KDP Select

[John F]

Originally Posted by vaughnmr

...

The books are still available for sale in the Kindle Store. The KDP Select books (for lending purposes) are only available in the Kindle Prime, which for now is US only.

I was trying to ask about international sales.

If I'm an author, living in the U.S. and I sign a book up in the KDP program through Amazon U.S., would that book show up for sale in other countries Amazon sites (Amazon UK, Amazon France, Amazon Australia, ...)?

I'm just wondering how international Amazon is?

[Fbone]

There are now 47,952 titles.

Will we reach 50,000?

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by John F

If an author signs up for KDP, are they available in all the international Amazon/Kindle stores?

Just curious.

Yes, authors who publish through KDP automatically have their books published in all international Amazon/Kindle stores (which are currently US, UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain) if they have international rights. They can limit markets if they choose to do so.

[luqmaninbmore]

Originally Posted by morriss003

it seems like there is always a point at which an innovative tech company loses the trust of its audience. Microsoft was probably the first, but after Jobs was fired from Apple, that company experienced the same thing. After awhile, no one believed the ratings on eBay because too many vendors were gaming the system. Does anyone believe that Facebook is a secure system? Google is on its way down, and now Amazon is working hard to join the rest.

How is offering exclusive content to users losing the trust of Amazon's audience? How is providing incentives to go exclusive losing the trust of Amazon's audience?

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by taustin

$79/year isn't free. In fact, it's about $7/book, with them choosing the books, if I understand it correctly. Not a bad price, but not so good that I'm going to read stuff I otherwise wouldn't.

It's free for people who already have Prime, I should have said - I've had Prime for so long that I tend to forget about it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by luqmaninbmore

How is offering exclusive content to users losing the trust of Amazon's audience? How is providing incentives to go exclusive losing the trust of Amazon's audience?

What it is doing is losing the trust of the author to non-Kindle users. I don't trust an author who goes exclusive with Amazon to do the right thing for the readers.

[J. Strnad]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What it is doing is losing the trust of the author to non-Kindle users. I don't trust an author who goes exclusive with Amazon to do the right thing for the readers.

With my book, none of the other retailers did squat to market my book, and none offered Amazon's ease of searching and purchasing. As a result, Amazon last month accounted for 99.4% of my sales which is pretty much how it's gone for the past two years. Like it or not, I was "exclusive" with Amazon even before KDP Select came along!

I see that you have a Sony reader, so, no Amazon books for you, no Barnes & Noble books for you. Wherever you're buying your books, my book isn't going to be there. I'm sorry about that, but realistically it doesn't really matter to anyone who buys from those outlets...they aren't interested in my book anyway or don't even know it exists.

Now, you might say, "What about that one guy who bought Risen at B&N last month? That's a sale you'd have lost, even if it's only one sale!" And that's true. But I have 7 borrows from Amazon Prime members after a week in the program. Do I "owe" more to that one B&N guy than I do to the 7 Prime members, that I should turn my back on the 7 to serve the 1?

Of the major retailers (excepting Smashwords, where I haven't sold a book in about a year), only Amazon lets me distribute Risen DRM-free! I'm really sorry that the "open" epub standard has been crippled by competing forms of DRM, because that was these retailers' one chance to compete with Amazon. "Any ebook on any ereader" might've stood a chance against the Kindle, but they blew it.

I want to make Risen available DRM-free to as many readers as possible. Apparently going exclusive with Amazon and listing it with KDP Select is the way to achieve that goal. If the landscape changes, I can get out of KDP Select after 90 days, but I'm not holding my breath.

I'm really sorry to see ebooks trend this way. I'd have loved an open standard. I'd have loved to not see the Beta vs. VHS war re-enacted. Unfortunately, the war seems to be over in the U.S. As the owner of two Kobos, I feel as if I have two Betamaxes sitting on my shelf.

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

With my book, none of the other retailers did squat to market my book, and none offered Amazon's ease of searching and purchasing. As a result, Amazon last month accounted for 99.4% of my sales which is pretty much how it's gone for the past two years. Like it or not, I was "exclusive" with Amazon even before KDP Select came along!

Jan, my husband has also sold very few ebooks at Barnes & Noble. It's almost impossible to even find books in his genre using their category search. I'd love to know how anyone discovers golf fiction there! Amazon's search engine is much easier to use.

And it's frustrating that indie authors can't directly upload their ePubs to places like Kobo and Sony. They have to go through Smashwords, which is less than ideal in my opinion. I carefully handcrafted the ePub that my husband submitted directly to B&N, and I don't trust that the MS Word file wouldn't be mangled by the meatgrinder at Smashwords. If Smashwords allowed us to upload our own ePub, I'd distribute through them in a heartbeat in order to get the book into all outlets!

Of the major retailers (excepting Smashwords, where I haven't sold a book in about a year), only Amazon lets me distribute Risen DRM-free!

My husband's book is DRM-free at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You can sell your ePub DRM-free at Barnes & Noble if you upload the book directly to them using PubIt. They give you that choice when you publish there, same as Amazon's KDP.

My husband has chosen not to participate in KDP Select at this time, but we are very interested in knowing how this works out for indie authors whose books weren't already Amazon top sellers. If the program is successful for most, then I think we will see even more authors go Amazon exclusive. So, ePub readers—you might want to get your ePubs while you can!

[jersysman]

Since I do not have a Kindle, I guess those that choose to go with this program will just not have me for a potential reader. Not really no skin off of my teeth, there are others out there.

[Fbone]

We've reached 50,000 titles.

Can we hit 60,000?

[JSWolf]

Anyone I find out who's gone exclusive with Amazon has lost my trust and respect.

[Mayzshon]

For stuff I've already got out on other platforms, no I'll keep it available. However I have a novella that's about ready for publication, so I'm going to use it to give KDP select a test run.
Basically, the vast majority of my sales are though Amazon anyway, so I don't see that I'll be hurting myself by limiting my sales to them for three months.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Mayzshon

For stuff I've already got out on other platforms, no I'll keep it available. However I have a novella that's about ready for publication, so I'm going to use it to give KDP select a test run.
Basically, the vast majority of my sales are though Amazon anyway, so I don't see that I'll be hurting myself by limiting my sales to them for three months.

Amazon could turn around and deny you of any money because you have other books at other shops.

[Mayzshon]

How so?
Enrollment in KDP is on a title by title basis. What I have enrolled needs to be exclusiveto Amazon, but nothing has ever been said about other titles.

So far I've seen no evidence that they would, but should Amazon try anything like that, I would cease dealing with them. However, I think that if they were to try something like that, the backlash aainst them would quickly brink the practice to a halt.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Mayzshon

How so?
Enrollment in KDP is on a title by title basis. What I have enrolled needs to be exclusiveto Amazon, but nothing has ever been said about other titles.

So far I've seen no evidence that they would, but should Amazon try anything like that, I would cease dealing with them. However, I think that if they were to try something like that, the backlash against them would quickly brink the practice to a halt.

Amazon could think you are not exclusive enough and cut you off.