# KDP Select: Will you enroll your eBooks?



## HarryDisco (Nov 11, 2011)

Amazon is introducing KDP Select - a new option to make money and promote your book. When you make your book exclusive to Kindle for at least 90 days, it will be part of the Kindle Owners' Lending Library for the same period and you will earn your share of a monthly fund when readers borrow your books from the library. You will also be able to promote your book as free for up to 5 days during these 90 days.

EXCLUSIVE: During the period of exclusivity, 3 months, you cannot distribute your book digitally anywhere else, including on your website, blogs, etc. You are allowed to sell your hard copies everywhere

FUND: $500,000 in December and at least $6 million throughout 2012 when readers borrow your books from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library

MAKE YOUR BOOK FREE: option to offer enrolled books free to readers for up to 5 days every 90 days. From your bookshelf, select the book by checking the box next to the title, click on "Actions" and choose "Manage Promotions".

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/KDPSelect

I enrolled all my 5 books. And made them free on Kindle from 9 December - 13 December

Update after 5 days free:

Bill Clinton and the Dead Bookmaker on the Golf Course: 275

Bill Clinton and The Dead Gigolo: 232

Bill Clinton and the Dead Lady on the Subway: 344

Bill Clinton and the Dead Meddlesome Mother: 236

Bill Clinton and the Deadly Poker Game: 269


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## kurzon (Feb 26, 2011)

For my current books, it would be way too big a pain in the ass trying to get them taken down from the various other sites.

For future books...no.  Even though I only sell a small amount on other sites, I don't like limiting my readers' options (or telling them to wait three months before they can buy one of my books).


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

Does making your books available in print everywhere via CreateSpace disqualify you?

I can't do this with my current books.

Might consider it for future books.


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## BrianKittrell (Jan 8, 2011)

Hmmm, very interesting indeed. I may do it for my next one, just let it come out at Amazon first and then everywhere else after the period to see if it earns anything. I don't want to pull my current one on the other places. 

Edited to add, now that I've had some time to think about it:

I think we'll see a goldrush in December as the pilot to this program, but I doubt it will do most of us any good. I mean, 100,000 downloads... that's a bit of a low number to base the estimations on, I think. It's difficult to know how many people are Prime customers, but conservative (ultra-conservative) estimates are for around 2-3 million.

If 25% of those people exercised their freebie each month, that's about 500,000 to 750,000 downloads, making each download the equivalent of about $1 share. Sure, if there are 20,000 books in the system, you stand a decent chance. But, what if 300,000 books are in the system? 500,000? 1,000,000?

I think I shall wait and watch and see. I sell enough through the other venues to keep going. Besides, by the time I could get my book out of distribution everywhere else, there will probably be 75,000 plus books in Select.

And for those saying the distribution is a straw man argument or that this isn't an zero-sum game, this is the closest thing you'll get to one in publishing. Yes, there are a number of variables that we do not know (and we shall never know them because Amazon will never publish them), but just because we do not know a value does not inherently mean it is not a set, static value. Because our success in this particular program depends upon getting a larger share of downloads/loan-outs than other authors in the program with us, it is a zero-sum game by definition. The money is set and does not fluctuate, the number of Prime members is rather set and not a huge number of Amazon's total customers (2-3 million (max 5 million) customers in Prime compared to 121-131 million total Amazon customers estimated). Zero-sum situations are not in the best interests of the people trying to get a slice, but it's always good for the one baking the pie.

We all know that Amazon will do whatever it takes to dominate a market. For instance, Amazon wanted more content to offer. They started KDP. Things were good. Now, KDP's not the only game in town; you have PubIt! and Smashwords (and others). Now, it's time to up the stakes. Dangle the carrot before the mules and give them something to chase. In the end, I think Amazon will be the bigger winner, and the program will benefit a few at the top and make a few others a little cozy. I, for now, shall keep my eggs in separate baskets. It's just too new and a bit too aggressive to put my stuff in the pile. I'll wait until we have some real evidence, when we see regular people coming back with thousands--or, as I suspect more likely, an extra $2 tacked on for a couple thousand readers.


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## portiadacosta (Feb 28, 2011)

Might be interesting to try out the scheme, with something new. And if there isn't any major advantage after the 90 days, withdraw it from Select [or whatever you have to do] and release it into the wild.

Will watch with interest the experiences of those who take the Select plunge.


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## David Wisehart (Mar 2, 2010)

I've enrolled some of my titles already, and will enroll the others after they're taken down from PubIt. Removal from B&N takes up to five business days.

Since 98% of my sales are from Kindle, I don't see much downside to going exclusive.

David


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## Ben Dobson (Mar 27, 2011)

CraigInTwinCities said:


> Does making your books available in print everywhere via CreateSpace disqualify you?
> 
> I can't do this with my current books.
> 
> Might consider it for future books.


It says it only applies to the digital format of the book. Print shouldn't matter.


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## CraigInOregon (Aug 6, 2010)

I may do this as an experiment with one of my future titles, just to see how it works for me.

Not going to unpublish anything that's already out there, though.

Considering Amazon is 85 percent of my income anyway, I'm willing to experiment with this program... my main concern being how much it'd eat into actual Amazon sales.

I'll say this: it has potential. It lets you "go free" legit up to 5 days out of 90, and lets you promote your book for free on Amazon, as a free book, during that time.

Tempting.


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## Alan Parkinson (May 9, 2011)

I have enrolled Get in Get Out and Get Away


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## Lisa Scott (Apr 4, 2011)

Interesting.  I probably wouldn't take my current books down now since 50% of my sales are in the itunes stores.  But I might consider writing something new and trying it here first for 90 days only before distributing it elsewhere.


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## K.A. Hunter (Dec 1, 2011)

Hmmm. I was surprised to see it up this morning. I'm with the others who say I'll try new, but I'm not pulling others. Not right now. I'll be curious to see how it goes for others, though.


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

Giving it a shot with the one book that isn't up anywhere else...


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## AmandaJane (Dec 1, 2011)

I put my Cookbook on Smashwords.com  8 days ago and they still had not yet approved and I made absolutely sure to get the formatting correct so I when this opertunity came about I jumped. I unpublished from smashword.com and enrolled. 

Anyone know how or when you can set your book for free for the 5 days during the 90? It sounded like a much safer way of trying my book out for free for a while w/o having to get on itunes/smashwords when I wanted it changed back.


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

> Anyone know how or when you can set your book for free for the 5 days during the 90?


Go to your bookshelf, mark the book, and click "Actions" at the top.Then under "for KDP select books" you can click "manage promotions." It looks like you can do it any time (once they approve it, maybe-- I see they are giving me till December 11 to change my mind about enrolling, so I don't know if it can go free before that date).


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

I'd just like to offer a word of caution, don't put all your eggs in one basket.  

IMO Amazon has been messing the Indie authors around A LOT this year. We've all seen our sales diminish.

Just be careful and think about things from a business POV, please.


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## Herc- The Reluctant Geek (Feb 10, 2010)

I just put up Virtually Real (a novella). I'm curious to see how this all works


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

> I'd just like to offer a word of caution, don't put all your eggs in one basket.


Good advice, but since it's only for 90 days, it may be worth the risk for some folks, particularly those who aren't selling much through other platforms anyway.



> We've all seen our sales diminish.


Not all of us. It varies from author to author, and this may be the right choice for some folks.

The thing that I like about this is that it shows that Amazon is aware it's losing some market share to iTunes and B&N. That means the other platforms are definitely growing, and that's a good thing for indies!


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## Artemis Hunt (Aug 23, 2011)

I will be trying it with a new novella by the end of the week. Rest of my stuff are on all other channels. I sell quite a lot on ARE, Bookstrand and Nook, but I don't mind waiting out the 3 months.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

I've done it with my first book, and with what I call my duo-book, which is actually both of my books in one volume. I've had that one for sale since April. Hmmm...but now that I think of it, I hope it qualifies since I didn't enroll my second book and it is in that volume. Maybe I'll just add the second book to KDP Select just to be on the safe side.

For me, it was a no-brainer because my sales in other places have been almost non-existent. I know some people have great sales at B&N and I'm sure it's a much harder decision.


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## jimbronyaur (Feb 9, 2011)

I respect this option, but I fear it... 

First off, B&N has done wonders on their site and with the new Nook, why would you want to miss out on that?  I've personally seen my Nook sales grow the past two months.

Second, Amazon only accounts for about 50-60% of my sales (and for December, they are only at 47%)... why would I want to cut off 50% of my sales and customers?

Third, this option with all the free is out of hand... people complaining about their sales, etc. it's all because of this free nonsense.  Stop making things free... but value on your work and let the readers come.  I'm tired of seeing someone with one or two books that don't get to the bestseller status in their first month hurry and make everything free and then brag about how much they "sell".  Stop it.  And the Select option lets you make things free... that's going to attract a lot of people, but I think it's dumb.  

Testing the waters with one title or so may work - I get it - but those who want to take all their books down elsewhere... that scares me a little.  There are so many other vendors and other customers for a reason!  Heck, even a small place like OmniLit is accounting for 17% of my sales this month... I couldn't imagine not having my book there for those customers to enjoy.

-jb


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

> First off, B&N has done wonders on their site and with the new Nook, why would you want to miss out on that? I've personally seen my Nook sales grow the past two months.


Not everyone sells on B&N. It really seems to depend on genre. My erotic romance has done very well there, but my romance... not so much. Some people just can't seem to gain a toehold there, which probably makes the decision rather easy.



> Second, Amazon only accounts for about 50-60% of my sales (and for December, they are only at 47%)... why would I want to cut off 50% of my sales and customers?


You probably wouldn't. That makes it a relatively easy decision for you. But others have different sales patterns.



> Third, this option with all the free is out of hand... people complaining about their sales, etc. it's all because of this free nonsense. Stop making things free... but value on your work and let the readers come.


Making a book free doesn't devalue it. It gives you valuable exposure. That's why people post about it, because it works. That being said, if everyone can make their book free easily, even for a short time, then the value of freeness may in fact diminish. We'll have to wait and see what happens there, I think.


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

Just saw the option. 90 days is a long time, IMO. Right now it's not something I would consider. Exclusivity scares the crap out of me. Beholden to only one publishing 'god'...nope.


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## Lisa J. Yarde (Jul 15, 2010)

It's somewhat tempting as Kindle sales generate most of my revenue. If I did it, I would try one book or my series, not all. Exclusivity bothers me and there are too many variables that haven't been explained about the enrollment; "at least 90" - how do you opt out?


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

Oooh, they just added a new column on KDP: "units borrowed." I was wondering how I could tell!

And interestingly, the book I enrolled in Select is still showing "no" for enrollment.


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## ETS PRESS (Nov 4, 2011)

CraigInTwinCities said:


> Does making your books available in print everywhere via CreateSpace disqualify you?
> 
> I can't do this with my current books.
> 
> Might consider it for future books.


The exclusive deal is for ebooks. You can still have print books.


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## kellymcclymer (Apr 22, 2010)

I consider everything an experiment these days, so I'm in. I have an original YA, Blood Angel, that was only up at Smashwords and B&N so far (and Amazon, of course). Sales have barely broken double digits (I haven't promoted much). I had it at 99 cents for a Halloween promotion, but was unwilling to go to free because of the hassle, unpredictability and fact that it is a standalone and not likely to promulgate sales to my historical romance series or short stories. Being able to offer limited time free in the after-Christmas period is huge to me. I love this book, but it isn't going to appeal to everyone. I want it to reach as many of its true readers as it can.

I've already taken it off sale at Smashwords and B&N and enrolled in the kdp select. Fingers crossed this is a great program and Amazon is using it to test ways to give indie authors a little more control of their marketing.

The exclusivity doesn't bother me at this point -- they're offering us a big promo deal, and it is an experiment for everyone, so we should all be in it together. If B&N follows suit, I just might do the same with them, after the 90 days passes. Why not? Experiment means trying everything and winnowing out what works and what doesn't.

I'm not tempted at all for my other books, though, because they're distributed everywhere through Smashwords and it would take forever to get them unpublished elsewhere (while losing potential after holiday sales). I'm going to put up the last two romances in my Once Upon a Wedding series soon, and I *may* consider enrolling one of them in the program. Maybe. I'll have to see how many free books I gave away at B&N (it's distributed through Smashwords).

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Almost as bad as trying to find the perfect gift for family members this time of year.


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## George Berger (Aug 7, 2011)

I'm in with my new book coming out around the 13th. I have basically zero traction outside of Amazon for e-books - I can't even give a title away free on iTunes, for crying out loud - so I'll give it a shot for probably at least six months. What's the worst that happens, I don't make any money? Not as if I'd notice the difference...


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## Amy Corwin (Jan 3, 2011)

Interesting concept. I'm wondering if it helps at all or you just don't get the (much smaller) sales outside of Amazon?

If this would then change things back to the "you might also like" algorythm they used last summer (when I sold like hotcakes) then it might be worth considering. As it is, I'm not sure what the advantages would be, realistically. It's a fancy title for basically being able to make your book free for a few days should you choose to do so and potentially get a share of the pot if folks borrow your book. hmmmm

Not sure how that would enhance my bottom line, if you know what I mean?


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## jimbronyaur (Feb 9, 2011)

EllenFisher said:


> Making a book free doesn't devalue it. It gives you valuable exposure. That's why people post about it, because it works. That being said, if everyone can make their book free easily, even for a short time, then the value of freeness may in fact diminish. We'll have to wait and see what happens there, I think.


That's what I fear... $2.99 used to be cheap, then came the $0.99 train, and now the FREE train. What's next? I think for exclusivity, Amazon should offer something more... not just the option of lending and FREE. Because, remember, for lending, it's 1 book a month... I am a Prime Member and I get 1 book a month for free. The books I'll borrow for the month are the ones that are $10+, not some $2.99 indie book. So it comes back to the free thing then. People signing up to make their books free easier... more free books - yay.

-jb


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2011)

I dropped Suspense in there, and we'll see how long it takes to show up as enrolled. Funny that Pubit isn't allowing books to be removed. I wonder if they caught wind of this!


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

I'm not against the Lending Library or KDP Select per se, but I would like to raise some concerns as I think this whole thing seems a little rushed so that Amazon can boost the number of books in the Lending Library to make Prime membership more attractive to all the new Kindle owners.

I think self-publishers should consider all the issues carefully, as we could be setting the parameters of future author compensation from Amazon.

*1. Limited, Fixed Pot*

I would prefer some kind of check-out fee rather than a limited, fixed pot. I think that's a bad precedent - Amazon just "budgeting" for lending (and thinking of it as a fixed cost) rather than paying a continual rental fee of some kind. If the program is wildly successful (which it may well be) and if huge numbers of indies participate (which they probably will) then we won't earn very much at all.

I think that subscription models will form a big part of the mix in the future. That's not something I'm against (I try and avoid getting worked up about things that are inevitable). And I consider this to be a form of subscription model.

It might be instructive to compare it to other subscription models. The big difference is the fixed, limited pot - I think this is where the problems will lie.

There are plenty of start-ups toying with a subscription model - i.e. a Netflix/Spotify for books - including 24symbols, Flatleaf, and Platify/Litfy. All of them, more or less, will pay the authors each time the book is read or downloaded - a fixed fee per rental/read. Some decide based on the number of pages read, others just pay a per book fee when it's downloaded. They all generate money for these fees through subscriptions and advertising. Usually it's some form of low or no fee to read from a limited library with ads in the books (the ads are okay, like one-page glossies in magazines, rather than crude text ads or pop-ups) - and then a "premium" account with a monthly subscription which gets rid of the ads and allows access to a wider selection.

The revenue splits are much much better than Spotify (if you are familiar with that). All the companies recognize that while a song might be listened to again and again, a book tends to be read once. As such - the models I've seen tend to split around two-thirds of the ad revenue with the author/publisher - and then a fixed amount per book read/download/page read.

The main point is that there is no limit to what you can earn - there is no fixed pot being divvied out between an ever-increasing amount of books.

That fixed pot sounds sweet - $500,000 per month - but not when you envisage 100,000 titles in there. That averages out at $5 a month per book.

Let's look at it another way. How many Prime members are there? 14 million? And they can check out one book a month (for now, bound to change)? Let's say 10 million of them avail of that per month. Let's also say that 30% of the books being checked out are indie books (which I think is conservative). That's 3 million indie books lent per month. And Amazon are paying $500,000 for the privilege. That works out to about 16c per book checked out. Which is peanuts.

That's going by current numbers. Prime membership will soar over the holidays. As will the number of self-publishers. As will the number of self-publishers interested in participating in this. Those numbers will only get worse. And the pot will never be as "sweet" as it is now.

As you can tell, my major issue is with there being a limited, fixed pot. I think that can only benefit Amazon. They are asking us to take a lot of risk (as well as asking for exclusivity), but they are taking little themselves - by limiting their potential outlay in this way.

I would much prefer if a reasonable rental fee was agreed that could be negotiated upward or downward in the future. I also think that not doing so sets a dangerous precedent - that once we agree to a fixed pot, we can never go back to a more equitable "per book/download" system.

*2. Losing Price Advantage*

One of the main competitive advantages that indies have is price. In a lending library every book "costs" the same to rent - nothing. You can't tempt readers away from the names they know with a book that's a third or a tenth of the price. You can't run a sale. You can't offer discounts. That competitive advantage is gone.

Another worry I would have is that this is the thin end of the wedge - that things like 70% royalties will become contingent on exclusivity and agreeing to the lending library. Although, I try to limit my brooding to things that are actually on the horizon 

*3. Exclusivity*

How an author feels about exclusivity will really depend. I hear a lot of writers say they make 95% of their money (or more) from Amazon. I had 16% of my sales outside Amazon last month, and that percentage grows all the time. I'm trying to grow international sales - and Amazon have far less of the market in Europe, and there's no guarantee they will achieve the same dominance in, say, Spain, than they have in the US.

On top of that, I have quite a few readers who get hit with the Amazon surcharge. Those guys would be forced to pay $2 to $2.30 more per e-book and they would have no alternative. That would price shorts out of the market, and pretty much everything else. Exclusivity also means that you are more susceptible to outside shocks - such as Amazon running a Big 6 sale - with nothing else to pick up the slack. And, others may well feel differently about this, but I want to start selling direct from my own site - maybe in January.

And there are all sorts of other reasons why, on principle, I'm against exclusivity.

Those are my arguments against KDP Select and the Lending Library. But I'm not against it _per se_. If my readership was slightly different (more Amazon, less international, no surcharge readers), I would have less reservations about this. If I had a larger backlist, I would probably try out an underperforming title or two. If the compensation model was different, I would have _way_ less qualms.

I see subscription models forming a big part of the mix in the future - whatever feelings any of us may have about them. I just don't think this is the right model, and I worry that it sets dangerous precedents in terms of compensation for authors.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

jimbronyaur said:


> I respect this option, but I fear it...
> 
> First off, B&N has done wonders on their site and with the new Nook, why would you want to miss out on that? I've personally seen my Nook sales grow the past two months.
> 
> Second, Amazon only accounts for about 50-60% of my sales (and for December, they are only at 47%)... why would I want to cut off 50% of my sales and customers?


Everyone's sales are different. To put it in perspective for me, I've sold about 34,000 books on Amazon this year. All my other sales combined are about 500 books. My Nook sales have not grown and I've been with Pubit since it started. Smashwords sales, directly and through the premium catalog only bumped up when my book was free in June. The sales are now down to one or two a month. I wish I would have known about KDP Select was on the horizon a month ago so I could get the ball rolling on removing my books from the premium catalog. 



> Third, this option with all the free is out of hand... people complaining about their sales, etc. it's all because of this free nonsense. Stop making things free... but value on your work and let the readers come. I'm tired of seeing someone with one or two books that don't get to the bestseller status in their first month hurry and make everything free and then brag about how much they "sell". Stop it. And the Select option lets you make things free... that's going to attract a lot of people, but I think it's dumb.


That's your opinion, but my dumb move to make my book free in June earned me $18,000 that month. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.



> Testing the waters with one title or so may work - I get it - but those who want to take all their books down elsewhere... that scares me a little. There are so many other vendors and other customers for a reason! Heck, even a small place like OmniLit is accounting for 17% of my sales this month... I couldn't imagine not having my book there for those customers to enjoy.
> 
> -jb


Then don't take your books down. I don't understand the fear. What are you worried about? What I do shouldn't affect your book sales.

I don't know if choosing KDP Select will work for me, but in my case, I have very little to lose. I know some people here sell a ton of books on other sites, and I wouldn't blame them for not embracing this new program. We all have to do what is right for us.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

foreverjuly said:


> I dropped Suspense in there, and we'll see how long it takes to show up as enrolled. Funny that Pubit isn't allowing books to be removed. I wonder if they caught wind of this!


Wait...what do you mean they aren't allowing? I clicked 'Take Off Sale' about an hour ago. Does this mean B&N won't honor that?


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## davidhburton (Mar 11, 2010)

Since I'm one of those anomalies that sells better at Kobo and B&N, this may not be for me. If I had a new title, I'd likely jump on it and see what it did for me.


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## _Sheila_ (Jan 4, 2011)

I was invited to do this some time ago.  I've had multiple conversations with Amazon regarding this and other projects.

I have decided to include one book.  I do not think that it will be of any advantage to me.  I have no intention of pricing any of my books at zero.  If I had access to a lending library with a limited number of books I could borrow, I'd look for the most expensive books on my wish list to borrow -  my book(s) don't fit that description - there is no reason for anyone to borrow my books from the lending library.  The current 'perks' aren't going to do much for me.  But I am willing to participate with the one book I've chosen, and probably all new books (with the exception of my 99 cents series) as they are published.  Amazon will have them exclusively and available for the lending library for at least the first 90 days.

Why?  Mostly as a goodwill gesture.

I've spoken to Amazon staff about some other projects that I think would be VERY advantageous to Indies - and they are kind enough to look into the possibilities.  I know that some of the projects are actually pretty easy to implement and are a good possibility.  No promises have been made.

Success breeds success - if Amazon sees Indies as people that are willing to participate in innovative ideas and are easier to work with - they are more likely to try new ways to help Indies (although I do not think this project is helpful to the average Indie - there are others that are)  

If every idea that anyone comes up with is shot down or attacked why would Amazon go out of their way to come up with anything more Indie friendly?

I think it is to my advantage to present myself in a positive and cooperative light.

Sheila


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## RedTash (Aug 14, 2011)

I've made $4.02 from Smashwords and its related sales channels (including B&N and Apple, Kobo & Sony) since hitting the publish button in September. I've got nothing to lose from a 90 day trial, so I'm going for it. It'll make a nice tie-in with my paperback release.

I'll decide whether or not to renew in March. Perhaps if enough of us say "Thanks, but no thanks" after the initial trial, Amazon will be willing to add more features to this program. Something to lure us _back_.

I know there will be a lot more Nooks in readers' hands over the holidays, but my B&N sales have been abyssmal, so I don't think taking the book down from their site until March will be a big deal. I am betting there will still be more Kindle Fires out there than Nooks. Right now the Kindle/Nook argument among readers reminds me of the Windows/Mac thing. People love their Nooks, but there need to be *more* of them to justify *not* trying a 90 day experiment, from where I'm sittin'.


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## _Sheila_ (Jan 4, 2011)

MaryMcDonald said:


> Wait...what do you mean they aren't allowing? I clicked 'Take Off Sale' about an hour ago. Does this mean B&N won't honor that?


I clicked "Take Off Sale" and the book was down in hours.

B&N has been having some reporting issues lately - I'm sure that it is as simple as that.

If they don't take down your book in a reasonable period of time - email them. They aren't going to hold your book hostage. 

Sheila


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## SentientSurfer (Sep 20, 2011)

jimbronyaur said:


> I am a Prime Member and I get 1 book a month for free. The books I'll borrow for the month are the ones that are $10+, not some $2.99 indie book.


This was my reaction since they are limited to one book a month, they'd likely go with the most expensive titles they can. That's what I would do, anyway.


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

Don't forget to read the terms and conditions guys in particular this one.

5 Your Commitment. Your commitment to these terms and conditions is important, and the benefits we provide to you as part of this option are conditioned on your following through on your commitments. If you un-publish your Digital Book, we will remove it from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, but you must continue to comply with these commitments, including exclusivity, through the remainder of the Digital Book’s then-current 90-day period of participation in KDP Select. If you don’t comply with these KDP Select terms and conditions, we will not owe you Royalties for that Digital Book earned through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Program, and we may offset any of those Royalties that were previously paid against future Royalties, or require you to remit them to us. We may also withhold your Royalty payments on all your Digital Books for a period of up to 90 days while we investigate. This doesn’t limit other remedies we have, such as prohibiting your future participation in KDP Select or KDP generally.

All I'm saying is be cautious.


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## Courtney Milan (Feb 27, 2011)

Last month, Amazon accounted for 26% of my revenue. So, yes, for me personally, I don't see this being worthwhile.


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## Rhynedahll (Oct 23, 2010)

dgaughran said:


> That fixed pot sounds sweet - $500,000 per month - but not when you envisage 100,000 titles in there. That averages out at $5 a month per book.
> 
> Let's look at it another way. How many Prime members are there? 14 million? And they can check out one book a month (for now, bound to change)? Let's say 10 million of them avail of that per month. Let's also say that 30% of the books being checked out are indie books (which I think is conservative). That's 3 million indie books lent per month. And Amazon are paying $500,000 for the privilege. That works out to about 16c per book checked out. Which is peanuts.
> 
> ...


I thought about this as well. I expect that the average participant might get next to nothing for each loaned book.

One fact: while they imply that the fund amount will go up, it's more likely to go down. I'd consider the half-mil a starter incentive.

At this point, I don't think the pros overcome the cons.


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## CaitLondon (Oct 12, 2010)

With Smashwords associates out there for a long time, it may be impossible to cut them off for that exclusivity clause.

I think Amazon likely got tired of people low-balling/freeing their books other places in order for Amazon to Free them. Also, they closed their Shorts program.

I do think spreading it around other markets is smart, but maybe testing with 1-2 projects and not going entirely. All new stuff to consider. I'm having a hard time just keeping up.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Rhynedahll said:


> I thought about this as well. I expect that the average participant might get next to nothing for each loaned book.
> 
> One fact: while they imply that the fund amount will go up, it's more likely to go down. I'd consider the half-mil a starter incentive.
> 
> At this point, I don't think the pros overcome the cons.


The only thing we know for sure is that the fund for December is $500,000. Amazon says they "expect" the fund for 2012 to be "at least" $6 million, but that's not in the ToS (as far as I can see), so it's not something they have agreed to.

It's slightly troubling that they are asking you to sign on for 90 days but can only guarantee the pot for a third of that time (and can't guarantee any minimum fee each time your book is rented).

The math gets worse and worse the more popular the program gets - I can't see the pot rising exponentially.

I think self-publishers should look at the big picture here - aside from what is immediately good/bad for your own sales. Subscription models are expected to form a big part of the mix in the future. In other words, a significant amount of reading is expected to move away from straight ebook-buying (like we have now) to a mix of ebook-buying, ebook library lending (through regular libraries), rentals (like this), and other subscription models (where readers read for free and have to put up with ads and/or pay a monthly fee).

The terms we agree to now will set a precedent for the future. I think this model sets the bar way too low in terms of compensation, and it's quite worrying that there is no minimum rental fee that the author can expect.

In short, the more indies that sign up to this, the less you will receive.


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## Victorine (Apr 23, 2010)

DDark said:


> Maybe I have to read the finer details when I get home from work later - but wouldn't the lending library potentially reduce sales? I know you can earn a percentage depending on downloads, but if it's available to borrow, what's the lure in purchasing?
> 
> Also is this a one time enrollment or will it still be available next year? I'd prefer to see a progress report of users who did this and maybe by week, how their sales AND ranking on amazon were impacted.


You will earn money for each borrow. How much depends on how many books were borrowed that month. For December, everyone is splitting $500,000, so if there are a million borrows each one will earn you $.50. If there are only 500,000 borrows, each one will earn you $1.

Vicki


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## jimbronyaur (Feb 9, 2011)

Well, again, the bottom line, aside from opinions, etc. is that each and every person needs to look at the contract and their personal situation before making a decision here.

I will say that I do appreciate Amazon taking the time to entertain new programs that they feel will benefit us.  It's been a wild ride this year with so many changes, so as Sheila said, I hope Amazon wouldn't feel "attacked" or anything by the opinions... just everyone has their own path.

I do hope that those who venture into KDP Select will report back with some news in the near future to see how the program is working.  

But aside from opinion and emotion, I have too many sales from outside vendors to commit to the Select program - but again, I do value Amazon's ability to look to the future and willingness to try new things.

-jb


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## Eltanin Publishing (Mar 24, 2011)

_Sheila_ said:


> I clicked "Take Off Sale" and the book was down in hours.
> 
> B&N has been having some reporting issues lately - I'm sure that it is as simple as that.
> 
> ...


Yeah, I'm clicking "take off sale" on a book and nothing happens. When I've done this in the past, it has said "processing" and/or "Off sale" quite quickly...


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## Mr. Coffee Snob (Jun 27, 2011)

I hadn't yet explored the other outlets with my two full-length novels, so it was an easy call for me. I'll be making all three of my Kindle books exclusive for 90 days (or more). The free promotion, even if only 5 days, is certainly enticing. However, I may still release other projects on other outlets, such as individual short stories and such. It's good to keep all options open and reach new readers. Competition is healthy. But congrats to Amazon for being both clever and supportive of indies. Writers who chose to be Amazon exclusive (for whatever reasons) now can be rewarded for their efforts (if the promotions work). Good move overall, and I don't think it will harm the other stores much. After all, I would guess that few writers will pull books that are selling.


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## CNDudley (May 14, 2010)

I fall in the 90% of sales are on Kindle, but I think I'll just do this with my next book because I don't want to cut out anyone getting a Nook for Christmas.

I do agree with the comment that Amazon Prime members are more likely to blow their free borrow on a $12.99 book. I sure would. Participating in KDP Select seems like it would be most valuable for getting your name out there early on, before they're inundated.


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## Zelah Meyer (Jun 15, 2011)

I agree with posters saying that readers are probably going to look at the more expensive titles when deciding which book to take out on loan.

That being the case, since I'm not massively interested in free (I can only see myself doing it with a title  that I was happy to keep free, in which case, five days is nothing) I don't see anything on there at the moment to make me think 'Yes, sign me up now!'

I'm open to the idea - purely for the initial 90 days though, since I definitely want my books to be available to as wide an audience as possible.  However, there would need to be more on the table to make it worthwhile at the moment in order for me to decide to go with it.  I'll wait and see what people report the results to be.  If books enrolled wind up with greater visibility overall then it could be worth it for that - but at the moment that's purely speculation, I'd rather see some figures.

At least I have until April before I start publishing.  Hopefully it should be clearer by then whether it's worth it or not.

As long as there's a fair payment system in place, I'd be happy to sign up to a lending library but exclusive is a big ask and, at the moment, I'm not seeing enough to tempt me personally into doing that yet.  I can see that it would work well for others though - especially those who already have a following (and thus are more likely to get rented through the library) and who make nearly all of their sales on Amazon.


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## Michael Kingswood (Feb 18, 2011)

I don't see that it's an either-or thing.  It's not like you have to put all your titles up.

Myself, I've got two new titles that should be ready to go within a month or so.  I have no issue with taking one of those and seeing how beneficial (or not) this new feature is.  So I wait 90 days to put it up on B&N and Smashwords.  It's not that big a deal.  Now maybe if I had thousands and thousands of readers spread all over the mobile device world who are clamoring for my next book it would be.  But right now?  Yeah, not a big deal at all.  And it might just work out well.  I noticed that KDP Select allows you to make it free for 5 days in each 90 day period.  That could be very helpful for a series: making book one free without all the chicanery of gaming the system to make it free elsewhere.

So yeah, I think I may just give it a try.  Worst case, I delay putting it up on other channels and get no other benefit.  Best case, it's good exposure.  We'll see.

If B&N, Apple, Kobo, et al are smart, they'll try to implement a similar system.  I'd totally go for it with them, too.  Do one series through KDP select for a while, then another from PubIt! select for a while, etc.  It could be a good thing.


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## Kristan Hoffman (Aug 6, 2009)

Speaking of the free clause ("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.") I wonder if this indicates they will stop price-matching if you offer your books free on other sites. Anyone know?


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## Kathleen Valentine (Dec 10, 2009)

Crap. I just got my books in Sony and Apple finally! I'll try it with the new one though.


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## Victorine (Apr 23, 2010)

Kristan Hoffman said:


> Speaking of the free clause ("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.") I wonder if this indicates they will stop price-matching if you offer your books free on other sites. Anyone know?


I don't know for sure, but I suspect that's the direction they are headed. Just my own beliefs based on what I've observed.

One other thing this does, if you enroll your books, is it stops people from making Amazon price match lower so it looks like the book is on "sale."

Vicki


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## D.A. Boulter (Jun 11, 2010)

I have one short story that I somehow forgot to put up on Smashwords--I thought I had, but I hadn't. So, I'll give it a try. As 99% of my reported sales have come from Amazon, I'm not too worried about potential lost sales from this one short story.

I'll report back as to how this works out.


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## RobertMarda (Oct 19, 2010)

This is very interesting. I believe dgaughran brings up good points that should be considered when deciding to participate or not.

Once I have a book to publish I will consider participating in KDP Select. Since I am just starting out and have already decided to start with KDP and expand from there the 90 day exclusivity doesn't bother me.

If everyone thinks like some have mentioned that for the lending library they would go for the most expensive book then I doubt I can count on my book being borrowed much simply because it won't be among the expensive books. 

So, the main (possibly only) incentive for me to get into this program will be if I want to be able to set my book for free when I want. Right now I'm not sure if I even want my book to be free.


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## MoonlitDreams (Apr 15, 2011)

There is no way I can do this with the books I already have available. I agree with others here when I say that would be a pain in the butt. I'm still debating on whether or not it would be feasible in the future for new releases.  I would say it's a definite no for the third book in my trilogy when it comes out, because I have readers who are loyal to their Nooks as well. It wouldn't be right to make them wait 90 more days to grab the third book.  As for independent future releases that aren't in a series - I don't know. I'm still debating.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

Had several phone calls with a lady from Amazon about this. Originally the exclusive length was 6 months, so now it's only 3, I'm quite happy about that  

To bring up something someone mentioned earlier: the 6 million for the first year *is* guaranteed. It will not, and can not, go down. It can go up of course. After that initial first year is when the amount could hypothetically drop, but we've got a long way to go before then, and plenty of time to opt out if it becomes clear it ain't worth it.

And yes, I'm of the same mind that people will rent more expensive books...so fingers crossed for my $4.95s  

B&N is also giving me the middle finger on unpublishing. Hopefully that gets fixed.

Oh, and 2 rentals so far with prime. I'm off to conquer the world!!!


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## D.A. Boulter (Jun 11, 2010)

Michael Kingswood said:


> I don't see that it's an either-or thing. It's not like you have to put all your titles up.
> 
> Myself, I've got two new titles that should be ready to go within a month or so. I have no issue with taking one of those and seeing how beneficial (or not) this new feature is. So I wait 90 days to put it up on B&N and Smashwords. It's not that big a deal.


Just make sure you read the terms and conditions. They have your KDP Select subscription *automatically renewing*. If you don't take your book off of the Select list before the first 90 days are up, you're automatically locked in for the next 90 days.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

Mel Comley said:


> Don't forget to read the terms and conditions guys in particular this one.
> 
> 5 Your Commitment. Your commitment to these terms and conditions is important, and the benefits we provide to you as part of this option are conditioned on your following through on your commitments. If you un-publish your Digital Book, we will remove it from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, but you must continue to comply with these commitments, including exclusivity, through the remainder of the Digital Book's then-current 90-day period of participation in KDP Select. If you don't comply with these KDP Select terms and conditions, we will not owe you Royalties for that Digital Book earned through the Kindle Owners' Lending Library Program, and we may offset any of those Royalties that were previously paid against future Royalties, or require you to remit them to us. We may also withhold your Royalty payments on all your Digital Books for a period of up to 90 days while we investigate. This doesn't limit other remedies we have, such as prohibiting your future participation in KDP Select or KDP generally.
> 
> All I'm saying is be cautious.


I read through the whole contract before I even got out of bed this morning. lol. I can understand other author's reluctance. For me, I have no problem with going exclusive with Amazon. As was mentioned above by another poster, the only thing that gives me pause is the fixed amount of the pot. If I see that I get a lot of books borrowed, but very little in return, I will simply pull out at the end of 90 days. I can then re-publish on B&N. I may never publish again on SWs though, or if I do, just opt into the Apple store, as they are very quick to update but still allows me some flexibility in pricing and such.


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## jhanel (Dec 22, 2010)

I'm jumping in with both feet. I've made so few sales lately on any other platform that I'm thinking "For three months... what the heck?? Let's see how this plays out."

If it's a great, smashing success, awesome. If it fails miserably and I get absolutely zero from it, I'm right where I am today. No harm, no foul.


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## philvan (May 26, 2010)

Testing the water with one title, Stone Song. Unpublished it on Smashwords, and opted for this new Kindle DP lending library - No sales, so I have nothing to lose.


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## meggjensen (Feb 17, 2011)

If everyone takes their books off the iBookstore and B&N, that's just more shelf space for those of us who stay. 

Seriously, though, I think it's an interesting idea for new releases. I'll be keeping an eye on things as well.


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## jhanel (Dec 22, 2010)

I unpublished on SW (my current "other" distributor), but I know that it will take a few weeks for everything to come down. I assume Amazon is going to give us some grace here. Does anyone know if that's the case for sure??


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## 48209 (Jul 4, 2011)

Obviously, I'm not a player in this game with my little title, but I'm wondering about something.

This is hitting right before the holidays and B&N has made a _huge_ push with the nook this season (at least here in the NE). When everyone unwraps those new ereaders this year, what % are going to be nooks? Last year the big gift was the kindle (and, yup, they have some great gifts to put under the tree this year again) - but with the nook push, is the timing bad to be trying this out?

Curious what people think.


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## philvan (May 26, 2010)

Here's a thought - should I raise the price of the book I have entered into KDP Select? Since I have zero sales anyway, there is unlikely to be any actual impact on sales, and a higher price might make it more attractive to potential borrowers. Hmm.


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## Eltanin Publishing (Mar 24, 2011)

jhanel said:


> I unpublished on SW (my current "other" distributor), but I know that it will take a few weeks for everything to come down. I assume Amazon is going to give us some grace here. Does anyone know if that's the case for sure??


They must, since David said he wasn't able to unpublish from PubIT (as I can't, either) yet Amazon accepted him and he's already been borrowed.


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## Todd Russell (Mar 27, 2011)

I won't likely be participating with any existing titles, but I'm exciting about trying this with one or more upcoming new titles. Even if the select payout isn't that great, the exposure will be. Think about it, you'll be in a smaller database with a smaller number of titles. It's also an advertising vehicle of sorts.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

Eltanin Publishing said:


> They must, since David said he wasn't able to unpublish from PubIT (as I can't, either) yet Amazon accepted him and he's already been borrowed.


There's going to be a grace period, the exact day amount they wouldn't tell me but it'd be about two weeks. What'll happen is when they do their whole calculations for who gets paid what, if you're still not exclusive past that grace period, they might not pay you your cut. I was told they'd send you a warning email before anything like that happened, so you could contest it if, say, Kobo is still giving you the middle finger from two months ago.


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## Victorine (Apr 23, 2010)

jhanel said:


> I unpublished on SW (my current "other" distributor), but I know that it will take a few weeks for everything to come down. I assume Amazon is going to give us some grace here. Does anyone know if that's the case for sure??


Yes, they give you a grace period. Just be sure you're trying to get your books unpublished.

Vicki


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## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

meggjensen said:


> If everyone takes their books off the iBookstore and B&N, that's just more shelf space for those of us who stay.


Shush! You'll ruin everything!

B.


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## RedTash (Aug 14, 2011)

philvan said:


> Here's a thought - should I raise the price of the book I have entered into KDP Select? Since I have zero sales anyway, there is unlikely to be any actual impact on sales, and a higher price might make it more attractive to potential borrowers. Hmm.


I did.


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## philvan (May 26, 2010)

Who knows? Raised the price of my KDP Select entry to $3.99 - though I suppose it could just as well be $9.99, to attract readers who might want to borrow a book & 'save'. Perhaps I will try that in a few days  ---


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## destill (Oct 5, 2010)

dgaughran said:


> The math gets worse and worse the more popular the program gets - I can't see the pot rising exponentially.
> 
> The terms we agree to now will set a precedent for the future. I think this model sets the bar way too low in terms of compensation, and it's quite worrying that there is no minimum rental fee that the author can expect.
> 
> In short, the more indies that sign up to this, the less you will receive.


I share these concerns. But I'm going to allow some time to decide if I want to participate. I don't get the feeling this is a "now or never" option.
It would take at least a week or more to take down books from Smashwords and their distributors. I have a fair amount of sales from Apple, but very little from Barnes & Noble. B&N deserves to lose my books. They've done nothing to make humor books easy to find through their online search system.


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## Michael Kingswood (Feb 18, 2011)

D.A. Boulter said:


> Just make sure you read the terms and conditions. They have your KDP Select subscription *automatically renewing*. If you don't take your book off of the Select list before the first 90 days are up, you're automatically locked in for the next 90 days.


Yeah I saw that. They also send out a reminder email 15 days before the end of the period, though, to help you remember. This is just a matter of keeping good records, really.


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## Julie Christensen (Oct 13, 2010)

I sell almost all of my books off Amazon, but I don't think I'll do this.  Even though I have very few sales on Barnes and Noble and Smashwords, I am not of fan of monopolies.  Amazon has been a tremendous force in selling my books, and I will always appreciate that.  But I don't like the way they hang money in front of us to get us to cut off their competitors.  The only reason I would do this is for the money, and I believe that money should not be the main force behind what I do.  I think that my first obligation is to my readers.  I just sell a few hundred books on BN and other venues each month, but I like the fact that different people can buy books different ways, not just through the all-powerful Amazon site.


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## jhanel (Dec 22, 2010)

I'm now in up to my eyeballs. =) And I'm praying for great success.

One final question for those that seem to have Amazon's ear: Is it a rolling 90 days for the 5 free books? Or is it 90 calendar days.

Rolling-Days example: if I make a book free tomorrow, then 80 days from now use the remaining 4 days, will I get 1 "free" day back on the 91st day, then get the 4 remaining days back 80 days after THAT?

Those kinds of distinctions are hair-slitting, but can be VERY valuable to know in terms of promotion and timing. I read the documentation, and it's not exactly clear. At least, not to me.


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## Nicki Leigh (Aug 25, 2011)

I went ahead and enrolled The Waking Grove as it has close to no sales outside of Amazon. As for my other books, I'll keep them the way they are as about 60% of my sales on Trueblood's Plight happens outside of Amazon.

Still waiting on Pubit to fix itself. Hoping it happens soon.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

Half-Orc said:


> Had several phone calls with a lady from Amazon about this. Originally the exclusive length was 6 months, so now it's only 3, I'm quite happy about that
> 
> To bring up something someone mentioned earlier: the 6 million for the first year *is* guaranteed. It will not, and can not, go down. It can go up of course. After that initial first year is when the amount could hypothetically drop, but we've got a long way to go before then, and plenty of time to opt out if it becomes clear it ain't worth it.
> 
> ...


Were those two rentals on books that are still listed with other sites? I'm just curious if we have to wait for our books to be de-listed everywhere before they'll be officially in the lending pool. In which case, the 90 days maybe up before I'm even eligible.


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## Colin Taber (Apr 4, 2011)

I've enrolled.

I'm so useless with tech that I never bothered trying to reformat for SW. Consequently, my 100% Amazon sales record will continue. 

* I will review my pricing.

* I will also consider going free on book 2 as a reverse series entry promo, particularly closer to the launch of book 3.

* I will save going free on book 1 for special opportunities, read "sales".

* More than anything, I want *better * tools than going free.

This will be interesting to see if it generates a different sales/revenue pattern. At this stage, I think it will, but I still want _more _ marketing options.


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## Sam Rivers (May 22, 2011)

I had one book that was only on Amazon so I went ahead and put it on KDP select.  Now I can make it free and get some free advertising.  I also went over to Barnes & Noble and unpublished two books. As soon as these clear, I will put them on KDP Select too.  That will give me 3 books that I can use for promoting free.


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## xandy3 (Jun 13, 2010)

I've enrolled Carousel, and made it free this week.  We'll see how it goes


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

MaryMcDonald said:


> Were those two rentals on books that are still listed with other sites? I'm just curious if we have to wait for our books to be de-listed everywhere before they'll be officially in the lending pool. In which case, the 90 days maybe up before I'm even eligible.


Both books I had rented are still up on B&N, so no worries there.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Hell no.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

RedTash said:


> I did.


I did for my second book, and my first will go back to it's non-sale price of $2.99 once BN takes it off sale and Amazon no longer matches. I'm thinking of raising it to $3.99 though.


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2011)

I'm as big of a fan of Amazon as the next person, but I have to echo some of the concerns others have mentioned.  Tread carefully.  Think long-term.  Don't think "OOOOO PUBLICITY!" because this is not publicity for you.  YOU are content for Amazon.  Amazon is marketing Amazon, NOT YOU.  You are just providing them with content to use as a bulk selling feature.  You may very well be nothing mor that the 90% filler used to bulk up the menu.

In most industries, about 10% of your product line accounts for 90% of your sales.  But...even though people typically buy the same stuff all the time, they like to have the illusion of choice.  It doesn't matter that Big Macs make up the majority of sales for McDonalds.  They still offer all of the other low-volume stuff to give the appearance of choice.  My fear is that this is merely Amazon's way of inflating its numbers so that it can say "ONE MILLION EXCLUSIVE TITLES!" or whatever, even though they expect their customers to borrow the same hundred or so books all the time.  

Keep in mind what exclusivity means.  It means no using Smashwords coupons to give away promotional copies.  It means if your Amazon listing goes awry during a promotional push, you have nowhere to redirect customers.  It means you are cut off from all of those folks getting Nooks or other ebook readers for Christmas this year.  Amazon is the big gun in the industry right now, but that does not make them your friend.  Exclusivity makes them your BOSS.


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## cecilia_writer (Dec 28, 2010)

I've rediscovered the value of procrastination and indecisiveness - I have one book that has never been on Smashwords or any of its channels because I've published it under my real name and I could never get round to/ decide how to work out using a real name and a pen-name on Smashwords! 
So I've just enrolled it. I don't really have much to lose in this case because it hardly sells anything, despite being (IMHO) my best book and the most popular with those of my friends who've read it.


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## Ryne Billings (May 15, 2011)

I've gone ahead and made The Shadows of Caldreth part of KDP Select. What they provide is worth it to me. Once B&N takes down Through the Flames, it will join it too.

I make 96% of my sales on Amazon. Within the last few months, I make more than 99% there, actually. It's a no-brainer for me.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> In most industries, about 10% of your product line accounts for 90% of your sales. But...even though people typically buy the same stuff all the time, they like to have the illusion of choice. It doesn't matter that Big Macs make up the majority of sales for McDonalds. They still offer all of the other low-volume stuff to give the appearance of choice. My fear is that this is merely Amazon's way of inflating its numbers so that it can say "ONE MILLION EXCLUSIVE TITLES!" or whatever, even though they expect their customers to borrow the same hundred or so books all the time.


My thinking is pretty similar, really. I just want to see if I have a shot at being one of those same hundred.


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## 39179 (Mar 16, 2011)

After weighing all the pros and cons and trolling through the terms and conditions, I’ve gone ahead and enrolled Schism. It was still pending at Smashwords for premium distribution (I pulled it off), so for once I’m actually glad that process can sometimes take an eternity.

Its sales on B&N were minimal anyway, and so I don’t see I have a lot to lose. I get potential visibility for it, the 5 days of free option for when I think it’ll work best (and no headaches trying to un-free it), and if it does very little after 3 months have gone by I just take it off Select and republish elsewhere. No big deal.

It’s not a high-priced book, so that may work against it, but I’m hoping most people will motivated to pick up what they’re actually interested in reading as much as the cost saving.

As others have said, this isn’t for everyone. If you make significant sales through other channels it probably wouldn’t be a prudent move. But for me with this particular book it’s certainly worth the 12 week experiment.


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## jhanel (Dec 22, 2010)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> I'm as big of a fan of Amazon as the next person, but I have to echo some of the concerns others have mentioned. Tread carefully. Think long-term. Don't think "OOOOO PUBLICITY!" because this is not publicity for you. YOU are content for Amazon. Amazon is marketing Amazon, NOT YOU. You are just providing them with content to use as a bulk selling feature. You may very well be nothing mor that the 90% filler used to bulk up the menu.
> 
> In most industries, about 10% of your product line accounts for 90% of your sales. But...even though people typically buy the same stuff all the time, they like to have the illusion of choice. It doesn't matter that Big Macs make up the majority of sales for McDonalds. They still offer all of the other low-volume stuff to give the appearance of choice. My fear is that this is merely Amazon's way of inflating its numbers so that it can say "ONE MILLION EXCLUSIVE TITLES!" or whatever, even though they expect their customers to borrow the same hundred or so books all the time.
> 
> Keep in mind what exclusivity means. It means no using Smashwords coupons to give away promotional copies. It means if your Amazon listing goes awry during a promotional push, you have nowhere to redirect customers. It means you are cut off from all of those folks getting Nooks or other ebook readers for Christmas this year. Amazon is the big gun in the industry right now, but that does not make them your friend. Exclusivity makes them your BOSS.


You bring up (as always) great points.

And I agree with all of those. My goal for Amazon is the same as Amazon's goal for me -- to use them to further my needs as far as it will take me. With the term being 90 days, I don't expect to stay "exclusive" with them forever. But I do see this as a great chance to get some publicity at low cost to me. If I get my name out there and start to garner a larger following, I'll drop the exclusivity part for the very reasons you mentioned above. But if nothing much comes of it, I'll probably drop it so that I can pursue other avenues again.

In short: I don't see this as a way of earning a paycheck for the long-term, but as a way to get some promotional time that I can then leverage to further my own name/brand. For new releases, (as the one I'm about to push out) I think I'll default to KDP Select and give them the chance to help me get some traction. After that, I'll probably withdraw it so that I can market it in other arenas (nook, kobo, iThingies, etc).


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## JamieDeBree (Oct 1, 2010)

Yeah...this is going to take a lot more thought from me. The exclusivity thing grates with me - I have huge issues with not being able to make my book available anywhere I choose to. It doesn't even matter so much in terms of sales to me, it's not like I'm making a ton of money elsewhere, but if my books are going to be exclusive anywhere, I want it to be on my own site. 

Now if they'd let me do something like publish my short stories where ever I want, and then publish a collection of shorts exclusive to Amazon/the lending library, that I'd seriously consider. Or publish separate novels non-exclusively, and then do special collections of those books combined exclusive to Amazon/lending, I'd do that too. But even 90 days is a long time to make someone who prefers not to buy from Amazon wait for a book, IMO. 

I'll have to go read the whole contract...but I think I'll probably pass for now. I think I just might set up a yearly subscription to my own publishing site though...I could charge a set yearly fee, all the digital books readers could read. Hmm...need to think more about that one, if subscription is the way things are going.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> I'm as big of a fan of Amazon as the next person, but I have to echo some of the concerns others have mentioned. Tread carefully. Think long-term. Don't think "OOOOO PUBLICITY!" because this is not publicity for you. YOU are content for Amazon. Amazon is marketing Amazon, NOT YOU. You are just providing them with content to use as a bulk selling feature. You may very well be nothing mor that the 90% filler used to bulk up the menu.
> 
> In most industries, about 10% of your product line accounts for 90% of your sales. But...even though people typically buy the same stuff all the time, they like to have the illusion of choice. It doesn't matter that Big Macs make up the majority of sales for McDonalds. They still offer all of the other low-volume stuff to give the appearance of choice. My fear is that this is merely Amazon's way of inflating its numbers so that it can say "ONE MILLION EXCLUSIVE TITLES!" or whatever, even though they expect their customers to borrow the same hundred or so books all the time.
> 
> Keep in mind what exclusivity means. It means no using Smashwords coupons to give away promotional copies. It means if your Amazon listing goes awry during a promotional push, you have nowhere to redirect customers. It means you are cut off from all of those folks getting Nooks or other ebook readers for Christmas this year. Amazon is the big gun in the industry right now, but that does not make them your friend. Exclusivity makes them your BOSS.


Add these additional points to my "hell no." 

Look at the general response when I say I won't buy an exclusive book on Kindle. My reasons: I don't have a kindle reader, I have no interest in reading on my phone, and I sure as heck ain't going to be reading a book on my computer when I already have a dedicated device.

I get told to use Calibre. Ok, so now I have to go download and install a software program to read a book. So, I did it. I bought Sarah Woodbury's, actually. I try to convert it to epub. It says it has DRM on it and can't convert. Hmm ok. So I go grab another book I bought off Amazon months ago. Same thing. In fact, the majority of the books I bought off Amazon cannot be converted.

So, I never did read Sarah's book because, well, I can't. So, that means I never bought her other titles because I got so p***** off over the issues I had trying to read her first one (she might be on Smashwords now, I have no idea). Her books were recommended to me by several "trad published authors" as the best Arthurian book they've read in a while.

...and I can't read it.

I have a high level of technical skill. I could go and crack Sarah's book. I could go and pirate it. I could download yet more software to read it. I'm sure I could have emailed her. But, the truth of the matter is, that's a lot like my day job and I'd just rather pick up Bernard Cromwell's Arthur books off Kobo, who provides them in epub and even with DRM I can install it on all my devices at home.

I don't want my readers to feel like that - ever. Not ever.

Not to mention my overseas readers who will be paying a fortune to read any of my short fiction...

**I'm sorry to use Sarah, but her book ended up being the most frustrating of the entire cluster of books I bought and couldn't read, since it had come so highly recommended at the time.**


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## Sara Pierce (May 15, 2011)

Three of my twelve are enrolled, now to see how it works (and somehow get BN and Bookstrand to release it's hold on those three).


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## LizzyFord (Jan 4, 2011)

I've got 9 books out and will soon release #10, in addition to two special holiday bundles.  Am I gonna try it with at least one book?  Yep.  I sell well at BN, though Amazon is my biggest market.  I won't be abandoning my BN readers by taking a book or two and agreeing to 90 days of exclusivity on Amazon.

I guess I don't think I have anything to lose by giving it a go, and might just find some benefit, if they promote their KDP Select authors even a little bit.


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## meggjensen (Feb 17, 2011)

Does enrolling one book in the program extend across all countries as well? Or can you still choose to distribute only in certain places? Anyone? Bueller?


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## NoCat (Aug 5, 2010)

I will probably try it with a new book in Jan or Feb. I definitely want to wait and see what the first month of results might look like and to give Christmas a chance to happen.  My sales through other venues have been slowly picking up all year, so I'd like to see what the holidays does with those before I make any exclusivity choices.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

I'm enrolling my historical novels today. I'll talk to my co-author and decide about the others.

Being in the library is worth it to me although I'm not thrilled with their putting a limit on how much authors can make. But I'm willing to see how that works.


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## JonathanDAllen (Mar 30, 2011)

Exclusivity is a bitter pill to swallow when you're still trying to make a name for yourself. I just don't think there's enough information out there yet to show whether the trade-off of receiving a piece of the money is worth handicapping my releases to such an extent. That said, I submitted an erotica that I had written under a pseudonym, as it was effectively Kindle-exclusive already and can give me some more information on the pros and cons.


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## Judi Coltman (Aug 23, 2010)

I just enrolled Is It Just Me?  I've never understood Smashwords (I know OK?) and haven't sold a single copy through any of SW's avenues.  Soooooo, I pushed the enroll button.  Let's see what happens.


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## Courtney Milan (Feb 27, 2011)

On a slightly different note, I throw this anecdote out as food for thought. I talked to someone who worked for a law firm that used to have accounts with both Lexis and Westlaw, the two legal document repository/search/retrieval services available. Both services are insanely expensive. One year, the firm decided to get rid of one. So they went to both accounts and said, "We are only going to use one of you. Make us your best offer for the next two years." Westlaw gave them an amazing deal, and everyone was happy.

Two years later, the contract came up for renewal. And they went to Westlaw and said, "Make us your best offer!" And Westlaw gave them a really, really crappy deal. But now, all their attorneys were used to dealing with Westlaw only, and didn't know how to use Lexis, and they were locked in to the service.

When I see something like this, I think in terms of audience, not sales. I don't want to lose Nook readers. The fewer Nook readers I have, the more dependent I am on Amazon, and the less likely I am to get a better deal in the future. As far as I can tell, KDP select seems like a way for Amazon to quickly figure out which authors aren't making much money on other venues. I don't want Amazon to think that it's the only game in town for me. I don't see that as benefiting me.


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## jackblaine (May 22, 2011)

For those of you who have enrolled, does the 90 days start *today* if you enroll today? And, why the heck won't B&N let me unpublish? Are we assured that that won't screw things up even though Amazon is giving a grace period?


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## aaronpolson (Apr 4, 2010)

I enrolled some of my books--those already exclusive on Amazon. 

I'm not willing to go all in at this point, but experimentation is important.


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

Just so I understand this, there's $500,000 in money Amazon will disperse, so if there are 500,000 downloads of KDP books that means Amazon pays $1 per download? That's making the math really simple, but I think that is how it works. 

I wonder if Prime Lending titles that have a normal price that is more expensive will see more action? I'd be more inclined to download the $9.99 ebook for free than the $2.99 ebook.


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## Kent Kelly (Feb 12, 2011)

Well, I regard it as a mutual business partnership.  They’re not my boss.  Last time I checked, I’m not an Amazon employee; but if I pull a salary and get some insurance info from them I will let you all know.  

They already have about 98% of my sales, so from my perspective they’re asking “Do you want more exposure?” and my answer is “Yes.”  As a caveat, my home business isn’t just e-books so I don’t feel as if I’m committing to financial exclusivity per se.  I believe this business decision is one that will be unique to each author and we all can make our informed decisions that will make the most sense to us as individuals.

The principle of Amazon making money off me doesn’t matter much to me – I’m here to (ideally) reach out to readers and (mundanely) pay for my son’s daycare.  As long as I’m getting a fair slice of pie for my contribution, they can make all the money off me they want.


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## CaedemMarquez (Mar 23, 2011)

jackblaine said:


> For those of you who have enrolled, does the 90 days start *today* if you enroll today? And, why the heck won't B&N let me unpublish? Are we assured that that won't screw things up even though Amazon is giving a grace period?


I have this same question regarding Pubit ceasing unpublishing. The website will not allow me either.

I've enrolled one book to test the waters.

Do any of the bigwigs here know what will happen if B&N continues to not allow us to unpublish?

Caedem


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## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

Oops, lots of threads on this popping up. Sorry if this comment is a dupe for some of you.

I'll be releasing the first in a series next week, so this couldn't come at a better time. And since we use an Amazon aStore within our Steel Magnolia Press site, I can still advertise the book through the site and in our newsletters. 

Vol 2 in the series won't release till April, so Vol 1 will need a second 90-day commitment if I want to make it free during the release of Vol 2. But wow, I think having more control over the promo periods is easily worth the trade-off FOR THESE BOOKS. The Vet Tech Tales are memoir-esque essays with an over-arching storyline, so not fiction. 

I'm not yet sold on established series for this effort, or for books in certain genres, such as Romance where SMP authors get a lot of sales in the other stores. I'm sure we'll pilot a campaign for one of the SMP romances in the next 30 days, though. 

This is going to be fun: more data to collect and analyze. Yay!


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## J.M Pierce (May 13, 2010)

Just out of curiosity, who thinks this new program will tank indie book sales for at least the month of December? I'm neither for or against the program, I'm just curious as to what you all might think.


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## isaacsweeney (Jan 1, 2011)

I have an ebook that hasn't sold anthing in a few months -- probably because I don't promote it at all. I'm going unpublish from Smashwords and then enroll that. Because I can. And because I'm going to use it as a marketing tool for my other ebooks.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

J.M. Pierce said:


> Just out of curiosity, who thinks this new program will tank indie book sales for at least the month of December? I'm neither for or against the program, I'm just curious as to what you all might think.


Why on earth would it "tank" indie book sales? Few readers will even know about it. No, I don't think so, but we won't know until we try it out. I hardly think that killing sales is what Amazon has in mind and generally they know what they're doing.


Kent Kelly said:


> Well, I regard it as a mutual business partnership. They're not my boss. Last time I checked, I'm not an Amazon employee; but if I pull a salary and get some insurance info from them I will let you all know.
> 
> They already have about 98% of my sales, so from my perspective they're asking "Do you want more exposure?" and my answer is "Yes." As a caveat, my home business isn't just e-books so I don't feel as if I'm committing to financial exclusivity per se. I believe this business decision is one that will be unique to each author and we all can make our informed decisions that will make the most sense to us as individuals.
> 
> The principle of Amazon making money off me doesn't matter much to me - I'm here to (ideally) reach out to readers and (mundanely) pay for my son's daycare. As long as I'm getting a fair slice of pie for my contribution, they can make all the money off me they want.


My feeling exactly. I think the ability to go free mainly helps authors with a series. I have a new novel in this series coming out soon and about 90% of my sales are on Amazon, so why not, especially if there are more tools coming down the road.


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2011)

I was just able to unpublish from BN after being unable to do it earlier.


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## 39179 (Mar 16, 2011)

foreverjuly said:


> I was just able to unpublish from BN after being unable to do it earlier.


Yep, me too.


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## Yonderer (Jan 3, 2011)

Nope. 

While Amazon sells more than my "other" outlets, allowing Amazons system exclusive rights seems to violate the old adage about "Putting all your eggs in one basket."

Also... does limiting the exposure of a work, ie. marketing exclusively through Amazon, make any "marketing sense" for an Indie Author? I don't know. The truth is, before it could be of any benefit the "sales" would first have to make up for the loss of exposure/sales through all those "other" outlets.

My effort is to expand the exposure of my books, not restrict it. 

I'm slowly gaining an audience, and slowly gaining sales at those "Other" outlets... so I will not turn away from those customers for something that truly only benefits Amazon, and carries little if any benefit for myself, an Indie Author.


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## Robert Bidinotto (Mar 3, 2011)

I have as much or more to lose in this "gamble" as anyone here, given the fact that HUNTER is (a) my only title, and (b) a Top 20 bestseller (#13 overall, #12 in fiction, as of 11 a.m. today).

I was approached by KDP. And I thought about it.

And I enrolled.

I won't reiterate what others have said, pro and con. All valid. But here are some considerations I haven't heard:

1. Will book borrowing cannibalize my sales, thus hurting my sales rankings, and thus costing me more than I could gain? Well, maybe. IF we assume that Amazon Prime members are going to be BUYING my book. But are they?

How many Amazon Prime people are going to buy my $3.99 book in a given month, when they they can borrow a $12.99 book for free? There's only so much reading time per month for most people, even Prime members. So, will they spend money on this no-name Bidinotto guy, or will they borrow Lee Child for free? I'm betting the latter: that the Prime members are borrowing big-name titles from the bestseller lists. These are sales I won't get, from dedicated Amazon readers. Don't I want to introduce _HUNTER_ to these prime (literally) readers?

2. On the other hand: Who would BORROW a $3.99 book like mine when he could borrow Lee Child's much more expensive one? Well, in my case, 29 Prime members, in just the first few hours that I've been enrolled today. Would they have BOUGHT my book if they couldn't have borrowed it? What percentage of them would have? Who knows?

All I can tell you is that the issue of whether Prime members will borrow cheaper books is settled, at least for me: They are.

I'll watch closely. If I see borrowing skyrocketing, but my sales and ranking correspondingly nosediving, I'll bail out and try to protect my ranking. But I suspect this may be a "wash."

3. Someone mentioned establishing a good rapport with Amazon & KDP right now. Folks, let me tell you, these folks have been very, very NICE to me, especially for the past ten days. Life-changingly nice. I have every reason to believe that showing a cooperative, helpful attitude in return will pay dividends in more promotional attention in the future. I've seen first-hand what happens when Amazon turns its billion-watt spotlights on a book. I rather like that exposure, and I believe that participating in arrangements like this one can only open more doors for _HUNTER_ and its sequels.

4. Finally, in my case, my sales via other venues were and remain paltry. A dozen sales via Smashwords over five months. 20 Nook sales this past week, while my Kindle sales for those seven days alone have topped 19,000. So, what am I losing? Duh. No-brainer.

So, let me just add those points to the mix of this discussion. For those of you who are not selling well through non-Amazon retailers, this may be a good deal. Or not. It's a risk, like everything in life. At the moment, I'm risking a hell of a lot more than most of you. And I'll certainly let you know what the results are, because I have nothing to hide, and I'd like to help as many of you as I can with whatever I learn from this process.


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## Dan McGirt (Sep 25, 2010)

I would consider enrolling a new title in KDP Select for a limited time. As a promotional opportunity, it is interesting. As a long-term proposition, it does not seem attractive based on the present terms: the exclusivity requirement and the lack of a guaranteed minimum payment. I certainly wont' pull existing titles from other stores to enroll them in KDP Select. I prefer to have my books available in as many channels as possible. 

Of course, as a Kindle owner and Prime member, it's fantastic.


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## J.M Pierce (May 13, 2010)

JRTomlin said:


> Why on earth would it "tank" indie book sales? Few readers will even know about it. No, I don't think so, but we won't know until we try it out. I hardly think that killing sales is what Amazon has in mind and generally they know what they're doing.


Is it not possible that they're in it to make money off of the Prime memberships? A membership is $79. I'm in no way a mega-reader, but I read 3-4 books a month if I can. If each of those books were just $2.99 each, that would mean I spent $107.64 on e-books in a year. That in itself makes the Prime membership pretty attractive. Now you add into that the holiday season where I can get free shipping on tons of stuff and it looks really good.

Basically what I'm saying is that it could be Amazon's goal to sell more Prime Memberships which could possibly mean more readers getting free books year round instead of purchasing. That doesn't sound to far out of the realm of possibility to me.

Like I said before, I'm not for or against it, and I'm certainly not trying to sway anyone one way or the other. It was just a thought.

I sincerely wish you the best of luck!


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## J. Tanner (Aug 22, 2011)

Buzzard's Last Day was only on Amazon anyway so I went ahead and enrolled it. After Christmas seems like a good time to try free, no?


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2011)

J.M. Pierce said:


> Just out of curiosity, who thinks this new program will tank indie book sales for at least the month of December? I'm neither for or against the program, I'm just curious as to what you all might think.


That is a good question. Last year, indies benefited because thousands of people got Kindles for Christmas, and then turned around and snatched up cheap books. This year, thousands of people are going to be getting the Kindle Fire for Christmas...and it comes with a year of Prime FREE. All those people who otherwise might have been snatching up lower priced indie books now have the choice to borrow higher priced bestsellers for free.


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## Kristan Hoffman (Aug 6, 2009)

Just thinking through a few points "aloud" here, as I let everyone's comments sink in throughout the day. Feel free to add/correct/dispute/ruminate with me.

- Does this open our books up to more exposure? Technically speaking, no. Any Amazon Prime member can already read our books now, should they so desire. (And by going exclusive, we would actually limit others from being able to.)

- But will our books be more "visible" as part of the Amazon Prime lending program? Well, to Amazon Prime members, probably. But who else is going to look at that database? And how will that database be set apart/marketed to Prime users anyway? (Does anyone know?)

- Are Amazon Prime members more likely to review products (and thus improve what other customers see when they look at our book pages, since # and quality of reviews is considered highly legitimizing)? Potentially, if we assume that they are more "serious" Amazon users/consumers.

- Are there certain genres or types of books that could benefit from this program more? (Do we have any demographic or statistical info on Prime users?)

- This point has been made but it's worth repeating: It seems likely to me that people will be using the Prime library to check out already-hyped books (such as The Hunger Games or The Help) that they don't want to pay for but would read for free, versus indies that are already lower priced than traditionally published books. But when they exhaust those options (how long might that take? they can only borrow one free book per month, right?) would they then turn to indies?

- "Getting in good" with Amazon makes some sense, but do we think there will be any negative reactions from the other retailers? Ex. I suspect the problems people had un-publishing from B&N this morning simply had to do with a high volume of indies rushing over there to do it, but what if B&N refuses to let those titles back into their database? (I'm not saying I think this is likely, just saying it's worth thinking about.)

- Does the ability to make our books free with ease (rather than with the roundabout price matching some of us currently use) make this worthwhile in and of itself? Going free is a great way to get exposure, and being able to easily control it would allow us to strategically time it with other events (like a pre-holiday boost, or when we launch the next book in a series, etc.).

Alright, I think that's all I've got for now. Again, I'm not coming to conclusions yet, just jotting down thoughts and questions I have.


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## Mr. RAD (Jan 4, 2011)

Quite the popular thread this morning.

I've read as many comments here as I could, but something is bothering me about this. According to Amazon, 100,000 titles will be available for borrowing this month and all participating authors will get their share of $500,000. What you earn will be a percentage of that price. Now, suppose a really popular author (Suzanne Collins, for example) decides to join the program. What's stopping that person's book(s) from being borrowed 500,000 times? Wouldn't that person eat up the majority, if not all, of the available $500,000? Wouldn't that mean no one else gets paid?

I ask this because I've seen many authors here make their books free and get tens of thousands of downloads in less than two weeks or less. Since each book in this program is essentially free (I think), a popular author could rack up a lot of borrowed book in a 90-day period.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

I'm in. Amazon accounts for 98% of my sales, anyway. And I like the ability to do targeted, limited free promotions.


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## Zelah Meyer (Jun 15, 2011)

Just read the Writer Beware blog post on this: http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2011/12/fine-print-of-amazons-new-kdp-select.html

Regardless of how I feel about her stance on the Penguin vanity press service, she makes a good point about the non-compete clause in the KDP Select deal.

I doubt Amazon would ever use it to stop you publishing other titles (not enrolled in the program) elsewhere because of the bad publicity that would cause - but I'm not keen on signing up to something that COULD let a company do that!

Edited to add: Mind you, reading through the normal (non Select) KDP agreement "You grant to each Amazon party, throughout the term of this Agreement, a nonexclusive, irrevocable, right and license to distribute Digital Books, directly and through third-party distributors, in all digital formats by all digital distribution means available." sounds as if it means that once you publish with them they can carry on publishing you forever whether you want them to or not. So I'm guessing you're already riding on trust once you sign up.

As I said above, I doubt they'd ever abuse these rights because they'd stand to lose more than they'd gain. Worth noting they're taking them when you sign up though!


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## jhanel (Dec 22, 2010)

Kristan Hoffman said:


> - This point has been made but it's worth repeating: It seems likely to me that people will be using the Prime library to check out already-hyped books (such as The Hunger Games or The Help) that they don't want to pay for but would read for free, versus indies that are already lower priced than traditionally published books. But when they exhaust those options (how long might that take? they can only borrow one free book per month, right?) would they then turn to indies?


My sales were already tanked. Zero on any given distribution outlet. So for me, this is a no brainer. Try it. If it doesn't work out, then I literally haven't lost anything. But if they can only "borrow" one book per month, then this will help me with my series. Even if they borrow the first book, if I make them engaging enough, they can either wait for their next month and burn their "freebie" on my piddly $2.99 book, or pay the $2.99 and use their freebie on a $12.99 book.

It's a gamble, and a long shot, but one that I'm interested in testing. And like I said, if it doesn't work out, I'll try a new tactic at the end of 90 days.



Kristan Hoffman said:


> - Does the ability to make our books free with ease (rather than with the roundabout price matching some of us currently use) make this worthwhile in and of itself? Going free is a great way to get exposure, and being able to easily control it would allow us to strategically time it with other events (like a pre-holiday boost, or when we launch the next book in a series, etc.).


DEFINITELY! I would love the ability to do a media blitz just prior to the release of my new novel, but have the ability to shut it down within a 48-hour window of accuracy. I think -- for me -- these two reasons alone make it attractive enough to try.


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## wildwitchof (Sep 2, 2010)

Fine print question: what if you have a series of short stories as separate titles, and are also selling them bundled together?

This is popular in erotica. Hot Story #1, Hot Story #2, Hot Story #3, Bundled Hot Stories #1-3. Four titles, the shorts priced low, the bundled sold at a unit discount but high enough to get the 70% royalty.

So.... question is, if an author put Hot Story #1 as an exclusive, but left the anthology up everywhere, is this a violation of terms?

Here's the closest answer I found in KDP's FAQ:
"During this period of exclusivity, you cannot sell or distribute, or give anyone else the right to sell or distribute, your Digital Book _(or content that is reasonably likely to compete commercially with your Digital Book, diminish its value, or be confused with it)_..."

Just another thing to consider. I'd like to try one of the shorts as an exclusive, but not take down the anthology from other sites. Wonder what they'd say to that.


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## melissafmiller (Feb 17, 2011)

Mr. RAD said:


> Quite the popular thread this morning.
> 
> I've read as many comments here as I could, but something is bothering me about this. According to Amazon, 100,000 titles will be available for borrowing this month and all participating authors will get their share of $500,000. What you earn will be a percentage of that price. Now, suppose a really popular author (Suzanne Collins, for example) decides to join the program. What's stopping that person's book(s) from being borrowed 500,000 times? Wouldn't that person eat up the majority, if not all, of the available $500,000? Wouldn't that mean no one else gets paid?
> 
> I ask this because I've seen many authors here make their books free and get tens of thousands of downloads in less than two weeks or less. Since each book in this program is essentially free (I think), a popular author could rack up a lot of borrowed book in a 90-day period.


Unless Suzanne Collins uploads her books through KDP, she'd not eligible for that pot of money, as I understand it. I trust she'll be taken care of though.


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## Mr. RAD (Jan 4, 2011)

melissafmiller said:


> Unless Suzanne Collins uploads her books through KDP, she'd not eligible for that pot of money, as I understand it. I trust she'll be taken care of though.


Yes she will. Nevertheless, my questions still stand.


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## Joseph Flynn (Sep 29, 2010)

Julie says, "In most industries, about 10% of your product line accounts for 90% of your sales."

Has anyone else noticed an Orwellian note in this thread? Just as in "Animal Farm" where some animals are more equal than others, it appears with Amazon some authors are more equal than others. Some of the authors posting comments on this thread know a lot more about KDP Select because they have direct contact with Amazon. Granted, some people sell more books than others, but if the playing field is going to be level so everyone will have the same chance of succeeding, then information should be equally available to all. Otherwise the 10% who account for 90% of sales seem to be predetermined.

Dave Gaughran says, "I want to start selling direct from my own site - maybe in January."

This is a very important point because the fact is we're all subject to the whims of Amazon and the other big distributors as long as we have nowhere else to go. It has to be considered a given that the big guys will all act in their best interests regardless of the effects it has on anyone else. You can do your best to roll with the changes but you can't really fight them. It seems to me that having your own store, though, and doing your best to bring readers to it is not a bad last resort. Who knows? If a lot of people find themselves in the underprivileged 90% — or even 99% to borrow from Occupy Wall Street — indie writers might become the new indie bookstores — with lots of advantages those poor souls lacked, especially if indie bookstores were to use their power collectively.


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2011)

Who wants to take bets how long it will take for "borrowing" exchanges to start popping up with authors borrowing each others books to game the system?

And more importantly, will Betsy give me the right to fully throttle said people in public?


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## Todd Russell (Mar 27, 2011)

J.M. Pierce said:


> Is it not possible that they're in it to make money off of the Prime memberships? A membership is $79. I'm in no way a mega-reader, but I read 3-4 books a month if I can. If each of those books were just $2.99 each, that would mean I spent $107.64 on e-books in a year. That in itself makes the Prime membership pretty attractive. Now you add into that the holiday season where I can get free shipping on tons of stuff and it looks really good.


It's my understanding that Amazon actually loses money on the cost of the Prime membership itself (due to the shipping costs and average amount ordered by Prime members). They profit of course because of the margins on the items ordered. I like the fact that Amazon Prime members tend to order a lot from Amazon. If they are buying a lot of books that means they are readers or know some. Never a bad thing for our business


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Mr. RAD said:


> Quite the popular thread this morning.
> 
> I've read as many comments here as I could, but something is bothering me about this. According to Amazon, 100,000 titles will be available for borrowing this month and all participating authors will get their share of $500,000. What you earn will be a percentage of that price. Now, suppose a really popular author (Suzanne Collins, for example) decides to join the program. What's stopping that person's book(s) from being borrowed 500,000 times? Wouldn't that person eat up the majority, if not all, of the available $500,000? Wouldn't that mean no one else gets paid?
> 
> I ask this because I've seen many authors here make their books free and get tens of thousands of downloads in less than two weeks or less. Since each book in this program is essentially free (I think), a popular author could rack up a lot of borrowed book in a 90-day period.


This is a valid point. Even just a Robert Bidinotto could really take a big bite out of the pie. 

The math of the $500K/month is NOT pretty once a lot of books are in the system--unless maybe you're lucky enough to be near the top of a major category, such as Fiction.


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## Dave Dutton (Sep 23, 2011)

I'm quite happy to pootle along making sales hither and thither. 
I'll sit on the porch sucking mah gums and wait to see how it goes.


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## harryfreedman (Nov 9, 2011)

Mel Comley said:


> I'd just like to offer a word of caution, don't put all your eggs in one basket.
> 
> IMO Amazon has been messing the Indie authors around A LOT this year. We've all seen our sales diminish.
> 
> Just be careful and think about things from a business POV, please.


You're right Mel. Indie authors are in danger of being squeezed by the mainstream publishers coming into the ebook market. The European Commission have just announced an antitrust investigation into price fixing by 5 big publishers and Apple. The consequence of price fixing, if it is happening, is that ebooks are being made uncompetitive in Europe, which affects the size of the market and hence our sales.

Please take a look at the blog I wrote about this today and please, anyone who agrees that indie authors need better collaboration if we are to stay strong in the market, let me know. http://www.harryfreedmanbooks.com/blog/2011/12/08/the-big-boys-are-here-why-independent-publishers-need-to-collaborate/


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## Elmore Hammes (Jun 23, 2009)

I am willing to give it a try for my newest title, Questionable Heroes, because it hasn't reached the distribution channels through Smashwords yet, so it was simple to unpublish and try that. Amazon has far outweighed the sales from other sites for my books, so it doesn't seem like too much of a risk to try it exclusive for 90 days.
Elmore


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## Kathelm (Sep 27, 2010)

The exclusivity part seems to easy to choke on.

Take me, for example.  I'm a nook owner.  I still use this forum and buy books from authors here.  However, if I see that your book is cheaper on kindle (and I do always check amazon because that's where sig links point, and that's where the most reviews are), then I probably don't buy your book.  If you're exclusive to Amazon, then I definitely don't buy your book.

I don't see this as a play to abuse authors, but rather to abuse consumers.  Amazon has been getting serious competition from other ereaders, the nook and iPad being the most obvious contenders.  It's a lot easier to compete on content than on hardware.  Exclusivity deals are a way to do that, but those tend to be better for distributors than consumers.  

So I'm not enrolling.  I don't want to be locked in to a single vendor for any length of time, and I don't want my reader(s?) to be locked in, either.

(Another bit of pure speculation is that Amazon Prime subscriptions are probably declining because of digital media.  Free downloads are a better incentive than free shipping in our glorious modern world.)


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Kathelm said:


> So I'm not enrolling. I don't want to be locked in to a single vendor for any length of time, and I don't want my reader(s?) to be locked in, either.


It's even worse than a single vendor: it's a single format.

No thanks.


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## *DrDLN* (dr.s.dhillon) (Jan 19, 2011)

CraigInTwinCities said:


> Does making your books available in print everywhere via CreateSpace disqualify you?


No. Because you're allowed to sell hard copies anywhere which includes CS and other distributors


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## Martin Perry (Aug 2, 2011)

I just found out that readers can only access the library from their Kindle. You can't browse from a desktop/laptop and I assume not from any app version of Kindle.


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Mr. RAD said:


> Quite the popular thread this morning.
> 
> I've read as many comments here as I could, but something is bothering me about this. According to Amazon, 100,000 titles will be available for borrowing this month and all participating authors will get their share of $500,000. What you earn will be a percentage of that price. Now, suppose a really popular author (Suzanne Collins, for example) decides to join the program. What's stopping that person's book(s) from being borrowed 500,000 times? Wouldn't that person eat up the majority, if not all, of the available $500,000? Wouldn't that mean no one else gets paid?
> 
> I ask this because I've seen many authors here make their books free and get tens of thousands of downloads in less than two weeks or less. Since each book in this program is essentially free (I think), a popular author could rack up a lot of borrowed book in a 90-day period.


All participating authors get paid a percent of the $500,000 based on books borrowed. Example. A Modern Witch is borrowed 500,000 times. Say for simplicity sake, 1,000,000 books are borrowed total in the program. A Modern Witch gets $250,000 (50%) of the $500,000 allotted to the program.

No name indie author's book Haunted on Bourbon Street is borrowed 10 times. She gets $5.

(edited to use a Indie published novel since the program is only for indie-published books)


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## D.A. Boulter (Jun 11, 2010)

Gretchen Galway said:


> Fine print question: what if you have a series of short stories as separate titles, and are also selling them bundled together?
> 
> This is popular in erotica. Hot Story #1, Hot Story #2, Hot Story #3, Bundled Hot Stories #1-3. Four titles, the shorts priced low, the bundled sold at a unit discount but high enough to get the 70% royalty.
> 
> ...


In the terms and conditions it says:Read the Terms and conditions:

*4. Book Eligibility.* Because this option is for *exclusive content* . . .

My guess is that you can't do what you suggest because the content you're offering Amazon isn't exclusive.


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## wildwitchof (Sep 2, 2010)

DChase said:


> All participating authors get paid a percent of the $500,000 based on books borrowed. Example. The Hungar Games is borrowed 500,000 times. Say for simplicity sake, 1,000,000 books are borrowed total in the program. The Hungar Games gets $250,000 (50%) of the $500,000 allotted to the program.
> 
> No name indie author's book Haunted on Bourbon Street is borrowed 10 times. She gets $5.


Only indie-published (KDP) books are included in the "$500,000!" program.


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## melissafmiller (Feb 17, 2011)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> This is a valid point. Even just a Robert Bidinotto could really take a big bite out of the pie.
> 
> The math of the $500K/month is NOT pretty once a lot of books are in the system--unless maybe you're lucky enough to be near the top of a major category, such as Fiction.


Right now, there are apparently around 5,000 titles in the library, according to Amazon's website: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?docId=1000739811

The FAQs for KDP Select state as follows:

If more authors choose KDP Select for their titles, how will it affect my share of the monthly fund? 
The size of the fund is determined to make participation in KDP Select a compelling option for authors and publishers. We will review the size of the fund each month to consider adjustments.

I noticed a reference to a $6 million fund. What is that? 
We expect the total KDP Kindle Owners' Lending Library fund will be *at least *$6 million for all of 2012. Books enrolled in KDP Select have the opportunity to earn a share of this fund each month. (emphasis mine)

I understand that the monthly fund amount for December 2011 is $500,000. How do you determine the fund amount? 
The size of the fund is determined to make participation in KDP Select a compelling option for authors and publishers. We will review the size of the fund each month to consider adjustments.

Are the FAQs part of the contract? No, they are not. But, how does it benefit Amazon to get a large pool of authors in the library, short-change them, have them leave after 90 days, and then deal with irate Prime members who ponied up for the privilege of borrowing books from a pool the dried up? I realize people distrust Amazon, but as an Amazon customer, I have never had anything but great customer service. They built their empire on it.

Now, I do understand the concerns people raise to exclusivity. And, I think each of us needs to do some serious thinking about our goals and readership before deciding, but I think the idea that the pot is going to ultimately prove too small is a strawman argument.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

I've been checking my kindle for the total number of books in the lending library (this includes the new KDP Select titles as well as the titles that were already in the lending library--but the previous titles aren't competing for the $500K pot). Here are the data points so far:

9:49 am MST: 10,732 total books in the lending library
10:13 am MST: 11,248
10:57 am MST: 12,072 

The numbers aren't updating in real-time (they're updated in big chunks all at once), but the updates aren't coming once per hour. The updates are coming in more frequently than that.

I didn't check what the numbers were right before the announcement of KDP Select. Did anyone see that? I know that about a month ago there were 5,000-something books in the LL, but I don't know if the numbers went up considerably from that 5K-something number before KDP Select started today. If the number was still around 5K, then we're already up to around 7K books competing in KDP Select. It's still early in the day and Amazon's email about KDP Select only hit me about an hour ago, so I have to think the number of enrolled books is going to go up considerably in the next 24 hours, as well as over the next week. I think that's bad news for 99% of the people hoping to make any significant money from this.


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## melissafmiller (Feb 17, 2011)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> I've been checking my kindle for the total number of books in the lending library (this includes the new KDP Select titles as well as the titles that were already in the lending library--the previous titles aren't competing for the $500K pot). Here are the data points so far:
> 
> 9:49 am MST: 10,732 total books in the lending library
> 10:13 am MST: 11,248
> ...


Wow, that is quick. Earlier this morning, I do believe the number was around 5K, as I just posted above. I could be wrong though, because I need more coffee.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Gretchen Galway said:


> Only indie-published (KDP) books are included in the "$500,000!" program.


Except that some big name authors do self-publish as well. Ilona Andrews, for example.


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Gretchen Galway said:


> Only indie-published (KDP) books are included in the "$500,000!" program.


Thanks for that. I edited my example.


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## Marata Eros (Jul 23, 2011)

*


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## D.A. Boulter (Jun 11, 2010)

jackblaine said:


> For those of you who have enrolled, does the 90 days start *today* if you enroll today? And, why the heck won't B&N let me unpublish? Are we assured that that won't screw things up even though Amazon is giving a grace period?


Yes. My end of term is March 6/2012.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

melissafmiller said:


> Now, I do understand the concerns people raise to exclusivity. And, I think each of us needs to do some serious thinking about our goals and readership before deciding, but I think the idea that the pot is going to ultimately prove too small is a strawman argument.


I disagree. I do think that Amazon is going to have to increase the size of the pot from $500K, because this could turn into a PR nightmare for them if there are 25,000 KDP Select books in the lending library and the authors make $20 on average for each book in the program (or $10/book on average if there are 50,000 KDP Select books). Of course, some authors will make more money, but that also means that many more authors will make even less than the average amount per book.

But is Amazon going to increase that $500K/month to 1 million? 1.5 million? 2 million? Because Amazon is going to have to significantly increase that $500K amount to keep authors happy and enrolled in the program. And two months from now, when authors are tired of hearing complaints from people with Nooks and they've only got $15/month to show from the lending library, and when they cannot opt out of this program for another month, Amazon is going to hear a lot of griping and complaining from those authors. A relatively small percentage of authors might be fairly happy with the lending library, but if the number of books in KDP Select keeps increasing, then many more authors are likely to be unhappy with Amazon.

And on top of all of that, Amazon will look like even more of a bad guy to people who have Nooks, Kobos, Sony readers, etc. I think this could turn into a major PR problem for Amazon.


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## wildwitchof (Sep 2, 2010)

Krista D. Ball said:


> Except that some big name authors do self-publish as well. Ilona Andrews, for example.


Oh, totally. That's why I said indie-pubbed not indie-author. In romance, tons of trad-published authors are putting out their backlist, under-the-bed manuscripts, and new shorts. I think it's great for them, but makes my life (as an unknown) harder.

If I did opt into the Select program, it wouldn't be for a piece of the lending-pie. Going free, maybe.

Overall, though, I'm in the Not-now camp. I sell small potatoes, but half (or more) of those are at BN. And I just don't like the idea, for all the other reasons already mentioned.


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## Sam Rivers (May 22, 2011)

I put another book on there, so I now have 4 on KDP Select.  I am not concerned about making money off of this program.  These books are not selling well so pulling them from Barnes & Noble won't hurt me any. I am going to use these books to promote my other books.  So I will use the 5 free days to promote the book and maybe it will help sell my other books.  Maybe I will make one free each month.  Of course, I have plenty of books so may put some others on KDP Select if the free helps my sales.

How long after you sign up is it before you are allowed to change the price to free?  I would like to go ahead and make one free now.


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## *DrDLN* (dr.s.dhillon) (Jan 19, 2011)

I will not jump into this because even to test 1 or 2 books for 90 days, it will take quite a bit of efforts to withdraw from other sellers and then listing back if it doesn't work.

To try new book for this program does make better sense. Distribute on amazon for 90 days before listing with other distributors. Good luck to those who are excited about enrolling.


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## ShaunaG (Jun 16, 2011)

Yeah. I'm not doing it.

For my pen name (erotica titles) I sell about 50/50 between Amazon and B&N so that would be a stupid move financially.

For my real name and my YA books I do sell the majority on Amazon. But just the other day I had a fan ask me when my new book would be available to buy on Kobo because she has a Kobo reader. What would I have to tell her? "Sorry, but you're not an Kindle reader so you're not important to me."? No. I can't alienate even one reader. If Amazon would let me distribute it through  my blog for non-Kindle people, I might consider it. I am a Nook owner myself and if I found out an Author I liked was exclusively on Amazon it would piss me off and make me think twice about ever buying from them again. 

Also I too find it funny they're are opening it up to us just before Christmas. I can't imagine missing out on the new Nook owners! My dad just bought my mom a Nook Tablet for Christmas so I know plenty of other people are getting them and we'll miss out on their purchases. 

But I do wish those of you who do join in the best of luck! It is tempting and maybe I'll change my mind once we get some real results from you guys, but for now, not for me.


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## Mr. RAD (Jan 4, 2011)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> This is a valid point. Even just a Robert Bidinotto could really take a big bite out of the pie.


Hey, I honestly thought of typing Robert's name in there. And I should have, as I've just been informed that the program is strictly for indies.



Krista D. Ball said:


> Except that some big name authors do self-publish as well. Ilona Andrews, for example.


Thanks for pointing this out, Krista. The point is that a single author can get the lions share of the $500,000 by having his/her books borrowed more. And as more big name authors self-publish and join the program, indies could catch hell making money.


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## Ryne Billings (May 15, 2011)

Just to be clear, I didn't opt in for the lending library. I didn't really care about it at all. After all, why would they want to borrow my $2.99 books when they can borrow $20 books?

No, I did it because I've sold 7 or 8 copies of my first book through B&N, around 7 books total on Smashwords (both of my books together), and 1178 books through Amazon in the last six months.

That means 1% of my sales don't come through Amazon. The ability to make books free for 5 days every 3 months more than makes up for that 1% in my opinion.

This decision won't make sense for many of you, especially authors who make more through other channels. For those of us who make most of our sales through Amazon... it's not such a bad deal.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Artemis Hunt said:


> I will be trying it with a new novella by the end of the week. Rest of my stuff are on all other channels. I sell quite a lot on ARE, Bookstrand and Nook, but I don't mind waiting out the 3 months.


What's ARE and Bookstrand? URLs, please?


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Gretchen Galway said:


> Oh, totally. That's why I said indie-pubbed not indie-author.


Can we just start labelling everything with numbers? I'm too confused by indie but not self pub, indie but really self pub, indie but not really indie, indie but only kinda....can we just have some kind of grading system. We'll put stars in our avatars: I am a Level 6 Indie.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Vera Nazarian said:


> What's ARE and Bookstrand? URLs, please?


All Romance, Bookstrand, Diesel, etc -- Just more places to buy/sell ebooks

I sell a few at Bookstrand.


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## Elmore Hammes (Jun 23, 2009)

Franklin Eddy said:


> How long after you sign up is it before you are allowed to change the price to free? I would like to go ahead and make one free now.


Pretty much right away - I just enrolled "Questionable Heroes" an hour ago, and then went back in after seeing your question. If you click on the title for an enrolled book, then the publish page that comes up has an area for Kindle Select with a link for promotions manager, where you can create/edit/delete free book promotions. The earliest start date it allowed me to pick was tomorrow. I set up two different campaigns, one for two days and one for three days to see how it goes.


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## ShaunaG (Jun 16, 2011)

Vera Nazarian said:


> What's ARE and Bookstrand? URLs, please?


AllRomanceEbooks (allromanceebooks.com) and Bookstrand (bookstrand.com). Just other, smaller publishers mostly for romance and erotica titles (at least for AllRomanceEbooks).


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

J.M. Pierce said:


> Just out of curiosity, who thinks this new program will tank indie book sales for at least the month of December? I'm neither for or against the program, I'm just curious as to what you all might think.


Well the books are only available to Prime members, and they get one download a month. Most will opt for well-known books by name authors.

It's going to have an impact on sales in that it means one less book purchased per month per Prime reader, but at least a download will result in some money.

People will know after the first month when Amazon tells participating authors how many KDP books were borrowed.

So does anyone know if a borrowed book counts towards sales ranking?


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## Lisa J. Yarde (Jul 15, 2010)

Vera Nazarian said:


> What's ARE and Bookstrand? URLs, please?


Bookstrand http://www.bookstrand.com/publish-yourself-create-sell-your-own-e-books


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Mr. RAD said:


> Thanks for pointing this out, Krista. The point is that a single author can get the lions share of the $500,000 by having his/her books borrowed more. And as more big name authors self-publish and join the program, indies could catch hell making money.


That is, in fact, how it normally happens in business. This will not be an equal share of the pot across everyone's bank accounts. There are going to be a lot of people on the under $20 pot.


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

DreamWeaver said:


> A minor correction... Actually you can browse the list of books that are available through the Kindle Owners' Lending Library on your computer. Here's the search link. But you can only borrow those books from your Kindle device.


So only Kindle owners can borrow books from the lending library? If I have an Android or iOS device with the Kindle app I'm not eligible?


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## Joseph Flynn (Sep 29, 2010)

Any agreement that is drawn up by an attorney representing one party and is given to another party not represented by an attorney and unable to renegotiate any terms of the agreement is inherently one sided, and to be approached cautiously if at all.


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## Gregory Lynn (Aug 9, 2011)

I am intrigued as all hell by this. I am also somewhat pleased that I don't have a title for sale yet so I don't have to make any decisions.

I have a question, though. I remember reading something a few weeks back about some of the larger publishers being torqued off by the whole lending library thing and pissing and moaning enough that their books aren't included. Was there some resolution to that matter?

At the risk of stating the obvious, you're trading exclusivity for access to the lending library and the ability to make the work free for five days over three months more reliably than with price matching bingo.

I can easily see how it would be worth it but I am not convinced that it will be.

It will be worth it if access to the lending library broadens your audience more than access to the other sales platforms and we don't really have the data on that yet. And obviously, it's going to be different for different people. Has anyone taken a serious look at what genres do better on the other sales channels?

I think the idea that folks will use lending to borrow the more expensive books while buying cheaper indies, I think there's some truth to that but it is oversimplified. I am sure there is a subset of the market that is going to do that because I am going to do that. Heck, I have already done that. I borrowed a book on story architecture because it was ten bucks the same day I bought something else that was .99 temporarily. I don't think I am alone but I also don't think I am in the majority. Consider my buying habits. I am, at the moment, very money conscious and I am indie friendly which is to say that I am not only open to buying indie books, current financial pressures actually make them a preferential buy for me. There are several traditionally published books that I have not purchased simply because I don't want to be spending that money now. I do not for a minute believe I am alone. I also do not really think that's a majority.

I think it is also quite possible that the driving factor of whether someone buys a book or gets it from the library is going to be risk rather than cost. Those of us who read a lot can reasonably say that borrowing a ten dollar book allows us to purchase 3-10 other cheaper books giving us 4-11 books for that ten dollars. For a lot of us, reading that many books in a month is normal. We're not necessarily normal. A lot of people are going to be reading one or two books a month. For these guys--and more frequent readers who are less good at math--I think risk might be the thing.

We all have authors whose works we will buy almost sight unseen. I remember when I was thirteen or so I'd go into a bookstore and if Piers Anthony had a new book out the likelihood of me walking out with it was directly proportional to how much money I had. I rather strongly suspect that we are going to have a significant portion of the buying audience who would rather spend ten dollars on an author they know and trust and borrow a book from an author they don't even if the author they don't know is much cheaper.

And, of course, there is also a big part of the market that doesn't really have any concept of the difference and is just going to be borrowing or buying books that they feel like reading at that particular moment.

Also, I think this whole thing has the potential to radically change the landscape of indie publishing which is already rather fluid so I would very much like to collect a list of what folks are saying about this. I am most interested in hearing about your decision making process and in hard data. I will be putting the list here (http://tftmm.wordpress.com/kdp-select-mega-list/) so if you have something you want listed, feel free to drop me a line or post a link in the comments section.

Holy crap, 36 replies while I was commenting. That's rather a lot. Holy crap, while I was saying holy crap, another comment was posted.

Holy double crap, I forgot to mention the thing about which I am most interested. Will this impact the free price matching bingo for books that aren't in the program? I can easily see this as a way to reduce the amount of stuff they're giving away but I can also easily see them really not caring and continuing as is.


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## wildwitchof (Sep 2, 2010)

Krista D. Ball said:


> Can we just start labelling everything with numbers? I'm too confused by indie but not self pub, indie but really self pub, indie but not really indie, indie but only kinda....can we just have some kind of grading system. We'll put stars in our avatars: I am a Level 6 Indie.


LOL. From now on, you may refer to me as Chaotic Evil Indie Level 6. (CEIL6)


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Gretchen Galway said:


> LOL. From now on, you may refer to me as Chaotic Evil Indoe Level 6. (CEIL6)


I'll start making the badges.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

Gretchen Galway said:


> LOL. From now on, you may refer to me as Chaotic Evil Indoe Level 6. (CEIL6)


Uh oh. We're about to have problems. I'm a Lawful Good Indie Paladin Level 5. (LGIPL5)


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

modwitch said:


> I hear people saying monopolies are bad and competition is good for us. My reply - Amazon is a virtual monopoly for many of us already, and they've been treating us fairly well. The Big 6 offer each other plenty of competition. Anyone want to go be one of their midlist authors?


I like Amazon, but I'm wary. Look at how they treat States over building a warehouse, demanding tax exemptions and so forth. When California said they were going to demand sales tax for Amazon associates, Amazon cut off those associates in the blink of an eye. And there's this latest little thing where they are asking people to go into stores and scan prices and in return they will give them a 5% discount up to $5 off merchandise. It seems underhanded to me.

That said, most people seem to sell better on Amazon. I still think competiton is a good thing, so let's hope B&N works on their algorithms and improves them.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Half-Orc said:


> Uh oh. We're about to have problems. I'm a Lawful Good Indie Paladin Level 5. (LGIPL5)


hold on, hold on, making badges is a full time job there. I'm going to have to start charging. Geez, there's a lot of you people.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> I've been checking my kindle for the total number of books in the lending library (this includes the new KDP Select titles as well as the titles that were already in the lending library--but the previous titles aren't competing for the $500K pot). Here are the data points so far:
> 
> 9:49 am MST: 10,732 total books in the lending library
> 10:13 am MST: 11,248
> ...


Update:

9:49 am MST: 10,732 total books in the lending library
10:13 am MST: 11,248
10:57 am MST: 12,072 
11:40 am MST: 13,267


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

See my post.  I don't think they are saying you can make your book free for up to 5 days.  Here is what is says: 
promote your KDP Select-enrolled titles for FREE for up to 5 days every 90 days.

To me, that means you can promote it at no charge to YOU 5 days.  The promotion is free, not the book.  Anyone actually ask them about this?

I am not going exclusive with them on my book at this point.  If down the line it looks like people are really seeing advantages, perhaps I will see it differently.  But this does not  feel right to me.  I don't like being controlled as to who can sell my book.  That is one reason I am indie.  My new one, coming out this month, will not be a test.  

I am fully prepared to see that I am wrong down the line.  I have been wrong many times.  But for now, I want my books available to as many people as I can.


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

Joseph Flynn said:


> Any agreement that is drawn up by an attorney representing one party and is given to another party not represented by an attorney and unable to renegotiate any terms of the agreement is inherently one sided, and to be approached cautiously if at all.


Sure. But that's what we get when we agree to the terms of service of KDP, B&N, etc. Good luck hiring an attorney and modifying those terms and shooting them back to Amazon, etc.


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## Mr. RAD (Jan 4, 2011)

Anyone besides David Dalglish have their books borrowed yet?


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## DRMarvello (Dec 3, 2011)

If you are going to experiment with KDP Select, now is the time to do it, while others are sitting back and waiting or haven't heard about it yet. You'll get a bigger piece of the pie until more authors/publishers start taking a share.

IMO, KDP Select is like using your book as a lottery ticket. There's no direct correlation between the number of times your books get loaned and how much money you get. It all depends upon how the other participants are doing. You just get a variable share of the same pie.

Will it cut into your sales? Probably. If a Prime member wants your book, that person will probably look in the lending library for it before spending money on it. Why not? If you are paying for Prime already, might as well take advantage of the benefits, right?

The worst part is the exclusivity. Amazon is asking you to forgo the additional income you could earn elsewhere in trade for an unknown share of a pot that varies. Habitual gamblers will probably find that fun, but not me.

I have no intention in enrolling my book in this program the way it stands today.


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## Susan Kaye Quinn (Aug 8, 2011)

> To me, that means you can promote it at no charge to YOU 5 days. The promotion is free, not the book. Anyone actually ask them about this?


This is an excellent question...anyone already enrolled have the answer?


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

Mr. RAD said:


> Anyone besides David Dalglish have their books borrowed yet?


I know of plenty who have had a couple, plus Robert with his 29.


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## D/W (Dec 29, 2010)

Asher MacDonald said:


> So only Kindle owners can borrow books from the lending library? If I have an Android or iOS device with the Kindle app I'm not eligible?


Yes, it is my understanding that you must have a Kindle device in order to take advantage of the Prime Lending Library. Here's more information: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_navbox_kspot_ownerslib?nodeId=200757120.



> *Kindle Owners' Lending Library for Amazon Prime Members*
> 
> The Kindle Owners' Lending Library allows eligible U. S. Amazon Prime members who own Kindle devices to choose from thousands of books to borrow for free -- including more than 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers -- as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates.
> 
> Eligible Prime members -- paid Amazon Prime, paid Amazon student, one-month free trial, and customers receiving a free month of Prime benefits with a Kindle Fire -- must own a Kindle device that is registered to the same Amazon.com account as the eligible Prime account in order to access this benefit.


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## Matthew.Iden (Nov 6, 2011)

Half-Orc said:


> Uh oh. We're about to have problems. I'm a Lawful Good Indie Paladin Level 5. (LGIPL5)


Crap. I'm still using Cantrips. "Ghost Light" anyone?


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## DRMarvello (Dec 3, 2011)

Asher MacDonald said:


> So only Kindle owners can borrow books from the lending library? If I have an Android or iOS device with the Kindle app I'm not eligible?


That's correct, according to this page:
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A6KILDRNSCOBA

The page says that books can only be read on Kindle devices and not other Kindle apps.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

DRMarvello said:


> That's correct, according to this page:
> https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A6KILDRNSCOBA
> 
> The page says that books can only be read on Kindle devices and not other Kindle apps.


Well that's lame.


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

Susan Kaye Quinn said:


> This is an excellent question...anyone already enrolled have the answer?


If you drill down to the FAQs in the invitation email, it answers this. You can make it free for five days during the 90 day period. Your options are five days in a row or in a lesser amount with a minimum of one day. Free days do not rollover so use them or lose them.

The other question I had is about Kindle devices -- only people with an actual Kindle can use the lending library, so it's a subset of Prime users.


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## BrianKittrell (Jan 8, 2011)

I think we'll see a goldrush in December as the pilot to this program, but I doubt it will do most of us any good. I mean, 100,000 downloads... that's a bit of a low number to base the estimations on, I think. It's difficult to know how many people are Prime customers, but conservative (ultra-conservative) estimates are for around 2-3 million.

If 25% of those people exercised their freebie each month, that's about 500,000 to 750,000 downloads, making each download the equivalent of about $1 share. Sure, if there are 20,000 books in the system, you stand a decent chance. But, what if 300,000 books are in the system? 500,000? 1,000,000?

I think I shall wait and watch and see. I sell enough through the other venues to keep going. Besides, by the time I could get my book out of distribution everywhere else, there will probably be 75,000 plus books in Select.

And for those saying the distribution is a straw man argument or that this isn't an zero-sum game, this is the closest thing you'll get to one in publishing. Yes, there are a number of variables that we do not know (and we shall never know them because Amazon will never publish them), but just because we do not know a value does not inherently mean it is not a set, static value. Because our success in this particular program depends upon getting a larger share of downloads/loan-outs than other authors in the program with us, it is a zero-sum game by definition. The money is set and does not fluctuate, the number of Prime members is rather set and not a huge number of Amazon's total customers (2-3 million (max 5 million) customers in Prime compared to 121-131 million total Amazon customers estimated). Zero-sum situations are not in the best interests of the people trying to get a slice, but it's always good for the one baking the pie.

We all know that Amazon will do whatever it takes to dominate a market. For instance, Amazon wanted more content to offer. They started KDP. Things were good. Now, KDP's not the only game in town; you have PubIt! and Smashwords (and others). Now, it's time to up the stakes. Dangle the carrot before the mules and give them something to chase. In the end, I think Amazon will be the bigger winner, and the program will benefit a few at the top and make a few others a little cozy. I, for now, shall keep my eggs in separate baskets. It's just too new and a bit too aggressive to put my stuff in the pile. I'll wait until we have some real evidence, when we see regular people coming back with thousands--or, as I suspect more likely, an extra $2 tacked on for a couple thousand readers.


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## AnnaM (Jul 15, 2009)

I now have two books in the Prime program: TAKEDOWN and Easton Hearts: The Complete Series.

These were always exclusive to Amazon, so it was easy to enroll them in the program.


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## Lefty (Apr 7, 2011)

Joseph Flynn said:


> Any agreement that is drawn up by an attorney representing one party and is given to another party not represented by an attorney and unable to renegotiate any terms of the agreement is inherently one sided, and to be approached cautiously if at all.


Car rental agreements, apartment leases, cell phone contracts, self-storage agreements.......I'm going back to my Grassy Knoll.


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## DRMarvello (Dec 3, 2011)

Caddy said:


> To me, that means you can promote it at no charge to YOU 5 days. The promotion is free, not the book. Anyone actually ask them about this?


This page explains. See the "free promotions" section. 
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A6KILDRNSCOBA

They say you can offer your book "free to readers" for up to 5 days during the 90-day period. Note that you won't receive royalties on the book during that time. You also won't receive any share of the lending pot during that time because it won't be included in the Lending Library.


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

BrianKittrell said:


> I think we'll see a goldrush in December as the pilot to this program, but I doubt it will do most of us any good. I mean, 100,000 downloads... that's a bit of a low number to base the estimations on, I think. It's difficult to know how many people are Prime customers, but conservative (ultra-conservative) estimates are for around 2-3 million.
> 
> If 25% of those people exercised their freebie each month, that's about 500,000 to 750,000 downloads, making each download the equivalent of about $1 share. Sure, if there are 20,000 books in the system, you stand a decent chance. But, what if 300,000 books are in the system? 500,000? 1,000,000?


I agree that only a handful of writers will see significant money from this. The intriguing thing is the ability to set your book for free for five days. Of course we'll see a flood of free books now so volume may offset a lot of potential gain. It's also a way to perhaps get better visibility. If your book is one of 20,000 in the Lending Library that's more visibility than one of one million in the Kindle store.


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## karencantwell (Jun 17, 2010)

Holy cow - when I saw the email from KDP (I had no idea this was coming down -shoulda taken that call from KDP in November . . .) I knew this board would be on fire!

I enrolled with one title and will consider Take the Monkeys and Run once I get confirmation it's no longer for sale in the iBookstore. I'm in the same boat as many who have jumped in - I don't make HUGE sales from Nook, so why not?  I can try this for 90 days and barely notice the difference if the impact is negative. If I don't like it, I go back to Nook.

I also do still hold a huge allegiance to Amazon, personally. It was Amazon who first offered Indies the big road in, so I'll join in this and see where it goes. They're looking to get a corner on the eReader market this way, that's all.

PS - I had no problem with removing Citizen Insane from PubIt. Went to processing instantly.

Looking forward to hearing how this works for everyone!!!


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## Martin Perry (Aug 2, 2011)

modwitch said:


> I'd lay good money on that changing soon.


Hopefully, seems like a big hindrance.


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## Doctor Barbara (Aug 17, 2010)

Like someone else mentioned, the exclusivity part of it is a bit scarey, kind of like pushing Amazon still further to be the top dog.  Problem is, competition is healthy, although Amazon seems to be the most user-friendly for all of us Indie authors.  Anyhow, I'm not jumping in just yet.


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

I just don't know. I'm totally on the fence. Even though I make the bulk of my sales on Amazon, I just hate the idea of alienating readers. The option to go free is very tempting and so is the lending library. I'm gonna have to really think it over.


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## lacycamey (Apr 25, 2011)

I may enroll. Why not? For my book, it's available on Itunes, B&N and Amazon. Honestly, since the release in August, I can count on one hand my sales from Itunes, and my other hand sales from B&N.  So, it couldn't hurt to try (in my case)! Good luck everyone in making your decision!


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Amy Corwin said:


> Interesting concept. I'm wondering if it helps at all or you just don't get the (much smaller) sales outside of Amazon?
> 
> If this would then change things back to the "you might also like" algorythm they used last summer (when I sold like hotcakes) then it might be worth considering. As it is, I'm not sure what the advantages would be, realistically. It's a fancy title for basically being able to make your book free for a few days should you choose to do so and potentially get a share of the pot if folks borrow your book. hmmmm
> 
> Not sure how that would enhance my bottom line, if you know what I mean?


Talking about that pot -- at $500,000 it is tiny, considering there are so many of us out there right now, hoping for the share of it. Even if each one of us sold/lent the exact same number of units as everyone else, we would still see only a tiny negligible amount of additional money. And since in reality a few sell a lot, I am betting the same few who sell many units already will be the ones to benefit most from this.

However, the "taking the book free" part is a good deal.


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## Danielle Kazemi (Apr 2, 2011)

Nope, so someone else can take my spot.  Actually, please everyone enroll in this and free up the other venues. Muahaha! My books will all be bestsellers!


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Here's what's happening. A whole bunch of authors who don't post at KB (i.e. people we don't know) are getting this email from Amazon. We're talking about everyone who has a book in kdp--LOTS more people than we're aware of. They're thinking, hey I'll make more money at Amazon since I'm not making money at B&N anyway. This lending library sounds great. Click. Enroll.

BOOM! Amazon sells some more Prime memberships after they brag about how many books are in the LL. They tout Robert B. as a huge success story. 99% of authors, OTOH, make utterly crap money ($20/book on average if there are 25,000 books enrolled in KDP Select--and we're already up to about 8K) from the LL and have to deal with pulling their books down from other sites and all of the complaints from customers.

Btw, one of the reasons that many not so good books will get some downloads and dilute the money everyone else can make? Those authors will get their friends to download those books. Even if it's just 1 or 2 books per author per month, there are a lot of books out there that can take money from everyone else.

I'm saying this because some of you might want to be careful about this. You might not want to do the freebie tomorrow, because that will lock you in so that you can't cancel out in the first three days (once you go freebie, you cannot opt-out). Think about it: How much money are you really going to lose by sitting on this decision for at least another few days or a week and then deciding. IMO, wait and see how many books are in the LL. Wait and hear from more authors about how many downloads they're getting. You don't have to rush into this.

If you really just want to do the freebie, that's one thing. But also think about how many freebies we're going to see tomorrow and over the next few months (a friggin' tsunami of free books). "Free" is going to become a lot less effective than it used to be, so even going free isn't going to mean nearly as much anymore.


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## Lisa J. Yarde (Jul 15, 2010)

Doctor Barbara said:


> Amazon seems to be the most user-friendly for all of us Indie authors.


This is the part that infuriates / mystifies me on most days, but sometimes makes me applaud Amazon. What are its rivals doing to compete? We've all seen numerous threads about companies who do nothing to promote self-published authors. Pubit, I'm looking at you especially. I could care less about some of the "benefits" being offered by KDP Select, but it's nice to be courted. Hope this stirs up some competition.


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

Like many of you, I'm wary. I don't like monopolies, and I think the slice of the pie is going to be paper-thin after a bunch of people jump on this. However, I am considering trying it with one standalone title. The majority of my sales are from Amazon -- and this book hasn't sold well on B&N or ARE at all -- so it's no real skin off my nose to use it as a test case and re-evaluate once the 90 days are up.


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> And on top of all of that, Amazon will look like even more of a bad guy to people who have Nooks, Kobos, Sony readers, etc. I think this could turn into a major PR problem for Amazon.


Those people can't read Kindle books on those devices anyway, though. Why would they be upset now?

It's the people using a Kindle app who are being shut out of the Lending Library who may be upset.


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## jackblaine (May 22, 2011)

I am doing this for the controlled free option to gain more exposure.  Seems like a no-brainer in my situation, and if it negatively affects sales, in 90 days I will opt out.


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## Gregory Lynn (Aug 9, 2011)

Correct me if I am wrong but does it seem like the only way to get into the library is to agree to exclusivity, is that right?


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

Gregory Lynn said:


> Correct me if I am wrong but does it seem like the only way to get into the library is to agree to exclusivity, is that right?


Yes, and if you violate that Amazon can come down on you hard.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

Asher MacDonald said:


> That said, most people seem to sell better on Amazon. I still think competiton is a good thing, so let's hope B&N works on their algorithms and improves them.


Competition is a great thing, and I think Select might force Pubit to do something to help Indie authors. I was there since it began and never had a lick of exposure from them. Sometimes I'd see indie books that were doing well on Amazon suddenly get tons of exposure on BN, but when my books took off in June, nothing.

Apple hates Amazon, and if they get a ton of books withdrawn, maybe they would also do something to entice Indie authors back. I see what Amazon is doing as making us more valuable, not less valuable.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Asher MacDonald said:


> Those people can't read Kindle books on those devices anyway, though. Why would they be upset now?
> 
> It's the people using a Kindle app who are being shut out of the Lending Library who may be upset.


Because they won't be able to get many books on their devices. Let's say you're a big fan of author x and you want to buy her books on your new Nook--no dice. It gives you one more reason to hate Amazon, and there will be a lot of anger directed at Amazon because of this--not to mention many authors, too.


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## Sam Rivers (May 22, 2011)

I unpublished 3 books on Barnes & Noble this morning and they have already been removed from the Barnes & Noble site so it doesn't take very long.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

_Sheila_ said:


> I clicked "Take Off Sale" and the book was down in hours.
> 
> B&N has been having some reporting issues lately - I'm sure that it is as simple as that.
> 
> ...


Sheila,

After you took your book down on Pubit, does it stay listed somewhere in the menu for you to re-publish again if you want to?

In other words, I am wondering if by unpublishing we lose that specific book record and have to start all over again by re-entering all the book details, if, let's say, after 90 days on KDP Select we want to put it back on B&N.

I know that on Smashwords, the book stays there ready to be republished at will.

Is it the same with Pubit?


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2011)

I won't be going the Amazon exclusive route, not for some time at least. This christmas we've got the Kindle Fire, Kobo Vox, and Nook Touch all going head to head, so I'd like my books available to the widest possible selection of new e-readers. I'm one of the few who does better on Smashwords than Amazon, and with Kobo updating their stock and their tie-up with WH Smiths, I think I'd rather keep my options open.


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## Kathelm (Sep 27, 2010)

> Those people can't read Kindle books on those devices anyway, though. Why would they be upset now?


Because people are removing their books from other services in favor of Amazon.


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## Sean Sweeney (Apr 17, 2010)

To answer the OP: No.


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## KOwrites (May 23, 2011)

Gretchen Galway said:


> Fine print question: what if you have a series of short stories as separate titles, and are also selling them bundled together?
> 
> This is popular in erotica. Hot Story #1, Hot Story #2, Hot Story #3, Bundled Hot Stories #1-3. Four titles, the shorts priced low, the bundled sold at a unit discount but high enough to get the 70% royalty.
> 
> ...


This fine print you quoted is KEY. The language is so broad, especially the part in parentheses which can be interpreted in a number of ways. Always, intentional. It's a non-compete that will be construed by Amazon and their lawyers as they see fit to implement. I worked in the telecommunications industry in a sales capacity for a long time and I made damn sure I never signed a non-compete agreement like this.

I've read through most of this thread. I "get" that everyone is making the decision for themselves and that's fine. But! Think carefully about what Amazon is doing here. It smacks of the strategy of dividing and conquering among the indie-published because you can be damn sure they will be keeping track of who is opting in and who isn't for their little program. They will change the landscape of book buying, yet again, with their five days free program for the next three months just when it was to be a bonanza of book buying with all those new Kindle Fires and Nooks and iPads. Now, that book buying on Amazon will be all over the map for the next three months while they garner more Indies and their books into their lending program. Sure, it looks good to the librarian community as such; right? But, I've always gotten the sense that this lending program was much more about placating that particular crowd and looking more like a trad. publisher than actually helping out readers who want library books.

I'm a Prime customer. I have been for years. Amazon and Costco get a lot of my money. They have for years. The book lending program is one I rolled my eyes at when Amazon sent their little note to me a few weeks ago. Yes. I'm an author. Yes, I read a lot of books. My TBR list is huge. I don't have time or the will to track a borrowed book versus all the others I've bought. So, it will be interesting to see who among their prime customers will actually be doing this. And, if I was so inclined, I would be up for getting lent a bestseller I always wanted to read, but didn't want to pony up and buy because I try to help out the Indies wherever I can.

But the non-compete and the exclusivity is the show-stopper for me, folks.


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

YES and as I said in the other thread . . .
As luck would have it, I'm launching my 19th book next week. As luck would really have it, this means I can run for 90 days with the LL scheme and get 5 Free days and experiment not needing to withdraw books already available with other distributors. As luck would really, really have it, the new book is a non-fiction, quirky "Ed Pattersonesque" insanity, unique in content (including Ask Miss Chatty - a drag queen's advice column) with the unlikely (but perhaps magnetic) title _*A Reader's Guide to Author's Jargon and Other Ravings from the Blogosphere*_. As luck would reeeeeally have it, it references my other works within its content and rings of "lost leader," as well as a whacky fun work. So, although I had already decided to not participate in the new scheme - as luck would have it, I shall, because it makes marketing sense now and God is my agent . . . no luck there - that's destiny. 

Edward C. Patterson


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## Ryne Billings (May 15, 2011)

Anyone know how long it'll take iBooks, Sony, and the other retailers that Smashwords uploads to to remove a book after you've unpublished it from Smashwords?

I want to put my first book (which was published through KDP, Pubit, and Smashwords) through the KDP Select as well. It's already off Pubit and Smashwords, but it's still on iBooks and Sony.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> I've been checking my kindle for the total number of books in the lending library (this includes the new KDP Select titles as well as the titles that were already in the lending library--but the previous titles aren't competing for the $500K pot). Here are the data points so far:
> 
> 9:49 am MST: 10,732 total books in the lending library
> 10:13 am MST: 11,248
> ...


Update:

9:49 am MST: 10,732 total books in the lending library
10:13 am MST: 11,248
10:57 am MST: 12,072 
11:40 am MST: 13,267
12:30 pm MST: 16,160


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## Sam Rivers (May 22, 2011)

> After you took your book down on Pubit, does it stay listed somewhere in the menu for you to re-publish again if you want to?
> 
> In other words, I am wondering if by unpublishing we lose that specific book record and have to start all over again by re-entering all the book details, if, let's say, after 90 days on KDP Select we want to put it back on B&N.
> 
> ...


It works the same way for Pubit? as Amazon.


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## Kristan Hoffman (Aug 6, 2009)

This may be relevant to people asking about short stories sold separately vs. in a collection and whether they affect eligibility:



> "Can I add some new content (e.g. bonus chapter, author's commentary, etc.) to a book that I offer on another platform to make my book exclusive and eligible for KDP Select?
> No. You can't enroll your book in KDP Select by simply adding a bonus chapter, author's commentary section, etc. to a book that is available elsewhere. See the KDP Select Terms and Conditions for more details. "


From the KDP Select FAQ. https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A6KILDRNSCOBA

_Edited to add: I know bonus material is not the same, but I could see Amazon's stance on the two being... similar._


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## J. Scott Tyler (Dec 7, 2011)

I'm going to try it with one of my titles. But I'm not sure how effective the whole thing will be. Books from major publishers are included in this lending library. From what i understand, members of the lending library can only rent one book a month. I'm sure a lot of readers will wise up and see that if they use their one month rental on a normally more expensive book (traditionally published) and keeping buying the less expensive books the normal way, then they will save money.


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## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

Ryne Billings said:


> Anyone know how long it'll take iBooks, Sony, and the other retailers that Smashwords uploads to to remove a book after you've unpublished it from Smashwords?
> 
> I want to put my first book (which was published through KDP, Pubit, and Smashwords) through the KDP Select as well. It's already off Pubit and Smashwords, but it's still on iBooks and Sony.


Good question. I've changed prices and now have the same book out there on one site with two prices. Don't know how that works. I would think they might take their usual time.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

My books (except Leon Chameleon) are all exclusive to Amazon anyway, so I have enrolled them all. Now we'll have sales figures, rankings and borrows to watch


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

jhanel said:


> I unpublished on SW (my current "other" distributor), but I know that it will take a few weeks for everything to come down. I assume Amazon is going to give us some grace here. Does anyone know if that's the case for sure??


This is also something I am unclear on and very worried about.

Once we click "unpublish" on Smashwords, Pubit, et al, *are we KDP-Select-contractually obligated to wait* until the books are no longer listed on Sony, Kobo, iTunes, etc, before we can even click the KDP Select "Yes" button?

That can take weeks and weeks for all the third party vendors to take down the books!

Or will Amazon allow us to proceed after we "did our part" and treat it as unpublished?

This is very unclear.

And if we have to wait, it is also very much not a good deal for us writers. Since we will pretty much miss the December holiday retail period.


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## Cliff Ball (Apr 10, 2010)

I think I'll do it with one novel, mostly as an experiment since 99% of my sales are through Kindle. My only question is: If my books are still on Apple, Kobo, etc., but I just unpublished on Smashwords, how long should I wait before signing up? Could I do it now or would it be better to wait a week or two?


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> Because they won't be able to get many books on their devices. Let's say you're a big fan of author x and you want to buy her books on your new Nook--no dice. It gives you one more reason to hate Amazon, and there will be a lot of anger directed at Amazon because of this--*not to mention many authors, too.*


I generally direct my anger in this situations at the artist involved, not the company.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Kathelm said:


> Because people are removing their books from other services in favor of Amazon.


Bingo.


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## RuthCardello (Jul 10, 2011)

I wish I had a single title I could experiment with.  Unfortunately my books are a series and already distributed via Smashwords and B & N.  My B & N sales are pitiful and easy to walk away from, but my iTunes sales are significant and added to my Amazon sales make it almost possible for me to consider leaving my day job.  By the end of the year, iTunes will have brought me about $20,000 in 4 months.   I just hope there aren't repercussions for those of us who don't make the jump.  I love Amazon, but alone they won't pay my bills...not yet.


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

Kathelm said:


> Because people are removing their books from other services in favor of Amazon.


Ok, that makes sense. Didn't think of that.

However, it looks like the books from bigger publishers do not have to be exclusive. I just found one in the Lending Library that's available as an ebook at B&N.

So if there's a backlash over exclusivity, it will be generated by fans of indies, most who already sell the bulk of their books at Amazon anyway. I don't see much of a backlash over this issue.

My issue would be hey Amazon, you want me to spend $79 to enroll in Prime and then tell me I don't get my free lend every month because I read my Kindle books on my iPad? Maybe I don't want Prime after all.

The free stuff besides shipping on Prime is really aimed at tablet users. Good luck streaming a free Prime video on your Kindle Touch. That means to get everything out of Prime you need to be a Kindle Fire owner. That's kind of annoying.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Krista D. Ball said:


> I generally direct my anger in this situations at the artist involved, not the company.


Yep. For example, David Dalglish already had a fan get upset with him on his public FB page over this issue (like a couple weeks ago, after he announced it). It's just another thing that authors will have to deal with if they opt out of other channels.


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## altworld (Mar 11, 2010)

Going to try this with an anthology piece I have that has been doing poorly, it can only help the book. The rest of my work though KDP will have to do a lot better than that for me to put all my eggs into one basket. Kindle only accounts for 45% of my sales.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

If I were to go exclusive with all my books I'd probably want more in return than the ability to go free (something I can already do, if a bit unpredictably) and inclusion in the lending library. I believe there's going to be a crazy explosion in the number of free books and books available for lending over the next few months, to the point where both will become less effective, so neither of those benefits feels like a strong incentive to me. If, on the other hand, some kind of extra exposure (besides the lending) was offered to exclusive authors, that'd be something I'd eagerly consider. 

The reason I'm dragging my feet is that I actually sell decently well on B&N and iTunes. A few months ago I might've figured I had nothing to lose with exclusivity. But recently my numbers on non-Amazon outlets have grown and I'm sort of excited to see where that goes. This isn't a good time for me to yank my titles for three months and possibly have to re-upload and start from scratch later if exclusivity with Amazon doesn't work out for me. 

That's not to say I'm 100 % against exclusivity, I just have the sense it's a better deal for authors already doing super well on Amazon, and I'm not sure how much it'd benefit the rest of us. I mean, if I were a Prime Member I have to say I'd be using all my rentals on $15 ebooks I couldn't afford to actually buy, not on indie books I could own for $0.99 anyway. In the end, I guess I'll just watch and wait. If this works out well for others, I might consider pulling one of my lowest sellers from other sites and trying exclusivity but I'm really not brave enough to take the plunge with more than one title right now.


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## Robert Bidinotto (Mar 3, 2011)

Okay, I've found a new way to make money on this: charging a royalty for every person who uses "Robert" as an example.

Moses, time for you to pony up.

Seriously, it's 2:54 pm in the East, and this $3.99 "outlier" (as _HUNTER'_s status is rightly described) has gotten 51 Prime "borrows" today so far. My sales are down a bit -- not catastrophically -- but a correlation does not necessarily indicate a causal connection. I've been hovering in these ranks for some days; my name isn't King, Evanovich, or Patterson; KDP turned off the spotlight on me for the time being, and is shining it on other "Daily Deal" authors; so the slow descent may be indicative of nothing but the natural sales cycle -- not KDP Select cannibalizing through borrowing what otherwise would have been sales.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Robert Bidinotto said:


> Okay, I've found a new way to make money on this: charging a royalty for every person who uses "Robert" as an example.
> 
> Moses, time for you to pony up.


Hey, just add a note about The Black God's War at the front of Hunter and you can name your price. LOL!


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## John Twipnook (Jan 10, 2011)

I hope that, at the very least, Apple reacts by creating a money incentive, also, if I go exclusive with them? Ah, competition...


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> Yep. For example, David Dalglish already had a fan get upset with him on his public FB page over this issue (like a couple weeks ago, after he announced it). It's just another thing that authors will have to deal with if they opt out of other channels.


It's basically the artist is telling us where to shop. I know I don't take kindly to that.


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## Philip Chen (Aug 8, 2010)

_There is Strangeness in the Universe_ is now part of the Kindle Owners Lending Library.

To celebrate being added to this library, I will be offering _There is Strangeness in the Universe_ for free to non Kindle Prime readers starting 12:00 AM PST December 9, 2011 to 11:59 PM December 11, 2011.

I hope you will take advantage of this free offer to find out why people are saying these cartoons are like Gary Larson's "Far Side"


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> I've been checking my kindle for the total number of books in the lending library (this includes the new KDP Select titles as well as the titles that were already in the lending library--but the previous titles aren't competing for the $500K pot). Here are the data points so far:
> 
> 9:49 am MST: 10,732 total books in the lending library
> 10:13 am MST: 11,248
> ...


9:49 am MST: 10,732 total books in the lending library
10:13 am MST: 11,248
10:57 am MST: 12,072 
11:40 am MST: 13,267
12:30 pm MST: 16,160
1:04 pm MST: 19,174

I think the Lending Library jumped the shark a couple of hours ago.


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## karencantwell (Jun 17, 2010)

MaryMcDonald said:


> Competition is a great thing, and I think Select might force Pubit to do something to help Indie authors. I was there since it began and never had a lick of exposure from them. Sometimes I'd see indie books that were doing well on Amazon suddenly get tons of exposure on BN, but when my books took off in June, nothing.
> 
> Apple hates Amazon, and if they get a ton of books withdrawn, maybe they would also do something to entice Indie authors back. I see what Amazon is doing as making us more valuable, not less valuable.


I agree with you, Mary.


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> 9:49 am MST: 10,732 total books in the lending library
> 10:13 am MST: 11,248
> 10:57 am MST: 12,072
> 11:40 am MST: 13,267
> ...


Man, that's a lot of books being REMOVED from Smashwords and B&N. I bet Mark Coker is not a happy fellow today.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

For me, the biggest downside to Select is that we can no longer give away books as promotions on review websites. I think that's a stupid stipulation, as any promotion we do will only help Amazon, but it's in there. For me, that's the most sucky thing.


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

genevieveaclark said:


> Anyone who actually went to b-school, or was an attentive adult at the time, remember the whole VHS vs Betamax thing? How deep are the parallels between that and azw vs ePub? (or, I guess, mobi...but they sell those corrupted azw files, so, you know.)
> 
> I just want to reiterate...Amazon is not, you know, benevolent. They will cut you if they think you'll bleed money, just like every other successful multibillion dollar company. So, there's that.


They're not gracious and paternalistic like the Traditional Publishers.  Oh, how easily we forget.

Edward C. Justhadtosayit


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

Sophrosyne said:


> For me, the biggest downside to Select is that we can no longer give away books as promotions on review websites. I think that's a stupid stipulation, as any promotion we do will only help Amazon, but it's in there. For me, that's the most sucky thing.


Really? Did they actually mention review copies? That is a bit of a problem.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Hmmm.
Hmmm again.

If there's one thing that's hit home for me, it is that increasing sales is a dynamic process. I like having my books at various different outlets.  I like having them at different price points (which I can experiment with more once I have a couple more novel length works out). I like having my European listings for my novels with Mark Williams International. I like having a co-authored novel with Jeremy Robinson.  If I got a tradpub offer for a single book, I would almost certainly take that.

All the above is to say that the more dynamic I can make my offerings, the better I think I will be. Taking all my books and pulling them from everywhere else would be a step in the wrong direction.  But taking one of my 99 cent short collections, pulling it from everywhere else, and opting in with only that book, really has no downside to speak of.  At worst I'll lose the ~1 sale a month I get on other outlets. But the ability to go free with it will almost certainly make up for that.  It seems like a no-brainer.

Tentatively, it seems like having one book available in this program at any given time might be a way to go. I'll have to see more to determine.  I am aware of the idea that I'm helping Amazon build more of a monopoly and that might eventually hurt me. For me, it's a risk easily worth taking with a single book - for others, it may not be.


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Asher MacDonald said:


> Man, that's a lot of books being REMOVED from Smashwords and B&N. I bet Mark Coker is not a happy fellow today.


I wouldn't be so sure about that. Smashwords is an Amazon Partner.

Ed P


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## Guest (Dec 8, 2011)

So I’ve been thinking about this some more and decided to share some of my thoughts from a long-term strategy view.  And my thought processes here might be useful for some folks still on the fence.

I have a quarterly journal, The Bards and Sages Quarterly.  The journal is distributed for free to my newsletter subscriber base (around 1000 people now).  I also sell it in digital format at Drivethrufiction and Amazon.  Each issue runs in cycles.  Strong sales the first month, then reduced sales the second, nominal sales the third and then it starts over again with the next issue.  From what I have discerned over the last few years, people who buy an issue of the journal either sign up for my newsletter to get future issues for free (and end up becoming regular customers of other titles), or they continue to buy new issues of the journal as they become available.

What they don’t do is go and buy back issues.  Each issue has a three-month life cycle.  After that, people are buying the new issue.  So this gets me thinking…

I have three years of back issues available.  I can make all of the back issues available in the lending library.  If people using the lending library behave in a similar fashion to those that buy, then people who borrow an issue will either sign up for my newsletter to get future issues for free or start buying the new issues as they become available.  I can, theoretically, release each new issue normally, and then when its life cycle is over deactivate it to add to the lending library and release the next issue normally.  

And I get the benefit of promoting to my subscribers “Did you miss a back issue?  You can now borrow them for free through Amazon’s Lending Library!”  

The journal is a unique issue because I have always used it as a loss leader to build brand recognition and customer loyalty.  I lose nothing making back issues available through the library because I can still release future issues normally.  

But the more I think about it, the more I would NOT use this with a normal book.  With the holidays coming and the number of ereaders only increasing, the notion of giving any one vendor exclusivity over a book makes little practical sense.  If you are an unknown author, nobody is going to find you to borrow the book anyway.  If you have no pre-existing fan base, you have nobody to promote to that you can encourage to go borrow it.  And if Amazon screws up the listing or suddenly deactivates the book because someone complained about a stray comma (as some authors have had happen) you are up the proverbial creek without a paddle because you have nowhere to redirect your customers.  And locking your book into a single digital format means you are essentially blowing off anyone who does not have a Kindle.

Had a funny incident with the first issue of Indie Firsts! Magazine that may help illustrate this.  All my fiction is released in multiple formats on other sites, and over the last year the volume of customers buying the PDF format has dwindled as people have opted for other formats (epub…nor Kindle…being the most popular).  So with the first issue, I complete ignored making a PDF version available because I figured I didn’t need it.  

I’ve gotten a half dozen complaints why a PDF version isn’t available. (two including sad smilie faces…you know it is bad when they use the sad smilie face!).  So I had to go make a PDF version available.  

The point being:  these are people who follow my on FB and are loyal customers.  Why would I alienate them in order to give Amazon exclusivity on the off chance I might pick up a few new customers?  Do you sacrifice your existing customer base chasing Amazon’s customers?  And make no mistake, they are AMAZON’S customers.  Not yours.  The people who subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on FB and visit my blog…those are MY customers.  Their loyalty is to me.  I place an enormous amount of value on that.

Another point.  Amazon is one market, but it may not be the right market for every book.  I have one book, for example, that is a low seller everywhere EXCEPT kobo.  On Kobo, it sells like gangbusters.  I don’t know why, but it sells well with that target market.  I have another title that sells poorly on Amazon, but sells extremely well on BN.com.   I also have titles that inexplicably fluctuate between vendors.  It may sell very well on Amazon one month, then the next month sell well somewhere else while Amazon sales tank.  

So these are all things to take into account when making a decision here.  Are you in a position where you can leverage this to your advantage?  Or is it a “Oh well, it can’t hurt?” decision?


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## catjournalist (Nov 22, 2010)

I was all exited at first because for so long I've been asking to be let in the library door....but when I read the bit about exclusivity I became concerned. So thanks for all these marvelous posts..I'd easily give up Smashwords because of such limited sales, but I hesitate with B&N. ..Maybe a wait and see approach is the best with existing titles, and anything new, just go for it...


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## karencantwell (Jun 17, 2010)

Technical question:  from those who have already gone "live" with the lending program, how long does it take to show?  I unpublished with PubIt about 1pm today and immediately went over and enrolled Citizen Insane with Kindle Select Lending.  It still has a big N next to it on my KDP reports page, but on the Bookshelf, shows that I enrolled.  Will it not show and start lending until the grace period is over?  Anyone know?


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

The main difference seems to be, is that if you're part of select, then there's a big sticker on your product page (in addition to the one line at the top of the page about loaning the book out), telling people that they can borrow the book. And they set your price to $0.00, with the actual price in small print. 

It's confusing, and I think Amazon will have a lot of pissed off customers when they find out that 1) they were charged for the book (expect returns to increase) and 2) that they only get one freebie a month. That may cause some people to cut down on their book buying, in retaliation.

I know, last week, I was thinking about buying a book, but the whole free/pay thing was so confusing, I just walked away. I couldn't tell if I'd be paying for it, or getting it for free, since I'm a prime member, and it didn't have different buttons for buy and borrow.


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## jackz4000 (May 15, 2011)

genevieveaclark said:


> Anyone who actually went to b-school, or was an attentive adult at the time, remember the whole VHS vs Betamax thing? How deep are the parallels between that and azw vs ePub? (or, I guess, mobi...but they sell those corrupted azw files, so, you know.)
> 
> I just want to reiterate...Amazon is not, you know, benevolent. They will cut you if they think you'll bleed money, just like every other successful multibillion dollar company. So, there's that.


The parallels are very similar: In simplespeak: Sony's Betamax was the technically superior format but, they wouldn't play nice with the other Corps. They priced the licensing fee so high the other companies engineered their own format, VHS and got the studios to release in VHS also. The VHS group made the price of their VHS machine dirt cheap and sold skads of them. Demand shifted to VHS and within a few years Betamax was abandoned completely. Amazon knows this story very well. AMZ vs: Epub is a war yet to be fought although there are skirmishes. As with Sony vs: VHS it will be the format with the best/
largest content that wins. Like a chess game what will the next move be and who will make it?

But this time around both camps retail both hardware and content. If the Epub camp smells big $$$ (like I think they do) they may unite and prove to be very formidable. Right now the Corps are just moving cannons around the outskirts of the battlefield.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> I wouldn't be so sure about that. Smashwords is an Amazon Partner.
> 
> Ed P


It wasn't before. Smashwords couldn't publish on Amazon. When did that change?


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

karencantwell said:


> Technical question: from those who have already gone "live" with the lending program, how long does it take to show? I unpublished with PubIt about 1pm today and immediately went over and enrolled Citizen Insane with Kindle Select Lending. It still has a big N next to it on my KDP reports page, but on the Bookshelf, shows that I enrolled. Will it not show and start lending until the grace period is over? Anyone know?


Check your product page. I have a feeling it'll show as enrolled on your product page.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> ...loyal customers...alienate...sacrifice...AMAZON'S customers...Not yours...MY customers...Their loyalty is to me.


I summarized for people.


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## jackz4000 (May 15, 2011)

"So these are all things to take into account when making a decision here.  Are you in a position where you can leverage this to your advantage?  Or is it a “Oh well, it can’t hurt?” 

All good points Judy.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

Asher MacDonald said:


> Really? Did they actually mention review copies? That is a bit of a problem.


They said that you can't give anyone else the right to distribute. Sell OR distribute. For some reason, I thought I saw something that made me think of review copies, but when I went back again, I couldn't find it. But, because of that "OR" I would contact Amazon and clear giveaway promotions on review sites with them.

However, another thing I noticed (reading it again) is even if you decide to unpublish your book on Amazon, you can't get out of your agreement. You will be participating in it, and you will not be able to go anywhere else in that 90 day period, or you'll forfeit your royalties from the library, but also from Amazon sales, if Amazon so chooses.


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## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

I figured it would only be a matter of time before Amazon came up with more strategies to corner the growing indie market, and that some of those strategies would create more money for Amazon and less for the authors. That said, all publishing businesses seem to be operating that way these days. I might sign up for the KDP Select program to see if it will help my books gain better exposure and achieve better book sale ranks; but I haven't decided yet, especially since I just signed up for some Kindle book giveaways and, from what I'm reading on this thread, that isn't allowed. I might try placing some of my short stories on KDP Select if that's allowed, or placing some of my books there after the giveaways have taken place.


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## Adam Pepper (May 28, 2011)

I'm just not seeing enough to lure me in.  I'm not a high-maintenance date, but if Amazon wants to go steady, they have to pony up a little more!

Plus, I'm doing fairly well on Nook and don't want to halt any momentum I'm building there.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

As a prime customer and reader only, I am looking at the prime selection now and its turned into a swamp.   . So many have been added in such short time, by next week it will be impossible to sift through. 
And here is why. For every one of you here that cares about their product, including the cover there are 10 more out there that don't. Most of you here have sales in other places, decent sales on Amazon, so you have to really think about this exclusivity thing. Reality is, most of the rest of the self published stuff don't sell squat, some of their covers are horrible and so are their books. That's just a fact. Only a small percentage of writers hang out here. 

Those self publishers have nothing to lose by putting all their stuff into that pot. I am already seeing them browsing on my Fire. Its like page after page of juvenile covers and titles with the few good looking ones sprinkled in.

And this is just the beginning. There are also already a lot of books popping up in my favorite genre that are not of that genre, clogging it up even more. 

I now see 20,000 on my fire, when this started it was around 6,000. That isn't even a full day yet  

Overload Overload


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

UPDATE:

9:49 am MST: 10,732 total books in the lending library
10:13 am MST: 11,248
10:57 am MST: 12,072 
11:40 am MST: 13,267
12:30 pm MST: 16,160
1:04 pm MST: 19,174
1:49 pm MST: 21,224

That's over 10K added in the last four hours.


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## R.E. McDermott (Feb 16, 2011)

Great! Just what I need, another variable when I was already having trouble figuring out what the hell I'm doing!  

Personally, I've only got one book up and it's just starting to get traction. I've finally made the category BS lists on Amazon US/UK and I'm closing fast on a three digit sales rank, so MOST of my sales are on Amazon. However, I still see something like 20 - 25% of sales from B&N and SW (mostly B&N). In my situation, I can't really afford to write off 25% of sales on the gamble that KDP Select will equal or exceed that amount. I'm in 'wait and see' mode, though I may enroll my next book.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Atunah said:


> As a prime customer and reader only, I am looking at the prime selection now and its turned into a swamp.  . So many have been added in such short time, by next week it will be impossible to sift through.
> And here is why. For every one of you here that cares about their product, including the cover there are 10 more out there that don't. Most of you here have sales in other places, decent sales on Amazon, so you have to really think about this exclusivity thing. Reality is, most of the rest of the self published stuff don't sell squat, some of their covers are horrible and so are their books. That's just a fact. Only a small percentage of writers hang out here.
> 
> Those self publishers have nothing to lose by putting all their stuff into that pot. I am already seeing them browsing on my Fire. Its like page after page of juvenile covers and titles with the few good looking ones sprinkled in.
> ...


Frankly, I think it's going to turn off a lot of people.


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## Danielle Kazemi (Apr 2, 2011)

Wow. So reading through this, Indie authors are getting the rough end of it. Big pubbers going in still get to sell their books via other outlets. Then a percentage of the pot goes to each author based on downloads. Larger names get more (read non-indies) so in the end, even if you get 1000 downloads you may still only get $10 if the others out-borrowed you. From other sources, Kobo is releasing their new thing to integrate with Facebook and the new Nook tablet from BN. I expect there will also be something coming in the next month or so from Apple. After the initial 90 days which are the busiest in the ebook selling time, then when you get out of the program there is a huge drop. You panic, rejoin program. Repeat. I am not saying to stay out of it but I would recommend seeing some real numbers first.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

Just as an FYI, so no one has to rely on anyone else's interpretation of the Select Agreement, here it is:

KDP Select Option Terms and Conditions. 

KDP Select is an option for KDP publishers. Through KDP Select, for an initial period of 90 days your Digital Book is exclusive to Kindle and is included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Program where it will earn a share of a monthly cash fund when readers borrow it. Also, you can promote your Digital Book as free for up to 5 days during these 90 days. Before including your book in KDP Select, please read these terms and conditions carefully. 

1 Exclusivity. When you include a Digital Book in KDP Select, you give us the exclusive right to sell and distribute your Digital Book in digital format while your book is in KDP Select. During this period of exclusivity, you cannot sell or distribute, or give anyone else the right to sell or distribute, your Digital Book (or content that is reasonably likely to compete commercially with your Digital Book, diminish its value, or be confused with it), in digital format in any territory where you have rights. 

2 KDP Select Benefits. 

2.1 Free Promotions. You can schedule one or more free promotions for your Digital Book for a total period of 5 days during each 90-day period your Digital Book is in KDP Select. A free promotion is the offering of your Digital Book to customers for a price of zero. You will not receive any Royalties on your Digital Book during a free promotion. Free promotions may not be available for sales to customers in certain countries. If you don’t use all 5 free promotion days during the 90-day period, you can’t roll them over to future periods. Scheduled start times and end times of free promotions are approximate due to potential system latencies. 

2.2 Inclusion in Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Program. Digital Books included in KDP Select will be automatically included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Program described in more detail here. The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Program will be available on Amazon.com and may not be available on international Amazon websites or to customers outside the United States. Your Digital Book will not be available through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Program during any period when it is available for free in the Kindle store. 

2.3 KDP Select Fund. We will establish a fund on a monthly basis and you will earn a share of that fund for each of your Digital Books included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Program. Your share will be calculated as the number of times that the Digital Book has been borrowed during the month as a percentage of the number of times all KDP Digital Books have been borrowed, multiplied by the fund amount we establish for that month. This share is your total Royalty for borrows of that Digital Book through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Program. For example, if the fund for a particular month is $500,000, your Digital Book is borrowed 1,500 times, and all participating Digital Books are cumulatively borrowed 100,000 times, your Digital Book will earn $7,500 ($500,000 x 1,500/100,000 = $7,500). We will determine in our sole discretion the criteria for determining which borrowing events qualify for this calculation. A maximum of one borrowing per customer will qualify. We may publically announce the top Digital Books borrowed, including the author, publisher, number of borrows and KDP Select fund royalties earned.

3 Period of Participation and Automatic Renewal. Once you include a Digital Book in KDP Select, your Digital Book will be in KDP Select for a period of 90 days, unless we remove your Digital Book from KDP Select. Your Digital Book’s participation will automatically renew for additional 90-day periods, unless you opt out through the KDP website before renewal. We can end KDP Select at any time in our discretion; if we do, these terms and conditions will no longer be in effect, except Section 5 will survive. A customer who borrows your Digital Book can continue to keep it checked out for as long as they want, including after your Digital Book’s participation in KDP Select ends. 

4 Book Eligibility. Because this option is for exclusive content, if you do not control the exclusive rights to your Digital Book or the primary content in your Digital Book, you cannot include it in KDP Select. For example, if your Digital Book consists primarily of content that is in the public domain or licensed by you on a non-exclusive basis (i.e., if others can also publish this content), you cannot include it in KDP Select. We reserve the right to determine the types of Digital Books that we accept in KDP Select. We can choose not to accept your Digital Book in KDP Select or to remove it from KDP Select at any time in our discretion. 

5 Your Commitment. Your commitment to these terms and conditions is important, and the benefits we provide to you as part of this option are conditioned on your following through on your commitments. If you un-publish your Digital Book, we will remove it from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, but you must continue to comply with these commitments, including exclusivity, through the remainder of the Digital Book’s then-current 90-day period of participation in KDP Select. If you don’t comply with these KDP Select terms and conditions, we will not owe you Royalties for that Digital Book earned through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Program, and we may offset any of those Royalties that were previously paid against future Royalties, or require you to remit them to us. We may also withhold your Royalty payments on all your Digital Books for a period of up to 90 days while we investigate. This doesn’t limit other remedies we have, such as prohibiting your future participation in KDP Select or KDP generally. 

Recent Changes 

We updated the Agreement on the date listed at the top of this Agreement. Below is a summary of the principal changes contained in the revised Agreement. You should carefully review the revised Agreement in its entirety to ensure you understand fully all terms of the revised Agreement. 

• We added the following new Section 5.2.3: 
“5.2.3 Optional Programs and Services. We may make available to you optional programs and services through KDP. Terms and conditions for those optional programs and services are included at the end of this Agreement. Those terms and conditions are part of this Agreement.”
• We added the terms and conditions for the new KDP Select option at the end of the Agreement.


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## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

On-the-fence is my middle name.

I see two advantages, for me as someone with slowly growing yet fairly paltry sales:

1. The ability to easily set the book free, as a promo tool. But as someone mentioned, this program could unleash an avalanche of free and pretty much swamp the free ride.

2. Visibility: as someone mentioned, your book would be included in a smaller pool than the overall Kindle store. However, (thanks for the updates Moses), that pool is growing rapidly. Pool size aside, a small-potatoes Indie book just isn't going to garner much attention. Unless I'm missing some promo perk here.

All that said, I'd consider trying out a new release. I think.


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## jnfr (Mar 26, 2011)

Looking at book pages, I think the pricing issue is really going to confuse and/or irritate people. Prices are showing to me as $.00 even though I'm not a Prime member, with the actual purchase price below. I think that's gonna be a problem.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

With a flood of books like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Foreign-Women-Little-ebook/dp/B0068433WE

How can the LL fail?


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## TheSFReader (Jan 20, 2011)

Oh, 2 notes regarding this "event" :
First is a link to Mark Coker's reaction to it : http://blog.smashwords.com/2011/12/amazon-shows-predatory-spots-with-kdp.html

Second : On a personal level, I must say that I HATE this move from Amazon : While so far I felt they where behaving well, playing the market in its intended way, here, they are leveraging their superior position in sales to reach a monopoly position on content.

I understand why those of you decide to enter in KDP Select, but clearly, it makes me reluctant to approach the Kindle store now.
Do as you like, it's your business... but IF you decide to go that road, please don't forget, when your 90 days have passed to put the content at the others selling places !


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## terrireid (Aug 19, 2010)

The Kindle folks contacted me a few weeks ago - I've put all five of the Mary O'Reilly Series in it.  Amazon is easily 95% of my sales - so that was a no-brainer for me.  
FYI - Your reports page with show "N" until someone actually borrows your book - then it will turn to "Y."  
You still get to sell your books to everyone else - you just offer the Prime folks a chance - once a month - to download your book for free.  If you have a series, like I do, the odds that they will them buy some of other other books is pretty good.  

I LOVE the ability to promo my books for free - once again, because I have a series and there is a high likelihood that they will buy the rest.

I've had a chance to talk to the Amazon folks and I am excited about this new possibility.   I will be posting any new book in the series through all of the channels - for a limited time - and then I'll bring them into the Select program.


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## Vivi_Anna (Feb 12, 2011)

I've enrolled 2 of my books, Dawning and Lost for the simple reason that they aren't in the B&N system or Apple or any other vendor besides Smashwords, because I'm a Canuck I have to go thru SW to reach those others and I had a hell of a time getting them into the premium catalogue.

so it was easy peasy for me to click unpublish at smashwords, where they DO NOT SELL anyway, and enroll them into select.

I can't see a downside to this at all.  

But I can understand hesitation on those who make a lot of money at B&N and Apple and other places, then I dont' think I would take them down to do this.


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## EC Sheedy (Feb 24, 2011)

EllenFisher said:


> Giving it a shot with the one book that isn't up anywhere else...


I'm enrolling because so far--slug that I am--the only self-pubbing I've done has been with Amazon. So it's basically a no-brainer for me. Actually I put a new book up less than an hour ago, so we'll see how things go. Darn sure can't hurt my, uh, sales, considering the dearth of them. 

I really hand it to Amazon, they play a tough, confident market game. And so far it's paying off for them.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

You know what I find hilarious? A number of you have personally jumped on me for being OK with traditional publishing, for recommending it, for reading it. The answer is always the same, "I want full control." Yet, you're all willing to let Amazon tell you what to do and where you can sell because they offered you a cookie.


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## jackz4000 (May 15, 2011)

genevieveaclark said:


> I now have a fantastic image of Bezos as an angry little Napolean with a map of Europe spread out on his desk.


Aaaahhhh, you speak of Waterloo.

@KDP SELECT: This will probably work out to be a bad idea for all concerned. "In time few things are more obvious..."

@Monique: Great book there! Usually $100, but I can borrow it for free? I think it's about 15 pages too, so a quick read.


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## sunnycoast (Sep 10, 2010)

Remember that every single Kindle Fire sold during this last month (and in future months) comes complete with 1 month of free Amazon Prime subscription. 

There are going to be an awful lot of Prime members out there. Plus an awful lot of titles in the Select fund.

But not really a whole lot of funds!


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Select is just the battle for one hill in an ongoing content war. First DC, then Marvel, then Conde Naste, now indies. It's just beginning.


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## karencantwell (Jun 17, 2010)

terrireid said:


> FYI - Your reports page with show "N" until someone actually borrows your book - then it will turn to "Y."


Thanks! That's the answer I was looking for.


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

TheSFReader said:


> Oh, 2 notes regarding this "event" :
> First is a link to Mark Coker's reaction to it : http://blog.smashwords.com/2011/12/amazon-shows-predatory-spots-with-kdp.html
> 
> Second : On a personal level, I must say that I HATE this move from Amazon : While so far I felt they where behaving well, playing the market in its intended way, here, they are leveraging their superior position in sales to reach a monopoly position on content.
> ...


I have to say I did sort of hold my nose as I enrolled my one (test case) book, but I'm still giving it a try on a very limited basis. However, I have every intention of returning that book to other outlets once the 90 days is up.

Also, I don't think anyone else has mentioned it, but Amazon does give you several days to opt out. If you click on the "Info" link beneath the check mark in the "KDP Select" column, it'll tell you how long you have before the opt-out option expires.


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## ericbt (Nov 7, 2010)

Looked interesting at first glance, but I'll pass. No one retailer is worth giving exclusive rights to. (Although if there were, Amazon would probably be it.)


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Krista D. Ball said:


> All Romance, Bookstrand, Diesel, etc -- Just more places to buy/sell ebooks
> 
> I sell a few at Bookstrand.


Ok, thanks. All Romance is one I am definitely unfamiliar with. Will Google.


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## Christopher Bunn (Oct 26, 2010)

My plan is to enroll my 99 cent story, The Christmas Caper, and then raise it's price to a million dollars. Oh, wait...one of the members of my evil council is whispering something... Okay, not a million dollars. A billion dollars! That way, Amazon Prime members will see it and think, "Wow, what an amazing deal to borrow an incredibly valuable and costly book for free. I will click and borrow it now." I foresee this happening many times. A majority, if not all, of the initial $500,000 will be mine, as well as probably most of the subsequent $6 million. This money will then bankroll my plans to invade Canada and subjugate it to my will. My first executive act will be to outlaw the use of the word "eh."

Okay, I'd encourage the rest of you not to enroll in KDP Select, as everyone will be busy repeatedly borrowing my billion dollar story.


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## Victoria J (Jul 5, 2011)

I'm in the middle of writing a series so I don't think this will help me with my current books. I'm starting to get sales over at B&N with this series so I won't be opting in right now. However, I plan to write a stand alone novel afterwards next year and I may opt that book in. We'll see how it goes.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Vera Nazarian said:


> Ok, thanks. All Romance is one I am definitely unfamiliar with. Will Google.


Vera - It's only my publisher stuff that's on bookstrand. I know nothing about it, other than it makes me money


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Last update for awhile:

9:49 am MST: 10,732 total books in the lending library
10:13 am MST: 11,248
10:57 am MST: 12,072 
11:40 am MST: 13,267
12:30 pm MST: 16,160
1:04 pm MST: 19,174
1:49 pm MST: 21,224
2:32 pm MST: 22,500


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## Joseph Flynn (Sep 29, 2010)

I don't know about the other distributors, but does anyone think Apple will sit idly by and not find some startling way to counterpunch?


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## JustinDennis (Sep 6, 2011)

I enrolled my novel today. Most of my sales come from Kindle anyway.


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## Gregory Lynn (Aug 9, 2011)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> Last update for awhile:
> 
> 9:49 am MST: 10,732 total books in the lending library
> 10:13 am MST: 11,248
> ...


I don't know which factor is more important, that the library has quadrupled in size or that a ton of people haven't added a ton of books.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Gregory Lynn said:


> I don't know which factor is more important, that the library has quadrupled in size or that a ton of people haven't added a ton of books.


It's Thursday. Most people are still at work or just getting home and haven't checked their email yet.


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Sophrosyne said:


> It wasn't before. Smashwords couldn't publish on Amazon. When did that change?


2 years or so. I opt out on Amazon, because I publish there directly. Eventhough I'll launch my new book on this new program and observe the 90 day exclusivity, my other 18 books will remain spread. Besides only one book is allowed at a time, and, as a Charter author at Smashwords, I lay a hgih value on my allegiance.

Edward C. Patterson
Not fickle like a pickle.


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## Kathleen Valentine (Dec 10, 2009)

Well, since my Belsnickel book has sold under 50 books on Kindle and nothing anywhere else, I pulled it from Pubit and Smashwords and enrolled it with a 5-day giveaway over the weekend before Christmas. We shall see what happens. I have 15 books so giving this a try won't change much.


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## Gregory Lynn (Aug 9, 2011)

Joseph Flynn said:


> I don't know about the other distributors, but does anyone think Apple will sit idly by and not find some startling way to counterpunch?


Apple doesn't seem to care too much about their bookstore and until they do I don't really see them counterpunching with anything.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Gregory Lynn said:


> Apple doesn't seem to care too much about their bookstore and until they do I don't really see them counterpunching with anything.


Agreed. B&N might be a different matter though.


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## Herc- The Reluctant Geek (Feb 10, 2010)

This may be a cynical move on the part of Amazon, but writers would be foolish to ignore it. You need a presence on Select, even if it's just a short story or novella. Something that could interest new readers in your work, and with copiuos amounts of promo material in the back. Remember that Amazon couldn't give two hoots about the websites you link to (at least up until now they haven't), so you can put in blurbs and links in the back of your Select book that point your new fans to your other, non-Select stuff.


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## Jnassise (Mar 22, 2010)

Guess I'm a fool then, because I'm ignoring it.  They aren't offering anything of high enough value to make my limit to a single distributor, especially since I do just as well elsewhere.

-J


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Jnassise said:


> Guess I'm a fool then, because I'm ignoring it. They aren't offering anything of high enough value to make my limit to a single distributor, especially since I do just as well elsewhere.
> 
> -J


Me and you both. I'd spend more time emailing my readers with "here is your epub copy free of charge, sorry about all that" then I would be selling anything.


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## Gregory Lynn (Aug 9, 2011)

Herc- The Reluctant Geek said:


> This may be a cynical move on the part of Amazon, but writers would be foolish to ignore it. You need a presence on Select, even if it's just a short story or novella. Something that could interest new readers in your work, and with copiuos amounts of promo material in the back. Remember that Amazon couldn't give two hoots about the websites you link to (at least up until now they haven't), so you can put in blurbs and links in the back of your Select book that point your new fans to your other, non-Select stuff.


I think it is overly simplistic to suggest that anyone "need" a presence on Select.

Keep in mind that the lending library is only open to people who are Amazon Prime members who have a kindle. It's not an option for people with Kindle apps on other devices and it's not an option for Kindle devices without the Prime membership.

Also keep in mind that the behavior patterns of those people have not yet been determined and won't be until at least a few months after the month long trial membership for Prime expires for all the new Kindles purchased this holiday season.

You basically have to weigh whether Select is going to give you more visibility than having your work on all those other venues. It is easy to see how for any individual author it could go either way.



Jnassise said:


> Guess I'm a fool then, because I'm ignoring it. They aren't offering anything of high enough value to make my limit to a single distributor, especially since I do just as well elsewhere.
> 
> -J


That's not ignoring it, that's just rejecting it. They're totally different things.


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## Dlight (Apr 21, 2010)

Is there a length standard? Can a short story earn the same "share" price as a full-length novel? If so, I would see a lot of authors enrolling short works to get a cut of that pie. Also, it seems to me that Amazon is understating on their example. Why would Amazon pay an author a $5 "share" for a book priced at 99 cents or even $2.99?


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

ShaunaG said:


> AllRomanceEbooks (allromanceebooks.com) and Bookstrand (bookstrand.com). Just other, smaller publishers mostly for romance and erotica titles (at least for AllRomanceEbooks).


Thanks, Shauna!


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## Herc- The Reluctant Geek (Feb 10, 2010)

Jnassise said:


> Guess I'm a fool then, because I'm ignoring it. They aren't offering anything of high enough value to make my limit to a single distributor, especially since I do just as well elsewhere.
> 
> -J


But you don't have to limit your entire catalogue, just one piece. Think of it as promotion. We bang on about marketing ad nauseum on these boards, and people pay hundreds of dollars for tiny bits of exposure. Using Select, you can distribute a sample of your writing to thousands of borrowers, and if the sample is good enough they will _buy_ your other books. What's not to like about exposing yourself to thousands? (sorry, couldn't resist the punch line)


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Herc- The Reluctant Geek said:


> But you don't have to limit your entire catalogue, just one piece. Think of it as promotion. We bang on about marketing ad nauseum on these boards, and people pay hundreds of dollars for tiny bits of exposure. Using Select, you can distribute a sample of your writing to thousands of borrowers, and if the sample is good enough they will _buy_ your other books. What's not to like about exposing yourself to thousands? (sorry, couldn't resist the punch line)


Riiiiiiight because the massive influx of books is going to ensure that your cover is seen by everyone.


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## jonathanmoeller (Apr 19, 2011)

Good luck to those who participate. I think I will sit back and watch what happens to everyone else who enrolls. Just in case.

As the great Gary Larson said, never walk in front:


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

Edward, opt-out Amazon is an option on Smashwords, but it's irrelevant. SW is not an Amazon partner and does not distribute on Amazon. Ask Mark Coker.


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## DRMarvello (Dec 3, 2011)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> 2 years or so. I opt out on Amazon, because I publish there directly. Eventhough I'll launch my new book on this new program and observe the 90 day exclusivity, my other 18 books will remain spread. Besides only one book is allowed at a time, and, as a Charter author at Smashwords, I lay a hgih value on my allegiance.


Check out this page (last updated 11/6/11):
http://www.smashwords.com/distribution

Although Smashwords has had a distribution agreement with Amazon since 2009, *Amazon has never accepted a feed from Smashwords* to date. The latest word is that it will happen in December unless Amazon decides to push it back again. My guess is that they will indeed push it back indefinitely until the dust settles with this program.

In other words, as of right now, putting your book into Smashwords still doesn't get it onto Amazon (and never has).


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

genevieveaclark said:


> Yeah, if Amazon weren't using the whole format thing as a weapon in their Napoleanic campaign for dominance, I might feel a little differently. I think there's a much smaller set of authors for whom this is a good deal, but it's definitely not for everyone. I'll be interested to see what happens in the genres that Amazon doesn't already dominate -- romance, for example.
> 
> As a consumer it kind of bothers me, since I'm already in the "don't have full advantages of prime" camp with my iPad, and, more importantly, I'm a grouchy old soul who doesn't like being told what to do. It rankles.


Exactly.


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## JeanneM (Mar 21, 2011)

I hope Amazon doesn't turn into a "Meet the new boss...same as the old boss" kind of publishing business.

My books aren't selling all that well on B&N or Smashwords, so on the face of it, this looked enticing at first blush.  But I don't think this would work for me with the small amount I have out.  

I'm not saying I would never jump into bed with Amazon exclusively, but first they will have to prove they can provide me with an adequate dinner.


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## Herc- The Reluctant Geek (Feb 10, 2010)

Krista D. Ball said:


> Riiiiiiight because the massive influx of books is going to ensure that your cover is seen by everyone.


But there is a massive influx of books in the Kindlestore, B&N, Apple, etc. It's the same marketplace, the same readers.


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

Yes.  Already done.


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## karencantwell (Jun 17, 2010)

Herc- The Reluctant Geek said:


> But you don't have to limit your entire catalogue, just one piece. Think of it as promotion. We bang on about marketing ad nauseum on these boards, and people pay hundreds of dollars for tiny bits of exposure. Using Select, you can distribute a sample of your writing to thousands of borrowers, and if the sample is good enough they will _buy_ your other books.


Exactly. My plan, since I have a new book in my series releasing Feb 1, is to use my 5 days free option for my Kindle Select title as a promotion tool during that release period. I'm very excited about this. And we're early on in this program - they may offer other promotional opportunities down the road.


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## Robert Bidinotto (Mar 3, 2011)

I can put up with pretty much anything for 90 days. I might draw the line at waterboarding, but this doesn't seem to be in the same league.

And let's put one concern to bed. Some have worried that nobody would borrow a low-priced book when they could borrow a $12.99 or $14.99 bestseller.

As of 5 pm, 71 Amazon Prime members have borrowed my $3.99 book for the month, instead of any of the Big 6, Big-Name-Author, high-price titles.


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## Danielle Kazemi (Apr 2, 2011)

@Robert - That is a great number but what about the other names? You guys are all sharing the same money. 71 downloads might amount to $.10.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

modwitch said:


> It's a cookie with chocolate chips . I think authors should be smart business people. For some of us, this is smart. For others, totally not.


I think the majority of people are going to find it's a stale cookie and only the popular authors are going to see anything from this


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## jhanel (Dec 22, 2010)

dkazemi said:


> @Robert - That is a great number but what about the other names? You guys are all sharing the same money. 71 downloads might amount to $.10.


You are absolutely correct. But he just got PAID $0.10 for free advertising that will -- if he plays his cards right -- turn into sales for other books. I've never known any other advertising market to pay me. Even my "make it free" train was costing me something to get it rolling at first.

I look at this MUCH like I viewed the whole "make it free" phenomenon.

Keep in mind that this is just another marketing tool in your tool belt. It is NOT a tool that will provide a paycheck. We have to keep that distinction in mind. And with ANY marketing tool, it depends on how that tool fits into your overall marketing strategy. Julie (Of BardsAndSages fame) said it so well. She's already done an analysis (as she is so known to do) and figured out a way to sue this new tool to her advantage.

This new tool is not for everyone. If it doesn't fit your plan, don't use it. But if you've developed a well-conceived plan to get you from step to step in your marketing, then I say go for it.


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## TheSFReader (Jan 20, 2011)

modwitch said:


> *I expect it will allow me to deliver one more book next year*.


OK, you got me there no need for further arguments ;-) That one is enough... (almost)


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

Joseph Flynn said:


> I don't know about the other distributors, but does anyone think Apple will sit idly by and not find some startling way to counterpunch?


It probably depends on how much lost revenue this represents to Apple. If a lot of indies who are jumping on board aren't selling much on Apple, will Apple really care?

It's probably killing Smashwords, though.


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## Danielle Kazemi (Apr 2, 2011)

@jhanel You are right in saying it is a marketing tool but limiting your market to one specific area for 90 days. If said book went free elsewhere, it could change into sales there too. On that note, since Robert tends to be around, have you noticed any increase in the sales of your other books? If not, it might just be too early. In about a week, I would like to see if it translated into other sales.


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## SentientSurfer (Sep 20, 2011)

Robert Bidinotto said:


> And let's put one concern to bed. Some have worried that nobody would borrow a low-priced book when they could borrow a $12.99 or $14.99 bestseller.
> 
> As of 5 pm, 71 Amazon Prime members have borrowed my $3.99 book for the month, instead of any of the Big 6, Big-Name-Author, high-price titles.


Yeah but your book was already #1 in four categories. . .it would be scary if you hadn't loaned any by now. I doubt most authors are in your boat.


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## Ryne Billings (May 15, 2011)

HarryDisco said:


> 503 Service Unavailable. Instance draining.
> Rejected 130 after 0 wave-off pings.
> 
> Did we break Amazon? Overwhelming interest in the KDP Select program it seems.


I just had that same issue.


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## jhanel (Dec 22, 2010)

HarryDisco said:


> 503 Service Unavailable. Instance draining.
> Rejected 130 after 0 wave-off pings.
> 
> Did we break Amazon? Overwhelming interest in the KDP Select program it seems.


Hah!! Awesome


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Robert Bidinotto said:


> And let's put one concern to bed. Some have worried that nobody would borrow a low-priced book when they could borrow a $12.99 or $14.99 bestseller.
> 
> As of 5 pm, 71 Amazon Prime members have borrowed my $3.99 book for the month, instead of any of the Big 6, Big-Name-Author, high-price titles.


Well first, none of the big 6 are participating in prime lending so you can't say they picked yours instead of one of those. That option isn't there for customers, so its not a choice of either or. 
I don't think there are any books in the 12.99 range on the prime lending at all. Haven't seen any yet.

And second, your book has been on the top of the bestseller lists and has been very prominent. The Prime lending listings on the Kindle are sorted by default by best selling. So yours will be on the top along with the Hunger Games and such. I would worry if yours wouldn't be picked more often than others. Lots of people just pick up whats on the top selling, they don't spend a lot of time looking further down.

If the 6 big were participating, this would be a totally different game. I would bet money on that one.


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## EC Sheedy (Feb 24, 2011)

modwitch said:


> Yeah. That seemed to stop the conversation pretty much .
> 
> There are philosophical things about this I'm not in love with. But write, upload to one site, right the next one? Sold.


Hear, hear! More time as a writer, less time as format fiddler.

It's interesting that so many writers seem so...angry about this current offer from Amazon. It's good to remember that it is a choice. Do or don't do--90 days. It's not the end of the world as we know it.


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## yomamma (Feb 10, 2011)

I'm not surprised Amazon has made this move, but for now, it's not a good one for me. I have a mixed audience that buys my books on all platforms, and this would be an unfair move to them, especially overseas readers.

I think it'd be great if I made all my sales on Amazon, but it's more like 65%, and I'm pretty happy it's so diverse. 

Of course, I might be singing a totally different tune if all authors come back with $10k paychecks thanks to the lending library, but I'll wait and see.


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## Robert Bidinotto (Mar 3, 2011)

Atunah said:


> Well first, none of the big 6 are participating in prime lending so you can't say they picked yours instead of one of those. That option isn't there for customers, so its not a choice of either or.
> I don't think there are any books in the 12.99 range on the prime lending at all. Haven't seen any yet.
> 
> And second, your book has been on the top of the bestseller lists and has been very prominent. The Prime lending listings on the Kindle are sorted by default by best selling. So yours will be on the top along with the Hunger Games and such. I would worry if yours wouldn't be picked more often than others. Lots of people just pick up whats on the top selling, they don't spend a lot of time looking further down.
> ...


I stand corrected. Thanks for straightening me out on that misunderstanding. I appreciate it.


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## jhanel (Dec 22, 2010)

jillmyles said:


> I'm not surprised Amazon has made this move, but for now, it's not a good one for me. I have a mixed audience that buys my books on all platforms, and this would be an unfair move to them, especially overseas readers.
> 
> I think it'd be great if I made all my sales on Amazon, but it's more like 65%, and I'm pretty happy it's so diverse.
> 
> Of course, I might be singing a totally different tune if all authors come back with $10k paychecks thanks to the lending library, but I'll wait and see.


The numbers are already working against that dollar figure. =) But I think it's AWESOME that you're already diverse. Keep it that way! I'm excited to see life outside of Amazon. That's good news for me.


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## amiblackwelder (Mar 19, 2010)

CraigInTwinCities said:


> I may do this as an experiment with one of my future titles, just to see how it works for me.
> 
> Not going to unpublish anything that's already out there, though.
> 
> ...


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

DRMarvello said:


> Check out this page (last updated 11/6/11):
> http://www.smashwords.com/distribution
> 
> Although Smashwords has had a distribution agreement with Amazon since 2009, *Amazon has never accepted a feed from Smashwords* to date. The latest word is that it will happen in December unless Amazon decides to push it back again. My guess is that they will indeed push it back indefinitely until the dust settles with this program.
> ...


Oh well, I've been too busy (at work) to check in with Mark, but Im sure he'll drop by. I was just reacting to the overall alarm that people are assuming that will overwhelm Smashwords, which I'm sure is not the case. I'm sure Mark, like many, many others, knew about this business over a month ago.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

I won't enroll my existing books, because while my non-Amazon sales aren't that great, I still get them. I also believe in making my books available as widely as possible. Plus, I have several customers outside Amazon's favoured zone, who would otherwise have to pay the two US-dollar surcharge. Finally, all of my books so far are shorts and novelettes. Who in his right mind would use his one lending slot per month to borrow a short story, when they could have a full novel?

I may perhaps give Kindle Select a try with a new book and keep it Amazon exclusive for 90 days.


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## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

CraigInTwinCities said:


> Does making your books available in print everywhere via CreateSpace disqualify you?
> 
> I can't do this with my current books.
> 
> Might consider it for future books.


If you read the fine print, it says it doesn't apply to paper books. No restrictions there.


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## JodyWallace (Mar 29, 2011)

>>>(or content that is reasonably likely to compete commercially with your Digital Book, diminish its value, or be confused with it)

Temporary exclusivity I could swing, but the above clause gives me too much  to be comfortable with it.


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## D/W (Dec 29, 2010)

Krista D. Ball said:


> I think the majority of people are going to find it's a stale cookie and only the popular authors are going to see anything from this


That's the way I see it too.

Take a look at this list of books available for lending through the Kindle Owners' Lending Library (for Amazon Prime members). As I'm typing this, there are 22,762 books there. Readers can choose to borrow only one book per month from the list. Most are going to sort the list based on popularity, average customer review, or price (high to low). Unless your book is near the top of the list, it won't get seen there. Readers aren't going to sort through many pages before choosing a book to borrow.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

HarryDisco said:


> 503 Service Unavailable. Instance draining.
> Rejected 130 after 0 wave-off pings.
> 
> Did we break Amazon? Overwhelming interest in the KDP Select program it seems.
> ...


I am guessing what happened was, they removed the "N" column from the report.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

DreamWeaver said:


> That's the way I see it too.
> 
> Take a look at this list of books available for lending through the Kindle Owners' Lending Library (for Amazon Prime members). As I'm typing this, there are 22,762 books there. Readers can choose to borrow only one book per month from the list. Most are going to sort the list based on popularity, average customer review, or price (high to low). Unless your book is near the top of the list, it won't get seen there. Readers aren't going to sort through many pages before choosing a book to borrow.


Except you're forgetting that when people are browsing/checking for books *in the same way they always have for the past years* it'll still say prime eligible, and they can then choose to rent that way. So yeah, if you aren't selling at all, you probably won't suddenly get rentals barring some success with the freebie promotion. But it isn't like the only way to find and get prime rentals is to solely go through that list. Anyone who has prime who goes to buy book 3 in my Shadowdance trilogy will see that option, and choose to use it.


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## Ryne Billings (May 15, 2011)

Half-Orc said:


> Except you're forgetting that when people are browsing/checking for books *in the same way they always have for the past years* it'll still say prime eligible, and they can then choose to rent that way. So yeah, if you aren't selling at all, you probably won't suddenly get rentals barring some success with the freebie promotion. But it isn't like the only way to find and get prime rentals is to solely go through that list. Anyone who has prime who goes to buy book 3 in my Shadowdance trilogy will see that option, and choose to use it.


Even those who don't have prime can see if a book can be borrowed free with prime too, though I'm sure you knew that.


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## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

Rhynedahll said:


> I thought about this as well. I expect that the average participant might get next to nothing for each loaned book.
> 
> One fact: while they imply that the fund amount will go up, it's more likely to go down. I'd consider the half-mil a starter incentive.
> 
> At this point, I don't think the pros overcome the cons.


They did say they would evaluate and adjust the royalty pot as they go forward. I just wonder how many people are paying $79 a year to be Amazon Select members -- those who can borrow the books.


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## JamieDeBree (Oct 1, 2010)

modwitch said:


> Select TOS are limited to the three months you're enrolled. If they tried to interpret that clause in a Draconian way, then I assume smart authors would all exit the program at the renewal point.
> 
> A lot of people on the net are reading these contract terms the same way they do a publisher contract. But most publisher contracts apply for years. Decades. Lifetimes. This is three months. Even if Amazon got evil here, it's three months.


Except one of the things they can do is cancel your KDP account...which is a ramification that will last a whole lot longer than 90 days and across all of your other books and any you publish in the future. Underestimating the power they have here is not smart, IMO.


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## JamieDeBree (Oct 1, 2010)

Right. Except there's no non-compete clause in the general KDP contract...and if I were amazon, I'd interpret books in the same series as competing. Lots of authors are putting one book in a series in the Select program, and if the other books in the series aren't kindle exclusives...it would be a very easy thing for Amazon to come down on. 

I'm just surprised so many authors are going for this, is all. It's a major power grab, and one that indies could probably get Amazon to back off on, since clearly Amazon needs content, and is going to indies for it because trad. pubs don't want to play ball. 

You're absolutely right - to each his/her own...but terribly risky, IMO.


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## D/W (Dec 29, 2010)

modwitch said:


> This. My books borrowed so far are later in my series. So it's likely not new readers, but my existing base choosing this option. In small numbers, that's fine. What I'm hoping to see is borrowing on the first book in my series.


When I last checked, three of your books are showing on the first page of results when sorted by "average customer review."  I used this link to search the Amazon prime lending offerings.


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## _Sheila_ (Jan 4, 2011)

JamieDeBree said:


> Except one of the things they can do is cancel your KDP account...which is a ramification that will last a whole lot longer than 90 days and across all of your other books and any you publish in the future. Underestimating the power they have here is not smart, IMO.


The way I've read it is that they have reserved the right (if they choose to use it) - to hold you accountable if you cheat them.

There are always people that will try to get around the rules without any ramifications. Amazon is simply pointing out that if you choose to do that - they MAY choose to hold you accountable.

I believe what they are trying to make clear is that if you choose to enroll, be aware that you are agreeing to keep your books exclusive to them for 90 days. Don't try to work your way around it.

Don't try to put the same book out with another cover - a slightly different name - sell it in chapters - or try to work your way around the commitment.

How many people have found a way to offer their books for free on Amazon when it was against the rules? Same thing.

Follow the rules.

Pretty simple.

Sheila


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## Gregory Lynn (Aug 9, 2011)

CoraBuhlert said:


> Finally, all of my books so far are shorts and novelettes. Who in his right mind would use his one lending slot per month to borrow a short story, when they could have a full novel?


The assumption that people make buying decisions while in their right mind is unwarranted.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

Krista D. Ball said:


> You know what I find hilarious? A number of you have personally jumped on me for being OK with traditional publishing, for recommending it, for reading it. The answer is always the same, "I want full control." Yet, you're all willing to let Amazon tell you what to do and where you can sell because they offered you a cookie.


I do have full control. I wanted my books in KDP Select, and so I put them there. Nobody forced me into it. Amazon didn't say, if you don't do this, you can't sell your books on Amazon. If I chose not to, it wouldn't have affected how Amazon treated my books. I'm quite capable of reading the contract and seeing that they require the books to be exclusive to Amazon. Okay. I weighed the pros and cons, and for ME, the pros outweigh the cons. For you, it might be different.

How is that NOT full-control? I read the terms of the very short contract, and for 3 months, I can give it a shot. I still have control of my pricing and I can make my books free for a few days each 90 day period. In fact, with Smashwords, I had much LESS control because I can't control what Kobo and Sony are doing with my books. Kobo still has a cover showing on one of my books and I changed that cover ten months ago! Apple had my thrillers listed under theatrical for months. Sony had the wrong price for a long time.

I don't understand the anger directed at this move by Amazon. This is a choice. Weigh your options and choose accordingly, just don't get angry at those who choose differently than you do.


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## karencantwell (Jun 17, 2010)

modwitch said:


> A lot of people on the net are reading these contract terms the same way they do a publisher contract. But most publisher contracts apply for years. Decades. Lifetimes. This is three months. Even if Amazon got evil here, it's three months.


That's the way I'm looking at it.


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

modwitch said:


> This. My books borrowed so far are later in my series. So it's likely not new readers, but my existing base choosing this option. In small numbers, that's fine. What I'm hoping to see is borrowing on the first book in my series.


So why don't you limit your Prime books to the first book in the series and the $0.99 books?


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

Jon Olson said:


> They did say they would evaluate and adjust the royalty pot as they go forward. I just wonder how many people are paying $79 a year to be Amazon Select members -- those who can borrow the books.


It's Amazon Prime, and the lending library is just one of the perks. I've been a prime member for a year and for the free shipping alone, it was worth it. I was going to renew anyway, and then I got a Kindle Fire, so I now get free streaming too, and the lending library is the cherry on top.


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## D/W (Dec 29, 2010)

Jon Olson said:


> I just wonder how many people are paying $79 a year to be Amazon Select members -- those who can borrow the books.


I have no idea how many Amazon Prime members there are, but Kindle Fire owners automatically receive a one-month free trial. And anyone can sign up for a free month trial of Amazon Prime. You do need a Kindle device in order to borrow the once-a-month free books, but the program also includes free two-day shipping with no minimum order and unlimited instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with Prime instant videos. A large percentage will probably sign up for Prime after their free trial expires (in fact, if you don't cancel your trial, I believe you are _automatically_ enrolled after the trial period!). A lot of people seem to think it's worth $79 a year (even less for students). I'm not sure myself. I guess it depends on how much you buy from Amazon and how you feel about their limited free video selection. One free ebook a month wouldn't entice me to join.


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## karencantwell (Jun 17, 2010)

MaryMcDonald said:


> I do have full control. I wanted my books in KDP Select, and so I put them there. Nobody forced me into it. Amazon didn't say, if you don't do this, you can't sell your books on Amazon. If I chose not to, it wouldn't have affected how Amazon treated my books. I'm quite capable of reading the contract and seeing that they require the books to be exclusive to Amazon. Okay. I weighed the pros and cons, and for ME, the pros outweigh the cons. For you, it might be different.
> 
> How is that NOT full-control? I read the terms of the very short contract, and for 3 months, I can give it a shot. I still have control of my pricing and I can make my books free for a few days each 90 day period. In fact, with Smashwords, I had much LESS control because I can't control what Kobo and Sony are doing with my books. Kobo still has a cover showing on one of my books and I changed that cover ten months ago! Apple had my thrillers listed under theatrical for months. Sony had the wrong price for a long time.
> 
> I don't understand the anger directed at this move by Amazon. This is a choice. Weigh your options and choose accordingly, just don't get angry at those who choose differently than you do.


I totally agree with you here, Mary. In fact, the very fact that we are independent allows us the OPTION to join or not join in this offering. If we were published traditionally, we would have no control to take advantage (or not) of this opportunity.


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## karencantwell (Jun 17, 2010)

Thank you for that link, Dreamweaver! I've been trying to figure out how to browse books in the program on my laptop.


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## 39179 (Mar 16, 2011)

MaryMcDonald said:


> I do have full control. I wanted my books in KDP Select, and so I put them there. Nobody forced me into it. Amazon didn't say, if you don't do this, you can't sell your books on Amazon. If I chose not to, it wouldn't have affected how Amazon treated my books. I'm quite capable of reading the contract and seeing that they require the books to be exclusive to Amazon. Okay. I weighed the pros and cons, and for ME, the pros outweigh the cons. For you, it might be different.
> 
> How is that NOT full-control? I read the terms of the very short contract, and for 3 months, I can give it a shot. I still have control of my pricing and I can make my books free for a few days each 90 day period. In fact, with Smashwords, I had much LESS control because I can't control what Kobo and Sony are doing with my books. Kobo still has a cover showing on one of my books and I changed that cover ten months ago! Apple had my thrillers listed under theatrical for months. Sony had the wrong price for a long time.
> 
> I don't understand the anger directed at this move by Amazon. This is a choice. Weigh your options and choose accordingly, just don't get angry at those who choose differently than you do.


Well said.


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

DreamWeaver said:


> I have no idea how many Amazon Prime members there are, but Kindle Fire owners automatically receive a one-month free trial. And anyone can sign up for a free month trial of Amazon Prime. You do need a Kindle device in order to borrow the once-a-month free books, but the program also includes free two-day shipping with no minimum order and unlimited instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with Prime instant videos. A large percentage will probably sign up for Prime after their free trial expires (in fact, if you don't cancel your trial, I believe you are _automatically_ enrolled after the trial period!). A lot of people seem to think it's worth $79 a year (even less for students). I'm not sure myself. I guess it depends on how much you buy from Amazon and how you feel about their limited free video selection. One free ebook a month wouldn't entice me to join.


I'd have to be convinced I'd watch the free video. You can get free shipping when you spend $25 most of the time, right? And ebooks and renting movies to stream has no shipping charge. The free shipping isn't a big draw -- it would be quite unusual for me to spend that much for shipping in a single year.

Currently, the movies and shows available for free don't seem like a great selection. I could watch quite a few, but $79 isn't much less than a Netflix subscription. That would be a better use of that money for me to get movies to watch.

That said, I'm sure Amazon will continue to improve the service. It makes them money.


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## D/W (Dec 29, 2010)

karencantwell said:


> Thank you for that link, Dreamweaver! I've been trying to figure out how to browse books in the program on my laptop.


It's _much_ easier to browse the Prime books on your computer than on the device! You still have to request the Prime book loan from your Kindle, but some people select the book using their computer, send the sample to their Kindle device, and then borrow it from the sample.


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## EC Sheedy (Feb 24, 2011)

Gregory Lynn said:


> The assumption that people make buying decisions while in their right mind is unwarranted.


This made me spew coffee! Will send bill for new keyboard.


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## Gregory Lynn (Aug 9, 2011)

EC Sheedy said:


> This made me spew coffee! Will send bill for new keyboard.


The assumption that the bill will be paid is unwarr...ah nevermind.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

I've been a prime member for a few years. I do stream the videos and use the 2-day shipping... a lot. But it's really more of a luxury than a value for me. It's becoming more valuable as they add benefits, but for the most part it's a luxury.


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## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

I looked into the Prime membership (was thinking of cancelling Netflix) but in the end I didn't enroll because Netflix had a better selection of streaming video. Hey, if you don't stream Columbo, I'm not trying to sign up with you. 

I also looked at the Lending Library selection. When I checked, there was only 360 romances (I'm a romance reader). Definitely not enough to make me want to join. I rather buy the books myself.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

modwitch said:


> Yes, it might help consolidate Amazon's position in the ebook marketplace - but I'm unconvinced that's a bad thing. If there was a smaller, but plucky player that seemed to be really focusing on the reader experience and making non-bestseller books discoverable, that alone would probably have encouraged me to opt out.
> 
> B&N? Please.
> Kobo? They don't even have a tool where I can upload direct yet. I'm watching, but right now, they're just getting started.
> Apple? Capable, but everything I see in the iTunes book store says they are skimming off the top - collecting revenues from bestseller sales and not investing in the algo infrastructure required to deal with the other 95% of books.


This is exactly right. Regarding Apple, I'm not sure whether it's a case of unwillingness to invest or unwillingness to jump out of bed with the Big 5/6. With B&N, we know it's the latter. With Apple, it's harder to tell, but I think the whole agency pricing thing indicated how Apple came into this. I could see this changing, but it hasn't yet. Developing algorithms is not rocket science, the thing it takes more than anything else is data, which takes time.

For me, it's a no brainer to opt-in for one shorts collection. It may not be for others. But as Debora suggests, I don't unconditionally accept the idea that increasing Amazon's clout is a downside. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. No one else is trying to do what Amazon is doing, and I believe their approach will benefit me more than the approach of any other retailer. The only thing that gives me pause is Smashwords. But in a sense, they're a victim of the retailers they're dealing with, as least regarding the decisions I have to make.


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## Vivi_Anna (Feb 12, 2011)

Atunah said:


> Well first, none of the big 6 are participating in prime lending so you can't say they picked yours instead of one of those. That option isn't there for customers, so its not a choice of either or.
> I don't think there are any books in the 12.99 range on the prime lending at all. Haven't seen any yet.
> 
> And second, your book has been on the top of the bestseller lists and has been very prominent. The Prime lending listings on the Kindle are sorted by default by best selling. So yours will be on the top along with the Hunger Games and such. I would worry if yours wouldn't be picked more often than others. Lots of people just pick up whats on the top selling, they don't spend a lot of time looking further down.
> ...


Yeah they are. I've seen tons of big 6 books available for lending. You mention Hunger Games, that is published by one of the big 6


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Vivi_Anna said:


> Yeah they are. I've seen tons of big 6 books available for lending. You mention Hunger Games, that is published by one of the big 6


It's published by Scholastic who are a large publisher, but not one of the "big 6". Amazon are said to have included 5,000 bestsellers. They are paying the publishers full price each time a copy of one of those is checked out (but even still the publishers are going crazy). I guess Amazon's plan it to show them the Lending Library works and then negotiate the fee downward. Whatever they end up with, I'm betting it will be a hell of a lot more than they will pay indies through this limited pot.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

I wish the big 6 were part of it, but they aren't. Not a one of them. There are other publishers taking part including Harlequin, but no big 6. I have lots of those on my wishlist as I grumble about paying the prices for those. So I get those I can if they are on library ebook lending and when they go on sale on Amazon. Thankfully many have been on sale this year.

Here are the big 6

Hatchette Book Group
HarperCollins
MacMillan
Penguin
Random House
Simon and Schuster


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## yomamma (Feb 10, 2011)

I've been a Prime member for at least three or four years now. We get everything shipped. EVERYTHING. My last order was toothpicks (hooray two day shipping!). Christmas is a breeze.

The only thing that rankles me is that both my husband and I have Amazon accounts. My account is linked to his so my shipping is the free 2 day shipping. But the videos and lending? Only on his account, and Amazon won't let me use either unless I *also* purchase Prime. Which would be pointless. And my husband? Does not have a Kindle and I do. Oh, the irony.

So, we are happy Primers and recommend it to everyone, but not a lot of lending going to be happening on this end, more's the pity. I do think a LOT of people have Prime accounts. I know once we got it, we did not look back. It's pretty awesome.


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## Katy (Dec 16, 2010)

Wow, my book is near the top of page 13 of the lending library when sorted by "avg customer review."
That's a LOT higher than I expected.


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## scottnicholson (Jan 31, 2010)

There were dark days in late October of 1929, when panic set in and many, many people sold their stocks, losing in moments what would take their lifetimes to regain.

There were sunny days in late October of 1929, when optimism set in and a few cheerful prospectors got in a buying mood.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

Okay, but even if Amazon is paying the Big 6 more, how much do you really think is going to funnel down to their authors? Amazon takes better care of its authors than pub houses do. I don't think that will change.


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## yomamma (Feb 10, 2011)

Sophrosyne said:


> Okay, but even if Amazon is paying the Big 6 more, how much do you really think is going to funnel down to their authors? Amazon takes better care of its authors than pub houses do. I don't think that will change.


Well, this would be 25% of net. Just like the contracts state.


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## jtshelnutt (Apr 21, 2011)

I've unpublished my ebooks from Smashwords.com and enrolled them in KDP Select. They weren't doing anything on Smashwords anyway, so maybe I'll get some readers this way. Worth a try!


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## journeymama (May 30, 2011)

I did it. 

It's risky because I only have one book for sale, but I sold only 2 books at B and N in November, so I don't think it will be that big of a loss. I'll let you know how it goes...


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## Katy (Dec 16, 2010)

I've been borrowed! After less than 12 hours enrolled. 
Wow.


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## EthanRussellErway (Nov 17, 2011)

I'd be willing to give it a shot.  I think that I'd do it for the exposure though, not for the money.  It may be a good way to earn a little free PR.


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## swcleveland (Jun 6, 2010)

Mine's not available anywhere else right now, so I just gave it a shot and signed up for the "free" promotion this Saturday and Sunday.

Guess we'll see what happens.....


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## Kimberly Spencer (Apr 10, 2011)

This might just be a dumb question, but I'm high on benadryl so this is the best that I can do right now. 

If I were to enroll one of the books from my trilogy, would I be forced to unpub my omnibus from other sites? Or if I enrolled a 2 for 1 book, let's say Shimmerspell and Lore together, would I be forced to unpub the solo books everywhere else?

I really want to try Kdp select, but I don't want to lose out on sales at B&N.


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## ETS PRESS (Nov 4, 2011)

I've read all 16 pages of this thread... 

I am a Prime member. I opted into the free Prime for a month around April. I did this because I needed two expensive books in a hurry in order to prepare for a test. Two day shipping for non Prime members is expensive, so I took the free month. I kept it because I order a lot of things besides books from Amazon. I love that I get stuff in two days. It has come in handy more than once. When I first joined I couldn't find movies to watch, but I just noticed that a dvd on my wish list is now available for free. I'm going to watch it this weekend. I borrowed a book a month ago (published by traditional publisher -terribly formatted -so bad that I quit reading it). I already have a ton of books on my Kindle to read. I will probably cruise through my wish list on occasion to see if any of the books are free to borrow, but I will still by books. I do own a Kindle, so this all works for me as a reader / customer.

I think this is a great opportunity for some people, but it's not right for everyone. If you already have a fan base and sales on other venues, then you might not want to opt into KDP Select. Some people will be able to use it as a promotional tool, and others are already exclusively on Amazon, so it's not a big deal. It's only 90 days, so it's not the end of the world. If people want to try it out, and see how it works for them -then great! If you don't want to take the risk, then okay. Each person needs to make a decision based on what is best for them. I don't see Amazon as the evil monster trying to take over the world. They are a business. This is a business opportunity. Make the business decision that is right for you. 

I will probably give my next title a go. I'm not so deep in that I have anything to lose, and everything to gain. And it's only 90 days. I can live with that.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

Kimberly Spencer said:


> This might just be a dumb question, but I'm high on benadryl so this is the best that I can do right now.
> 
> If I were to enroll one of the books from my trilogy, would I be forced to unpub my omnibus from other sites? Or if I enrolled a 2 for 1 book, let's say Shimmerspell and Lore together, would I be forced to unpub the solo books everywhere else?
> 
> I really want to try Kdp select, but I don't want to lose out on sales at B&N.


Book A in ebook format can only be on Amazon. If Book A is bundled with Book B as an e-omnibus, you are violating the contract terms.

I don't quite know if they can nab serieses. I'm reading some fuzzy language there.


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## rayhensley (Apr 16, 2011)

My titles must be 100% exclusive to Amazon? I'll pass.

I want my books _available _everywhere, and on every reading device.

Mahalo.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

jillmyles said:


> I've been a Prime member for at least three or four years now. We get everything shipped. EVERYTHING. My last order was toothpicks (hooray two day shipping!). Christmas is a breeze.
> 
> The only thing that rankles me is that both my husband and I have Amazon accounts. My account is linked to his so my shipping is the free 2 day shipping. But the videos and lending? Only on his account, and Amazon won't let me use either unless I *also* purchase Prime. Which would be pointless. And my husband? Does not have a Kindle and I do. Oh, the irony.
> 
> So, we are happy Primers and recommend it to everyone, but not a lot of lending going to be happening on this end, more's the pity. I do think a LOT of people have Prime accounts. I know once we got it, we did not look back. It's pretty awesome.


We had the same thing with our Prime because my husband signed up for it when he bought me my Kindle last November. I've been getting the free shipping, but that was it. Then I purchased a Kindle Fire from my account, so when the free trial runs out in a few days, we'll sign up with my account since I do all the reading. Dh is getting a Kindle Fire too, and I think we'll keep his on my account. He doesn't read much, he'll want to use the streaming. Our Amazon accounts are linked to our joint checking so it won't make any difference if he purchases through mine or his account.


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## 25803 (Oct 24, 2010)

I opted in with my novella that had been awaiting premium distribution from Smashwords (which I unpublished), and with a writing book that I had only published on Kindle.  Will see how it goes before deciding on other titles.  This was an easy decision because a huge chunk of my sales are from Amazon, and being able to easily set a book free for 5 days is very attractive.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

Prime has ben a no-brainer for me since it was first offered. Videos and books are very new. Each year I have saved many times the $79 in shipping alone.


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## Ryne Billings (May 15, 2011)

So... has anyone thought about the effect that this could have on Sample Sundays? If you can't distribute your work anywhere but Amazon, that means that you can post chapters of your exclusive books on your website or blog.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

Krista D. Ball said:


> Book A in ebook format can only be on Amazon. If Book A is bundled with Book B as an e-omnibus, you are violating the contract terms.
> 
> I don't quite know if they can nab serieses. I'm reading some fuzzy language there.


I asked about both scenarios. They said series are still separate books, separate titles, you can enroll one, none, or all.

As for Omni, I'm a little less certain on that one. Took a bit to explain the circumstances (Omni containing all books for sale, and what happens if either Omni or individual books are enrolled). I was told that to their minds they are still different books, with different ISBNs, covers, and titles for the Omni, therefore not the same. It seems for all intents and purposes, it is just a 1 to 1 thing, though they might have changed their minds between that conversation and release.


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## N. Gemini Sasson (Jul 5, 2010)

I'm also on the fence, but inclined to sit back and see how things unfold for now. My sales elsewhere are a fraction of what my Kindle sales are, but they're slowly growing and I've had people ask when my latest releases were going to be available through Apple or Nook whenever there was a hold-up due to waiting on SW premium catalog approval.  I'd hate to have a reader partway through the series on their Nook suddenly discover they can't get the next book for three more months.


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## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

Krista D. Ball said:


> hold on, hold on, making badges is a full time job there. I'm going to have to start charging. Geez, there's a lot of you people.


Can I just "Borrow" my badge for 90 days?"

GR


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## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

Mr. RAD said:


> Anyone besides David Dalglish have their books borrowed yet?


I joined Prime and Borrowed one of my own, just to see if the reporting system worked well. It was instantaneous, with the single digit reporting showing up immediately. No other Borrows as yet, but only in the system for a few hours.

GR


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## terrireid (Aug 19, 2010)

N. Gemini Sasson said:


> I'm also on the fence, but inclined to sit back and see how things unfold for now. My sales elsewhere are a fraction of what my Kindle sales are, but they're slowly growing and I've had people ask when my latest releases were going to be available through Apple or Nook whenever there was a hold-up due to waiting on SW premium catalog approval. I'd hate to have a reader partway through the series on their Nook suddenly discover they can't get the next book for three more months.


I put the first five book in the Mary O'Reilly series in Select - I have a new book that's coming out this month. It won't go into select right away - so I can distribute it to all of the other venues. I'll probably keep it out for about eight weeks - then pull it and put it on Select.


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## Gregory Lynn (Aug 9, 2011)

Could I make a request of those of you enrolling?

Could you report back on with data on borrows and whether your sales trend in any particular direction?

Thanks a bunch,

The Management*



*Except not really.


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## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

So I finally read through all 17 pages of this thread...and I still don't get it. Can anyone explain in concrete terms what you hope to get out of this deal? I'm dead serious. What's the advantage? Kudos to Amazon, though. Best marketing drive since 



. I almost signed up just so I wasn't left out...of whatever this is.

B.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

So, the numbers acted really strangely after I stopped updating. I was out, but I tried to check the numbers on my trusty Kindle2 as often as possible.

9:49 am MST: 10,732 total books in the lending library
10:13 am MST: 11,248
10:57 am MST: 12,072 
11:40 am MST: 13,267
12:30 pm MST: 16,160
1:04 pm MST: 19,174
1:49 pm MST: 21,224
2:32 pm MST: 22,500
I saw the sales climb to something like 25,000, and then it definitely went to 25,001 for long while. Now it's at 22,499. So either a dramatic reversal occurred, with tons of authors opting out, or the numbers are off. 

Even at 22,499, we're looking at about 17K books opted in on the first half of a day. I wonder how many more will come tomorrow or over the next week.

The numbers should definitely climb over the next three months because once authors are past the three day opt-out period, those books are stuck, for better or worse. And then more authors will be joining over time. We could get another big increase before January, from people hoping to get in on the January pie, which I'm guessing will be higher than $500K. Ditto for February.


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## Herc- The Reluctant Geek (Feb 10, 2010)

B. Justin Shier said:


> So I finally read through all 17 pages of this thread...and I still don't get it. Can anyone explain in concrete terms what you hope to get out of this deal? I'm dead serious. What's the advantage? Kudos to Amazon, though. Best marketing drive since
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Exposure. The chance that someone will borrow your book, like your writing and then buy your entire catalogue. The ability to set your book to free for a five day period without resorting to prayer (I've set 5 or 6 books to free on other websites and only 3 have filtered through to Amazon).

That being said, I'm planning on limiting my involvement to one novella because it's just not worth killing off all the other distribution channels, nor do I think non-fiction will work that well.


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## Juliette Sobanet (Oct 8, 2011)

I'm still on the fence with this as well. My book has been out for just about 2 months now, and 88% of my sales have come from Amazon. It's definitely enticing to try, just to see if enrolling in Select does help with exposure . . . especially since I'm hoping to release my second title later this winter. Going to sleep on it though. My head is spinning from reading the last 17 pages of posts. All helpful points everyone has made so far - glad to have Kindle boards to come to to see what others' opinions are on these decisions.


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## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

Herc- The Reluctant Geek said:


> Exposure. The chance that someone will borrow your book, like your writing and then buy your entire catalogue.


I hear this and wonder why it is better than the already available sampling feature.



Herc- The Reluctant Geek said:


> The ability to set your book to free for a five day period without resorting to prayer (I've set 5 or 6 books to free on other websites and only 3 have filtered through to Amazon).


I'm left wondering if making a book free will be a viable tactic anymore. Free works great when you're the only guy or gal on the street corner. It's harder to pull off in a crowd of 20K and growing. I can see a use for authors like Deborah. Stage a first book freebie right before the release of a new volume. That'll help bump the product's placement right before the second one lands on the New Releases. SYNERGY and such. But how you build a group of loyal readers in the middle of a freebie scrum is unclear to me. How it can possibly beat access to 3+ more distribution channels is beyond me.

B.


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## Herc- The Reluctant Geek (Feb 10, 2010)

B. Justin Shier said:


> I hear this and wonder why it is better than the already available sampling feature.
> 
> I'm left wondering if making a book free will be a viable tactic anymore. Free works great when you're the only guy or gal on the street corner. It's harder to pull off in a crowd of 20K and growing. I can see a use for authors like Deborah. Stage a first book freebie right before the release of a new volume. That'll help bump the product's placement right before the second one lands on the New Releases. SYNERGY and such. But how you build a group of loyal readers in the middle of a freebie scrum is unclear to me. How it can possibly beat access to 3+ more distribution channels is beyond me.
> 
> B.


It's definitely got some drawbacks, which is why I'm only putting up one short piece. It would be more useful if Prime folk could download more than one book a month, but even with this restriction it's still a decent marketing tool. If you have a novella or short hanging around, you could do a lot worse than spruce it up and give it a whirl on Select with a bunch of links in the back to your other, non-Select stuff.


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## Christopher Hunter (Apr 11, 2011)

I am not touching that thing. I'm keeping the Indie in my Indie Author.


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## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Great discussion here! After debating all day about this, I signed up two of my short stories with KDP Select: *Cannon Fodder: Operation Horse Whisperer* (science fiction) and *Trail of Bones and Excrement* (post-apocalyptic science fiction). It was frighteningly easy to sign up - just click a button agreeing to the Terms and Conditions, that's it. Guess I'll see what happens now.


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## Ryne Billings (May 15, 2011)

sibelhodge said:


> Yep, absolutely, Modwitch. At the moment I'm not happy about that being so vague


That's one reason I changed my mind on putting my books in it. I withdrew them from KDP Select using the three day window that it gives you after you enroll them into it.

I don't have a problem going exclusive, but they're being a bit too vague for my tastes.


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## emilyward (Mar 5, 2011)

At this point, no. I don't want to give Amazon exclusivity because I want to give readers more than one option and I want to foster competition between ebook retailers. 

That could always change, though. If the benefits were really good, then maybe. Right now, just access to the lending library and some extra royalties? Not enough to sway me.

Now I'm going to read 17 pages of discussion to see if anyone can convince me


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

FWIW, I'm trying it out and my book was supposed to go free at midnight. It's after midnight. It's not free. I'll update you.

***Okay, it's on free. Only about 26 minutes late. Which isn't bad, actually.


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## Richardcrasta (Jul 29, 2010)

Sorry if I missed something. But does this mean that Amazon will no longer make books free the "normal" way (the way many people here have been doing, by making it free elsewhere and reporting it?), and will limit it to 5 days for each of the enrolled books?

Because my book "Eaten By the Japanese" hasn't been made free despite it being free on Apple & Smashwords for 2 weeks.

thanks.
richard


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## Debbie Bennett (Mar 25, 2011)

I don't see how you can do KDP Select if you have *ever* published the book via smashwords - unpublishing won't remove the copy smashwords keeps to service previous customers of that book. And that appears to violate kdp's t&c


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

emilyward said:


> At this point, no. I don't want to give Amazon exclusivity because I want to give readers more than one option and I want to foster competition between ebook retailers.
> 
> That could always change, though. If the benefits were really good, then maybe. Right now, just access to the lending library and some extra royalties? Not enough to sway me.
> 
> Now I'm going to read 17 pages of discussion to see if anyone can convince me


I agree that fostering competition between ebook retailers is good,

BUT

I want to foster competition that helps indies which means that B&N and Apple should stop treating us like crap. The thing that is most likely to do that is seeing Amazon treating us like a valuable commodity.

So rewarding Amazon for doing that at least in the short term is, in my opinion, to my benefit. It's not like this is a 5 year contract, for heaven's sake. We're talking 3 months at a time.

I don't care about convincing anyone else, but that is how I look at it so I put my historical novels in. At worst I lose about 5% of my sales since my sales everywhere except Amazon have been pathetic. When the sequel to A Kingdom's Cost comes out in Feb., I'll be able to put that free for a few days which looks like a good deal. At the end of three months, I'll be in a position to re-evaluate.


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## Mr. RAD (Jan 4, 2011)

Another dumb question here, but why give Amazon 90 days exclusivity for a $500K pot that only lasts 30 days?


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## Herc- The Reluctant Geek (Feb 10, 2010)

Mr. RAD said:


> Another dumb question here, but why give Amazon 90 days exclusivity for a $500K pot that only lasts 30 days?


Personally, I think only a few writers will make money directly from Select...but, to be brutally honest, it's all wild speculation at this point and your guess is as good as mine.

After analysing my numbers from Apple/Sony via Smashwords, my support for Select is wavering. Even a novella may be too much to keep exclusive.


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## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Got my first borrow


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## AithneJarretta (Jul 13, 2011)

Yes. Although I'm not as adept as many other authors here on KB in the business department, I will take any help I can get from the almighty giant. 

Since Concentric Circles is on Amazon exclusively, it was easy. Today's downloads for one of my FREE days has already exceeded prior sales. The fact it goes back to $2.99 at 12pm PST is also an advantage. It ends the 'Sale' for me. I'll pulse the FREE days in hopes of building a momentum.

~ Aithne


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Has anyone got a link so I can check how many titles are in the program now? The links upthread don't seem to work (oh, I need a link that will work on a laptop, not a kindle).


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## David Wisehart (Mar 2, 2010)

David, try this link:

Prime Eligible

There are currently 33,480 titles that are "Prime Eligible."

David


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Thanks David, that works a treat. I only see 32,179 titles, but that's probably because I am in Europe and some of the authors/publishers won't have the rights to sell here.

Wow. Quite a response. So in 24 hours or so, it seems that 27,000 KDP titles have been entered already. I think we will hit 50,000 pretty soon, and may even top out at 100,000. Presumably, with that many titles, Amazon will raise the pot for January (which in turn could spur more titles entering).

I'm staying well away from this for all the reasons given above (and more), but I wish everyone the best of luck with it. I would like to see the program evolve and it seems Amazon are open to feedback. If they reconsidered exclusivity and got rid of the limited pot idea, I would be interested in this, but those are two roadblocks for me.

Best of luck to everyone participating, and I hope you will let us all know how you get on.


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

My gut is telling me this is not good for me.  I always go with my gut.  It is seldom wrong.  However, if time proves it wrong, I can always change my mind.

I want to be INDIE, unless they provide me something that proves great benefits and promotion for me.


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## melissafmiller (Feb 17, 2011)

Because multiple people have asked for data, I'll share: I have 17 borrows yesterday for Irreparable Harm.  Could that have cannabilized my sales? Could've, but didn't seem to. Sales were brisk.


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## karencantwell (Jun 17, 2010)

sibelhodge said:


> 1 Exclusivity. When you include a Digital Book in KDP Select, you give us the exclusive right to sell and distribute your Digital Book in digital format while your book is in KDP Select. During this period of exclusivity, you cannot sell or distribute, or give anyone else the right to sell or distribute, your Digital Book *(or content that is reasonably likely to compete commercially with your Digital Book, diminish its value, or be confused with it)*, in digital format in any territory where you have rights.
> 
> What I'm worried about is that it is quite vague. If the author prohibited from selling any OTHER work that might compete, that surely means any other books by the author.
> 
> ...


Sibel, I can see your concern, but if you look at it from Amazon's perspective, I think it's pretty clear why they included that wording and why it appears vague: Amazon is trying to preempt those people who will try to "get around" the rules so they can be both a part of this program AND still sell their books elsewhere by re-publishing very nearly identical books on other platforms. While the vague wording could open the door (I suppose) to them preventing you from selling other books in the same series on other platforms, do we really think they're going to go those extremes? How would that benefit them? They'd push the Indies away and let's face it, they do make a LOT of money from us.


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## ETS PRESS (Nov 4, 2011)

I don't think it would make a lick of sense for Amazon to shut down indies who list one book in their series in KDP. That one book that gets borrowed might lead to sales of the other books in the series. Amazon makes money every time your book sales, so why would they get persnickety about listing only one book? Besides, we've already heard from people w/their ear to Amazon that you can list one book or all of your books.


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## Elmore Hammes (Jun 23, 2009)

I am giving it a go with my newest title, primarily because it had not yet been added to any other channels, and it had only had a couple sales on Amazon.
I added Questionable Heroes yesterday morning, and selected this weekend (Fri-Sat, Dec 9-10) as two free days, so the Kindle edition is free to everyone across all the Amazon sites, not just Prime members with Kindles.
As of 8 am EST, there were 9 downloads on the US site and 5 on the UK site, and that was before I did any sort of promotion regarding the free status.
I am hoping the free sales will generate traffic to my other novels.
Elmore


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

Elmore Hammes said:


> I am giving it a go with my newest title, primarily because it had not yet been added to any other channels, and it had only had a couple sales on Amazon.
> I added Questionable Heroes yesterday morning, and selected this weekend (Fri-Sat, Dec 9-10) as two free days, so the Kindle edition is free to everyone across all the Amazon sites, not just Prime members with Kindles.
> As of 8 am EST, there were 9 downloads on the US site and 5 on the UK site, and that was before I did any sort of promotion regarding the free status.
> I am hoping the free sales will generate traffic to my other novels.
> Elmore


I didn;t have this one, Elmore (corrected) especially since it's FREE. But, my sentiments exactly. My new offering (out next week) will be given a go on this antitrust scheme, only because it's different and it's not up on the other distribution yet, and I just released a book 4 weeks ago, so I can give it some space.

Edward C. Patterson


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## bnapier (Apr 26, 2010)

No completely sold on this concept, but willing to try it.  I have enrolled 2 of my titles and have also made these 2 free for the weekend.


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## Guest (Dec 9, 2011)

DebBennett said:


> I don't see how you can do KDP Select if you have *ever* published the book via smashwords - unpublishing won't remove the copy smashwords keeps to service previous customers of that book. And that appears to violate kdp's t&c


There is nothing in the TOC that talks about sales ALREADY MADE. Unless Amazon now has control over the time/space continuum, it would be physically impossible for them to enforce a policy that would demand retroactively removing products from customers who already bought them.

Of course, now that I think of it, Wizards of the Coast DID make such a demand of RPGNOW.com when they decided to pull their products from the site. But then again, WoTC DO in fact have high level spells to control the time/space continuum so that isn't the same thing.


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

David said. 'I think we will hit 50,000 pretty soon, and may even top out at 100,000.'

I'm not a mathematician but 500,000 divided by 100,000 = $5 whoopie do!  

Pas pour moi, merci.


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

I posted this under my Smashwords article/Amazon thread, but wanted to make sure it was seen here, too:

I understand the lure of "it is just 90 days".  That is true. Let's play devil's advocate for a minute. Let's say books do really well during the 90 days and so you continue opting in.  Your books continue to do well.  All is great, right?

Not necessarily.  Look at the bigger picture.  Amazon is not a charitable organization, they are big business.  They are not, and never will be, interested in what is best for authors.  They are interested in what is best for them.  I am not saying they are "evil".  They are big business, pure and simple.  Profit is all that matters.

So, after several months of books doing well on this program, more and more joining, Amazon can change the game (and probably will, to get more profit).  It won't be to benefit authors more, it will be to benefit their profit more.  Now you have been with them in this program for months, or a year; maybe more.  So, what are you gonna do when they change the game?  When they lower YOUR profit, or when they make you charge the same as major authors but don't give you exposure because they make more from big sellers?  Now you have no other audience.  You gave up everything.  You gave up B&N, Apple, other affiliate sites and YOUR OWN WEBSITE SALES.  All of a sudden you are making nothing.

There have been so many threads here warning authors not "put all of their applie in one basket" aka Amazon because the game could change with them at any time.  Those threads had pages of people agreeing. Now, because it "looks" like a possible short term answer, people may jump...only to find down the road that they are caught in a trap.  No longer indie, no longer valued by Amazon, no longer making any money at all.

I could be wrong.  Absolutely.  But this smells to me.  I see it as candy handed out to lure us into something that eventually is not going to taste very sweet at all. In fact, it could be poison to the indie industry.


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## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

Mr. RAD said:


> Another dumb question here, but why give Amazon 90 days exclusivity for a $500K pot that only lasts 30 days?


The pot renews every month. They promise $6 million minimum in the pot for 2012. That's $500,000 a month. And, they say they will evaluate and adjust the pot if need be.


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## David Wisehart (Mar 2, 2010)

Caddy,

If the KDP Select program gets you more readers, you don't necessarily lose everything if Amazon pulls the rug from under you.

Build a relationship with your readers. Put your email in your books and encourage fans to sign up for your newsletter. If at some future point you leave KDP and sell from your own website, you will have built up a relationship with fans who will buy directly from you.

I find the "sky is falling" reaction to change rather amusing. Yes, change can be scary. But it's not necessarily bad. And it's usually good news for those who know how to adapt.

Some people will have great success with this program. Most won't. But I don't see a lot of downside to KDP Select, provided that you continue to make and keep new fans.

David


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Jon Olson said:


> The pot renews every month. They promise $6 million minimum in the pot for 2012. That's $500,000 a month. And, they say they will evaluate and adjust the pot if need be.


Jon, just to be clear, Amazon said they "expect" the pot to be "at least $6 million". That's not a promise. Now, I think it will be more myself (especially of current sign-up rates continue and borrowings are strong), but it's not set in stone. It could be less. There are no guarantees. There is no minimum payment for downloads. Just a fixed pot that they can revise upwards or downwards at will. I think the point the poster you replied to was making was that Amazon are asking for a 90 day exclusive, but can only guarantee the pot for a third of that time.


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## Eltanin Publishing (Mar 24, 2011)

Mel Comley said:


> David said. 'I think we will hit 50,000 pretty soon, and may even top out at 100,000.'
> 
> I'm not a mathematician but 500,000 divided by 100,000 = $5 whoopie do!
> 
> Pas pour moi, merci.


But many many of those books will never be borrowed. The pot of money isn't evenly distributed among all books in the program. It is distributed proportional to "borrows". We've all seen some of the garbage books that are on Amazon. No one is going to borrow them. So rather than looking at how many books are in the program, a better predictor to start with is how many people have Prime AND have a kindle. We don't know. But estimates I've seen of 10 million people having Prime are too high, in my opinion. There are 307 million people in the US. You really think 1 in 30 of every man, woman and child in the US has Amazon Prime?


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

dgaughran said:


> Jon, just to be clear, Amazon said they "expect" the pot to be "at least $6 million". That's not a promise.


Uh, no?



> *Earn a whole new source of royalties -* Earn your share of $500,000 in December and _at least_ $6 million throughout 2012 when readers borrow your books from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.












At least. Not at most. Not up to. Also, repeatedly during phone conversations when launching this program, they stated the six million was already set aside, and guaranteed not to go down during the first year. It would only be able to go down _after_ the first year (during which you'd have at least three chances to opt out). It's guaranteed, it is advertised as guaranteed, and they seemed pretty insistent that they would raise it if the program was popular. No clue if that'll happen, of course, but you can hunt me down and make me eat my hat if less than 6 million is given out the first year.


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## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

dgaughran said:


> Jon, just to be clear, Amazon said they "expect" the pot to be "at least $6 million". That's not a promise. Now, I think it will be more myself (especially of current sign-up rates continue and borrowings are strong), but it's not set in stone. It could be less. There are no guarantees. There is no minimum payment for downloads. Just a fixed pot that they can revise upwards or downwards at will. I think the point the poster you replied to was making was that Amazon are asking for a 90 day exclusive, but can only guarantee the pot for a third of that time.


Ah, thanks David. I wonder how they're funding that. Must be from the Amazon Prime annual fees. And, no doubt for Amazon, $6 million is chump change. I do think the whole KDP Prime offer is an ingenious, diabolical plan to kill B&N, Kobo, Apple iBooks and all the rest. The gods of Amazon are very, very clever.


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## _Sheila_ (Jan 4, 2011)

These comments are not directed at the poster, but rather the ideas presented.



Caddy said:


> I posted this under my Smashwords article/Amazon thread, but wanted to make sure it was seen here, too:
> 
> I understand the lure of "it is just 90 days". That is true. Let's play devil's advocate for a minute. Let's say books do really well during the 90 days and so you continue opting in. Your books continue to do well. All is great, right?
> 
> ...


Sheila


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Half-Orc said:


> Uh, no?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Dave, that's good to hear. The messaging is a little inconsistent around the site. I was going by the FAQ which says:



> I noticed a reference to a $6 million fund. What is that?
> *We expect* the total KDP Kindle Owners' Lending Library fund will be *at least $6 million for all of 2012*. Books enrolled in KDP Select have the opportunity to earn a share of this fund each month.


 (my bolding)

My point was "expect" is a qualifier here, and I'm not a lawyer and can't say if any such minimum is guaranteed in the ToS. However, I don't think this is a big issue and it's probably all moot anyway, because if sign-ups continue at the current rate, and the program is as popular with readers as we all think it will be, then the pot will likely raise, perhaps as soon as next month.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

dgaughran said:


> My point was "expect" is a qualifier here, and I'm not a lawyer and can't say if any such minimum is guaranteed in the ToS. However, I don't think this is a big issue and it's probably all moot anyway, because if sign-ups continue at the current rate, and the program is as popular with readers as we all think it will be, then the pot will likely raise, perhaps as soon as next month.


I noticed that, but that's probably there in case something catastrophic happens. I mean, Amazon could shut down the KDP service tomorrow for all we know.

And I'm torn about the money increase. Part of me thinks they'll have to, with how many are signing up and how little money a lot of people will make. But flipside...will they see it as worthwhile to allocate 10, 12 million dollars just to this? I don't know.


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## Mr. RAD (Jan 4, 2011)

dgaughran said:


> I think the point the poster ... was making was that Amazon are asking for a 90 day exclusive, but can only guarantee the pot for a third of that time.


Yep.


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## Rusty Bigfoot (Jul 6, 2011)

My books are all collections of short stories. Some time ago, I created a small book of 3 new ones and a couple of ones from previous books as a way to market, I was going to go free (it's 99 cents) but never bothered. It's called Rusty Wilson's Hairy Trio of Bigfoot Campfire Stories.

I don't sell a lot (maybe about 30/month), for some reason my bigger and more expensive books do way better. So, I just put it on Select - purely as a marketing tool. What's to lose? BN sells almost nothing for me.

Take the book you sell least of at BN and try Select for 90 days. You can always take if off later. I have a feeling it's the books that go up now that will do best, in a few months this will be old hat to Select members and slow way down.


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

> What is the other option? If you are not willing to deal with big business, you are not going to get your books out there. As an Indie, you do not have an established distribution channel without some big business being involved.


I did not say I did not want to big with big business. I DID say I don't see ONE big business controlling where I sell my books as not necessarilyt advantageous.  I also said I could be wrong. I can understand people trying it with one or two books when they have several. I just think jumping in with all you have is not the smarest thing to do until others, who have tested it with a few from inventory can show it is good for us. And, there is still the chance that down the road, if we elect to put all work in there, it could bite us in the butt.

I did say I was playing devil's advocate, not that what I said was fact or that I completely believe it will happen. It worries me, and since I only have 1 book plus my second coming this month, I am not willing to chance it. If I had 5 books, maybe I would test one. 

I hope people who use this report to the board, not just for 90 days, but down the road to say how it works for them. As you said, it will probably be somewhere in the middle. I am just not going to put my 1 or 2 books on the hook with one seller.


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## Dinasideas (Sep 2, 2011)

My book went live on Kobo & iBooks the day this announcement came out (yesterday), so it's very hard for me to consider pulling it from other sites at the moment...even though I do get the majority of my sales through Amazon. I am very eager to see the results people get 90 days from now!!


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Half-Orc said:


> I noticed that, but that's probably there in case something catastrophic happens. I mean, Amazon could shut down the KDP service tomorrow for all we know.
> 
> And I'm torn about the money increase. Part of me thinks they'll have to, with how many are signing up and how little money a lot of people will make. But flipside...will they see it as worthwhile to allocate 10, 12 million dollars just to this? I don't know.


I think it's more to do with uptake on the customer side. If Amazon see this as a real draw for Prime, and its numbers swell in response, then there is no real limit to what they could pump into this program.

However, on the other hand, we must realize that if this program becomes hugely popular then it could possibly cannibalize our sales (especially if the one book per month limit is revised upwards), and the per-download fee we get is never going to reach the level of per-book royalties we receive.

I'm staying out, but I'm keeping a relatively open mind about it. So much is unknown that I'm prepared to change my mind as I see what experiences people have.


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## _Sheila_ (Jan 4, 2011)

Caddy said:


> I did not say I did not want to big with big business. I DID say I don't see ONE big business controlling where I sell my books as not necessarilyt advantageous.  I also said I could be wrong. I can understand people trying it with one or two books when they have several. I just think jumping in with all you have is not the smarest thing to do until others, who have tested it with a few from inventory can show it is good for us. And, there is still the chance that down the road, if we elect to put all work in there, it could bite us in the butt.
> 
> I think that I have full control of my books, in or out of the library. I can choose to enroll, or not. Amazon is not saying that they will treat books that I do not enroll any differently. When I make a business decision, I live with the ramifications of that decision. No different here.
> 
> ...


Sheila


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## karencantwell (Jun 17, 2010)

If the program becomes hugely popular, I'm still not sure it's possible that our sales could become cannibalized - a prime member can only borrow a book a month. And will every prime member borrow their one book every month?  Or am I reading the lending rules incorrectly?


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

34,321 in the lending library now. Coming right up on 30K in KDP Select.


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## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

Another small thing to consider...

"Barnes & Noble Has Shipped One Million Nook Tablets"

http://www.thepassivevoice.com/12/2011/barnes-noble-has-shipped-one-million-nook-tablets/?utm_campaign=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter

And Asus... "CE giant Asus is predicting to ship just 1.8 million tablets for all of 2011."

And iPads... They put those in the water now, don't they?

I'm looking forward to January.

B.


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## Coral Moore (Nov 29, 2009)

I've been considering this and I just don't think I can commit to it at this point. I love the convenience of Smashwords coupons. I also just sent out a whole mess of them for giveaways and for Operation eBook Drop. If they offered something more perhaps I'd be more inclined, but I just think at this point it's not a great deal.


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## jimkukral (Oct 31, 2011)

Time will tell if it makes sense. I would ask you this though. If Google did the same thing, and said, we don't want you to have your site listed in any other search engine besides ours, would you do it? I'd say yes. Because any other answer is a bad business decision.

More here where I write about Amazon being the New WalMart: http://www.nopublisherneeded.com/amazon-is-the-new-wal-mart/


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## Kathelm (Sep 27, 2010)

> If Google did the same thing, and said, we don't want you to have your site listed in any other search engine besides ours, would you do it? I'd say yes. Because any other answer is a bad business decision.


Do explain.

I would contend that skipping the cost-benefit analysis and following your gut is a bad business decision.


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## D/W (Dec 29, 2010)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> 34,321 in the lending library now. Coming right up on *30K in KDP Select*.


Moses, I know that the number of books in the Prime lending library is available here, but where can I find the number of books in the KDP Select program?


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## Guest (Dec 9, 2011)

karencantwell said:


> If the program becomes hugely popular, I'm still not sure it's possible that our sales could become cannibalized - a prime member can only borrow a book a month. And will every prime member borrow their one book every month? Or am I reading the lending rules incorrectly?


Cannibalization of sales is not the issue in my mind. The loss of _every single alternative potential customer base_ is the issue. No Smashwords. No PubIt. No SELLING ON YOUR OWN SITE.

"Exposure" is a funny word. Who are you being exposed to if you are one of 100,000 books? I checked out the "most popular" on my Kindle just now. All the books getting that prime real estate exposure are books that DON'T NEED IT. They are books that were already bestsellers or already at the top of their catagories. How many potential markets are you willing to walk away from, at during the Christmas holiday shopping rush no less, in hopes of getting "exposure" with Amazon?

And it isn't even the issue of exclusivity that concerns me. I HAVE an exclusive agreement for my roleplaying games with a vendor. But I get a huge benefit from that relationship. I get preferential revenue rates. I get access to their customer mailing lists. I get free credits toward advertising on the site. I get all sorts of benefits beyond a listing. I'm not fundamentally opposed to smart exclusivity agreements per se. But this isn't exclusivity to just a vendor. This is exclusivity to a FORMAT. Unless someone has a Kindle or wants to install the Kindle app on their phone/computer, they cannot read your book. This is the bigger concern.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

DreamWeaver said:


> Moses, I know that the number of books in the Prime lending library is available here, but where can I find the number of books in the KDP Select program?


There were 5,000-something books in the LL before KDP Select started. So, I'm just subtracting 5,000 from the total. Btw, the number that shows up on my actual kindle is a little lower than the results online, but they're within 1,000 of each other, so it's a negligible difference.


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## StephenEngland (Nov 2, 2011)

I don't see myself getting involved. Smashwords coupons are just way too convenient for so many things.


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## martaszemik (Dec 4, 2011)

I don't see myself doing that yet. Let others test the water. I'll stick to being visible in all markets for now. Just my opinion.

Marta


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## John H. Carroll (Nov 26, 2010)

I've decided not to do it. I'm selling books through Apple and B&N and I have a lot of fans throughout the world that use companies other than Amazon. I wrote my readers a note about it, telling them why: http://ryallon.blogspot.com/2011/12/note-to-my-readers.html


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## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> "Exposure" is a funny word. Who are you being exposed to if you are one of 100,000 books? I checked out the "most popular" on my Kindle just now. All the books getting that prime real estate exposure are books that DON'T NEED IT. They are books that were already bestsellers or already at the top of their categories. How many potential markets are you willing to walk away from, at during the Christmas holiday shopping rush no less, in hopes of getting "exposure" with Amazon?


Bingo. For a very small subset of authors, the cost benefit-analysis makes sense. For the rest?

B.


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## DRMarvello (Dec 3, 2011)

dgaughran said:


> I think it's more to do with uptake on the customer side. If Amazon see this as a real draw for Prime, and its numbers swell in response, then there is no real limit to what they could pump into this program.
> 
> However, on the other hand, we must realize that if this program becomes hugely popular then it could possibly cannibalize our sales (especially if the one book per month limit is revised upwards), and the per-download fee we get is never going to reach the level of per-book royalties we receive.


Exactly! Amazon is not doing this for giggles, nor to let readers get books for free, nor to help independent publishers make money on loaning books. They are doing this as a marketing tactic to get more people into Prime.

Everyone here keeps looking at the potential revenue equation and including the fact that borrowers can only get one book per month. Well, that's true today, but may not be true tomorrow. Prime is positioned to become "NetBooks," the NetFlix of books. They could easily offer programs, just like NetFlix, where you pay extra to get access to more books per month. If that happens, the money collected will go straight to Amazon, who can choose to throw some of it in the pot for the lending library program or not. Amazon was brilliant to completely separate the revenue-generating side of Prime from the expense side of paying authors for book loans.


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## RobertMarda (Oct 19, 2010)

Very interesting to read all your thoughts about this new program. Yesterday when I was reading, each time I clicked next there was a new page of replies. I got to page 8 or 9 before I went home for the day.

If nothing else this has definitely grabbed the attention of a lot of people. Since I have no book ready I can only sit back and watch as you share your experiences with KDP Select. I'm still not sure how I want to include this new tool for when I do publish.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

Aaaaaaaaaaand I've opted out.

Simple logic: free books are going to be relatively worthless compared to what they were (and they were already starting to get somewhat worthless). The only other benefit was a shot at the 500k pot, but seeing all the various numbers people are posting, it looks like each rental might be close to $3 a pop...not enough to justify what I'm losing. Smashwords just updated their own numbers, and what I'll be paid there will very, very doubtfully be matched by what Amazon is offering.

I could be wrong. And if it turns out that each rental is like, $50 bucks, you'll see me crying in a corner somewhere come January when everyone announces their paychecks


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## *DrDLN* (dr.s.dhillon) (Jan 19, 2011)

It may workout for authors selling their books for 99cents and believe in free give away. I don't know if it is worth for others who are selling books with other digital publishers.


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## jhanel (Dec 22, 2010)

Half-Orc said:


> Aaaaaaaaaaand I've opted out.
> 
> Simple logic: free books are going to be relatively worthless compared to what they were (and they were already starting to get somewhat worthless). The only other benefit was a shot at the 500k pot, but seeing all the various numbers people are posting, it looks like each rental might be close to $3 a pop...not enough to justify what I'm losing. Smashwords just updated their own numbers, and what I'll be paid there will very, very doubtfully be matched by what Amazon is offering.
> 
> I could be wrong. And if it turns out that each rental is like, $50 bucks, you'll see me crying in a corner somewhere come January when everyone announces their paychecks


That's a very valid reason. I think each person needs to weigh their options like that. I'm doing it for MORE than the rentals. I'm participating so that I can have a much more fine-tuned control over my free promos. And at the end of the 90 days -- after I've garnered a few readers in the series -- I'll probably pop back out and get things rolling in the other markets again. I didn't have much of a following in the former markets, so for me it was no big loss.

But again... each person needs to think of this as a tool. How can they best use the tool, and will it profit them much. Goin in for the "big money" of the overall pot is probably worthless. There will easily be so many people that each rental will be $0.01 or something ridiculous.

Good luck, though.

P.S. Loved Night of Wolves!! That's right up my alley.


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## Mr. RAD (Jan 4, 2011)

I think you made a wise choice, Half-Orc. You also made an excellent point about free books. Soon people won't look at them the same way anymore.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

Mr. RAD said:


> I think you made a wise choice, Half-Orc. You also made an excellent point about free books. Soon people won't look at them the same way anymore.


You can tell they already aren't. Usually when a book goes free, you can get one to two thousand downloads within a few hours. Now? Jeez, some people reporting a few low hundreds...and it'll just get worse the longer they're out.



jhanel said:


> That's a very valid reason. I think each person needs to weigh their options like that. I'm doing it for MORE than the rentals. I'm participating so that I can have a much more fine-tuned control over my free promos. And at the end of the 90 days -- after I've garnered a few readers in the series -- I'll probably pop back out and get things rolling in the other markets again. I didn't have much of a following in the former markets, so for me it was no big loss.


So far, it's just the freebie promotion. If there were significantly more, I'd still be deciding. But honestly, certain things like temporary sale prices and pre-orders, should be available for everyone, not just Amazon exclusives.



> P.S. Loved Night of Wolves!! That's right up my alley.


Glad you liked it


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## jackblaine (May 22, 2011)

I just did the same thing as David.  The "free" aspect lost its power and that was my main attraction.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Holy moly    I checked my freebie emails and the offerings in prime lending today. Sorry to say, but for me the consumer and reader, its a total mess. 

The emails are so long they are actually cut off in yahoo and a bunch of stuff is not shown and it says censored. That is ereaderiq that has that option. They also sort by genre and there are a bunch they can't even categorize. 

Which brings me to the mess that are the genres now in prime. I like Romance so you would think I am happy that there are now 3500 results compared to the 350 that where there before? Right? Nope. First off a bunch of Porn trying to disguise itself as Erotica with really really bad titles and covers has taken over the romance category. None of them are romance. The rest? Again, most of them not romance, not by the title, not by the cover. I wouldn't trust any of these books to give me what I want. 

What does that mean for me as a reader? I'll stick with the publishers that know what is what. I have one prime lend a month, I am not going to take a chance of a weird romance title with a picture as a book cover. I just don't trust anything there. 

I am going to make a list of books I come across that are prime lendable from now on and then just go through them month by month and I won't have to look at that mess.  

Oh, and a note to those that think upping your price will make me look closer? Not working. Still looks bad. 

I did notice a lot of "How to get some Russian chick" books are in Prime. They list at 199.00


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## Mr. RAD (Jan 4, 2011)

Why doesn't Amazon just take the "make your book free for 5 days" aspect of the KLL and make it available to the entire KDP program? Or does Amazon allow that already 

Not that making your book free really matters anymore.


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## Coral Moore (Nov 29, 2009)

Mr. RAD said:


> Why doesn't Amazon just take the "make your book free for 5 days" aspect of the KLL and make it available to the entire KDP program? Or does Amazon allow that already


I'd be much more impressed with free coupons that I can direct and give out as I want rather than just blanket free. I want to give people who interact with me a chance to download books free, not just let anyone who clicks a button have it.


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## Mr. RAD (Jan 4, 2011)

Coral Moore said:


> I'd be much more impressed with free coupons that I can direct and give out as I want rather than just blanket free. I want to give people who interact with me a chance to download books free, not just let anyone who clicks a button have it.


So that's how coupons work? Hmm, have to admit it sounds nice. I think I can get with that.


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## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

B.


Half-Orc said:


> Aaaaaaaaaaand I've opted out.
> 
> Simple logic: free books are going to be relatively worthless compared to what they were (and they were already starting to get somewhat worthless). The only other benefit was a shot at the 500k pot, but seeing all the various numbers people are posting, it looks like each rental might be close to $3 a pop...not enough to justify what I'm losing. Smashwords just updated their own numbers, and what I'll be paid there will very, very doubtfully be matched by what Amazon is offering.
> 
> I could be wrong. And if it turns out that each rental is like, $50 bucks, you'll see me crying in a corner somewhere come January when everyone announces their paychecks


[un]Official Amazon Response:








B.


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## Kristan Hoffman (Aug 6, 2009)

Coral Moore said:


> I'd be much more impressed with free coupons that I can direct and give out as I want rather than just blanket free. I want to give people who interact with me a chance to download books free, not just let anyone who clicks a button have it.


Yeah, or how about at least letting an author download their own book for free?

This method isn't perfect, but after googling around a while ago, I did find a workaround for giving out nice-looking Kindle copies. Within KDP, go to your Bookshelf, click your title, scroll down to the place where you upload the file, click Preview, and click Download HTML. This gives you a zip file that, if emailed AS-IS to your Kindle, will give you a copy of your book that looks just like what anyone else who buys it sees -- EXCEPT that it will have a blank author name. Don't know why. But to me that's better than the garbledy-**** metadata you get from the mobi files from Smashwords.

(For other/non-Kindle formats, I do use Smashwords coupons.)


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

The Russian chick has 36 versions of the same book up right now. Or did when last I checked. Oy.

The number of erotica titles is going to be an issue, but I'm not sure what Amazon can/will do about it.

My books are lost in the muddle.


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## acellis (Oct 10, 2011)

No! I don't believe in putting all my eggs in _any_ one basket.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Monique said:


> The Russian chick has 36 versions of the same book up right now. Or did when last I checked. Oy.
> 
> The number of erotica titles is going to be an issue, but I'm not sure what Amazon can/will do about it.
> 
> My books are lost in the muddle.


Yet yours are the books that jumped right at me when I did the painful browsing. They are eye catching, familiar and genre fitting. 
That will be Number One here for those authors wanting to stand out. Make sure you have a professional cover. Or you'll become the victim of the short attention span scroll wheel.

As to the Erotica stuff. I don't mind Erotica, if actually it IS erotica, which most of that stuff is not. But none of them belong in romance. They need their own section. I know they have it under romance, but that forces me to go sub genre by subgenre within romance, instead of just browsing all romance.


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

All this new information is making me have second thoughts. I signed up mostly for the chance to make my book free when I wanted to, but since that pipeline is already clogged, I'm not seeing much benefit.

I will stew on this a bit more. Luckily, I have until Sunday morning to figure this all out. (Or at least make myself stop with the whole Hamlet routine.)


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Thank you.  

ITA, a good cover is going to be more important than ever. AZ will need to find ways to make the LL a much better browsing experience. Additional filters are sorely needed. 

Erotica should have its own section. It's listed separately under fiction and again under romance. Right now, almost half of the romance books in the LL are also erotica.


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## Voice of Reason (Dec 9, 2011)

I was looking up kdp select and I came across this board. I have to say I don't understand what a lot of people are doing by pulling their books from other outlets for Amazon. Yes, their is a 500k pot and 6 million for 2012 BUT that doesn't mean that next month it WILL be 500k. And if it's not, what can you do? You can complain but Amazon still has exclusive rights to your books. Your stuck. And from what I see, Hunger games and The Help is grouped into the list. If a indie author can't bee seen over these super popular books that people are willing to pay for, your going to have to kill yourself promoting to persuading someone to borrow your little indie book that's not based on a movie. For Goodness sake, they even re-released Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey on the cover. And Prime members only get to borrow 1 book a month, c'mon, REALLY?!? 
       And if your thinking about only putting one of your books from a series in kdp select, THAT will be a great way to tick off your customers. I don't know about you, but once something is free, I expect it to always be free. Remember, there are tons of books out their and I'll wait you out if I have to.
          I don't know how this is going to turn out, but friggin HUNGER GAMES is included. HUNGER GAMES! When the movie comes out, all free borrows are going towards that. Plus Hunger Games didn't have to sign exclusivity and I'm sure Suzanne is not giving her book away for nothing. Lambs to the slaughter man, lambs to the slaughter...


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## KOwrites (May 23, 2011)

DRMarvello said:


> Exactly! Amazon is not doing this for giggles, nor to let readers get books for free, nor to help independent publishers make money on loaning books. They are doing this as a marketing tactic to get more people into Prime.
> 
> Everyone here keeps looking at the potential revenue equation and including the fact that borrowers can only get one book per month. Well, that's true today, but may not be true tomorrow. Prime is positioned to become "NetBooks," the NetFlix of books. They could easily offer programs, just like NetFlix, where you pay extra to get access to more books per month. If that happens, the money collected will go straight to Amazon, who can choose to throw some of it in the pot for the lending library program or not. Amazon was brilliant to completely separate the revenue-generating side of Prime from the expense side of paying authors for book loans.


Yes. Yes. These are the reasons for Amazon. It's a win for them all around, but not so much for authors participating. I was intrigued with the idea that they would buy my book to lend, but that's not what they've done here.

There would have been other ways to make it more equitable to authors, but that's not what they've chosen to do.

It's not like they asked any of us; did they? No.

They just made a cut-throat business decision to cut out B & N and Smashwords and Kobo and Apple and those "e-readers" beyond Mobi, right before Christmas.

Sure, go ahead and say it's just business. That old adage has glossed over a bunch of bad business dealings for the past three years to say nothing of the fifty before that.

And, I do pay my taxes every year. And, I do get nickel-ed and dime-d with their shipping _per item_ charge that, as a longtime Prime customer, used to be charged just once per _order_. Amazon changes, it adapts, and sometimes cheats all in the favor of its business. Just remember that.

I didn't necessarily go into writing leading with the business side of things. Writing is just something I must do. The business side is a necessary evil; right? I am making a business decision to stay clear of this one with my existing titles. Free just got very diluted and that would be the only attraction for me, so I remain unsure and unconvinced about Amazon Select for novel #3.


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## Eltanin Publishing (Mar 24, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> "Exposure" is a funny word. Who are you being exposed to if you are one of 100,000 books? I checked out the "most popular" on my Kindle just now. All the books getting that prime real estate exposure are books that DON'T NEED IT. They are books that were already bestsellers or already at the top of their catagories. How many potential markets are you willing to walk away from, at during the Christmas holiday shopping rush no less, in hopes of getting "exposure" with Amazon?


Here's one example that is causing me to be somewhat encouraged, in terms of exposure. _The Mystic Travelogues_ is #4 if you go to Prime-eligible books, click Children's books, and sort by avg. customer review.

In comparison, in all Kindle Children's books? I don't know. I'm scrolling and scrolling... can't find it. There are 46K+ books in that category, vs. 1156 in the Prime-eligible Children's kindle books.

So who knows. We've unfortunately had very low sales, so this is an experiment to see what happens. Maybe it's good, maybe it's bad, but we want to try.

And, as a reader (who has Prime), I want to comment on people who say, "Who will borrow an indy book, when they can borrow books like The Help?" Well, I, for one. NOT because I want to promote indies. It's just that we all know that indy books are a risk. They might be fantastic, or not. I, as a reader, am more willing to "blow" my one monthly rental on an indy I've never heard of - it's a no-cost chance to try out someone new. For instance, Robert Bidinotto's _Hunter_ - I'm not sure a romantic thriller is really my thing, but I'm curious about it, due to all the chatter recently. I probably woudn't buy it, esp. since I have so many books on my "to be read" list. But borrow it? Sure - I'd use up my one monthly rental on that.

Just my perspective.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

It seems to me I'm more likely to have sales through SW distribution than I am to get $$ through library lending. I'm reluctant to give up the gains I've made on Kobo et al when I've worked so hard to get there.


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## Voice of Reason (Dec 9, 2011)

Eltanin Publishing said:


> For instance, Robert Bidinotto's _Hunter_ - I'm not sure a romantic thriller is really my thing, but I'm curious about it, due to all the chatter recently. I probably woudn't buy it, esp. since I have so many books on my "to be read" list. But borrow it? Sure - I'd use up my one monthly rental on that.


Raise your hand if your a indie author and also a award winning journalist and magazine author. That's what I thought. I think Robert is pulling a Susan Boyle. You don't think he doesn't have friends in the industry? If authors like him are included as "indie" in this 500k pot, everyone in kdp select should just hang it up because obviously it's not a level playing field.


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## Guest (Dec 9, 2011)

Eltanin Publishing said:


> Here's one example that is causing me to be somewhat encouraged, in terms of exposure. _The Mystic Travelogues_ is #4 if you go to Prime-eligible books, click Children's books, and sort by avg. customer review.


Except unless I am missing something, there is no such option to search by customer review on _the Kindle itself_. I just tried and the only thing it shows me is bestselling in each catagory. Exposure that is dependent on the customer having to perform an exact series of actions to get the result you want isn't really exposure.


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## David Wisehart (Mar 2, 2010)

Katherine Owen said:


> It's not like they asked any of us; did they? No.


Yes, Amazon consulted with several top-selling indie authors, and incorporated some of their feedback into the KDP Select program.

David


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## Eltanin Publishing (Mar 24, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> Except unless I am missing something, there is no such option to search by customer review on _the Kindle itself_. I just tried and the only thing it shows me is bestselling in each catagory. Exposure that is dependent on the customer having to perform an exact series of actions to get the result you want isn't really exposure.


I'll have to try it on the kindle itself. But many people are looking for books to borrow on the PC, not on their kindle, because it's easier. I wouldn't call "Children's Books, sort by rating" as an overly complicated "exact series of actions."


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## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

Voice of Reason said:


> Raise your hand if your a indie author and also a award winning journalist and magazine author. That's what I thought. I think Robert is pulling a Susan Boyle. You don't think he doesn't have friends in the industry? If authors like him are included as "indie" in this 500k pot, everyone in kdp select should just hang it up because obviously it's not a level playing field.


To be fair, Robert struggled long and hard on _Hunter_. I remember when he was on these boards over the summer trying to understand how best to price his work, how to find reviewers, and what to do about his abysmal (they almost always are) sales that first month. I watched as _Hunter_ climbed slowly through Amazon's rankings as positive word-of-mouth slowly built over time. I was watching because Robert was such a nice guy and I really hoped his book would succeed. _Hunter_ was in the mid-hundreds and in possession of I forget exactly how many five star reviews when Amazon came knocking with that 50% off offer. (I think he also submitted his work to Amazon associated critics, but Robert would have to confirm that.) Yes, he did get a golden ticket, but he worked darn hard for that lucky strike.

B.


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## Guest (Dec 9, 2011)

Eltanin Publishing said:


> But many people are looking for books to borrow on the PC, not on their kindle, ...


And you know this because...?

Or are you making an assumption because that is what you are personally doing.

I'm not saying people DON'T search that way. Amazon surely has the option available for a reason. But you may be making assuptions about mass behavior that are not entirely founded in fact. The truth is that the more steps a person has to take to get to complete the sale, the less likely the sale happens. There is a reason why one-click is so successful in the first place. And it is the same reason why there is no "on-click" option for returns.

In practical terms, how many borrows do you have? And how many of them found you on their on and were not directed to Amazon by you? Ultimately, THAT is the indicator of whether or not you are getting any exposure. I can tell you that, yes, I've gotten some downloads for the back issues of the journal. But no, I don't attribute it to people finding me by accident. Because they all came in a period of a few hours after I made the announcement on Facebook to my followers. So I would deduce that was _me driving traffic to Amazon_, not the other way around. And that is fine, because my reason for enrolling those back issues had nothing to do with trying to get exposure as it did to provide a service option to my customers.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

David Wisehart said:


> Yes, Amazon consulted with several top-selling indie authors, and incorporated some of their feedback into the KDP Select program.
> 
> David


Aye, they did, and was partly why the six months exclusive dropped to the current 90 days.

And as for the money...it was all guessing games at the time. How many would enroll? How many would get rentals? How many prime members would use their once a month on a cheap indie instead of something like Hunger Games? Now that we can see some hard data, it looks far, far, far less enticing.


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## Debbie Bennett (Mar 25, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> There is nothing in the TOC that talks about sales ALREADY MADE. Unless Amazon now has control over the time/space continuum, it would be physically impossible for them to enforce a policy that would demand retroactively removing products from customers who already bought them.
> 
> Of course, now that I think of it, Wizards of the Coast DID make such a demand of RPGNOW.com when they decided to pull their products from the site. But then again, WoTC DO in fact have high level spells to control the time/space continuum so that isn't the same thing.


No - but if a customer who bought your book a while back decides to download a new copy for whatever reason - smashwords will "distribute" a new copy to them, even if you have unpublished the book.


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## Eltanin Publishing (Mar 24, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> And you know this because...?
> 
> Or are you making an assumption because that is what you are personally doing.


Let's stay cordial. We can have differing opinions on whether to participate or not, without trying to prove other people's arguments are flawed. From reading many discussion threads on several different websites, it seems like many people prefer to look for books on a PC:



tamborine said:


> ...
> If you read the instructions, you can only access the books from your device. Wonder how difficult it will be to navigate/search? I've only bought books on my pc, never on my kindle...





MosesSiregarIII said:


> My Kindle for Mac program doesn't even let me shop for kindle books. It just send me right back to my browser to shop. I'll pull up my kindle 2, but I hate shopping for books in B&W.





modwitch said:


> I just borrowed my first book - I'm really curious why we can't do this online. It would be soooo much easier. On a Fire, I can see it, but on my Kindle? Browsing is ugly. Some books I recognize just by title/author, but I wonder why they're making this so user unfriendly?





KndlShell said:


> It looks like Amazon just rolled this feature out, so it's possible the ability to browse online will be coming. I'm hoping they just focused on getting browsing on the Kindle working first, and will make the ability browse online available next. Like others have mentioned, I prefer to browse for my books online.





MariaESchneider said:


> It really does look like a beta type of program--that I hope takes off into even bigger and better (like more features, more books, ability to check it out online and so on).





TLM said:


> ...I wish they would let you browse for the free books on the computer. Easier for all and might get others to purchase an actual Kindle instead of just an app. or get the Prime membership if they saw enough books they would like to read and for FREE.





modwitch said:


> I saw the symbol, but I couldn't see a way to actually select that book from my computer. I finally have a reason to be unhappy the letters on my K3's keyboard are wearing off ...





stevene9 said:


> I only buy books from my desktop and have them sent to my k. For me buying from the small sceen of the kindle is too awkward and slow (you can't see a lot of books at once). Am I just out of luck?





Atunah said:


> A few folks over on Amazon have posted this direct link to the prime eligible books to look at on the computer. You will still have to go to the Kindle to borrow it. But here you can browse a bit easier.





Ann in Arlington said:


> But, here's the thing. If you find a book browsing Amazon and it says you can borrow it, while you can't send it directly to your Kindle (again, yet), you can certainly make note of it and then go pull it from the kindle. You don't have to browse around the Kindle store. . .just search for the book you want directly from the home page and go straight to it.





fuschiahedgehog said:


> or just send a 'free sample' to your kindle, then from that sample on your kindle, go to the book's buy/borrow page and hit the borrow button.





Atunah said:


> But this might be a solution not just for K1 users, but anyone that wants to browse through whats available on the computer through the website, then maybe make a list, or just send the sample to the kindle like someone suggested, then there has to be no browsing on the Kindle at all, just the borrowing.


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## Guest (Dec 9, 2011)

Eltanin Publishing said:


> Let's stay cordial.


Oh don't worry. You'll know when I'm not being cordial. 

You can't use KB posts as the norm for Kindle user behavior. This is an elite group of highly tech savvy users. Many of them are also higly tech savvy indie authors. They aren't the norm and don't represent your average "OOOO I got a Kindle for Christmas what can I get?" sort of folks.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

The market will tell us how well this program works. We don't have to figure it out. 

If we note the total enrollment by day, we can wait 90 days and see how it drops. That will show how many people opted out of the program after trying it for 90 days. Each author will make an individual evaluation of how well it worked for her.  Add up the numbers and we can see how those who entered the program like it.

I agree the totals will be a bit fuzzy because we can have new people entering in 90 days, but I'll wait before passing judgement on how that works.

We can also determine the total number of books borrowed after one month. How much do we get for a single borrow? Divide that into $500,000. That tells us how popular the program is, and will give more data for prospective members. Should be interesting to watch enrollment when those figures become known known. I see it as a grand experiment.


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

> understood that you were simply putting ideas out there - which is why I responded to those ideas. I hope that you didn't feel attacked. If you did - I am VERY sorry. That was not my intent.


Sheila, no worries. I did not feel attacked, was afraid I was misunderstood. It is all good. That is why I put in the ol' smilies.


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## LilianaHart (Jun 20, 2011)

I'm not enrolling any of my books in KDP select. I honestly don't see the point, especially since my sales at other venues are making me quite a bit of money. I also don't think it's a good idea for Amazon to have more of a monopoly over the book business. This is going to hurt Barnes and Noble, who is already in trouble, and it's going to hurt Smashwords (and I love my distribution sales). I also think it could hurt authors in the future. 

I already have readers and good sales at Amazon. I don't see how I'm going to gain more by going "exclusive." I will, however, lose readers at other places, and I'm not willing to do that. The best thing we can do is encourage B&N and Smashwords to become more competitive to Amazon.


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## Nell Gavin (Jul 3, 2010)

I sell too many copies of THREADS on non-Amazon sites to risk that title, even for 90 days, and I have some upcoming promotions for HANG ON that prohibit me from going this route until late January. I'm watching everyone else, though.


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## amiblackwelder (Mar 19, 2010)

How long does it take for books to go down once taken off smash words? From kobo? Nook? Diesel?


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## jackblaine (May 22, 2011)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> Oh don't worry. You'll know when I'm not being cordial.


Wow.


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## KOwrites (May 23, 2011)

LilianaHart said:


> I'm not enrolling any of my books in KDP select. I honestly don't see the point, especially since my sales at other venues are making me quite a bit of money. I also don't think it's a good idea for Amazon to have more of a monopoly over the book business. This is going to hurt Barnes and Noble, who is already in trouble, and it's going to hurt Smashwords (and I love my distribution sales). I also think it could hurt authors in the future.
> 
> I already have readers and good sales at Amazon. I don't see how I'm going to gain more by going "exclusive." I will, however, lose readers at other places, and I'm not willing to do that. The best thing we can do is encourage B&N and Smashwords to become more competitive to Amazon.


I like your statement and focus. Nicely stated!

I have a variety of readers and that will continue to be my focus as well.


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## MosesSiregarIII (Jul 15, 2010)

Bards and Sages (Julie) said:


> Oh don't worry. You'll know when I'm not being cordial.


Since when are you ever cordial?


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## jnfr (Mar 26, 2011)

I'm encouraged that everyone is making different choices. Although a lot of writers here see Select as useful for them, it seems as many or nearly so are being more cautious or rejecting it outright. I think that's healthy.


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## JennieCoughlin (Sep 9, 2011)

Just finally had a chance to catch up with all the discussion of KDP Select, and I'm really glad my novel isn't coming out until late March. 

My short story collection can't go into the program because of a promotion I did last month and the length of time the resulting coupon codes have to be honored for. That said, the number of copies of THROWN OUT I've _sold_ through anything other than Amazon has been negligible. So my gut feeling, after looking at the pros and cons, is that I'll gain more than I lose if I enroll. But since I can't do anything until ALL THAT IS NECESSARY comes out in a few months, I have time to see how the first wave goes, including what happens after the first 90 days are up.

I'll be watching closely to see how things play out, both with the best-sellers like Robert and with the folks like me who don't have nearly the fan base yet.


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## amiblackwelder (Mar 19, 2010)

I've actually decided to wait on shifters and gate of lake forest and went ahead with THE MERS, so it will be going free for two days and I'll see what happens...


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## teashopgirl (Dec 8, 2011)

I'm going to enroll two out of the seven books in my Planet Explorers series. I'm not sure if this program will work will for non-fiction that's designed to be a reference, though. I guess we'll see. At this point, I'm just looking for more visibility/buzz. Interesting times, as they say.


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## Tanner Artesz (Feb 2, 2009)

I've enrolled all three of my books in Select. For me it was an easy decision since none have ever been available anywhere else. My sales being what they are, or aren't as the true case is, I'm hoping that this program will get me a few more readers. I'll see how it works out after the 90 day period is over.

Tanner


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## Simon Haynes (Mar 14, 2011)

As it happens I haven't had any luck getting Hal Junior accepted into the Smashwords premium distribution, due to a meatgrinder problem with the illustrations (and the way they break the paragraphs.)  No issue with 18 other titles I've put on B&N, Apple, etc, via Smashwords, just this one ebook.

So, it was a fairly easy decision to unpublish Hal Junior from Smashwords and enroll it in KDP Select. I always intended this to be a paperback release with the ebook as a kind of extra for when kids start getting ebook readers in large numbers (maybe this christmas) so I don't see the downside.


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## Herc- The Reluctant Geek (Feb 10, 2010)

Got cold feet and pulled Virtually Real out of the program. It kept popping up in strange places as Suck My Darkness and I don't want to risk the wrath of Amazon.

I've also had a closer look at the Prime package and it's not as comprehensive as I thought. I was under the impression that it was like a lending library where you could have one book out at any time. One book per month doesn't quite cut it.


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## bghhouse (Nov 14, 2011)

I went Select then went back. Realizing that a Prime member can only borrow a book once a month...unless you are up on the high end, you will probably remain unnoticed. The exclusivity is considerable when you have to take it off market of other venues, only Prime members can borrow with a registered Kindle, and only once a month. Gee, that's 12 books to pick in a year or three in your enrollment period, what are the chances of yours being the ones. I didn't like the odds...just me.


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## jhanel (Dec 22, 2010)

modwitch said:


> For people with Kindles - are the categories new today? Or did I just miss 'em yesterday?
> 
> It's not the world's most user friendly interface, but you can drill down by category now. One thing that hit me doing that - there are almost 40K books in the lending library now, but only 16K of those are fiction. And the pools in my genres are a lot smaller - 1,240 in fantasy, for example, even less in contemporary fantasy. If users start drilling down by category, that could help make a lot more books visible.


They have Death listed in Horror. Not sure why. It's probably the farthest thing from the truth, but there's not many there. I wonder how many others have been misfiled.


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## BrianKittrell (Jan 8, 2011)

MosesSiregarIII said:


> Since when are you ever cordial?


Not really related to your response, but where were you finding how many books are enrolled now? Are you still posting the numbers as you get them?


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

B. Justin Shier said:


> So I finally read through all 17 pages of this thread...and I still don't get it. Can anyone explain in concrete terms what you hope to get out of this deal? I'm dead serious. What's the advantage? Kudos to Amazon, though. Best marketing drive since
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I signed up only one of my books, *Lords of Rainbow*.

And all I am really looking to get out of this is the 5-day FREE streak (already scheduled). No other expectations.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

B. Justin Shier said:


> I'm left wondering if making a book free will be a viable tactic anymore. Free works great when you're the only guy or gal on the street corner. It's harder to pull off in a crowd of 20K and growing. I can see a use for authors like Deborah. Stage a first book freebie right before the release of a new volume. That'll help bump the product's placement right before the second one lands on the New Releases. SYNERGY and such. But how you build a group of loyal readers in the middle of a freebie scrum is unclear to me. How it can possibly beat access to 3+ more distribution channels is beyond me.
> 
> B.


You do have a point about the Power of Free becoming diluted... Sorta like going from The Force to The Schwartz. *grin*

However, as far as I am concerned, it's still worth a try. I've never had a book go free, don't want to miss this holiday retail season, and right now it's part of my marketing plan.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Caddy said:


> I want to be INDIE, unless they provide me something that proves great benefits and promotion for me.


I, on the other hand, am a TRAD-INDIE Slut (TM) and will try everything before settling on anything.


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## jhanel (Dec 22, 2010)

modwitch said:


> According to your product page, you have it in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Horror > Ghosts. That'll be what's putting you in the horror category.


I'm trying to find how to change it. I don't see any way to set that.


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

jhanel said:


> I'm trying to find how to change it. I don't see any way to set that.


My book is also listed in the same category and it is because in the KDP listing section, I have it set to Fiction-->Ghosts.

It shows up in the Kindle store under Horror first, then ghosts. The only way to get it out of there is to change your category from ghost to something else. My book is not horror, it's paranormal with a heavy dose of romance. However a ghost is central to the story and since it is pretty easy for me to stay in the top 100 in that category, I leave it there.


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## jhanel (Dec 22, 2010)

modwitch said:


> On your KDP page (go into edit book details for that book). What two categories do you have it assigned to? It looks like that Horror one and the highest level Mysteries & Thrillers category. For mysteries and thrillers, it would be a good idea to pick the subcategory that is the best fit - nobody will ever find you in the monster top-level category.


I have it marked as "Ghossts", which I guess is under "horror." I looked up "Twilight" and noticed that it, too, is under a horror category. What the heck?? Anyway, I guess what I call Horror, and what others use the term for are two different things.

Their choices don't seem to match up with their ending structure. They don't give an option for drilling down past "Thriller" and there isn't an option ANYWHERE for a "paranormal" situation other than ghosts. (*shrug*)


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## Ryne Billings (May 15, 2011)

jhanel said:


> I have it marked as "Ghossts", which I guess is under "horror." I looked up "Twilight" and noticed that it, too, is under a horror category. What the heck?? Anyway, I guess what I call Horror, and what others use the term for are two different things.
> 
> Their choices don't seem to match up with their ending structure. They don't give an option for drilling down past "Thriller" and there isn't an option ANYWHERE for a "paranormal" situation other than ghosts. (*shrug*)


In Twilight's defense, sparkly vampires do, in fact, make me want to run away in horror.


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## John H. Carroll (Nov 26, 2010)

I received an email from one of my favorite fans this morning in response to my blog post. *name left off as requested*

Hey there John,
> 
> I've been following your blog and this morning's email made me cheer. I understand that you've gotta do what's right for your family, but BRAVO to you for continuing to support all ereader formats as long as you can. This type of thing makes me glad that I didn't buy a Kindle and determined NEVER to buy one of Amazon's ereaders or tablets. FOO on them!
> 
> Sent from my iPad

When I received that I was extrememly happy about my decision. 

My belief is that once a book is published, it's the readers that truly matter, not the companies that distribute the book or even the writer.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Last I checked, about two hours ago, there were nearly 92K books enrolled.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

I see a little over 41K right now, but that's on the computer, haven't looked on my fire yet. The funny thing is, the one book I have already picked out to be my December read, after I finish the November one, is not appearing on the computer list, only on the Fire when I looked. Its the first in the Montlake Romance Amazon imprints. I wonder how many others don't show up in that list. 
I kind of stopped looking at this point. To much stuff.  I have a while until January for my next prime loan and if I come across something from now on, just by browsing the regular store as I always do, I'll mark them for future loans in the coming months.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

I wonder what the discrepancy is too.


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## Eltanin Publishing (Mar 24, 2011)

modwitch said:


> On your KDP page (go into edit book details for that book). What two categories do you have it assigned to? It looks like that Horror one and the highest level Mysteries & Thrillers category. For mysteries and thrillers, it would be a good idea to pick the subcategory that is the best fit - nobody will ever find you in the monster top-level category.


The trouble is, the categories from which you can choose on KDP do not match the categories available when browsing kindle books (whether on the kindle or PC). Pretty frustrating.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Ryne Billings said:


> In Twilight's defense, sparkly vampires do, in fact, make me want to run away in horror.


Tee hee. I think this picture says it all:


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## Guest (Dec 12, 2011)

edwardgtalbot said:


> Tee hee. I think this picture says it all:


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## Lisa J. Yarde (Jul 15, 2010)

karencantwell said:


> Sibel, I can see your concern, but if you look at it from Amazon's perspective, I think it's pretty clear why they included that wording and why it appears vague: Amazon is trying to preempt those people who will try to "get around" the rules so they can be both a part of this program AND still sell their books elsewhere by re-publishing very nearly identical books on other platforms. While the vague wording could open the door (I suppose) to them preventing you from selling other books in the same series on other platforms, do we really think they're going to go those extremes? How would that benefit them? They'd push the Indies away and let's face it, they do make a LOT of money from us.


I needed some clarification from Amazon on the "competing content" clause. Their response:

Hello Lisa,

Most books can be enrolled in KDP Select. The only books that cannot be enrolled are those for which you do not have exclusive rights for the primary content of the book (i.e., this content is in the public domain or others may also have the right to publish this content). *Presently omnibus titles are not eligible unless all the versions (including the individual titles) are removed from other sites and are exclusively available to KDP Select*.(That rules me out on enrolling one of the titles in my current series)

Other factors, including royalty option, price, genre, etc., do not impact a book's eligibility.

All authors and publishers, regardless of where they live, are eligible to enroll their books in KDP Select. *Books with territorial rights to sell in the US will be automatically included in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library* ( - didn't notice that before), and all KDP Select books can be promoted for free worldwide.

Keep in mind , you cannot enroll your book in KDP Select by simply adding a bonus chapter, author's commentary section, etc. to a book that is available elsewhere.

You can find information about KDP Select by visiting this page:

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/KDPSelect

Be sure to check out this page for more details:

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=200798990

I hope this helps. Thanks for using Amazon KDP.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Lisa,

What did they mean by this bit?



> Books with territorial rights to sell in the US will be automatically included in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, and all KDP Select books can be promoted for free worldwide.


Do they mean that opting in will be default position on upload? Obviously they don't mean that all current titles with rights to sell in the US will be "automatically included" - I'm presuming that's poor phrasing on the CS person's behalf (otherwise we would have a lot more titles in the program and all the people who signed up wouldn't have had to, well sign up.

Dave


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## Lisa J. Yarde (Jul 15, 2010)

That part sent me into a tailspin, David and another round of questions on "Books with territorial rights to sell in the US will be automatically included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library...." I asked them to verify that this only applies to books that are enrolled in KDP Select, cause it sure could be misread. Talk about being vague with that one.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Lisa,

Is that just referring to the normal ability to lend books between Kindle owners? It's compulsory to opt into that if you want the 70% royalty rate. They could be referring to that.

Dave


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

dgaughran said:


> Lisa,
> 
> Is that just referring to the normal ability to lend books between Kindle owners? It's compulsory to opt into that if you want the 70% royalty rate. They could be referring to that.
> 
> Dave


Dave -

No, "Kindle Owner's Lending Library" is the term they use for what you're are included in if you choose Amazon Select, that's available to Prime members.. The Regular lending feature is called "Kindle Book Lending"

Regarding the letter Lisa posted, it seems clear to me that the sentence about being required to be in the KOLL was meant to flow directly from the previous sentence about KDP select. They aren't putting all KDP books in the KOLL. Mine aren't there, for instance.

- Ed


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## joanhallhovey (Nov 7, 2010)

I am relying on my publisher (BWLPP) to do what she thinks best.  I'm of course in favor of whatever strategy sells more books.


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## Joseph Rhea (Nov 9, 2009)

You would think that a one-book author like me would jump at the Kindle Select program. After all, in the past two years I have sold over 4,000 books on Amazon and less than 100 through all Smashwords distributors (Apple, B&N, Sony, and Kobo) combined. Based on those numbers, I guess it wouldn't hurt my overall sales to drop every outlet besides Amazon, and yet I haven't done so. My reasons are like many here, in that I like having my book available for all ereaders, not just the Kindle. Now if Amazon was selling ePub formatted books that every eReader could use, that might convince me to opt in, but it doesn't. I guess I'm still thinking like an author, rather than a business person. I want my book read by anyone who wants to read it, more than I want a little more money. At the same time, I hate seeing my ranking drop (if that's true) because I haven't opted in. It's a quandary for sure. 

So, I will continue to read all of these posts because I haven't made up my mind yet to jump on this wave, or just let it pass by. 
Joe

p.s. If I did want to opt in for this some day, would I have to wait for all Smashwords distributors to remove my book from their sites? That might take weeks, if not months...


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## DRMarvello (Dec 3, 2011)

Joseph Rhea said:


> p.s. If I did want to opt in for this some day, would I have to wait for all Smashwords distributors to remove my book from their sites? That might take weeks, if not months...


You know, I've wondered about that too. Smashwords "ships" their premium catalog once per week. Mark claims that the retailers "usually" process the new catalog within 1 to 4 days of receiving it. That means there could be up to 11 days between the time you make a change and when the change is reflected at the retailer. I don't know exactly how the retailers consume the catalog, but I suspect that even 11 days might be optimistic for some.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

I really don't want to take my current works out of circulation, so if I do decide to enroll, it will be with a completely new work.


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## amiblackwelder (Mar 19, 2010)

I'm just taking the first book in each of my series'
The Mers, The shifters of 2040 (the middle book is where the reader begins with the shifter evolutions saga and then decides on the past or future), and The Gate of Lake Forest....and after 90 days of free promos on kindle, I will release them everywhere...hoping to push the sales and visibility everywhere...see how it goes anyway.


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## bghhouse (Nov 14, 2011)

After originally not joining Select I watched my stories go from 34K to 200K in ranking in only a couple of days. If appears that if you don't join, your rankings will tank. So, as an experiment I am putting one in Select and one remains regular. I will see what happens to the rankings. Understand that my stories are nowhere in the top of anything. But I am just seeing what will happen.


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## Kristan Hoffman (Aug 6, 2009)

bghhouse said:


> If appears that if you don't join, your rankings will tank.


I don't think that's necessarily true... Rankings are made up of a large number of factors. Indirectly, through borrows/sales in your genre, your ranking may be affected by your book (or others) joining the Select program, but I don't think Amazon is pushing non-Select books lower on purpose. At least, I've not seen any significant shifts in my own rankings to support that.


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## Artemis Hunt (Aug 23, 2011)

I just enrolled my new one. Zero borrows so far, and zero sales too.


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## P.A. Woodburn (May 22, 2010)

I enrolled but am not at all convinced that this will help exposure or sales. If not I will unselect.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

DRMarvello said:


> You know, I've wondered about that too. Smashwords "ships" their premium catalog once per week. Mark claims that the retailers "usually" process the new catalog within 1 to 4 days of receiving it. That means there could be up to 11 days between the time you make a change and when the change is reflected at the retailer. I don't know exactly how the retailers consume the catalog, but I suspect that even 11 days might be optimistic for some.


I sent KDP an email asking specifically if I had to wait until the book I want to opt-in with is down on all sites. I got their auto-response saying they are a little behind due to questions about KDP Select and they will answer my question in the order it was received.

11 days is wildly optimistic. Could easily be a month if you're distributed everywhere. In fact, Kobo has been a black hole where you literally might not be able to to get unlisted. Supposedly that's changing, but I'll believe it when I see it. I opted all my books out of Kobo last month and they still have two of them up. This is despite emails to them from Smashwords.


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## Joseph Rhea (Nov 9, 2009)

edwardgtalbot said:


> I sent KDP an email asking specifically if I had to wait until the book I want to opt-in with is down on all sites. I got their auto-response saying they are a little behind due to questions about KDP Select and they will answer my question in the order it was received.
> 
> 11 days is wildly optimistic. Could easily be a month if you're distributed everywhere. In fact, Kobo has been a black hole where you literally might not be able to to get unlisted. Supposedly that's changing, but I'll believe it when I see it. I opted all my books out of Kobo last month and they still have two of them up. This is despite emails to them from Smashwords.


I opted out of Kobo over a month ago and my book is still there as well. They have a cover that is 6 months old, and a price (6.99) that is 4 month old (current price is 0.99 to 3.99). 
I've decided to stick with Smashwords and its main distributors (Apple, BN, and Sony) as well as my normal Kindle account, and not ride this particular Amazon wave. I don't like the exclusivity myself (even if Amazon is where I've sold 98% of my books), but I understand why many people are jumping on to it. Also, my book is still selling on it's own without much help from me, so I'm happy to leave well enough alone.

I will say good luck to those who joined, or plan to join, the program, and continued good luck to those of us who choose otherwise.


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## Juliette Sobanet (Oct 8, 2011)

I decided not to enroll for now since I only have one book out and I like having it on B&N and iBooks as well. I will consider enrolling one book when my 2nd release comes out. I'm interested to see how this goes for those who are enrolling.


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## Eltanin Publishing (Mar 24, 2011)

Just thought I'd share our experiences with Select. We enrolled _The Mystic Travelogues_ on the first day Select was available. We made it free on Saturday the 10th. I posted in a few forums where authors can post (in most cases I was just updating a thread that we'd already started for the book). Prior to the 10th, the book had no sales for December and only a few for November. On the free day, the book was "bought" 437 times from amazon.com and 46 times from the UK. In the less than 4 days since it stopped being free, it has sold 24 copies from amazon.com and 7 copies in the UK. It has been borrowed 5 times (it hadn't been borrowed at all before the free day).

I know 30 or so sales in 4 days doesn't sound like a lot to many people, but for this book, it is more than we've ever sold in any whole month. The book is #17 in Prime-eligible children's books (ranked by popularity, ie. sales), and 6th in Prime-eligible children's books when ranked by average customer rating.

Its current sales rank is about 9300. I don't recall what it was before, but it was much higher. Considering that there are over 1 million kindle books, we are somewhat happy with 9300. But it makes me wonder - 30 sales all month (in the past 4 days) is enough to raise a book to a 9300 ranking? I wonder if it is counting the free "sales" at all. If not, there are a lot of books that are selling almost nothing.

EDIT: I also just clicked "next" a bunch of times and see that The Mystic Travelogues is #87 in ALL kindle children's books. But that isn't showing on the book's page - isn't it supposed to show any ranking that is better than #100?


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

I received an answer to my question for KDP about whether I had to wait until the book was taken down from all the distributors in order to enroll in KDP Select. I mentioned that I had taken it off-sale, but that it could take several weeks for every site to take it off. here is their response:



> Hello,
> 
> We understand that KDP Select is a new program and meeting the obligation of enrollment may take time for you to implement. If you're interested in enrolling, you may proceed with enrolling and must take action immediately to make your book exclusive.
> 
> Thanks for using Amazon KDP.


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## Kristan Hoffman (Aug 6, 2009)

Eltanin Publishing said:


> Considering that there are over 1 million kindle books, we are somewhat happy with 9300. But it makes me wonder - 30 sales all month (in the past 4 days) is enough to raise a book to a 9300 ranking? I wonder if it is counting the free "sales" at all. If not, there are a lot of books that are selling almost nothing.


9300 is a pretty good rank, congrats!

What really helps is being in the top 100 of categories/genres, but that can be hard to break depending on the popularity/niche you're in.

Ranking has to do with your sales; your ratings; the sales and ratings of OTHER books in your same categories; and probably a dozen other factors we don't know. I think the free "sales" are counted separately -- at least, there are two different ranking lists, Kindle Paid and Kindle Free -- but I do think being boosted on one list helps your visibility when you switch back to the other.

And yes, there are a lot of books that sell almost nothing.


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## DRMarvello (Dec 3, 2011)

edwardgtalbot said:


> 11 days is wildly optimistic. Could easily be a month if you're distributed everywhere. In fact, Kobo has been a black hole where you literally might not be able to to get unlisted. Supposedly that's changing, but I'll believe it when I see it. I opted all my books out of Kobo last month and they still have two of them up. This is despite emails to them from Smashwords.


Thanks for that additional info. I've heard there were problems, but haven't had them myself yet.

At the Self-Publishers Online Conference last year, Joshua Tallent of eBook Architects suggested that authors just do KDP and PubIt! and skip Smashwords until they start allowing uploads of pre-formatted books. That covers about 85% of the marketplace. However, I'm not sure I'm willing to just forget about that other 15%.

At the same conference, Mark Coker said they are working on "Smashwords Direct," which will let you skip the Meatgrinder, but that he wasn't expecting it to be ready until late 2012. That option would make Smashwords a much more attractive alternative to me.


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## JRainey (Feb 1, 2011)

Juliette Sobanet said:


> I decided not to enroll for now since I only have one book out and I like having it on B&N and iBooks as well. I will consider enrolling one book when my 2nd release comes out. I'm interested to see how this goes for those who are enrolling.


Same here. I'm keeping an eye on it in the meantime, but I'm still leaning towards no. We'll see.


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## James Bruno (Mar 15, 2011)

I enrolled all three of my novels. Since offering my thriller Permanent Interests as a freebie this morning, over 5,000 people have downloaded it, advancing it in popularity to #1 in the Political Fiction category, #2 in Spy Tales, #4 in Thrillers, #23 in Fiction, and #32 among all book genres. This is a two-day promotion, after which my other two will go freebie, sequentially, for 48 hours each.  Whether this translates into higher sales afterward is an open question. It behooves us all to share our experiences in this forum.

Amazon has been very good for this author. All three of my books have been paid genre bestsellers. By contrast, I've sold few via B&N, Smashwords, Google, etc.


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## Sam Rivers (May 22, 2011)

[quoteAt the same conference, Mark Coker said they are working on "Smashwords Direct," which will let you skip the Meatgrinder, but that he wasn't expecting it to be ready until late 2012. That option would make Smashwords a much more attractive alternative to me.

That would be wonderful! I hope it happens. My husband would submit his book to Smashwords in a heartbeat if they would accept the ePub file that was so carefully created.
][/quote]

The biggest problem with Smashwords is that it is too difficult to pass the Meatgrinder and then through the slow review process. Unless they can fix their slow process and difficult procedure, they will be left by the roadside.

The major advantage is that Overseas authors can use it to get books into Barnes & Noble. However, B&N might change that policy so Smashwords could lose those people too. Some of their business was price matching to get free books into Amazon. KDP Select is much easier so it is doubtful that many people would keep doing that.

KDP Select is to easy to use, fast, and easy to schedule that it is clearly the best system out there to give away books.


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## sgraffwriter (Jul 21, 2011)

I've enrolled my ebook.  I've had the large number of "sales" through the promotion period but am confused about the "borrow" option.  I'm assuming sales are downloads but have no idea why they're not counted towards royalties.  The formula that amazon uses doesn't make a lot of sense to me...but I'll give it the 90 days...I have no choice at this point....work on another book, and make a decision about whether to continue based on what I get in return at the end of this trial period.


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## Holly A Hook (Sep 19, 2010)

I haven't.  Maybe around half my sales are on other channels so it would be really devastating to pull my books right now.  I might consider it with a future release, but definitely not now.


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## Marita A. Hansen (Aug 21, 2011)

I really want to enroll my book http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Hood-Lives-ebook/dp/B005H3DGR4/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=A3QI763M62X7GQ (Sorry, I don't know how to do the cover thing everyone else is doing). However, Smashwords is really annoying me. I have unpublished my book on Smashwords and told them to tell the other sites, Kobo, Barnes & Nobles, etc. to take my book down, but they have not done so. Because of them I don't know if I'm allowed to enroll in KDP Select. I probably won't go with Smashwords again because of this. Too much trouble.

Marita.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Marita A. Hansen said:


> I really want to enroll my book http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Hood-Lives-ebook/dp/B005H3DGR4/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=A3QI763M62X7GQ (Sorry, I don't know how to do the cover thing everyone else is doing). However, Smashwords is really annoying me. I have unpublished my book on Smashwords and told them to tell the other sites, Kobo, Barnes & Nobles, etc. to take my book down, but they have not done so. Because of them I don't know if I'm allowed to enroll in KDP Select. I probably won't go with Smashwords again because of this. Too much trouble.
> 
> Marita.


KDP has responded to people who asked, saying that removing it from the distribution channel satisfied their requirement. Amazon had no desire to wait for content while it was removed from all of the sites which they know can take quite a while.


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## 41352 (Apr 4, 2011)

Maybe not quite on topic, but every author on Facebook that I find who enrolled their books with select have no clue they can't have samples online. When I tell them, at first they don't believe me. Then they do and they're crestfallen.
Question is: I tell the people I know. How is Amazon thinking of coping with this issue, when most authors obviously have no clue they can't have samples and teasers online?


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## jwholmes2011 (Jun 18, 2011)

So, from what I'm reading (I posted this question earlier in another thread) using the promotion (free day) will help the ranking of your book and possibly the lends? My book "A Riff of His own" is free today, so I guess I will see tomorrow for sure.


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## jwholmes2011 (Jun 18, 2011)

Actually, just checked again and "Riff" is up to 4,225 in the best sellers ranking from it's previous 200K something. Wow!


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## Nimbuschick (Jan 15, 2012)

I agree with an early commenter here. It would be way too much of a problem to take down the other formats-- though Barnes & Noble makes about 3% of the sales that Kindle does for me. I plan to put my novella, _Kissing Corpses_ up as a Kindle Exclusive for 90 days. Then after the three months I will put out the print and Nook editions.

It's not a bad way to go, really. You get free promotion for the book and it's a great stall for time so that you can perfect your print layout.


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## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

I just enrolled my new release in Select--I'll be chiming in on this thread or one of the others to report my experience.


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## jwholmes2011 (Jun 18, 2011)

With the special KDP select promotion today I've already broke into the top 100 on the Best Sellers ranking with "Riff". Pretty impressive but wonder how long it will hang there say starting tomorrow after the promotion is over.


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## DerekEdgington (Dec 18, 2011)

BrianKittrell said:


> Hmmm, very interesting indeed. I may do it for my next one, just let it come out at Amazon first and then everywhere else after the period to see if it earns anything. I don't want to pull my current one on the other places.
> 
> Edited to add, now that I've had some time to think about it:
> 
> ...


I can't help but agree. This is a largely untested and unknown enigma. I can't help but be wary about limiting myself to a solitary venue, even though I haven't yet uploaded my book to any other site. One of the reasons I decided to strike out and self-publish right away (one among many) was because _I decide my own destiny._ Not anyone else. Let anyone else take the reins, and you forfeit rights to making any future decisions. But that's just my two cents.

-Derek


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## lea_owens (Dec 5, 2011)

I know that the 'free in store' ranking does not have any direct influence on the more important 'paid' ranking, but it is really exciting to see people choosing to click on your book and download it. Since there are tens of  thousands of freebies to download, they're obviously being selective and choosing something they want to read, so it's still a compliment that they chose your book over others.  My book, Horses Of The Sun (in the books below), had about 1500 downloads over two free days, nothing compared to some of the numbers I've read, but prior to the free days it was only getting one or two sales a day (some days nothing), and in the three days after the free days, forty were sold and eight borrowed. That moved it from sitting around the 25,000 - 70,000 paid in store ranking, to as low as 5,200 overall (and out of almost a million books, I thought that was exciting... it must be wonderful when authors make it into the top 100 overall) and #1 and #2 on a number of lists. So, I'd have to say, it worked well for me.

I'm going to run a free day for the book You Look Worried: Inspiring and Helpful Advice for Teenagers today or tomorrow (can't quite remember which day I chose, being 12 - 14 hours ahead of U.S. time here in Australia confuses the issue a little) but I don't expect many downloads with that as it is a fairly specific market.


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## Kay Bratt (Dec 28, 2011)

DDark said:


> I was just reading the Terms of Service and I get a little obsessed with fine print. By not allowing "Distribution" outside of Amazon, does that include free copies to reviewers? Or are we just talking about a site that distributes your book for free or sale?


If enrolled in KDP Select, you are not allowed to give out _any_ electronic copies of books for review. You can however, still give out print--as that is seperate from ebooks.


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## Adele Ward (Jan 2, 2012)

I did enroll all of our Ward Wood Publishing books but won't do it again. I hadn't realised all the conditions. I don't agree with the exclusivity rule and want to support other bookshops and websites. It's also important for me to let authors sell their ebooks on their own websites and other places. 

I'm grateful to the person who advised me to make sure I untick the box so the books aren't automatically enrolled again when the 90 days are up. I have now unticked that.

A lot of people are getting caught out by this and don't want to take their books off other sites where they already have a following, sites they want to continue to support.

I certainly know people who are rebelling and not taking the books off the other sites.


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

KayBratt said:


> If enrolled in KDP Select, you are not allowed to give out _any_ electronic copies of books for review. You can however, still give out print--as that is seperate from ebooks.


I don't think that's correct. This was brought up in one of the other KDP Select threads, and (if I recall correctly) although at first a rep said you couldn't even give out review copies, that was clarified later. You can send out review copies to review blogs, etc. What you can't do is give out tons of free copies for review on places like LibraryThing or Goodreads.


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## *DrDLN* (dr.s.dhillon) (Jan 19, 2011)

Don't you need prime membership to download these books free


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## Elmore Hammes (Jun 23, 2009)

*DrDln* (dr.s.dhillon) said:


> Don't you need prime membership to download these books free


No - you need Prime to do one free "borrow" per month. Authors can make their e-book free to everyone for 5 days out of every 90 days for books in the Select program. You don't earn royalties for free downloads but as has been discussed in several threads this can prove beneficial in continuing sales and/or sales for other titles.


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## jwholmes2011 (Jun 18, 2011)

Well, lesson learned here too, despite how high my novel "Riff" climbed yesterday during the 'free' promotion, now that it's over it's not even listed at rank at all anymore.  How's the promotion really supposed to have helped then if all those readers got my book for free, and now that it's over it's sunk back down in the unnoticed book swamp? How'd the 'give my book away for free' promotion help me exactly? I could understand giving the book away if it helped it climb the ranks to get noticed more, but all that just to have it sink back down doesn't make sense. Has anybody else had this happen?


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## David Wisehart (Mar 2, 2010)

Give it time. _Riff_ will have a new rank soon enough, and in two or three days it should rank higher than it was before the free promotion.

Give us a report in a couple days and let us know the result.

David


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## jwholmes2011 (Jun 18, 2011)

I sure will.


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## Seanathin23 (Jul 24, 2011)

I thought long and hard about select over the weekend and decided to pass for two reasons.  In the last two months I have sold less then twenty copies on Amazon and over 80 on B&N, and looking at those numbers I just can't see why I would want to cut off the arm that is bringing in a little cash.  Second is everybody in my very supportive family at this point owns a Nook and I can't bring myself to cut them off for 90 days.  

I'm not being crazy am I?


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## Kay Bratt (Dec 28, 2011)

Seanathin23 said:


> I thought long and hard about select over the weekend and decided to pass for two reasons. In the last two months I have sold less then twenty copies on Amazon and over 80 on B&N, and looking at those numbers I just can't see why I would want to cut off the arm that is bringing in a little cash. Second is everybody in my very supportive family at this point owns a Nook and I can't bring myself to cut them off for 90 days.
> 
> I'm not being crazy am I?


Of course, we all have to make our own decisions based on how we feel about the exclusivity clause, losing Nook readers, etc.. For me, it was the right choice to go KDP. My book _Chasing China _ was released in November and had decent sales on Amazon. But the sales at B&N trickled in so sparingly that I even wrote to them to ask if they were sure there wasn't an issue. How could I be selling 30-40 a day on Amazon and maybe 1 or 2 on B&N? When weeks went by with no response from B&N despite several attempts to contact them, it made my decision much easier. I went KDP with all my titles, and for _Chasing China _ I've now sold close to 6,000 copies in the last six weeks. (I did go free for 2 days and happily gave way almost 30,000 but it pushed my ranking up to get the title more exposure which resulted in great sales)

I could have sat back and let the few sales at B&N come in....and kept tallying the marks. But I am glad I didn't. That, however, is just my story. Yours might be different and in the long run, we who are KDP Friendly might be the ones who are saying, "I wish I hadn't done that." It's always a possibility but I see it as taking a gamble. One that for me so far has paid off. (and my other title is sitting at #5 in overall Free Kindle books right now so I hope it will also benefit from the free promo as the other did)

It's all about getting it in front of the crowd. And KDP can do that. My two cents.


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## Ian S Rutter (Feb 17, 2012)

So sorry for being late to the party. If I am repeating what has been written, my apologises.
This program is very interesting and very controversial, but it all depends on the position you are in as an indie publisher.
For me, I am brand new at the whole publishing game. I have written and now published independently on Amazon Kindle.
I have chosen the KDP program because it gives me time for my novel to get known, to make a presence. I'm not interested in the money at the moment.  Exposure is what I want.
The 90 days I can live with, it allows me to get on with creating a more rounded, all encompassing marketing plan. It allows me to get my website, my blog started and gather readers, it also gives me time to get the novel ready for the other formats that are required by the other digital sellers, such as Smashwords.
It took a while to get my novel Kindle ready. Why have that lay dormant, while spending time getting ready and waiting for Smashwords to except my formatted novel? When it could be doing something for me.
My plan is to have a system running first, get the ball rolling, and that system at the moment is KDP
I let Amazon help me, while I can concentrate on on creating an overall system that can be implemented the moment KDP finishes. I allow plan A to start, then when that comes to and end, plan B takes over, very little time wasted, one works while the other is being built to takeover completely later on.
During the 90 days everything can be rehearsed, streamlined, prodded.
It may sound simple. Have something in place, let that run until you have something better later on to take over.
To me, KDP is my beta plan and when the 90 days is up, v1 rolls out.

Ian S Rutter


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## LeonardDHilleyII (May 23, 2011)

I'm only enrolling the first book in each of my two series.  I see this as a good means to promote the rest of the books in the series, but no sense making a second or third book FREE.  I don't think most readers would like getting Book 2 Free and have to buy the first one.


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## Guest (Mar 18, 2012)

I enrolled one of my books, but the experience is mixed and I'm not satisfied at all. Actually KDP has opened my books to those who never was my target audience. Let's say that it was an interesting experience, but I don't need readers who get their books via KDP Select as, just as this test run has proved, my books are maybe not for most of them. There are two types of readers; #1, who is reading to enjoy a book and willing to meditate to understand it, #2, who is reading for pure entertainment and doesn't want to think at all. As I've experienced unfortunately most of the KDP Select readers are falling into the second category. It's not a problem, and it's not their fault as people love to read just for fun and entertainment, be it anything, especially if it's free. But because of these reasons KDP Select is not for me. It wasn't invented for these type of books.

Now I'm going to try another three letter method within a few days. At least it won't be a 90 days long exclusive, yet it also may open another great possibilities toward my real target audience. Hopefully it's going to give better results.


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## Randy Kadish (Feb 24, 2010)

I'm thinking of going with KDP Select for a collection of my fly fishing memoirs. However, earlier versions of many of the memoirs have been published on various fishing sites. Will that disqualify me for KDP Select?
Thanks,
Randy


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## D.A. Boulter (Jun 11, 2010)

Randy Kadish said:


> I'm thinking of going with KDP Select for a collection of my fly fishing memoirs. However, earlier versions of many of the memoirs have been published on various fishing sites. Will that disqualify me for KDP Select?
> Thanks,
> Randy


I think so, but I'm not absolutely sure. They want exclusivity.

1 Exclusivity. When you include a Digital Book in KDP Select, you give us the exclusive right to sell and distribute your Digital Book in digital format while your book is in KDP Select. During this period of exclusivity, you cannot sell or distribute, or give anyone else the right to sell or distribute, your Digital Book *(or a book that is substantially similar)*, in digital format in any territory where you have rights.

At one point I would have said it would DEFINITELY disqualify you. However, they keep changing their rules, so I'm no longer sure. Best bet would be to contact them directly and ask.


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