Is It Harder Today for Self-Published Authors to “Break in” at Amazon?

You’ve published your ebook, done book blog tours, pimped your work on Twitter and Facebook, and you even got such-and-such favorite author to provide a blurb. Now, where the heck are the sales?

Hmm.

It’s a crummy reality, but, when it comes to ebooks, there’s more competition these days.

Those clairvoyant authors who were smart enough to get into the Kindle Store back in 2009, when so few mainstream titles were available as ebooks, enjoyed the perks of a less crowded marketplace. Today every new traditionally published book is available as an ebook (and many of the older ones are out there too), and there are tens of thousands of self-publishers adding their titles to the virtual stores.

Obscurity has always been the enemy, but there have been tricks (let’s call them opportunities, so as not to ruffle feathers) that allowed early adopters to profit handsomely. Those tactics seem to be losing viability now though. Let’s take a look at a couple of recent changes that may make it tougher to break in as an indie author.

The fall of the 99-cent ebook?

A couple of years ago, Amanda Hocking came on the self-publishing scene with several YA ebooks priced at 99 cents (for book 1s) and $2.99 (for subsequent books) and had legendary sales that led to a legendary two-million-dollar traditional publishing deal.

This was before I started self-publishing, but I understand that she was one of the first to take advantage of the 99-cent price point. Most indies were sticking to $2.99 and up because Amazon made $2.99-$.9.99 the point at which authors could earn the highest royalty percentage. (You have to sell six times as many books at 99 cents to earn the same $2 you’d get on a $2.99 book.) But readers were all over those early 99-cent ebooks because they were such a bargain, and numerous self-published authors leaped to the tops of the bestseller lists.

Would-be prognosticators said this signified a “race to the bottom,” a scenario in which all ebooks would eventually be 99 cents or even free, leaving authors a pittance of an income for all their work. Well, Amazon, perhaps not enamored with making pennies per sale, has made some changes to its ranking algorithms. A few weeks ago, we talked to indie author and stats junkie Edward Robertson about those updates and learned that Amazon has started weighting books based not only on sales history but on price. This may change one day, but, right now, all other factors being equal, higher priced books enjoy more prominent ranking positions in the popularity lists.

Though this is doubtlessly about Amazon’s bottom line, it’s a bit of a blow to indies, who have, for the last couple of years, used price to give their books an advantage over traditionally published titles in the Kindle Store. Technically, an indie can put a book out without spending a dime (though hiring an editor, at the least, is recommended), meaning that even 99-cent ebooks can result in tidy profits, whereas traditional publishers must put a lot more money into the process and can’t afford price points like that, at least not in the long run.

Now, though, it seems that lower prices are being penalized with lower visibility, at least at Amazon, and at least if one’s goal is to spend time on bestseller lists. These changes may eventually reach beyond the Top 100, too, meaning 99-cent books would be less likely to be mentioned in Amazon’s recommendation emails and in other books’ also-boughts. (I’d love to hear from other authors on this. I haven’t personally experienced any drop in sales from what I’m talking about today, because I’m not in KDP Select (next topic), and my novels are $4-$5 instead of 99 cents.)

KDP Select’s unintended “perk” disappearing

The 99-cent pricing strategy has been around for a while. KDP Select is relatively new, but accounted for some meteoric rises from previously obscure authors.

When Amazon rolled out the program last Christmas, indie authors flocked to it in droves, not because the lending library deal sounded that wonderful to anyone, but because Select allowed books to be listed as free for a few days each quarter. Many of us had witnessed a “feature” (one I maintain was likely unintended) where books that went free and received a lot of downloads leaped up the paid sales charts when they returned to their usual price point. This was because those free downloads were counted as sales. Amazon rewards books that sell well with more visibility (a lot more visibility), so you had previously unknown titles jumping into the Top 1000 for extended stays because, to Amazon’s algorithms, they had “sold” so well over such a short period of time.

Again, I don’t have any person experience with this phenomenon, as the books I’ve made free have stayed free (by using price-matching rather than enrolling in Select), but I’ve seen a lot of people grumbling on the Kindleboards and in other places that KDP Select isn’t worth anything to them now that this “feature” has been fixed (or at least majorly downgraded).

In other words, another trick indies were using to out-perform the traditionally published novels (from what I’ve read and seen in the Kindle Store, few Big 6 publishers were willing to sign the exclusivity clause Amazon required for participation in Select).

Will there be other tricks one can use? Maybe so. There are always rewards out there for those who pay attention and can get in early on things. But, it seems that, more than ever, self-published authors will have to put out high quality books and work on building up a loyal readership over time, rather than depending on gimmicks to launch their careers. Yeah, that’s how it always should have been, but you can’t fault folks for taking advantage of opportunities along the way. If KDP Select had come at a different point in my self-publishing career (i.e. a year earlier, when I was just getting started) or hadn’t required exclusivity, I’m sure I would have tried the game too.

What does still work?

As I mentioned, my Book 1s are permanently free. It works. Many of the people who grab them go on to pay for the other books in the series. In my opinion (and thanks to awesome readers, I have the sales numbers and fan letters to back up my opinion), giving away free work is a great way to build a readership. People get to try your stories without risk, and, in my experience, it’s a win for the author as well (so long as you have follow-up books for the reader to go on to buy).

Some will argue that free is a gimmick, too, especially since you can’t upload a book for less than 99 cents at Amazon (you can at iTunes, Kobo, and, via the Smashwords backdoor, Barnes & Noble — you have to wait and hope Amazon will price-match). I suppose that’s true, but readers have been finding new favorite authors by borrowing books from friends (free) or checking them out from libraries (also free) for ages. It’s a well-established model. Being free in the online stores just means being in a much larger library with a lot more visibility.

But I digress…. I do think that everything from increased competition to decreased effectiveness of pricing gimmicks has made it harder to break in at Amazon, but it’s still going to be possible to establish yourself and make a career out of self-publishing. You just can’t expect it to happen anymore with the first book or in the first year.

If you’re new to my blog, please check out other posts I’ve written on building a platform and a readership:

3 Selling Tactics Authors Can Borrow from the Internet Marketing Gurus
Newsletters 101: Email Marketing for Authors
What the Heck is Author Branding and How Do You Do It Anyway?
The Importance of Keeping in Touch with Fans (and how to find them in the first place)

All right, that’s probably enough reading material for one day! What are your thoughts on the recent changes at Amazon and breaking in today as a new indie author?

 

Related Posts:

Updates to Amazon’s Book Ranking Algorithms: The Death of 99-Cent Ebooks? An End to KDP Select Perks?
Why I Self-Published AKA Reena Jacobs Does the Math [Guest Post]
A New Blog Is Born…