Who has experience with KDP?

[Dana King]

I'm uploading a book to amazon this week. I've not subscribed to KP before, as I made previous books available at Barnes and Noble for Nook,a s well. This one is a Kindle exclusive. Is there any reason not to go with KDP? Plusses? Minuses?

Thanks.

[Eric Christopherson]

I've been pubbing via Amazon KDP since 2009, Dana. No downside I know of. (And the upside is I sell a thousand times more on Amazon than at B&N or anywhere else.)

You're not talking about KDP Select, though, right? (The only downside to that is you can't pub the book anywhere else until you leave the program.)

[Dana King]

Oops, I did mean KDP select, but the exclusivity clause doesn't bother me for this book. It's there for exposure in the hope of getting some name recognition before Stark House releases my first paperback in November. (Different books.)

[Eric Christopherson]

Stark House sounds like a cool publisher to have, Dana. Congrats and good luck with it!

[Dana King]

Thanks, Eric. So far working with them has been a lot of fun, not at all what I expected from a contract.

[Stephen Seitz]

No complaints so far.

[Jude Hardin]

Is this your new PI novel? Got a link where we can see it?

[Dana King]

Well, since you asked:  http://www.amazon.com/Small-Sacrifice-Forte-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B00E...

Thanks, Jude.

[I. J. Parker]

Congratulations on the book and much success!

 

The internet is full of pros and cons on going with KDP Select. And the scenario changes constantly.  It used to be a fantastic deal for promotion. This has become eroded very badly by the number of books published and the general invisibility of a single title.

The Select option allows you to promote via a number of free offers. This doesn't work very well any longer. The number of downloads has shrunk somewhat, but more significantly; I've not experienced a noticeable increase in sales after a promotion. In fact, it may mean no sales at all for a while. What it still does for me is to make me a bit more visible and I may pick up an occasional new reader for the series.

There is a downside: readers now expect free or 99 c. books.  If they don't get them, they post bad reviews (which Amazon will not take down) over price.  The mass of free offers also depresses sales of e-books in general.

 As for the other devices and publishers: their sales for me have been negligible.

[Dana King]

Thanks, IJ. I've heard your comments elsewhere, as well. It's a little like the old joke where the man is off to the local poker game.

"Don't you know that game is rigged?" his friend says.

"Sure, I know. Everybody knows. But it's the only game in town."

I gave it a try. We'll see how it goes.

[I. J. Parker]

Yes. Good luck!

[Andrew Drummond]

My experience with KDP, as a previously unpublished author, has been very positive so far.  In 12 days I have sold 29 copies of my Roman novel; 16 on amazon.com and 13 on amazon.co.uk.  As I live in the UK, the figures for the US market have surprised me.  I have had 2 positive reviews on the UK site, no reviews on the US site as of now.

The minuses: as other reviewers have pointed out it is hard to stand out from the plethora of titles that are available for purchase.  Also, I think it is a shame that a review on the UK site does not show up on the US site.  I appreciate that they are 2 separate legal entities but the product is still the same.

Good luck with your sales and please let us know how things pan out.

Best Regards

[I. J. Parker]

Ah, yes. I'm published in the U.S. and I cannot get my reviews also on the UK site. One ought to let Amazon know about this.