Why I Love Kindle Select (or) How Much Money Does a Self-Published Author Make?

The illustration above is an example of one of my royalty statements from Amazon.com.  They don’t all look like this.  Obviously, sales taper off a bit for books that have been on the market a while.  I enrolled my books in the exclusive Kindle Select program after two months of making my books available on Kindle, Nook, Smashwords and All Romance Ebooks.  Amazon.com outsold all other outlets combined so making the move to Kindle Select was a no-brainer for me.

As you can see, my books are priced low at $0.99.  The books had been on the market for four years with Sapphire Blue Publishing before it closed its doors in November 2011.  Even at 35% of 99 cents, I sold enough copies to equal my four years worth of sales royalties from Sapphire Blue Publishing at the $6 price point.

KOLL represents the Kindle Lending Library.  When Amazon Prime members “borrow” my books (free for them), I get no less than $2 per copy borrowed.  Considering my royalty on a book sale is 35 cents, I’m thrilled when people borrow my books rather than buy them!

Free Book represents the number of books that were given away during my free promotions (available only through Kindle Select).  As you can see, I’ve significantly expanded my readership by giving away The Path to Freedom which happens to be the first in a series of books I’ve written.  By making the bestseller list in the Free Books at Amazon with The Path to Freedom, I was able to draw massive attention to the second book in the series, A Taste of Liberty, and sold over 700 copies.

In my opinion, Kindle Select is an outstanding program for independently published authors for several reasons:

1. The free promotions available ALWAYS draw attention to your entire body of work.  Giving away one book in a series leads to increased sales series wide.
2. The lending library bonus payments are outstanding.
3. Being able to offer books at the 99 cent price point in a store like amazon.com is an outstanding opportunity in that you have a built in audience and you’ll sell books whether you market or not.  (Of course you can sell a whole lot more if you mind your marketing.)
4. Payments are received promptly every month.
5. Kindle select authors are sent a regular newsletter with updates on the system and tips on how to sell more books.
6. ISBNs are unnecessary and the author as publisher has complete control over production, publishing and sales.

DISCLAIMER: The preceding commentary is my opinion based upon my own experience.  I mean no discourtesy to any companies mentioned, nor do I mean to imply that self-publishing is the best way for all authors.

Just my opinion – I’m not looking for a fight.