UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion
Author Zone - Readers Welcome!
>
KDP Select - What do you think?
message 601:
by
Rosen
(new)
Feb 22, 2012 01:35PM
Oh dear. What sort of technical problem?
reply
|
flag
Hi all, I've posted some info and data on the KUF forum about my own recent experience with Select, including - geek alert! - an Excel spreadsheet recording my downloads on an hourly basis. Hope this is of interest!http://www.kuforum.co.uk/kindleusersf...
David wrote: "Hi all, I've posted some info and data on the KUF forum about my own recent experience with Select, including - geek alert! - an Excel spreadsheet recording my downloads on an hourly basis. Hope th..."*sighs* oh, I do love a geek!! ;-)
I'm surprised by the results so far. The only books I'm selling at the moment are the two that were free via Select, whereas my others usually sell in dribs and drabs of at least one or two a day, but at the moment they are static.
Oh.My.God. Somebody studies their numbers even more fastidiously than I do.
KDP is a fab thing at the beginning, you get an mass of enthusiasm that slowly drops away to dribs and drabs as your book gets lost again in the mass of digital text. I only have one book, so I think I'll experiment with the next one and not enroll it in KDP, but splash it around the internet (I don't mean spam stylee, just selling through various venues) and see what happens.
I see the KDP Select initial enthusiasm like an audition. It gives writers a chance to show readers what you can do, and if the readers like what they see, they'll arrange a call back.
That's a great analogy Rosen.
Oi! Stop stealing my greatness thunder!
Don't worry Rosen, you're still the best.
Evening folks.I've posted on this thread before and am, again, in the middle of a two day KDP giveaway. I agree that there is an initial flurry of interest as folk download the freebie. But, how many people actually read the book?
I'm thrilled that people are downloading my stuff, but I'm not convinced many are reading it, unless they try a few pages and give up. But I honestly don't see another way. Yes there are forums and endless posts promoting the work, but KDP offers a worldwide hit just for the sake of ticking a box.
As you may gather I'm a little frustrated by it because I feel like KDP is the best of a limited number of options.
Jamie, I share your concern. On the limited evidence I have I'd say that downloaders and readers are two very different things.I finished writing Few Are Chosen in 2009 and spent the next year hawking it round agents and 'building up a following' by uploading free shorts to Feedbooks and Smashwords. All my stories contained links to one another on Smashwords and eventually a link to my book on Smashwords. I had about 8,000 downloads of one story and between then and now I've had 3 Smashwords sales.
I read an account, might have been on here actually, of a lady with a 12 book backlist whose publishing contract was just up. She decided to publish her books free each month over the course of a year and then added a new one which they had to pay for at the end.
Really sorry if I've said all this on this thread, I've been talking about it in a lot of places recently and Memory MT can't remember what was said where. So... my basic gist is that you can build up a readership with freebies if you're a midlister with some pukka finished books and you can release one a month. However, even doing that, a freebie which achieves 4,000 downloads will probably only bring you 40 actual readers so you have to be very prolific or have a hooooooge back catalogue to do it.
Otherwise, the only way is word of mouth. People read it, they like it, they tell their friends. That's very slow burn. And when my second book, comes out at the end of this month, I will probably have a better idea of how many readers my work has gained that way.
Cheers
MTM
Edited to add:
Oh and PS. If it takes you more than a year to produce a book, don't start with a trilogy!
I just put up a blog post on my KDP Select experience since joining in early January...http://www.writers-and-publishers.com
Thanks for the blog post. It's interesting to see hard numbers attached. There does seem to be quite a disconnect between free downloads and actual sales, in the sense that big numbers doesn't necessarily mean big sales and vice versa. What does seem quite common is to see a sales bump of some kind coming off a free promotion.
I sold 23 copies in the first two weeks after publishing with no marketing at all (friends, friends of friends and family). I ran two, two day free promotions on consecutive weekends with total free downloads of around 1200. In the week between the two I sold 75 copies. The following week, around 90. The strong correlation to sales came from my ranking in bestsellers and genre category. When the slide starts, and it has, so sales drop.
My conclusion is that the free promo part of KDP gets you that all important visibility.
Total borrows: 4 Total sales: somewhere over 200
The lending part is not a big earner (nor for that matter are the sales, but it's nice to be read :)
I am happy with using KDP as a way of getting the word out and attracting an initial readership but will not renew. I'll spread the book across other formats. It's pretty much what JR said above but I took longer to say it.
I am definitely of the mind that adult books - thrillers, romance, etc. - are being read much more than my own genre. Those aiming at younger ages need to go through the parents, and they are busy reading about love triangles, zombies and hard-nosed detectives ;)My next book's for adults ;)
That promo I just ran got me into the top 100 paid listing after the campaign finished. I hit #28 in the UK for Contemporary Fantasy!Maybe I won't stay there, but it's the first time I've ever been in the paid top 100. I'm listing at # 2636 for all paid books.
That's great stuff! Keep going! Have faith!
How's this for weird - for the 2nd time I've done a promo and ended up near the top of the 100 freebie list but in the wrong genre - Fantasy, Futuristic and ghost. As my tale is a traditional family story I have no idea why that happens. I certainly haven't categorized it as such. Perhaps these readers are just tired of that genre and fancy something different lol!As for Select, I agree it's an excellent way to get noticed, and it has resulted in some very gratifying sales figures, but I'm now going to give Smashwords a try and compare results over the next quarter.
Categories are strange on Amazon - there seems little correlation between the UK and US ones, or between them and the ones offered during publication. Add to this that some books are in categories not on any 3 of those lists!Then add to this that you can be #1 in a category, but it does not list that category on your book page! Then sometimes the categories disappear altogether! Hopefully most readers find them on searches, because they would of course already have found your book if viewing its category trees - though it would help sell it if they displayed correctly.
Anyway, 24hours after running my big campaign I am now ranking #796 on Amazon.com and have somewhere around 110 sales. I'm #13 in Kindle contemporary fantasy. I'm #1 in Kindle Children's ebooks (though, annoyingly, this does not display on the book page). I'm at #52 in the UK fantasy books.
I shall update my blog today, which will filter down to my goodreads updates over the weekend, should you wish to read the details.
Where do you go on amazon to find out where you come in the ratings list?
The overall rankings (Amazon Bestsellers Rank) appears on your product page, at the bottom of the "product details" section. The category rankings appear below that but only show up if you are in the top 100 for those categories.
Interesting discussion. I recently entered the Select programme with my two books. I had over 4000 downloads and at one point I was Number 2 in UK fantasy. A few weeks later and I've no idea what it has all done for me as regards raising my profile. Time will tell I suppose. Overall, do you believe it to be a smart move for a writer? What have you gained/lost by taking part in the programme and would you do it again? After all, what about all those 'lost royalties?' (Just playing devil's advocate)
Karl wrote: "I don't think you can really consider downloads during a Select giveaway as lost royalties since you can't guarantee those people would have downloaded your book if they'd had to pay for it."I agree with Karl on this. It's not like those 4000 people were knocking at your door waving their wallets! The Select programme introduced 4000 people to you that had no idea you even existed. And even if only 10% of them actually read your book, there's 400 new readers, acquired in the space of a few days with no advertising costs. How else might you have achieved that?
Generally I think the programme is a smart move for those of us who are not already established names, or are in the early stages of building ebook readerships. It's not the be all and end all, but it's a great beginning!
Accepted, but authors are optimists are they not? Or deluded anyway. :-)
Yes, my thoughts exactly, thank you. I was over the moon for at least one week and I'm happy I took part. Has there been any negatives? Are you seeing the benefits now in a tangible way?
Well I've decided to put A Cleansing of Souls up for free tomorrow and perhaps Tuesday. Let's just see how it goes!
Stuart wrote: "Well I've decided to put A Cleansing of Souls up for free tomorrow and perhaps Tuesday. Let's just see how it goes!"Good luck with it mate.
Us readers have all benefited from the select programme but I am getting concerned that the party will soon be over. Most kindle owners have more free books downloaded than they can ever hope to read. Many are returning to their favourite paid authors because the quality of Indies is so variable, to the extent that I have read some free and 86p Indies that are brilliant and others that are unreadable.I now read group recommendations and favourite authors most of the time.
Those brilliant indie authors will struggle to be seen among all those free books on select.
I don't know the answer but I think ebooks have a journey ahead ...
Yes, it will be interesting to see what happens, but I think things will change soon...
I concur. I don't think the Select programme will last beyond 2012, but will evolve into something that offers similar benefits to readers and authors, while perhaps being more selective and focusing on quality over quantity. Amazon won't want to risk losing all the advantages it's gained from Select, so I don't think we're all going to suffer too much. But right now, Select is the best game in town!
As promised, blog updated to include stats from now 5 days after campaign end...http://www.writers-and-publishers.com
Jay, the same is happening to my novel "Earth Magic by Linda M priestley". No way is it Fantasy, Futuristic & ghosts so goodness knows why it's in that category. Nothing to do with the boxes I ticked, and if anything, I feel a bit miffed about it because it's misleading.I'm having a mixed bag of results re the free promos.
It's like an All-You-Can-Eat buffet. You soon get indigestion.And I'm tired too, now. I want to get on with some writing
Okay, dumb question. Does Amazon UK have Prime membership at this time? I see no Kindle Lending Library option on the UK site.
The UK Amazon does have Prime membership but being able to borrow books on the KDP Select program isn't a benefit (yet). That benefit is restricted to Amazon.com Prime... and I think (though I'm not sure) it's just US Prime customers.I had far fewer downloads this time round. Mind you, the ranking thing was a bit off-putting, but I can't really blame that because I had fewer downloads in the US as well, where the ranking was more sensible.
I suspect the market is changing week by week just because of the volume of books being uploaded and offered free, reader ennui and so on.
I don't think I'll be offering my next crime novel free. But then, I didn't think I would offer the first one free, but when I did I benefited hugely for a time.
Blog updated to include stats from now 11 days after campaign end...http://www.writers-and-publishers.com
Hi allSorry, I feel a little bit like I'm barging in on a private conversation. I just joined the group yesterday (my details are on the 'meet the authors' section as instructed).
I've just finished my second free promotion (2 days) with KDP, and as with the first one in January (3 days) I had a high number of downloads, but unfortunately, it hasn't translated into many sales. I agree with Darren (who I know from the Kindle Family Fiction group - hi Darren) that the majority of Kindle readers are not really reading books aimed at children, and of course, there are not that many child Kindle readers.
My time in KDP runs out next week, and I am going to try an spread my wings a little and see if things improve on other sites, but frankly, I think I'm doing better with my print version than the Kindle edition right now.
Don't know if anyone agrees with me, but that's been my experience so far. Hopefully, things will improve...? Always the optimist! :)
Please, please don't ever feel like you're barging in anywhere! I can see how you could, but stick around. We'll feel like old friend's in no time. :)
I'm already old ;)Hi, Linda!
My sales have been declining but have levelled off at around 17 per day at present. I'd really like to keep them no lower than 15-20 per day. We'll see what happens!
Thanks Patti, I appreciate that. Darren, I'm glad your own KDP experience has been better than mine - hope sales continue for you. I'm about halfway through your book now!
Hi Linda, your experience pretty much mirrors mine so I haven't gone in again. I've not quite got the measure of doing anything else other than here, Kindleboards, Mobilereads and I think there's a forum on Barnes & Noble although it's really difficult to navigate... there's Library thing which is a bit like this but I've not really felt quite so at home there as here...Cheers
MTM
Yes, I keep hearing it's all about taking part and taking an interest in what's going on. Can be difficult with a full-time job, however, I'm going to make a sincere effort here on Goodreads, as you say, it feels really welcoming here with good advice being offered. I've been on Kindleboards (on and off) but I've not heard of Mobilereads or Library? Are they worth checking out?
Hi LindaKindleboards is good but a bit serious and very American. Not quite such a good fit for a frivolous Brit. So someone sold 1,000 books in their first month - incredibly impressive, heaven knows how she did it - and so I made a comment along the lines of well done and could I stand next to her so some of the fairy dust rubbed off... I expected a mild reaction of some sort but there wasn't a peep. Absolutely died on my arse. They are decent folks though although there are a lot of my book is selling really well threads which are incredibly depressing if your books sells the way mine does (phnark).
Librarything is a little unintuitive so I haven't really got the measure but it seems OK. They send cracking e-mail updates but when I ventured on there the only person who spoke to me was some self-appointed guardian of the site who informed me that my avatar was unacceptable because it wasn't my face - I have the same avatar everywhere, a thing called a snurd, which features in my books so I was a bit disheartened, especially when I was no means a lone offender on that one. And the lady's own avatar was a picture of her cat which I found a snadge pharsitical. I did point that out. Nonetheless she went ahead and reported me and my avatar was removed.
UK Kindle Users forum is quiet but so far all I've done is turned up and said hello pretty much.
Mobilereads is great - I'm not sure it's so good for selling books but there is stacks of advice on there about converting and presenting e-books and they're a friendly bunch who are willing and usually able to help with pretty much any query you might have.
Amazon is good but there are lots of rules and none of them are posted anywhere obvious and there are people who'll do a bit of a hatchet job on anyone who gets it wrong. There are some good threads though.
Er... that's about it! ;-) I haven't the first clue how you reach apple users. No obvious forums and iBooks isn't a website so you can't give anyone a link or anything helpful.
Apologies for going off topic.
Cheers
MTM
Teehee. Yeah like all our threads are like, so totally on topic!What a great and helpful post MTM! :)
(I love your phnarking)
UK Amazon Kindle Forum
Books mentioned in this topic
The Mutilation Machination (other topics)Dark Seduction (other topics)
Revolution Earth (other topics)
The Hunter Inside (other topics)
Dark Seduction (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Harrison Davies (other topics)Michael Wallace (other topics)
