{"id":6649,"date":"2011-12-12T11:42:46","date_gmt":"2011-12-12T18:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=6649"},"modified":"2011-12-12T11:49:29","modified_gmt":"2011-12-12T18:49:29","slug":"why-i-wont-be-signing-up-for-kdp-select","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/why-i-wont-be-signing-up-for-kdp-select\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I won’t be signing up for KDP Select"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the last couple of weeks, there’s been a lot of discussion about Amazon’s new Lending Library program.\u00a0 Just a few days ago, Amazon opened it up to indie writers with the KDP Select program.\u00a0 By signing up, writers gain access to Amazon Prime members (US only), where readers can borrow the book for free and Amazon still reimburses the writer.<\/p>\n

The catch?\u00a0 Two, actually: writers agree to make their books exclusive to Amazon for 90 days, and payment for all KDP Select authors comes out of a monthly “fixed pot” of $500,000, where every writer gets a cut according to what percentage of the Lending Library downloads were for their books.<\/p>\n

Reactions from the indie community have been mixed.\u00a0 Within only a few hours, several thousand enthusiastic writers had signed up (the current number of participants is ~50k), but many others remain cautious and aloof.<\/p>\n

The full range of reactions can be seen in the Kindle Boards thread<\/a>.\u00a0 Guido Henkel does a good job pointing out how the numbers don’t add up<\/a>, while David Gaughran offers a compelling analysis<\/a> that likewise dampers enthusiasm for the program.\u00a0 On the Smashwords blog, Mark Coker pleads with writers<\/a> to keep their options open, while at Writer Beware, A.C. Crispin points out some disturbing language<\/a> in the terms & conditions that essentially amounts to a non-compete clause.<\/p>\n

I’m sure that many others will weigh in on KDP Select in the coming days, and I look forward to reading their analysis, but I’ve already decided that I won’t be signing up with the program.\u00a0 Even if no one else signs up, with 50k writer splitting a $50,000 pot, the average monthly paymentis only going to be $10.\u00a0 Unless you’re one of the lucky bestsellers, you’ll probably make even less than that.<\/p>\n

But the real<\/em> reason I’m not signing up is because I don’t feel that it serves my readers.\u00a0 If I put any of my titles through KDP Select, I’d be giving Amazon a 90 day exclusive, which means that my readers would be forced to either buy through Amazon or wait three months to buy my books.\u00a0 I don’t feel that that’s fair to my readers, especially in territories where Amazon levies a $2 surcharge.<\/p>\n

At this point in my career, my goal is to build up a dedicated fan base that looks forward to each new release.\u00a0 To do that, I want to make my books available in as many places as possible.\u00a0 Even if I’m not selling all that well right now at Barnes & Noble or the smaller retailers, it’s not worth it to cut those readers off and tell them to go to Amazon or wait.<\/p>\n

However, the KDP Select program does foreshadow the next big phase of the ebook revolution, and that is the move to subscription services.\u00a0 I expect that in the mid- to near-future, we’re going to see a lot of ebook lending models arise, kind of like Netflix for books.\u00a0 The big question in my mind is how the writers are going to be compensated.<\/p>\n

Like David, I have a lot of concerns with KDP Select’s “fixed pot” model.\u00a0 Besides the lack of any guaranteed or minimum rate of compensation and the general opaqueness of the system, it fundamentally pits writers against each other in a zero-sum game, where one writer’s gain is another one’s loss.\u00a0 To me, this represents a giant step backward.<\/p>\n

When a reader finds something they like, they’re more likely to try out another book just like it.\u00a0 This is how readers have historically found new writers, and it fosters a sense of community, where writers work together to reach out to new readers and expand the scope of the genre.\u00a0 The “fixed pot” model disincentives all this and replaces it with a Machiavellian system that, at its worst, works against the natural advantages of the medium and undermines the genre community.<\/p>\n

For all these reasons, I won’t be signing up for Amazon’s KDP Select.\u00a0 The exclusivity hurts writers and readers, the numbers just don’t add up, and the “fixed pot” model represents a fundamental shift in bookselling that I cannot support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the last couple of weeks, there’s been a lot of discussion about Amazon’s new Lending Library program.\u00a0 Just a few days ago, Amazon opened it up to indie writers with the KDP Select program.\u00a0 By signing up, writers gain access to Amazon Prime members (US only), where readers can borrow the book for free… Continue reading Why I won’t be signing up for KDP Select<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[666,664,89,586,577,515,668,42,46,665,529,667,453,599],"class_list":["post-6649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-a-c-crispin","tag-amazon","tag-career-decisions","tag-david-gaughran","tag-ebook-revolution","tag-ebooks","tag-exclusivity","tag-frustrations","tag-goals-and-plans","tag-guido-henkel","tag-indie-publishing","tag-mark-coker","tag-publishing-trends","tag-thoughts-reflections","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-1Jf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6649"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6662,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6649\/revisions\/6662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}