Damien Walter on how trad-publishing is not making a comeback

[Ray McCarthy]

aim for extra income + reviews from KDP select

Though if the eBook is minimum $2.99, very few markets (and not major English ones) give extra revenue.

Yes there is a choice, BECAUSE Amazon hasn't anything near a monopoly. IMO "Select" isn't as good as Amazon claims and my choice is to boycott ANYTHING that gives a RETAILER a monopoly.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Though if the eBook is minimum $2.99, very few markets (and not major English ones) give extra revenue.

Yes there is a choice, BECAUSE Amazon hasn't anything near a monopoly. IMO "Select" isn't as good as Amazon claims and my choice is to boycott ANYTHING that gives a RETAILER a monopoly.

Absolutely. Your choice and your opinion. And everyone makes their own choice and opinion. And, the minute Amazon change the game on KDP I look at it again. In the meantime, I'm not convinced the opposition is giving me anything better. Perhaps they need to work harder at convincing authors.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

KDP

KDP Select is different to KDP in general. I've no objection to the rest of KDP or Amazon. It's important that people understand exactly what Amazon is really offering extra, purely with the Select which forbids sales outside Amazon, the pros and cons. Con is that you are locked out of 40% of the market and if book is $2.99 or more, most Amazon Markets give zero extra royalty. How much it helps with marketing is hard to quantify.

It's not a simple "either or" as none of the opposition (40% of eBook sales) lock you out of regular KDP, nor does regular Amazon KDP affect what you do elsewhere.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

How much it helps with marketing is hard to quantify.

It's not a simple "either or" as none of the opposition (40% of eBook sales) lock you out of regular KDP, nor does regular Amazon KDP affect what you do elsewhere.

The key marketing benefit of KDP select, which makes it an either/or, is the kindle countdown week. Speak to any of the big self publishers and they'll tell you the importance of it in their marketing plans. It allows the author to make 75% of the reduced price for a single week every three months. Those are the deals that get into bookbub, bookbarbarian, readcheaply etc etc etc. They are what makes KDP select so important - that they give a viable promo week that an author can make a killing on. And then people who saw the promo and are on select download it and you have a long tail of readthroughs where you make your full amount for a readthrough.

That's the marketing value you can't get anywhere else at the moment. Which makes it a much simpler equation, for me, as to whether I'm in it or out of it.