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Pamela Crane
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To KDP or not KDP...that is the question
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Christina wrote: "It used to be a small bump when borrowed and a more significant bump when the reader reached 10%. Now it appears as if a dowload is equal to a sale. At least, that's what I've been able to track..."Thanks! That may explain why I couldn't make much sense out of the rankings at times. I wonder what's happening now? Our books' ranking don't seem to correlate to page reads at all.
I'm also wondering if this has any effect on the "also bought" lists. For us, that's seems to be where money is.
I can't figure out how the data in synced either. I have noticed that a pulse will show up just after midnight. During the day it seems to be erratic: doesn't change for hours and then there's a jump. Or maybe it changes within 30 mins.
I do think I spend too much time thinking about this.
Christina wrote: "It used to be a small bump when borrowed and a more significant bump when th..."I acn't be that precise, but it's true that borrows seem to affect ranking... I have rank increases that can't be explained otherwise.
Rob wrote: "How is Amazon's market share in those countries? "Mexico is pretty easy, you do not need many sales there to get to Nº 1 - I can't say the exact number, but when I checked, with around 50 sales I was already #1. In Spain with slightly over 300 sales I ranked #2. I'm talking one-day sales, of course.
I've not tested The Netherlands yet, but since it's a 10-million people country I don't think you would need many sales to rank much. I'll have to test that when I translate my books into Dutch (I also speak that very well), but right now I'm busy with the translations into English...
Rob wrote: "Those 'Amazon' numbers basically only mean something assuming that Amazon itself has a sizable market share in those countries. If (like in the Netherlands) it doesn't, than it may still be wise to abandon Select in order to reach that other possibly >90% of the local market."
I'd like to highlight that the e-book penetration in Mexico is very low, and in Spain is much lower than in the US. Amazon might have a high market share, but the overall volume of sales is relatively low. So the local market is not necessarily much higher than Amazon.
Whether you want to target the local market might also depend on the language of the book. My three main markets for Spanish ebooks are (in descending order) Spain, USA and Mexico. I get some buys from time to time from other countries, such as Germany, UK, Canada or even Australia, but that is not the normal thing. If your book is in Dutch, you might want to explore the local market. If it's in a different language, you might want to stick to KDP because of foreign sales.
Owen wrote: "I can't figure out how the data in synced either. I have noticed that a pulse will show up just after midnight. During the day it seems to be erratic: doesn't change for hours and then there's a jump. Or maybe it changes within 30 mins. "Seems you did figure it out. I've noticed a pattern of twice a day as well. Probably on a near 12 hour rotation.
Ramon wrote: "Mexico is pretty easy, you do not need many sales there to get to Nº 1 - I can't say the exact number, but when I checked, with aroun..."Those are impressive sales numbers in any market. Congratulations!
Hi Ramon,You have very good sales indeed. Well done!
Allowing for a narrower e-market in the Spanish speaking countries, that you mention, do you also have printed books in the book stores?
If yes, what's the approximate ratio of physical v. ebooks there?
Nik
Hi, Owen and Nick, thank you very much. Unfortunately those numbers dropped slowly after the Kindle Flash exposure and right now I'm around twenty books per day on average across all markets. Time to start a new promotion.Nick, I also sell printed books. The ratio varies by market. Only considering those books where I do have a printed edition, the ebook/printed ratio is as follows:
Mexico: 100% e-book (no print sales so far).
USA: 15/1 (Amazon), 27/1 (other channels)
Spain: 22/1 (Amazon), 6/1 (bookstores)
When I mention bookstores in Spain, the ratio is vs the total ebooks sold, but I must point out that I distribute the books myself.
Ramon wrote: "Hi, Owen and Nick, thank you very much. Unfortunately those numbers dropped slowly after the Kindle Flash exposure and right now I'm around twenty books per day on average across all markets. Time ..."That inevitably happens, but 20 books per day across all markets is still impressive, especially considering the eBook penetration in your markets. (Currently, we sell less than half that across all markets, and almost all of that is in Amazon.com and Germany.)
I don't know exactly what our ratio of ebook sales to print is; probably somewhere around 100:1 at this point, overall.
Harald wrote: "Hi! New here...Two points not mentioned by OP or others RE: KS/KU... (1) length and (2) price. The word I'm hearing from another forum (OK, KBoards) is that KS/KU is very positive for shorter leng..."
That tracks. I don't write novellas. It's okay for a few months to debut a book, but I really think novels do best everywhere. Most of my kindle sales are paid.
I, for one, LOVE KDP Select, because it brings me most of my business - via KU. 75% of my writing income comes through KU pages read, and it's growing. My readers love KU; therefore I love KU. :) And based on the page length of my book and my price ($2.99), I actually make a little more per book on KU than from direct sales. April
Kathy wrote: "So how much per page is KU paying?"The pay per-page-read in July is .005779.
April wrote: "The pay per-page-read in July is .005779."In the U.S. In Mexico it was 0,09463 MXN ($0.005758) and in Spain it was 0.005299€ ($0.005868).
The difference with Mexico can be explained by the exchange rate, but the one with Spain seems too high to be due only to the exchange rate. It's more probable that they have a different money pot for each region.
Hi Ramon. There is only one pool for all the borrows worldwide. At one time, there was a separate amount added for markets that only had prime, but since the method of payment is now the same, they seem to have gotten rid of it. The exchange rate is based on the day they calculate, so it is likely to be different from the day of the report.
Ramon wrote: "The difference with Mexico can be explained by the exchange rate, but the one with Spain seems too high to be due only to the exchange rate. It's more probable that they have a different money pot for each region. "Christina's comment agrees with everything I've read. They report in the 15th of the month, but there's no telling when each market is actually calculated. A 1.5% difference could be a matter of a few days currency fluctuation.
For those who tracked the difference, was the income from the page-turning payout equivalent or better than the income from the previous method?
For anyone with a book that comes out to roughly 250 Kindle Normalized pages (roughly a short novel or longer novella), the payout would be about the same as the previous average of $1.30. Many of us found that our longer works pay better than the 70% royalty on our longer works.
Very interesting discussion. I tried Select for my first novel but didn't benefit much, probably largely because I didn't promote enough. For my second book I decided I would avoid free promotions and not go below 99 cents and see how that works out. KU is a new wrinkle though I wasn't aware that a person could make much money from it.
Kathy wrote: "For those who tracked the difference, was the income from the page-turning payout equivalent or better than the income from the previous method?"For us, July KU income was almost 3x better than June. In July, KU income was almost twice sales income. So far, it looks like August is shaping up to be similar.
It used to be a small bump when borrowed and a more significant bump when the reader reached 10%. Now it appears as if a dowload is equal to a sale. At least, that's what I've been able to track.