Support for Indie Authors discussion

Hey everyone,

A friend who recently published her first comic book on Amazon KDP sent me this question and I wasn't really sure how to answer it, so I thought I would post it in this forum. Here is her exact question:

"So I already have my comic on Amazon, and I need to know for sure. If I want to put my comic in any other site that sells online books, am I allowed? Or does Amazon have a strict “any product in Amazon belongs to Amazon only” policy?

Any support and advice would be much appreciated!

If you published just on Amazon KDP, you are clear to publish anywhere else you want. But if you enrolled in KDP Select, you are required to be exclusive to Amazon.

You need to watch what you're doing very carefully on the Amazon site, because they keep presenting options and buttons to enroll in KDP Select and you need to be careful not to accidentally find yourself enrolled :)

KDP Select has a time limit for the material to be kept exclusive. I think it used to be 3 months. After that you can use other sites.

Yes, the KDP select is in 3-month periods, but it auto-renews, so if you want to leave, you need to think about it beforehand.

Has anyone in Canada had experience eBook publishing on both KDP and Kobo? I've been using KDP exclusively for my books. I'm thinking of adding them to Kobo. I have no plans to use KDP Select, at this time. Any downside to using both KDP and Kobo?

If they put it in KDP Select, they are locked in for 90 days. Pay attention to when that is and do not renew if they want to publish elsewhere.

If they are wanting to publish with other stores, they will want to look at Ingram Spark as the distributor for them. I do know that there are not that many POD companies who do children books or comic books. If they have the file for an e-book in an e-pub then they can put it up on the other sites but the hardcopy will be more difficult to do.

Raymond wrote: "Has anyone in Canada had experience eBook publishing on both KDP and Kobo? I've been using KDP exclusively for my books. I'm thinking of adding them to Kobo. I have no plans to use KDP Select, at t..."

I use Draft2Digital for Kobo and all the other stores but Amazon. They have a really good relationship with them. You can use their ISBN but I will advise you to get them yourself so it is registered in your name.

Raymond wrote: "Has anyone in Canada had experience eBook publishing on both KDP and Kobo?..." I live in Canada and have most of my books on both KDP and Kobo. I have one book that is still exclusive to KDP and I left it that way because I quite often earn more in royalties in a month for Kindle Unlimited pages read than I do in royalties from sales. I added my other books to Kobo because I had a few readers ask why my books weren't available in that format, but sales have been few and far between. If your book is available in audio format, I find Kobo pretty good for that in addition to Audible.

B.A. wrote: You can use their ISBN but I will advise you to get them yourself so it is registered in your name.

Thanks B.A. That's good advice.

E.A. wrote: I live in Canada and have most of my books on both KDP and Kobo. I have one book that is still exclusi..."

Thanks E.A. I've got a bit of a following, and like you, I sell a few books in other countries (U.S.A., Australia, England), but most of my sales are here in Canada. I haven't been unhappy with KDP, but if there is no downside, I think I'll use Kobo, too. Kobo might be more convenient for some of my readers.

If I publish an eBook on KDP select/unlimited, (to get advantage of the page read feature), can I still use Ingramspark for paperbacks?

As I understand it, KDP select is only for eBooks…

So, Amazon used for publishing eBooks and paperback, plus Ingramspark for paperback/hardbacks only.

Yes, that is definitely possible.