Adventures in self-publishing, day 20
I bring a few numbers after 20 days of selling Return on Investment - nothing terribly unexpected here, but I thought it might be interesting.
Refunds:
While people kept 275 copies, 22 people refunded - a refund rate of 7% is pretty much standard, so, nothing exciting here.
Sales vs Loans:
298 sales (out of which some were refunds) contrast with 158 loans via Kindle Unlimited/Lending Library - so 65% sales versus 35% loans.
Geographic breakdown:
US: 65%
UK: 20%
Germany: 10%
Italy: 3%
Rest of World (RoW): 2% (Canada, Mexiko, Brazil, Australia, Spain)
So Europe is about 35% of my sales, which I found interesting.
Refunds:
While people kept 275 copies, 22 people refunded - a refund rate of 7% is pretty much standard, so, nothing exciting here.
Sales vs Loans:
298 sales (out of which some were refunds) contrast with 158 loans via Kindle Unlimited/Lending Library - so 65% sales versus 35% loans.
Geographic breakdown:
US: 65%
UK: 20%
Germany: 10%
Italy: 3%
Rest of World (RoW): 2% (Canada, Mexiko, Brazil, Australia, Spain)
So Europe is about 35% of my sales, which I found interesting.
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Wyckedone
(new)
Jul 31, 2014 01:17PM
Refunds? WTH, man?! Just out of curiosity, how many of those refunds do you think are people who read the book and THEN wanted a refund due to cheapskate-itis?
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Wyckedone - I couldn't begin to guess. I think part of it is that the book's listed in "financial thrillers", so maybe some male hetero readers freaked out over the gay sex. 5-10% is seen as normal though.
There have been concerns that Amazon's one-week return policy allows people to use it like a library, but supposedly they will block accounts with too many returns. I had a review where someone said they read a book, didn't like it, and returned it. The bit that puzzled me? It was a freebie, and they returned it. 0.0Some people don't read blurbs. I have a book that lists in "police procedurals" and someone told me their very straightlaced parent had it on his Kindle, no doubt unintentionally. I imagine if they looked at it, that might have been a return. There are always a few.
Lol. Well, returns still send a message...
Aleksandr wrote: "Lol. Well, returns still send a message..."If they're out of line, yeah. But especially with Amazon one-click I imagine there are a certain number of unintentional buys as well.
Are you finding the Kindle Unlimited/ Lending is a good deal? I think it's interesting the loans are that high.
Not sure I'm a fan of lending - my royalties per sale are $4.11, while I only get about $2 per loan. I do worry about a cannibalisation effect. So, great deal if your book is cheap, less so if you price higher than $2.99.
That's good to know. I have not signed up for the Kindle Unlimited program because 1) not many authors I read are in the program and 2) I wasn't sure what kind of compensation the authors actually got. Spending a few buck for a book isn't going to break my bank (which I am very happy about because I do love to read), so I will continue to purchase rather than borrow for as long as I can manage that.
Since lending was mentioned. If I love the book I borrowed, I buy it. Just not from Amazon.It would be interesting to find out why people return books. Did anyone ever collected the data? Do the sellers ask what the reason for the return is?
Jewel - Thank you. :) I'll know the exact compensation once Amazon announces it. They put some money in to a pot and then distribute from there, so it'll only become clear at the end of the month, I think. Generally speaking, I think it makes sense to write books that people *want* to own and that people want to *re-read*. It's also more value for the reader. :)
Mammarella - Fair enough. There's definitely some overlap. But my self-published books will likely only be available from Amazon (or via me direct for other formats), to keep accounting and admin simple, since with the full-time job, I really don't have much time to deal with anything that's not focused on actually writing.
I don't think sellers collect data, so I wouldn't know. I've never returned a book.
ARe is very easy for self-pub IMO, if you ever wanted another single source that lets you offer the other formats, but doesn't distribute widely like Smashwords does. I know I'd love to read the new one, but read epub, don't have Calibre, and feel reluctant to ask an author I admire for special arrangements even when they say that's how they prefer it. I may not be the only one.
Yeah, at the moment the Amazon exclusivity has some advantages - I'm definitely experimenting.I might go via Draft2Digital for all the other retailers at some point, but ARe isn't the right place for ROI anyway, as it's not really a romance, and OmniLit (I think?) isn't nearly as big or important, as far as I can tell.
No, OmniLit hasn't really caught on I don't think. My YA titles are there, but not selling much from it.
Don't know w.t.h. everyone is talking about here - but cripes - return a book? Me - I'm just greedy - want to keep and re-read different books for different moods, and if I really hate a book then I junk it. Very rare I don't finish a book, but hey, you can't read 50% then send it back because you don't like it can you? I mean - does that suppose you pay for the % that you read? Or if you finish all of it but only give it one star do you get an 80% refund - do you charge the author for wasting your time? Seriously shocked. E
I've returned books before. If I don't have my laptop with me I don't remember what's in my library. I have a nice fat collection of duplicates because I don't always feel comfortable returning.
I also return corrupted files that won't open for some reason.
I can also see why someone would want to return a mislabeled book.
Returning a bad (badly edited) book might be a statement.
Mammarella wrote: "I've returned books before. If I don't have my laptop with me I don't remember what's in my library. I have a nice fat collection of duplicates because I don't always feel comfortable returning.
I..." Is this only e-books?
I have returned DTB books for a full refund on my card or store credit, but duplicates only.If the book I bought is not what I expected, I will ask around and give the book away or donate it. I can't do it with e-books.
I've returned a grand total of two kindle books - both purchased as a result of fat-finger mistakes. I had no idea they could be returned up to a week after purchase. I thought I had something like a two hour window. Not that knowing makes any difference to me. If it was purchased in error, two hours is enough time to sort that out, and I don't see myself returning a book for any other reason.
Its all new to me. Mind you, with my technical ability even if I wanted to return something a week wouldn't be long enough to work it all out. (I still haven't worked out how to get a PDF onto my Kindle from my computer - what can I say?)
Verditwist wrote: "Its all new to me. Mind you, with my technical ability even if I wanted to return something a week wouldn't be long enough to work it all out. (I still haven't worked out how to get a PDF onto my K..."Send it to your Kindle email address. Or better yet - convert it to mobi and send it to your Kindle email address.
mobi is one of the Kindle file's formats
I'll have a rummage - see what I can find.
Say - one thing at a time - or I'll have to retreat to my Pinterest Boards to recover :))))))))))))))))))
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