Is Kindle Direct Publishing Select Right For You?

Is Kindle Direct Publishing Select Right For You?

 

KDP Select

As a beginner in self-publishing on Amazon, you have a major decision to make. Should you enrol your eBook in KDP Select? 

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

KDP is Amazon’s free, self-publishing platform for both Kindle eBooks and paperbacks. Authors can sell their books directly to Amazon’s readers in the Amazon worldwide market place. 

The Amazon platform is intuitive, it’s easy to use, and it’s fast. A book can be published and marketed within hours.

While KDP can put your book before millions of potential customers authors retain their rights, can make changes and revisions to their book at any time, and have all the promotional advantages of Amazon’s Author Central.

 

Kindle Direct Publishing Select (KDP Select)

 

KDP Select, on the other hand, offers self-publishers bonus incentives in exchange for granting Amazon exclusivity. Exclusivity means that for a limited period of time authors make their eBook exclusive to KDP.   

This period of time is just 90 days. During this time authors cannot distribute their book digitally anywhere else. This includes your website, in blog posts, or listing it with other retailers around the world. 

That said, authors during this time of exclusivity can continue to distribute their book in its physical format. This means they can distribute paperbacks or any format that’s not digital.

By agreeing not to sell the digital file of their book through any other retailers, authors are given access to a variety of promotional tools and the opportunity to earn higher royalties.

An author enrolling in KDP Select has access to:

  1. Kindle Unlimited
  2. Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL)
  3. Kindle Countdown Deals
  4. Kindle Free Promotions
  5. Increased royalties for sales in select countries.

Kindle Unlimited

Kindle Unlimited is a monthly subscription program that allows Kindle owners to borrow books as they would from a library. This would have to be the most attractive benefit of enrolling in KDP Select. 

This subscription program for readers allows them to read as many books as they would like.

The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library(KOLL)

KOLL allows Amazon Prime members, who have access to a Kindle reader, to choose one book from each month with no due dates. 

The KDP Select Global Fund is for the author payments. Each month Amazon puts aside a vast amount of money that can be paid to authors whose books are read by members of Kindle Unlimited and KOLL.

When you enrol in KDP Select, the books are automatically included in both programs. 

Kindle Countdown

 

Kindle Countdown is another promotional program where for one week every 90 days, authors have the ability to discount their book by putting it on a “countdown deal.”

 

Kindle Free Promotions

 

This program allows authors to promote their book for free for a limited number of days in this 90 day period. Readers worldwide can access these free books.  

Within this time, authors cannot offer their eBooks on any other site whether it be Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Ingram Spark, Walmart, Apple or any other site. Once that three months is up, authors can then, if they so choose, opt-out of the program and return to the basic KDP program.

Increased royalties

 

There are increased royalties for book sales in select countries. When customers read books from Kindle Unlimited and KOLL there are more royalties plus authors can earn 70% royalty for sales to customers in Japan, India, Brazil and Mexico.

Making the decision to go with KDP Select is a business decision.  It comes down to an author’s marketing plan and having to weigh up all the benefits that KDP Select offers.

For someone just starting out in self-publishing, KDP Select is an advisable route to take. It’s an author’s opportunity to experience first hand the benefits of KDP Select.

Once an author becomes experienced at self-publishing on Amazon the other option of switching to wider worldwide distribution is a decision that can be made down the track.

 

If you haven’t already done so I recommend you register for my FREE ONLINE CLASS at www.fastselfpublishingonline.com 

Discover How To Write A Book Within 30 Days, Publish It On Amazon For Less Than $200, and Get it to Market within 24 Hours.

 

And if you’d like to receive daily tips – LIVE videos, training videos, discussions, articles and inspirational posts – then join the Fast Self Publishing Online community.

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Marji Hill

Author & Coach

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