We are writing in a very unique time. We are witnessing a revolution in the printed word and must keep up with the latest. The newest thing I just learned about is something Kindle direct publishing is putting into place. They are offering incentives to authors who are only published through them and opt to allow their books to go into the Kindle Lending Library. You can learn more about it here.
What are your thoughts on this and Do you think this will change the writing world? Why or why not?
given the number of indie authors who are jumping into the KDP select program (in the past week (when the KDP select program became available), the number of prime-eligible kindle books went from around 5K to over 40K), this is interesting. I'm guessing that this isn't really that great of a deal for the vast majority of indies. Some of the better-known, highly-rated indies, it'll be great for, especially if their books are a bit on the high end price-wise. Honestly, this is probably the only place where I can imagine a high price to be a benefit. So far, I'm limiting my use of the prime lending library to books with a price that's $9.99 or higher. $6.60 is the break-even point for the cost of prime (assuming you use no other features of prime).
ReplyDeleteNeither of the books I've borrowed so far have been indies, and I honestly don't expect to include many indies. From what I've seen in my perusal of the lending library, there is now a glut of books normally priced at $0.99. Why would I borrow that instead of a book that's normally $9.99 or $12.99? If I want to read a book that's a dollar, I'm probably going to just buy it instead.
My guess is that a couple of highly-rated (4.5* and up, with over 30 reviews), higher-priced (over 5$) indie books that have spent a good bit of time on the bestsellers list are going to get the lions share of the money. And, they'll probably do it with a reasonably small number of borrows.
then again, there are a lot of people who aren't quite as deductive as I am when they go to choose a book, so who knows... :)
I think I must agree with you, Erin. The fact is, though, that I didn't really think of it as. Reader because the library is only open to those with a kindle device. I only have the app on my iPad. And if I want to borrow an ebook, my public library has several books I can borrow. As a writer, I tend to think that this promotion is just that...a promotion. I don't think it will really benefit many people besides Kindle. That being said, it's worth keeping an eye on to see what happens with it.
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