If you don't, here's the scoop: Amazon is extending to self-published authors an offer to be included in the Amazon Prime Lending Library ("APLL"). Payment will be made from a pool of money based on the total number of self-published books borrowed from the APLL versus the number of times your particular book was borrowed.
In other words, if no one borrows your book regardless of total borrows, you make nothing. The pool for December is $500,000. If there are a million total downloads in December and your book is borrowed once, then you'll make $0.50.
The other side of this little offer is the exclusivity clause. Your book can only be available for sale only on Amazon, no other retailers, while it is part of the APLL.
For those of you who have jamming sales on Smashwords, the iBookstore, or Barnes & Noble, it doesn't make much sense to jump on this offer.
Something else to consider is that you may have 100 borrows from the APLL, but no sales. You'll be gambling that your ratio in the pool is high enough to offset the lack of sales.
On the other hand, if you're simply looking for visibility, this might be the program for you. If anyone tries it, I'd love to hear how it worked for you.
Yeah, heard about that. I'm not self-pubbing yet, but the exclusivity thing sounds like bullshit to me. When I'm ready to go, I'll definitely go up on Amazon, but it'll be among others, and I'm not willing to change that to be part of the library. Bummer -- other than that, I think library lending is a good idea.
ReplyDeleteAngie
Angie, I think it all depends on how people use the library. I know I use our local library to read whatever book is hot that I know I won't buy because I'll only read it once.
ReplyDeleteIf there's 100,00 Amazon Prime folks who want to read King's latest, I'd rather have the one sale for the month than compete with him in the APLL.
True, and that's another issue -- since Prime folks (of which I'm one, although I don't read Kindle format books) can only borrow one book per month, how often are they going to borrow a self-pubbed book by a writer they've never heard of? When there are favorite writers and (even more to the point) writers their friends have read and raved about in there to be tried? I'm eager to hear from some self-pubbed writers just what kind of a slice of that pie they're getting.
ReplyDeleteAngie
This is just my 2 cents...why would anyone, if they only have 1 free book to rent a month, get one that's normal price is .99-2.99 (the price of tons of indies)...I think they'd rent the expensive books...my thought is this will help the publishers since their books are more expensive. Like I said, just my 2 cents. The up side is getting your book to go free on AZ...they'll let it be free for 5 of your 90 days...it will be interesting to see what shakes out.
ReplyDeleteMy other thought is the exclusiveness they're asking...I don't like clubs and I don't like to leave anyone out...that's just a personal thing with me, though.
Oh, and I didn't mean that to sound like I'm anti-publishing houses...I'm not. I just think the little guy might get the short end of this.
ReplyDeleteTess, you're not the only one questioning the one book per month borrowing limit, considering I can BUY 80 decent 99-cent books for $79 bucks.
ReplyDeleteconsidering I can BUY 80 decent 99-cent books for $79 bucks
ReplyDeleteI don't get the impression that Amazon is expecting anyone to join Prime just for the book borrowing privs. :) We've had it for years because it saves us a lot of money on shipping. If someone's been thinking about joining anyway but just hasn't gotten around to it, the lending library might give them that last push to do so. Someone who doesn't use Amazon much (except for e-books) would have no reason to go Prime, though, just to be able to borrow 12 books per year. [nod]
Angie
LOL Angie, I can't buy less than $25 from Amazon anyway, so I haven't paid for shipping in a long time.
ReplyDeleteIt's just that compared to being able to stream more movies than one per month on Prime, the one book limit per month limit seems ridiculous for someone like me who reads a lot more than she watches.