Poll: Amazon's new Author Select program?

[Marsha]

I'm thinking you don't get any money for borrowed books on those days. And currently, the stipend is $1.70 for each borrowed book. Is that correct, Chrysoula?

[Doc]

R.p. wrote: "Hi Doc. yes and no. If you're in the program, the book is available for a "borrow" (free) to the members. That means members only can have the book for free. Those numbers are clearly shown on the ..."

Ah, I get it. The problem isn't that Prime members can borrow the book for free, but that on those days non-Prime customers will buy your book at full cost and Amazon will take all the money for those sales.

This doesn't sound like an acceptable trade-off.

Doc

[Marsha]

I don't think that's it either, Doc. Because Prime members pay $79 for the year, and ALL the 'borrows' are free.
If I offer my book as a promotion for 'free' then I don't understand who could be buying it that day.
I'm still hoping R.p. or Chrysoula will clear this up.

[Chrysoula]

I think R.p has dramatically misunderstood the KDP Select program. Even if R.p. is done here I'll clarify it for others involved.


KDP Select IS enrolling your book in the Lending Program, which makes your book a possible choice for those readers enrolled in Amazon Prime (a premium Amazon usage program) who wish to take advantage of the 1 Free Book A Month 'lending' program.

(from the FAQ)
"Can I enroll my book in KDP Select without participating in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library or vice-versa?
No. Only books enrolled in KDP Select are eligible to be included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. All Kindle Select-enrolled books with US rights will be automatically included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library."

It is important to keep in mind that the Lending Program and KDP Select are basically the same thing, approached from different angles. The Lending Program is KDP Select (plus some other books) from the point of view of a Prime-enrolled Kindle owner.

The only other benefit to KDP Select other than the Lending Program is the ability to set the price of your book to $0 for 5 out of 90 days without attempting to trick their price-matching engine.

Each time your book was chosen by an Amazon Prime customer on a non-Promo day, you earned $1.70 (or so) in December*. That money comes from Amazon, and is conceptually linked to the money Amazon Prime customers pay to subscribe to Amazon Prime, although it really just comes out of a big Amazon budget. The point of the Lending Program is to provide added value to Amazon Prime customers, especially those who just purchased a Kindle Fire; the pot of money probably comes from their marketing budget.

The 'Promo Days' are 'making your book available for NO COST to ALL CUSTOMERS OF AMAZON'. You are giving your book away for free on those days. That is all the 'Promo' is. Obviously you can't sell your book and earn royalties on days when it is given away for free (that is, sold at $0). Since Amazon is aware of how much people would like to price their books at $0 in order to raise awareness, they've made this feature available as an added incentive to lure people into giving them exclusivity for the KDP Select program.

You would not get any money for 'borrowed' books on Free (Promo) days because the book is being given away to anybody, rather than just the Prime customers. There's no practical difference on those days between 'borrow' and 'sale at $0'.

I repeat: on days when a KDP Select book is on 'Promo' nobody pays for that book. The FAQ is mildly unclear in one location but quite clear in others: "Promote your book for free to readers worldwide - The newly launched Promotions Manager tool will allow you to directly control the promotion of free books." vs "You can offer any book enrolled in KDP Select free to readers for up to 5 days at your discretion during each 90-day KDP Select term."

Additionally, even if your book is priced at .99, if it is selected as an Amazon Prime Lending choice on a non-free day, you still would have earned $1.70 for that borrow.

The benefit of the Promo days is mostly for writers with multiple books out. It would allow you to give away the first book in your series for free, and hope people will like it enough to pay for the sequels. There's not much of a point to it if it's your only book, unless you really like seeing your dashboard numbers shoot up.

I agree that Amazon should distinguish between royalty-generating sales and non-royalty generating sales but I've noticed that they're not the only one who doesn't (neither does Smashwords).


*The royalty paid for a borrow in January will be different than the royalty paid in December.

[R.P.]

Chrysoula wrote: "I think R.p has dramatically misunderstood the KDP Select program. Even if R.p. is done here I'll clarify it for others involved.


KDP Select IS enrolling your book in the Lending Program, which m..."

You are absolutely correct... on all points. Thanks for helping make this clear to all of us.
I still have a beef with the mixing of FREE with my real sales for the month. But, otherwise, you've done an excellent job of explaining it.

[Monica]

You all make some great points! I personally won't be joining the KDP Select program because, though the sales through smashwords and other sites may be much lower than on Amazon. I've already watched my favorite bookstore and bookseller in general close their doors. Yes, I'm talking about Borders/Waldenbooks. Amazon can't be blamed for their downfall, but they do hold some of the responsibility. They have already taken such a large share of the buyers and now they are looking to snag the majority of the sellers too.

On the same principal as my buying habits fall, I only purchase from Amazon when that is the only place I can get a book, ie self published only through them. I won't deny myself success by excluding amazon but I will also not contribute to their attempt at building a monopoly because in the long run we'll all suffer if that happens.

I chose to self publish for the freedom it provides and the control it affords me over my career. I don't want to help give Amazon a leash to control my career with.

[Randy]

My update on One More Victim is that so far I have 14 sales and 3 borrows. They trickle in but they trickle in. Kindle is reporting many people who borrow then go back to buy. Have no way to know if that is the case for me or not. I've just entered another work in to the program SPILL, a political comedy and one day in I've got 266 downloads.

http://www.amazon.com/SPILL-ebook/dp/...

[Marsha]

Just curious. Anyone know what the returns is all about? I've got a few of those, too.

[Monica]

Marsha wrote: "Just curious. Anyone know what the returns is all about? I've got a few of those, too."

Amazon allows 7 days for ebooks to be returned no questions asked. Usually it is because someone accidentally purchased through their kindle, but they can return for any reason within seven days of purchase. They are supposed to block those who do it too often I believe but I don't know what too often consists of.

[Virginia]

@Chrysoula. You do a very good of clarifying for us. Even having read the facts a few times, I still thought only Prime members could get the freebie. No wonder the numbers are so high. I still plan to give it a try.

[Virginia]

@Monica. I am sure there are lots of people who can finish a book in six days and get their money back. Like the girl who returns the prom dress the next day. I had one return on Amazon and one on B&N.

Lawman

SACRED SIN

[[deleted user]]

I just joined the KDP select. Since Amazon is the biggest seller of books/ebooks, I will do the 90-day gig and see how it goes. When they offer the FREEBIE kindle days, you will see your Kindle shoot up the charts with the big house authors. It is a great way to expose your book. The way I see it, if you're self-published and unknown, you need to get your work out there. Best wishes to everyone.

[Andy]

I put one book on for FREE with KDP for 3 days and had nearly 1000 downloads (of a newly published book). After the book came off the FREE days, I sold over 100 copies in the next week at 0.99 and am still averaging 5-10 per day from it. Well worth it in my mind. Am planning a promo next month for a series of children's books.

[Jim]

Much like Andy, I saw a huge boost of attention from the Select deal. My book is priced higher ($2.99), but I saw similar aftereffects.

First free day: +400 "sales" over normal
Second free day: +250 "sales" over normal
Every day since: +5-15 actual sales over pre-freebie

This from an unmarketted nitch book. Gotta say, I'm liking it so far. The borrows aren't a big thing, but a few each month isn't something I'll scoff at.

[Leila]

I joined KDP Select in December and offered my book for free for 2 days during that month. Well I was totally surprised that over 1000 people downloaded my book for free and after that, my book suddenly started selling well! Also, a few hundred people borrowed my book from the library, AND I did get paid for this at $1.70 per borrow! As an unknown author, this has been the best thing I have done. My January sales and borrows aren't showing up yet, so I can't comment on those but I'm going to do another free promotion in Feb and I'm very excited. The idea of offering a book for free is not to devalue our work, it's to spread the word, build an audience and make more sales from word-of-mouth. I also received several Amazon reviews and personal emails from people who downloaded the book for free. To me, it's a win/win!