Amazon.com has announced the KDP Select program for independent and self-publishers who offer their books for the Kindle. Let’s take a look at the terms of this new program and see if you might benefit from it. In a nutshell:

Ebooks offered through KDP Select with U.S. rights will automatically be included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library where they can earn a share of a fund totaling an estimated $500,000 monthly. The publisher’s share is based on the number of times the book was loaned as a percentage of all books loaned in that month. The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is a collection of books that eligible U.S. Amazon Prime members can borrow for free once a month with no due dates.

Books available for loan will still be available for purchase. That means that people who are not eligible to borrow ebooks through the Lending Library, or those who borrowed the ebook and loved it, can buy it.

Publishers may choose to offer books in KDP Select free for up to five days every 90 days. This is not something that has been available to independent Kindle publishers before now (at least not officially). Although you do not get paid for books downloaded for free, your book gets lots of exposure and downloads when it is free. Offering one title for free can be a good way to get attention for a series, for example.

To participate in KDP Select, your ebook must be exclusive to Amazon for a period of 90 days. That means the ebook may not be sold in other ebook stores or available on your website or blog.

New books as well as books already available for Kindle may be enrolled in KDP Select. You click “Enroll” from the Bookshelf for existing titles.

Should you enroll your Kindle titles in KDP Select? Here are some things to consider:

If your ebook is one that readers will want to own, either in digital or print format, making it available for loan allows them to preview it and discover that it is a book they should buy. Although this is not likely to happen with fiction, it may with at least some non-fiction titles. Will readers want to refer to the book often? Giving them a taste through the loan program may convince them to buy the book.

Although fiction titles may not sell better as a result of the loan, other titles by the same author may benefit. For example, currently many fiction authors offer one title for $.99 and others for $2.99 and up. The idea is that readers will sample the $.99 ebook then want everything else the author has written. Enrolling one title in KDP Select allows them to try that book for free as a loan or by making it available for free to everyone for a five-day promotional period.

The loan program also offers the opportunity to make money. The monthly fund will be divided among eligible KDP Select titles based on how many times they were borrowed by Prime members. The example given by Amazon is that if the fund for a particular month is $500,000, your Digital Book is borrowed 1,500 times, and all participating Digital Books are cumulatively borrowed 100,000 times, your Digital Book will earn $7,500 ($500,000 x 1,500/100,000 = $7,500).

Although it is unlikely that the typical book will earn thousands of dollars a month through lending, it is another source of income from your book. As long as the lending program does not cannibalize your sales, it is extra money.

You may want to give KDP Select a try and see how it works for you. Keep in mind that you can not sell the digital version of your book elsewhere while it is in the KDP Select program, and you are committing to an enrolled book being in the program for at least 90 days. This is the biggest negative I can see with KDP Select; however, at this time the majority of ebook sales for most books are made through Amazon, so not selling through Barnes and Noble, Apple, et al for 90 days may not be a problem. However, if you want your ebook to be available everywhere right away, KDP Select will not be an option for you. It also may not be prudent to enroll all of your ebook titles in KDP Select. You might try one title, or one title at a time, and see how it goes.

Amazon wants to be the ebook leader and KDP Select gives them an edge by giving them an exclusive on many books. Can you benefit from KDP Select, too? Maybe. Although it will not be right for every publisher and every book, KDP Select will definitely help many authors find an audience and make more money with their books.

Kindle ebooks are becoming more and more popular – and the good news is that you can still read them even if you don’t own a Kindle, or you don’t have your Kindle with you. As authors, we can be glad that as large as the market is for Amazon Kindle, the market for Kindle ebooks is even larger.

Why Would You Want To Read Kindle Ebooks On Other Devices?

You may wonder why anyone would buy Kindle ebooks if they don’t own a Kindle. However, the fact is that most Kindle ebooks are very competitively priced – some are even free – making them more affordable than many other books and ebooks. There’s also a huge convenience to getting your ebooks delivered instantly, instead of having to go out to the store or waiting for items to be delivered. By making Kindle ebooks available via multiple types of devices, Amazon makes it easy to buy and read ebooks from them.

Whether or not you own a Kindle you may want to download one or more of the free apps so you can check the formatting of your ebook before publishing to Kindle.

Kindle For PC, Mac, iPhone and iPod Touch, iPad, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7

Amazon offers free applications for reading Kindle books on both Mac and PC. The app is simple to use and makes use of the full size of your screen for reading ebooks.

If you own an iPhone or an iPad then don’t think you’re limited to Apple’s own ebook reading app. In fact, go to the app store and you’ll find Kindle available to download for free, helping to expand its use even further.

Amazon has also made apps available for other smart phones, including Adroid, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7.

If you wish to buy any Kindle books, all you need to do is sign up for an account through Amazon and purchase in the same way as you would with any other item on the Amazon website.

Shopping For New Books

In addition to reading ebooks in the Kindle app, you can also buy them through the app. (Due to Apple’s terms of service, the buy buttons have been disabled in apps that run on Apple devices. However, you can still shop for ebooks in your browser and send ebooks to your Kindle app running on an Apple device.) Search for and download free samples of books you may be interested in reading, and buy the full version if you like it. Or buy from the Amazon.com website – the choice is yours.

Whispersync Between Devices

The best thing about using the Kindle app on all of your devices is that it’s so easy to switch between them when you’re reading ebooks. Ebooks you add to the Kindle can be accessed by any of the devices running the Kindle app. For example, if you download an ebook on your Kindle iPhone app and then later open up Kindle for PC, your new ebook will be there waiting.

Even better, the Whispersync feature means that the furthest read page will automatically be updated. You won’t need to remember where you got up to on the last page you were reading from – the Kindle apps will automatically do it for you. I sometimes start reading a book using the Kindle app on my iPhone when I am away from home, then switch to the Amazon Kindle later. No matter which device I use, Kindle knows exactly where I left off.

Go to Amazon and download one or more of their free Kindle apps, then start shopping for ebooks. If you have not already tried the Kindle, you will be hooked!

The Amazon Kindle is primarily a digital book reader, but it can do a lot more than make it easy to carry and read your favorite ebooks. Here are ten additional ways you can use your Kindle.

1. Surfing the Web: Using the browser in Amazon Kindle is not the same as surfing the Internet from your laptop or other computer, but Kindle can get you online when you don’t have your computer handy. You can use it with public Wi-Fi hotspots, and the 3G Kindles give you free access to the 3G network – very handy for checking emails or other simple tasks when you don’t have a Wi-Fi connection!

2. Listening to music and audiobooks: Do you love audiobooks? You can load your favorite audiobooks or music on Kindle for listening on the go. Kindle has a headphone jack for private listening.

3. Converting Text to Voice: Kindle includes a text to speech setting that will read ebooks to you, when needed. It is a synthesized, unnatural voice, but it can be useful when you need to hear something read to you, such as instructions, or if you absorb text best when you both see and hear it.

4. Dictionary: See an unfamiliar word? Quickly look it up with Kindle’s built-in dictionary. And if you want to learn more you can easily surf to Google or Wikipedia to do a search. .

5. Taking Notes: If you are making notes for research, or you just like to annotate your books as you read, you can easily do so with Kindle without damaging the book or making it hard to read through highlighting, underlining and notes in the margins. Kindle has functions that help you add notes, bookmark points of interest, or highlight sentences and passages. With the new @author program, you can even submit questions and comments to the author while you read. (@author is presently limited to just a few authors, but is expected to be expanded soon.)

6. Reading Newspapers and Magazines: Many of your favorite newspapers and magazines can be delivered directly to your Kindle. You get fast access without ink-stained fingers or those annoying subscription cards that fall out while you are reading.

7. Reading Blogs: Many blogs also offer subscriptions through the Kindle. Even though there is a fee (usually about $.99 a month) to read blogs that can be read for free online, the convenience of having your favorite blogs send their most recent posts directly to your Kindle can make this an efficient way to keep up with the blogosphere.

8. Reading PDF Files: Do you download PDF files and then find it hard to get around to reading them? You can send PDFs to your Kindle and they will be waiting for you the next time you turn on your reader.

9. Shopping For New Books: You can access the Kindle store through Wi-Fi or 3G (depending on the Kindle model you own) and get the latest books delivered straight to your Kindle. Because Kindle allows you to download samples of books you are considering, you can download samples. When you want something new to read, just scan the downloaded samples, find the book you want to read next and download it in seconds.

10. Searching for Information: Although you can search books in your physical book library, or use the index to find the passage you want, it’s not nearly as easy as doing it on the Kindle! The Kindle comes with search functions that let you find things fast. You can even organize and personalize the way you store your books based on a number of different criteria.

Kindle makes it easy to take hundreds of books with you and easily read wherever you are, but it does much more. Try some of Kindle’s other functions to get the most out of your ebook reader.

CNN did an unscientific poll Sunday of more than 200,000 people who visited their website and answered the question: Which do you prefer: E-books or paperbacks?

Given this was an online poll I would have thought e-books would run away with it.

However, paperbacks won by an 80-20 margin!

I have no clue. Most sales reports show that e-book sales are skyrocketing.

In fact, CNN ran a story on the same day saying that e-book sales topped paperbacks for the first time!

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The publishing tide is shifting fast: E-book sales in February topped all other formats, including paperbacks and hardcovers, according to an industry report released this week.

E-book sales totaled $90.3 million in February, up 202% compared to the same month a year earlier, according to a study from the Association of American Publishers. That put e-books at No. 1 “among all categories of trade publishing” that month — the first time e-books have beaten out traditional publishing formats.

I prefer to hold a hardcover book or a paperback – especially in the tub! But I can see why people like an e-book to read on a plane or an exercycle, especially since you can make the fonts larger.

Why do you think that is?

Dan Janal helps small businesses get publicity so they can sell more products. My clients get terrific results from my coaching, consulting, done-for-you services and do-it-yourself tools. For info, go to www.prleadsplus.com or call me at 952-380-1554.

Ebooks are more popular than ever, with the Kindle, iPhone and other ebook readers being adopted by more people every day. The amazing growth in the ebook market presents authors and publishers with opportunities to reach new customers with their content, sometimes with little or no investment.

ePublish: Self-Publish Fast and Profitably for Kindle, iPhone, CreateSpace and Print on Demand is a comprehensive yet consise guide to epublishing. Author Steve Weber explains:

• how to create and sell ebooks from your own web site;
• ebook formats and how to convert your files to ebooks;
• how to reach the more than 300,000 Kindle ebook readers by publishing in Kindle format;
• how to reach the mobile market, including more than 13 million iPhone users;
• how, when and why to take your book from ebook to print book.

Weber provides lots of tips and help for do-it-yourselfers, and also shares resources for those who would prefer to outsource some of the technical details.

In addition to the specifics of how to publish ebooks, Weber identifies many ways authors and publishers can promote their ebooks online, including blogging, podcasting, advertising, affiliates, Google Book Search and more.

Some authors and publishers may be interested in converting their print books to ebook formats; however, it can go the other way, too. Authors may choose to publish ebooks first, then offer a print edition. Weber explains how to use Print on Demand to create a print book from your ebook.

ePublish: Self-Publish Fast and Profitably for Kindle, iPhone, CreateSpace and Print on Demand is an easy to use guide to producing ebooks in multiple formats, and successfully promoting them. Whether you are planning to convert existing print books to electronic formats, or launch your publishing career with ebooks, you will find the information you need.

Welcome to the October 22, 2008 edition of the book marketing blog carnival. This is our second edition, and we once again have some great blog posts to share with you.

Do you blog about subjects of interest to authors and publishers? Be sure to submit your best posts for our next book marketing blog carnival.

Amazon.com has sold millions of Kindle ebook readers with more being sold everyday. Plus, Kindle ebooks can be read by anyone with the free Kindle app available for the PC, Mac, iPad and many other platforms. That creates a great opportunity for you, as Amazon is actively seeking digital content to sell to Kindle customers, and those customers are avidly downloading books, periodicals, blogs and more.

See the Kindle at Amazon.com

What is a “Kindle”?
The Kindle is a wireless device that makes it easy to purchase and download reading material. It does not have to be connected to a computer, and you do not need to go searching for a mobile “hot spot” in order to connect to the Amazon store. Because it is so easy to buy content, customers buy often.

Although converting your print book to a digital format (ebook) is one possibility, you can also sell content that is not available in printed form. And your content does not need to be a traditional book length manuscript. Many Kindle ebooks are short pieces, such as short stories and articles. You also do not need to get an ISBN to sell Kindle content on Amazon.

Here is how to sell your books to Kindle owners. Start by going to the Amazon Digital Text Platform. If you have an Amazon account, you can log in using the same information. If not, you can set up a free account.

Next, you upload your content in one of the many supported formats. Amazon recommends uploading HTML files, but you can upload your Kindle content as a Word document, text file or PDF. (PDFs are not recommended as there are sometimes formatting problems with PDFs on the Kindle.) You will find step-by-step instructions for publishing your content at Amazon’s Digital Text Platform.

Within a day or so after uploading, your book or other content should be available in the Kindle store.

How Much Do You Get Paid?
You set the price for your digital products, and Amazon pays a 35% to 70% royalty on all sales. Currently, prices from $.99 to $2.98, and those greater than $9.99, receive a 35% royalty. A 70% royalty (minus a few cents as a download fee) is paid on Kindle ebooks priced from $2.99 to $9.99. Although the prices are low, many authors earn as much or more from the sale of a Kindle edition as they would for a book published by a traditional publisher. And some authors have sold hundreds of thousands of ebooks. Author John Locke is the first independently-published author to sell more then one million Kindle ebooks, and most of those sales took place in a five-month period.

The Kindle provides a new way to reach out to readers and sell more of your work. Here are some examples of books available for the Kindle. Shouldn’t your book be there?