The power of getting onto the right site

[Katie]

A few months ago, someone on the Kindleboards pointed out the Ereader News Today were doing an advertising deal where 99c books could be advertised as Bargain Books for a 25% commission on sales. I thought that was a pretty good deal and the only way I could afford to advertise with them, so I submitted Treespeaker. It was up yesterday. At the beginning of the day it had a ranking of something like #320000. By the time I went to bed last night it was #1192. It was also

#16 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > World Literature > Mythology
#22 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Fantasy > Epic
#28 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Epic

(At that stage it was sitting between Rick Riordan and George RR Martin in Epic Fantasy Books!)

It's a shame really, that one site can have that much influence, but it was a good experience to see how it worked first hand. By the time they've taken their 25% of my 35%, it won't have been a terribly profitable day, but hopefully now the book is on the Best Sellers lists it will get a few sales that haven't been clicked through from ENT...and it was definitely a lot more profitable than when it was sitting at #320000! Hopefully a few of those who bought today will like it enough to buy the sequel when it comes out early in the new year.

I'm not sure if ENT is still running the same deal, but if you have a 99c book with a star rating of 4.2 or more, it might be worth a look.

[J.A.]

Interesting.

[Patricia]

How do they collect their payment?

[Katie]

They know how many sales were the result of being clicked through from their site and collect their 25% of that from you via PayPal (they checked I had an account when I submitted). I should get an invoice in a couple of days. I'm not sure if they're able to tell how many of those were returned because I had 4 return sales I'm hoping they don't count.

[J.A.]

I doubt they could tell returns unless you specifically tell them. I mean from what you've said, they are just taking click-throughs.

There's no way to directly query Amazon for exact unit sales.

Even sites that claim to monitor Amazon sales (like novelrank.com) are really just monitoring novel ranking and extrapoloating (often very badly).

[Patricia]

Is it just the click-throughs on the day your ad runs? Seems like an ad could create sales days later. And returns would be impossible to track to a specific sale. Books can be returned for a week.

[Andre Jute]

If these people are Amazon affiliates, they can tell precisely how many sales originated on their site -- click-throughs that resulted in a sale -- and also how many returns there were, because Amazon would have to tell them when they pay them.

[Dave]

Very nice, Kate. Losing some income on a few returned books may be worth the spike in ranking, no?

[Katie]

Definitely, Dave. I've sold an extra 40 copies since the end of the 24 hours on ENT (of course, some of them might still have come from there)...which is good, because nothing else is selling this month!

[J.A.]

I paid for a mention via Kindle Nation Daily's Kindle Fire Promotion option (cost me $30). They only had one slot left, and that was in late January. I'll let you all know how it does. I don't think they are going to stay that cheap, I think it's just because it was a new option and what not.

[Patricia]

Good luck, J.A.

[Sharon]

That's fabulous, Katie, those are really good numbers! And unlike KDP Select those are sales and will contribute to your overall accumulative rankings. It never hurts to be on a best-seller list.

Jeremy, early on I bought a KND promotion and sold a few books at full price. If KND's Fire Promotion option works as well as some of their other promotions, you will be very glad indeed you got on board. Windwalker knows a thing or two about promotion. Good luck!

[J.A.]

Thanks.

I figure it's hard to go wrong with a $30 promotion.