Kindle Direct question

merrihiatt

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Kindle Select = the exclusivity program, which runs in 90-day periods. It applies to electronic format only, but in that, it also means you can't have excerpts and such on your site.

You can have brief excerpts on your website. You cannot sell the e-book or make chapters available on your website.
 

Carradee

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You can have brief excerpts on your website. You cannot sell the e-book or make chapters available on your website.

Then either they've changed things since I was in the program, or some of the CSR are giving contradictory advice, because last year, I was told "No excerpts."

If they have changed things, that's great.
 

merrihiatt

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Then either they've changed things since I was in the program, or some of the CSR are giving contradictory advice, because last year, I was told "No excerpts."

If they have changed things, that's great.

I assume you received this information directly from
Amazon. Don't know what CSR means (Customer Service Reps.?). It took four e-mails for me to get a direct answer regarding their Terms of Service.
 

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I assume you received this information directly from Amazon. Don't know what CSR means (Customer Service Reps.?). It took four e-mails for me to get a direct answer regarding their Terms of Service.

Yes, CSR = Customer Service Representatives. Sorry; I forgot that abbreviation is jargon. And that was what I was speaking of.

Sadly, most of the time, the reps don't seem to actually read the e-mail you send.
 

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as of 6-2013-sad news re. Kindle and Smashwords

Well, according to Smashwords latest update, Amazon Kindle is dragging their feet in capturing any selp (that's what I'm calling self-pub now) authors until they've made $2000 in sales! What a crock of ..anyway. I'm not too pleased that one of the major factors for signing up with Smashwords is that handy get-around of the KDP Program, by linking to Amazon through Smashwords...now I either yank my book from Smashwords, or don't have it listed on Amazon at all.

I'm going to try the KDP for 90 days starting 7/1 and see how it goes for me.
Here's my listing-
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/318752
 

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Well, according to Smashwords latest update, Amazon Kindle is dragging their feet in capturing any selp (that's what I'm calling self-pub now) authors until they've made $2000 in sales! What a crock of ..anyway. I'm not too pleased that one of the major factors for signing up with Smashwords is that handy get-around of the KDP Program, by linking to Amazon through Smashwords...now I either yank my book from Smashwords, or don't have it listed on Amazon at all.

I'm going to try the KDP for 90 days starting 7/1 and see how it goes for me.
Here's my listing-
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/318752

My bold.

"Selp" sounds ridiculous. What's wrong with "self-published"?

Also, if you want to link to your books you're welcome to do so in your signature, but adding it to your posts like that does come across as somewhat spammy. You might like to address that.
 

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I'm sorry if the answer is obvious - but what do you mean by "Amazon Kindle is dragging their feet in capturing any self-published [...] authors until they've made $2000 in sales"?

Are Amazon not including any new authors to Kindle or something?
 

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I'm sorry if the answer is obvious - but what do you mean by "Amazon Kindle is dragging their feet in capturing any self-published [...] authors until they've made $2000 in sales"?

Are Amazon not including any new authors to Kindle or something?

I wish there was a link so we could see what this "latest update" is. There's nothing recent on the SW blog. Anyway, it sounds to me kind of like redkerryn has fundamentally misunderstood something about the Smashwords/Amazon relationship.

They have no direct distribution agreement like SW has with all the other retailers. However, SW can manually upload a book to KDP just like anyone else. They will only do this for authors who have a history of making around $2000 per title because it's an obvious hassle compared to using their automated system.

There's nothing new about that basic situation. There could be some new wrinkle, but without a link...
 

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It's much easier to go through KDP (you don't have to sign up for Select if you don't want to) directly than do Amazon through Smashwords. If you don't sign up for Select you can keep your book on Smashwords at the same time.
 

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Forgive me if this question has been asked and answered 2000 times (and if so, can you provide me a link) I couldn't find the answer in a search.

Does anyone have a clue? Navigating Amazon's site is a disaster! I've published in print with them and I don't recall it being this much of a mess.


I already have a .mobi and .epub file but where to go from here is is mindboggling. The folks at amazon.com's phone support can't even tell me!

Blatant clues gratefully accepted.
 

iwannabepublished

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Forgive me if this question has been asked and answered 2000 times (and if so, can you provide me a link) I couldn't find the answer in a search.

Does anyone have a clue? Navigating Amazon's site is a disaster! I've published in print with them and I don't recall it being this much of a mess.


I already have a .mobi and .epub file but where to go from here is is mindboggling. The folks at amazon.com's phone support can't even tell me!

Blatant clues gratefully accepted.

Ah ... is there a question here? If there is, I guess I missed it.
 

merrihiatt

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Forgive me if this question has been asked and answered 2000 times (and if so, can you provide me a link) I couldn't find the answer in a search.

Does anyone have a clue? Navigating Amazon's site is a disaster! I've published in print with them and I don't recall it being this much of a mess.


I already have a .mobi and .epub file but where to go from here is is mindboggling. The folks at amazon.com's phone support can't even tell me!

Blatant clues gratefully accepted.

Have you set up an account at Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)? Here's a link: www.kdp.amazon.com
 

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Have you set up an account at Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)? Here's a link: www.kdp.amazon.com

LOL didn't even understand that I needed a separate account from my "regular" account and associate's account. Didn't need that when I self-pubbed my print book. Of course that was years ago. (Before Kindle even existed!)

Thanks much! That'll hopefully help.

You'd think that calling Amazon.com's customer service would have given me that info, but the folks there are clueless and KDP doesn't even have a direct phone number.

And navigating the KDP site is...wow challenging!

Gotta wonder if they actually WANT folks to get published thru them. (And make THEM money! Sheesh!)

@ Iwanna - The basic question was how to navigate Amazon's darn site and where I needed to go to publish my book.

Thanks again Merri!
 

merrihiatt

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Sure. If you've used CreateSpace for a paperback version, they can convert your book to an e-book and mae it available at Amazon for Kindle, but once you work with the site at KDP, I think you won't find it as difficult to navigate.
 

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Just a word of warning, re KDP. I filled out the submission form correctly, or so I thought, only to learn that you need to put your own name in the "contributors" box, if you're the author. This is in no way made clear, which is why I put my cover photo source as a contributor (since at least one is required).

I know. Duh. It's just not spelled out clearly. So my little short story collection is going to go live about 24 hours later than expected.

The foibles of self-publishing!
 

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I didn't find KDP hard to use at all. It's a separate site from Createspace, even though technically Amazon owns them both.

Also, I would recommend not using Createspace's "convert your book to Kindle" option. They simply take your PDF and output it for Kindle which doesn't produce a well-formatted e-book.
 

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I'm going to offer a different perspective on the self-publishing debate.

I published exclusively on Amazon (Createspace and KDP) and intentionally ignored B&N, libraries, Apple, Google Play, etc. etc.

Here's why:

After spending all the hassle of producing both Nook and Kindle versions of a book, practical experience shows that you make only 10% the sale on Nook as you would on Kindle.

As for allowing only Amazon to carry your book online versus distributing to retail? Remember that even if your book gets carried at Barnes & Noble, they'll probably only stash a few copies somewhere on a bottom shelf because you're not a traditional publisher, who's paid significant sums for better book placement and promotion.

But, even a few sales count, right?

Yes, but not the way you think. When you offer your book outside Amazon's channels, you in fact make a few sales. But guess what? Every one of those sales takes away from your overall Amazon ranking.

At present, Amazon is the king of "related items" and impulse buys; having a good product ranking means tons of referrals from similar products. And getting your book into the top 20 of a category means that casual browsers are wayyy more likely to discover your book.

How do I know this? I wrote a book and published it exclusively with Amazon. It's done better than I ever would have dreamed; a print ranking of 10,000 on Amazon equates to 10 sales/day or about $600 profit. You can expect the kindle version to make roughly the same amount depending on your genre. Not bad for passive income.

What about people who don't own kindles? First off, if you're using a POD, you're already offering a print version, so there's that option. Second off, Kindle offers apps nowadays for all kinds of devices. And third, I've had about a dozen folks email me directly over the last year complaining they can't get to my book and I simply email them a copy of the PDF and tell them to pay it forward :)

Looking forward to your spirited responses!
 

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Welcome to AW, kevinkliu.

I'm going to offer a different perspective on the self-publishing debate.

Which particular self-publishing debate are you offering your different perspective on? This thread is meant to be about the benefits or otherwise of using Kindle Direct Publishing, not about self-publishing in general.

I published exclusively on Amazon (Createspace and KDP) and intentionally ignored B&N, libraries, Apple, Google Play, etc. etc.

So you chose to put all your eggs in one basket. Fair enough: it's your book. But why leave money on the table like that?

Here's why:

After spending all the hassle of producing both Nook and Kindle versions of a book, practical experience shows that you make only 10% the sale on Nook as you would on Kindle.

Your wording doesn't actually make sense: I think what you're trying to convince us of is that sales on the Nook (why the Nook, specifically? what about all those other formats you refer to in your earlier paragraph?) amount to only ten per cent of sales on Kindle. Did I get that right?

If so, then you've got a problem: the discussion you've linked to doesn't prove the point you're trying to make. Out of the ten or so comments in that thread, only one person suggests that sales elsewhere equate to about ten per cent of Kindle sales (but that person doesn't provide any hard numbers): the rest suggest other proportions, or ask questions for themselves.

As for allowing only Amazon to carry your book online versus distributing to retail? Remember that even if your book gets carried at Barnes & Noble, they'll probably only stash a few copies somewhere on a bottom shelf because you're not a traditional publisher, who's paid significant sums for better book placement and promotion.

Most self-publishers whose books get carried by Barnes & Noble don't work with print editions: they e-publish, so their books won't get on any shelves at all in Barnes & Noble.

However, self publishers who do produce print editions and get them into Barnes & Noble (which is far harder than you probably realise) will find that their position on the shelves is not dictated by their publishing method: it's dictated by where their name falls in the alphabet. The paid-for locations are the front tables, end-caps and dump-bins. And you'll find that bookshops only have a couple of copies of most of the titles they carry, as there isn't enough shelf-space to fit many more in.

But, even a few sales count, right?

Hell, yes!

Yes, but not the way you think. When you offer your book outside Amazon's channels, you in fact make a few sales. But guess what? Every one of those sales takes away from your overall Amazon ranking.

You're suggesting that every time a book sells anywhere other than Amazon, the Amazon ranking for that book falls.

If that's true, explain to me, please, how Amazon knows that a copy has just sold at a bookshop in Northumberland, or in a supermarket in Sydney, or on eBay or some other website. It can't; therefore it can't be true that "every one of those sales takes away from your overall Amazon ranking".

You're also implying that people who buy books anywhere other than Amazon would have turned to Amazon to buy that same book if they had been unable to find it elsewhere. This is not the case.

At present, Amazon is the king of "related items" and impulse buys; having a good product ranking means tons of referrals from similar products. And getting your book into the top 20 of a category means that casual browsers are wayyy more likely to discover your book.

But most writers aren't going to get their books into the top twenty of any category, so restricting ones books to Amazon only in the hope of taking advantage of the "related items" thing is a little over-hopeful. Especially as it means missing out on sales in every other format.

How do I know this? I wrote a book and published it exclusively with Amazon. It's done better than I ever would have dreamed;
Congratulations! I remember the first time a book I'd written hit a major best-sellers list: it's a great feeling, isn't it?

a print ranking of 10,000 on Amazon equates to 10 sales/day or about $600 profit.

No, it doesn't.

While many people have offered such interpretations of Amazon's rankings I've yet to see one which is accurate in any way. It might have meant that for you: but it won't mean that in other genres, or for other books, or at other times. All a print ranking of 10,000 on Amazon equates to is that for a couple of moments, only 9,999 other books on Amazon sold more than yours did.
You can expect the kindle version to make roughly the same amount depending on your genre. Not bad for passive income.

No, you can't. You might have found this to be the case: but if you look at the self-publishing diaries that some of our members have been kind enough to keep here, you'll see that most of them sell far more e-books than print copies. And suggesting that selling books in any format is "passive income" is dismissive to our many members who work very hard to achieve their sales.

What about people who don't own kindles? First off, if you're using a POD, you're already offering a print version, so there's that option. Second off, Kindle offers apps nowadays for all kinds of devices. And third, I've had about a dozen folks email me directly over the last year complaining they can't get to my book and I simply email them a copy of the PDF and tell them to pay it forward :)

What about people who prefer to read books on their iPad, or their Nook, or any other dedicated e-reader? They can't use a Kindle app on that, they're unlikely to be able to read a PDF on their device, and if they want to read an e-book then a print edition is no substitute.

Looking forward to your spirited responses!

Yep.
 

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@OldHack

I love it! Great perspective and now I feel inspired to try new experiments on Amazon and other mediums. I'm working on my first fiction title now and really appreciate the insight.

and whoops - I didn't mean any slight by the term "passive income" - by passive income I meant "this is money that I get paid every month without having to write the novel in that particular month."

Looking forward to learning more!

Kevin
 

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After spending all the hassle of producing both Nook and Kindle versions of a book, practical experience shows that you make only 10% the sale on Nook as you would on Kindle.

Um… First, that "10%" number is baloney; that poster in the thread you referenced listed it as an example. It's true for some sellers, but not all—and even the ones who it's true for, the ones who leave their works elsewhere usually end up reporting that the percentage changes over time. I have one title that sells a few copies per month, much everywhere but Amazon. I've had a month or three wherein Amazon has the most sales for me, but sometimes it's Smashwords or Drive Thru Fiction or some other site. Granted, I don't sell nearly the number of copies you do, but they're gradually increasing, although my "bestselling title" differs according to month and vendor.

Second, if you can only produce one format, EPUB or DOC can be used on most of the major vendors, which will convert the file. But there's software—like Scrivener—that makes it straightforward and simple to create EPUB, MOBI, and PDF at once. There's a learning curve, of course, but

Third, having print editions available is a marketing tactic that makes the e-book look like a better price, so it can trigger more e-book sales even if you never sell a print copy.

While exclusivity can be a tool used to increase visibility, it won't necessarily do so—I speak from experience—and it has downsides. OldHack mentioned the "all eggs in one basket" thing. If there's a problem with your account or with payment, you're out of luck. If you decide to branch out to other vendors, you'll pretty much be starting from ground zero, which can be problematic if you're dependent on sales. If your single vendor changes algorithms or something and your sales plummet without warning, then you don't have any presence on other vendors to help cover the slack.

I'm actually having more success posting stories on Wattpad for visibility than I ever have with Select (which I've played with some, both when it first came out and more recently). I did get featured on Wattpad, though, so that can make a huge difference. :)

Kindle offers apps nowadays for all kinds of devices.
Not all kinds. Many kinds. There's a difference. I say that as someone who, until last year, had no ability to read Kindle e-books despite owning an Apple computer, an MP3 player, and e-reader, and a phone. They were just all the wrong kinds. (Note that the Kindle for Mac stuff all requires Intel the processor.)

I've had about a dozen folks email me directly over the last year complaining they can't get to my book and I simply email them a copy of the PDF and tell them to pay it forward :)
You realize that if a dozen folks e-mailed you, probably 10 or 100 times that didn't bother?
 

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Amazon

My ebook finally changed to live in Kindle Direct. What is next and when will I be able to find it in a search on Amazon.com?

Thanks
 

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Okay, I was looking through this thread and Old Hack said something that struck a nerve about eggs in one basket. I was going to do just that: Put my novel out on KDP and Create Space only. This is because KDP's Select option doesn't allow for you to put your book up on other outlets like Smashwords. Now I'm rethinking that strategy. If I upload to Create Space, have them convert it for KDP but not put it up on their Select list, I can then upload my Smashwords formatted copy to Smashwords, who would then have it available to all other formats and users, right? Now what happens if I don't use the Select option for KDP? Am I short-selling myself on KDP by not going Select? Just how much additional coverage would I get from Smashwords? I'm getting confused here. I'm still not quite committed to self-pubbing my story as I still have a few queries still out there waiting on responses. Once I get those answers back, should they all be rejections, I'm going to pull the trigger on self-pub. I just want to do it right the first time, that's all.
 

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Okay, I was looking through this thread and Old Hack said something that struck a nerve about eggs in one basket. I was going to do just that: Put my novel out on KDP and Create Space only. This is because KDP's Select option doesn't allow for you to put your book up on other outlets like Smashwords. Now I'm rethinking that strategy. If I upload to Create Space, have them convert it for KDP but not put it up on their Select list, I can then upload my Smashwords formatted copy to Smashwords, who would then have it available to all other formats and users, right? Now what happens if I don't use the Select option for KDP? Am I short-selling myself on KDP by not going Select? Just how much additional coverage would I get from Smashwords? I'm getting confused here. I'm still not quite committed to self-pubbing my story as I still have a few queries still out there waiting on responses. Once I get those answers back, should they all be rejections, I'm going to pull the trigger on self-pub. I just want to do it right the first time, that's all.

I'm new at all this but with a little thought and a little advice here at AW I published with smashwords opting out of Amazon. (not Kindle) Then I published KDP also. I didn't go select because from what I hear that closes all the other doors. I want to be in as many markets as possible. Smashwords isn't at Premium Status yet and KDP just went live today. I guess I just sit and wait now.
 
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My ebook finally changed to live in Kindle Direct. What is next and when will I be able to find it in a search on Amazon.com?

You can search for it on Amazon. But to go more directly...

1. Go to your bookshelf page on KDP. There should be a list of your books.

2. Click the checkbox by the book you want (it should now be displaying a tick).

3. Above the list is a button called 'Actions'. Click on that. A menu will appear.

4. In the menu, it says 'See book in Kindle Store' with a list of country codes. Click 'US' if you want Amazon.com. Or one of the others if you want those.

5. You'll be taken to the page. Copy the address from your web browser, because this is the shortest and cleanest link to your book. It's the one you'll want to use to send people there.

Now what happens if I don't use the Select option for KDP? Am I short-selling myself on KDP by not going Select? Just how much additional coverage would I get from Smashwords?

KDP Select isn't forever. It comes in batches of about three months. So don't panic if you make the choice and change your mind. Personally, I don't see it as very useful. You can run free days when using Select, but you can do that by signing up for a single round of Select and then leaving (which is what I did when I wanted to do free days). The borrows and additional royalties in countries where hardly anyone will buy your book aren't all that.
 

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What Polenth said.

Personally, I've tried Select a few times. Even a publisher (with my permission) put a story of mine in Select. It's never been worth it. I even had a short story sit right behind Wool on certain "free download" subgenre lists…and the sales effect was negligible.

There are two major things you won't get by not opting for Select: 1. Your book won't receive the ability to have 5 "free" days per 3-month period. 2. You won't be in the Kindle Lending Library, which pays authors money for borrows.

But you can upload anywhere and everywhere else. Google Play just updated its interface, for example (but they discount your title by ±25%, so to avoid violating your terms on other vendors, it's best to add to the price tag there).

I'm a huge Smashwords fan—they're my primary vendor for shopping—but Draft 2 Digital is fast getting far more popular as a distributor. (I only uploaded a few things to them last night; I'm still using Smashwords for its own store and for the vendors only it distributes to, but I'm using Draft 2 Digital for Apple, because I find the Apple Producer program more of a headache than I want to deal with, even though I have an Apple computer.)

I upload directly to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Drive Thru Fiction (for my speculative fiction), and Xinxii. Technically, Scribd can be used to sell files, too, but I haven't heard of anyone selling over there. It's also possible to sell files directly, using services like Ganxy or Ejunkie.