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Amazon Select book lending program
Andre Jute wrote: "What I'm trying to find out is 1. Where is the Amazon new Select releases page?
2. How does Amazon tell customers a book in the Select program has gone free?"
Yes, what Andre said is what I was getting at. : )
I was looking for the KB post where they talk about it.There is an Amazon List that is sent out to readers. I don't know any more than that. It MIGHT be Daily Cheep Reads - they see a free book and post the link.
There are websites all over the net that let people know about free books. The Kindle forum on Amazon also has a list every day. I have a couple of links I check regularly.I know of no way that Amazon lets folks know about new releases via Select, except for adding them to the lending library. Then it's up to them to either cycle a book near the top or hide it near the bottom. My "borrows" have dropped off in the past couple of days, so I think I'm swimming somewhere at the bottom.
Well, obviously children's books don't need to sell as many to get up the charts. I've been free for 4 hours, given away 17 books in the US and hit: #2 in books about self-esteem
#4 in books about social situations
#62 in Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic.
I think I might enjoy this for a while. :)
It is a lovely feeling while it lasts.KKR wrote about the 'Halo Effect' of free e-books.
http://kriswrites.com/2011/12/22/the-...
It hasn't happened for me - but I tossed "Mitzi's Exit" by I. C. Talbot out so she had a freebie out there again. Maybe it will happen for her.
"Turned Out" had a couple hundred 'sales' but that didn't last. 'Lunch' sales are a bare handful in the US but over a dozen a day in the UK.
Mod
There's no logic to the break between US and UK sales, Kat, and they can switch over for no visible reason.
Here's another example of 'no logic' my friends.***************
FAIR WARNING! Put down the coffee, tea or whatever.
***************
"Let's Do Lunch" is a sell out in the one place in town where the paperback is for sale.
Rineyville Feedstore - yes, the local feedstore.
Peggy sold out all 4 copies I gave her and wants 5 more. I'm going to have to order more books, the 20 copies is down to 7.
Yes, a brand new country Feed store is selling MY books - because of this the Library wants copies too.
I love Kentucky, you NEVER know what is going to happen next.
PS - My friend Peggy absolutely ROCKS as a salesperson.She could sell Ice to Eskomoes, as the saying goes.
Packing my books to send to Peggy...
You might want to do that - I'll sell some at my office too!
I've now given away 211 copies of The Dragon Box, I'm #22 for Children's Scifi/Fantasy in the US and #7 for the same in the UK...Phew!...and I sold one copy of Treespeaker.
Going to print some off for Peggy!
As at 9am this morning, I had 'sold'US: 337
UK: 105
FR: 1
With 7 hours to go, I'm not expecting to sell too many more, it being Christmas Eve/Day, but I'm pretty happy with being in the top 10 in the children's scifi/fantasy in Britain for a while. I just hope some of the people who got it, will actually read it or give it to kids who will read it and get the word out.
I'm still not sure whether to use some more days after Christmas or to keep them to bounce things back up later.
Mod
The idea was that we'd use two days over Christmas, and two over New Year and save the final free day for the mad giveaway in March. For the rest of March or however long that Amazon promotion lasts, I thought a price reduction might be in order.
You have about 25 hours before you have to decide, as you must give 4 hours notice before midnight Pacific time if you want to run a free day on the day after Christmas in the States -- which seems a good idea to me.
Back when I still celebrated Christmas, I remember everyone drifting off to non-family pursuits as it got later in the day. They'd be checking out their gifts, enjoying them. This was before folks had all these electronic toys we have now, but I would expect computers and Kindles to be turned on after the big meal nowadays. I'd be more concerned about the competition from other titles that go free for Christmas. I'm expecting there to be many hundreds. Today there were over 400 new titles. Almost 500 last time I checked.The kids' book I've had free for a few days is continuing to get downloads tonight, Christmas eve. The number is somewhere over 2,000 now. But once again I'm getting returns. This time, nine. That seems like a lot. And Amazon's explanation last time won't hold water. They said then that the returns were made by people who had purchased the book either before the promo or during a glitch when the book was no long free but was supposed to be. But as far as I know, there's been no glitch this time around and the book was never available prior to the promo. It amazes me that someone would go to the trouble of emailing or calling Amazon to get rid of a book when they can just click to remove it from their Kindle library.
I've got 14 returns for "Let's Do Lunch" - only a couple during the giveaway.I still suspect most of them are from people expecting a book that's much steamier.
Mod
Nah, on second thoughts... Somebody must hate you powerfully to return a FREE book.
Of course not! I bet they're luddites who don't know how to remove the books from their Kindle library. I don't know how, thought I would work it out rather than ask, because I don't use the Amazon facility, just keeping my library manually by moving books around over the URL cable.
Okay, everyone, grab a blanket and get ready to catch me! The Dragon Box just came off free (Final figures US -375, UK -112 FR -1) so I'm feeling really vulnerable right now. It's a bit scary wondering whether I'll go into free-fall or will catch some sales from where I am at the moment. Fingers crossed!
Mod
http://www.amazon.com/MANS-novel-RUTH...
http://www.amazon.com/THE-MEYERSCO-HE...
Here they show:
"Kindle Price: $3.51 includes VAT & free international wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet"
PS Fingers crossed for you, Katie. Most books do settle at a higher level than before after going free. That's the point of the exercise.
Not yet Andre, but my book took about 50 mins after the start time to actually show free. Don't worry. Then I found, as someone had warned me, that "Sales" started really slowly. They didn't really pick up for two or three hours.
Mod
Both the books show as free for me, Andre. And I'm gonna grab 'em.Edit: Oops. I went back to download them and see that they're free to borrow, but not priced $0.00. Amazon says they'll generally have the free books up between 3am and 4am Pacific. It's a few minutes past 4am here, but only 1am in the Pacific time zone.
Katie - Just remember how wonderful it felt to have those numbers. It will keep the wind in your sails, in spite of what the sales do.Good grief, look at the time! Why am I still awake?
I'm up to 2,273 downloads for my kids' book -- and (drum roll) 12 returns. One more day to go.K.A., the returns you're getting after the giveaway could still be downloads from the giveaway.
Could be - though I can't tell.I want to see the end-of-the-month royalties. That should be an eye-opener!
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how Amazon spreads that 500 grand around.Since they list downloads as sales, and borrows as sales, and sales as sales, I suspect that reading the royalty statement will be a bit tough.
Kat, how long did it take your rankings to come back after you'd come off free?
Mod
My rankings came back after 3 hours and they're right back where they were before the promotion! I'm hoping this is what people meant about them yoyo-ing afterwards and that they will eventually go to where they should be before it loses momentum.On the plus side, 2 sales were reported on Amazon UK after the free sign was taken off. Hopefully they will be paid as sales and they won't return them because they had to pay.
SIX hours and Amazon US still haven't upgraded the ranking. So it's sitting in oblivion where it was before. Amazon UK have sorted it out. Do computers not work on Christmas Day in the US?
Mod
My rankings went right back into the crapper after the promotion ended. The book had to work it's way back up which took more than 12 hours on the UK side.US side took longer and ever got above 20k,
Andre - "Helix" isn't free. I've already gotten my copy of "Ruthless".Merry Christmas everyone!
PS - No, computers NEVER work right on Holidays. Which is why I had to lose my job to be able to have Holidays at home.I worked every Holiday for 20 years.
Katie, your pre-freebie ranking is what you return to after the free promotion ends. The climb up from there will have to be from paid sales, without the free books factored in. If you noticed, the ranking during the freebie offer specified it was the ranking in the free store only, not the paid store.
Le Mans shows as free. The Meyersco-Helix is still $2.99. I liked and tagged both.
Speechless, thrilled, thankful, justified, encouraged...and, I have to see my mother-in-law today!When I See You is #30 in Literary Fiction (free) here;
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/...
Think of Reese Witherspoon's scene in Legally Blonde when she gets the internship. "Yes!!!!!"
Thank you to you all here who told me to go for it by sharing your stories and insight with Select.
KO
The book is FREE for Kindle through 12/29. Go now, my lovelies. Get a copy for your Kindle.
We all need encouragment - I was very close to quitting - I'd started looking for another job. I was going to get 'Swallow the Moon' into paperback and that would be it.Then Patricia tried KDP Select...
Sold enough copies to hold 'my' rank in the UK.
UK Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,475 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#11 in Books > Fiction > Erotica > Adult Fiction
#20 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Romance > Romantic Suspense
#20 in Books > Fiction > Romance > Thrillers & Suspense
Fantastic, Kat! I hope it stays like this for a long time to come!I actually sold four copies in the US since I went off free. That's not huge, but it's more than I've sold in four months. I've had 2 borrows, too. I might have sold 3 in the UK, but it's hard to tell from the Reports. Either way, it was nice while it lasted.
Holy Toledo Batman! I forgot about the UK. (That's because I never sell anything there except maybe 1 book every other month) I've had 35 downloads of "When I See You" #23 in Literary Fiction Free. That's amazing. I'm stunned.#1,330 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#23 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Literary Fiction
Mod
Thanks, Katherine. That's our entire Select experiment wrecked, 85% of the potential market for one of the books subtracted by some computer glitch, many pissed-off customers, the carefully planned synergy and cross-support so disturbed that some of the free books aren't doing as well as our paid books.
Because we're not getting the synergy of all the books in the best market, we're not even doing as well with the free books as we're doing with paid books:
Compare this free book, without the support of the missing freebie that it should have had--
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #905 Free in Kindle Store
#35 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Thrillers > Suspense
(35th is just not acceptable; without Amazon's glitch it would have been in the top three.)
--with this paid book. in the top ten in all the desirable categories in every country that matters:
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,995 Paid in Kindle Store
#3 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Thrillers > Technothrillers
#3 in Books > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Technothrillers
#9 in Kindle Store > Books > Nonfiction > Literary Criticism & Theory
You can't market sensibly if Amazon's computer falls apart under the slightest stress.
Well, we still have a third of a day and another full day to go; maybe Amazon fixes the problem before tomorrow and I can get at least one day of the experiment at 80 per cent efficiency, which will be twice the crippled effort we have now. I'll write to Amazon again, and then I'm off to bed.
Katherine - GREAT! I was surprised too.Andre - I'm so sorry, this is a terrible setback. However, all is not lost. This isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. Try for New Years.
Mod
You're not whining, Andre. It must be very annoying.On the other hand, I WAS whining last night when they didn't put my rankings back to where they should be! Now I'm happy again with 11 sales and 4 borrows since I went off free. I'm fickle.
I just had my first ever refund. I can just imagine the scene..."Hey, Mum, look here on my Kindle, I can see all these books and when I press this button...oops!"
Katie, Amazon didn't always separate the free store rankings from the paid store rankings and it caused an uproar. Those whose books were being purchased in the paid store felt ripped off because free books were being downloaded by the zillions & causing the paid books to look like they weren't selling at all. It does seem more fair to keep the rankings separate, not just for authors but also for customers. The separation provides a more meaningful measure of a title's genuine popularity.The ranking system is a mystery. Amazon won't reveal how the numbers are calculated except to say that they update hourly. Trouble is, the hourly rankings don't really tell you how you actually stand. The number is based on more than just how many books you sold in the previous hour. They also factor in how many of your books have been sold the whole time they've been available on Amazon. That's why a few sales in an hour can improve a ranking greatly, while someone else selling many more in an hour will appear to be lagging behind you. Authors have tried to pry the formula from Amazon, but so far they'll reveal nothing. Once in a while someone will think they've figured it out and publish a post about it, but nothing has ever been verified by those who actually know.
Patricia, excuse my ignorance, but are they factoring borrows into the rankings?
I don't know. They've said they're treating borrows as sales (though nobody knows yet what the royalty will be), so it *sounds* like borrows will affect rankings -- but I've not seen anything that comes out and says exactly that.
Okay, I just checked a couple of my titles -- the one that's been borrowed the most, and one that's been borrowed the least. The rankings make no sense. Neither ranking is good, but the one with fewer sales and fewer borrows has a better ranking than the other one which has been borrowed the most (compared to all 7 of my titles) and has sold more copies. Go figure.However, a third book that has sold the most copies over an extended period of time (over two years) does have the best ranking despite few borrows and few recent sales.
See what I mean about the mysteries of Amazon's system?
Yes, I just found the book of a friend of mine just outside the top 100 in a category that my book is in. Mine is nowhere to be seen. His is ranked at 200 000+. Mine is at 16 000 at the moment. Obviously something else is factored in.Still, I'm selling today (and being sent back for refund - twice) and I'm being borrowed, just about 1 for 1 at the moment, so I'm not complaining.
Books mentioned in this topic
Deliverance (other topics)LE MANS a novel (other topics)
Treespeaker (other topics)
Two Shorts (other topics)
The Meyersco Helix (other topics)
More...
1. Where is the Amazon new Select releases page?
2. How does Amazon tell customers a book in the Select program has gone free?