Thread: Amazon offers indie authors reward for going exclusive
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Old 03-01-2012, 04:13 PM   #205
JSWolf
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash View Post
I can think of one usage case in which KDP Select makes perfect sense, and I'd like the opinions of those who oppose it, especially JSWolf, who stated in another thread that not only would be never support the author post-KDPS but also discourage others from reading their work (if I read that right; if not, please correct me).
Essentially correct.

Quote:
Say a new author has a debut novel. We already know that distribution through Smashwords can take more prep work to beat the meatgrinder. Why not release first at Amazon via KDPS, take advantage of those benefits, then go into wide release after 90 days?

If it were me, I'd be using those 90 days to get that awful Word document in perfect compliance for Smashwords, as well as prepping an ePub with precise formatting for sale on my web site. If I can have the mobi version for sale on Amazon while I'm doing that, why not?

I don't see this as all that different from doing a NY/LA movie release, honestly.
Given the time it takes to get a Mobi file to look good would be better spent working on the ePub version instead. Overall, ePub converts to Mobi pretty well. Sure you may have to tweak a few things here and there, but it can be done. So once you've put the effort into the ePub, you just convert to Mobipocket and done. Both versions are ready to go. The other way, you have to work on the Mobi and then work on the ePub. Sometimes converting from Mobi to ePub is not all that easy to do because the underlying code can be a real mess so then you have to work on cleaning it up and that ends up being a lot more work then just working on the ePub and converting down to Mobi.

The other issue is that the author has gone exclusive with Amazon and that then causes the author to lose credibility as far as sticking it out with the ePub versions. How do we know the author won't pull the ePub and go back to Amazon? We (the readers) lose trust in the authors who go exclusive with Amazon. Once they go with Amazon, they may as well stay there since they've lost our trust.
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