Amazon To Unveil New MatchBook Feature: Options To Bundle Ebook With Print Book Purchase

Here is an email I just received this week from Amazon:

Hello, We are excited to introduce Kindle MatchBook, an innovative new program which enables you to offer your Kindle book at a discount when readers purchase your print book, so you can sell more books. It's easy to enroll. Here's how it works: Select your Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) title on your KDP Bookshelf and check the Enroll box for Kindle MatchBook on the "Rights & Pricing" page. Set the discount for your book by choosing a promotional list price of $2.99 or less. Save your Kindle MatchBook preferences. By enrolling your book, you will be among the first to be able to take advantage of this new program. The Kindle MatchBook discount you select will not appear on Amazon.com until the program is fully launched in the coming weeks. We will notify you by e-mail as soon as your Kindle MatchBook discount is live. Your readers will soon have an easy and affordable way to read your book in both print and digital formats. Visit your KDP Bookshelf today to enroll your books in Kindle MatchBook. Best regards, The Kindle Direct Publishing Team

There are three options when you opt-in to this promotion: you can price your Kindle book at $1.99, $.99, or free, when the customer buys your printed book. Fortunately, the author still earns the 70% royalty option at the $1.99 and $.99 price points.

This in an interesting way to bundle both your print & ebook versions.... what do you think about this new option coming soon?

Matthew Panzarino, writing at TechCrunch.com this week, thinks there's plenty of upside for author who participate in this new program. Here's what he had to say...

And here's some of the comments readers are posting there:

I'm going to give it a go, and offer up the ebook versions of 4 of my titles for the next two months at just $.99 each when they purchase the paperback version at $8.99. My total royalty will average $3.70 for each book+ebook combo purchase. I'll post results here by the end of October. If sales increase noticeably I'll continue the promotion. If not, I'll quit. And that's the nice feature of self-publishing on Kindle: Author Control.