Like me you probably got your Amazon KDP Select email today. I just woke up and it was the first one in my inbox. I’ve read nothing else because my head is spinning with questions and general WTF since reading it 3 times and still not getting it. I realize Amazon can’t put the entire gist of the program into one email – but they seem to have tried, and failed miserably.
KDP Select is a program authors at Amazon can opt into (I guess) about the lending program for Amazon Prime members. Forget about the fact that I had pre-checked boxes in my Amazon Dashboard every time I submitted a book through the KDP (Kindle Digital Publishing) program – that told me I was already accepting by default to have my books become part of the lending program.
Now are they asking me to opt in – or, I’m already opted in?
That’s the first WTF. Here are a couple more…
“Here’s how KDP Select works:
When you make any of your titles exclusive to the Kindle Store for at least 90 days, those with US rights will automatically be included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library and can earn a share of a monthly fund. The monthly fund for December 2011 is $500,000 and will total at least $6 million in 2012.”
So, to join KDP Select, I have to make my books exclusive to the Kindle store – forgetting about Sony, Apple, Barnes, Kobo, Smashwords, and even my own websites? All this for the chance to make some extra money through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library which has a set amount they pay out for a month – that all authors split evenly?
Too many questions = 1 big WTF.
Amazon exclusivity for the CHANCE to pull in some “extra” cash – at the expense of all the other money you’d be earning at the other ebook stores mentioned.
Exclusivity – are they joking?
And, what do they mean – you have to make your title exclusive now, and then in 90 days you’ll be part of the Lending Library? They say that December has a $500,000 budget for the program – but who the hell is in the program if we all have to wait through a 90 day exclusivity period before we are added to the program. That’s MARCH 2012.
This next one made me gasp…
“If you haven’t checked it out already, the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is a collection of books that eligible US Amazon Prime members can borrow for free once a month with no due dates.”
Wait a sec. You’re going to call it “lending” when someone borrows my book for a lifetime? That’s called “I bought it for peanuts. I own it. I’m not giving it back.”
Doesn’t the word lending imply that there is a return point where the Amazon Prime member cannot access the book any longer?
They’ve dramatically redefined lending.
Anyway – the email obviously sucked because it just made me angry about the entire KDP Select program. I haven’t gone to look at the site where all the other information is. I wanted to bang this post out first.
Sounds like a really exciting program that all Kindle authors should be dying to take part in – right?
Wrong. I just don’t get it at all. Maybe a trip to http://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/KDPSelect is going to clear it all up and make Mike smile again.
What a way to wake up on a Friday.
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