I’ll be honest. I initially bristled at the whole idea of KDP select:<\/p>\n
So why enroll?<\/p>\n
Because my sole hope, as an indie author, is that my novels are good enough that over time I’ll start generating word of mouth.<\/p>\n
And that comes down to a numbers game. Everyone who has read my novels has told me they think they are really good. (Yes, I realize that’s a sample that self-selects — i.e. people who don’t care for it aren’t too likely to let me know.)<\/p>\n
But “everyone” so far consists of a really small group of people. Embarrassingly small.<\/p>\n
As a side note, there are two categories of indie author who have an easier battle.<\/p>\n
First: genre writers, because you have a ready-made audience and all the benefits of the publishing industry’s genre-centric communications apparatus. Your books fit neatly into the categories and tags for example.<\/p>\n
Second: the mid-listers — people who have a backlog of titles they can take over and self-pub.<\/p>\n
Notice that in almost every indie “success story” you read, the writer fits into at least one of those two categories (and very often both). Me? I don’t write genre, and worse yet my books incorporate elements of genre but also elements of lit fic. And I’m starting from absolute scratch — I had a couple of non-fic books published traditionally but other than that, nobody knows who I am.<\/p>\n I love the idea of Smashwords, but if there’s a way to leverage it to generate exposure, I haven’t figured it out. For example, I’ve participated in several of the Smashwords Facebook promos (such as Freebie Friday, where you post a coupon code for a free copy of your book). At most it’s gotten me a handful of downloads.<\/p>\n And here’s the thing: with KDP Select, Amazon lets you give away free books.<\/strong><\/p>\n So I talked it over with one of my best indie author buddies, Peazy Monellon (here’s her debut horror novel, Meany<\/a>) and enrolled Can Job<\/em>.<\/p>\n Yesterday I offered a 24-hour promotion.<\/p>\n 285 people downloaded my novel.<\/p>\n I don’t know how else to put a free copy of my ebook in the hands of 285 Amazon customers.<\/p>\n Now, how many of those people will actually read my book? Who knows.<\/p>\n But if even a fraction do, and if out of that fraction one or two write reviews, or decide that they want to buy When Libby<\/em> or something else I publish — well, then I’ll count this experiment a success.<\/p>\n Stay tuned. I’ll let you know how it works out long term . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ll be honest. I initially bristled at the whole idea of KDP select: Don’t like the exclusivity clause. Don’t really see how that benefits Amazon, either. Just seems to me it’s their way of throwing their weight around. The $500,000 … Continue reading
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