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But Igzy I get your point about some troupes of books. Id have a tough time trying to smoke meat while trying to read the instructions off a kindle.

J. wrote: "I found Owen's insights to be extremely accurate. Having published my first book just a few weeks ago, I can admit that my pragmatic side expects that the only family and friends will buy my book. ..."
I think the KindleSelect pool is based of how MUCH of the book they read. Like what % of the book they got through. So just downloading does not confer a full royalty, you have to have written something that kept the reader engaged.
I think that is how it is, anyway.
I think the KindleSelect pool is based of how MUCH of the book they read. Like what % of the book they got through. So just downloading does not confer a full royalty, you have to have written something that kept the reader engaged.
I think that is how it is, anyway.

KDP Select members all has the option of promoting their book for 5 days free per quarter (the length of each KDP Select cycle). This makes your book free to everyone in all markets. You do not get paid and your book moves from the paid bestseller lists the free lists (which can be bad). Your book can be borrowed thru KU/KOLL when it is having a free promo, and you get paid for those loans -- but not the free downloads.
Side note: under KDP Select, you can elect the free promos or a countdown deal each quarter, but not both. (Check Amazon to see if I goofed here -- I wrote this from memory.)
If you are new, I strongly suggest give KDP Select a try for 3 months to see how thru KU programs does for you. Readers may be more likely to try a new author thru KU rather than purchase.
Our experience: KU has been awesome for us. If one assumes that our books would sell in other outlets in proportion to their market share, KU makes us more income than all markets outside of Amazon combined. (Amazon has ~65% of the eBook market.) Based on what we see (given we cannot prove a negative), it does not appear that KU and purchases compete strongly. We don't seem to losing sales to loans, based on historicals from before KU was introduced. They seem to be different sets of people which small(ish) overlap. (That is, the KU people weren't buying a ton of books before.)
I emphasize this is just us -- other authors report less positive results from KU, and you don't have to make your books available to it. But I do suggest giving it a shot. It's a pretty painless way for people to give you a try. Three months -- even six -- is a short time and you can expand into other markets if you don't see results.

I suspected as much. (One less thing to worry about!) Other genres may be the same.

The thing to understand is that these companies make money selling your book, thus they want books that sell -- that have an established track record. One such service I saw required for a new release, that the author have another book with at least 100 reviews on Amazon with a rating of 4 or higher (I think).
So these services are for authors who are already quite successful, and they may indeed help such authors. (Bookbub has also jacked up their prices a lot in the past 6 months, it seems.) This is true if all effective paid advertising that I know of. That is something to be aware of. Browse older threads on this group for additional insight.

I can't find your book on Kindle, and it isn't listed under your author profile on Amazon either. Are you sure it was published?

I can't find your book on Kindle, and it isn't listed under your author profile on Amazon either. Are you sure it was publ..."
Never mind - I found it. Still strange that it was so difficult - it did't show up even when I did a search for your name!

This has nothing to do with the Amazon issue, but the eBook isn't listed on Goodreads, either. Visit your book on Goodreads, click "Add an edition" and add the eBook. Then at least both will show up on Goodreads!

love that title! Made me laugh and cough on my morning tea!! That has got to be an interesting read :)

I just laughed up a noseful of lemony tea. Ouch!
On the royalties question... If you enroll your ebook in KindleSelect, I think you do collect payments based on a pooled allotment that Amazon disburses as a "bonus" based on a percentage of members who downloaded your ebook for free. Somebody can correct me if I'm mistaken...