Kindle Unlimited and your first chapter: what KDP Select actually allows
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R. S. Breed Founder
A question that keeps coming up: if your ebook is in Kindle Unlimited, can you share the first chapter on your website, in your newsletter, or on a site like this one?
KDP doesn't give a straight yes or no, so here's what the terms actually say, what's clear-cut, and where the grey area is. Checked against KDP's own pages this week.
What the terms say
The KDP Select page:
"During the period of exclusivity, you cannot distribute your book digitally anywhere else, including on your website, blogs, etc."
https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/select
The exclusivity help page:
"During the 90-day enrollment period, the Kindle eBook can only be distributed through KDP and public libraries. However, you can continue to distribute print, video, audio, or other formats of your title elsewhere."
https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GD9PMU58BV24QFZ7
And the KDP Select section of the terms and conditions:
"During this period of exclusivity, you cannot sell or distribute, or give anyone else the right to sell or distribute, your Digital Book (or a book that is substantially similar), in digital format in any territory where you have rights."
https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/terms-and-conditions
What changed
KDP's help pages used to spell out that you could make "up to 10% of your book available on other sites as a sample". Archived copies show that sentence was there in August 2020 and gone by October 2020, and nothing replaced it. So if you've seen the 10% rule quoted, it's pointing at wording that no longer exists. Equally, nothing replaced it with a ban on samples. The terms just don't mention them.
What's clear-cut
- The whole ebook can't go anywhere else digitally while it's in KU. That includes giving it away free: "distribute" isn't just selling. Worth remembering for giveaways and reader copies.
- Audio and print are fine. Both are named as formats you can keep distributing.
- Unpublishing doesn't end it early. Pull the book mid-term and enrolment pauses; when you republish it "must remain exclusive through the remainder of the title's current 90-day participation period".
- KU's own way to let readers try the whole book is free days: "You can offer your Kindle eBook for free for up to 5 days out of each 90-day KDP Select enrollment period." https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201298240
The grey area: a first chapter as marketing
The terms are about distributing the book. A short opening chapter used to sell it isn't the book, and lots of authors share one on their own sites. But since KDP removed its own wording on samples and hasn't said anything since, whether a chapter counts is your judgement, not something KDP has answered.
If you want no ambiguity at all, link to Amazon's own sample from the product page. If you do share an opening yourself, the sensible way is to keep it to a genuine sample (the old 10% line is a reasonable yardstick), make it clearly a sample, and send readers to Amazon for the rest.
On Bervet, KU listings give readers Amazon's sample by default, and authors can choose to host their own sample here instead (up to 10% of the book). The chapter 1 form lays out exactly what the terms say before you decide.
Has anyone here ever had KDP query an excerpt or a sample on their own site? Curious whether it's ever actually come up.