KDP Select - What do you think? Showing 51-100 of 1,056

[M.A.]

Delusional as ever, Willie! LOL

[Darren]

But if your book is only available on amazon then it wouldn't make any sense not to.

[Nell]

WillieWit wrote: "I have put my book on cos if nobody else bothers they will give me $500,000 !

:0)"

Sorry, Willie, you'll have to share it with me now... :)

I've put all three of mine on - that includes a new one today - I'll have to see what happens.

[willie]

*tut*... do i only get a $125,000 now ?

;0)

[Jan]

I opted for Kindle Select as my books are only on Amazon anyway (except for Leon Chameleon).

I put The Breadwinners up free for 5 days (ended last night, 18th). I had over 1500 downloads. I started threads about the free book in a couple of places and had some encouraging comments. I learned that several people don't like the cover, but they downloaded on the basis of the blurb. This has been useful info and I'm now looking into having a new cover designed.

I've had 15 'borrows' of Something to Read on the Planeand one 'borrow' of But Can You Drink The Water?

Will be interesting to see how much a 'borrow' is worth, and what happens to the book now that it is back in the paid arena.

[Alan]

I chose not to go with KDP Select for a few reasons.

Even though the overwhelming majority of my sales happen through Amazon, I do still get the odd sale on Barnes and Noble, Sony, Kobo and Apple. I don't want to exclude any potential readers.

As much as I like the way Amazon has helped indie writers bring their work to the public, I'm not interested in an exclusive relationship. Bit too much like going steady in high school.

Ultimately I think this program has a whole lot less to do with benefiting indie authors and a whole lot more to do with Amazon's strategy to take over the retail world. Big can be good, Super damned big and squashing everything in sight is scary.

But the most compelling reason is the first one. I may have only gotten a couple hundred readers through Barnes and Noble, but I hate the thought of not having them, especially since at least a couple have very kindly "championed" my book, which I am sure contributed to sales from all the places it is available.

[M.A.]

I just opted in with my two shorts! Not sure how they're going to do! ;-(

[Simon (Highwayman)]

It might be a mistake to sign up to amazon exclusive right now. I would be more inclined to get my book on kobo for Christmas.

[Patti (baconater)]

Is the group book on kobo?

[Simon (Highwayman)]

Sack the group editor if it isn't.

[Patti (baconater)]

I should think so.

[Kath]

You two can do the next one! It's all in the hands of the formatter who has bunked off for the duration. Poor Darren. There's a song that goes 'Please don't talk about me when I'm gone.'

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

I dreamt about him one night!

[Harry]

Hmmm, since this has started my books have been borrowed 10 times... they're still getting bought more than borrowed.

So either Amazon prime customers don't have full awareness, or there just aren't that many... perhaps that is my wishful thinking.

However, the OP is correct, by the mere shabby percentages Amazon is offering, you'd have to lend thousands a month to see any benefit.

[Tania]

hi,
today is my first day of promotion (until 24th Dec) and I have to say it's impressive:)
№10 on Amazon US - Kindle - non-fiction - travel
№800 on Amazon UK - Free ebooks (it was №30000 last night:))
I'm quite happy about it and two more days to go:)

However I can't figure out whereabout in Reports those give aways are shown? It appears like boought not borrowed. If I sold that much I'm absolutely happy:)

London by Tania Poli: Famous Stores, Hidden Places & Insider Secrets for your Fashion Adventures
http://tinyurl.com/7tn8mjs

[Patti (baconater)]

Tania have you started your author thread in the group yet? If you've not, please do.

[M.A.]

I agree Simon, KOBO is going to be big. I'm definitely not putting my big guns as exclusive because I do well on the other platforms. I've only put my two shorts up as tempters to try and get them to buy the other books. ;-)

[Katie]

I finally gave in and put my children's book The Dragon Box in yesterday. It goes free today (23rd) until tomorrow. This book was only on Amazon anyway and wasn't selling well, so I figured I had nothing to lose. My other book, on the other hand, has waited 8 months to get into Kobo and sells reasonably well with iBooks, so that's staying where it is. If The Dragon Box does okay, though, I might think of putting my new book, due out in the New Year, into the scheme for its first three months to give it a kick start. It's all a matter of wait and see...

[Simon (Highwayman)]

But does it kick start sales or do people take it when it is free and that's it?

[Katie]

I've heard a few people say that they started selling after the free time was over - people who weren't selling well before. We'll see...

[Patti (baconater)]

May thoughts too, Simon. Doing shorts as tasters is a good idea, I think.

[Simon (Highwayman)]

I think most kindle owners have gone through the 'collecting' phase where fill their kindle with free books they never read With kdp select there will be a huge number of authors doing free days. I think it will be hard for a free period to boost rank any more but as you say, we will just have to see.

[Patti (baconater)]

Lots of newbies with empty kindles going to be around over the next wee while, though

[Katie]

That's what I'm hoping, Patti. I'm figuring quite a few parents have bought Kindles for their kids for the first time and will want to add books as cheaply as they can.

[M.A.]

Simon, that's why I'm doing it AFTER Crimbo when all the newbies will be around! lol ;-)

[Patti (baconater)]

Sensible and cute, Mel. ;)

[Nell]

Tania wrote: However I can't figure out whereabout in Reports those give aways are shown? It appears like boought not borrowed. If I sold that much I'm absolutely happy:)

They seem to be shown as sales, which feels good, even though they're not. I did pick up a few sales on My Imaginary Life and Memoirs of an Ostrich though, which is what I hoped for, so it worked for me.

So many free books out there - and how do buyers feel when the book they paid for last week shows up free...

I'm wondering also how the refunds work.

[Patti (baconater)]

You can get a refund on any ebook up to seven days after purchase, Nell.
Not sure how or if it's clawed back from the authors though.

Anyone know?

[Katie]

We don't get paid that often, so we get told we've sold a book and then that it's been returned.

[Patti (baconater)]

That's gotta hurt.

[Steve]

Patti (Olive-the other reindeer) wrote: "You can get a refund on any ebook up to seven days after purchase, Nell.
Not sure how or if it's clawed back from the authors though.

Anyone know?"

They show up as a refunded purchase on KDP, Patti. So you have a sales column and a refunds column and a net sales column, which is the total sales you get paid for.

[Patti (baconater)]

Right. Thanks.

I wonder if many abuse the returns system. Seven days is plenty of time to read a book. Amazon must monitor it somehow.

[M.A.]

Echo what Steve says plus what Patti added about the seven days. ;-) I do think that's excessive though, some people can read a book within a day or so! Hmmm...

[Patti (baconater)]

I expect they have to give seven days to meet some regulation or other or they wouldn't.

[Jan]

I did a 5 day free for The Breadwinners and had about 1500 downloads. I started a thread about it and received some useful comments - mostly about the cover being off-putting, so I'm having a new cover designed. I've also had readers come back to the thread to say that they enjoyed the story, so it was worthwhile going free just for the feedback.

[M.A.]

Did it affect your ranking when you came off FREE Jan?

Congratulations. ;-)

[[deleted user]]

In the past week we did two KDP free promos. SLOANE HALL moved just over 8300 downloads in two days, and is leveling off at 25-30 sales per day, having started at almost a dead standstill. DRAGON LADY moved 710 downloads in one day.

The only way to sell books is to create buzz: people reading it and telling other people to read it. But in order to do that, you must get your book into the hands of that first reader. That, for us, is the sole purpose of the giveaway. We try to target the giveaways to certain market niches in order to judge where our book might get traction. If there's no residual bounce, it means we didn't hit the right market niche, or didn't push enough copies to start buzz. It's a great puzzle. If there were a simple answer, we'd all be rich!

So far, we're fans of the KDP Prime program. It allows us to promote free in the biggest market. (Amazon produced 91.2% of our sales last month.)Philosophically I don't like the exclusivity requirement but in practical terms it makes little difference; the other venues sell a relative handful of books, so we're not giving up a big market share. And at that we're only committing for 90 days at a time.

Matthew

[Nell]

Seven days seems plenty of time to read and get a refund, but hopefully the readers who'd exploit this loophole are few and far between. It's understandable that anyone would expect a refund for a book full of typos, badly written or offered free a few days after they'd paid for it, so I'm glad this facility is built in - if it weren't readers might be less likely to try indie authors.

[Tania]

Guys,
True readers don't claim refunds and from what I learnt (well, from the KDP forum, my first book is live for just two weeks so I'm not that experienced author yet) was that people tend to keep books. Less than 5% would use that advantage.
Same thing about DRM - just a few people would break the rules but it annoys all those true readers who would never do that. I decided not to set up DRM. What about you?:)

[Tania]

Nell wrote: "Seven days seems plenty of time to read and get a refund, but hopefully the readers who'd exploit this loophole are few and far between. It's understandable that anyone would expect a refund for a ..."
Well, not that plenty - people have ten or twenty books bought at the same time so a week is definitely not enough. God bless Kindle (and iPad:))

[Jan]

@Mel,
The ranking seems to all but disappear at first, but then starts to come back with sales.

[Nell]

Hi Tania. Re. DRM, I have one or two with and one or two without. I can't remember thinking too deeply about it - being new to Kindle publishing I thought I'd try both and see what happened.

[[deleted user]]

We have had instances where we were notified that a sale was withdrawn because it was determined to have been made with a bad credit card. It shows up as a refund. No way of telling how often this happens.

Matthew

[[deleted user]]

Jan wrote: "@Mel,
The ranking seems to all but disappear at first, but then starts to come back with sales."

Books offered free are tracked in a different ranking system than sales. When your book is up for free, you're only seeing how it compares to other free books. When it goes back for sale, it reverts to the sales ranking. Thus, you can have a very high number while it's free, only to seemingly plunge to the depths when it goes back on sale. But if that number then starts to climb, it means you're getting actual sales results.

Matthew

[Tania]

Istoria wrote: "Jan wrote: "@Mel,
The ranking seems to all but disappear at first, but then starts to come back with sales."

Books offered free are tracked in a different ranking system than sales. When your book..."
I remember my book "climbing" from №30000 to №16000 in paid books (just before the promotion), and now it's №10 in free book (promo finishes tomorrow night). I'm going to consider £0.99 to spread the word. Apparently people are reluctant to pay £3.44 for a new book from a new author... In the US teh calculated it like $5-something which is way too much I think - not because of the book but because of the competition.

[M.A.]

Tania, I'd advise all new authors to price their books at 99 cents/ 86p. The market in the UK is very price sensitive. ;-)

[Simon (Highwayman)]

It seems to be 61p now with the vat change...

[M.A.]

Not all books are 61p, Simon, Amazon have hand picked some to feature at 49p, 61p. or 72p! Impeding Justice is in the 61p bracket. ;-)

[Tania]

Mel (Lorne's creator, Pete's murderer) wrote: "Tania, I'd advise all new authors to price their books at 99 cents/ 86p. The market in the UK is very price sensitive. ;-)"
Thank you, Mel,
I agree. Anyway at the very start it's not about profits it's all about the right promotion.

[M.A.]

I agree, it's about getting your name out there! ;-)