Question of KDP Select for Ebook Launches and Older Ebooks
I have been having a very interesting email exchange with military history author Eric Hammel about ebook publishing and Amazon’s KDP Select.
As many of you know, KDP Select is the Kindle program that requires a 90-day exclusive for the ebook (physical books are NOT included in the exclusivity) in exchange for certain benefits.
Eric reviewed my newest ebook — TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON: 3 Books in 1 — and pointed out to me his reasons for not having his books on KDP Select.
As we wrote back and forth, we both clarified our opinions. And here’s what I think is important for authors to consider:
1. If your ebooks are already doing well on other sites, then you have to consider whether you want to pull your ebooks off these sites in order to meet KDP Select’s exclusivity requirements.
2. If you are about to launch a new ebook, you can put your ebook on the KDP Select program for one 90-day period. Then after experimenting with this program, you can decide whether to keep your ebook on KDP Select, or leave the program and distribute your ebook to more online retailers.
But, as I said in TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF KINDLE —you need to fairly evaluate KDP Select:
1. Being on KDP Select without using any of the free days is NOT trying out KDP Select.
2. Having free days without “working” those days — doing promotion before and during the free days — is NOT trying out KDP Select.
As in most things in the online marketing world, you need to try things yourself and then evaluate your efforts. And the more you learn about your online marketing opportunities, the more options you will have.
Click here to visit Eric Hammel’s military history book site.
© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks. Her newest nonfiction ebook is book publishing and marketing ebook TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and her newest fiction ebook is the romantic suspense spy story CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller
She also has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
Phyllis,
That’s a nail-on-the-head mention in your excerpt about what is NOT using KDP Select. It’s true about the whole gamut of indie publishing. Spending 10 minutes on Twitter before rejecting it is NOT experiencing Twitter. Reading a poorly edited ebook does not give one a sense of what’s out there or what’s possible. And my favorite point to make to my user group is that even though there are nearly a million new ebooks published each year, an individual author is not really competing with that number. We are building our own reader relationships.
Thanks for all your good work, Phyllis
Suzanna Stinnett
Bay Area Bloggers Society
Suzanna — I love this comment, including the part about Twitter because I’m such a fan of Twitter (although it does take time to understand its power).
What I most like about your comment, though, is the explanation that an individual author “is not really competing” with all the ebooks published each year. You are so right that “we are building our own reader relationships.”
And, of course, building those relationships takes time and commitment!
Thanks for leaving this comment — I appreciate it.