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The Issue of Exclusivity in KDP Select

10/26/2012

14 Comments

 
The CEO of Smashwords, Mark Coker, recently published a guest post in the Self-Publishing Advice Blog of ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors) entitled:   “Amazon Is Playing Indie Authors Like Pawns,” says Smashwords founder, Mark Coker

In a nutshell he states that Indie authors should have their books distributed to as many retailers as possible and should therefore avoid joining Amazon’s KDP Select program because this program demands exclusivity. If they don’t, he argues that these authors will not gain access to many emerging markets where other retailers are rising in importance. His reference to Indie authors being pawns is because he thinks Amazon is using them to harm other book retailers and presumably harming (sacrificing?) the authors as well in the process.

As one of these “pawns” that Mr. Coker mentions I want to state that I don’t agree with the exclusivity requirement for belonging to KDP Select. However, leveraging an advantage against your competitors is a common sales strategy. Amazon knows that it offers the best deal for authors when royalties, publishing platform, discoverability, size of market, and other aspects are considered as a whole: something that is especially true compared to Smashwords. I considered publishing with Smashwords, but after reading what the author blogoshere had to say about them and their publishing platform called “The Meatgrinder,” I decided otherwise.

From reading author blogs I also gathered that the most common reason why authors leave other retailers and sign up their books with Amazon is because their sales with those other retailers amount to a fraction of their sales with Amazon. To this you have to add two additional features that authors gain in exchange for exclusivity in the KDP Select program.

The first is that books in the Select program get included in the Amazon Prime library where readers can borrow them, and for each borrow Amazon pays authors a certain amount of money from a pool allocated to this program. If a book is priced at $1.99 and someone borrows it, the resulting payment can be equivalent to the royalties from 3 sales. If the book is priced at $0.99 the resulting payment can be equivalent to the royalties from 6 sales. The second feature is the capacity to make a book free for a total of 5 days, which can help with promotion and boost the amount of sales once the book comes off the free period.

So is Amazon using me as a pawn? Maybe, but I don’t really care. I am not “married” to Amazon. I am on Amazon and on the Select program because in my opinion they offer me the best deal at many levels. When and if this changes I will make my move to other publishing platforms. Perhaps, as Mr. Coker says, I miss the chance to get on the bandwagon of emerging markets where other retailers are rising in importance. However, to gain entrance into a market through another retailer it is not enough to simply publish. You have to work at it and master the nuances of promotion on each retailer’s platform. The way it is now, I barely have time to keep up with everything I have to do on Amazon, and I am still making mistakes and trying to get things right.

Finally, I want to remind Mr. Coker that if a pawn reaches the eighth row it can get promoted to a knight. Right now I think my odds of achieving this with Amazon are higher than with Smashwords or other retailers.

What do you think?

                                   ***
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14 Comments
Barbara Alfaro link
10/26/2012 02:17:24 pm

The ebook edition of my memoir "Mirror Talk" was listed with Smashwords for about three years and during that time I did not sell a single copy through them. When I took my memoir off Smashwords and joined Amazon's KDP Select Program, the book sold quite well. Though sales of my book through Amazon are sometimes excellent and other times slow, it was the best move for me. A fellow "pawn," Barbara

Reply
Rolando link
10/27/2012 06:23:18 am

Precisely Barbara, I think Coker is delusional. If he wants us to switch to Smashwords then he should offer us a service as good as the one Amazon offers. Thanks for your comment! : ^ )

Reply
Matthew Chivers link
10/28/2012 10:19:46 pm

Hey, hey! Been a while since I've posted, and seeing you mention the KDP Select in your blog I had to respond :)

I've unfortunatley fallen out of love with KDP Select, and one of the main reasons is because of my book series as a whole, in terms of where I want to go with my marketing strategy. With KDP Select you must give them exclusivity - problem is, I don't make much in the way of lending/borrowing - in fact, my book has only ever been leant twice - this is out of thousands of downloads! Second reason why I'm moving to the Smashwords way of doing things is because of "price matching" - some books in some series are free 24/7 - and this is done because those authors price match from websites such as Barnes&Nobel, which is what Smashwords does for you. I'm planning on making the first 2 novels in my series free, then onwards the 3rd book and up will come with a cost (after all, I want to make SOMETHING back from my thousands of man hours lol) - However, my books won't be enrolled in KDP Select again - I've tried it, and it just hasn't worked out for me.

Third point - because of the strict formatting required for Smashwords (the meat grinder you mentioned lol) it has meant that I have had to go through my entire first book and reformat everything, following their instructions to the T. I'm glad I have, because I've learned alot more in how to format a novel - and its amazing how many little mistakes can creep into microsoft word that has been in their for years!

It has been a lengthy month getting this chore done though, but once it is, I don't think I'll regret moving from KDP Select to Smashwords! My experience with KDP has been good - but against the price matched books out their, my series just cannot take off the ground because of other authors doing this - so in a way I am only changing to match the tactics of others, which in itself is a shame.

At the same time however, I also want my books to be available on different formats (epub etc) as not everyone uses a kindle to read ebooks - it also means I can branch out and have more diversity, and more download hits - this in itself creates a larger fanbase :)

I wanted to stay with KDP Select... I really do... but due to having to compete with several books in a series which are free because of price matching, I need to compete, or no one will ever read my series... and unfortunatley my books will never hit best seller in the free giveaway due to this sad fact, unless it is free 24/7 :(

Good blog post! Keep up the good work!!!

Reply
Rolando link
10/30/2012 02:05:14 am

You bring up a good point Matthew. Amazon has a price matching policy. If any book on Amazon appears for a lower price on other outlets Amazon will lower the price for a more extended amount of time than the 5 days allowed on KDP Select. This only works for a series. I would try this just with the first book of your series and see how that works.

As to the KDP Select, it is not enough to make you book free. You need a strategy to promote it by advertising on blogs and sometimes even paying to let readers know your book is free. The KDP Select doesn't work for some people because they followed the wrong strategy, and I wonder whether that was the problem with your approach. How did you conduct your KDP Select free promotion? If you want to you can send me an e-mail.

Reply
Laura Novak
10/29/2012 02:04:41 am

I too eschewed Smashwords in favor of KDP Select, for a variety of reasons. The Meatgrinder reputation was one. The second was that I uploaded directly to Nook and Kobo and sold about 8 books total - to friends who were being kind but already owned Finding Clarity on Kindle. I never gained traction there. And I don't think a middle man, who only pays every quarter, was the answer for me. I've done very well on KDP Select. Better when the algorithm was different, but still, the other platforms just never worked for me, or I just never worked them! And I have heard Coker speak at a conference. He's a really cool guy with a great mission. But with direct uploads now, he needs to hang on to a sinking ship, IMHO.

Reply
Rolando link
10/30/2012 01:44:37 am

Thanks for your comment Laura. If Coker worked harder at improving Smashword's platform instead of speaking about how authors should not give exclusivity to Amazon, he would be making progress faster. Actions speak louder than words.

Reply
Adriene link
10/31/2012 08:48:05 am

Interesting discussion, giving me lots to think about. I offered my first ebook for free and I found Smashwords to be a great platform for that arrangement. I'm selling my 2nd ebook and retooled the first one to sell it as well. I did not enroll in the KDP select program because I was leery of limiting my marketing options. I would say if nothing else, use the Smashwords Style Guide if you format your ebook yourself. It's free. Readying a manuscript for the Meatgrinder produces pretty good results even to submit to Amazon, I think.

Reply
Rolando link
10/31/2012 01:22:39 pm

Thanks for your comment Adriene. Many authors don't like the Meatgrinder because what you can do with your manuscript is very basic. Go a little out of those parameters and it can turn into a formatting nightmare (other platforms are more versatile). That is not to say authors don't publish with Smashwords, tens of thousands of them do. It all depends how well it works for you. Amazon is a bigger market by an order of magnitude over Smashwords, and many authors find that the majority of their sales come from Amazon anyway. But many are also leery of the exclusivity issue, and that is what they haven't joined the Select Program. Again, it is whatever works for you, and every author is different. Vive la différence!

Reply
Keith
11/1/2012 06:01:18 am

just a comment on royalties Amazon only pay 35% on ebooks sold in Australia, rather than 70% for US sales, which makes it less attractive for Australian authors who are known more and who sell better in Australia.

Reply
Rolando link
11/1/2012 09:39:35 am

Excellent comment Keith, thanks for the reminder. I guess it is the human tendency to consider reality what happens in our vicinity, but in this age of the internet reality is the whole world. I wish that the same percentage share of royalties could be charged everywhere so it would be the same for every author no matter where they are. Maybe that will happen in the future as technology improves.

Reply
Doug Solter link
11/10/2012 02:12:20 am

I'm sorry, but I've had an awful experience with KDP Select. I've done the promotional aspects surrounding the five free days. Gave away hundreds of free ebooks through them. And no sales. Period. Nada. Not one borrow either. To be honest, I can't wait to get off KDP Select next month because I think it's actually hurting my potential sales on other platforms. I'm just saying that it DOES NOT work for everyone. I personally think the program is losing its effectiveness.

Reply
Rolando link
11/10/2012 03:41:23 am

Hey Dough, thanks for your comment. I agree with you that the KDP Select program doesn't work for everyone. However, you mention that you gave away hundreds of free e-books. That is not enough. You need to give away thousands, and for a successful (caveat - eye of the beholder) promotion nowadays we are talking more than ten thousand. On my first promotion I used only Twitter to promote my book, and I gave away only 140 plus copies and didn't get a single sale or borrow. I have several questions for you. Did you promote that you were giving away your book on the major blogs (i.e. Pixel of Ink, EReader News Today, and Kindle Nation Daily)? Did your book have a rating of 4 or more on Amazon on at least 10 reviews at the time of the promotion? Have you received any input on your book cover? Have people told you they like it? These are all issues that can affect the effectiveness of your promotion.

Reply
Barbara Alfaro link
11/10/2012 04:07:59 am

Some free book promos I've done for my memoir "Mirror Talk" have gone very well but others not well at all. I still think it's worth it. I subscribe to Pixel of Ink, Ereader News Today, and Kindle Nation Daily but I don't know how to give them advance notice when I do a promo -- the ones where I don't place an ad. Kindle Nation Daily always picks it up without my contacting them but what about Ereader News and Pixel of Ink? Do I email them beforehand and if so, where do I find their email addresses?

Reply
Rolando link
11/10/2012 04:33:13 am

Thanks for your comment Barbara. Yes some promos seem to work and others don't. We have to figure out why. One variable seems to be the summer months. That seems like a bad time to to a free promotion. I sent you an e-mail with the other information.

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