Self-published authors are facing major difficulties in selling their e-books online. Many bookstores are closing or scaling back and Amazon changed the rules for their Kindle Unlimited program, paying authors by pages read instead of when a book is opened. What is an author to do? Oyster announced last week that they were closing their company in early 2016 and most of the … [Read more...] about Self-Published Authors Have Fewer e-Book Distribution Options
KDP Select
Amazon Changes the Structure of KDP Select
Amazon has just announced sweeping changes to their Kindle Direct Publishing Select program. Under this new model, the amount an author earns will be determined by their share of total pages read rather than their share of total qualified borrows. Here are a few examples illustrating how the fund will be paid out. For simplicity, assume the fund is $10M and that 100,000,000 … [Read more...] about Amazon Changes the Structure of KDP Select
New Kindle Direct Publishing Dashboard to Help Indie Authors
Amazon is famous for surprising its authors with new features, new offers, and newly revamped designs, all while keeping quiet about it. Past moves have included adding whole new sales territories in foreign countries, and only revealing to authors that their books were available in Mexico, for example, when they found the country listed on their sales dashboards. It's akin to … [Read more...] about New Kindle Direct Publishing Dashboard to Help Indie Authors
Amazon Announces a New KDP Select Perk: Amazon Marketing Services
Authors who've enrolled their books in Amazon's exclusive program KDP Select might have noticed a new feature in their dashboards, tucked in among the various clickable topics. Amazon Marketing Services allows authors to setup an ad campaign for their exclusive titles, one that is designed to put their books in little "ahem" boxes next to customers' selections based on either … [Read more...] about Amazon Announces a New KDP Select Perk: Amazon Marketing Services
Kindle Unlimited Goes Live with eBook, Audiobook Titles
Amazon's Kindle Unlimited, the ebook and audiobook subscription service that lets members pay a flat monthly fee for unlimited access to its catalog, went live today, offering users a thirty day free trial and the option to pay $9.99 a month for the service. According to a press release issued by Amazon, the service is compatible with both Kindle reading devices and tablets, as … [Read more...] about Kindle Unlimited Goes Live with eBook, Audiobook Titles
Advice to Indie Authors: Don’t Overlook Kobo
When Amazon introduced KDP Select, the exclusive program that offered indie authors extra benefits for only selling the ebook through their platform, critics argued that Amazon was encouraging authors to forfeit the ability to sell their books in other locations, thus hurting their overall careers. In exchange for incentives such as paid royalties when Kindle owners borrowed … [Read more...] about Advice to Indie Authors: Don’t Overlook Kobo
Debunking Amazon’s 70% Royalty for Indie Authors and Publishers
With news this week that Amazon has added whole new international markets to its list of places where authors and publishers can earn a 70% royalty on ebooks, the rumors and misinformed half-truths have begun swirling again as authors set out to decipher the terms. Amazon sent out an email to many of its authors, informing them that two more countries--Ireland and … [Read more...] about Debunking Amazon’s 70% Royalty for Indie Authors and Publishers
Kindle Countdown Deals Offer Consumers Timed Price Cuts on eBooks
Amazon just announced a new feature for consumers which will alert them to which titles have been steeply discounted, along with a countdown clock that shows how long that title will be available at that lower price. Only available so far in the US and UK, it is also limited to titles that are available exclusively through Amazon. “We’re always looking to build features that … [Read more...] about Kindle Countdown Deals Offer Consumers Timed Price Cuts on eBooks
KDP Select Launches Lending in Japan, What That Means for Authors
Amazon announced this week that it has now extended its Kindle ebook lending in a new market, Amazon.co.jp. The Japanese Kindle store will now let its users borrow ebooks that have been placed in Amazon's exclusive KDP Select program. Indie authors have often confused KDP Select with Amazon's typical ebook publishing platform, Kindle Direct Publishing. eBooks uploaded … [Read more...] about KDP Select Launches Lending in Japan, What That Means for Authors