The KDP Select Experiment: Part 7 - Enter the Dragon
One thing I've always been is a fighter. Not physically, but mentally. If someone tells me something can't be done and I know it can, I'll do everything to prove them wrong. Some people told me I was stupid to try KDP Select. Some say I don't value my work if I give it away for free. Others say I won't see sales after all those 40,000+ free downloads. Well, they're all wrong.
Yesterday I watched my sales at different times throughout the day. I noticed that my rank was steadily going lower, meaning more sales. Usually after I do a promotion and it ends, the rank rises, and not too slowly.
At 6:30 PM, DIVINE INTERVENTION's rank was 5032 Paid Kindle. It was also #6 in the top 100 books about Canadian Detectives.
By 9 PM, DI's rank was 4038 Paid Kindle, #3 in Books - Canadian Detectives and #89 in Kindle - Police Procedurals.
At 6:30 PM THE RIVER's rank was 907 Paid Kindle, meaning it was in the top 1000 Kindle ebooks sold by Amazon. It was #6 in Books - Technothrillers, #6 in Kindle - Technothrillers, and #20 in Kindle Sci-fi Adventure.
By 9PM its rank was 831. THE RIVER was also #4 in Books - Technothrillers, #4 in Kindle - Technothrillers, and #19 in Kindle Sci-fi Adventure.
I have done nothing else out of the norm to promote these titles, other than a few tweets (which I usually do for my titles every week or two), some RTs by others and one special promo for THE RIVER on the 25th, which was only for the day. Past experience says my ranks should be higher. Since the only other thing I've done that's different is have them in the KDP Select program, I can only deduce that it is what's responsible for my increased sales.
So what kind of increase have I seen? It's not huge, but I'll take it as a sign of what's to come.
I've sold over 380 copies of DI and TR in the past 2 days on Amazon with very little effort or marketing. This includes about 80 sales on the foreign Amazon sites.
Prior to trying KDP Select and the 2 free promos, neither of my titles had sold this month on any other foreign Amazon, with the exception of a handful of copies total on Amazon.co.uk. I've now broken into the .de (Germany), .fr (France) and .es (Spain) markets with actual sales.
One thing I wondered early on was: would my free promos spur sales of DIVINE JUSTICE, book 2 in my Divine series? It appears it has. Today I saw a sudden spike in sales for DIVINE JUSTICE, and again I've done nothing to promote it. I haven't even tweeted about it lately. If the sales rank continues to go lower I'll know for sure it's a result of KDP Select. Otherwise it's just a fluky coincidence, right? :-)
Was this experiment worth it?Cheryl Kaye Tardif is a bestselling Canadian suspense author.
www.cherylktardif.com
Check out Cheryl Kaye Tardif's novels!
Yesterday I watched my sales at different times throughout the day. I noticed that my rank was steadily going lower, meaning more sales. Usually after I do a promotion and it ends, the rank rises, and not too slowly.
At 6:30 PM, DIVINE INTERVENTION's rank was 5032 Paid Kindle. It was also #6 in the top 100 books about Canadian Detectives.
By 9 PM, DI's rank was 4038 Paid Kindle, #3 in Books - Canadian Detectives and #89 in Kindle - Police Procedurals.
At 6:30 PM THE RIVER's rank was 907 Paid Kindle, meaning it was in the top 1000 Kindle ebooks sold by Amazon. It was #6 in Books - Technothrillers, #6 in Kindle - Technothrillers, and #20 in Kindle Sci-fi Adventure.
By 9PM its rank was 831. THE RIVER was also #4 in Books - Technothrillers, #4 in Kindle - Technothrillers, and #19 in Kindle Sci-fi Adventure.
I have done nothing else out of the norm to promote these titles, other than a few tweets (which I usually do for my titles every week or two), some RTs by others and one special promo for THE RIVER on the 25th, which was only for the day. Past experience says my ranks should be higher. Since the only other thing I've done that's different is have them in the KDP Select program, I can only deduce that it is what's responsible for my increased sales.
So what kind of increase have I seen? It's not huge, but I'll take it as a sign of what's to come.
I've sold over 380 copies of DI and TR in the past 2 days on Amazon with very little effort or marketing. This includes about 80 sales on the foreign Amazon sites.
Prior to trying KDP Select and the 2 free promos, neither of my titles had sold this month on any other foreign Amazon, with the exception of a handful of copies total on Amazon.co.uk. I've now broken into the .de (Germany), .fr (France) and .es (Spain) markets with actual sales.
One thing I wondered early on was: would my free promos spur sales of DIVINE JUSTICE, book 2 in my Divine series? It appears it has. Today I saw a sudden spike in sales for DIVINE JUSTICE, and again I've done nothing to promote it. I haven't even tweeted about it lately. If the sales rank continues to go lower I'll know for sure it's a result of KDP Select. Otherwise it's just a fluky coincidence, right? :-)
Was this experiment worth it?Cheryl Kaye Tardif is a bestselling Canadian suspense author.
www.cherylktardif.com
Check out Cheryl Kaye Tardif's novels!
No comments have been added yet.
