My Experiences With Amazon’s New "Select" Program by Kat Valentine

Over the past year I’ve been updating you on my adventures in independent publishing. This past year closed for me with extraordinary sales figures. I went from 1,000 books sold in 2010 to 20,000 in 2011 (combined print and e-book totals). So far in January I am over 9,000 sales and, for the first time in my life, am earning more in royalties than I am from my business.

I thought maybe your readers would be interested in learning more about Amazon’s new “Select” program which they introduced in December. Authors who enroll books in Select agree to give Kindle an exclusive listing for 90 days. During that time their books can be “borrowed” by Amazon Prime members and the author is paid for every borrow. In addition the author has the option to promote their book by offering it for free for up to 5 days which allows readers to download the book at no cost thus increasing the books visibility in rankings and hopefully garnering more reviews. I have enrolled 4 of my 15 titles in Select and, let me tell you, the free promos have really boosted sales once the book returns to its regular price!

In February I’m offering two more free promos. From Feb. 12-14^th, my collection of 8 love stories, My Last Romance and other passions will be free and from Feb. 18-20^th (Mardi Gras), my collection of 3 love stories, Mardi Gras Was Over will aloe be free.

This is an exciting time in digital publishing. eBook readers are being sold at an average of 1 million a week! Amazon now sells many times more eBooks than paper books and many books, particularly main-stream and genre novels, are no longer being offered in print! I’m always happy to offer advice and share my experiences with anyone who is contemplating e-publishing. Thanks so much for your great blog!