Tuesday, May 02, 2017

Indie authors - to register with KDP 'Select' or not?





Indie authors - if you have not opted for Amazon KDP Select, why not?
Discussion on this matter is not new and is on-going with various arguments for and against registering your independently publish books with KDP Select. In general the answers are broad and non-specific and we all have our own reasons for the path we take. Below I will provide my reasons in dollar terms for me.
Registering with KDP Select means that you agree to channel that specific title through Amazon KDP exclusively (no Nooks or Apples or whatever). In returned Amazon pays an amount each month on books which are borrowed through their Prime and Kindle Unlimited lending systems - the amount of royalty payment is based on the number of pages read per day.
When monthly payments are made, KDP provides authors with and XL download sheet showing payments to each country and the amounts paid showing a split between earnings for book sales and earnings from KOLL and Kindle Unlimited (pages read).
For me, my sales are mainly UK and US. Here are some examples of the makeup of payments I received from Amazon earlier this year.

Feb US – Sales $843.84 + KU/KOLL royalties $778.31
Jan UK – Sales £581.94 + KU/KOLL royalties £434.48
Nov US – sales $1236.85 + KU/Koll Royalties $1060.43

From these figures readers can see there is little difference in income between book sales and books borrowed and read.
While I realize many of my fellow authors have income from their books far in excess of mine, I’m also aware there are many aspiring authors, with only one or two books published, who are still a long way from these figures.
To summarize, for me, signing up for KDP Select is a no-brainer.