Summary: We're talking about KDP Select today, which is Amazon's program that lets you do a few things that are supposedly helpful to you in exchange for giving Amazon exclusivity. As I said on the podcast, it looks outwardly like one of Sean's "suck burritos." If you promise not to sell or distribute your work for 90 days anywhere other than Amazon, they'll: Let their Amazon Prime members "borrow" your book for free (for which Amazon pays you a paltry amount of money), and Let you make your book free for 5 days. And you may be like, "What? They won't also allow you to be punched repeatedly in the face? What a rip off!" But believe it or not, the ability to offer your book for free has benefits that we talk about in this episode. Here's the post I (Johnny) wrote on my own blog about my the initial launch of my book The Bialy Pimps. The short version is that the first time I made my book free, I promoted like hell and had around a thousand downloads. The second time, I did nothing and had eight thousand. The results afterward were unimpressive in both cases, but did have some effect. Sean and Dave had a very different experience, but that's because they have a shit-ton of books, a series or three, and a product funnel. The moral? Free needs to be part of a bigger business strategy. We also talked about writing process, building your book's world, writing a series, and other fun things while taking a few questions, including one from a disturbing caller. (By the way, don't forget that you can call us with questions! Call the big number at the top of the SelfPublishingPodcast.com homepage!)
