The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is off to a strong start: customers borrowed 295,000 KDP Select titles in December alone, and KDP Select has helped grow total library selection to over 75,000 books. With the $500,000 December fund, KDP authors have earned $1.70 per borrow. In response to strong customer adoption of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (as well as seasonal, post-holiday use of new Kindles), Amazon.com, Inc. has added a $200,000 bonus to the January KDP Select fund, raising the total pool from $500,000 to $700,000.

Paid KDP sales grew rapidly in December — and results show that paid sales of titles participating in KDP Select are growing even faster than other KDP titles. On top of this growth in paid sales, KDP Select authors and publishers on average are receiving an incremental 26% in December as a result of their participation in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

“KDP Select appears to be earning authors more money in two ways. We knew customers would love having KDP Select titles in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. But we’ve been surprised by how much paid sales of those same titles increased, even relative to the rest of KDP,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. “Due to this early success and a seasonally strong January, we’re adding a $200,000 bonus to January’s KDP Select fund, growing this month’s total pool to $700,000.”

The top ten KDP Select authors earned over $70,000 in the month of December from their participation in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, a 30% increase on top of the royalties they earned from their paid sales on the same titles in the same period. In total (paid sales plus their share of the loan fund), these authors saw their royalties grow an astonishing 449% month-over-month from November to December. The list of top 10 KDP Select authors includes Carolyn McCray, Rachel Yu, the Grabarchuk family and Amber Scott.

Carolyn McCray, a writer of paranormal romance novels, historical thrillers and mysteries, earned $8,250 from the KDP Select fund in December. “KDP Select truly is a career altering program,” said McCray. “I couldn’t be happier with the tools, support and exposure it has given me. To say the trade-off of exclusivity on Amazon for the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library has been a profitable one would be a gross understatement. Participating in KDP Select has quadrupled my royalties.”

Rachel Yu is a 16-year-old author of children’s books, and she earned $6,200 from the KDP Select fund in the month of December. “It’s so cool to be part of the success of KDP Select,” said Yu. “It’s just like a library but with easier access. There’s truly no other opportunity like Amazon for self-publishing.”

The Grabarchuk family earned $6,300 from the KDP Select fund in December from their puzzle books. “After only a month KDP Select has dramatically changed things — finally indie publishers are playing as equals with the big publishing houses in the world’s biggest eBook marketplace,” said Serhiy Grabarchuk, Co-Founder of the Grabarchuk Puzzles company.

Amber Scott is a romance writer and earned $7,650 from the KDP Select fund in December. “Enrolling in KDP Select utterly transformed my career,” said Scott. “I’ve experienced not only a surge in royalties but a surge in readership thanks to the increased exposure. I love the chance to earn new readers through the innovation of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. What an exciting time to be an author!”

Since launching Kindle Owners’ Lending Library on November 2, Prime members with Kindles can now choose from over 75,000 books to borrow for free–including over 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers–as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates.

For more information about the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, please visit http://www.amazon.com/kindleownerslendinglibrary . Independent authors and publishers can enroll their books in KDP Select at http://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/KDPSelect . To learn about all of the additional benefits included with Amazon Prime, or to start an Amazon Prime free trial visit www.amazon.com/prime .

Brad Martin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Random House of Canada Limited, announced today that Random House of Canada (RHC) has become the sole owner of McClelland & Stewart (M&S). Established in 1906, McClelland & Stewart is one of Canada’s most revered trade book publishing houses, whose internationally acclaimed authors include such notable Canadians as Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, Rohinton Mistry, Farley Mowat and Michael Ondaatje. We are pleased to note that the needed regulatory approval has been obtained from the responsible authority.

In 2000, Chairman and sole owner of M&S Avie Bennett donated 75% of M&S to the University of Toronto and sold the remaining 25% to Random House of Canada Limited (RHC). M&S retained its editorial autonomy and independence throughout this eleven-year relationship. RHC has been providing a range of support services to M&S throughout this period, including Sales, Production, Human Resources and Accounting.

In recent years, the challenges facing publishers, including a difficult economy and digital-driven transitions facing the industry, have put significant pressure on M&S, and it has been experiencing financial challenges. Brad Martin observes, “We believe with McClelland & Stewart fully within the Random House of Canada family we will more effectively be able to meet these challenges to ensure the growth and long-term stability of this iconic Canadian publisher.”

To ensure McClelland & Stewart’s ongoing success, RHC has made significant long-term commitments in undertaking this full ownership. They include maintaining the publishing program, including the eponymous McClelland & Stewart imprint and the New Canadian Library, Emblem Editions, and Signal imprints. RHC will also continue to fund and support the M&S Poetry program, the publication of The Journey Prize stories, and ongoing support for the Writers Trust Journey Prize. Random House of Canada is also establishing The McClelland & Stewart Lecture, an annual event to be held at the University of Toronto, that will be focused around the advancement of writers and their ideas, a mandate with which M&S has long been closely identified.

Doug Pepper, President and Publisher of McClelland & Stewart since 2004, will continue to run M&S, reporting to Brad Martin. He also becomes a member of the Executive Committee of Random House of Canada Limited. Ellen Seligman, Executive Vice President of McClelland & Stewart who has been its highly regarded Publisher (Fiction) for twelve years, continues in her role.

RHC is also very committed to the growth of M&S’s respected Tundra Books children’s imprint. Under the leadership of Managing Director Alison Morgan and Editorial Director Tara Walker, Tundra Books will be the Canadian children’s publishing program within Random House of Canada, with Doubleday Canada maintaining its thriving Young Adult publishing program.

Avie Bennett commented, “Random House of Canada has been a wonderful partner for McClelland & Stewart for the past eleven years. The commitments they have made to upholding the tradition of M&S and the ongoing focus on Canadian publishing assures me that M&S is in good hands.”

David Naylor, President, University of Toronto said, “We have enjoyed our association with McClelland & Stewart and look forward to our continued association through The McClelland & Stewart Lecture events. We greatly respect the care and attention with which Random House of Canada has managed their 25% ownership over the past eleven years and are confident that Random House of Canada’s commitment to McClelland & Stewart will help it achieve even greater success in the future.”

Brad Martin remarked, “Avie Bennett’s devotion to McClelland & Stewart has been a gift to Canadian authors and readers. His contributions to Canadian publishing and to our literary heritage are unparalleled. I thank Avie and also the University of Toronto for their stewardship and commitment to M&S. McClelland & Stewart is one of the world’s great publishers, and we are committed to making it even greater.”

I’ve been noticing a few authors with Facebook ads showing up while I’ve been perusing my FB wall. I’ve been liking them as a matter of course, but I’m wondering if I should stop, so I can watch the evolution of the ads.

These are the ones I’ve captured so far. I think Patterson has the most compelling ad, since free offers are very successful on Facebook. Cornwell’s is aimed primarily at existing fans. I’m not sure DiCamillo’s strategy of pursuing aspiring authors is the best way to find new readers for her books, but it will get followers, I’m sure.

Some authors and books initially faced rejection before eventually becoming hugely successful. Bestselling authors such as Patricia Cornwell, J.K. Rowling and John Grisham received many rejections before getting their first book contracts.

Patricia Cornwell talks about working in a morgue before getting published, and even after, to pay the bills.

Amazon recently introduced the Kindle Fire, an Android-based tablet computer that they are selling for $199 each. The pricing is a great deal for consumers – it’s $300 less than the least expensive iPad 2 and $50 cheaper than Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color — but a loss-leader for Amazon which loses approximately $20 on each unit sold.

While there are no figures from Amazon on the number of units pre-ordered so far, the retailer reportedly took 95,000 pre-orders on the first day, and other reports say they’ve been selling approximately 50,000 a day since then.

Putting the Kindle Fire in so many hands is a great move if all the folks who buy them are tied to Amazon’s books, music and apps, but is that really going to be the case?

The Kindle Fire is an Android tablet, and while it may be an Amazon-modified version of the operating system, users are going to want to put their own apps on the device. If this isn’t possible out of the box, within a few days of shipping, some enterprising hacker will make it possible.

The problem isn’t new. Even Amazon’s e-ink ebook readers can display content not purchased at Amazon, but at least with the dedicated readers all you can really do with the device is read books.

Not so with a tablet. Amazon isn’t going to make money off users who only bought the tablet to have a portable YouTube and Facebook screen. Even if someone buys a few cheap apps, it’s going to take a while for Amazon to get back its investment, if it ever does.

Likewise, they’re not going to sell ebooks to someone who bought the tablet to load up free videos from the Web and keep their kids amused on long trips. And if it’s possible to add random apps, what if they load a competing ebook reader and use the tablet for reading books bought at B&N or Sony?

Michael Norris, senior analyst of Simba Information’s Trade Books Group, has noted that their data suggests that, “the more multimedia capabilities some devices have, the less likely the consumer will be to purchase e-books on that particular device.”

Simba has also reported that 40 percent of iPad owners have never used their tablets to read or purchase an ebook. I didn’t find that statistic terribly surprising either. After all, you’d have to be a pretty dedicated reader to choose a book over YouTube, Facebook and Angry Birds, and even die-hard readers can get distracted by the bright and shiny bling that you can get on your tablet.

Maybe Amazon is crazy by selling so many tablets at a loss. But maybe not. After all, one third of all US e-commerce sales happen on Amazon. If that statistic holds, maybe it doesn’t even matter that the Kindle Fire can read non-Amazon books and play non-Amazon apps… Amazon is pretty much guaranteed a certain percentage of those digital sales anyway. And getting their online store front-and-center on that many portable devices can only help boost their percentage of sales overall.

Whether the move is good for the book industry, and for Amazon, is soon to be seen, as the Fire is slated to begin shipping on the 15th.