A popular feature of the Kindle publishing program is enrolling in the KDP Select program. This is a program where you basically give Amazon all selling rights to your book for a 90 day period. In fact you cannot sell your book on any other platforms during this time period or you will be breaking the terms and conditions of the program.
The biggest question today is whether using this program is a bonus or is it a disadvantage to you as an author?
The KDP Select program allows you to offer your book as a free download for a period of 5 days. This applies to all the books you have enrolled in this program and not each one separately.
The advantage of running free promotional days is that it gives you additional exposure to your book. It is possible to get hundreds or more people downloading your book. So if your goal is to get your book into the hands of as many people as possible this is great. If you goal is to make money it is not as good.
One benefit of offering a book for free is that if you link to other published books you may see a spike in sales during this time. Some authors like to create a small book which they call a lead magnet. This is the book which is offered for free and leads people to other titles they have written. Or it may lead them to a sign up form so they become part of your mailing list.
Another advantage of using KDP Select is that your book is made available to Amazon Prime members. Amazon offers these people a free lending library and each time they download one of your books you get paid.
Amazon has started opening up more countries for their Kindle sales. By enrolling in KDP this increases your exposure. If you do not select this option when listing your book you will see that you do not have permission to sell your book in certain countries.
For new authors you may want to try enrolling in this program and seeing what kind of results you get. Remember that you must do your part by promoting your free days as well for this to work effectively. If you decide not to continue in the KDP Select program you must manually remove your book before the 90 day period is up, or your book will automatically re-enroll.
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