KDP Select Review: Worth It in 2024?

About this video

Roberts reviews KDP Select as a 90-day exclusivity agreement for an ebook only — print and audiobook editions can still be distributed elsewhere — that enrolls the book in Kindle Unlimited. He says the KDP Select Global Fund hit a record $52 million in January 2024, up from $2.5 million in its first month, yet the per-page payout under KENP (Kindle Edition Normalized Page Count, introduced in July 2015) has mostly stayed between about 0.4 and 0.5 cents, with only 10 of the past 103 months cracking a half cent, and a dip Roberts cites to 0.3989 cents in July 2023. He notes Kindle Unlimited’s price rose by $2 per month around May 2023 without a matching rise in author pay. Perks include 70% royalties in all 13 Amazon marketplaces (otherwise Brazil, Japan, Mexico and India are excluded from the 70% rate for $2.99-$9.99 books), a 5-day free promotion or a 7-day Kindle Countdown Deal per term (not both), Prime Reading nominations, Kindle Unlimited categories, contests, and bestseller-rank boosts from borrows. Roberts says his children’s book Grumpy Gus Beats the Blues got about 2,800 page reads during a Prime Reading promo and about 2,500 per month after. He concludes Select suits beginners, time-strapped and hobby authors for a first 90 days, but not authors earning little from it — his own bar is $1,000 per month — and points to publishing wide, including Kobo Plus and aggregators like Draft2Digital, for libraries and other subscription services without exclusivity.

Key takeaways

• KDP Select is a 90-day ebook-only exclusivity deal: distributing the enrolled ebook outside Amazon can lead to suspension or termination, while print and audiobook editions are unaffected.
• Roberts says the Global Fund grew from $2.5 million to a $52 million record in January 2024, but the KENP per-page rate has mostly fluctuated between about 0.4 and 0.5 cents and fell to 0.3989 cents in July 2023.
• Enrolled books get 70% royalties in all 13 Amazon marketplaces for $2.99-$9.99 pricing; without enrollment, Roberts says Brazil, Japan, Mexico and India do not get that 70% rate.
• Per 90-day term authors can choose either the 5-day free book promotion (all 13 marketplaces) or the 7-day Kindle Countdown Deal (US and UK only, original royalty rate honored), not both, plus they can nominate books for Prime Reading.
• Roberts recommends Select mainly for new, time-strapped or hobby authors, and recommends going wide — via Kobo Writing Life/Kobo Plus, Draft2Digital, Smashwords, StreetLib or PublishDrive — if exclusivity earnings are low or library reach matters.

Episode details: published March 30, 2024 · 31:58 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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