Kindle Direct Publishing

Kindle Direct Publishing is Amazon.com's e-book publishing unit launched in 2007. It was released concurrently with the first Amazon Kindle device. Amazon launched Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) to be used by authors and publishers to independently publish their books directly to Kindle and Kindle Apps worldwide. In open beta testing in late 2007, the platform was promoted to established authors by an e-mail[1] and by advertisements at Amazon.com. Authors can upload documents in several formats for delivery via Whispernet and charge between $0.99 and $200.00 for their works.[1] These documents may be written in 34 languages.[2]

History

In a December 5, 2009 interview with The New York Times, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealed that Amazon keeps 65% of the revenue from all e-book sales for the Kindle.[3] The remaining 35% is split between the book author and publisher. After numerous commentators observed that Apple's popular App Store offers 70% of royalties to the publisher, Amazon began a program that offers 70% royalties to Kindle publishers who agree to certain conditions.[4] Some of these conditions, such as the inability to opt out of the lendability feature, have caused some controversy.[5]

Other criticisms involve the business model behind Amazon's implementation and distribution of e-books.[6][7] Amazon introduced a software application allowing Kindle books to be read on an iPhone or iPod Touch,[8] and soon followed with an application called "Kindle for PCs" that can be run on a Windows PC. Due to the book publishers' DRM policies, Amazon claims there is no right of first sale with e-books and states that, since e-books are licensed, not purchased (unlike paper books), buyers do not actually own their e-books. This has, however, never been tested in court, and the outcome of any action by Amazon is uncertain. The law on these matters is in a state of flux in jurisdictions around the world.[9][10]

Amazon has reported the Kindle version of Fifty Shades of Grey sold more than double that of Amazon's print sales of the book, and, in June 2012, the Kindle edition became the first to sell more than one million copies.[11]

Amazon has the KDP Select publishing option that requires 100 percent exclusivity — e-book publishing under this option cannot be sold anywhere else. While under KDP Select, an author can offer the book free for five days or discount it for up to seven days through a countdown deal, while still earning 70% royalties. Outside of limited deals, e-books permanently priced below $2.99 only get 35% royalties.[12] All KDP Select books are included in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, which is free for all Amazon Prime members.

Amazon initially paid authors in its KDP Select program a set fee per book, provided a reader read at least 10 percent of the book. This drew criticism from authors of longer works because a reader would have to read more of their books in order for the authors to receive any payment, while those who wrote shorter books could receive payment more easily. In July 2015, the company changed its Kindle Select payment structure to a per-page model.[13] Every time an author's e-book is borrowed and pages are read, the author earns a share of a monthly fund, which was $1.2M in April 2014 and $11M in July 2015.[14]

Kindle Scout

In 2014, Amazon released the platform called Kindle Scout that allows readers to nominate e-books to be published by Kindle Press. As of early 2016, 137 books have been published through this program.[15][16]

Readers nominate works they would like to see published by looking through categories, such as romance, fantasy, science fiction or mystery and picking an excerpt of a work to read. The reader is able to read up to 5,000 words of any e-book listed, and can nominate up to three e-books at any time.[17] Nominations can be changed at will. After the book's 30-day campaign ends the votes are counted. If Kindle Press thinks the book is popular enough to the market, they select it for publication within 15 days. When that happens, the readers who voted for the book get the e-book free.[16][17]

When a writer decides to submit their work to Kindle Scout, there are a few items that must happen through the process to possibly be successful. The manuscript must be a non-published work of 50,000 or more words. Genres being accepted are science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and romance.[18] The author submits their work with the tile, cover a description and an excerpt of the book. About 5,000 words of the manuscript are then used as the sample that the readers read to decide to vote on the book.[19] There is a group of people with Kindle Scout that looks over the book. After the first review, the page for the book is created and the author's 30 day campaign begins. Throughout the 30 day campaign, the author promotes their novel to get as many votes as they can get. After the 30 days, Kindle Press has 15 days to review the book again and make the decision to publish it or not, then the author is emailed the decision.[19] If the book is not accepted, then the author can self-publish with Kindle Direct Publishing. If the book is chosen and the author accepts the author gets $1,500 in advance sales and 50% royalties. Amazon takes all rights except print rights. If the ebook does not make $25,000 in the first five years, the author can request the rights back. Amazon actively promotes Kindle Press e-books.[19]

Kindle Publishing for Blogs

Blogs published by popular media, such as Ars Technica and TechCrunch, have been available on Kindle since early 2008. In May 2009, the program was opened to everyone.[20] In December 2015, the status for Kindle Publishing for Blogs was listed as beta.[21]

Amazon, not the content publisher, sets the monthly subscription rate for each blog between $0.99 - $1.99. Amazon retains 70% of the revenue from blog sales and gives the remaining 30% to the publisher.[22]

References

  1. 1 2 Munarriz, Rick Aristotle (November 27, 2007). "Why Kindle Will Change the World". Motley Fool. Retrieved November 27, 2007.
  2. ↑ "Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing: Get help with self-publishing your book to Amazon's Kindle Store". Kdp.amazon.com. Retrieved 2014-04-21.
  3. ↑ Solomon, Deborah (December 6, 2009). "Questions for Jeffrey P. Bezos: Book Learning". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 14, 2009. Retrieved December 22, 2009.
  4. ↑ Henry Blodget (January 20, 2010). "Amazon Fires Missile At Book Industry, Launches 70% Kindle Royalty Option". Businessinsider.com. Retrieved August 18, 2011.
  5. ↑ Blue, Violet (2012). "Piracy witch hunt downs legit e-book lending Web site". Cnet. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  6. ↑ Perlow, Jason. "Kindle Economics". ZDNet.com. pp. "Tech Broiler" blog. Archived from the original on February 28, 2009. Retrieved March 6, 2009.
  7. ↑ Frommer, Dan. "Bad News for the Kindle: iPhone 3G + Apps (AAPL, AMZN)". BusinessInsider.com. pp. "Silicon Alley Insider" section. Archived from the original on March 9, 2009. Retrieved March 6, 2009.
  8. ↑ Jason Perlow. "Kindlenomics Zero: When e-Texts Have No Entry Cost". ZDNet.com. pp. "Tech Broiler" blog. Retrieved March 6, 2009.
  9. ↑ "Gizmodo – Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader Locked Up: Why Your Books Are No Longer Yours – Amazon:". Gizmodo. Gawker Media. March 21, 2008. Archived from the original on May 24, 2009. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  10. ↑ "Kindle owners find out about DRM's ever-present threat – Ars Technica:". Gear & Gadgets. Ars Technica. April 16, 2009. Archived from the original on June 22, 2009. Retrieved July 4, 2009.
  11. ↑ "Fifty Shades Of Grey first to sell a million copies on Kindle". June 27, 2012.
  12. ↑ Alexis Grant, April 14, 2014 Kindle Publishing: A Step-by-Step Guide for Selling Your Book Through Amazon Retrieved 11 April 2016.
  13. ↑ Wayner, Peter (20 June 2015). "What If Authors Were Paid Every Time Someone Turned a Page?". The Atlantic Monthly Group. The Atlantic. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  14. ↑ KDP Select’s New Royalty is Estimated to be Around Half a Cent Per Page The Digital Reader July 1, 2015
  15. ↑ "Kindle Scout". Kindle Scout. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
  16. 1 2 "Amazon’s Kindle Scout Publishing Platform Expands Internationally | Digital Book World". www.digitalbookworld.com. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
  17. 1 2 "Kindle Scout". Kindle Scout. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
  18. ↑ "How Kindle Scout Works - SFWA". SFWA. Retrieved 2016-04-24.
  19. 1 2 3 "Help - Kindle Scout". Kindle Scout. Retrieved 2016-04-24.
  20. ↑ "Kindle Publishing Now Open To All Blogs". TechCrunch. 2009-05-13. Retrieved 2014-04-15.
  21. ↑ "Kindle Publishing for Blogs". Kindlepublishing.amazon.com. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
  22. ↑ "A quick look at Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing". NCS.net. Retrieved December 1, 2015.

External links

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