Should an Author Go With Amazon’s KDP Select Program?

An author-friends’ success while on KPD Select encouraged me to write this post – and also when I red a very critical blog on Google+ that questioned the exclusivity rule. My thoughts:

Why not use the KDP program for the first three months – a time when new books are selling slowly anyway?

• KDP Select is only for 90 days, after that you can do whatever you want with your book.
• You can distribute your book in physical format, or in any format other than digital to wherever you want. The exclusivity is only for your e-book.
• Your ranking at Amazon will improve immensely – that’s for sure. Think: “customer who bought this book also bought…”
• You are actually paid if your book is lent buy readers. This can be more lucrative as if you sell it regularly, provided you have a low-priced book.
• You certainly can up-load your book to Apple after the 90 days – by yourself. It is paperwork yes, and not easy at first, but from the second ebook on you will be fine.

Even J.A. Konrath, a very critical and outspoken writer, used it as a way of promotion – after he wrote a condemning article against it first.

During these three months, you can do a lot of things to promote your book, such as listing your book at Bowker, get an ISBN number, improve your authors’ website and have friends and customers help to spruce up your success on Amazon.

Here are some tips to boost your book sales:

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/amazon-marketing

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/important-expose-your-book-to-the-world

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/your-e-book-on-flickr

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/10/17/9-ways-to-support-your-favorite-author

https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/how-can-you-maximize-your-success-on-amazon/

Selling on Amazon gives you the full royalty, while selling through an aggregator (who loads up your book to other online retailers) cuts your royalty!  Strangely no one talks about this… If your book becomes a success, you can loose a lot.  I personally would never use an aggregator for my e-books, and selling books on Sony and Diesel seems not to be very lucrative, their sales numbers are negotiable compared to Amazon.

And if you really want to go with an aggregator after the 90 days: http://www.ebookit.com has much better conditions and it is easier to work with them than with others.

Please, let me know about YOUR own KDP Select experience.