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Amazon's KDP Select
J.A. wrote: "Keryl, that's quite savvy! Hope it works for you!MTM, given that they say the best way to boost sales is to write another book, it sounds like that's quite respectable given the fact that yours..."
Me too. No new books coming out anytime soon, but 'round about July or November (tentative dates for the next two books) I'll let you all know how it works.
I feel like I’m a bit on the opposite side of this issue, so I thought I’d chime in on my thoughts and experiences.I took the chance on KDP Select. In the past six months since publishing, I’ve sold just one copy on Smashwords. Another eighteen were given away via coupons. I’ve had a few more sales on Amazon, but nothing spectacular. B&N has been a complete bust.
I made my latest book, The Shadow Walker, available for free starting 12/11. I hadn’t sold a single copy since it made its debut late October, so I was hoping for at least a few dozen downloads.
Three days later (after I ended the “sale” two days early so I could allocate them to another time), I had received 254 American sales, 95 UK sales and 1 sale in Germany. I also had a sale on one of my non-free books (which could just be a coincidence).
For me, it was well worth it. I understand I made nothing on those downloads, but I hope they’ll yield a few reviews, perhaps a repeat customer or two. That all remains to be seen. For now, I’m content knowing my work has reached a broader audience than I was capable of achieving on my own.
Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s right for everyone. My mother has a pre-existing fan base, having been published in the 90’s. Without any marketing, her sales have been steady. She doesn’t plan on making her books free for any length of time, so I can’t see how this program will help her, unless her books are chosen to be borrowed. All the same, she opted in.
And to me, that’s the crux of this. Amazon isn’t alienating writers or readers. They’re allowing us to opt in to this program. If they said we had to be exclusive in order to publish through KDP, I’d be the last one to sign up. Participating offered me a larger platform, even if it meant limiting the availability of my books.
Perhaps I’ll regret signing up, but for now, I’m looking forward to another free promotion this upcoming weekend.
I signed up! My e-book was only available on Amazon anyway, so it couldn't hurt. I'm also thrilled at the opportunity to offer my memoir for free for 5 days. I've been wanting to do this. The loss of royalties are worth it to me, to get more readers and spread the word! My first promotion is this weekend where my memoir will be available for free download to Kindle.http://www.amazon.com/Rains-February-Wif...
Don't miss out and HAPPY holidays everyone!
Leila x
Making it free is a really useful thing, and if yours wasn't on anywhere else, it makes a lot of sense to enrol.You'll have to let us know how you get on.
I was reading a blogpost this morning and a couple of high-selling indies who hadn't enrolled said they had noticed their sales dropping off considerably since KDP opened.
...interesting...
JAC
I'm bound to have backed the wrong horse, for all my supposed market savvy, I usually do. However, the return on free books isn't worth it for me yet and I can't help thinking that I should put a bit more effort into netting a few i-pad users, first.
That said. IF I was allowed to keep it free on my site and IF the lending library allowed people to borrow more than one book a week I'd be far more inclined to join because I can see that being able to lend it, library style, is a good way to get people to try your book...
It might be an option for K'Barthan 1 when I finally get K'Barthan 2 up and running.
Oooo decisions, decisions...
Cheers
MTM
Okay, I started another thread when I first saw this one because it seemed like this one wasn't headed towards any useful discussion. I wanted to hear from people in the program, not people who wanted the program to not exist.And then Barb came on over and pointed me back to this discussion :-) Yeah, Barb. I'm gonna blame you! haha
I think when I saw all of the Amazon-bashing negative remarks, I didn't realize anyone was actually discussing the program. That is, it seemed at first glance at that thread (only glanced through the first two screens) that all the comments here were focused on Amazon bashing and nay-saying Amazon's decision to launch the new service--as though Indie Authors who are NOT participating could actually influence Amazon's decision to offer a service which serves as a revenue stream for Amazon.
I started a new thread with a more explicit subject line, in the hopes someone (like Steven! :-) would come along and have intelligent discourse instead of talking about Evil Empires and monopolies. I had prepared a blog post this past week for my Tuesday Tip which you may or may not want to read before reading the rest of my remarks below.
You can see what was said in "the other discussion" over in the "Tips & Tricks" folder labelled as "KDP Select / Kindle Owners Lending Library (KOLL)
First thing I noted, is that no one is forced to join the KDP Select program and the PRIME service isn't designed to benefit any of the content providers. There are other agreements with us (the terms and conditions of the KDP platform are not the same as for the KDP Select program). Seems like a lot of the commentary here in this discussion is making it sound as though the only way to have a book on Amazon is to have it enrolled in KDP Select. I did read your blog post, Splitter, and I think you need to realize that the program may not be for you--that doesn't mean it's not for ANYone. Just not for you.
Since enrollment in KDP Select is totally voluntary--oh, AND despite being enrolled, a customer COULD still buy your book--I don't understand why the discussion here turned to some kind of defensiveness against the "coercion" Amazon was allegedly asserting. I mean, no one is forced to take part nor are any customers forced to get the book free of charge. (snort)
The one thing I DID note in my blog post is that the program may or may not be for everyone--author or reader alike. For those readers or authors for whom this IS a potential match, it's a really great match. But no one program is for everyone--nor even for anyone all the time.
It may be something you want to do once--and never again.
It may be something you never want to do.
It may be something you want to do with one book and not any of your others.
I think the generalized nay-saying and Amazon-bashing here just really turned me off hearing what else anyone might have had to say. It's also not a very productive conversation when it's a public bashing of the #1 retailer in the world. I may not like Amazon (or I may) but I wouldn't say they don't know how to conduct business in a profitable way *griN*
Steven made remarks in the other discussion and what he had to say was exactly what I was looking for, so I urge folks here to go see what he had to say over there. Just bear in mind, what he or anyone else experiences does not dictate what you choose for you and your books. Take in the information and decide for yourself but be professional and polite enough to let the discussion go on.
I kept feeling like i was in the middle of one of those hateful "All Indie Authors Suck" bashings the readers were doing on Amazon discussion boards for a while last spring/summer--that got all of us BANNED completely for the unprofessional and impolite behavior that resulted when Indie Authors fought back--in public, on Amazon's site, where paying customers might have been scared off buying anything.
I hope you guys can understand the point I'm making. It is never profitable to call a megasuccessful business bad names.
Anyway, the KDP Select program exists and there are participants--lots FWICT--so I think the whole nay-saying discussion about whether or not Amazon should be launching the program is kind of missing the point.
Personally, I hadn't planned on entering any of my titles (I don't even have any out yet!) but now I might--especially now that I've read Stevens comments, Steven! If I get up into the upper ends of 5-digit numbers of sales it might be a really great way to push up into the 6-digit market (where Steven's sales are).
Maybe KDP Select is not for the people selling dozens or even hundreds of books (or less than dozens) but once you get to a certain point (like tens of thousands), you have to do something new and different to get new and different readers. Basically, you need to seek out ways to be (re)discovered by new readers! And if you stay on top of the situation, it's only a 3-month risk.
Theoretically, there's revenue from this program for everyone but my blog post, I was trying to stress that money should not be the motivator for the authors. Exposure to new readers should, as that's the only real guarantee.
I think at some point, if Amazon gets too many authors enrolled, the monetary returns will dwindle to the point of non-discussion since it's a percentage of a total cap of $500k per month--and monies are NOT rolled over from one month to the next. The more authors enrolled/downloaded, the less each one gets. The exposure to new readers, however, should never dwindle, as it's STILL a more focused spotlight for each author in front of a qualified audience of readers.
If getting new readers is the point, I think the KDP Select Program will benefit authors for a short, finite period; and the KOLL definitely is beneficial to existing PRIME customers.
For those who were teetering on the fence about buying a PRIME subscription, getting one free Kindle book a month might be the tipping point. AFAIK there are a LOT of PRIME subscribers (more than 50% of Amazon's "regular" customer base) and even more new PRIME subscribers who defected from Netflix for the video part of the PRIME service when Netflix screwed up this summer/fall with all the price changing and name changing back and forth.
I think the key is to understand the demographics of the PRIME subscriber. If that demographic also intersects the likely audience for your book, the KDP Select Program might be a boon to your book's launch on the charts at Amazon.
-sry
Wow, that was a long rant...sorry if my long-windedness is too much, not to mention my passionate way of saying things!JAC, I did enjoy some of your remarks here--hard to hear in the midst of the noise though. NOTE TO SELF: when I join in on the bandwagon others may not hear me the same way I didn't hear much of anything in this conversation.
I guess good comes out of this after all: I may have learned why it's such a bad idea to join in the mob mentality and feeding frenzy. Oh wait, I already knew that when Miss Snark incited a riot against me once and I had to threaten her with the FBI's involvement to make her cease and desist.
People really don't get how the internet works. Amazing, given how long this tool's been around! Word spreads--and the internet is forever.
-sry
J.A. wrote: "Me, I have no idea what my sales will settle at but they're still falling after the August thing... "JAC what happened to you/your sales in August? What August thing? I totally missed everything being so tied up with editing of Conditioned Response (which is definitely not coming out New Year's *pout* but will be polished when it is released -- even if it kills me!)
-sry
Sarah, The Webbiegrrl Writer wrote: "Okay, I started another thread when I first saw this one because it seemed like this one wasn't headed towards any useful discussion. I wanted to hear from people in the program, not people who wan..."I've also seen a lot of Big Bad Nasty Amazon comments about KDP Select which seem... well, silly.
As you rightly pointed out, no one has to join in.
And the fear that suddenly Amazon would decide to either A: Demand that all KDP authors sign up with them exclusively. B: Suddenly crush the entire rest of the book market in a vast monolithic monopoly. C: A combo of A and B seemed to have more to do with a dislike of Amazon than anything to do with what is likely to actually happen with this program.
Thanks for the sane post.
Experiment wrote: "Wait, wait, wait... there's a difference? So my crazy cat ranting was for nothing. Aww...Upon further thinking, KDP Select doesn't really affect me as a reader. I think this is largely an author issue. I guess the one thing any author should keep in mind is that not everyone owns a Kindle or Kindle app."
Actually, the reality is this:
1) KDP = Kindle Direct Publishing (not Desktop) and it's an author tool
2) KDP Select = Author opt-in program whereby authors can decide to authorize Amazon to make that author's books available in the Kindle Owner's Lending Library (KOLL) free of charge, at a rate of one book (title) per month per customer.
3) readers definitely are affected. If you're a US customer, that is. The entire issue is moot if you are outside of the US, as it is not available to non-US Kindle customers (readers, buyers of books) If you're in the US, the program that gains you free access to the KOLL is called the PRIME service.
If you're in the US, you might like to read my blog post where I went over in detail the advantages of PRIME for the customers (readers) before getting into any discussion for the authors on KDP Select.
To be honest, I think the entire program (or pair of programs, to be more correct) is gear far more to the advantage of the customer than to the benefit of the content providers--and by selling the PRIME service to your readers, Amazon really hopes to get Indie Authors "partnered" like affiliate salesmen. After all, PRIME is a revenue stream for Amazon, not its content providers whether golashes and groceries, streaming videos or eBooks (all of which are affected by the PRIME service membership).
-sry
Experiment wrote: "J.A. wrote: "Lastly, I don't specially like the fact that KDP select lending is only available on the Kindle itself and not to those using the Kindle app."Really? No way! Yeah, I definitely won't be supporting KDP now. Kindle app is how I been reading Kindle books. Amazon, I love you, but punishing readers who don't own a Kindle? That's harsh, dude."
JAC, are you positive about this device-only restriction? I didn't find that text in the T&C so I'd appreciate your pointing me to where it says that. In fact, my reading (which could be totally wrong so do correct me if I missed it!) was that this WAS good for all "registered Kindle" customers--whether using a Kindle app on an iPad or Android phone or an actual Kindle device.
Experiment - be sure to check my blog post for the benefits to readers to join the PRIME subscription service. That's how you get one free book a month out of the KOLL. As a reader, you don't have anything to do with KDP Select, but I was, like you, under the impression that Kindle app readers were "good enough." I use that app by choice on both my iPad and Android :-) I have a lot of other apps installed but I CHOOSE the Kindle app.
-sry
Sarah, The Webbiegrrl Writer wrote: "Wow, that was a long rant...sorry if my long-windedness is too much, not to mention my passionate way of saying things!
JAC, I did enjoy some of your remarks here--hard to hear in the midst of the..."
I've read some incredibly heated posts (not on Goodreads), that are barely veiled personal attacks (not anything to do with me, thank goodness--I'd just run a mile in the opposite direction). I think it is good to remember that the internet has a long memory and that whilst honest comments are good, there is always room for diplomacy.
And search engines see all.
Georgina.
P.S Miss Snark? The F.B.I? Real life or plot line?
JAC, I did enjoy some of your remarks here--hard to hear in the midst of the..."
I've read some incredibly heated posts (not on Goodreads), that are barely veiled personal attacks (not anything to do with me, thank goodness--I'd just run a mile in the opposite direction). I think it is good to remember that the internet has a long memory and that whilst honest comments are good, there is always room for diplomacy.
And search engines see all.
Georgina.
P.S Miss Snark? The F.B.I? Real life or plot line?
Keryl wrote: "I've also seen a lot of Big Bad Nasty Amazon comments about KDP Select which seem... well, silly.As you rightly pointed out, no one has to join in.
[...]
Thanks for the sane post. "
You're welcome, Keryl, but I understand the concerns. I just don't think it's PRODUCTIVE to Amazon bash, especially not in a public forum like Goodreads where hundreds of thousands (or millions) of Kindle customers FLOCK!!
I think Barb touched on the one point I tried to stress in my blog post about why an Indie Author might not want to do this "right now" but for a new, as-yet-unreleased book...maybe? It's a major hassle to actually get out there and detract all of your copies of a book. It might be a good "launch" option but it's not a good way to go once your book's infiltrated the net. As I said above regarding the risk of making negative remarks, the internet is forever. I'd have to get sued by a behemoth like Amazon. I'd lose--even if I was right!!
-sry
Actually, Sarah, I think we are in violent agreement on most things pertaining to this lol.I don't bash indies for making a business decision and going with this plan. And, I love Amazon and realize that they have done MORE than anyone else that ended up helping indie authors.
But, I see the business side of it from their perspective too. In the larger picture and in the longer term, eliminating competition will be bad for everyone except Amazon. Competition is always good for the consumers. While they will never eliminate competition, they might be able to render it (more) inconsequential.
Yes, that is what businesses do. They try to get ahead of the competition. That is all well and good until it becomes too one-sided. At that point, businesses always then try to exploit the lack of viable competition.
I love Amazon over all, I respect any decision an indie would make in this area, but I see the program for what it is. I also do not like the way it was implemented...they put the button to enroll right where another useful button used to be. Kinda sneaky.
I think that such a program will be part of the future of publishing. It makes sense and it may be worth it to me some day, but they are going to have to sweeten the pot and work out the bugs. Alternative ways of getting reading material into the hands of consumers is going to be the next big revolution as the eReader revolution rolls on.
Honestly, I really have not seen a ton of rancor over this program where authors are concerned. I have seen very few comments around the internet saying people would be stupid/brilliant to enroll/not enroll. Indies (and I obviously include self pubbers in that) seem to be being respectful of the choices of others. Mostly.
The discussion is what is important. Let people read both sides and decide for themselves.
Oh...and I have never shied away from talking bad about mega-entities. I could only DREAM of them coming after little 'ole me...people love an underdog :).
Splitter
Georgina wrote: "P.S Miss Snark? The F.B.I? Real life or plot line? "Sadly, real life, back in 2005 or 2006. I forget which it was. She literally incited her readers to verbally assault me, which kind of blew my mind, and then in 12 hours I got thousands of emails, dozens threatening me with physical harm and making death threats against me. Since I spent 20 years in IT, I was actually able to do a little hacking and traceroute the clicks of these haters who used her link to my email address to send their email so I could actually PROVE she funnelled the violence into my inbox. Since the internet crosses state lines, that's a FEDERAL offense and since I spent 8 years in law, I knew my argument was sound and valid.
Remarkably, once I emailed her and explained all this she made a public statement -- not quite an apology (or even remotely an apology) but she did sort of ask for a cease and desist. Then she made a joke about it which IMO cancelled out the request to cease and desisit. However, since she was at that time moderating all comments on her blog (that is she had to read and APPROVE every last one) she kinda sorta had to accept ultimate, legal responsibilty for the hate of others.
Oh and what was this about? THAT is another story! Or you could Google and find out with very little effort *smirk*
I was actually thinking of the violent flame wars that went on this summer on the Amazon discussion boards. I hadn't actually gotten active yet and was just trying to get involved -- when Amazon barred all Indie Authors from mentioning their books or linking to their titles. It seemed ridiculous to me that Amazon wouldn't want us to promo our stuff in THEIR STORE but then I dug and found out what was going on. Indie Authors were not playing nice in the Amazon sandbox and it's AMAZON's sandbox :-)
-sry
Gotta get back to my edits while I still have a few hours to do something. I'm not ignoring you if you post a reply but I'll be a day or two before I get back again. Figured I should say that since I was basically just sitting here posting non-stop for half an hour.Bye! :)
-sry
Sarah, The Webbiegrrl Writer wrote: "Keryl wrote: "I've also seen a lot of Big Bad Nasty Amazon comments about KDP Select which seem... well, silly.As you rightly pointed out, no one has to join in.
[...]
Thanks for the sane post...."
Oh I completely get this program is not the Second Coming of All Bookish Good Things. And I wrote a post on how I planned to use it to get my new books more attention as it gets near opening time. Likewise I don't see much purpose to yanking all of your books off of their existing platforms.
But a lot of the bashing doesn't seem to be aimed at the program per se, but at an idealized (if we can use that for a negative image) of Amazon.
Sarah, The Webbiegrrl Writer wrote: "Georgina wrote: "P.S Miss Snark? The F.B.I? Real life or plot line? "
Sadly, real life, back in 2005 or 2006. I forget which it was. She literally incited her readers to verbally assault me, which..."
That's horrifying! Why do people do that sort of thing? It's cyber bullying. Some people seem to have this idea that when on the net (or writing emails) they can forget about all social graces. I'm sorry you had to go through it.
All the best with your edits,
Georgina.
Sadly, real life, back in 2005 or 2006. I forget which it was. She literally incited her readers to verbally assault me, which..."
That's horrifying! Why do people do that sort of thing? It's cyber bullying. Some people seem to have this idea that when on the net (or writing emails) they can forget about all social graces. I'm sorry you had to go through it.
All the best with your edits,
Georgina.
Hmmm, will check re the device-only restriction. May be wrong, but that was how I read it. Will post if I find it.JAC
@ SarahI agree, there was a little bit of mob mentality going on. =P Hmmm, the Prime thing sounds like a nice deal, but imo not nice enough for me. Not that I don't love Amazon — I do — but I like to keep my option open and not rely on Amazon exclusively. The saying "don't put all your eggs in one basket" goes through my mind.
I think we can all agree that authors should do whatever is best for their career, whether it's to use KDP Select or not. And luck be with them whichever route they take. =)
@ Splitter, I'm a pacifist so no violent disagreements, please ;-)@ Experiment, I think you're still misunderstanding something.
There's NO EXLUSIVITY REQUIREMENT for the customers (readers).
You can keep your options open, you can read whatever you want and you can browse books the same way you do now.
The big difference relating to eBooks (if you're a PRIME subscriber) is you can ALSO download one book a month from the KOLL free of charge with no due date.
The KDP Select program is for authors. The PRIME subscription service is for customers. Totally different things.
Please check my blog post here for the details (good and bad) of the PRIME subscription service. I explain it a little better than Amazon does (and certainly better than anyone here has, since this conversation is discussing something else--the program for authors)
I have joined Select as I mentioned, and I think that another thing to keep in mind, is that you don’t have to be on it forever. I plan on doing the 3 months (or maybe 6), allowing people to lend my book from the library and then possibly backing out, and hoping that the word of mouth has spread enough to get people to actually want to buy my book. Also good to get in there before too many people join as soon it won’t be worth it financially.As also mentioned I chose to offer my book for free for 2 days this weekend, and today, 500 copies were downloaded. This pushed me to the top 300! I think this is fantastic as those 500 people could read it and even if they only tell one person each, that’s another 500 who have heard about my book! Much better than yesterday already! This is great for a new and unheard of author like myself. I’m very happy.
Leila
P.S. I also read today that the library doesn't work on Kindle apps, only Kindle devices. I noted this because I only have Kindle for PC at the moment.
Cool, thanks for that Leila - haven't had 2mins together to look yet.
Sarah, The Webbiegrrl Writer wrote: "@ Experiment, I think you're still misunderstanding something. There's NO EXLUSIVITY REQUIREMENT for the customers (readers).
..."
I'm not misunderstanding anything. The reasons I would prefer an e-store over Amazon are freedom from DRM, epub format, and coupons. I buy my ebooks mostly at Smashwords and Fictionwise.
Smashwords offer me DRM-free epub, simple as that. They make it very convenient for me to read on any machine — none of that register my eReader or PC crap. Plus, I don't have to worry about my ebooks if Smashwords ever go down — they're all saved on my TWO backup external hard-drives. I love the epub format, because they're just zip files. When you unzip epub, you get normal webpages.
Fictionwise also offer me DRM-free epub (most of their books anyway) but their biggest advantage are their coupons. Every now and then, maybe monthly, they offer a coupon where you get to take a certain percentage off of ANY ebook you buy. And I do mean ANY. Recently, they had one where you can take 25% off of your ENTIRE purchase. Presently, I'm waiting for the holy 60% coupon before I hit the Submit button on my cart. (BTW, Fictionwise is mainly a romance retailer, and yes, I'm a romance reader.)
The only advantage Amazon is offering me is its Lending feature which I use to its full potential over at Lendle. I'm not a Prime member and I don't care to be a Prime member. All those cool things that come with a Prime membership? They would be nice if I actually use Amazon for most of my purchases, but I don't. I'll just end up losing money because I don't buy enough — not even close — to justify the annual membership fee.
Plus, you got to realize that as a consumer, membership and subscription tactics are designed to persuade you to spend more. Brand loyalty is a psychological phenomenon no one should underestimate.
Experiment, awesome job explaining why you are NOT Amazon's target customer for the PRIME subscription. I stressed the same mentality in my blog post but didn't make it as detailed or passionate ;-) I was trying to be open-minded but yeah, I agree, you gotta actually WANT all the stuff their pushing before it's worth spending $79 a year for the membership.What's Lendle?
@Leila, thank you so much for following up on that question. I can't believe Amazon is doing that. Dumb dumb dumb. I also use the Kindle app (on multiple devices - PC, iPad and Android) so if I were one of the PRIME customers, I'd be pissed that I couldn't get books.
As it turns out, I'm with Experiment. There's no way it's worth the money to me to become a PRIME member as an Amazon customer. I'm not a KDP Select member as an Indie Author either but as an author, I'm also bummed to hear the allegedly wonderful KOLL concept is actually not as wonderful as Amazon claims. Even less reason to consider Select now, huh?
-sry
Sarah...I feel like somehow, you dragged me over here too :)For me, joining Select was akin to buying stock in Apple. I like the company, and they are one of the most adaptive, agile companies out there. Constantly innovating (whether you like it or not) and looking at the bigger picture. They've done well by me, and I regret not snapping up more stock earlier. Really regret it. So, I feel the same way about Amazon, as a customer, and more importantly, as an author.
Without Amazon, I'd still be sending query letters to dead end desks in NYC...ironically, to the most non-adaptive, un-agile members of the literary community (maybe not all of them). So, I'll keep buying stock in Apple (as expensive as it may be), just as I'll give Select a go, for now.
Personally, the decision came down to a VERY unemotional question for me. Am I willing to give up 20-30 Pubit sales per month for Select? At this point, yes. Amazon accounts for 95% of my sales, some months it's a higher percentage. Until B&N gets its act together, along with all of the other e-book selling sites, I probably won't consider going back.
I just received a reader email, and he told me that my book was recommended for him, specifically based on his previous purchases of similar books. Not just genre based, but very, very specific. This is why my book has taken off on Amazon, and not at B&N...and this is why I will continue to buy "stock" in Amazon...for now. I always add that caveat, because I'm too practical to make any promises.
To Select or not Select? It's really not a one size fits all question.
This will be short and sweet. At first I saw the program as something that would crush the competition and take away some of our choices, that we as writers have as far as where we can put our content up for sale. But I have seen a few writers go for this program and happy to do so. And just as it might be my choice not to, it was their choice to do so. So the way I see it, Amazon really didn't take anything away from us. As a matter of fact, they have simply given us another choice. If Amazon's newest program prompts other retailers to figure out how they are going to compete with this, it could be a good thing for those who use other retailers.
I do however ask myself if Amazon is going to make my book available through this program even if I don't participate? And if they do, I question the legality of not giving me my cut even if I don't participate.
I have questions but if I were really worried about it I would look up the answers. And that is my take on this.
I went with the Amazon deal because I want to get my first book in the hands of as many readers as possible in preparation for my second book. I know readers will be hooked when the read first one. And while the sales of my book has being rising by the second, I have no question in my mind that I will not be doing this again.
My new book comes out in 3 months time. I reckon at that point, I may well enrol Few Are Chosen and change the upload on my website back to a sample. Alternatively, I may stick Unlucky Dip in and see what happens with that as I'm not sure pulling it from other sites, including my own would be such a big deal...HOWEVER, prime in the UK is £79 which is a sod of a lot more than $79 and as most of the things I buy qualify for free postage anyway, there is very little benefit in it for me.
Sarah made an excellent point in that knowing the demographic of prime users would be good. I don't which makes it difficult for me to guess. I don't see Amazon as the big baddie but having beena brand manager, I do know a bit about how business works and I do know an attempt to lock customers in and eliminate competition when I see one.
By locking in, I don't mean that they're locked in amazon prime, I mean that by having a number of books only available on Amazon and nowhere else, readers who are havering may end up buying a kindle rather than another reader. That's what I'd be doing, if I was brand manager at Amazon.
As I said I can see the benefits but I also see a lot of hassle that might not actually come to anything.
Cheers
MTM
Sarah, The Webbiegrrl Writer wrote: "What's Lendle?"Lendle is this: http://lendle.me/
Lendle is the easiest, fastest, fairest, and best way to lend and borrow Kindle™ books. Amazon allows for lending of Kindle books to people you know. We bridge the gap so that you can also lend and borrow from people you don’t know!
— http://lendle.me/faq/
Sadly lendle, like many of the other alternatives or at least complimentary book selling/lending sites to Amazon, only works if you're American. Indeed, pretty much everything for selling e-books, except for Smashwords and Amazon, only works if you're American. If you're not you either can't sign up or get clobbered for witholding tax.Ah if I had more time, I'd start UK sites for some of these things... one day... when junior starts school perhaps.
Weeeee here we go. Update. I have a short story which has been doing quite well on Amazon recently by din't of them offering it for free so, seeing as it isn't doing anything like as well on my other sites, I've unpublished it from Smashwords and my website and I have signed it up to KDP to see what happens. That way I can keep it free on both UK and US sites for 5 days each month.
So far my first free Promo is a Christmas Present sale on 25 and 26 December. Looking at all the details, I suspect this is another of those things that may not work quite so well for non-American authors but this story did OK as a freebie on Amazon before and so I'll be interested to see if this has any effect on my sales. I suspect Amazon may promote it more so it may mean it IS worthwhile to have something in the scheme at any given time.
Hmm... here we go then. Let's see what happens.
Cheers
MTM
MTM wrote: "Sadly lendle, like many of the other alternatives or at least complimentary book selling/lending sites to Amazon, only works if you're American. Indeed, pretty much everything for selling e-books, ..."You can always use a fake address. =)
Mwah ha ha hargh.Alas it's more the withholding tax and having an American bank account to get a US Amazon account that I tend to fall down on... then again, I haven't tried for about 6 months so that kind of thing may be getting easier...
Cheers
MTM
MTM, I'm sure you know but you can apply to the IRS and get a form (can't remember the darn name) so that Amazon doesn't withhold any tax. I'm in the process of doing that, even though it's been a headache! And yes, nothing is as easy for us non-U.S. authors. But I've joined KDP and my free promotion this weekend went well. I had 1000 downloads of my book! I'm interested to see if this has any effect on my sales, but one thing I'm hoping for is that I get some more Amazon reviews out of it. I've already had 2 great ones on Facebook, just a day later! I'll keep you updated.Leila x
MTM wrote: "Mwah ha ha hargh.Alas it's more the withholding tax and having an American bank account to get a US Amazon account that I tend to fall down on... then again, I haven't tried for about 6 months so..."
An Ally or ING bank account would suffice , I think. =)
Leila, that sounds interesting. I didn't realise banking had got that far... Definitely should be checking this kind of stuff every month or so instead of every six!ING is do-able here and might be worth a punt. As for the tax hmm... I know it should be easy, McOther does it all the time for his entrepreneur clients but when I looked into it it seemed like a massive ball ache. I have to do all the forms every year... and send them my actual, real, passport, every year. Maybe I'm just unlucky but I do seem to know a high proportion of people who never seen their passport, birth certificates etc again after sending them to the US authorities. Having seen how accommodating and sympathetic the US authorities were to their plight I am even more leery.
I will be required to do a US tax return too...
And of course, it's actually not necessary. Because Amazon is a distributor selling my stuff same as Smashwords, who put that to the IRS and are not required to withhold.
So yeh, until I start earning enough cash to make it worth it, well, until I start earning enough cash for Amazon to deem it worth coughing up, I'm exceptionally leery about getting into that side of things.
Cheers
MTM
So many responses to read/catch up on here! I'm getting there.@MTM you said "Indeed, pretty much everything for selling e-books, except for Smashwords and Amazon, only works if you're American. If you're not you either can't sign up or get clobbered for witholding tax."
Are you SURE that GoogleBooks are not available outside the US? I thought GoogleBooks (which are ePub format, like the Nook and Apple products and a bazillion other non-Kindle devices read) was pretty much OpenSource style of eBook distribution. If Google made their distribution American-only that'd be good to know and definitely a bummer to learn. I was planning to use GoogleBooks to get into Indie Bookstores (brick and mortar)
-sry
Leila wrote: "I had 1000 downloads of my book! I'm interested to see if this has any effect on my sales, but one thing I'm hoping for is that I get some more Amazon reviews out of it."Leila first of all YAY!! That's great news you got 1000 d/l in one weekend and secondly, your thought about the reviews was precisely MY thought on the usefulness to a newbie author. It's hard to get reviews, even giving the book away on Smashwords. The instant exposure on the Kindle via the featured KOLL list makes a difference. Best of luck getting reviews. Definitely do come back to update us!
Experiment wrote: "Sarah, The Webbiegrrl Writer wrote: "What's Lendle?"Lendle is this: http://lendle.me/
Lendle is the easiest, fastest, fairest, and best way to lend and borrow Kindle™ books. Amazon allows for len..."
Experiment (and MTM) Lendle sounds interesting--despite being American-centric--but I think I'd rather upload my book to a site like Bibliotastic (free eBooks only) where it's guaranteed to get read/reviewed by at least one or two ppl in return for the free offering.
As a reader, however, I would probably be excited to find a place like Lendle. US libraries, generally, as it turns out, carry ePub formatted books NOT Kindle/MOBI formats. Ironic, huh?
Larry wrote: "I went with the Amazon deal because I want to get my first book in the hands of as many readers as possible in preparation for my second book. I know readers will be hooked when the read first one. And while the sales of my book has being rising by the second, I have no question in my mind that I will not be doing this again."Larry, two questions: (1) Why are you glad you did this? Having it offered free in the library resulted in marked sales for money? (2) Why are you positive you'll NOT do it again?
There's no better feedback than someone who's actually got feet on the ground!
Do you know Sarah, it was but as usual it's about 6 months since I've checked I've got my books on there but opted out because at the time the brain fuzz was too bad and I couldn't work out how the hell it worked. To start with they basically gave information about your book and said, sales coming soon. Originally you just uploaded a pdf, they showed people a bit and linked them on to points of sale.Then they said they would sell my book for whatever they decided to sell it for and pay me what they decided to pay. I say what my book costs, so I opted out.
Not sure what the deal is now, haven't checked for a month or two but... that's where I left it.
So, do you use Google books and how do you find it? Do they pay promptly and do you get decent sales?
Cheers
MTM
Steven wrote: "Sarah...I feel like somehow, you dragged me over here too :)For me, joining Select was akin to buying stock in Apple. I like the company, and they are one of the most adaptive, agile companies ou..."
Steven, mois?? Drag you over here?? hahaha
Well, first of all, thank you for dragging yourself over here into yet another discussion. I appreciate your first-hand inputs. Secondly, the fact that nearly all of your sales come from Amazon is probably a result of where and how you've promoted your book, as much as it is Amazon's market share. The Apple Store and Diesel Store have dedicated readers but neither has the reach (in the US) of the Kindle Store but in the European markets, Amazon is not #1.
The Kobo and Pubit! (DIY version of B&N's Nookstore) platforms are pretty popular. I thought GoogleBooks were popular, too (given the ePub format and recent explosion of iPhones into the non-US markets in 2010) but MTM's making me wonder now! The fact that ePub is such a more widely-used file format than Amazon's proprietary MOBI and other proprietary formats they keep spitting out (and MobiPocket's PRC is nearly non-existence nowadays) I'm not sure Kindles are going to catch on outside the US as much as Amazon wants to believe they will.
I think one of the biggest influences outside the US will be which app (not device, APP) is most popular on the BlackBerry OS because while BB Play tablets are just catching on here, BB phones are basically "it" for smartphones in the rest of the world, competing only with Android/Motorolas. The iPhone is only now penetrating non-US markets the way BlackBerry did years ago (over a decade of rooted customer base!)
I don't know anything about BB customer's preferences for eReader apps but you can bet that's some of the market research I'll be doing when I target stores where I place/distribute my eBooks outside the US.
Hey Sarah, for what it's worth, here in the UK I'm about the only person I know with a smartphone that isn't apple (Nokia). I do hear that the Android ones are creeping up on the outside so an android friendly format sounds good.I was really disappointed about googlebooks, I read a really good thread about it on Kindleboards (I think but it may have been mobireads) a while back which is what decided me. And can I find it now, can I bollocks? I would like to opt back in but I've been waiting to let it shake down a bit first.
Cheers
MTM
MTM wrote: "Do you know Sarah, it was but as usual it's about 6 months since I've checked I've got my books on there but opted out because at the time the brain fuzz was too bad and I couldn't work out how the...So, do you use Google books and how do you find it? Do they pay promptly and do you get decent sales? "You DO know I don't actually have a book out yet, right? Haha, you've probably forgotten.
I have 3 scheduled for release in 2012 (SciFi Thriller first, then a Romantic Suspense under my real name, then another volume of the SciFi series) but I haven't actually got any "real" books done and out yet.
I don't count Coming Home (Dicky's Story) as a "real" book. It was a trial run to see how things worked, not to promote and sell anything really. In fact, I actually have given away about 1000 copies and only sold less than 50 -- and I'm happy with that ^_^
Conditioned Response, however, I plan to $$$$ELL :-) Big time. I'd like to put it up for sale in brick-and-mortar Indie Bookstores where SciFi fans might frequent so I'll almost definitely use GoogleBooks for that reason.
I don't actually see any of these options (other than KDP Select) as an "either/or" scenario. I plan to do them all (GGG)
gotta go...back briefly tomorrow then off until Friday. Cya!
Sarah, I'm with you on doing as many of these things as you can (puts on ex brand manager's hat to pontificate) the more outlets you have the bigger your reach. Mwah ha ha hargh. True though. Hence my only putting the short on KDP Select.Pipple toot.
MTM
In brief; I would agree with MTM that Apple is by far more popular than BB in the UK - tends to be BB for business and anyone gadget-oriented goes for Apple.As possessor of a work-BB I would hazard that they seem to be pretty much last year's model these days. May be wrong though.
JAC
On Dec. 9th I wrote an article on my blog titled KDP Select sucks, which paralleled in part some of the comments here against KDP Select.
On Dec. 14th I wrote a follow-up article titled Having your cake and eating it too, with KDP Select., where I discuss KDP Select being like a lottery.
Discussion of KDP Select has been/is emotional at times on both pro and nay sides. 2012 could be a very interesting year for authors.