David Gaughran's Blog, page 11

The Visibility Gambit

[image error]Kindle Unlimited has received a fair bit of bad press over the last couple of years – some of it from me – but I want to balance that by looking at the positives.

Most pertinent is KU’s popularity with readers, meaning there can be huge opportunity for authors. Especially so if you make full use of the tools Amazon gives you, and understand that it’s all about visibility.

Enrolling in KU comes at a well-documented cost: exclusivity. But it’s the potential benefits I want to focus on today bec...

The Only Rule Amazon Truly Cares About

[image error]On Monday, I found out that some bug hit a German e-book site causing the reactivation of long-dead listings, including one of mine, putting myself and some other authors in breach of KDP Select’s exclusivity rule.

Amazon pounced into action and cancelled my Countdown deal which was scheduled for this week, screwing up a carefully planned promotion. And despite pledging to resolve the matter and restore the promo, Amazon has not done so.

I’m going to go through what happened in detail so you...

When Reader Targeting Goes Wrong

[image error]Taking a non-scammy tangent from Saturday’s post, I’d like to talk about what happens when you target the wrong readers, because being too scattergun with promo can really hurt your book.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this over the last few months. Currently, I’m in the process of both updating Let’s Get Digital for a third edition and writing a book on the topic which is tentatively called The Reader’s Journey: From Strangers to Superfans – as well as working on a third, secret project for...

Scammers Break The Kindle Store

[image error]On Friday, a book jumped to the #1 spot on Amazon, out of nowhere; it quickly became obvious that the author had used a clickfarm to gatecrash the charts.

The Kindle Store is officially broken.

This is not the first time this has happened and Amazon’s continued inaction is increasingly baffling. Last Sunday, a clickfarmed title also hit #1 in the Kindle Store. And Amazon took no action.

Over the last six weeks, one particularly brazen author has put four separate titles in the Top 10, and Ama...

Amazon Has A Fake Book Problem

[image error]Fake books – powered by clickfarms – are gatecrashing Amazon’s charts. And despite being aware of the issue for well over a year, Amazon has failed to resolve it.

If you look at the Kindle Store Best Seller charts right now, and click over to Free Books, you will see that the Top 20 currently has five suspicious-looking titles.

None of them have reviews. All were published in the last week. They have no Also Boughts – meaning they have had very few sales. Each of these titles are around 2,500...

Who’s Pointing At You?

[image error]The Also Boughts on your page are an important indication of what readers are buying along with your books.

But those particular Also Boughts are only part of the story. What’s really important is which books are pointing back at you.

Let’s use my long-suffering book Liberty Boy as an example again.

As I explained yesterday’s post – Please Don’t Buy My Book – Liberty Boy was dragged down into the ranking depths after having no Also Boughts for months thanks to an Amazon snafu. I eventually fi...

Please Don’t Buy My Book

[image error]I’m just back from The Smarter Artist Summit in Austin, Texas. I won’t try and capture the magic of the event – Kobo Mark does an excellent job – but I would like to talk about the big takeaway: the dangers of Also Bought pollution.

Also Boughts are probably the most important aspect of the entire Amazon recommendation ecostructure. And also the least understood.

They are much more than a little strip under your book’s description – they power a huge chunk of the recommendations that Amazon s...

This Free Tool Could Slightly Change Your Life

You know I’m not one for hyperbole, but this free tool could slightly change your life. I also have news on a sale, a freebie giveaway, then something bearing a passing resemblance to a competition, as well as an interview, a guest post, and a gratuitous picture of a panda. Although is a picture of a panda ever really gratuitous? That question unanswered, and many more…

Ifyou ever wanted to try my fiction, it has never been easier to do and you can pick up all three historical novels I’ve wr...

This Is The Modern Publishing Business

Scammers used to operate at the edges of the publishing business, but have wormed their way into its heart. And the entire industry is in denial.

An unintentionally revealing aspect of the tiresome Amazon-Hachette dispute was a series of statements from an organization purporting to advocate for authors’ rights. One of the heinous crimes Amazon was said to have committed was treating books like toasters.

With such a claim, Authors United was attempting to tap into a current of feeling about t...

Book Launch: LIBERTY BOY

New release time!

LIBERTY BOY is available now for $3.99 from Amazon US | UK | CA (and all the rest too).

It’s the first book in a new series, and the first I’ve set in my home country of Ireland – specifically, in the aftermath of Robert Emmet’s failed 1803 Rising.

The wonderful cover was done by my very talented sister – Kate Gaughran– and a huge thanks to her for that.

Before I get into the background, here’s what Liberty Boy isabout:

Dublin has been on a knife-edge since the failed rebell...