Amazon Select book lending program

[Sharon]

Andre Jute wrote: "Sierra, how many Prime members are there> They're the ones entitled to borrow books, aren't they? As long as they have a Kindle.

Sharon, I wouldn't be so sure. There was a thread on KB asking for ..."

Thanks, Andre! Much appreciated...

[Sharon]

K. A. wrote: "This is the last day! Tonight at midnight pacific I turn back into a pumpkin.

Me too, except I think one of the ugly (very un-PC, today we might say 'unfortunate looking' lol) step-sisters decided to make it sooner <>. Everything pretty much died off this morning. I may have to re-think my decision to use two free days around Christmas and instead use them in January...

[K.A.]

At least you have a few days left.

I was 'all in' for 'Let's Do Lunch' because the book had been dead in the water for so long.

I had a return in the UK today. I wonder if they were looking for a diet book. There is a series by the same name. LOL

[Sharon]

LOL, Kat.

Yeah, I like that I have a few days to play around with...

[Patricia]

Kat, I got an email from Amazon confirming that my returns were from people who purchased my books during a glitch in their freebie system (they put a price on the books). Those buyers later saw them for free, so returned 'em and got the freebies. Maybe there was a glitch during your 5 days? (They were able to confirm the length of the glitch in my case: two hours.)

Sharon, have you considered changing your cover? Maybe something bolder would catch more eyes. It'd be near impossible not to notice Kat's cover. It leaps off the page, even in thumbnail size. I'm thinking of stealing it & using it for all my titles.

[Sharon]

Yeah, Patricia, I am green with envy over Kat's covers on both Lunch and Moon.

But my cover was commissioned art and pretty much how I'd envisioned and asked for it. Only thing is, it was designed for a matt print book jacket (there's a whole wraparound scene) and then Kindle beckoned and we decided to go that route first. There is another, brighter version of it, but after taking a poll, most agreed the one we chose evoked the whole past-life thing. I've been thinking of having the two photo-shopped, taking the best parts of both with the faces and grass as they are (the artist signed all rights over to me and actually suggested photoshopping them). But I keep having unexpected expenses, such as the shock I got yesterday discovering travel insurance for the year would be $500 due to the length of this stay (over 50 days). And I'm in great health! Plus the cost of the trip itself. So I keep putting it off, along with the cost of publishing with Create Space.

[K.A.]

The cover for 'Let's Do Lunch' is the 5th or 6th. I brought it from Create Space.

Here are the numbers for this morning. Mind you, out of 3 of my stories and 5 of Mom's, nothing else has and any sales. In effect, they are still dead in the water.

=======================
Let's Do Lunch 12/17/11 am

Amazon US = 3265
Amazon UK = 2911
Amazon DE = 6
Amazon FR = 1
Amazon ES = 1
Amazon IT = 0


-------------------
Turned Out

Amazon US = 123
Amazon UK = 33
Amazon DE = 2
Amazon FR = 0
Amazon ES = 0
Amazon IT = 0

[Sharon]

Kat, those are staggering numbers! Congratulations!

Your UK numbers are especially cracking good, as they might say over there. Too bad you missed Italy, probably not sexy enough for them, lol.

Here's mine after two days:

US - 313
UK - 55
de - 3
fr, es, it, the dreaded brown bars.

You never know, they say it just takes one, maybe that one is in there somewhere.

As my sales diminished dramatically the second day, due I'm pretty sure to a huge number of authors jumping in for the weekend, I'm a bit uncertain about the next promo. May just try some one-days snd stagger them, perhaps one on the 26th or 27th, one in the very new year, and reserve the last for perhaps the Free ebook week in March, of which I know almost nothing but was suggested by a friend on another forum.

I hope Lunch brings you sales extraordinaire, and breathing space long enough to work on your other projects. Wouldn't that be cool!

Good catch from CreateSpace for your cover.

[Patricia]

I had one download in Italy so I'm at least a little bit sexy...

[Sharon]

Well, just look at your image, more than a little sexy!

[Patricia]

...and that's me on a bad day.

[K.A.]

I'm heading for 7k downloads.

The thing that chaps, is the money I'm losing. Even at $.35 I'd be able to buy hay all winter for the horses.

[Sharon]

It's the exposure and the after-sales that will put you in hay. You just made a little sprint during a marathon. Give it a bit of time...

[Patricia]

Kat, that's not lost money. It's free advertising.

[K.A.]

I hope so.

These are the end of the day numbers.

=======================
Let's Do Lunch 12/17/11 pm

Amazon US = 3739
Amazon UK = 3375
Amazon DE = 7
Amazon FR = 1
Amazon ES = 1
Amazon IT = 0

[Patricia]

Clunk!

(That was me fainting.)

[K.A.]

I've had to pick myself up off the ground a couple times.

It's astounding. I don't believe it.

Except I keep seeing the numbers climb. It's over 7k, and quickly heading to 7.5k.

[Sharon]

Since all the best adjectives have been used here, may I just interject and say, WOW!

And congratulations of course.

I knew her when, {{sigh...}}

[Patricia]

Remember the old days when you were moaning about nobody noticing your book?

[Sharon]

LOL, Patricia.

Kat, you cast a pretty darn good spell. Didn't know your own power, huh?

Now find one for sales with $$!!

Have you posted these numbers to KB?

[Katie]

Happy for you, Kat!

Will you still talk to us plebs when you're a famous celebrity?

[K.A.]

I posted them to the book thread and to my 'e-book pricing' blog-post.

Otherwise, I sharing them here to let you know that it's not the 'evil program' to end civilization. Why tell so many people when you are the ones who have been with me through thick and thin? I'd rather see you benefit from my experience.

We still don't know if 'Swallow the Moon' will benefit from this happy accident.

I'm going to check the numbers, see what happened on Saturday night.

Had 5 refunds & 1 borrow.

[K.A.]

All right, who was the smart @$$ who put my book on the Erotica Chart? LOL

No wonder it has 5 returns - there's only 1 love scene.

BTW - my total world-wide income month-to-date is

(drum roll)

$0.35

Or as Shakespear said "Much ado about Nothing." LOL

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Who wants the crown?

Final Numbers:

Let's Do Lunch 12/18/11 am

Amazon US = 3892 + 1
Amazon UK = 3497 - 5
Amazon DE = 7
Amazon FR = 1
Amazon ES = 1
Amazon IT = 0

-----------------

Turned Out

Amazon US = 129
Amazon UK = 35
Amazon DE = 1
Amazon FR = 0
Amazon ES = 0
Amazon IT = 0

[Andre Jute]

Always liked that cover on Let's Do Lunch. Congratulations, Kat. I always knew you would be famous one day.

[Patricia]

Seriously, Kat? Erotica? How can anyone put you on such a list without your knowing it's being done? I thought authors controlled what lists they're on, but since one of my titles ended up in an odd place, I'm not so sure of that.

[K.A.]

I don't know - but I've got more returns, 6 total in the UK - but I also think I have 13 'sales.'

It also looks like a paperback sold, though it is hard to tell. There were 2 borrows.

[Andre Jute]

The paperback, if you did it through Createspace, isn't accounted to you by Amazon but direct to Createspace, who in turn pays you. You have to go to Createspace to find out how may paperbacks you sold, and add them to what Amazon reports on KDP.

[Patricia]

Does Createspace have an up-to-the-minute sales report like KDP's?

[Andre Jute]

I imagine so. I'm not exactly haunting it since it requires you to sign in each time, unlike KDP. But once a month or so I look in, and it is always up to date, with sales on that day reported. I don't sell enough paperbacks to make an experiment to see if it is up to date by the hour. That's why that single sale of 12 stood out, it was probably an eighth of sales for that month, all at once.

By the way, the recent flurry of activity has put esales up 14% -- may just be Christmas ramping up, of course.

[K.A.]

There aren't any sales showing on Create Space.

I'm content with my (brief) fling with fame.

[Katie]

All this has made me think (which probably explains the thumping headache I've had all day). I don't want to give Amazon exclusive rights to Treespeaker, but maybe if I put up the short story I've been thinking of putting up for ages, with plenty of advertising for Treespeaker inside...

Are short stories allowed in this scheme?

[K.A.]

Yes, Mom's 'Turned Out' is a short story.

I have to warn you that I have yet to see any 'collateral' sales.

Wait, let me check. No, the other books remain undiscovered.

However, 'Lunch' is still selling an enormous amount of books - 30 a day in the UK, just under 10 in the US.

I have more returns - no doubt the Erotica/Adult Fiction people. I feel sorry for them. I have no idea how it got on that chart.

I am STUNNED at this:

Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#341 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#1 in Books > Fiction > Erotica > Adult Fiction
#5 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Romance > Romantic Suspense
#5 in Books > Fiction > Romance > Thrillers & Suspense

[Andre Jute]

See, I told you, one day you would be famous.

That is genuinely a stunning result. 40 a day is an annual rate of 14400. That's more than enough to make you a bestseller in trad publishing. The initial print run for Stieg Larsson was thought excessive at 8000 copies.

[K.A.]

I don't feel famous. I do feel like my luck has changed.

LOL It has been a long hard slog to get noticed. I've been marketing 'Lunch' in the UK three years. Two years on Authonomy and a year published.

I think 10 to 30 sales a day is sustainable.

[Andre Jute]

Your luck didn't just change. You changed it.

[K.A.]

I understand - behind every 'stroke of luck' is hours and hours of work in hope of getting that moment of being in the right place at the right time.

"Luck" is a hell of a lot of work.

[Katherine]

K. A. wrote: "All right, who was the smart @$$ who put my book on the Erotica Chart? LOL

No wonder it has 5 returns - there's only 1 love scene.

BTW - my total world-wide income month-to-date is

(drum ..."

Your message made me laugh in reference to the 35 cents and the Shakespeare quote... : )

So, I read the whole thread and now I don't know what to do... I finally finished my third novel and just put it up on Amazon, but I just couldn't push the select button. With what you all just shared, now, I'm thinking I should.

Thanks for not kicking me out of the group even though I haven't been by in like for ev-ah.

Happy Holidays, too!

Best,

Katherine Owen

[K.A.]

Katherine - just between you and I - KDP Select is a interesting venue to launch a new book.

In exchange for 90 days exclusively on their site - Amazon will turn you loose with 5 days of freebies, put you on the 'just released chart' and give you access to the 'freebie hunters' who can get you 3k eyeballs the first 2 days.

During that time, you can hit up the reviewer sites, while the book is 'fresh' in their minds and on the charts. You may want to talk to them first - I've waited since July for some promised reviews that have never seen the light of day.

Give it some thought - my dead book did very nicely.

[Patricia]

Katherine, I uploaded a new book to KDP yesterday, it went live today, and I've had upwards of 650 downloads in less than 24 hours. If I'd just uploaded the book and not offered it for free, it'd be on nobody's Kindle for, oh, probably forever.

It's a kids' book written under a pen name (Libby Stephens) with John Philpin:
http://www.amazon.com/Charles-Dickens...

[Andre Jute]

Go into your KDP bookshelf, see a column for Select, with Enlist against each book, click it and see what happens.

Please, Katherine, this is the holiday season. We're not having our Surplus Member Massacre until the New Year Sales start.

[Patricia]

Oh great. Just realized I uploaded the wrong version of the kids' book. One with a bazillion mistakes. Now I'm waiting for it to republish and hoping no one who downloaded it has it uploaded to their readers yet.

Which reminds me, Katherine: that's another thing that's nice about KDP. You can goof. Then you can un-goof very easily.

[Katherine]

Thanks for all the insight, especially the info. on the just released list. So helpful! I love it! All right I'm off to read the fine print and then press the button. I'll keep you posted.

KO

[Katie]

Okay, I've been persuaded. I've just enrolled my children's book, with a promotion over tomorrow and Saturday. Hopefully enough people have bought their kids Kindles to make it worthwhile. What am I saying? It hasn't sold a copy for six weeks, so what have I got to lose?

[Katherine]

I think Kindles and Kindle Fires are going to be the hit for Christmas. My 12-year-old daughter is getting one, my mother, and my two nephews (21 & 25) are all getting Kindle Fires. Let the downloads begin.

[Katie]

I know when I went to get one for my daughter, the shop said they were selling faster than they could get them in - and that's in Australia which is behind the rest of the world. So here's hoping!

[K.A.]

If a million Kindle Fires have sold every week for the last 3-4 weeks - it would be a great idea to strike now - while the authors who've been selling books to date are hesitating.

Those of us with nothing to lose have everything to gain. (Come on, it worked for me!)

I've offically closed my office for the holidays so I can catch up on my reading. And I've just got a Nook.

[Katie]

Treespeaker is available on Nook!

Hehe!

[Katherine]

K. A. wrote: "Katherine - just between you and I - KDP Select is a interesting venue to launch a new book.

In exchange for 90 days exclusively on their site - Amazon will turn you loose with 5 days of freebie..."

Not to be obtuse...okay, I am. Where are these newly released charts of which you speak? Kindle page or somewhere else? I must admit that I don't spend a lot of time on Amazon's web site because my books don't bubble up to the top of the lists ever...

[Andre Jute]

Yah, I'd like to know too. I've had two books at the top of the bestseller list for over a year, and those results have been on the same page I check for reviews, so I'm quite as ignorant (temporarily of course) as Katherine.

[K.A.]

There are sites that specialize in finding free books. Something like 'Cheap Reads' - learned about them on KB - have yet to find the links.

If I do I will post.