Any authors in the KDP Select Program? Showing 651-700 of 1,505

[Tracey]

Anyone using smashwoods?

[Riley]

I contemplated enrolling in KDP Select when I published The William S Club but chickened out in the end due to its exclusivity. I've heard some authors rave about it and talk about increases in percentage and ranking on Amazon but what I want to know is the bottom dollar.

How much, on average, are people earning a month by enrolling in the program?

Rising up the ranks is one thing, as is having 100,000 people download your book on a free day, but what does that do to your bottom dollar if all of those downloads are free. Isn't it better to achieve a modest 1000 sales that earn you money than 100,000 that don't net you a cent?

Would love to hear from anyone that is making a decent living, in terms of cash in their pocket, from being enrolled in the KDP program.

[Nick]

This is my issue with watching your percentages go up. We are talking about a free give away and percentages will always rise with free. But when we talk about paid sales, the percentages do not support the average KDP participant in the long run...

Or so I have read here, on the Kindle Authors Boards, and elsewhere. Of course there are some exceptions, but the exceptions are not the normal rule...

[M.L.]

Again, I think that free days impart some benefit if you have one book - but more benefit if you have a portfolio of books. If somebody likes the free one, they may be tempted to buy others.

If you are an indy author on a tight budget, you may choose to put shorter books in the program.

[Don]

I am in the select program. I don't really use my free give away days. I am exclusive because I want people to use the kindle library feature which is a free borrow for them but I get over $2.00 per borrow which is the same as I get for royalties. Also I prefer the 70% royalty and to get that from all your sales you need to be in the select program.
I have two books up with a third on the way and make a modest living off of it. I have sold in the triple digits every month as opposed to the two or three sales a month I was getting with B&N
I couldn't be on my own and support myself yet but I'm hoping to get there. I have heard of many who sell sell slightly better and have a larger catalog than I do that sell in the 10k a month range. I myself would be happy with half that.

[Katja]

Riley wrote: "I contemplated enrolling in KDP Select when I published The William S Club but chickened out in the end due to its exclusivity. I've heard some authors rave about it and talk about increases in per..."

You make an excellent point, Riley. Most authors are cautious about talking bottom line. Mine is not worth talking about, the figures are so low. But I'll remember this conversation when I start earning properly and be sure to share the information then.

[M.L.]

After a lot of thought and reading I have decided to put my newest book into the KDP Select program. I think that free days are best for new books, or books that are not selling.

With my first book, I got the most boom from my first set of free days which I promoted heavily. After I started getting steady, if modest sales, the 2nd free day did not have an impact.

With my first book borrows are about 10 percent of sales. That surprises me because the book is already modestly priced (IMO). Some authors have a different experience, but many say they don't really make any more than that on the other outlets anyway.

As a new Indy with limited resources, it may be best to maximize the resources that Amazon gives us.

[Marian]

I am in KDP Select and have only used 2 days for two books since the beginning of September. I have a free book promotion today on one book, Realities, but it will be for today only to test it again. It's recommended that writers have two consecutive days of giveaways, but I have been closely following the Amazon KDP support forum, which has been very negative on KDP Select for a while. The forum members feel that giving away books cheapens all books. Further, they feel that the free giveaways have created a glut of free books that have hurt everyone's sales.

I don't know how closely my experience mirrors the experiences of others. The results for the two books I gave away for two days--Realities and The Writers' Conference--were disappointing. The downloads didn't result in a spike in sales. I was surprised that there wasn't more interest in The Writers' Conference, because it is the only fiction I am aware of that is about aspiring writers and the difficulties they face finding agents to represent them and publishers to support their work. But there are so many books given away everyday that it's easy for books to get lost in the crowd.

I'll report the result of my promotion today if anyone has an interest.

Tracey asked about Smashwords. A friend who has solid sales on Kindle had difficulty with Smashwords and dropped them, but I don't know if her experience is typical. You might want to go on the KDP Support forum and do a search.

[M.L.]

Again, I am sure you have to back up your free promo days with promotion. There are a lot of sites and social pages that will list your free days. Of course, you have to do a lot of work to give something away. That's why the free days are probably best if you also have other books to sell.

[Richard]

"Also I prefer the 70% royalty and to get that from all your sales you need to be in the select program."

Don, this is not true. You simply need to price your eBook at $2.99 or higher to get 70%. I'm not in select and get 70%'
Secondly, I have found that with the huge amount of freebies, over 30,000 per day, you need to open your market to Nook and Apple iPad where these freebies do not exist unless you have a large fan base currently buying and borrowing your offerings on Kindle and do not need to expand.

[Monica]

Thanks to everyone discussing this topic...KDP Select is something I'm considering. I need to do some further research on this...like are you expected/required to offer free downloads? I'm not sure I'd go that route in the beginning, but I write non-fiction and have a very specific audience. I'll keep following this great discussion...great viewpoints!

[L.L.]

Monica wrote: " I need to do some further research on this...like are you expected/required to offer free downloads? I'm not sure..."


Free promos are not required. It's entirely the author's choice. Here's the link to KDP's info about it: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishin...

Linda

[Monica]

L.L. wrote: "Monica wrote: " I need to do some further research on this...like are you expected/required to offer free downloads? I'm not sure..."


Free promos are not required. It's entirely the author's cho..."


Thank You Linda!

[Don]

Don, this is not true. You simply need to price your eBook at $2.99 or higher to get 70%. ..."

Actually it is true if you want the 70% from sales in India. They announced it when they opened up a market there. I haven't seen anything about their new Japan market but the fact that when I check my sales figures India is grouped in with the US figures so I couldn't tell what sales were coming from which country which made me nervous enough to put both of my books in the program.
I know it probably isn't a huge amount of sales to India but after 2 months the book I had on B&N had only sold three copies so I wasn't worried about losing too many sales at B&N either.

[Marian]

Marilyn wrote: "Again, I am sure you have to back up your free promo days with promotion. There are a lot of sites and social pages that will list your free days. Of course, you have to do a lot of work to give so..."

Although it was at the last minute, I did quite a bit of promotion with Realities, both paid and free. And when I did the other promotions, I put a lot of work into them. I was a featured author on several sites and got "badges" which I'll eventually put on a web page.

In short, I've done a lot of work in giving books away, and I have three books to sell. I'm not re-enrolling in KDP Select.

[A.L.]

Don wrote: "I am in the select program. I don't really use my free give away days. I am exclusive because I want people to use the kindle library feature which is a free borrow for them but I get over $2.00 pe..."

Wow awesome:) What am I doing wrong?

[A.L.]

I am leaving mine in, partly because I am lazy and am not sure I want to fight with the SW meatgrinder and have to keep an eye on another set of sales charts. I might see what happens next year.

For the record, I do download books and I have bought, will buy other books by the same authors I have freebies from.

[Heather]

Monica wrote: "Thanks to everyone discussing this topic...KDP Select is something I'm considering. I need to do some further research on this...like are you expected/required to offer free downloads? I'm not sure..."

You don't HAVE to offer freebies. I typically see a spike in sales (which isn't saying much) when I do. I ran a few sales when I first joined goodreads and seem to have gotten a response. No reviews yet, but a pleasing number on to-read shelves. ^_^

[V.K.]

My book is for sale with KDP, but not their Select program. My reason for not doing the Select is that Amazon requires you to sell exclusively through them. I want people who have Nooks and iPads, etc, to be able to read with the experience they've chosen. I'm not interested in "helping" Amazon sell Kindles.

As it stands, the BAD thing about not going Select is that Amazon doesn't let you do free giveaways--the lowest I can go is $.99

[[deleted user]]

Tracey wrote: "Anyone using smashwoods?"

In reply to Tracy (comment 701),

Yes, I am. And I think self published authors would be silly not to. I only got involved with SW a year ago. I already feel that I was far too long in doing so. SW distribute to several other online retail sites that support several other eReaders. These include Apple, Nook and Kobo, all of which are now available in the UK. I have two ebooks available for free permanently, both of which Amazon price matches.

[Omar]

Tracey wrote: "Anyone using smashwoods?"

Tracy, I'm currently using Smashwords. What's your question? I was using it for all non-Kindles ebooks, but have been moving towards going directly with Apple, Barnes and Noble and Amazon and using them for all others. My biggest complaint with Smashwords is slow support if you need it. It is good if you want to post free ebooks, which Amazon will price match. This is great if you have multiple books. The free one will generate sales of your other books.

[Omar]

As someone who is awful at promoting and marketing, I've used the free promo days to get reviews. A good approach might be to join the program once, for three months to take advantage of the promo days, then expand to the other retailers after the 3 months are up.

[Rita]

Hi Riley,

I'm an Australian author enrolled in KDP. I've stopped using the free promotions as it hasn't worked for me. Its not like a perfume sample where people might buy it again!

I'd be interested to know how Australian authors are going on KDP but even more particularly, how they are going with CreateSpace, where the postage cost is a problem for anyone buying from Australia.

[[deleted user]]

Heres the link for the book

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A2245Y8

Let me know.

[Lynn]

I used two free KDP Select days to promote my latest book. It resulted in 156 downloads, no reviews and no increase in sales. I used some of the sites that announce the freebes but not as many as I probably should have. I'd have to say I'm not impressed.

[Don]

Alexandra wrote:
Wow awesome:) What am I doing wrong?

I'll let you know as soon as I figure out what I'm doing right. Sounds funny I know, but even after a year of doing this I'm not sure where my best marketing comes from. I've tried a bunch of free sites that let you post your books but other than that it's been only FB or twitter. I'm thinking of finally sinking some money into one of the ad sites that promote your books but I don't know which one would be most worth it yet.

[A.L.]

Hahaha Ok:)
I do think luck has a lot to do with it.

[Riley]

Rita wrote: "Hi Riley,

I'm an Australian author enrolled in KDP. I've stopped using the free promotions as it hasn't worked for me. Its not like a perfume sample where people might buy it again!

I'd be inte..."

Hi Rita,

I use Createspace and KDP. I tried to keep the book price low on Createspace so that Australian audiences wouldn't be too put off by the postage costs. My book is listed at $13 - so with postage, it comes in at just under $20 if they purchase off Amazon. Another way to combat the cost is to purchase author copies (costs me about $8 a book, with postage, to have them sent to me). I then on-sell them to Australian audiences for whatever markup I want on top of that, depending on the market too. As most books retail in Australia for above $20, I figure most people will pay around that price.

Haven't had any issues with KDP, apart from the fact that they pay in old fashioned cheque which costs money to bank. Smashwords, on the other hand, pay into your Paypal account - much more user friendly, and frankly, more 21st century!

[Riley]

Oh, I did try Lightning Source and a few Australian printers to see if the costs were less - even with postage, Createspace is cheaper.

[Rita]

Thanks Riley. Mine is even lower - $9.99 - but its only a short book.
http://www.amazon.com/Missing-in-Egyp...

I have also brought them over myself and if you order about 50 that brings the postage down but I haven't sold any thru CreateSpace yet.

Booktopia has it for a few cents cheaper including postage.

[Jason]

I've started another Kindle Giveaway (first one was 208 downloads and little sales afterwards), using a great deal of advice from Simon Denman (big thanks to Simon!) and I have also tried something else-- I sent a message to every one who entered the Print Book Giveaway, which had to be done one at a time (time consuming) but has already resulted in positive feedback from those I messaged. We'll see if that helps much.

[Jasenn]

Marian wrote: "I am in KDP Select and have only used 2 days for two books since the beginning of September. I have a free book promotion today on one book, Realities, but it will be for today only to test it aga..."

I decided against enrolling in the KDP Select program because of its exclusivity, though just the other day, I enrolled in the
KDP program. Am also featured on Smashwords. With Smashwords (and with Amazon) one needs to do a lot of self-marketing or book promotion. I haven't yet discovered the secret of book promotion...but make some promotion attempts every day. Any suggestions on free promotion for someone with limited finances would be greatly appreciated.

[M.L.]

I would like to document my conclusions from my last free promo day. I ran it for 1 day, promoted it a little, and got 300+ downloads which is OK, but not huge.

I did get a bump for my other book which already makes a few daily sales and has several reviews. I got a couple of new verified reviews for that book too.

The new book is still stuck in the abyss and isn't moving. It's only been a couple of days, but it's fairly obvious that the free promo doesn't push you up in lists when it's over. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am.

My takeaway is that this tool may help you promote your OTHER books - and there are other ways to make a book free. So I'm still sort of "meh" about it. If I had a dozen books, and not just 2, I would probably be more excited about using a couple of them mostly for promos.

[Marian]

Lynn wrote: "I used two free KDP Select days to promote my latest book. It resulted in 156 downloads, no reviews and no increase in sales. I used some of the sites that announce the freebes but not as many as I..."

I'm using 2 days to promote my novel, The Writers' Conference on Nov. 15 and 16. I also used some of the sites that announce freebies as you did. One of sites featured my book last week (large picture of my book cover)after I listed the promotion with them, which was nice, but it didn't result in any sales. There is such a flood of free books every day, and there are so many web sites making money promoting them that I wonder how many emails are actually read and how many sales result. From what I've been reading on the Kindle forums, the heyday for these free promotions might have reached its peak last February or March. We're too late to the party.

I'm going to watch the results of this upcoming promotion closely. The Writers' Conference is the only work of fiction I am aware of that takes place at a writers' conference. It was written primarily as an entertainment. It's an intricately plotted novel that took over twenty years to write. The Writers' Conference grew out of an experience I had as a contributor in fiction at one of the most prestigious writers' conferences in the country. I was shocked at the anxiety and desperation I witnessed. What I saw years ago is still going on today, ( I recently read that a writers' conference in Florida was charging aspiring writers $40 for ten minutes to "pitch" their manuscripts to agents), but it hasn't been written about. Aspiring writers attend these conferences at great expense and with great hope. The Writers' Conference was written for them.

There is a large potential audience for this book. I want them to know that it's here so they can read it. The problem is that I don't know how to do it. I had a two-day promotion in September. There were a lot of downloads and it did get some nice reviews, but the sales were negligible.

[Marian]

Jasenn wrote: "Marian wrote: "I am in KDP Select and have only used 2 days for two books since the beginning of September. I have a free book promotion today on one book, Realities, but it will be for today only..."

This is a good web site for the listing of free promotions. I'm not sure the free promotions do much good, but they're worth a try.

http://theebookguide.com/the-latest-l...

So many people are looking for free promotions that you have line some of them several weeks in advance.

[June]

Hi Lynn,
I have been in KDP for 6 months. My first Freebies were promoted, rather poorly, on Goodreads and FB and received only 200 + downloads and no reviews. The second time I paid $50 for a Free Booksy adv.and downloads were over 2000. Slowly, reviews started coming in. The 3rd Freeby, I used the Free advert sites and one that charged $5 and another that charged $10. The results were poor-only 400+ downloads. Therefore, I DO recommend Free Booksy.
I do think that I will now drop out oif KDP when this 90 day period ends.

[M.L.]

From comments I have read in a couple of other places today, you have to give away a LOAD of books during your promo days in order the get any love from Amazon afterwards. I gave away hundreds, but not thousands like some of these authors do. I do not know how to get to that level.

[June]

Don't expect instant reviews from your downloads. Most people who download Freebies, including myself, download so many that it takes awhile to read them all. My reviews come in weeks or even months later. Reviews help sell.

[Tracey]

Thank you David and Omar - just wondering about success in sales on Smashwoods....just listed one book and will look at doing the other when they come off KDP.

[Ardin]

I had my first kdp free promo about two weeks ago. I promoted it to friends and family on facebook and got about 250 downloads.

Tomorrow I'm starting another promo using up the rest of my free days. I'll find out how 4 days in a row goes. I've signed up for as many of the free promo sites as I could find, thanks for the advice you guys. Some of them required 10 reviews before they would post so I won't be getting on those sites. Not sure which of the others will feature my book. Hopefully some.

Anyway, i'll post how it goes. What I'm really interested in is whether any sales follow in the week or two after the promo. Fingers crossed.

[Omar]

Started a free promo today for my wifes exercise book. have 100 downloads so far, but only promoted the promo on Pixels of Ink. Here's the link for any who want to track what happens:
Go Take a Walk: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by S.J. Olsen http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009Y8Y0Q4/

The promo will run for 4 days. I added a page at the end of the book asking the reader to leave a review if they liked the book.

[Lynn]

Marian wrote: "Lynn wrote: "I used two free KDP Select days to promote my latest book. It resulted in 156 downloads, no reviews and no increase in sales. I used some of the sites that announce the freebes but not..."

I snagged The Writer's Conference today. It will be awhile before I can start reading - still reading Realities! Love it! But also have a lot of other stuff going on right now, but I really, really think Realities is great, I am so hooked. I read it and think, this book should be traditioally published. It is that good.

[Marian]

Lynn wrote: "Marian wrote: "Lynn wrote: "I used two free KDP Select days to promote my latest book. It resulted in 156 downloads, no reviews and no increase in sales. I used some of the sites that announce the ..."
Thank you, Lynn. It was traditionally published by St. Martin's Press in 1981. It was also published in England and Sweden, where it was a selection of the Swedish Book-of-the-Month Club.

[Marian]

Marian wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Marian wrote: "Lynn wrote: "I used two free KDP Select days to promote my latest book. It resulted in 156 downloads, no reviews and no increase in sales. I used some of the sites that ..."

Whoops! Instead of saying "It was published..." I should have said, "Realities was published..."

[Lynn]

June wrote: "Hi Lynn,
I have been in KDP for 6 months. My first Freebies were promoted, rather poorly, on Goodreads and FB and received only 200 + downloads and no reviews. The second time I paid $50 for a Free..."

Wow, I have never heard of Free Booksy but I am going to look into that, and try it again. Thanks for the info!

[Lynn]

Marian wrote: "Marian wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Marian wrote: "Lynn wrote: "I used two free KDP Select days to promote my latest book. It resulted in 156 downloads, no reviews and no increase in sales. I used some of ..."

Oh! I assumed everyone here was self-published but I guess I should not have jumped to that conclusion. Is your book out of print? I know a lot of authors re-release their work in eBook form after that happens.

[Marian]

Lynn wrote: "Marian wrote: "Marian wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Marian wrote: "Lynn wrote: "I used two free KDP Select days to promote my latest book. It resulted in 156 downloads, no reviews and no increase in sales. ..."
Yes, Realities is out of print. Most writers' books go out of print, unless they've written To Kill a Mockingbird or Gone With the Wind. Publishers are always looking for the next book that will make them a pot of money, so they don't support current books very long unless they're big moneymakers. Realities did well, but it wasn't a blockbuster.

It was a big decision to re-publish, but in the end I decided to do it because I'm proud of Realities, and I believed it deserved a longer life.

[A.L.]

Good for you:)

[Elle]

Marian wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Marian wrote: "Marian wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Marian wrote: "Lynn wrote: "I used two free KDP Select days to promote my latest book. It resulted in 156 downloads, no reviews and no increa..."
Lynn,
I would do the same. Many self-published authors can attest to the fact that sometimes it's months or even years before a book seems to pick up steam. I can think of a few right off the top of my head that are doing quite well, but had they been traditionally published, their books would have been taken off the shelf before their fans had the opportunity to enjoy them. I'm not anti-traditional publishing, but I AM glad we have more options!

[Lee]

This is one of those for what it's worth posts. I have had one book (the first of a series of so far three) in KDP Select for six months. So far I've had over 6,500 downloads with great variability from giveaway period to giveaway period. I believe the key to lots of downloads, in addition to a good cover, title and book description, is listing the giveaway in lots and lots of places that specialize in publicizing free books (for free - I have paid nothing). There are a number of lists of these free book websites out there. A good one to start with is Author Marketing Club. Each successful giveaway was followed by a short uptick in sales - significant but not overwhelming. No reviews have resulted from the downloads, perhaps because the book and 20 ratings and 12 reviews when I started.