What Is KDP Select? Exclusivity, Kindle Unlimited and Promos

KDP Select is an optional Amazon program for Kindle ebooks. You agree to sell the digital edition of your book only through Amazon for 90 days, and in return your book is added to Kindle Unlimited and you can run Amazon's promotional tools.

That is the whole deal: exclusivity in exchange for page-read income and promotions. Whether it is a good deal depends on your genre, your catalogue and how much effort you want to put into other stores. This article covers each part of the program and then helps you decide.

How KDP Select exclusivity works

When you enrol a Kindle ebook in KDP Select, you promise that the digital version of that book is available only on Amazon for as long as it is enrolled. In practice that means:

• You cannot sell the ebook on Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books, Barnes & Noble Press or through a distributor like Draft2Digital.
• You cannot sell or give away the ebook from your own website, newsletter or a bundle site.
• Free samples elsewhere are limited. Amazon's terms set a cap on how much of the book can appear outside Amazon, so check the current rule in the KDP Select terms before posting long excerpts.

Exclusivity covers the ebook only. Your paperback, hardcover and audiobook editions are not affected. You can sell your paperback through KDP's Expanded Distribution, IngramSpark or your own events while the ebook sits in Select.

Exclusivity is also per book, not per account. You can enrol one title and keep another title wide. Many authors put one series in Select and leave a different series in every store.

Example: Priya publishes a cosy mystery as an ebook and a paperback. She enrols the ebook in KDP Select. She must remove any copies of the ebook from Kobo and Apple Books before enrolling, but she can keep selling the paperback on Barnes & Noble's website and at local bookshops.

What the 90-day term means

Every enrolment runs for 90 days. When the term ends, it renews automatically for another 90 days unless you turn auto-renewal off.

A few points catch people out:

• You commit for the full term. Once enrolled, you generally cannot pull the book out early. Plan your exit date in advance.
• Turning off auto-renew does not remove the book right away. It stays in Select until the current term ends, then leaves.
• Your ebook must be gone from other stores before you enrol. If a copy is still live on another retailer, Amazon can flag the book as violating exclusivity.
• Promotion allowances reset each term. The free days and Countdown Deal options described below apply per 90-day period.

You can find the enrolment status, the term end date and the auto-renew checkbox on your Bookshelf in the KDP dashboard. Write the end date somewhere you will see it, because it is easy to forget and get renewed for another three months you did not want.

How Kindle Unlimited page reads work

Kindle Unlimited is Amazon's subscription service. Readers pay a monthly fee and can read as many enrolled books as they like. Your enrolled ebook becomes part of that catalogue automatically.

You are not paid per borrow. You are paid for pages read, measured in KENP (Kindle Edition Normalized Pages). Amazon calculates a standardised page count for your book so that font size and device do not change the number. Each time a subscriber reads a page for the first time, that page counts toward your total.

The money comes from the KDP Select Global Fund. Each month Amazon sets the size of the fund and works out a per-page rate based on how many pages were read across the program. That rate changes from month to month, so do not plan around a fixed figure. You can see your KENP count and earnings in your KDP reports, and Amazon announces the fund details there.

What this means for you:

• Length matters, but only if people finish. A long book that readers abandon earns less than a shorter one they read to the end.
• Series do well. A reader who finishes book one can start book two at no extra cost, which keeps the pages adding up.
• Your sales and your page reads are separate income streams. Readers who do not subscribe still buy your book at full price, and you earn your normal royalty on those sales.

Example: Two thriller authors each enrol a 300-KENP novel. Readers of the first book mostly stop at chapter five. The second author's readers finish, then borrow the sequel. As a result, the second author earns far more from Kindle Unlimited, even though both books are the same length.

If you write in a genre where readers binge, such as romance, thrillers, fantasy or cosy mystery, Kindle Unlimited is often where most of the reading happens. If you write a single non-fiction reference book, the effect is usually smaller.

Promotions you get with KDP Select

Enrolled books can use two promotional tools. You can run one or the other in a given term, not both, so pick the one that fits your goal.

Free Book Promotion. You can make the ebook free for a limited number of days in each 90-day term (Amazon's terms set this at five days). You choose whether to use them all at once or spread them out. Free downloads do not earn royalties, but they can put the book in front of many new readers, push it up the free charts and lead to reviews and sales of later books.

Kindle Countdown Deal. You discount the book for a set period, and a countdown timer shows on the product page. The price steps back up toward full price over the deal. Under Amazon's terms you keep the royalty rate you would earn at full price during the deal, which matters if you normally earn 70%. Countdown Deals are only offered in certain Amazon marketplaces, so check which ones in the promotion settings.

You set both up from the KDP Select section of your Bookshelf. There are timing rules. For example, you usually need to have been enrolled for a while before your first Countdown Deal, and the price must have stayed the same for a set period first. KDP shows the current rules when you create the deal.

Amazon has also offered higher royalty rates in some marketplaces for enrolled books. Check the current terms in your dashboard, because this changes.

KDP Select vs going wide: the differences

"Going wide" means publishing your ebook on many stores instead of only Amazon. Here is how the two options compare.

	KDP Select (exclusive)	Going wide
Where the ebook is sold	Amazon only	Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play, B&N, libraries and more
Kindle Unlimited income	Yes, paid per KENP page read	No
Promotions	Free days or Countdown Deals each term	Each store's own tools; you can set free or discounted prices yourself
Commitment	90-day terms that auto-renew	None; you can change at any time
Selling from your own site	Not allowed for the ebook	Allowed
Paperback and audiobook	Unaffected	Unaffected
Workload	One dashboard	Several dashboards, or a distributor
Risk	All ebook income depends on one company	Income spread across stores

Royalty rates for ebook sales on Amazon are the same whether you are in Select or not. Under KDP's published terms you earn 70% for list prices from $2.99 to $9.99 (minus a delivery fee) and 35% outside that range. Confirm the current terms in your KDP dashboard. Other stores publish their own rates, often around 70% within certain price ranges, but verify each one in that store's dashboard. You can run your numbers with the KDP royalty calculator.

For a deeper look at the wide side, read what going wide means.

When to enrol in KDP Select

KDP Select tends to suit you if:

• You write in a genre that Kindle Unlimited readers devour. Romance, fantasy, thrillers and similar fiction often see a large share of reading come through subscriptions.
• You are writing a series. Each finished book pulls readers into the next at no extra cost to them. If you are planning one, see how to write a book series.
• You are new and have one or two books. Managing a single dashboard is simpler, and free days give a debut book a way to find early readers.
• You publish often. A steady release schedule keeps you visible to subscribers.
• You do not have an audience on other stores yet. If you would sell little on Kobo or Apple at first, giving up those sales costs you less.

When to go wide instead

Going wide may suit you better if:

• Your readers are on other stores. Some countries and some genres have strong Kobo, Apple or Google Play readerships.
• You want library distribution. Libraries are a wide-only channel for ebooks.
• You sell directly from your website or newsletter. Select does not allow it.
• You write non-fiction that people buy rather than binge. Reference books, business books and cookbooks often earn mainly from sales, so page reads add less.
• You do not want one company controlling your ebook income. If Amazon changes the fund or your account has a problem, a wide catalogue keeps money coming in from elsewhere.
• You are prepared to build slowly. Wide sales often take time to grow on each store.

There is also a middle path. Some authors launch in Select to get early momentum, then go wide once the series is finished. Others keep their first series wide and test a new pen name in Select. Because enrolment is per book and per term, you can try one approach and change later.

How to enrol a book in KDP Select

1. Make sure the ebook is not available anywhere else in digital form. Remove it from other stores and distributors, and wait until the listings are actually gone.
2. Go to your Bookshelf in KDP.
3. Choose the KDP Select option next to the ebook, or tick the enrolment box when you publish a new title.
4. Read and accept the terms.
5. Decide whether to keep auto-renewal switched on.

If you are publishing for the first time, our Amazon KDP publishing guide walks through the whole upload process. Inkora's Publishing Hub includes a step-by-step Amazon KDP checklist you can follow alongside your own KDP account. Inkora does not upload for you, so the enrolment choice stays in your hands.

Common problems and fixes

Amazon emails you about a copy of your ebook on another store. This usually happens when you removed a book from a distributor but a retailer has not taken it down yet. Reply quickly, list the stores where you requested removal and send screenshots or confirmation emails. Contact the other store or distributor directly to speed up the takedown. Always remove books from other stores before enrolling, not after.

You were auto-renewed when you meant to go wide. You will need to wait for the new term to end. Turn off auto-renew now so it does not happen again, and use the time to prepare your wide launch: store accounts, metadata, pricing and an EPUB file ready to upload.

Page reads are much lower than expected. Look at where readers stop. A slow opening, a weak hook in the first chapters or a mismatch between cover and content often causes drop-off. Check that your blurb and categories attract the readers who will finish the book.

A free promotion brought downloads but no sales. Free days work best when readers have somewhere to go next. Add a clear link to your next book or newsletter in the back matter, and schedule the promotion when you have more than one book out.

Your book disappeared from other stores but you did not want exclusivity. Check whether you ticked the Select box during publishing. If so, turn off auto-renew and plan your wide return for the term end date.

You want to go wide but do not know where to start. Choose a distributor or a few direct stores. A distributor like Draft2Digital can send your ebook to several retailers from one account, minus its fee. If you made your book in Inkora, you can export an EPUB 3 file and follow the Publishing Hub checklists for each store.

KDP Select trades 90 days of ebook exclusivity for Kindle Unlimited page reads and Amazon's promotions. It often works well for binge-read fiction and series, while going wide suits authors who want more stores, libraries and direct sales. Pick one for your next term, watch your reports, and change course at the end date if the numbers say so.