- #Kindle direct publishing select for free#
- #Kindle direct publishing select android#
- #Kindle direct publishing select professional#
- #Kindle direct publishing select series#
- #Kindle direct publishing select free#
#Kindle direct publishing select free#
Traditional publishers have trouble competing with this model because they include their sunk overhead and author-advance costs into marginal profit calculations and feel that giving away free books lessens their ultimate sales potential. In this case, “free” becomes a powerful sales tool for Amazon as well as for the author, because the sales numbers for these titles can be meaningful.
#Kindle direct publishing select series#
( Barbara Freethy is a good example.) By using the KDP select program, they effectively “sample” their newest book for free, enticing readers to engage in the series and purchase the previous books. Many of the most successful indie authors are selling a series, not a single book.
#Kindle direct publishing select for free#
The second reason an author might choose KDP Select and promote his book for free has to do with cross-selling. This FREE option is great for authors of a series because if readers enjoy a free read, they are more likely to pay for other books by the same author.
To help increase this base, authors offer books for free to attract new readership. The idea is that new authors don't have a base of readers when they first publish. The first is fairly straightforward as Eden Baylee, author of the literary Fifty-Shades-ish novel “ Spring into Summer” - which I will never admit to having read - explains …
#Kindle direct publishing select android#
Remember that Kindle books are not just read on Kindles but on any device with the Kindle app - including iPads, iPhones and Android phones.įor authors, there are two concrete reasons to publish this way. Either way, Amazon has built an economic and promotional model for self-publishing that is too compelling for any author not signed with a six-figure advance by a big publisher to ignore. The open question is whether this is just to improve Amazon’s store of proprietary content or if it's a radical play to totally disintermediate publishing. In the rest of book-land, however, Amazon is using “free” in a novel way – to level the playing field between large publishers and self-published authors. And in 2012, Anderson's book on the free revolution, "Free: The Future of a Radical Price" costs $9.99 at the Kindle Store. The New York Times has weaned readers down to 10 free articles per month despite predictions of the new paywall's demise, iTunes is still raking in bucks for songs and Hulu and Netflix are quickly building pay models for streaming video content. And although many things are still free online, more people are now paying. The moment of change may have been the introduction of the iPad, which gave content producers a fresh chance to get consumers to pay up. In Anderson’s vision, most content would be a come-on to sell something else: free songs to build an audience for a rock band to tour, etc.īut things have changed online. The New York Times had just famously failed in its attempt to erect a pay wall. As late as 2008, Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired Magazine (and author of “ The Long Tail” which famously used Amazon as an example of a new economic model enabled by low online distribution costs) was arguing that summer blockbuster movies would eventually be free and only the popcorn would cost money.
Sure enough, Kozmo closed its doors in 2001.īut the “freebie” Internet did last – at least longer than anyone thought it would.
#Kindle direct publishing select professional#
“This can’t last,” was my professional thought. On one rainy evening in 2000, I remember getting a rental DVD moped-messengered to me from and receiving a t-shirt, a baseball cap and fresh-baked cookies free with the delivery. The Internet seemed to make everything free. In the late nineties, free got complicated. Brand marketers know that the best way to get a loyal customer is to offer something for free – we call it sampling.
When that is granted, the author can promote the book for free for up to five days during this period, and make it free everyday to Kindle owners who are Amazon Prime customers through a lending program called "Kindle Owners' Lending Library." The most powerful of these tools resides in a program called KDP (for Kindle Direct Publishing) Select, and it requires the author to provide Amazon eBook exclusivity for ninety days.