for authors.
My humble opinion is Amazon is pretty darn far from falling apart. It's there changing the publishing industry and it will bring about more drastic changes. It has the cash and financial power to lower the Prime membership fee if it chooses to.
Bottom line is: Jeff Bezo can charge you $10 for every $20 bill he sends you and banks will still be bankrolling Amazon.
Everybody loves to hate the Yankees. So I understand where all the "reports" are coming from.
Disclaimer: I am not a Amazon lover. I think Amazon is the evil corporate giant that has destroyed the warm and fuzzy world where we congregate in neighborhood bookstores and chat about Other People's Books.
By the same token, Amazon has given us a world where everyone and his grandma, as well as his Guatemalan cleaning lady and her nephew can publish a book or two.
I'm just taking the ride. And as far as my books are concerned, I wish Amazon luck in selling more Prime membership.
And the fact is, KOLL is a pooling based reward program for authors. Every borrow now gives the author a whopping $2.42 and people are saying that Prime membership is down? I for one don't buy it.
Nick -- Unless you meant to say the enrollment of Select is down, which is an entirely different subject.But if that's true it is wonderful news for guys like me. There are just way too many competitors for anyone in the Select program.
Amazon Prime seems like a good deal to me. I cancelled my satellite TV recently and went with a Roku, and I watch free TV/movies/etc. through Amazon Prime, for which I paid $79/year, not much more than I was paying monthly for satellite TV. I also get free shipping on stuff I buy through Amazon and discounts on specific items, plus free and discounted Kindle books. Yes, this causes me to buy more stuff through Amazon and less through other dealers, but if they can afford to offer me this deal, I'm interested in taking them up on it. I would certainly look at similar deals from their competitors, but I haven't noticed any.
Have any authors used a Bookbub promotion when enrolled in KDP Select? I've seen conflicting opinions. One says you can't be in KDP select to be a part of Bookbub, but the other says why not?
Kelly wrote: "Have any authors used a Bookbub promotion when enrolled in KDP Select? I've seen conflicting opinions. One says you can't be in KDP select to be a part of Bookbub, but the other says why not?"There is no intrinsic conflict or restriction. Bookbub likes the book they blast out to be available in all outlets. But their policy is one major one suffices. So if your book is in KDP Select and only available via Amazon, it's treated just as any others.
The latest success story I've heard that for a book on Select and promoted by Bookbub is this one: http://amzn.to/1h8Xdjd.
I've no way to verify but the man who organized the marketing campaign told me on Skype that the author reaped about 2000 sales after the two-day free download ended. PM me if you need more detailed advise on how to go about it.
I enrolled in KDP Select and late yesterday my publisher put my THAT SUMMER up on its book page for FREE through Nov 6. Early this morning I'd had 700 free downloads and a purchase of each of the other two books in the series. That was my goal: give book #1 in the series free and hope folks would buy books #2 and #3. By Nov 6 hope all the numbers will be higher. This is a promotion that Amazon offers and if you're giving away an ebook you're losing only a small amount on each giveaway plus bringing awareness to your book.
I rarely get any KOLL sales. I do kind of like the look of their timed sale program that they've just implemented. It looks like they're trying really, really, really hard to keep authors in their select program.
I just re-enrolled in Select to try out the Countdown promotion. I have to wait for 30 days and I'm trying to figure out if I can do more than one countdown promo during the Select 90-day period.
Okay, I feel out of it, but I've never heard of KDP. Anyone care to explain? I assume it's a venue on which to self-publish, such as Smashwords?
Marcy wrote: "Okay, I feel out of it, but I've never heard of KDP. Anyone care to explain? I assume it's a venue on which to self-publish, such as Smashwords?"Hi Marcy, KDP is Kindle Direct Publishing which is the platform Amazon offers everyone to self-publish through.
What we are talking about here is KDP Select, which is a free promotion program Amazon offers anyone who's willing to enroll (on book by book basis.) The promotion you get is either CountDown where you offer your readers a discounted price but retain the higher royalty, or free copies of ebooks. In return, you must give Amazon exclusivity to sell the ebook version of your books (the enrolled title.)
Hey guys, not quite related but as of tonight, Amazon drops CreateSpace ED (Extended Distribution) price to $0.00.That's right, it's free now! Sign all your babies on!
M. wrote: "Hey guys, not quite related but as of tonight, Amazon drops CreateSpace ED (Extended Distribution) price to $0.00.That's right, it's free now! Sign all your babies on!"
For how long? I'm not done with my novel yet!!
Heather wrote: "M. wrote: "Hey guys, not quite related but as of tonight, Amazon drops CreateSpace ED (Extended Distribution) price to $0.00.That's right, it's free now! Sign all your babies on!"
For how long? ..."
LOL, that's so funny. I'm not laughing at you. Your comment cracks me up...
There is no time limit stated.
M. wrote: "Have you read your KDP royalty spreadsheet carefully? If you have, you may have noticed a transaction type called "KOLL," -- "Kindle Owners' Lending Library."The wonderful thing about KOLL is the..."
I am signed up for KDP for all my books, but I was wondering where we can find the October KOLL rate? Is that posted somewhere or do we only find out once the monthly sales report is issued?
M. wrote: "Heather wrote: "M. wrote: "Hey guys, not quite related but as of tonight, Amazon drops CreateSpace ED (Extended Distribution) price to $0.00.That's right, it's free now! Sign all your babies on!"..."
I checked and I'm grateful. I wonder if they decided they'd make more money off retailers buying from them, then authors paying for expanded distribution?
Gustav wrote: "M. wrote: "Have you read your KDP royalty spreadsheet carefully? If you have, you may have noticed a transaction type called "KOLL," -- "Kindle Owners' Lending Library."The wonderful thing about ..."
Good question. Why do you need to see it posted though? I don't have Oct statement in my account yet or else I can try to calculate. If you have your KOLL counts and royalty corresponding to it, isn't it just a matter of arithmetic?
Amazon says the rate is tied to the collective funds pooled (the nominator) and the total count of participating titles (the denominators.) And it is a pleasant surprise to me that KOLLs give authors more money.
Heather wrote: "M. wrote: "Heather wrote: "M. wrote: "Hey guys, not quite related but as of tonight, Amazon drops CreateSpace ED (Extended Distribution) price to $0.00.That's right, it's free now! Sign all your ..."
I think it's done with the objective of squeezing the competition (LightningSource.)
Amazon cannot be sued based on anti-dumping because it does not cost Amazon anything to pass the print titles to established distribution and retailers. So to price something that does not have a "Cost of Goods" at zero is perfectly legal.
M. wrote: "Heather wrote: "M. wrote: "Heather wrote: "M. wrote: "Hey guys, not quite related but as of tonight, Amazon drops CreateSpace ED (Extended Distribution) price to $0.00.That's right, it's free now..."
I just took advantage of that for my new novel, From Thine Own Well .
I'm still unclear, though, why I have to use their ISBN in order to connect with libraries. I like using my own ISBN for my books. But I digress...
Norm Hamilton
Author of The Digital Eye and the soon to be released From Thine Own Well
Indie Writer Book Reviews
Services for Writers
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email: Norm Hamilton
The wonderful thing about KOLL is the distorted reward to effort ratio. Say your ebook is priced at $0.99. You get a lousy $0.33 when you sell a copy. But when an Amazon Prime Member borrows a copy from you, Amazon rewards you through the KDP Select program a whopping $2.42! (Based on Sept. rate.) $2.42 translates into a sale of more than 7 copies of your $0.99.
And statistically, for most authors, your KOLL counts beat the combined sales of your book through B&N, Smashwords and all other minor channels.
So why not? Particularly when your book is priced at $0.99 or below $3.45 (that's when a sale can break even with a borrow based on a 70% royalty rate.)
Personally, I wish there are more KOLL's on my lower priced books than sales. If you ever come across with a book page on Amazon that screams "This book is free for Prime Members," you now know why the author is doing that. KOLL is pronounced "Ka Ching!"