To Kindle Select or Not to Kindle Select

[RS McCoy]

Hello all-

So it's decision time at the ole McCoy house. My first published work, a paranormal fantasy novel titled Sparks will be released on Amazon on Dec. 16 of this year. (*Hooray!*) Amazon offers the KDP Select program, but I'm curious if anyone has published with or without this program, and if you would be willing to share some of your experiences/results? Did anyone find it was overwhelmingly advantageous? Or did some people do better when they weren't enrolled? Please let us know if you are up for sharing your story!

 

[wordwalker]

I've tried it both ways. I'd say the mileage varies depending on how it works with your particular plans, but the choice is mostly between:

without Select, you can run your ebook in other places --some people have statistics on whether that's worth much or not-- which also helps if you want to switch around different promotion strategies and compare them. And, you can have full freebies (eg at SmashWords) any time you want.

with Select, you get 100% of Amazon's tools working for you; again, can't say how much that really means. But you can only have 3 free days a year, plus their new discount program. Then again, you have some options for pulling out of Select for a while to run other discounts -- plus, almost EVERY website I've found that gives free promotion for free books only does it for Amazon.

 

[Steerpike]

My book has made the most money while in the Kindle Select program, for what that's worth.