Staggering sales for self publishing authors in Amazon Kindle library. Many authors saw a significant bump in sales from November to December. In part, from record holiday Kindle sales as well as the new(ish) Kindle Owners’ Lending Library fund.
Record December Sales
December KDP authors and publishers see a additional 26 % bump for those participating in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. Selection for the KDP Select Library grew to over 75,000 electronic books. With increasing demand the KDP Select fund increased in January to $700,000, a $200,000 increase from December.
What does that mean for the participating authors in KDP? Each book borrowed earned them $1.70. Not a lot with low volume. Of course, the top ten participating KDP Select authors earned $70,000 plus in December.
This actually was a 30 % increase on top of the royalties earned from authors’ paid sales on the same titles during December. Not a bad bump for participating in the Kindle Owners Lending Library.
According to Amazon, these same authors saw an eye popping 449 % increase in total e book royalties from November to December. Here are a few authors talking about the program.
What Self Publishing Authors Think
Carolyn McCray, an author specializing in paranormal romance novels, historical thrillers, and mysteries says, “KDP Select has quadrupled my royalties”. She earned $8,250 in December.
Rachel Yu, 16 year old children’s book author earned $6,200 in December. “It’s just like a library with easier access. There’s truly no other opportunity like Amazon for self-publishing.”
“KDP Select appears to be earning authors more money in two ways. We knew customers would love having KDP Select titles in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. But we’ve been surprised by how much paid sales of those same titles increased, even relative to the rest of KDP,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. “Due to this early success and a seasonally strong January, we’re adding a $200,000 bonus to January’s KDP Select fund, growing this month’s total pool to $700,000.”
Off to a fast start, Kindle Owners’ Lending Library was launched November 2nd. Offered to Amazon’s ‘Prime’ customers, there are 75,000 electronic books in the ‘borrow’ library now. All of the borrowed books have no due dates, check the selection out – up to one a month, and all of this is for free.