# Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon; copyrights?



## Jon Prosser (Feb 19, 2012)

Hello everyone,
         I've recently found out about self publishing ebooks on Amazon and was wondering if anyone has any experience doing so? I've got one book self published on Lulu.com, and am mainly confused about copyright - the Amazon self publishing has a lending programme that claims exclusivity; if you participate in the programme, you aren't allowed to sell your work anywhere else. I can't find any similar clauses in the standard terms and conditions without this option but its not easy reading. I have three questions:
 - Does anyone know if it is ok to sell on both sites simultaneously? 
 - Can I list Lulu as my publisher on the Amazon listing or would that breach Lulu's copyright by using their name? 
 - And finally, the KDP rights and pricing section asks me to select the territories for which I hold rights, but the FAQ doesn't make it clear how to identify what my rights are. Am I giving the right for my work to be sold globally or do I need to acquire the right to do so? I live in the UK so I'm not sure how UK copyright laws relate to other countries.
         Any advice or help anyone can offer would be hugely appreciated as I'm a bit lost! 
         Thanks, Jon


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## gerkintrigg (Feb 22, 2012)

You don't need to sign up for Kindle select (which is the exclusive bit). You don't even need to allow the lending thing at all, but you might find you get more more money if you do.

I have used Lulu in the past (still do to get things printed quickly in the UK for proof-reading and stuff) but I use Amazon's Create Space because they look a lot more like trade paperbacks, they're standard sizes which work well for when I sell in to book shops (like waterstone's, Barnes & Noble etc) and they're considerably cheaper than Lulu. Plus, create space allows you to sell on Amazon, and Amazon automatically print, bind, package and post to your customer without you needing to worry about it.

If you do things in volume, I have started to use Lightning Source. They are great, too.

To answer your question, I sell on Amazon, Create Space, Lulu, Kindle direct, Lightning Source and on my own website, using Lulu, Create Space, Lightning Source and Kindle Direct Publishing.

I'm going to be going onto iBooks soon, too.


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## Jon Prosser (Feb 22, 2012)

Hi Gerkintrigg, thanks for the reply! When I signed for KDP it had a checked box right before the save and publish button that was checked for me to participate on Kindle select and I couldn't untick it - I didn't sign up in the end for this reason. It said I'd only be on the programme for 12 days instead of 90 but I still wasn't happy with it. The other options you've mentioned though seem good and I'll check them out. Do you sell to Waterstone's and B&N through one of these websites (I have seen the publishing options available on Lulu to sell on Amazon and B&N for a fee)? Also is there anything you can tell me about the copyright territory thing? Cheers for your help  Jon


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## movieman (Mar 27, 2012)

Weird. I've never seen a compulsory KDP Select box there before.

On the territorial rights, if you wrote the book and haven't sold those rights to anyone else, then you can select all of them. However, don't expect many sales; I have a few short stories on Amazon that didn't sell to magazines and I get about half my sales from Amazon US, half from UK and only a tiny number from the other sites.

Don't know about selling print books through B&N, but for e-books from the UK I believe you have to go through Smashwords or some other distributor that deals with B&N for you; most US e-book sites won't let you sell there directly unless you have a US bank account and tax ID.


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## Jon Prosser (Mar 28, 2012)

Hi movieman. Yeah, it was a bit strange, it was right on the last page, last option I believe. The box was ticked but greyed out so I couldn't change it. 

Thanks for clearing that up, I wasn't sure and Amazon Q&A wasn't particularly helpful. Yes I don't really expect many sales - it's just a case of I've got a book, might as well see if anyone is interested! I've had it available on lulu for around a year now and have only sold 8 copies, most of which I can trace back to my friends... oh well. Interesting that you sell works to magazines, is there anything you can tell me about that? I'm hoping to be a freelance writer after I finish Uni if I can find the work, any advice you have would be invaluable. 

Yes that makes sense, I've found a lot of websites that pay for freelance work that exclude UK citizens for that reason. I'll remember Smashwords though, thanks!


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## GSBAINS (Mar 29, 2012)

So, reading between the lines, you can sell on a number of sites and not just Amazon when the work is ready


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## Jon Prosser (Mar 30, 2012)

Yes. There are a tonne of places to try and sell your work, my only advice before committing to them (this is true of anything writing related you may do) is to do your research. Make sure it's legit and worth it.


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## Lakeside3533 (Mar 30, 2012)

I am considering Smashwords and the conversion is sent to all the majors. However, I am confused because I understand that once you upload to Smashwords you can then go to Amazon and Barns & Nobel and send your book to them because with Smashwoords it'll get there but take some time. I don't get how you can go multiple places with the same book. I understand that the price has to be the same - that's easy enough and that each place will take different royalties.

With Smashwords covering all the majors why not use them? Is that because you need to supply print books also?


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## Jon Prosser (Apr 2, 2012)

lakeside - hey, I couldn't really tell you about Smashwords as I haven't looked into them. I think you can send your book to multiple places but that depends on their terms of service. All of them allow you to retain creative rights over your book so you can take it down and do what you like with it, but some of them I think want exclusivity - if you're selling your book through them, they don't want you to sell it through anywhere else. I think I will look into Smashwords, but I would also prefer if they sold hard copies too yes, because not everybody has kindles. What I'm doing at the moment is editing my book and planning to send it through a traditional route, if that fails, then I will put it back up for sale on the internet.


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## movieman (Apr 16, 2012)

Lakeside3533 said:


> With Smashwords covering all the majors why not use them? Is that because you need to supply print books also?



Smashwords don't supply Amazon, though they do sell Kindle-compatible e-books. They also take a cut when you make a sale on another site like B&N, so if you can upload directly to that site (which I believe only Americans can at this time) you're likely to make more money.

Note that you can disable distribution on a per-book and per-site basis so you can, for example, use Smashwords to distribute a book to Sony, Apple, etc but tell them not to distribute to B&N so you can upload the book there yourself. I don't believe Smashwords put any restriction on prices, but Amazon do require that you don't set a lower price elsewhere or they will price-match.


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## markcarraway (Apr 19, 2012)

The KDP select program requires exclusivity of the digital version of your book only, you are allowed to have other "formats" (I assume print, audio and ???) for sale on other platforms but the ebook version must be exclusive to Amazon. 

I suppose the question is whether or not the money you stand to make from borrows (it was a surprising $2.18 in March) is more than you would make by distributing on ibooks, B&N etc. I am pretty early on in my experimenting, but I will sooner or later have this answer to my satisfaction at least.


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