Some authors actually exploit this policy to get Amazon to drop the price of their Kindle book below the minimum allowed. As in, making it free, which an author can't do when they upload and price their book; free is not allowed. I didn't intentionally pursue this, but I figured it was bound to happen.
About a year ago, I posted a version of Game Over on the Kindle store. This was a special edition I intended just for Kindle owners in that I added another scene amounting to 2,000 additional words. I labeled it an Extended Edition and put a 99 cent price on it. Over on Smashwords, I had the original, shorter version of Game Over for sale at no charge. I was thinking I might get a month or two before Amazon price matching kicked in. It ended up being 10 months, and no, I didn't assist the process.
But there are a healthy number of Kindle owners taking advantage of the $0.00 price since it changed last month.
I'm good with that.
What I can say about it is... I stepped somewhat out of the box. I had an interest in writing a certain type of story, set my mind to it and then did it. It was a good exercise of my creative mental muscle and I could have left it at that: an thought experiment not intended for further pursuit.
Except that I couldn't leave it alone.
I put the story through the honing and polish process, liked the final result and submitted it to a choice market. By now you've guessed that it got accepted, which thrills me to no end. It also raises some tough new questions for me and I'll have to expand on that when I finally reveal all the details.
So the point of this post is not really to tease you, just to encourage you to step out of your cozy writer's box every now and then. It's part of your overall journey and who knows what new destinations it could open up.
I think KDP Select can be useful, particularly for authors who have a portfolio of books and they want to set aside 1 or 2 as magnets to draw readers to the others. Here's an example. Say you have a 5-novel series for sale. You could enroll just the first one in KDP Select as a way to hook and draw readers to the rest of them. Or you could write 2 or 3 short stories or novelettes as tie-ins and put those shorter works into KDP Select while keeping the novels out.
Beyond that, I'm not seeing much value for the everyday author.
The 'borrow' feature for Amazon Prime customers, while interesting sounding, seems to me to work best for books more in high demand. Not many folks would want to burn their limited borrowing opportunities on lower profile or unknown books. So the bonus bucks Amazon credits to KDP Select authors for borrows is fairly constrained, though Amazon likes to make noise about the monthly budgets allocated to borrows.
Finally a thought on the 'make available for free' feature. There are beaucoup processes and web tools now that enable Kindle owners to soak up the tidal waves of KDP Select freebies. It's a slick arrangement for Kindle owners. Without risk or outlay, you can grab 100 stories in a day, scan the first 3 pages of each, and discard all but the top 3 that you feel are worth reading start-to-finish. By the end of a week, you've crunched 700 books down to 21 that are locked into your To-Be-Read list... all without spending a dime. You can literally keep that up until your Kindle cries: "Uncle!"
What does the KDP Select author have to look forward to in this? A shot at discovery. Perhaps a Like or a meaningful review. If you're fortunate, your book just might catch-on via chatter in social media circles or from a high-traffic blogger's comments. But I would not recommend holding your breath for any of that.
I don't regret the experiment. It was worth a shot. When the 800-pound gorilla gives you a way to rearrange the bananas, you have to see if you just scored a banana bonanza out of the deal. In the case of KDP Select... not so much.
To Soar Free is a short story of about 7,000 words. It originally appeared in The Lorelei Signal back in 2010. You can still find it there along with a number of delightful stories that emphasize female protagonists and feminine themes.
I have to give two shout outs regarding the work that went into making To Soar Free available as an e-book.
Firstly, this is the second time I've published an e-book under the guidance and tutelage of Paul Salvette. Paul's web site has numerous helpful articles that aid an author with the whole production effort required for a well-polished e-book. Browse his articles for in-depth, step-by-step instructions or, better yet, buy Paul's guide book that brings it all together. Available for Kindle, on B&N and on Smashwords.
Secondly, the delightful, intriguing cover art for To Soar Free was crafted by Robin Nuttall. This is the second cover she's made for me and I really enjoy working with her. You can find out more about her services and view samples of her work on her web site.
So far I've e-published one short story and a collection of short stories as different e-books. It's time for a new addition. I'm going to publish a second short story as a standalone e-book, which will make two from the collection available for readers to try out solo.
Why bother with this?
Numbers.
Besides needing a name (brand), presence (web site, blog, facebook page, twitter account, etc.), push (marketing, promotions) and pulls (reviews, likes, links), an author needs product.
Well duh, you say. The more you have to sell, the greater the chance you will sell.
Very true.
But besides giving current fans more of your goodies to enjoy, having a larger number of released books provides more ways for potential fans to discover you. Each book is like a beacon, drawing wayward readers in to check it out. When they find one, they find them all. This provides more temptations to consider, which might help make the difference when a reader is unsure about a newly discovered author.
Plus I can use the standalone short stories not just as lures but also as promotions for Dark Doses, my short story collection. For instance, I can give away the standalone stories more frequently than the whole collection. This matters particularly now because I'm thinking about dropping Dark Doses out of KDP Select. But that will be another post for the future.
Funny thing, publishing. It starts with words and it pretty much ends with numbers.
When I wrap up a short story, I like to take a short break from it. At least one to two days, giving me a chance to sleep on it and letting my neurons replenish. Inevitably, the next time I read it, I find issues. Often those issues crop up on passages or dialogs that I previously felt were toasted to golden brown perfection.
Why is that?
Why does your prose smell sweet in your current editing session only to have it emit a foul odor 2 days hence?
Even more interesting, since you know you're going to view your prose more critically in 2 days and uncover where improvements are needed, why can't you skip the 2 day cooling off period and ferret out those sore spots immediately?
I can certainly chalk it up to: creative juices ran low and must be restocked. Got that.
Funny thing is, I haven't found a way to significantly increase the capacity of my creative juice battery or reliably shorten its recharge cycle. For editing and revising a just completed story, I'm at my best with a 24 - 48 hour break from it. Sure, I can be somewhat effective making edits sooner, just not AS effective.
I think I've bumped up against some kind of universal constant, at least for my writer brain.
In addition I could also say that I continued expanding my writer network. All-in-all, not too shabby of a year, if I do say so myself.
New Year’s resolutions and I don’t mix well. I can’t say they’re my bag really. I just don’t see why there is anything particularly compelling about January 1 that you cannot also devote yourself to any of the other 364 days of the year.
Still, there are some writing focal areas I have in mind for 2012. Let’s call them my Writer’s Code of Conduct to live by. They are summarized as follows.
Todd’s Writing Code of Conduct:
Which (hopefully) brings about more friends and fans.
To be followed by yet more. And more after that. Rinse. Repeat.
Giveaways are goodwill and good business. I tried one this past weekend. I offered Dark Doses for free on Amazon for 24 hours over New Year's Day.
I figured some folks would use the day to try out the nifty new Kindle they got for Christmas. Others would be taking it easy and browsing the Kindle store in a semi sleep-deprived state. Still others love jumping on freebies because it's a no-risk way to discover new escapes and diversions (not counting any time invested for the download and actual read through). Perhaps the severely hung over folks would be punching the download button in sync with the throb within their skull.
The result for my book: over 250 downloads spread across 4 countries. Not stupendous and colossal, but I like that outcome very much. Because I'm hoping 1% to 2% of those downloads turn into reviews and ratings.
Because reviews and ratings are what leads to new friends and fans. Which then provide more reviews and ratings. Which leads to more...
You get the idea.
The bottom line is: you should completely replace your smoke detectors after 8 - 10 years of use. So guess what I did after Christmas? Yep. Good thing, too, because 1 of my old detectors actually had malfunctioned.
So the house is now equipped with brand new dual sensor alarms throughout. And if you're wondering just how tardy I was accomplishing this important task, let's just say it should have been done 6 years ago. --face palm--
If you’re into self-publishing, you are likely acquainted with J.A. Konrath. Over on his blog, Joe provides quite an insightful view of the journey he’s taken. I think most would call it a highly successful one, though Joe hasn’t yet crossed the proverbial finish line and declared total victory.
When it comes to publishing a successful eBook, I like Joe’s formula. To me, Joe simply follows a recipe for producing The Killer Cookie, namely:
1. It has to catch your eye,
2. It has to sound good to eat,
3. It has to look positively delicious,
4. It has to be priced so you don’t even think twice about it,
5. It has to be found where ever you want to buy it, and
6. It has to make your taste buds squeal when you munch it.
In eBook terms, this translates to:
1. Have a striking cover and a title that grabs
2. Have an arresting book description, search tags and keywords
3. Have all aspects of the packaging be clean and crisp
4. Have a low or even impulsive buy price
5. Be readily available across all major store fronts
6. Be well written, engaging, compelling and error-free
For the most part, I’ve tried to be faithful to The Killer Cookie recipe in producing my latest eBook, Dark Doses. I consciously chose to deviate from point #5 though. Here’s why.
I opted in to Amazon’s KDP Select program. Dark Doses is exclusively offered via Amazon for at least 90 days.
Let me be upfront and acknowledge this ploy by Amazon to lockout the competition. In this post, I’m not going to dwell on the potential consequences and ramifications of Amazon’s tactic. Plenty of writer blogs are reacting to the launch of KDP Select and perhaps that’ll be the subject of one of my future missives.
Instead, let me just say that there are lots and lots of cookies out there. More are rolling out every day. What’s an aspiring cookie-baker to do?
Play the numbers game. The majority of cookie-lovers are going to browse and consider the selections put forth by the number one cookie peddler in the world. So for a brand new, just-released Killer Cookie, I’m exploiting all available tactics to break into that leading market.
Amazon is selling a million Kindles a week. There is a lot of muscle and inertia propelling that market. I hope to tap into that as best I can. Not to specifically get rich via KDP Select’s anemic remuneration terms but to get better known.
I seriously doubt I’ll keep Dark Doses exclusive to Amazon for any greatly protracted period of time. I don’t especially like being locked out of non-Kindle eReaders.
But, at least for now, I’m willing to test this one modification to the recipe.
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