Books that have been added to Amazon’s library have reached a milestone. This week, Amazon announced books that are listed exclusively on their website have now been downloaded over 100-million times.
Here’s more from their press release:
Amazon.com today announced that its catalog of over 180,000 exclusive Kindle books have been purchased, downloaded, or borrowed from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library more than 100 million times. Nearly all of these exclusive books are available for Kindle owners with a Prime membership to borrow for free, as frequently as once a month, with no due dates.
Popular Kindle-exclusive titles include “War Brides” by Helen Bryan, which has been purchased or borrowed over 270,000 times and has remained on the Kindle Top 10 list for the past 8 weeks; Karen McQuestion’s books “A Scattered Life,” “Easily Amused” and “The Long Way Home,” which have been purchased or borrowed more than 500,000 times; and Ed McBain’s classic and long-running 87th Precinct series, which debuted in 1956 and is now published for the first time in digital and has been purchased more than 250,000 times since December. Other best-selling exclusive books include several titles from Debora Geary, particularly “A Modern Witch” which recently hit #1 on the Kindle best seller list (briefly unseating “Fifty Shades of Grey”) and “Our Husband” by Stephanie Bond, which has been on the Kindle best seller list since July. Both of these authors have sold at least 200,000 copies of their books.
“We have a huge library of books that are only available on Kindle, and they’re super popular – in less than a year they’ve been downloaded more than 100 million times,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. “Exclusive books are another great benefit for Kindle readers, and we’re going to continue to work hard to make sure the Kindle ecosystem is the best in the world for our customers.”
Authors have the option of making their titles exclusive to Kindle by joining KDP Select. So far in August, KDP Select books that enrolled in July earned 77% more royalties from paid sales than the three months before they were enrolled in the program. This figure is conservative and only includes books that were available via KDP for the entire three months prior to enrolling in KDP Select. If you include the money that authors earned from the KDP Select fund, their earnings are even higher.
Stephanie Bond is the best-selling writer of the humorous romantic mystery “Our Husband,” which is available exclusively in the Kindle Store and currently #10 on the Kindle best seller list. Since joining KDP Select in March 2012, royalties from paid sales of her books in the program have increased by over 2000%. “I can’t say enough good things about the KDP Select program,” said Bond. “The exposure has given my books visibility on a level I could never have achieved on my own. In this age when consumers are faced with endless entertainment choices, the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library allows busy readers to sample a book at no risk – that’s priceless discoverability to an author like me who’s trying to be heard above the noise. And it’s working! I receive emails every day from readers who tried one of my books through the lending library, and now have read all of my backlist.”
Andrew E. Kaufman is the author of “The Lion, the Lamb, the Hunted,” an exclusive title and a top 100 Kindle best seller this year. Kaufman’s books are the most-borrowed independently-published books in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. “I don’t just think KDP Select opened new doors in my publishing career – I know it did,” said Kaufman. “My two novels skyrocketed shortly after I ran my first promotion, with sales eventually reaching far beyond the 100,000 mark. It was an opportunity I’m thankful I didn’t miss.”
Thomas Benigno is the author of “The Good Lawyer,” a legal thriller inspired by a true story. He published his novel in March 2012 and enrolled it in KDP Select, earning $63 in the first month. In August, his royalties grew to over $50,000 from paid sales and loans combined. “The KDP Select program has helped my book in more ways than I can say,” said Benigno. “Without the ability to do my first free promotion wherein I reached number one on the free best seller list, I would not have been able to get the exposure that eventually made ‘The Good Lawyer’ a best seller on the paid list too.”
For more information about the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, please visit http://www.amazon.com/kindleownerslendinglibrary. Independent authors can enroll their books in KDP Select at http://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/KDPSelect. To learn about all of the additional benefits included with Amazon Prime, or to start an Amazon Prime free trial visit www.amazon.com/prime.
