Indie Book Club discussion

Has anyone signed up for Kindle Select?

The lending program is interesting and membership gives you the opportunity to make your book free for up to 5 days in a 90 day period. My sales have been lagging, so I figured "what the heck, a few more readers would be nice, regardless of whether I make anything off the download."

In the first half day of my first giveaway, I've seen 800 downloads! Holy cow!

I'd love to hear anyone else's experience with the Select program, particular the lending aspect. Info on the program is available here: http://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing...

Eric

I've seen a few blog posts about the subject, but haven't had any time to look into more in depth. I'm going to try to get a little more info about it tomorrow.

Thanks for sharing that info, Eric. I'm considering it as well. It sounds like you end up perpetually offering your book for free via the lending program. if the book is already going to be free then its a no-brainer. But it could be a negative since any Amazon Prime member will basically get the book for free in perpetuity as far as I can tell.

Hi B

Surprisingly, Amazon is paying authors for allowing their books to be loaned. Each month Amazon assigns a prize pool (this month it's 500k); at the end of the month, they divide the pool among the authors based on the number of loans. I'm curious to see how that translates into $/loan.

For me, I don't really see anything that justifies the 90-day exclusivity period. I don't want to lock myself or my readers into a single vendor. It feels too much like a play to increase Amazon's market share, and the carrot isn't big enough for me to chase it.

Yeah, I agree; if you're getting decent sales anywhere outside of Amazon, it's probably not worth the exclusivity.

Yeah he is. Understandably. If Amazon has its way, then Smashwords will lose business.

It's all up to the author. If you want to yank your book(s) from ALL other retailers, even selling your book from your own web site, then by all means. My sales are doing extremely well at Barnes & Noble and Apple. I'm going to pass on KDP Select. There's something about the wording of the Terms & Conditions that rubs me the wrong way.

But, as always, that's just my own personal opinion. I'd love to hear from anyone that does sign up for this to determine if this is actually worth it.

Big J

I'm trying it... at least for Book One in my series, as sales have been lagging lately, though I'm getting ready to release Book Two in January. At this point, I mostly have 90 days to lose, so ... I'll let you know how it goes.

B -- a Prime member doesn't necessarily have your book for free in perpetuity, unless it's the only book they ever borrow, because the Prime lending program only lets members have one book out at a time, and limits borrowing to one title per month (there's no due date, but they can't borrow a new book until they've returned yours AND it's a new month).

It's an interesting way to get new exposure, and I'm excited about the idea of being able to list my first book for free around the release of the second one. But again, we'll see how it goes.

Breeana -

Thanks for the heads-up! Let us know how you do. And many congrats on your 2nd book!!

Big J

I've signed up for it, but I was wondering if there's any strategy as to when one runs the free promotion. Is there a better time frame to do it?


http://www.amazon.com/Small-Histories...

Thanks so much, Jeffrey. I'm getting excited about the release. :) Not sure what to do about the second book as far as Kindle Select, though, given that Amazon's "no-compete" clause seems pretty strict -- book two in a series could easily be construed as competing with Book One... Right now, I'm considering releasing it exclusively on Amazon, but not enrolling it in select, but, again... LOL

http://www.amazon.com/Dusk-Gate-Disco...

Breeana, thanks for the clarification of the once a month lending in the Prime program. I just read Mark Coker's Smashwords blog post on the program, and I agree with him that the exclusivity requirement is a strong negative. And I also don't want to encourage an Amazon monopoly. I won't be participating.

I'll pass as well. Exclusivity is the deal-breaker. My book's at B&N and Smashwords, and I'm fine with that. I appreciate Amazon, but they're throwing their weight around a bit too much with this one.

I signed up for it. I feel that word of mouth in the borrowing process can only help my series. Plus, 90%+ of my sales come from amazon anyways.

Wyatt - ok, you'll have to let us know how it goes for you. More importantly, I'm curious as hell in seeing how feasible it is to get a piece of that $500,000 pot Amazon keeps dangling in front of all of us.

As for me, I make many sales at Amazon, but I also have really strong sales at Barnes & Noble and Apple. I sell some at Kobo, Diesel, and Sony, but not nearly as much as the others.

Big J

If you do sign a book up for Amazon Select, the default is to auto-re-enroll at the end of each 90 day period.

I did my first giveaway promotion this weekend, which went very well. Boltman was downloaded 2100 times between the US and the UK over the 3-day weekend. I wonder what percentage of freebies get read? Still, some very welcome exposure for me.

I never signed up for Smashwords--no idea why. Looks like I have 87 days to explore Smashwords' formatting requirements.

Eric -

2100 times? Very nice!! As soon as I made book I free on Amazon, it was downloaded several thousand times, too. I could only hope that a small percentage of the people who read book I would be interested enough to purchase book II. So far, it's been working really good!

Can't have too much exposure, right?

Thanks, Jeffrey!
When I started seeing the numbers, I gave birth to a small black-spotted cow. I had become complacent regarding blogging, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Seeing all those downloads has spurred me into action!

My only issue with the giveaway. I have a series and giving away the 2nd book in the series seems pointless. A transfer of days to the first book should be allowed.

For anyone curious, the one thing that I couldn't find in the KDP Select program's terms was whether we could give away free copies. Some people say yes, some no. I contacted amazon and they confirmed that you can do giveaways/reviews/etc for free even in the Select program.

Just figured I'd save anyone else who was wondering that the time of contacting them. :)

Thank you so much, Jim. I was wondering about that.

That's the one thing I won't do, namely social networking. I hate it with a passion. So I looked into other things I could be doing, and came across the blog for another Goodreads author who said that if you have more than one book in a series released, then a really good way to drum up interest would be to make the first free and let your readers determine if they like your writing style. If so, then they'd (hopefully) purchase book II!

Thus far it seems to be working for me!

Big J

I agree with Big J.

FYI. I am getting a decent post-giveaway bump.

I'm doing my first giveaway now, and I'm pretty surprised at how many books are moving. I will be excited to see where this goes. The exclusivity doesn't bother me, and I'm not really sure how this will lead to monopoly as some people suggest. It's just a great tool for generating more awareness for indie authors.

http://www.amazon.com/Small-Histories...

Small Histories

Taking a page out of the drug dealers playbook. Just a taste. I like this idea and will offer my freeby soon.

Did you guys advertise the giveaway in anyway?

I did no advertising at all. To be honest, I have no idea how people found my freebie--possibly from the Kindle Nation freebie page, but I never thought to check there until my promotion was over.

I didn't either. I think just making promo pages and showing up in Amazon's searches is more that most of our social networks can reach. That's the power Amazon has- it's ability to put you in the customer's line of sight.

And Wyatt, I think this is the new paradigm. If you look at how Microsoft Windows was built, or facebook, or any number of digital/internet phenomenons. The rush to monetize can really hurt the small player.

I'm not thrilled about the combination of exclusivity and a pretty vague (and hence potentially very broad) no-compete clause. I'll be interested in hearing how this works out for those who are participating. (And maybe now that I've found out about my email problem, I'll actually be hearing!...)

I put out a small collection of stories and poems, plus a short story. Why not? I'm not putting The Spaces Between out, but it's amazing how many of the other two are flying off the shelves, and I did nothing. For me it's about exposure...I'm not out to make big bucks on anything, just to get a little recognition and maybe move some copies now and again.

That's my thought process on the matter. To me, it's gratifying to know that someone picked up a copy of my first book (for free), read it, liked it, and actually purchased the second.

The only real advertising I've done is word of mouth and the Amazon forums before I started up my cyber-residence at Goodreads. :)

Jeffrey, I must say you have done an excellent job of marketing your books...there are how many thousands of posts in all the forums on books and the like. But if you ask me if I remember any, and I sure know of The Bakkian Chronicles!

Martin - really? Very cool! I'm hoping that's a good thing instead of you going, "Dude? Seriously? That guy won't shut up about that stinkin' book!"

:)

It is very positive, and gives me hope for my own stuff :)

Okay... well, I don't know how the lending thing is going to go, but I do know this: without Kindle Select, my book would not be the #1 Bestselling Free Contemporary Fantasy book on Amazon right now, and #132 out of all free books...

Congrats, Breeana!

Thanks, Jeffrey! :) I've had to pick my jaw up off the floor a few times today, lol. :)

Breena, Congrats!

Can someone link for me the list of amazon best sellers (by categories)? Granted I am slow, but why can't I find this info?

http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-eBooks/b...

It's a little tricky, but if you go to the main kindle books page (linked above, accessed from the main landing page by choosing Kindle>Kindle books from the left, then on the left-hand side of the page, you can choose categories. Once you've chosen a category, then you can click bestsellers and it will give you a list of the top 100.

FWIW, I'm on day 3 of my free promotion this morning (I was only going to to one day at first, but I keep deciding to ride this out and see where it goes, lol), and my book is currently #86 out of all free books on Amazon, and #1 in both Contemporary Fantasy and Children's Fantasy.

So, um... Select for me. LOL

Thanks Breena and duh me again. You can also click a link within your book (if you scroll to rank).

My Lunara series book 1 is free right now for those interested. http://www.amazon.com/Lunara-Seth-and...

I am debating extending it or not. I have it for 2 days. I am wondering if I should spread it out over mini giveaways to keep it fresh or if it is better to block it in 5 days. I will try a two 2 dayers, and 1 1 dayer. I'll let you know.

I like your cover, Wyatt. :) I picked up my copy. Let me know how it goes spreading it out.

Wyatt and Breeana I'm gonna check your books out. Part Two of my series is available today. I felt a little odd doing this, but I'd already released part one elsewhere, so we'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll do some reverse business! ;-)

http://www.amazon.com/Wetwire-Visiona...

I picked up both books. I like your genres:)

Breena, thanks on the cover. I designed it and my graphic artist was fantastic. He had my vision in about 2-3 revisions. I love Seth and Chloe on the cover and to be honest, I have had a crush on Chloe while writing her and she came alive with the cover. I am sad like that:)

Breeanna--Congrats on your success. It's fun to to watch the numbers improve, isn't it? Let us know how your sales are post-giveaway. I'm 4 days out from the promotion and selling at a much better rate than before the promotion.

Thanks Eric, It's definitely fun to watch the numbers improve. Have to stop letting that distract me from preparing Book Two for launch! LOL

So, so far, so good here. Today's the first day off promotion (I did lower the price to 99 cents too -- still trying to set the stage for the Book 2 launch), and WOW. I've sold more books today than in the last three months combined, and the book is charting in three categories, when before it had never charted once anywhere.

It is only the first day, but... :)

@Jeff: I'm passing on Select as well. The terms kinda freak me out. Good luck to everyone that tries it, though.

B.

Folks: almost every single one of us has a book cooking in the oven, 98 % ready... put that one in KDP Select instead, which is what I'm planning to do... if it works, well, more power to you... and remember to place tons of your other book's excerpts at the end of the selected title to increase their exposure.

Jeffrey wrote: "That's the one thing I won't do, namely social networking. I hate it with a passion. So I looked into other things I could be doing, and came across the blog for another Goodreads author who said..."

It's always worked for me with Paradox Equation, but now that first book free is the 10% sample.

I'm trying it, with one severely overlooked book. I didn't get many later sales, and no reviews, after I participated in the Summer-Winter sale on Smashwords. It would be nice if this worked better.

Sharon, did you have any success?

Ooh, haven't updated this. Sorry. I started with the one, then added 18 of my titles. I ran a few books at a time for a day or two through Christmas, then one book a day, for a day each through Jan. 2nd. It looks like a two-day run is optimum. I definitely have residual sales, so far. Now I'm 'trying out' days to see which are best to run promos for SF.