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KDP Select - What do you think?
message 151:
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Patti (baconater)
(new)
Jan 11, 2012 03:03PM
Ich. Maths.
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It's a bit frustrating. First I had to wait the usual period of hours to get my book approved before it could be added to Amazon.Then, the first start time it would let me schedule for a promotion was tomorrow.
Added to which, tomorrow appears to be calculated by Pacific time, not GMT.
I much prefer the process of publishing to Smashwords and my own site. But hay ho, we shall see if it's worth it.
We'll make sure it's in the freebie thread and in your author thread when it's finally made free, okay Rosen? Teamwork. :)
Ok Patti, you distract him while I smuggle the knickers into his bedroom.
Patti wrote: "Teamwork. :)"Thanks. Will do.
Gingerlily (aka The Wardrobe) wrote: "Ok Patti, you distract him while I smuggle the knickers into his bedroom."
Ha ha!
Oh distracting him will take SUCH effort.Oiy. Simon. Beer over by here.
Go GL.
On my way Patti. Hmmm nice beer. Where is Gingerlilly going with those knickers?
Done. Expect him to start writing very soon. I gave them a spritz of exotic perfume as well.
I've just discovered beer wasn't necessary to distract him. Could have laid down a trail of Wotsits. They even glow in the dark...
Which beer 'perfume' did you use, Gingerlily?
It was some kind of indian beer I think - had a picture of the taj mahal on the label.
Simon (Highwayman) wrote: "If I ever found unfamiliar knickers in my bedroom I would write a book about it...."I'd be in the queue to read it!
Rosen's short story is free now I just downloaded it :o) Not sure I'd want to find out about a strange pair of lady's knickers on Simon's floor... He's like... my moderator. Ewww.
Thanks for the download.I'm not sure at what time the book went free, but there has definitely been a spike in downloads this morning.
"Not sure I'd want to find out about a strange pair of lady's knickers on Simon's floor... He's like... my moderator. Ewww."
Ha ha! I wish there was a "like" button.
Typical, I lure some intelligent, beautiful and witty women to the group and they see me as a 'moderator figure'.
I think therecwas a compliment in there!
They don't know nothin' Simon!
Thought so far: my KDP Select short story has had more downloads than my best free story on Smashwords + own website, did in its first 24 hours.However, I'm not sure how valid it is the compare a drama about a missing child and a farce about some missing knickers.
Being considered in the "Free" section is producing some ego-massaging ranking figures, because I'm competing in a much smaller pool. Great for screenshots and publicity quotes.
Simon (Highwayman) wrote: "Typical, I lure some intelligent, beautiful and witty women to the group and they see me as a 'moderator figure'."You've still got the rest of us, pet!
I have enrolled in this with my trio of short stories 'The Uneven Passage of Time'. I sold about 30 in the first 2 weeks but didn't 'loan' any out. It is on promotion today and tomorrow (13th and 14th) and in a few hours over 100 have been downloaded.Everyone loves a freebie I guess.
I am hoping that it will achieve decent word of mouth and get a few reviews. I know the sales will plummet again afterward but hopefully not to 10 a week again.
We'll see.
After just 9 hours though, it is #3 in the short stories free category, so it is getting noticed at least. Check it out if you have the time:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Uneven-Passag...
Good luck everyone!
Jason
Reading the early posts on this thread, it seemed there was a general sense of distrust about the KDP Select programme from authors and readers alike. The exclusivity sounded scary and there were some theories (almost conspiracy theories!) about this being part of Amazon's grand plans to remove indies and suchlike.Now that it's a few weeks later, I wonder what the general mood is?
For my part, signing up my most recent novel was the best thing I've ever done, as my first free promo day gained me exposure of the type that would have cost a lot in advertising. Time will tell how this translates to actual sales and readers, of course. But if I decide it isn't working out, I've already unchecked the box to automatically renew the programme, so come April I could publish my book elsewhere again. So is this still such a bad thing?
David wrote: "Reading the early posts on this thread, it seemed there was a general sense of distrust about the KDP Select programme from authors and readers alike. The exclusivity sounded scary and there were s..."In the grand scheme of things (if there is such a thing) ninety days is not a long time. After all, we're about 270 million light years from the center of our galaxy.
Select has worked for me; more books in readers hands and a steady flow of sales since going free which was about twenty days ago. Other friends report similar success.
Whenever I've advertised, previously, there's always been a spike followed by a quick drop off. A hundred sales has a nice impact on rankings but does little in terms of "getting you out there". The free d/l's do that in a relatively painless way; and the "infrastructure" that has built up around "free" makes getting the word out much easier.
A big thumbs up from me.
From what I can tell there are a lot of new authors joining - perhaps the end result is that other eBook retailers will be forced to step up their game -if they can, and do, then that has to be a good thing for the industry.
I've commented on another forum about this, and I have to say that I was in two minds about the Select programme. I have a fundamental problem with the concept of exclusivity in this respect, so I thought I would just wait and think about it. In the meantime, I discovered that my book Only the Innocent was really high in the iTunes thriller chart, and the chart for ALL books. This came as a complete surprise to me as I had done nothing but put the book with Smashwords. I had been plugging away at my Amazon sales, but in that first month I did much better on iTunes.It's still up there in the charts, and until it disappears from view, I'm going to stick with the general availability. But because of the way iTunes appears to work (not quite sussed it yet) I think that when it disappears from view that may well be it in terms of sales. So that is the point that I will consider a 90 day trial on Amazon.
And I suppose one good point is that the more people who move over to Select, the less competition there will be on other platforms? Just a thought.
Simon wrote: "In the grand scheme of things (if there is such a thing) ninety days is not a long time. After all, we're about 270 million light years from the center of our galaxy."That's getting a sense of perspective, Simon! (Although if I remember the song from Monty Python's Meaning Of Life correctly, I think we're only about 30,000 light years from galactic central point... nitpick nitpick nitpick...!)
I'm holding my thumb aloft beside yours, but I suppose I'll feel happier once the 90 days are up and Amazon don't try any funny business. I suspect that'll also trigger a wave of late adopters too.
Rachel, I'm intrigued by your iTunes sales. I've had a book on iTunes since August and as far as I can see have not sold a single copy - but then I've never had a sales report. Which just makes me want to pull it off iTunes and get it up on Select ASAP!
Nobody is more intrigued than me David. The author Kerry Wilkinson (Locked In, and others) sent me a tweet just after Christmas congratulating me on my position in the iTunes chart. Because I live in Italy, I didn't think I could even see the UK chart (but I finally worked it out).I wish I could tell you how it happened, but I have absolutely no idea at all. The only person that I know who bought it was my brother in law. It's frustrating not knowing the daily sales (our morning ritual is to check the Amazon sales numbers with a cup of coffee) but we just check the chart position and hope that it's indicative of sales.
My sales report is on my Smashwords Sales and Payment report for 2011. I only released it at the start of December, so it's just for one month. There are no sales reported for any of the other formats yet (apparently they take a lot longer).
The free promotional days are a dream. It's day 6 for me (i.e. no longer free) and the boast into the charts generated by my free days, has led to today's sales figures being greater than I could have ever expected. What effect this will have on the long term sales I don't know. I will let you know. Thanks also to a couple people from this group who wrote wonderful reviews - they certainly didn't hurt!
That's really interesting. I've heard the same from other people, and so I thought I would have a look at your book to see how it's doing. I went to your profile, chose the book and then clicked on the Amazon link. I got an error - so you might like to check this out? But I'm delighted that it's going well.My book is doing great in the UK, but struggling to get going in the US. Some sell every day, but it's about a third of the UK sales, so perhaps Select is the answer.
Thanks for the heads up. My Goodreads access is limited to my phone at the moment so I'm having difficulty tracking down the problem. Was it my Goodreads profile? Where abouts on the page was the link?Select might be the answer. Sales are self-propogating. The more you get, the more you get, so the increased downloads during the free days are an incredible boost.
Yes - I can see that. I may have to think about it. I think I was really lucky with iTunes, because for some reason they've been promoting my book in the New and Notable section since launch (no idea why!). And of course, it's the same thing - the more it sold, the higher it got in the charts, so the more it sold etc. However, it's dropped off New and Notable now - I guess it's no longer new (although I would argue that it's notable!). So I'm sure it will start to drop off the charts too.So about your book - I decided to see how you were doing, so I clicked your name from here, then went to your profile, clicked on where to buy your book and it goes to a list of retailers. I clicked on Amazon.com - and I got the 404 message.
Hope that helps. If you think it's fixed and you want me to test it for you just let me know.
Just found an interesting press release from Amazon about the success of their Select programme. It can be found in this blog post :http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/16/Am...
I can't really do any fixing, or indeed reply to things as thoroughly as I'd like to, because my laptop is sick. It's a very unfortunate time to be without proper Internet access and I'm very jumpy about it.
Oh how I feel for you! It feels like such a disaster, doesn't it? I lost internet access for a day last Friday, and my sales dropped by 70%! However, it WAS Friday 13th, so I really don't know if that was more to do with it.Would help if I could, but guess I can't.
Good luck with it.
P.S. I am grateful for the more detailed info. Just in a grump.
I can't praise it enough. Tollesbury Time Forever wouldn't have been published without it and the free promotion day has really helped things to take off!
I have five free promotion days starting today, but although they were showing on my dashboard as active, the book wasn't showing as free on the Amazon page. I was stressing a bit and looking in the Help forums until I had a thought and tried logging out and viewing the page again - I can see that it really is free now.
Solitary Pleasures
It also takes a while for the Free Rankings to show up so don't fret!
Stuart, I try not to look at the rankings! It's funny though, every time I put a book on Kindle something different and weird happens.
Stuart - you always manage to make me laugh! Nell - you should just be able to refresh your page without having to log in and out again. I do it all the time as I watch the fluctuating rankings intermittently throughout the day (shouldn't do it really, but it's quite addictive!).
Thank you Rachel! I too have to limit the amount of times I check the rankings - being an inveterate gambler, it's a very unhealthy thing. My poor F5 key is identifiabe by the fact it no longer has F5 on it!!
Stuart wrote: "to you or your book??"To both of us :)
Rachel wrote: Nell - you should just be able to refresh your page without having to log in and out again. I do it all the time as I watch the fluctuating rankings intermittently throughout the day (shouldn't do it really, but it's quite addictive!).
Refresh had no effect, Rachel. I think my ancient computer has a warped sense of humour - it seems to cache things to throw back at me instead of behaving nicely.
I will/do not look at the ratings, I will/do not look at...
I just wish I understood the ratings. I can't work out what period they "rate" over. It can't just be that day, but it would be good to know what the period is. Not that it matters really. Our after breakfast cup of coffee is taken with bets of number sold in the US and the UK (always higher at the moment). My husband is a terrific optimist and always comes up with some ludicrous number! Anyway, a bit of fun to make me smile (hopefully) each morning.
I've just had 3 refunds! What are other's experience of them? Or is it just me??
How does that work? How can people ask for a refund?I wouldn't have thought it was possible for an ebook, just shows what I know!
Stuart wrote: "I've just had 3 refunds! What are other's experience of them? Or is it just me??"I haven't had any yet but often wonder about how the system works. The preview is generous, so readers should be able to gauge whether or not they'll like the book. Surely too, Amazon must have a programme for spotting if someone's abusing the system and getting refunds after reading books. I'm sure it's not just you though - I think it's been mentioned on another thread somewhere.
Honestly, Rachel, I know nothing about ratings - they're outside my area of expertise :)Mel would know though...
I've not had any in the two and a half weeks it has been out and had three today - I'm really worried that something may have happened with the formatting but I can't check as I don't have a Kindle!!
Stuart, you can download a free Kindle App for your PC from Amazon - it's pretty good too.
That's what I use - since I downloaded my book two weeks ago, I have adjusted some of the text and re-published. Just worried I may have submitted the wrong document or something stupid! Although I have just downloaded the sample and that looks fine! Would that mean it's ok do you think?
I would think so. Re. refunds, there's a thread on another group (Readers and Authors?) where they were mentioned. It looks as though one can be asked for for any reason, but I'm not sure how much actual direct knowledge the poster had on the subject.
On Amazon can't you get a refund within 7 days of purchase?
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