KDP Select's Effect on a Reader who Writes

Yeah, sure, I'm a writer. But before that I was a reader, which I still am to this day. It's my hobby. It's my escape. It's my Water of Life. And I wanted to tell you what KDP Select has done for me as a lifelong lover of stories told through the written word.

Two months ago my Kindle Touch was nice and light, filled with stuff I'd bought with hard-earned cash and really, really wanted to read, even if I paid a mere dollar for it. These days it's a bloated, word-filled beast I drag around the house with me like an old wooden leg.

Don't get me wrong, I've read and enjoyed some of the free offerings I've picked up recently, and gone and purchased other stuff by that author (Ann Charles, notably, on the list below, who I probably wouldn't have picked up otherwise, cozy mysteries not usually being my thing, but the book was fun and well-written). Those with one book . . . give me more! And I'll buy it next time (which is what people did a distant few months ago to get books). I will gladly pay for a book from an author I know will entertain me for a few hours. I don't think this recent glut of free has changed that attitude in many readers.

Below are the books I've downloaded onto my Kindle since January 1st. The books in boldface I purchased; the books with links I've read. I only download stuff that I'm pretty damn sure I'll like, even if it's free.

Optical Delusions in Deadwood (Deadwood Mystery Series)	Charles, Ann	March 2, 2012
	Magic Makes You Strange (The Brontosaurus Pluto Society)	Mullette-Gillman, Noah K.	March 1, 2012
	The Cat's Apprentice	Friday, Wednesday Lee	February 29, 2012
	Base Spirits	Barrett, Ruth	February 29, 2012
	Clown in the Moonlight	Piccirilli, Tom	February 29, 2012
	The End of Marking Time	West, CJ	February 29, 2012
	Cigs, Bolan & Strange Men With Guns (Prequel) (Assassination Series)	Ramage, Gayle	February 28, 2012
	Call Me!	Locke, John, Ripper, Dani	February 26, 2012
	Maybe (a Donovan Creed Novel)	Locke, John	February 26, 2012
	Eden	Rossi, Phil	February 26, 2012
	A Place Beyond The Map	Thews, Samuel	February 25, 2012
	The Awakened: Book One	Tesar, Jason	February 25, 2012
	Exiled (The Protector Book 1)	Merrick, M.R.	February 25, 2012
	Chasing the Ghost (Black Ops)	Mayer, Bob	February 25, 2012
	Bad Billy	Pudge, Jimmy	February 22, 2012

Missing Pieces: Short Stories	Nicholson, Scott	February 22, 2012
	Ghoul Squad	Sellars, M. R.	February 19, 2012
	Blood and Bullets (Deacon Chalk Bounty Hunter)	Tuck, James R	February 19, 2012
	Loss, a novella of psychological horror	Krisch, Glen	February 19, 2012
	Brother's Keeper, a novella	Krisch, Glen	February 19, 2012
	Fall: The Last Testament of Lucifer Morningstar (The Fallen Trilogy: Book One)	Hay, David Scott	February 19, 2012
	Radix (The Radix Tetrad)	Attanasio, A. A.	February 19, 2012
	The American Book of the Dead	Baum, Henry	February 19, 2012
	That Thing At the Zoo	Tuck, James R	February 19, 2012
	Wet Linda: A Novel of Liquid Horror	Parducci, Paul	February 18, 2012
	The Congregation	Mitchell, Aric	February 18, 2012
	Giants (Lost Civilizations: 1)	Heppner, Vaughn	February 18, 2012
	The Dirty Parts of the Bible -- A Novel	Torode, Sam	February 18, 2012
	Hosts (Repairman Jack Novels)	Wilson, F. Paul	February 18, 2012
	All the Rage	Wilson, F. Paul	February 18, 2012

	Snowbound	Crouch, Blake	February 18, 2012
	Abandon	Crouch, Blake	February 18, 2012
	Here Be Monsters - An Anthology of Monster Tales	Murphy, M.T., Reinke, Sara, Anderson, Samantha, Drummond, India, Reine, S.M., Shipp, Jeremy C., Portillo, Anabel	February 17, 2012
	The Innocent (A Jack Marconi Thriller)	Zandri, Vincent	February 15, 2012
	Telepath (Guardians of the Word)	Harrison, Jolea M.	February 15, 2012
	Myth (Guardians of the Word)	Harrison, Jolea M.	February 15, 2012
	Chosen (The Guardians of the Word)	Harrison, Jolea M.	February 15, 2012
	Stein, Stoned	Ackerman, Hal	February 15, 2012
	Messages	Hileman, John Michael	February 15, 2012
	One Blood	Amaru, Qwantu	February 15, 2012
	The Emerald Cancer	Hulme, David	February 15, 2012
	The Impressionist: A Novella	Wheaton, Mark	February 13, 2012
	Sunday Billy Sunday: A Memoir	Wheaton, Mark	February 13, 2012
	Bones: The Complete Apocalypse Saga

	Ascension	Wheaton, Mark	February 13, 2012
	Adversary	Wheaton, Mark	February 13, 2012
	Disembodied Spider Meat	Wheaton, Mark	February 13, 2012
	The 19 Dragons	Reine, SM	February 7, 2012
	The Darkening Dream	Gavin, Andy	February 7, 2012
	Coffin Dodgers	Marshall, Gary	February 3, 2012
	Black Scars (Blood Skies, Book 2)	Montano, Steven	February 3, 2012
	Blood Skies (Book 1)	Montano, Steven	February 3, 2012
	Dance of the Winnebagos (Jackrabbit Junction Mystery Series)	Charles, Ann	February 2, 2012
	Honk Honk, My Darling: A Rex Koko, Private Clown Mystery	Garner, James Finn	February 2, 2012
	PAYDIRT	Levine, Paul	February 2, 2012
	Excelsior	Sirois, George	February 2, 2012
	Nearly Departed in Deadwood (Deadwood Mystery Series)	Charles, Ann	February 2, 2012
	Smallworld: A Science Fiction Adventure Comedy	Green, Dominic	February 2, 2012
Doodling Gould, Jonathan February 1, 2012

	The Model Universe And Other Stories	Bunn, Christopher	February 1, 2012
	Bad Moon Rising	Maberry, Jonathan	February 1, 2012
	They Had Goat Heads	Wilson, D. Harlan	February 1, 2012
	Farmer One	Cantrell, Christian	February 1, 2012
	Brainbox	Cantrell, Christian	February 1, 2012
	Venom	Cantrell, Christian	February 1, 2012
	Human Legacy Project	Cantrell, Christian	February 1, 2012
	Anansi Island	Cantrell, Christian	February 1, 2012
	Railroad! Volume One:Rodger Dodger (a steampunk western)	Brown, Tonia	February 1, 2012
	The Epoch Index	Cantrell, Christian	February 1, 2012
	DEAD(ish)	Kramer, Naomi	February 1, 2012
	The Jury Series (Four Complete Novels)	Goldberg, Lee	February 1, 2012
	Double Header (Two Complete Novels)	Goldberg, Lee	February 1, 2012
	The BlueLight Special	Black, J. Carson	February 1, 2012
	Dark Horse	Black, J. Carson	February 1, 2012

	Darkscope	Black, J. Carson	February 1, 2012
	The Laura Cardinal Novels	Black, J. Carson	February 1, 2012
	The Desert Waits	Black, J. Carson	February 1, 2012
	Every Precious Thing (A Logan Harper Thriller)	Battles, Brett	February 1, 2012
	the Last Ride	McKown, Randy	February 1, 2012
	Containment	Cantrell, Christian	January 31, 2012
	Faint of Heart	Strand, Jeff	January 31, 2012
	The Black Witch (Curse of the Witch)	Rivers, Micheal	January 31, 2012
	Exit 9 (A Project Eden Thriller)	Battles, Brett	January 27, 2012
	Billy Purgatory: I am the Devil Bird	Freeman, Jesse James	January 26, 2012
	Floaters - A Jack Daniels/Alex Chapa Mystery	Konrath, J.A., Henry Perez	January 24, 2012
	Flee - A Thriller (Chandler Series #1)	Kilborn, Jack, Peterson, Ann Voss, Konrath, J.A.	January 18, 2012
	Anchihiiroo - Origin of an Antihero (Toonopolis Shorts, #1)	Rodden, Jeremy	January 12, 2012
	A Dead God's Wrath	Webb, Rusty	January 12, 2012
	Speed Dating with the Dead	Nicholson, Scott	January 11, 2012

	Drummer Boy: A Supernatural Thriller (Sheriff Littlefield Series)	Nicholson, Scott	January 11, 2012
	The Red Church	Nicholson, Scott	January 11, 2012
	The Harvest	Nicholson, Scott	January 11, 2012
	Ghost College (The Ghost Files #1)	Rain, J.R., Nicholson, Scott	January 11, 2012
	Zombie Bits	Nicholson, Scott, McKinney, Joe, Kilborn, Jack, Maberry, Jonathan	January 11, 2012
	Cursed!	Nicholson, Scott, Rain, J.R.	January 11, 2012
	Creative Spirit	Nicholson, Scott	January 11, 2012
	As I Die Lying	Nicholson, Scott	January 11, 2012
	Head Cases	Nicholson, Scott, Meikle, William, Everson, John	January 11, 2012
	Catch Her in the Rye and Selected Short Stories, Volume 1	Hawkinson, Wodke	January 7, 2012
	The Touch	Wilson, F. Paul	January 6, 2012
	Reborn	Wilson, F. Paul	January 6, 2012
	Black Wind (The Secret History of the World)	Wilson, F. Paul	January 6, 2012
	Conspiracies (Repairman Jack Novels)	Wilson, F. Paul	January 6, 2012
	Littlefield: Two Supernatural Thrillers	Nicholson, Scott	January 6, 2012

	Prophets of the Ghost Ants (The Antasy Trilogy)	Carlton, Clark Thomas	January 3, 2012
	The Young Demon Keeper	Simms, Bob	January 1, 2012

If my count is correct, that's 105 total downloads since January 1st.

22 paid, 83 free.

Of the 22 paid, I've so far read 7, just started on the 8th.

Of the 83 free, I've read 10—and 5 of those are short stories by the same author, Christian Cantrell, which I very much enjoyed and whose new offerings I will be purchasing from now on.

And the percentage winner is . . . the paid stuff, hands-down.

It used to be at least fairly easy to pick out what I'd be reading next. Now, I'm drowning in a sea of free. And I'm a bibliophile. I usually devour a novel in a day or three. Or four. Or seven. It all depends. But it might take me years to get to some of this stuff, especially since there are many authors, both established and indie, who if they come out with a new book I've gotta dash out as soon as payday hits and buy it and read it and funk everything else that's been sitting on the bookshelf, physical or digital, for however long.

I'm going to stop downloading free stuff for a while, unless I come across something really interesting, as I've got way too much to read, including other, paid-for books that've been lurking on my Kindle for months and three bookshelves at the house full of physical books. But I'll get to it all eventually. Just because you get something for free doesn't mean it's not quality. I love reading indies' e-books! NOTE: I actually won a free copy of Billy Purgatory: I am the Devil Bird by Jesse James Freeman when I commented on a very cool blog post by the author, which is almost a shame because I would have purchased it as it looks like a very cool book.

So, indie author, will your book drown in the recent spew of free? Who the hell knows? Not this reader/writer. The sumbitch might've drowned regardless, sitting there with a bunch of other unread freebies on somebody's Kindle or simply not selling.

"But," you say, "if I hadn't signed up for the program my book wouldn't even have had a chance to make it onto that Kindle."

"Well," I reply, "maybe not today. But what about next week? Next month? Next year? Ebooks are forever. Just because a reader didn't discover you today doesn't mean they won't tomorrow." 

I think in the end it boils down to writing a good book, just like it did before the implementation of KDP Select. And having more than one book available can't hurt.

So is the program a smart move for you, indie author? Maybe. I do appreciate the "ninety-day" thing. I think far fewer people would have signed up if Amazon forced folks to sign a year-long contract. If after three months it's not working for you, unclick the automatic renewal check-box on your KDP dashboard and start selling your e-book through B&N, Smashwords, wherever again.

But does anyone else get the feeling that someone over at Amazon is laughing "Mwah-hah-hah-ha-ha!" like a mad scientist as we indie authors throw ourselves by the thousands with shit-eating grins onto the altar of KDP Select, agreeing to exclusively offer our book through them for ninety days?

Talk about the bleeding pot calling the overflowing kettle black, two of my three books are currently signed to KDP Select. The other one, The Wave, is a four-hundred word fable I wish I could just give away, forever and ever, on Amazon. It is free on Smashwords. Fountain's contract is up at the end of March, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do. The "promotion" days are oh-so tempting . . . and I'll leave it at that.

I guess we'll all just have to wait and see how this whole thing plays out. My advice to writers: shut up about it and keep writing. And readers, keep on reading, but every now and then purchase a book. Publishers, be you mighty or lowly, keep on publishing. World, keep on turning.

"Okay," you say, "but one last question. Is this a blog post or a Stevie Wonder song?"

Eh, either way. And now, I'm off to follow my own advice. A little late, you. Peace.