Volume 2: May 2011
In This Edition
- Amazon.de Kindle Store Launched
- Help Tips and Forums
- Expand Your Book's
Reach
- KDP Help Enhancements
- New Kindle Apps
- Reach More Readers with Author Central
- Your Voice
- ABNA Semifinalists
- Meet the KDP team in May
- Featured KDP Books
- Tip of the Month
Expand Your Book's Reach
Make your books available in print through CreateSpace.
CreateSpace, a member of the Amazon group of companies, offers tools and services to help you complete your book for print and make it available to millions of customers through Amazon.com and other distribution channels.
Learn more at:
www.createspace.com
Reach More Readers with Author Central
At Author Central, you can
share the most up-to-date
information about yourself
and your works with millions
of readers. Add your
biography, photos, video,
Twitter ID, and tour events
to the Author Page, your
homepage on Amazon.com.
You can also track your
Amazon Bestsellers Rank
and Customer Reviews for
each site.
To create Author Pages, set
up a profile for each site
where your books are
available:
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.de
Amazon.fr
Amazon.co.jp
Congratulations to the ABNA Semifinalists
Congratulations to the 100 Semifinalists moving on to the next round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest! Download a complete list of the 50 General Fiction and 50 Young Adult Fiction Semifinalists.
You can browse the Semifinalists by category at www.amazon.com/abna, and download and read excerpts on your Kindle or through one of our free Kindle apps.
Meet the KDP Team at the DIY Authors Conference & Marketplace at BookExpo America (BEA)
The KDP team will be at the DIY Authors Conference on Saturday May 21st at the Javits Center in New York City. You can also find us at the BEA main event from May 24th - 26th. Come talk to us at our booth and enter to win some exciting raffle prizes! For more information about the DIY Authors Conference and BEA, visit: BookExpo America
Tip of the Month
Creating Shelfari Book Extras is a great way to enhance the quality of your Kindle book. Book Extras are curated factoids by the Amazon Shelfari community that provide readers with helpful information while they're reading or deciding if they should read a book. These Extras include character descriptions, important places, popular quotations, themes, book specific glossaries and more.
You can add book extras to your own book. To learn more, visit Shelfari.
Contact Us
Have questions about using KDP? Visit our help pages and read our forums to find answers to common questions. You can always reach us by clicking "Contact Us" at the bottom of any page.
KDP Newsletter Archive
Click here to view current and previous KDP newsletters.
| | | Kindle Direct Publishing Newsletter:May 2011 Edition
|  | Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Now Enables Authors and Publishers to Independently Publish Their Books in the Amazon.de Kindle Store
KDP authors and publishers can now utilize the new German language KDP website and support to make their books available in Germany, Austria, the U.K., the U.S. and over 100 countries worldwide. Any books you've published through Kindle Direct Publishing which have rights in Germany are already available in the new Kindle store on Amazon.de, based on the list prices and royalty plans you've provided for the store.
The popular KDP 70% royalty option, which allows authors and publishers worldwide to make more money on books sold to Kindle customers in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, is now also available for books sold in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. Additionally, publishers can now receive their payment via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) or check in either Euros, British pounds or U.S. dollars.
"German publishers and authors can now take advantage of Kindle Direct Publishing to reach a wider audience and make more money on every book sold," said Greg Greeley, vice president, European Retail. "U.S. and U.K. authors have had tremendous success with KDP and we're hopeful German authors and publishers will take advantage of both the increased reach and revenue that KDP has to offer."
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KDP Help Section Enhancements
As you may have noticed, the KDP Help section has been enhanced with a new Help topic tree that provides easy navigation between help pages and improved layout to display the most pertinent information. There is also a new method to contact our support team. You can click on the "Contact Us" button at the bottom of any KDP page to contact support. To view our new help pages, you can click on the "Help" link at the top of any page within your account or visit the following link: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help
New Kindle Apps
For over two years, Amazon has been building and introducing a wide selection of free "Buy Once, Read Everywhere" Kindle apps to enable authors to sell their Kindle books on the most popular devices and platforms.
Kindle for Android has been updated to bring new features and adds support for tablet computers running Android's Honeycomb, including the Motorola Xoom. Like all Kindle apps, Kindle for Android includes Amazon's Whispersync technology, which saves and synchronizes a customer's books and bookmarks across their Kindle, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Android-based phones and tablets. Your KDP books are already available on all Kindle devices and apps.
For more information about the free Kindle apps, go to www.amazon.com/kindleapps.
Your Voice: KDP Author Scott Nicholson
 Author Scott Nicholson shares his views on the rise of eBooks.
The funny thing about a dream is, while you're in it, you can't tell the beginning from the ending. I am not sure anyone quite realized the impact of a convenient, affordable device that would connect readers directly with authors. Every prediction on the growth of e-books seems ridiculous and outdated almost as soon as it is uttered, and the more "informed" the source, the more unreliable it is, because conventional wisdom comes from those who think they have learned from history. There is no convention in the digital era, and the history has barely begun to be written. This era is inventing itself by the moment, feeding its evolution from thousands of different pipelines.
I am not afraid. Readers are smart enough to find what they want, now that it is available. Readers have clearly been starving for a diversity of choice, and writers have been starving for a chance at an audience, or simply starving in general. Now any idea, story, or work can be shared conveniently and instantly via the Kindle. And readers have proven they are willing to sample genres unfamiliar to them, or give new authors a chance, or form new communities around a book.
Beautiful stories are emerging. A few days ago I read about a woman publishing her first e-book on her 72nd birthday. The vision-impaired have returned to reading because they can now adjust the font size. Families are sharing Kindles and a love of stories together. It's an evolution, a revolution, and the greatest moment in human communication since Gutenberg. We are connected here in this common dream. There's no expiration date on magic.
--Scott Nicholson
Featured KDP Books  Saving Rachel by John Locke What if the best morning of your life suddenly turned into your worst nightmare? Sam Case is about to find out. Saving Rachel is the story of what happens when killers force a man to choose between his wife and his mistress...and the one he rejects must die. But wait--all is not as it appears to be. In fact, nothing is what it appears to be!
 Once Bitten by Stephen Leather Jamie Beaverbrook is an English psychologist working for the Los Angeles Police Department. His job - to sort out the insane from the sane, the crazies from the ones who are pretending to be crazy. But Beaverbrook's life is turned upside down one night when the police find a girl crouched over a man with his throat torn out. The girl has blood on her lips but claims she only found the body. Beaverbrook doesn't take long to establish that she's totally sane - but he is forced to face a bigger question. Is she a vampire? And what does she want from him?
Least Wanted by Debbie Mack Stephanie Ann "Sam" McRae's busy, but orderly life as a Maryland lawyer takes a chaotic turn when two clients are accused of murder. A poor, black girl is accused of killing her mother. A young man suspected of embezzlement is accused of murdering his boss. The cases collide in a bizarre way involving girl gangs and computer pornography.
Nancy Johnson: Featured KDP Author  Nancy Johnson talks about her experience with Kindle Direct Publishing.
This is, for the most part, a thank you letter to Amazon. Without their help, my novel would still be sitting in a desk drawer. I spent the better part of my life trying to get my novels published. I worked very hard to make that happen, incredibly hard. I was encouraged by all the experts to believe … if your novel is good enough, someone will publish it. You just have to keep trying and submitting. You must query editors, query agents, keep putting yourself out there. Persevere. Don't quit…. Well, the truth is many, many well-written books never get published. At least that is what used to happen. And again, thank you Amazon. Writers now have a choice. They no longer have to waste years, waiting and hoping. What an incredible time to be a writer!
With the advent of Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon truly leveled the playing field. Books published to KDP have as good a chance of finding success as any books out there. Amazon has put in place a system that helps readers find new books and authors, from forums, to free chapter downloads, to recommendations on author book pages such as "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought…." I personally love being in control of every aspect of my book. With KDP, I make all the decisions. I choose the cover design, the price, how my book is edited, how fast it is available. I decide what category of books to write; I am not limited by trends. I can take my time or put books out as fast as they are ready. I am not limited in any way. Plus, no worries of going out of print, or being dropped by a publisher because readers did not discover me right away…. Oh, and you'll be happy to hear, since publishing to KDP, a prominent agent contacted me, not the other way around. I've also received offers to buy the rights to my novel from three foreign publishers. Sweet!
--Nancy Johnson
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