Amazon Kindle discussion
KDP Select / Kindle Owners Lending Library (KOLL)
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thanks Sarah, although I am not a Prime member yet, I enrolled six titles to see how it works out for people. I like the idea of sharing some free books while also having a chance to earn some new readers.
I think the PRIME subscription service is so much more beneficial to the readers than KDP Select program is to the authors. Don't confuse the two! :-) Neither program is for everyone but for those who are a match to the target audience, it's a great opportunity (whether buying or selling content)
Oh and edited to add, Scott, I heard from one Indie Author over in another GR group that has a book enrolled. He's had over 100k in sales and so far, he's delighted with the KDP Select program and the KOLL impact on his sales. Apparently, a lot of people buy books even though they are entitled to get one a month free. Who knew? (haha, kidding, that's kind of the point *duh*)
I agree with Scott about this wonderful program offering readers a chance to discover new writers with free books. I recently enrolled my debut novel in the KDP Select / Kindle Owners Lending Library. Amazon Kindle has been a true blessing to Indie writers. I am forever grateful to Amazon.com and Kindle for introducing readers to my work and that of other indie authors.
I'm not an author but from a reader's perspective: The first month, I downloaded a book from an author I had never heard of and probably would not have heard of if I hadn't seen their book on the Prime list. I liked it a lot and put all their books on my Amazon WL to purchase later. Have I purchased them all now? No but once I read some I already have, I will likely purchase 1 or more.
Mary, you're EXACTLY the kind of customer that's perfect for the PRIME service--and the kind of customer who makes it worth it for us Indie Authors to join the KDP Select program. Thanks for sharing your experience :)
I am planning on getting my newest title, Dead Heroes up live this week, and I'm still debating about the Select program.
90 days in the Select program, and not selling it anywhere else, right? Does that mean even from the author Web site (such as a .pdf download using PayPal, not with an A.com tag).
My Kindle sales usually outdo Nook sales anyway, so I guess it wouldn't be much of a loss.
@Mary: it's nice to get your feedback on this. Thanks.
90 days in the Select program, and not selling it anywhere else, right? Does that mean even from the author Web site (such as a .pdf download using PayPal, not with an A.com tag).
My Kindle sales usually outdo Nook sales anyway, so I guess it wouldn't be much of a loss.
@Mary: it's nice to get your feedback on this. Thanks.
@Kae, yes, non-compete means non-compete. Amazon wants a 90-day exclusive so that includes everywhere, everyone, everything. But it's only for 90 days and the time to do it most easily is definitely when you're first uploading the book. Congrats on the upcoming release. Let us know how it works out for you with Select if you decide to go that way.
I enrolled my two books in KDP Select. I never had many sales on other sites, so it was a no-brainer for me. I have a third book coming out in a month or so, and haven't decided yet if I'll enroll it but I probably will as it's the third in a series. I agree with Kae--it's nice to get feedback on how a reader sees the KOLL. I have Prime membership but haven't yet used the lending library with it.
Hi,I enrolled too and the first day of promotion - my book is №10 on American Amazon (Non-fiction - travel)! Yesterday is was №30000:) because I've just published it.
PS: does anybody know how to split actual sales and the give aways? Couldn't find that option. Everything is shown as sold in Reports.
Here's the bookbtw: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006K3HD4W
Tania wrote: "Hi,I enrolled too and the first day of promotion - my book is №10 on American Amazon (Non-fiction - travel)! Yesterday is was №30000:) because I've just published it.
PS: does anybody know how to..."
Tania, that's fantastic performance! Congratulations on such great success.
MP, glad to hear you're enjoying the KDP Select as an author. I'm curious about your comment on Prime (as a customer) though. Did you get the Prime subscription for the free 2d day shipping or for the unlimited video streaming? (since it wasn't for the KOLL) I can see the video being worth $79/yr (I pay $120/yr ($9.99+tax / mo) for Netflix on disk, not streaming) but I can't imagine $79/yr worth of shipping upgrades. I guess I just don't buy enough stuff (haha)
Pamela wrote: "I put one book into Select for Amazon Prime users to borrow for free. It's three of my novels in one volume, called Trifecta. I thought Prime users would like it since they can only borrow one bo..."Interesting approach, Pamela. How's it been doing since you put it up? How long ago did you get it into KDP Select? Did you get it into the program early enough to see Christmas shopping sales? Many customers read for free then buy when they like so many KDP Select authors are finding their sales are spiking when a book is borrowed. Plus liking one book leads customers to buy another.
Although I find your approach very generous and customer-oriented, you might make more money if you put the first book of the three into the program and SELL the other two and the omnibus volume. You'll probably sell a lot of the omnibus if the first book's standalone version is free. Tip re pricing it, too, make sure the omnibus is 10-20% less than the combined price of the three books in standalone -- that makes the omnibus a better deal even though it's more expensive than any of the others alone. If a customer's into you, they'll commit to buying all three at a discount.
-sry
Hi Sara,Thanks for the reply. It's very thoughtful of you, and I'm a typical writer, really dumb about marketing. Your idea about putting one book into select instead of all three is very good. I really have to think this through further.
I just put Trifecta into Select three days ago and have had no sales at all. And no borrowers either. I'll have to see if I can take Trifecta out of Select, but there is a three day window and I may be too late to do it.
Really, formatting for Smashwords was so hard I was reluctant to take my books out for Select. And Trifecta won't go through Smashwords because it's too long to make it through the meat grinder. LOL!
Again, thanks so much.
Pam
Well, Dead Heroesas been Live for several days, and it in the Select program. No sales, no borrows. Probably would have been the same if I'd not done Select. The Marketing muse just doesn't like my approach, I guess. :-(
I have a Google+ page for the book that's been up for more than a week--posting every day or so; excerpts on my blog (which feed here to my GR blog), Posts on FB. I sent out a promo e-mail to most in my address book.
Maybe it will kick in soon.
@Sara: I've had no luck with Smashwords. I pulled the one title I had there--On Promised Land--and put that in the KDP Select, too.
I have a Google+ page for the book that's been up for more than a week--posting every day or so; excerpts on my blog (which feed here to my GR blog), Posts on FB. I sent out a promo e-mail to most in my address book.
Maybe it will kick in soon.
@Sara: I've had no luck with Smashwords. I pulled the one title I had there--On Promised Land--and put that in the KDP Select, too.
I'm curious about this too. I haven't done KDP Select, but might; my issue is that I intend to keep my price fairly low (right now .99 until Jan 1, but after that probably 3.99). I'm not sure how many readers will use their lending abilities for cheaper books. Pricing is a whole 'nother can o' worms!I *am* interested in being able to give away the book for free via Amazon; that is a huge platform. Hmmm.
Thanks for posting about this - I'm really eager to see how it works out for others.
Tina, if you have a new book coming out, that's the best time (in my opinion) to try out KDP Select because you haven't gotten it embedded anywhere else yet. My biggest gripe is the non-compete and requirement to remove a book from everywhere else, anywhere else. whatever little digital tracks it might have left without telling you when it snuck out at night ;-)It's only a 90-day commitment. That should make it easier to decide, too, IMO.
I have to say on other threads the big argument against KDP Select has nothing to do with non-compete or even the 90-day term. It's the fact that Amazon and its now-proprietary Kindle format (used to use a non-proprietary MOBI but of course Amazon had to develop their OWN unique and special snowflake)is hardly the only or even most-popular outside of the United States.
It's very American-centric of Amazon to assume ePub (the world's #1 eBook format and an OPEN format without any DRM) is somehow going ot go away. Pretty much everyone else already is adopting ePub. Heck, Sony just modified their hardware to get away from their proprietary format and go with ePub instead. Kobo and GoogleBooks are probably the tops for indie bookstores (brick and mortar) selling eBooks inside the store and they both use ePub. Of course, here in America, we know ePub as the Nook format but Barnes & Noble has less of a foothold than anyone outside the US.
The point is Amazon is pretty big here in the US and yes, they are the #1 online retailer in the world, selling more "stuff" than anyone else online. But that "stuff" is not just eBooks and Kindles are not the end-all and be-all of the eBook reading world. Wherever Blackberry has a foothold (read: EVERYwhere in Europe and the Middle East) the BB Play tablet is the popular eReader, NOT the Kindle.
Select sounds like a really great program to try with a new book and for 90 days to see what happens with your enrolled book (reader response research) and to get a little exposure for your other books. If you only have one book, it might not make much sense. I'm releasing my first book next month so it's definitely not for me (yet). I might enroll a book at a later date. We'll see.
-sry
Sarah (with an "h" ...not sure where my "h" went but it's grounded for the duration now! no more running off without permission GGG)
I think the best use of Kindle Select for us Indies is the free 5 day promotions. I let one of mine go free for 1 day and around 270 were downloaded. I have been in the scheme for almost 2 weeks, and I have not had any loans, although after my free promotion I had my first few sales, and the sales of my other book have gone up (although I think that has more to do with other activities). I think the loans for the cheaper Indie books will be low, as the loans only appear to be available in the US at the moment, 1 book a month can be loaned, and I don't see all Kindle owners paying to join the scheme as it is currently set up.
Consequently, my strategy is to get as many reviews as possible from the free downloads in order to raise the profile of the book. I don't expect to be sharing in the $500,000 kitty.
Hi Sarah, (with an H!)The thing that bothers me about Select is that there are so many free books that it leads to race to the bottom. Authors suffer because readers snap up the free books, and everyone tries to compete by pricing their books at a low cost, thereby lowering the value of the novels we work so hard to produce.
It's also causing a monopoly for Kindle, because they are the supplier of books that can't be bought anywhere else. I do love it that Amazon can take our backlist books and revive them. It happened with one of mine, published several years ago. I thought it was dead and gone, then got publishing rights back after a year and put it up on Amazon.
But the glut of free books makes all us authors suffer in the long run, I fear. I don't want to devalue my books, but feel I must have a low price to get buyers.
Pam
Lots of food for thought here. A friend of mine (traditionally published) gave away his book for two weeks and ended up giving away 30,000 books. Free is great exposure and that's what draws me to KDP Select. But I definitely share worries about a race to the bottom and Amazon acting monopolostically (is that a word?). Thanks for posting - I'll check in to see how readers and authors are faring in the program.
KDP Select program is paying authors $1.70 per borrowed book for December. This is great news to me since it was more than I expected for my first children's book, Lil Glimmer. Amazon is also increasing the dollar amount allocated to $700,000 for January.
I've enrolled some short stories in KDP Select to see how it goes. I was pleased to hear that the payment would be $1.70 per borrow as I had expected it to be around $1 from what Amazon had initially said. Best wishes, Stephen Livingston.
Stephen - is that how much your book costs normally? out of curiosity, interested in the compensation for the borrowing
Marita wrote: "Behind the Hood is on Kindle Select, but it's free today: http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Hood-Liv...
http..."
thanks for that information - I just downloaded your book!
Emma
Emma wrote: "Marita wrote: "Behind the Hood is on Kindle Select, but it's free today: http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Hood-Liv......"
You're welcome, Emma. Hope you like it.
Dee wrote: "Stephen - is that how much your book costs normally? out of curiosity, interested in the compensation for the borrowing"Dee, there is NO compensation for borrowing, or rather, not in the 1 to 1 manner there is when a customer purchases a book. The books borrowed all go into a big bucket of "titles borrowed from the KOLL this month" and then the monthly pool of (currently) $500,000 is divided amongst the authors whose books were borrowed on a relative basis.
That is, if there were 100 titles borrowed and 10 of them were from Author A, then Author A would account for 10% of the total "bucket" and therefore Author A would get 10% of the total pool of funds--so 10% of $500,000 :) Of course, there are way more than 100 titles in the KOLL and no one author accounts for as much as 10% (I picked those numbers on purpose to be round and completely off-scale)
Having a book in the KOLL isn't--or shouldn't IMO--be for lending fees but rather to gain exposure, reach new readership, get your name and work in front of readers who might buy one of your OTHER titles. For someone who only has one title, it's still a good way to launch a book because it can (not guaranteed but possibly) result in a sudden influx of reviews from new readers. Getting reviews is almost as valuable to a new author as getting sales because reviews often lead to sales. Assuming they're good *haha*
Hope this helps.
-sry
I love this program, what a great way to find new authors and also read for free. As a writer I also enrolled many of my books into the program, and I wonder how do readers feel about it, other than myself?http://amiblackwelder.blogspot.com
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Books mentioned in this topic
Behind the Hood (other topics)Behind the Hood (other topics)
Dead Heroes (other topics)
On Promised Land (other topics)
I wrote a blog about this (focused as much on the customers as on the Indie Authors potentially providing the content for Amazon's KOLL) here:
http://webbiegrrl.blogspot.com/2011/12/tuesday-tip-2-new-promotional-tools-you.html
I do not, personally, have any books in the KOLL and because of the requirement to make my book exclusive to the Amazon store for 90 days (as well as the difficulty opting out in time) I'm not planning to participate next year when I release my first book so I really don't have any vested personal interest here.
Some of the Indie Authors represented, however, are quite popular and they've enrolled some of their better works so I felt it was important news to share. It's definitely worth checking out!
-sry