Sunday Scribbles: A Test Case for KDP Select

I should be landing about the time this goes up on the blog. We had a good time in Hawaii, and did a lot of work. Some of it was discussions about the market and what we could do to increase sales, diversify, blah blah. One of the things I had already decided on was testing the KDP select. 


For those of you who don't know, KDP Select means you cannot have the book on sale at ANY other retailer during the 90 days you give Kindle an exclusive. There are perks though. You get a % of the lending money, January it is up to 700,000 bucks and Feb is already slated for 600,000, based on the number of people who "check" your book out for the month and the number of other authors who are in the program. Also, you are allowed to put your book up for free for five days any time during the 90 days. I am still hesitant to do with this with new releases but I have decided to try this with A Little Harmless Submission. It will be out over 5 months before I get this going, and I am giving my readers fair warning on it. 


There are several reasons I am doing this. One of my mantras for self-publishing, and really, publishing of any sort these days, is diversify. It is the only way to survive. Another reason is my kindle sales have soared while my Nook sales have dwindled in the last year. I have no idea why. Maybe my readers moved to kindle devices? If B and N decides to do this, then I will definitely jump on board. But one of the things I have never liked about B and N as a reader and writer is they are not as organized. They make you search out the free books. With Amazon, the site is very reader driven and that info is easy to find. 


With the release of A Little Harmless Fascination in late March, I decided to try this now, to see how it works. I am adding a little bit to this edition of A Little Harmless Submission, including all the short stories in the Harmless story line. That edition will release in wide distribution in June at the earliest. I know that some Nook readers will be upset, but I want to try this out. I do make good money at Nook but it is about a 1/3 of what I make at Amazon. I am always on the look out for ways to diversify, and so I want to try this out and see what happens:)


If you are a Nook reader and would like to get it before I pull it from there and everywhere else, please get it within the next 14 days, because it will be off sale after that. 


I will update you on the results when I am done with my 90 days.