The KDP Select Experiment: Part 5 - The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
If you haven't read my earlier posts on KDP Select, check out: The KDP Select Experiment: Part 1 - Mission Impossible?, The KDP Select Experiment: Part 2 - Waiting to Exhale, The KDP Select Experiment: Part 3 - Good Will Hunting and The KDP Select Experiment: Part 4 - The Fast & the Furious.
To capsulize, THE RIVER was available FREE on Amazon for January 23/24, while DIVINE INTERVENTION was FREE from January 21-25.
The Good:
THE RIVER - in 2 days on Amazon.com, 20658 people downloaded my thriller for free and have now been exposed to my work. The lowest rank I saw was #10 in overall top "bestsellers" for FREE Kindles, which meant anyone looking on Amazon for free ebooks would have seen my title. It made #1 "bestseller" in 3 categories during the promo time: #1 Technothrillers, #1 Adventure and #1 Action & Adventure. It beat out one of Amanda Hocking's titles. Two new 5-star reviews during this promo.
Foreign Amazons: 1186 (UK), 63 (DE), 2 (FR), 1 (ES), 0 (IT) = 1252 free copies
DIVINE INTERVENTION - in 5 days on Amazon.com, 19787 people downloaded my thriller for free and have now been exposed to my work. The lowest rank: #23 in overall top "bestsellers" for FREE Kindles, which meant anyone looking on Amazon for free ebooks would have seen my title. It made #1 "bestseller" in Police Procedurals and #6 in Women Sleuths.
Foreign Amazons: 1047 (UK), 77 (DE), 5 (FR), 0 (ES), 0 (IT) = 1129 free copies
Total free downloads and new readers reached: 42886.
My two titles now show up on other Kindle ebook pages in the 'Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought' section. More exposure.
I did notice a small surge in sales of Imajin Books (my publishing company) titles by other authors during these promos. It appears that some readers may have purchased one of our other titles after reading one of my books.
The Bad:
THE RIVER - one full day after the promos ended only 20 people borrowed THE RIVER with the new Kindle Owner's Lending Library. As per Amazon's terms, I'll receive a percentage of the $700,000 pool based on how many times my book was borrowed during the month. I expect the payment to be very small as it will be shared between thousands of authors with thousands of ebooks. As I predicted early on, Amazon's example was much higher than I'll receive (and I'm probably not the only author who won't see much.)
DIVINE INTERVENTION - since THE RIVER was more popular, I'm expecting the borrows on DI to be less. Again I doubt I'll see anywhere near what Amazon gave as an example of income. My guess is I'll get less than $5 for the borrowed books. I'll let you know.
The Ugly:
Some writers have reported a huge surge in sales immediately following their free promo. I recall reading one author's stats where they reported averaging 500 sales per hour for the first few hours. Yeah, not me. Though I went into this experiment with positive thoughts and some expectations, I was not surprised to see my sales of THE RIVER are about what I normally would get. No surge. No obvious sales afterward. I realize this could occur over some time. Not everyone will read their free downloads in a week; some may not open my book for a year or more. But seeing no surge in sales afterward is disappointing. I was hoping to see a noticeable difference.
So was my experiment a success?
I guess that depends on what you consider a success. I consider it a success when over 40,000 new readers discover one of my novels; there's a good chance that many of them will buy one of my other titles. There's also a good chance that many won't buy another of my books because they either a) didn't like my book or b) they only want free ebooks and aren't willing to pay for them. Both reasons are human nature.
I went into this experiment with one main goal: to get exposure to readers. I got that. Of course I'd love to see a huge surge in after-sales, something concrete to point to so I can say with all certainty that KDP Select is the best program for authors and is worth sacrificing other sales channels for. I can't quite say that.
To be fair, I need more time to evaluate this program. A week from now could make a difference and I could see many new reviews and more sales of my other titles. Time will tell if this program is really worth ticking off readers who don't have Kindles or who don't want to shop via Amazon. If I notice a surge in sales, I'll let you know.
If you found my experiment helpful, please consider purchasing THE RIVER, "a gripping combination of suspense, sci-fi and adventure...a cross between Michael Crichton's Timeline and Dan Brown's Angels & Demons," on Amazon for only $2.99.
Or DIVINE INTERVENTION, "a fan of J.D. Robb will thoroughly enjoy this one...a genuinely Canadian crime novel...leave(s) you smoldering," on Amazon for only $2.99.Cheryl Kaye Tardif is a bestselling Canadian suspense author.
www.cherylktardif.com
Check out Cheryl Kaye Tardif's novels!
To capsulize, THE RIVER was available FREE on Amazon for January 23/24, while DIVINE INTERVENTION was FREE from January 21-25.
The Good:THE RIVER - in 2 days on Amazon.com, 20658 people downloaded my thriller for free and have now been exposed to my work. The lowest rank I saw was #10 in overall top "bestsellers" for FREE Kindles, which meant anyone looking on Amazon for free ebooks would have seen my title. It made #1 "bestseller" in 3 categories during the promo time: #1 Technothrillers, #1 Adventure and #1 Action & Adventure. It beat out one of Amanda Hocking's titles. Two new 5-star reviews during this promo.
Foreign Amazons: 1186 (UK), 63 (DE), 2 (FR), 1 (ES), 0 (IT) = 1252 free copies
DIVINE INTERVENTION - in 5 days on Amazon.com, 19787 people downloaded my thriller for free and have now been exposed to my work. The lowest rank: #23 in overall top "bestsellers" for FREE Kindles, which meant anyone looking on Amazon for free ebooks would have seen my title. It made #1 "bestseller" in Police Procedurals and #6 in Women Sleuths.
Foreign Amazons: 1047 (UK), 77 (DE), 5 (FR), 0 (ES), 0 (IT) = 1129 free copies
Total free downloads and new readers reached: 42886.
My two titles now show up on other Kindle ebook pages in the 'Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought' section. More exposure.
I did notice a small surge in sales of Imajin Books (my publishing company) titles by other authors during these promos. It appears that some readers may have purchased one of our other titles after reading one of my books.
The Bad:THE RIVER - one full day after the promos ended only 20 people borrowed THE RIVER with the new Kindle Owner's Lending Library. As per Amazon's terms, I'll receive a percentage of the $700,000 pool based on how many times my book was borrowed during the month. I expect the payment to be very small as it will be shared between thousands of authors with thousands of ebooks. As I predicted early on, Amazon's example was much higher than I'll receive (and I'm probably not the only author who won't see much.)
DIVINE INTERVENTION - since THE RIVER was more popular, I'm expecting the borrows on DI to be less. Again I doubt I'll see anywhere near what Amazon gave as an example of income. My guess is I'll get less than $5 for the borrowed books. I'll let you know.
The Ugly:
Some writers have reported a huge surge in sales immediately following their free promo. I recall reading one author's stats where they reported averaging 500 sales per hour for the first few hours. Yeah, not me. Though I went into this experiment with positive thoughts and some expectations, I was not surprised to see my sales of THE RIVER are about what I normally would get. No surge. No obvious sales afterward. I realize this could occur over some time. Not everyone will read their free downloads in a week; some may not open my book for a year or more. But seeing no surge in sales afterward is disappointing. I was hoping to see a noticeable difference.
So was my experiment a success?I guess that depends on what you consider a success. I consider it a success when over 40,000 new readers discover one of my novels; there's a good chance that many of them will buy one of my other titles. There's also a good chance that many won't buy another of my books because they either a) didn't like my book or b) they only want free ebooks and aren't willing to pay for them. Both reasons are human nature.
I went into this experiment with one main goal: to get exposure to readers. I got that. Of course I'd love to see a huge surge in after-sales, something concrete to point to so I can say with all certainty that KDP Select is the best program for authors and is worth sacrificing other sales channels for. I can't quite say that.
To be fair, I need more time to evaluate this program. A week from now could make a difference and I could see many new reviews and more sales of my other titles. Time will tell if this program is really worth ticking off readers who don't have Kindles or who don't want to shop via Amazon. If I notice a surge in sales, I'll let you know.
If you found my experiment helpful, please consider purchasing THE RIVER, "a gripping combination of suspense, sci-fi and adventure...a cross between Michael Crichton's Timeline and Dan Brown's Angels & Demons," on Amazon for only $2.99.
Or DIVINE INTERVENTION, "a fan of J.D. Robb will thoroughly enjoy this one...a genuinely Canadian crime novel...leave(s) you smoldering," on Amazon for only $2.99.Cheryl Kaye Tardif is a bestselling Canadian suspense author.
www.cherylktardif.com
Check out Cheryl Kaye Tardif's novels!
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