My Opinion: To Go Kindle Select or Not

inkkognito · Jan 29, 2012

I've finally had books out on Kindle Select and non-select, which means I have them available for the Nook too, for a long enough time to evaluate the results. Based on my results, my sales on the Nook have far outweighed the value of getting revenue from borrows on Kindle.

I don't promote my Nook books much, yet sales have been steady. Once my two books in Select can be removed from the program, they're out! My new releases are all going to be for both formats from now on.

hughhowey · Jan 29, 2012

Thanks for posting this. I've been very interested in hearing how people are doing in and out of this program.

Can you estimate what percentage of your sales are Nook vs. Kindle?

Also: Congrats on having things move on both platforms. That's awesome news!

inkkognito · Jan 30, 2012

It varies by book, but overall it's 60 percent Amazon to 40 percent Nook sales.

veinglory · Jan 30, 2012

I have only seen numbers from one other author, but she came to the same conclusion--more channels=more money.

James D. Macdonald · Jan 30, 2012

I can attest to that.

I have all my stuff out in Kindle via Amazon, and in Everything Else via Smashwords.

Sales from Everything Else combined are greater than sales from Amazon.

I've also been tracking over a dozen books that are available exclusively from Amazon via Kindle Select. Borrows so far = zero.

inkkognito · Jan 30, 2012

I've had a few borrows on my Select books, but not enough to make it worth the exclusivity. The Nook sales are with virtually no promotion, so I'd probably get even more there if I actually pushed 'em. Select people seem to like the ability to offer their books for free for a few days, but I have no intention of doing that so I really don't see any advantages.

cameron_chapman · Jan 30, 2012

inkkognito said:
I've had a few borrows on my Select books, but not enough to make it worth the exclusivity. The Nook sales are with virtually no promotion, so I'd probably get even more there if I actually pushed 'em. Select people seem to like the ability to offer their books for free for a few days, but I have no intention of doing that so I really don't see any advantages.

I offered my book for free for three days, and it'll be free again for two days this week. This is a book that had literally only sold a handful of copies in months (compared to my other books that sell 100+ copies/month). When it was free the first time, I gave away nearly 3k copies between all the international sites. I've since sold more than 20 copies of the book (most in the couple of days immediately after it stopped being free). I've had a couple of glowing reviews, too. I'm hoping the next time it goes up for free, I'll see an even bigger boost since now it has reviews, etc. available to encourage readers.

inkkognito · Jan 30, 2012

So far no reviews for me, but the sales are staying steady. Interestingly, I've sold a few books in the UK and even sold a copy of my romance to someone in Germany via Amazon.

COchick · Jan 30, 2012

I'm doing the KDP now, and I'll be opting out when my 90 days are up. I've had a few borrows, but I don't think that's enough to keep me off the other retailers.

Al Stevens · Jan 30, 2012

The borrows on one of my backlisted programming books are about equal to sales. It's among the more expensive of my e-books--the other two are even more niche-oriented--so that might account for it. If I understand the system, borrowers are limited to one book a month for their prime membership fee. Maybe they're not as willing to burn a borrow on a $.99 book?

inkkognito · Jan 30, 2012

Most of my borrows are definitely on my most expensive book ($5.99). I usually price my books at $2.99 so they're not saving all that much on the others by doing a borrow.

Dannica · Jan 31, 2012

Al Stevens said:
The borrows on one of my backlisted programming books are about equal to sales. It's among the more expensive of my e-books--the other two are even more niche-oriented--so that might account for it. If I understand the system, borrowers are limited to one book a month for their prime membership fee. Maybe they're not as willing to burn a borrow on a $.99 book?

Wow, that's a very good point (about a .99 cent book for free is not much of a bargain) and one that seems obvious once you say it. But I thought with Kindle Direct/Select (not even sure of the name) that in addition to the Prime Lending Library, there was some ability to make free for x days and people were finding that when they did that they saw a big jump in "sales", that continued even after the free period.

randi.lee · Jan 31, 2012

It's been 50/50 Nook v. Kindle with me.

J. Tanner · Jan 31, 2012

Dannica said:
I thought with Kindle Direct/Select (not even sure of the name) that in addition to the Prime Lending Library, there was some ability to make free for x days and people were finding that when they did that they saw a big jump in "sales", that continued even after the free period.

Yes, you get 5 free promotion days per 90 day enrollment period and yes some people see a noticable jump in sales after the free promotion ends. Note "some". There are no sure things and you're trading broad availability for the possibility of better sales at one exclusive vendor. Some have better success with one method, and others with the alternative.

inkkognito · Jan 31, 2012

For me, I mostly write niche non-fiction, particularly about the Orlando theme parks. I don't see a lot of value in the "offer it free" benefit because people search for information on a specific theme park, and if they can get the book they need free, I don't think it would make them more likely to buy one of my other books. It would bring up my ranking, but I'm okay with my books just coming up during search.

I suspect it has more benefit for fiction, particularly for people writing a series, since you can hook readers with the free book who then buy the others. Right now, I have one series romance released and plan several others. If I ever get curious about the effect of a free offer, I might do it with the first book once several others are available, just for the heck of it. That's a ways in the future as my non-fiction is doing well so that's where I'm keeping my main focus for now.

hughhowey · Jan 31, 2012

Wow! I'm really impressed with those of you getting so much Nook action. The 50/50 and 60/40 splits are impressive. I was getting a 99.5/0.5 split. No exaggeration. Not sure why, but my Nook sales and iPad sales were abysmal.

My results for January borrows looks to be just over 800, which should translate to more revenue than I was making from combined purchases elsewhere. The vast majority of these are from 99c books, which means I'm making roughly $2.00 per borrow instead of 35c. (This is an estimate based on December borrow rates and the $200,000 that Amazon added to the January fund. We should find out in the next week or so how much each borrow was worth).

I'm going to continue playing the Select program by ear, but I have replaced my bookstore salary from this revenue stream alone. The only thing I worry about is the nagging feeling that Nook or iPad sales *may* have taken off if I hadn't joined, but there's no way to know!

Alessandra Kelley · Feb 8, 2012

COchick said:
I'm doing the KDP now, and I'll be opting out when my 90 days are up. I've had a few borrows, but I don't think that's enough to keep me off the other retailers.

See if you can do the opting out process before the 90 days are up. When I read Amazon's fine print, it looks like they renew you automatically every 90 days unless you stop them.

COchick · Feb 8, 2012

Yes, they do automatically re-enroll you. But if you go in to the settings, it can be changed. I can't be fooled so easily! *mwahhahah!*

Alessandra Kelley · Feb 8, 2012

COchick said:
Yes, they do automatically re-enroll you. But if you go in to the settings, it can be changed. I can't be fooled so easily! *mwahhahah!*

Oh, well done.

inkkognito · Feb 8, 2012

I'm counting down the days till I can pull my books out of Select (and I've got the calendar marked to avoid that automatic re-enrollment). My Nook sales are still strong.

KathleenD · Feb 8, 2012

Hugh, I'm late to the party, so forgive me for asking a silly question - what genre is your book? And its length/price?

I haven't seen any erotic romance/erotica writers get much value out of the Select program, nor am I seeing anyone hit a home run with a novella. Wondering if that's related.

My own Nook sales were pretty good last month, but I'll admit, I'm worried that it's just the "I got a Nook for Christmas!" bump and they'll go back to where they were, which is to say negligible.

merrihiatt · Feb 8, 2012

inkkognito said:
I'm counting down the days till I can pull my books out of Select (and I've got the calendar marked to avoid that automatic re-enrollment). My Nook sales are still strong.

You can uncheck the automatic renewal at any time. Then you won't have to worry about missing the window.

inkkognito · Feb 9, 2012

Thanks, Merri! Going right now to do it.

Obiwanbeeohbee · Feb 13, 2012

My Nook sales were poor to say the least. I opted in for Kindle Select a few days ago. My first give-away day is Valentine's Day. I hoping to get some reviews and a boost in Kindle sales. We'll see.

MMcDonald64 · Feb 13, 2012

I plan to stick with KDP. My sales had been slowing in November, despite making my first book 99 cents for a few weeks. I think my royalty for the month was about $800, which was the lowest since April. My B&N and Smashwords sales were even less though. In fact, my worst month of sales at Amazon last year, was better than my sales at all other outlets combined since I published my books. For me, it was a no brainer to go with Select.

In December, my royalties were about 3k, and I earned an additional $500 from borrows. (had about 280, if I recall). January continued with increased sales and borrows. My royalties will be about $3,500, plus whatever the payout is for the borrows. I had 390 of them. So, since Select started, I've had my 2nd and 4th best sales months ever. Only June was better than January, and only July was better than December. Those summer months were after my first book went free in the first week of June.

I will be publishing my third book in early March and I hope that will become my 2nd best month ever. It would be very hard to beat my best month, which was crazy good, but I'd be thrilled with a second best.

I'm doing no promos this month, just concentrating on preparing the 3rd book, and I'm still on track to break $1,000.

My Opinion: To Go Kindle Select or Not

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