Amazon is celebrating its first calender year of the Kindle Direct Publishing Select program. This allows authors to tap into an ever growing pool of money when people borrow ebooks for free with Amazon Prime. The normal monthly allotment of cash for authors is $700,000, but Amazon announced today the cash flow is increasing to $1.5 million for December!
KDP Select was introduced in December 2011 to give indie authors publishing with KDP a chance to reach a growing amount of users taking advantage of Amazon Prime. Prime is a rather new program that not only gets you free shipping if you buy stuff from the website, but also lets you watch free movies every month and borrow free ebooks. When an author enrolls in KDP Select, they have to allow Amazon to have exclusive rights for a three month period. When people borrow their ebooks for free on Prime, they are given a cut of the $700,000 that’s allocated for this purpose. Authors can enroll any of their titles, including their full catalog. They also have access to a self-service promotional tool, which gives them the option to offer their enrolled titles for free for up to five days every 90 days, which many authors have found to be a great way to engage more readers and find new audiences.
“This holiday season, millions of customers will open new Kindles, and if they’re Amazon Prime members, they can borrow a book from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library for free. The unusual thing about KDP Select is that when this happens, authors get paid. With record Kindle sales worldwide, and the recent expansion of the lending library to Europe, we expect the number of books borrowed this holiday season to increase significantly,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. “We’ve seen authors experience incredible success with KDP Select—in only a year it’s become commonplace to see KDP Select books on our best seller list.”
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SEATTLE—November 29, 2012—(NASDAQ:AMZN)—Amazon.com, Inc. today announced that a bonus of $1.5 million has been added to the KDP Select global fund this holiday season. This is on top of the regular monthly fund during the three-month period from December-February. December’s regular monthly fund is $700,000, plus $700,000 of the $1.5 million holiday bonus will be paid out for December, doubling the total amount available to authors in December to $1.4 million. The remainder of the $1.5 million bonus will be paid on top of the regular fund in January and February as well. Authors worldwide can earn a share of the total global fund every time their book is borrowed from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de and Amazon.fr, and reach more readers than ever before.
“This holiday season, millions of customers will open new Kindles, and if they’re Amazon Prime members they can borrow a book from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library for free. The unusual thing about KDP Select is that when this happens authors get paid. With record Kindle sales worldwide, and the recent expansion of the lending library to Europe, we expect the number of books borrowed this holiday season to increase significantly,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. “We’ve seen authors experience incredible success with KDP Select – in only a year it’s become commonplace to see KDP Select books on our best seller list.”
KDP Select was introduced in December 2011 to enable independent authors using KDP to reach the growing audience of millions of Amazon Prime members and earn more money through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. Here’s how it works: if a KDP author or publisher enrolls any of their books in KDP Select, which may be done in 90-day increments during which their books must be exclusive to the Kindle Store, those books are eligible to be included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. They can then earn a share of the global fund every time their book is borrowed, and borrows from the lending library count toward a book’s sales rank on Amazon. Authors can enroll any of their titles, including their full catalog. They also have access to a self-service promotional tool which gives them the option to offer their enrolled titles for free for up to five days every 90 days, which many authors have found to be a great way to engage more readers and find new audiences.
First-Year Milestones
KDP Select has proven to be an entirely new growth opportunity for authors and publishers. Milestones over the past year include:
– After enrolling in KDP Select, over 500 books have reached the top 100 Kindle best seller lists around the world, including “Stop the Wedding!” by Stephanie Bond and “The Unwanted Wife” by Natasha Anders.
– KDP authors will have earned more than $7 million from the KDP Select global fund through November, on top of increased royalties from paid sales.
– KDP Select books have been purchased, borrowed from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, or downloaded for free through KDP Select promotions over 200 million times.
Author Successes
During the past year, authors have experienced incredible success after enrolling books in KDP Select. Here’s what some of them are saying:
– Andrew E. Kaufman is the author of “The Lion, the Lamb, the Hunted,” one of the most-borrowed independently-published books in the US Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. “Traditional publishing told me that my dream would never come true – KDP Select not only told me it could, they made it a reality. From hundreds of rejections, to hundreds of thousands of sales, the numbers tell the story. KDP has helped me live the dream.”
– Carolyn McCray, author of paranormal romance novels, historical thrillers and mysteries, has earned more than $45,000 from the KDP Select fund since joining the program a year ago. “KDP Select is an author’s workhorse. There is no better marketing tool out there to launch a book and help it grow. Recently KDP Select helped propel one of my books, ‘Plain Jane: Brunettes Beware,’ into the Top 20 Kindle best seller list. As I always say, you have to play to win and KDP Select is by far the best game in town.”
– Joel Goldman is a best-selling thriller/mystery writer who has earned more than $20,000 from the KDP Select fund to date. “In December 2011, KDP Select changed everything. The combination of free giveaways and the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library helped my sales take off like a rocket – both were instrumental in the growth of my business because they enabled me to reach thousands of readers who might not otherwise have considered buying my books. I’ve heard from many readers who’ve told me how glad they are to have had the chance to discover me. None of that could have happened without KDP.”
– Martin Crosbie is the author of “My Temporary Life,” and after enrolling it in KDP Select he earned over $45,000 in one month from paid sales and loans combined – a huge increase from the $100 he earned the prior two months when his book was not enrolled in the program. “It’s really simple: without Amazon, and more specifically KDP Select, I would still be receiving rejection letters from agents and publishers. I tried releasing my book through other outlets and tried numerous ways to promote it but nothing has come anywhere close to the opportunities that KDP Select has given me. I have readers anxiously waiting for my next novel, and, I never get tired of saying this, I’m a full-time writer.”
Authors can learn more about KDP Select and enroll their books now at http://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/KDPSelect. To learn more about the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, visit www.amazon.com/kindleownerslendinglibrary.
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Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
