Amazon has announced that each borrow was worth $2.48 for authors in the KDP Select program in April. That’s another month-on-month increase (from $2.18 in March), suggesting – since the size of the total pot was the same – that the actual number of borrows decreased. As the graph to the right shows, the general trend for the per-borrow figure since launch in December has been upwards, but how much longer can that trend continue?
The consensus seems to be that for 2012, Amazon’s use of KDP Select is largely experimental and is designed to establish the service. It remains to be seen what happens after this phase is over, and whether the pot sizes will start to reduce. But Amazon does seem to be dead-set on popularising the concept of users borrowing Kindle books, so there seems to be little chance of the company suddenly deciding to abandon the whole idea. Meanwhile, the $2.48 figure would seem to make participation in KDP Select profitable for anyone whose books costs less than $3.54, while questions remain about the usefulness (and wisdom) of using the KDP Select free promo days.
Discussion
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