UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion
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KDP Select - What do you think?
Jan to check the prices of your books in the UK, click on your 'customer review' button, next to the image on your book. When the page changes at the top right hand corner a smaller image of your cover will be there with the price! ;-)
They don't add $2 any more. If a book is 99 cents in the US I get charged $1.16, which I presume is 17% VAT added on for Ireland.
My 99c books are still showing $2.99 on Amazon.com.@Mel. Thanks, I have managed to get round it to see the prices.
Just to add another dimension to the argument for and against enrolling in the KDP Select programme; it seems (from an answer I received from Amazon today), that the exclusivity clause stands even if your e-book is pirated. In other words you're responsible for making sure it's not offered for sale elsewhere and getting it removed if it is. Probably not worth the hassle unless you sell millions and have a big publisher behind you.
the exclusivity clause stands even if your e-book is pirated. In other words you're responsible for making sure it's not offered for sale elsewhere and getting it removed if it is.That is weird and extremely difficult to do.
Not to mention a bit of a cheek. I bought a cd collection from a third party amazon company through amazon that was a fake!
I hope you returned it, Simon.
I kept it. I wouldn't have known it was fake if a friend of mine who seems to know everything about cd's hadn't told me. I know I should have sent it back...*shuffles feet*
Just like any issue, there are many sides to this one. It's easy to look at Amazon's "program" as a plot to monopolize this particular market. Maybe it is, but I don't think it will be successful. I think that the innovative competitors will find ways to operate and grow their share of the market while Amazon will learn to offer more and to be less restrictive. If not, then they'll end up with egg on their face. The exclusivity clause is unnecessary and will prove to be counter-productive.
I'm having second thoughts. I'll never like the idea of exclusivity or readers not being able to read my books because they don't have a Kindle, but I'm getting relatively few sales from anywhere other than Amazon. I think it comes down to how Amazon make a book discoverable and I don't see that happening anywhere else. I go onto WHSmith to see how easy it is to find my Nook book and it's impossible. They don't have the lists Amazon have or the smaller genre breakdowns that have really helped to get my book noticed on Amazon. If websites offering books for the other readers did more for me, I would be inclined to stick with them, but they're not. It's fine if you're a 'name' where people go looking for you. But no one is looking for me. I have to be discovered every time and no one is doing more for the indie author than Amazon. And because I'm selling well on Amazon, I'm sure I would get more 'lends' than sales on other readers every month, and therefore a wider readership. It seems to make good business sense to me when I look at it like that. I'm not rushing in. I want to see what sales are reported from the other devices over Christmas, but if they are low, I think it might be time to back a horse.
Everyone is eagerly awaiting the value of the 'borrows'for December.
Wow. I'm conflicted.I had been planning on publishing a short story on KDP Select, to try and reach a different audience.
However, having read this thread, I'm inclined to publish it on Smashwords like I usually do.
Just to add my thoughts - I have only recently published anything to Kindle so the idea of potentially increasing my readership through lending and free promotion seemed like a good idea.I've been selling about one copy per day since launch in November and have had about three books borrowed. Two days ago I decided to use a couple of my five promo days on one of my books to see what would happen. As of two hours ago when it ended I had "sold" 556 copies of the book, including 3 on Amazon Germany, and was top of the charts in my category.
So all in all a very positive experience although its too soon to tell if this will translate into any reviews or further sales.
I was asked by Amazon to join KDP select with Hellucination due to the increased sales over the week. I took a look at the sales thru Nook and I-Tunes and Smashwords says I didn't sell a single copy even though my account balance went down.So something is wrong there. It's still for sale to non members of the KDP Select Program and it's still available in paperback all across the web.
Because I joined KDP Select, my book is now half off of Kindle at $2.99 Usual price is $5.99 So Amazon is listing it for half off, which doesn't effect my price so I'm happy about it.
Here's the link to the normal version...
http://www.amazon.com/HELLUCINATION-e...
If you like the fire cover better... here's a link for that...
http://www.amazon.com/Hellucination-W...
More reviews are coming in and they have been wonderful. Really happy about that. I figure try it since my book is not the normal fiction that is mostly for free anyway. We will see what happens!
Stephen have you opened your author thread under 'meet the authors' in our group yet? If you haven't please do.Wed like to know more about your book and that's the best place to plug.
"As of two hours ago when it ended I had "sold" 556 copies of the book, including 3 on Amazon Germany, and was top of the charts in my category."Agh! Every time I think I've made my mind up, I hear a compelling reason in the other direction!
A side effect of the Select program for me was increased movement in the UK (and why I thought I ought to join this group).Up until Dec 27 2011, my UK sales totaled 3. In exactly a year. I also had three reviews. This for a book that has now sold just under 2,000 copies in the States and had free d/ls of about 3,500 over 2 days.
The neat thing - In this month already have 3 sales in UK and 2 new reviews (both of which were good :)).
So it has worked for me in terms of exposure in an otherwise "dead" market.
As an expat Brit I can't participate in Amazon forums in the UK; so very cool to see this group.
I'm also thinking now that it might become increasingly difficult to compete for sales on Amazon if you don't sign up. Lends count as sales in the Amazon rankings, so a book that is being lent and sold is sure to rise higher than a similar book that might have been sitting alongside it in the charts before 'select' came along, and who did not opt in.
My finger is hovering over the Smashwords 'unpublish' button. It's a bit scary, but I think I'm going to do this.
"My finger is hovering over the Smashwords 'unpublish' button"That is a shame. I started looking at Smashwords over christmas and decided it had improved considerably since I last went on it. I have started telling people to try it recently especially as it opens the non-kindle market up.
I'm using smashwords a lot more now too. I like that I can download from it straight to my kindle, now that I've sorted out how.
It is a shame. I agree. I've only sold 20 books through Smashwords, though, and they were all in the first week or so, when the book went on there and was more visible. The same thing has happened with the iTunes, Kobo and Nook sites it went onto - sales early on as it had exposure as a 'new title', then nothing. No one can find my book on any of those other format sites, it seems. It won't be exclusive forever, but as I'm not a name yet and no-one is looking for my book/s, I can't see that it's much of a loss to anyone. And I think Over the next year that Amazon are best placed to help me become more widely known.If anyone has any argument why I shouldn't do it, I'd love to here it, but I think I've exhausted them all.
I'm looking forward to hearing how it goes.By the was Steve, I've created a shop at InBoBo and "In the Blood" is currently headlining.
Steve, Smashwords is a slow burner. My sales have suddenly taken off over there, maybe it's because everyone are pulling their books and putting them in select. ;-)
Evening folks,Further to previous posts, I sold 1 copy on smashwords within an hour of publishing then nothing since. Equally, nothing on apple, diesel, barnes and noble etc. My free promo on KDP ended just over 24 hours ago and I've sold enough copies since to remain at number 1 in my category on amazon UK. Admittedly thats only about ten copies, but before the promo I was averaging 1 per day. So, as things stand, KDP has only been positive for me.
Rosen wrote: "I'm looking forward to hearing how it goes.By the was Steve, I've created a shop at InBoBo and "In the Blood" is currently headlining."
That sounds good, Rosen. Did you become an Amazon/Smashwords affiliate website?
That's another good point. by unbublishing on Smashwords, I'd lose all the affiliate websites, which if not giving sales, gives a wider web presence.
Anyway, after much (more) thought and discussion with others on my thread last night, I've decided to hang on. I can see the positives already experienced by other authors - and by Jamie above - but the negatives need more consideration. Right now, I'm thinking that my book isn't selling on the other platforms because I'm doing little to nothing to let readers on other platforms know about it. That's a time constraint thing and something I need to work on.
I'm holding out for everyone to sign up for select, and then my books will be the only ones left at the other stores ;)
Or wait until everyone has used their free book allowance and yours will be the only free one.
My novel Eumeralla was on the free promotion for 5 days. To my amazement it was downloaded 894 times. It reached #5 in the US Family saga genre and #1 in the UK. I was so happy I nearly started crying.
Even though I won't make any money from the downloads I'm delighted that people are reading and, hopefully, enjoying my book.
Sales on all my books have increased slightly.
Even though I won't make any money from the downloads I'm delighted that people are reading and, hopefully, enjoying my book.
Sales on all my books have increased slightly.
Simon (Highwayman) wrote: "Or wait until everyone has used their free book allowance and yours will be the only free one."Probably wouldn't work as I presume Amazon still price match, so you could go through the back door and price for free at Smashwords, which is what I did before, so theoretically there will always be free books available, but there are so many now that people are probably filling up their Kindles and will never get to read them.
Joanna wrote: "My novel Eumeralla was on the free promotion for 5 days. To my amazement it was downloaded 894 times. It reached #5 in the US Family saga genre and #1 in the UK. I was so happy I nearly started cry..."I'm guessing the market is now flooded with free books though, and they will probably lose their appeal. I know I hardly ever look at free books myself, but when I made Dead Man's Eye and The Kult free before Select was around, I had around 28k downloads, roughly 14k for each book. It would be interesting to know what the average download for free books is now (if there is any way to work out an average that is).
Haha! Shaun, I'm not pulling all my books from the other stores! ;-)
Ever since putting my travel guides up for KDP Select their sales have increased. Albeit by about 20%, it's still much more than usual.Good times.
Mel (Lorne's creator, Pete's murderer) wrote: "Haha! Shaun, I'm not pulling all my books from the other stores! ;-)"We'll take the lions share ;)
Darren (or is it?) wrote: "The lion will be well peed off."As long as we run fast enough, we'll be OK.
Steve wrote: "Rosen wrote: "I'm looking forward to hearing how it goes.By the was Steve, I've created a shop at InBoBo and "In the Blood" is currently headlining."
That sounds good, Rosen. Did you become an ..."
Evening,
Steve, with regard to your point about the affiliate websites i.e. those we can access via Smashwords pubication, I too have done nothing to promote these and to be honest I havent a clue where to start. With the obvious excpetions of goodreads and Amazon discussions, I don't actually do any promo, although I plan to join Facebook any day now.
Does anyone have any advice on how to promote books on Barnes and Noble, Diesel, Apple etc?
"Does anyone have any advice on how to promote books on Barnes and Noble, Diesel, Apple etc?"I would work on promoting your work independently of platforms, and then have a page linking to the places that your book is available to buy.
Creating a trailer and putting it on YouTube can be a good way to generate traffic across all publishing platforms. It doesn't have to be complicated, I've seen some great slide shows put to music.
Right. I've added a new short story to KDP Select.I usually put my short stories on Smashwords for free, but not this time. Let's see what happens.
Excuse me......."
Devoted boyfriend, Ross Turpin, wakes up to a shocking sight: a pair of unfamiliar women's knickers are lying on his bedroom floor. Having no idea how they got there, Ross sets out on a mission to establish their origin."
I like the idea of putting something on Youtube, hadnt even considered that. In the mean time I've decided to do a couple of days KDP free giveaway for my full length book, it's shifted about 550 so far today so hopefully the increased exposure will help future sales.
Simon (Highwayman) wrote: "Excuse me.......
"
Devoted boyfriend, Ross Turpin, wakes up to a shocking sight: a pair of unfamiliar women's knickers are lying on his bedroom floor. Having no idea how they got there, Ross sets..."
"Turpin"... is he your brother then....?
:0)
"
Devoted boyfriend, Ross Turpin, wakes up to a shocking sight: a pair of unfamiliar women's knickers are lying on his bedroom floor. Having no idea how they got there, Ross sets..."
"Turpin"... is he your brother then....?
:0)
Yes, that one. So far - 1 download (compared with typically 50-100 in this amount of time for a new Smashwords short story.)
However, the free promotional days haven't started yet, so I won't write KDP Select off too soon.
No, his brother is Richard. I believe Simon has a new nickname. ;)Rosen's book isn't free quite yet.
Ah bullocks. I thought I'd picked a safe name.
If I ever found unfamiliar knickers in my bedroom I would write a book about it....
I'd be happy to offer my services as a beta reader, Ross.Sorry Rosen. Turpin couldn't possibly be a safe name. ;)
Let's hope that you don't. Poor Ross almost had a nervous break down.Am I right in thinking 12am on 12th Jan Pacific time, is about 8pm tomorrow?
UK Amazon Kindle Forum
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You also have to remember the surcharge for people outside the US. They add $2 to every sale. Not sure what happens with UK books as they don't quote a price if you're not in the UK.