In December, Amazon launched its KDP Select program. Meant to entice authors to limit their Kindle books to Amazon, the program offers authors a financial “bribe.” As reported by Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, in the Huffington Post:
“The new service offering, KDP Select, promises participating authors a shot at earning their share of a $500,000 monthly pool of cash. Amazon will distribute the funds to participating authors based on the number of times an ebook is borrowed from Amazon’s new lending library.
To entice indie authors, Amazon’s FAQ notes that if the author’s book accounts for 1.5% of the downloads during the monthly lending period, they’ll earn 1.5% of the pot, in this case $7,500.”
This, of course, sounds great, you might think. There are, however, a few catches involved, as outlined in Amazon’s KDP Select Terms and Conditions, and you, if you are considering joining the program, should make yourself aware of them:
- “Exclusivity. When you include a Digital Book in KDP Select, you give us the exclusive right to sell and distribute your Digital Book in digital format while your book is in KDP Select. During this period of exclusivity, you cannot sell or distribute, or give anyone else the right to sell or distribute, your Digital Book (or a book that is substantially similar), in digital format in any territory where you have rights. ”
- “KDP Select Fund. We will establish a fund on a monthly basis and you will earn a share of that fund for each of your Digital Books included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Program. Your share will be calculated as the number of times that the Digital Book has been borrowed during the month as a percentage of the number of times all KDP Digital Books have been borrowed, multiplied by the fund amount we establish for that month. This share is your total Royalty for borrows of that Digital Book through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Program. For example, if the fund for a particular month is $500,000, your Digital Book is borrowed 1,500 times, and all participating Digital Books are cumulatively borrowed 100,000 times, your Digital Book will earn $7,500 ($500,000 x 1,500/100,000 = $7,500). We will determine in our sole discretion the criteria for determining which borrowing events qualify for this calculation. A maximum of one borrowing per customer will qualify. We may publically announce the top Digital Books borrowed, including the author, publisher, number of borrows and KDP Select fund royalties earned.”
- “Period of Participation and Automatic Renewal. Once you include a Digital Book in KDP Select, your Digital Book will be in KDP Select for a period of 90 days, unless we remove your Digital Book from KDP Select. Your Digital Book’s participation will automatically renew for additional 90-day periods, unless you opt out through the KDP website before renewal. We can end KDP Select at any time in our discretion; if we do, these terms and conditions will no longer be in effect, except Section 5 will survive. A customer who borrows your Digital Book can continue to keep it checked out for as long as they want, including after your Digital Book’s participation in KDP Select ends.”
Here are my personal concerns about these three “catches”:
- $7,500 sounds great. Especially if you earn it in one month without lifting a finger. Unfortunately, that figure is based upon some pretty spectacular math. For your book to represent 1.5% of all the books borrowed in one month, it would have to be a runaway bestseller. I’m not suggesting that your book will not be, but let’s re-think this. If your book is a runaway bestseller and you sell 1,500 copies in one month at Amazon’s 70% royalty rate, and you price it as low as you can to receive that royalty rate ($2.99), you are set to earn: $3,139.50. That is less than half of the $7,750 Amazon uses in their proposal – sounds great, right?
BUT, think about it – really think about it – before hitting that “enroll” button. Let’s look at some other scenarios:
- If your book is a runaway bestseller, chances are that you would charge more than $2.99 for it. If you priced your eBook at just $7.00, which is low for bestsellers, it would earn $10,500, earning you $7,350 in royalties.
- Price it at $7.50, and your royalties would be: $7,875.
- The likelihood of your book representing 1.5% of all books borrowed is a stretch – unless it is a bestseller. Which brings us back to #1, above. IF it is a bestseller, people are going to want to buy it.
2. If you do not limit yourself to Amazon, you could be selling your eBook on Barnes & Noble, in the iBookstore, over at Sony – anywhere books are sold online. I happen to have a Kindle app and a Nook app on my iPad. That means that I can purchase books at Amazon, B&N and at the iBookstore and, truthfully, I am not 100% loyal to any site.. There are, however, some people who LOVE their Nooks and who LOVE Apple and who would only purchase at B&N or from the iBookstore. By limiting your book to Amazon, you are, by extension, limiting your book’s reach.
3. If your book is “borrowed”, it will not be sold. If you are an author trying beef up your author’s platform, gloating about how many times your book was “borrowed” just won’t cut it.
4. Further, you will never become a “best-selling” author if you rack up “borrows.” You might become the “most-borrowed” author, but not a best-selling author.
5. The KDP Select program allows Amazon Prime members to “borrow” your digital book for as long as they like – as long as they borrow it while your book is still active in the program. If you opt out of KDP Select and the “borrower” still has the book, too bad. According to the terms, they can keep it as long as they like – without owing you a penny.
6. Further, your book is automatically re-enrolled in the program for an additional 90 days. This means that if you forget to cancel its membership prior to the re-enrollment date, your book will be “stuck” in the program for another 3 months.
Look, I am not bashing Amazon. I am a huge fan of Amazon and I happily sell my own books through the site. I am just not convinced, however, that the KDP Select program is in any author’s best interests. At least not as it is currently offered.
That being said, I would greatly appreciate hearing from any authors who have enrolled in KDP Select who have had success with it.
