Amazon’s KDP Select Program: dancing With The Devil?


So Amazon has dealt a new hand and produced a very enticing offer that only helps to solidify them as the player in the book sales market. It is a very tempting offer, but will it deliver the goods? Should I go with them?

What it offers:

This is what it offers:

  • Reach a new audience – Distribute books through the  Kindle Owners’ Lending Library and reach the growing number of  US Amazon Prime members.
  • 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.
  • Promote your book for free to readers worldwide – The newly launched Promotions Manager tool will allow you to directly control the promotion of free books.
  • Instant feedback – Check real-time performance of your books in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

The draw back?

What does it mean to publish exclusively on Kindle?

When you choose KDP Select for a book, you’re committing to make the digital format of that book available exclusively through KDP. During the period of exclusivity, you cannot distribute your book digitally anywhere else, including on your website, blogs, etc. However, you can continue to distribute your book in physical format, or in any format other than digital. See the KDP Select Terms and Conditions for more information.

Jeff Bennington writes Why I’m Joining Amazon’s KDP Select Program

Amazon is playing games and they’re changing the rules again. They’re changing the game, and they’re doing it in time for Christmas. Most Amazon authors and publishers have received an email from Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform. Got mine today. If you haven’t, check your email, check your KDP account and check it fast.

What are they doing? They are playing the Monopoly card, hoping to sway authors to publish solely with them, forsaking all others. And as far as I’m concerned, I’m going to play too. Essentially, Amazon’s Kindle store has set up a program called, Amazon Prime. This program costs kindle owners $79 a year, but once they are a member, they can access kindle books from the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library FOR FREE.

Authors who publish on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform have the option to “opt-in” to the KDP Select program that will make their books available to Amazon Prime members. If an author chooses to do this, he or she will receive part of the $500,000 cash available in the program for December 2011, and the estimated $12 Million in 2012 as an additional source of royalties.

Is there a catch? Yes. You have to make your ebooks available EXCLUSIVELY through the Kindle store. You can still sell your print books anywhere, just not your ebooks. You can no longer sell them on Barnes & Noble, iBook Store, Goodreads, Smashwords, etc.

Will authors get paid for their books? No; not with traditional royalties anyway. The royalties, from what I understand, are based on the number of books borrowed divided by the amount of money in the fund. They hope to loan 100K ebooks by the end of 2011. If they reach that goal, authors whose books were borrowed will receive a proportional amount. For example: if your book is loaned 1,500 times before the end of December, and they reach their goal of 100K total books loaned, you will get 1.5% (or $7,500) of the $500,000.

Sound complicated? It sort of is. Sound risky? Yes. Could it be worth it? I think so. The way I understand it, Amazon is doing what Netflix did in the movie rental business; only with Amazon it’s Pay a yearly fee and get free books all year. I think it’s a great idea and a model that Libraries should follow.

Jeff makes some good points as do those who comment on the post.

3 thoughts on “Amazon’s KDP Select Program: dancing With The Devil?

  1. The important question seems to be “Where do you sell the most ebooks?” If it is already at Amazon, then it makes sense to go exclusively with them, if there is a sensible limit on the time you must abide by this. I personally prefer B&N because they use epub which can be used on almost any ereader, but I’m pretty sure I’m in a minority. I can go to Amazon to buy if need be and convert to epub, unless you also use DRM. I imagine you could leave instructions on your website for conversion with calibre to assist your epub readers.

    Like

    1. Hi Anita

      Thanks for the comment. The largest amount of my sales come from Amazon, though my Smashwords haven’t been too bad. I am htinking I will go with the KDP Select program in the new year.

      The exclusivety stays as long as you are on the programme, and you role it over for a ninety day period each time.

      Cheers

      Michael

      Like

  2. G’Day! Michael,
    Thanks, on a related note, Amazon is a popular online shop where you can buy not only books and music but also toys, electronics, cosmetics, tools, etc. Amazon also runs an affiliate program which you can use to promote their products and earn a commission. The beauty of this affiliate program is in the variety of products which you can promote. In the case there is no product that is related to the content of your website you can definitely find few books that are somehow connected with topics of your pages.
    Kindest Regards

    Like

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