Peter Laurent's Blog - Posts Tagged "kdp"
Coming to More Stores in May, and Other News
Hello people,
A few points of interest for this post...
First, I've written a little over 11,000 words on book 2 so far. I'm going somewhat slower than last time but I think it is working out for the best because the quality has greatly improved, in my humble opinion!
I've taken in all feedback from reviewers and non-reviewers alike, and have learned a lot, so thank you.
I am still aiming for an August-October release window. Hang in there ;)
Second, The Covert Academy will be free for the last time on Amazon this Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th April (PST).
So it will be your last chance to grab a free copy, because I've decided not to renew the 90 day KDP Select exclusive period and instead try out publishing it on the other online stores.
I've read a lot of people's blog posts about publishing on stores such as B+N, Sony, Apple etc. and it seems many indies do not find the same level of success as they do on Amazon. However, the market for books is growing for devices such as tablets plus I do not like being reliant on only one gatekeeper.
So I plan to publish through the aggregator service BookTango which will distribute my book to all the other major publishers. In addition to Amazon, you can expect to see The Covert Academy on iBooks (via iTunes), Nook Book Store, Sony Reader Store, Kobo Books, Scribd and Google Books in early May.
While Smashwords is the popular choice, they take a percentage of your royalties whereas BookTango do not.
The only advantage I see Smashwords offering is an instant royalty payment through Paypal (I have to wait for a paper cheque from Amazon since I live in New Zealand). But then again, Paypal also takes a percentage!
BookTango looks like the way to go for me.
I want to thank anyone who had contacted me directly, and apologise if I don't get round to reading your book. A surprising number of indie authors ask this! I guess it is a good way to get well written reviews. I would instead suggest asking bloggers for reviews, though they get more requests, they also read far more books.
My head is buried in the world of my own writing right now, so I'm reading very little at the moment. I have no idea how some people can read other author's books and write theirs at the same time!
Hmm what else... oh there was an iPhone game I did the artwork for last year that is supposed to be coming out fairly soon (though they did say that last year!). It's called Wild Gang-Indoor Soccer, and it should be a fun cartoony little game.
Keep an eye out for it ;)
Cheers,
-Petes
A few points of interest for this post...
First, I've written a little over 11,000 words on book 2 so far. I'm going somewhat slower than last time but I think it is working out for the best because the quality has greatly improved, in my humble opinion!
I've taken in all feedback from reviewers and non-reviewers alike, and have learned a lot, so thank you.
I am still aiming for an August-October release window. Hang in there ;)
Second, The Covert Academy will be free for the last time on Amazon this Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th April (PST).
So it will be your last chance to grab a free copy, because I've decided not to renew the 90 day KDP Select exclusive period and instead try out publishing it on the other online stores.
I've read a lot of people's blog posts about publishing on stores such as B+N, Sony, Apple etc. and it seems many indies do not find the same level of success as they do on Amazon. However, the market for books is growing for devices such as tablets plus I do not like being reliant on only one gatekeeper.
So I plan to publish through the aggregator service BookTango which will distribute my book to all the other major publishers. In addition to Amazon, you can expect to see The Covert Academy on iBooks (via iTunes), Nook Book Store, Sony Reader Store, Kobo Books, Scribd and Google Books in early May.
While Smashwords is the popular choice, they take a percentage of your royalties whereas BookTango do not.
The only advantage I see Smashwords offering is an instant royalty payment through Paypal (I have to wait for a paper cheque from Amazon since I live in New Zealand). But then again, Paypal also takes a percentage!
BookTango looks like the way to go for me.
I want to thank anyone who had contacted me directly, and apologise if I don't get round to reading your book. A surprising number of indie authors ask this! I guess it is a good way to get well written reviews. I would instead suggest asking bloggers for reviews, though they get more requests, they also read far more books.
My head is buried in the world of my own writing right now, so I'm reading very little at the moment. I have no idea how some people can read other author's books and write theirs at the same time!
Hmm what else... oh there was an iPhone game I did the artwork for last year that is supposed to be coming out fairly soon (though they did say that last year!). It's called Wild Gang-Indoor Soccer, and it should be a fun cartoony little game.
Keep an eye out for it ;)
Cheers,
-Petes
Book Advertising - My Results, Part Duex
Recently I organised a promotion, for both of my books, through Kindle Nation Daily and World Literary Cafe with the intention of breathing new life into my books' sales 7 months after publication.
I had enjoyed 2-3 solid months of sales starting back in Feb 2013, I have a suspicion that Amazon go out of their way to promote debut authors who sign up to KDP Select, but I have not much to base that on other than my own experience so far. I recommend KDP Select if you are publishing your first book at least. Check my older blog posts on how successful it was for me at first.
Anyway, I paid around $100 each to Kindle Nation Daily and World Literary Cafe for two one-day promotions, to promote my book being discounted from $2.99 to $0.99. They each kindly threw in an extra, by adding me to their partnered email sendouts, BookGorilla and BargainBooksy (respectively), since my eBook met their requirements.
So in effect I had 4 promos all running on the same day, August 1st 2013.
What were my results?
The Covert Academy did make it back into the Bestseller charts on Amazon, around #39 in SciFi Dystopia and #89 in SciFi Adventure, and in the top #5000 overall.
Not bad at all.
However, either because the promo finished at the end of the day and KND and WLC moved on to the next day's promos, my book stopped selling the next day. It's now slipping back down to where it sat before the promo, around #200,000 overall.
I also suspect that putting the price back to $2.99 put a lot of people off, and helped to cause the slip back down the charts.
Too long, didn't read: Advertising with Kindle Nation Daily and World Literary Cafe got my book in the bestseller charts again, but didn't last longer than one day.
And I didn't make my money back through sales either.
But I don't consider it a loss. More people got their hands on my book, hopefully the type who will read it, rather than the type who simply collect free books for their library.
One last note, I also signed up for a promo with The New Kindle Book Review. I got an email saying the date I'd booked was unavailable. I've sent several emails back asking to either change the promo type to another (and I'd pay the difference) or to just refund my money if that's not an option for them.
I haven't heard back at all. Not impressed. These guys ran a promo for me earlier in the year without any hassle, but this time they've taken my money and not done a thing. Very poor service. I recommend staying away from them!
UPDATE: They finally got back to me (almost a month later) and threw in a little bonus for my trouble. So no hard feelings and there's a happy ending eventually :)
I hope that helped you to decide on a promo for your book! Feel free to ask me any questions.
I'll be doing another blog post next week (see the "EDIT" below), because I got an interesting email from Amazon that has lead me to believe there is a loophole in their KDP royalty system that not many people know about. I'm putting it to the test now and will report back!
EDIT: The loophole does exist. It involves setting your list price's 35% royalty higher than your "Kindle Price", by price-matching through another sales channel. It works too.
(e.g. List Price= $5.99, 35% royalty= $1.74
Price match it to $0.99 and Amazon effectively pay you $0.75 per sale on top of the sale itself.)
The problem is, Amazon state that they pay 35% of the list price, not the price-matched Kindle Price (when using the 35% royalty).
But do NOT do it!
I got an email from Amazon asking politely for me to match my list price with my Kindle price, or they'd take it down themselves. We don't want that!
Still, Amazon probably ought to adjust their royalty terms and conditions to close that loophole. It's asking for trouble.
(e.g. What if someone listed their product at $200 and price matched it to $0.99 before Amazon caught on? They'd have to pay out $70 for each sale)
I'm not advocating this at all. Just pointing out an interesting flaw in the system!
My own list price is comfortably back at $0.99, and no harm done.
Cheers,
-Peter
I had enjoyed 2-3 solid months of sales starting back in Feb 2013, I have a suspicion that Amazon go out of their way to promote debut authors who sign up to KDP Select, but I have not much to base that on other than my own experience so far. I recommend KDP Select if you are publishing your first book at least. Check my older blog posts on how successful it was for me at first.
Anyway, I paid around $100 each to Kindle Nation Daily and World Literary Cafe for two one-day promotions, to promote my book being discounted from $2.99 to $0.99. They each kindly threw in an extra, by adding me to their partnered email sendouts, BookGorilla and BargainBooksy (respectively), since my eBook met their requirements.
So in effect I had 4 promos all running on the same day, August 1st 2013.
What were my results?
The Covert Academy did make it back into the Bestseller charts on Amazon, around #39 in SciFi Dystopia and #89 in SciFi Adventure, and in the top #5000 overall.
Not bad at all.
However, either because the promo finished at the end of the day and KND and WLC moved on to the next day's promos, my book stopped selling the next day. It's now slipping back down to where it sat before the promo, around #200,000 overall.
I also suspect that putting the price back to $2.99 put a lot of people off, and helped to cause the slip back down the charts.
Too long, didn't read: Advertising with Kindle Nation Daily and World Literary Cafe got my book in the bestseller charts again, but didn't last longer than one day.
And I didn't make my money back through sales either.
But I don't consider it a loss. More people got their hands on my book, hopefully the type who will read it, rather than the type who simply collect free books for their library.
One last note, I also signed up for a promo with The New Kindle Book Review. I got an email saying the date I'd booked was unavailable. I've sent several emails back asking to either change the promo type to another (and I'd pay the difference) or to just refund my money if that's not an option for them.
I haven't heard back at all. Not impressed. These guys ran a promo for me earlier in the year without any hassle, but this time they've taken my money and not done a thing. Very poor service. I recommend staying away from them!
UPDATE: They finally got back to me (almost a month later) and threw in a little bonus for my trouble. So no hard feelings and there's a happy ending eventually :)
I hope that helped you to decide on a promo for your book! Feel free to ask me any questions.
I'll be doing another blog post next week (see the "EDIT" below), because I got an interesting email from Amazon that has lead me to believe there is a loophole in their KDP royalty system that not many people know about. I'm putting it to the test now and will report back!
EDIT: The loophole does exist. It involves setting your list price's 35% royalty higher than your "Kindle Price", by price-matching through another sales channel. It works too.
(e.g. List Price= $5.99, 35% royalty= $1.74
Price match it to $0.99 and Amazon effectively pay you $0.75 per sale on top of the sale itself.)
The problem is, Amazon state that they pay 35% of the list price, not the price-matched Kindle Price (when using the 35% royalty).
But do NOT do it!
I got an email from Amazon asking politely for me to match my list price with my Kindle price, or they'd take it down themselves. We don't want that!
Still, Amazon probably ought to adjust their royalty terms and conditions to close that loophole. It's asking for trouble.
(e.g. What if someone listed their product at $200 and price matched it to $0.99 before Amazon caught on? They'd have to pay out $70 for each sale)
I'm not advocating this at all. Just pointing out an interesting flaw in the system!
My own list price is comfortably back at $0.99, and no harm done.
Cheers,
-Peter
