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.

Self publishing according to Lord Byron

Some thoughts on self-publishing – it’s not new – and it works:

The first collection of poetry Lord Byron wrote was published in London and met with scathing reviews. In consequence, it was unlikely any other publishing house would be prepared to waste money on subsequent works written by this newly emerging poet. Therefore, after being rejected by another publisher, Byron decided: ‘I will publish it myself.’
After paying a printer to produce copies of his latest poems, he gave the books to a bookseller in London to sell them. When he visited the shop he was disappointed to see only one copy on the shelf but this was because his books had sold like hot-cakes – the entire first-edition of 1000 copies sold out in three weeks.
A beautifully written account of this segment of the extraordinary life of Lord Byron is told by Gretta Curran Browne in her novel: ‘A Strange Beginning’ Book 1 in a 4 part series.
While today, some new authors struggle to find a publisher and others scoff at the idea of self-publishing, give a thought to a poet who became accepted as the most famous poet of the ‘Romantic’ era.
If you haven’t read the life of the wild, bad, and beautiful Byron, I recommend this book.

https://www.amazon.com/STRANGE-BEGINNING-Novel-Book-Byron-ebook/dp/B0167O70TG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493083601&sr=1-1&keywords=a+strange+beginning