Talk to me. Kindle lending library.
Posted: April 23, 2012 Filed under: Talk to Me | Tags: Kindle Lending Library., Talk to me 8 CommentsAs I work on my next book I’m considering the publication options. When I first published Change and Escape the Kindle Lending Library (KLL) was too new, I felt there wasn’t enough information available to make an informed choice to go with them, so I opted out.
Now, several months later, there’s more information available at least from the self-publishing author’s point of view, but that’s not really what I’m looking for.
I want your opinion. How do you feel about KLL? Be aware that in order for me to list my book with KLL I have to give Amazon 90 days (or more) of exclusive sales of the book. Unfortunately, you have to be a Kindle Owner to use KLL.
Would something being exclusive to Amazon (and therefore possibly free, if you use KLL) make you more or less likely to read it? Would it effect your opinion at all?
No clue. I haven’t any experiance with it. Do you have to have Prime? if so then it doesn’t affect me in any way since we don’t use that program.
Yes, you have to have Prime in order to use the KLL. It wouldn’t affect the book’s availability to Kindle users who don’t have Prime, however it would affect those who use Barnes and Noble, iBooks and Smashwords.
I have issues with the “exclusive” clause. Because of that clause I have had to purchase a kindle as well as the nook because I couldn’t get the books I wanted to read through anywhere but amazon. That said I think free market is the way to do it. The question I guess is will you get more sales being amazon exclusive than you would through smashwords, barnes and noble, sony, and the I store markets? In the end it depends on sales.
That’s where I’m stuck.
One of the benefits of KLL is that you can set your book to free for up to 5 of that 90 days. That 5 days of free gets authors a lot of exposure.
I have to try to figure out if the extra exposure is worth as much or more than the number of readers it may alienate with the narrowed availability.
I opted for the KLL but I’m not sure it’s even getting lended. I haven’t a clue how to track it. My thoughts were that the KLL would give my book better exposure. Because it’s my first book and my name means nothing in the writing world, then maybe people will be more likely to try it for free and hopefully like it and pass it on to friends etc. Now I’m wondering if it hinders sales?
Log into KDP, click on Reports at the top of the page, then click on the Month to Date Sales. There is a column in there that tells you how many loans and another for how many free downloads you have this month, there is also a link right above the report to download last month’s information.
Let me know what you think.
Thanks Melissa! I just checked and I’ve sold some. Only 1 was borrowed. I was going to go on smash words as well, but I guess I have to wait the 90 days to be up. For me, the lending library is probably a good idea for exposure. But for you, maybe you don’t need that and it’s better to be on more download sites? Good luck.
It’s not the lending that I think will be good exposure, it’s the 5 days of free. From what I understand, the ability to offer your book for free to anyone, even for a limited time, is really excellent exposure.