Are you an Amazon Prime member?
This is Amazon’s subscription service. There are videos, savings on shipping and a few other benefits that you get for your $79 per year, but the part that effects me, as an author, is the Kindle Lending Library. Amazon Prime Members can “borrow” 1 book a month for their Kindle from the Lending Library. Better yet, the authors of those books get paid a portion of a pool of money based on how many times their book is borrowed during a month. So, from the author’s perspective, it’s exposure to people who like to read, and have the book available to them free! This sounds pretty great. After all, while authors want to earn an income, they want people to read and enjoy their work even more. This has the benefit of both.
To do this, all the author or publisher needs to do is sign the book up for KDP (that’s Kindle Direct Publishing) Select. And with that, not only does the book get put in the Lending Library, but authors also get the chance to promote their books to others by having “free” days, where people who are not Amazon Prime Members or who have already borrowed their free book, can buy it for nothing. The increased exposure from the free days was recently tracked by an author acquaintance of mine, Deanna Knipping. As she describes on her blog, the exposure can be pretty substantial. Books get to the reader, and that’s good for the author, right? Maybe. It isn’t clear whether the volume of books downloaded for free translates into sales. It isn’t even clear if the people who download free books ever read them! Still, exposure for new authors is rarely a bad thing.
In exchange for these benefits, the KDP Select program requires that the ebook be sold exclusively through Amazon for ninety days. For many authors, this is a no brainer. After all, the overwhelming majority of ebook sales are through Amazon. And you can always throw it on Barnes & Noble or your own website after the exclusivity period. But no author wants to treat any of his fans, including Nook owners, as second class citizens. Some authors have tried to accommodate this concern by swapping out an ebook purchased from Amazon in mobi format for one in epub format when a reader emails them. An imperfect solution.
There is also to iTunes problem. iTunes requires that ebooks sold in its store be available at the same time as from any other online retailer. Presumably, that means if you’ve been selling on Amazon for three months in the KDP Select program, iTunes doesn’t want you – ever. iTunes isn’t much of a player in book sales, though, so this might not be much of a downside.
As Foreseen nears publication, I need to decide whether to enroll it in KDP Select. I generally don’t like exclusive arrangements, but this is looking like it has little downside. Except for one thing: I have a bunch of people waiting for the release who own Nooks instead of Kindles. So, I am not certain which way I will go. If you’d like to weigh in with your thoughts and comments, feel free, because I have to make up my mind soon.
I’ll let you know how the sales go. So far, I had low expectiations (i.e., none) and am pretty happy.
Oh – and I did note on my blog that people who bought the book could contact me and pick up an alternate format for no additional cost. I’ve had one person ask about it.
Having recently published a book and made it simultaneously for sale on Amazon, Nook, and iTunes, including a paperback on Amazon, the vast majority of sales are through Amazon. So in one sense there does seem to be some justification. At the same time, there seems to be a lot of evidence that competing writers take the opportunity to trash your book with an Amazon review, usually without reading it. While this behavior is abhorrent, and will never help the other writer, there is little you can do about it. And there is no guarantee that you’ll make up the twisted reviews with actual, sincere reviews. It’s a risk no matter how you cut it.
Referring to the above comments, the trashing seems to take place when a book is offered for free, not when it is sold. Though even then, you can get nut-cases.
Agreed on the free comments often being spottier than the paid ones — you’ve already passed the first test, with paid content (they thought it appealing enough to buy it).
The free ones…the bad reviews often come from people who would have weeded themselves out of reading the book, if they’d had to take two seconds to think about it (before paying for it). They’re often pretty funny.
I used one bad review as a promo: one woman hated a story about a bunny that I described in the blurb as “vicious” and “eats everything in sight.”
Her response: “It is much too gory for a little guy starting out with his first kindle! Right off the bat the rabbit kills that parents?”
I tweeted that after it went back to paid. Sales increased.
Love that approach, DeAnna! Hilarious!