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Self-Publishing questions
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KDP select, what'cha think?
Natalie wrote: "I think my concern is more that Amazon is being allowed to completely dominate the ebook industry, with no competition from other companies, and I'm not sure that we should give them that much powe..."I agree with you. I haven't done this yet. Not sure that I will.
I am really struggling with this decision. Tentative plan at this point: wait another month or two to see if sales pick up in general and in non-Amazon outlets, and if not, try KDP Select.
There are real compelling reasons to do as well, but it comes down to what you are offering in your work genre wise and audience wise. What works for one doesn't work for another and even if both do the same thing. They both aren't selling the same book.But, the free promotion days can be a boon for exposure and utilizing the also bought and also viewed marketing that Amazone displays when you look at a book. Aside from doing the .99c short promotions this is the best way of getting into a lot of Kindle's and that has driven future sales for just about everyone else that I know of whose done it. There's also some things you should do before hand to get word out about the promo. The Borrow option is less of a perk, but seems to also allow for a paid way of transacting your work. Unless you're doing really well on the other platforms there's not much that I've found in my research that is negative about it.
I am going to put the third book in my sort of a series on KDP Select in a few days. (I'm a few weeks behind my own deadline.) It's supposed to work better if you have other books in a series. It's just an experiment. I am almost through a fourth one, so I hope I can have it ready when the ninety days are up.I'll let you know. And y'all keep us updated.Lawman
From a friend who did the KDP Select:"Next time I might split up the 5 into 1-day promos because... The most action is on day one."
I was thinking of doing a 2-1-2 but might rethink that.
Hey all,I just took the plunge and signed all six of my eBooks up for KDP Select (four travel adventure memoirs, one book of poetry, and one retelling of the past 30 years of history, with America playing the role of Iraq and a giant fictional country called Megastan playing the role of America).
It's my birthday this weekend, and I made all six of them free for parts or all of this weekend as a little birthday present to the world. Please feel free to partake in the freebook feast :)
www.amazon.com/Pamela-Olson/e/B0051C0ZGG
I get 80% of my short story ebook sales from Smashwords. KDP Select was pretty much DOA for me. What I've heard from other writers who had joined KDP Select was that it didn't make a difference in sales.
Update - my first book "Let's Do Lunch" is still selling several copies a week. The most I've had in a year and a half.I'm getting occasional sales with my mother's short stories.
However, the paranormal romance I had such hopes for, "Swallow the Moon" hasn't done as well as I'd hoped. I still have 3 free days left - which I will use in Feburary.
Karen wrote: "I am really struggling with this decision. Tentative plan at this point: wait another month or two to see if sales pick up in general and in non-Amazon outlets, and if not, try KDP Select."isn't it a "US" and nobody else? You can't have your book sold anywhere else ?
Susan *ARK* wrote: "Karen wrote: "I am really struggling with this decision. Tentative plan at this point: wait another month or two to see if sales pick up in general and in non-Amazon outlets, and if not, try KDP Se..."AS near as I can tell, KDP Select is a 90 day exclusive for e-books. Print is otherwise. Earlier in this thread there is some discussion about leaving samples on other sites. Some say Amazon has said OK. They told me no but it appeared to be a canned response.
On the KDP community there is a thread about a UK store that will list and promote your Amazon book. All point of sale goes directly to Amazon so I'm not sure if this is a 'violation'. Seems to me if the sales come direct from Amazon there should be no objection how a person arrives at the Amazon kindle store.
I've been on KDP Select for two weeks. I was on Smashwords and Lulu before this (as well as Amazon). It was a difficult decision joining KDP, most of my sales were coming from Smashwords (I'd sold about 70 copies since publishing in September compared to 10 with Amazon).January is a busy month for me and I knew I wouldn't be able to do much promotion so I figured I should just got for it. In three days I sold over 1000 books and apart from a mention on Twitter and FB I didn't push it at all.
My book went up into the top 3 of it's catagory and is selling at least one copy every day, which may not be big bacon to some, but it was more than I thought was possible back in December.
I think because KDP Select is new a lot of people are still hearing about it and checking it out, most people in the world have an Amazon account and as Kindle grows for people less comfortable with the web KDP might offer them the convenience Smashwords and the like don't.
The question really is will KDP be so hot when the novelty wears off?
LE wrote: "I've been on KDP Select for two weeks. I was on Smashwords and Lulu before this (as well as Amazon). It was a difficult decision joining KDP, most of my sales were coming from Smashwords (I'd sold ..."Is a big Woo Hoo for you sufficient? Congrats
I put THE MAZE on KDPSelect on Jan 30.First day of freebie (Offered the third and the fourth only) 358 downloads, no borrows, one cash cross sale. It would take a week to accrue that many downloads of a freebie on Smashwords. Missing indents my only complaint. They sent me two different answers on how to fix that.
Well, we'll see if I'm one of the lucky ones! Signed up last Saturday, and today (Wednesday 2-15-12) is the first of Twin-Bred's free days (tomorrow's the second).
Right now I have a freebie going on Smashwords but the numbers don't compare to my novella in KDP select which I had over 400 downloads of. I wonder if I should just take it off of Smashwords for a while and enroll it in KDP Select to see how that works out. But I'll decide after my Smashwords Freebie is over.
There is another thread running on goodreads about this and, for some reason, it will not let me comment unless I open a Goodreads account Which I have and am now using. Anyway, it illustrates completely opposite experiences and opinions about the program. I think tagging or which category you put your book in makes a dif Id est: "love" vs."romance" vs "marriage". Also, I put my third book up and said it was part of a series which was suggested somewhere in Goodreads and which I believe helped. I always sell good on B&N and had to forgo that but had three Amazon sales in October and had twelve in one day (cash sales) while in this program. I think you have to decide to take the chance and then it is a crap shoot. (Mixed metaphor?)"Run it up the flagpole and see who salutes?"
Lawman
SACRED SIN
I would like to advise you all against joining select so that I can continue to reap the benefits. The less authors in there, the better!It has been nothing but brilliant for me.
I had my first day on Sunday, had a bit under 300 downloads. since then I've returned to the 2-3 a day that I was having before. I went to #1042 in 'sales' and #32 in historical fiction-free.What I made available on Select was the first four chapters. Now I have two volumes at $3.99 that complete the work. I'm waiting to see if the bait worked. I'm a bit concerned as I doubled the prior price to hit the next royalty level. I'll give it another shot next weekend.
Bottom line, real pleased about the activity but it hasn't yet translated to $$.
I am getting ready to put mine up for two more freebie days. I did have the best cash month this February, so far, and it's not quite over. I can't give all the credit to Select cuz I've done a couple other things, like an excerpt on my blog. In general hits and cash purchases are going upward, but not hugely.Lawman
SACRED SIN
I can't put a link on here to the new one but it is THE MAZE, the third in a trilogy. Oh, yes I can.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0061SB3TC
I like it. It's extra revenue, but I only post titles that are too large to post elsewhere for sale. The months I did it I did have higher sales. I just don't know how much KDP select added to it.
Still a bit confused as to what, if anything, Select has to do with the Amazon Prime program. :(
You have to be in Prime to do the borrow thing for one.
Virginia wrote: "You have to be in Prime to do the borrow thing for one."Thank you! Another brick in the wall.
Does Prime have anything to do with the freebie days? or are these wholly separate elements?
Select is, from the author's view, the program to enroll in for the freebie days.Prime is the Amazon account type that enables free borrows. The 'lending library' aspect is simply another benefit to Prime Members. Prime was first set up to provide free shipping for certain products. It has since expanded into free video streaming and book lending.
Ken wrote: "Select is, from the author's view, the program to enroll in for the freebie days.Prime is the Amazon account type that enables free borrows. The 'lending library' aspect is simply another benefi..."
Again, thanks! Are there many people here who have signed up for Prime? I'll do some research to see if it's worth the price.
This still isn't being made clear to you, JW. You don't need Prime.Amazon customers can pay to become members of Prime. As members of Prime they get certain benefits. One of those is a lending library.
Amazon needed books for the lendin glibrary, so they created Select. By joining Select, an author is making their book available for the lending library and takes a payment for every borrow, based on the whole number of borrows divided across the books available and how many borrows of yours have occurred.
Right, so far, only Amazon and Prime members win. So, Amazon made Select appealing to authors by allowing members of Select to give their book away for free for 5 days per 3 months. This is pure marketing fuel. It increases your exposure.
Oh, and you have to make your eBook (only eBook) exclusive to Amazon for the 3 month term.
So... to make it real simple.
Author joins Select. Author can promote book for 5 days. Prime members can borrow book for free. Author gets a cut from the library to say thanks. Book is exclusive to Amazon.
So, run that by me one more time? Do Prime members get free shipping on the e-books they borrow?Just kidding. Born smartazz and I couldn't resist.
Its been a week since my first one day promo. One that one day I had close to 300 downloads. However, since then the sales of the first volume have dwindled to normal levels.What concerns me is lack of any follow up sales afterwards. Perhaps my expectations are too high but I was thinking out of 300 I would have had someone come back and buy the second in the series at $3.99. Of course, my thinking is someone will download it, immediately start reading and then zip back for more.
I suppose a reasonable explanation is someone would download a freebie and then think 'I'll get to it by and by'. I had this serialized before the promo and I was getting about a 72% of those who paid real cash for the intro come back for volume 2. If they bought volume 2 I pretty much had follow through to volume 5 with almost 95% going through all segments.
Now, the volumes are condensed to three and the price for the whole book is about the same but I start to have some doubts about my strategy. I'm going to keep it as is and run both days this weekend to see how it goes.
I ran a couple of days in December (separate), again in January, and one in February. I took care to spread it out as much as possible to try and keep the numbers up. Numbers of sales do fall back after a while but then occasionally peak. You need to remember that the downloaders likely picked up 30 or more books that day. It will take time to get to yours, depending on how they rated it in their own system of importance to read.
You have to think of the long term on writing, I think. It's not a 100m sprint, it's Forrest Gump running for a few years.
Greg wrote: "It's not a 100m sprint, it's Forrest Gump running for a few years."Do I have to quit shaving?
Small thread hijack. Went and got a shave today. Hot towels, straight razor, hot lather, Bay Rum after. A man needs to treat himself once in a while. Like a guy day spa. Carry on.
Greg, that sounds like a good Friday treat. Ken wrote: "Greg wrote: "It's not a 100m sprint, it's Forrest Gump running for a few years."
Do I have to quit shaving?
Small thread hijack. Went and got a shave today. Hot towels, straight razor, hot lath..."
Ken wrote: "Greg wrote: "It's not a 100m sprint, it's Forrest Gump running for a few years."Do I have to quit shaving?
Small thread hijack. Went and got a shave today. Hot towels, straight razor, hot lath..."
Out of curiosity, have you ever seen the Tim Burton / Johnny Depp version of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)?
*Shudder*
I'm going to stick with my Gillette.
(Now I'll take this thread down another side street) Help! I uploaded and published a collection of short stories on Kindle and left out the title page. :( So I "unpublished" it via the Bookshelf, then uploaded/published a corrected version this morning. Does it take a while for "unpublish" to take effect?
(Also asked this on KDP Select forum)
Thanks!
John
I did it to one book and I "think" the unpublish went into effect right away. They say 24 hours to republish, but it didn't take that long. I know if you just want to change something in your blurb, you have to go through the whole republish deal.
Thanks, Virginia and Greg. It all sorted itself out, altho I complicated things with unpublish (unnecessary). Kindle support response was quite quick and pointed out the proper way to fix something like this.
OK, started to see some sales of the editions beyond the sample. Whoever said people were downloading a lot of books for their 'to read' list probably nailed it.As my two day promo was not as successful as my initial one day, I've decided to change the search terms a bit so I'm not targeting the same audience.
I'll see how that goes this weekend and then I'll start doing one days but spacing them out over the 90 days.
Of course, I could just be overthinking this whole thing.
How you classify your book makes a difference when they post that top 100. One person said they made number one but couldn't figure out why they were in some science division.
I posted a short story to KDP Select today. Gonna do 2 free days in a row starting tomorrow (which is probably dumb, but whatever...). We'll see how sales do. Hopefully it will lead folks to try one of my novels. And yes, I feel a little like I'm enabling the Great Satan by joining KDP Select... ;)
Well, I'm putting book three up, Saturday and Sunday, so I can compare it to one month ago. Still, not a single borrow. That borrow pot is going to be huge.
My last two blogs are about my KDP Select experience, including pros, cons, and actual results to free promos, as well as a description of how the algorithms at Amazon work & why they help some on paid placement following a free promo day or two. http://RussellBlake.comSome might find it interesting.
Russell wrote: "My last two blogs are about my KDP Select experience, including pros, cons, and actual results to free promos, as well as a description of how the algorithms at Amazon work & why they help some on ..."Very interesting blog post, Russell. You have given this writer/reader a clearer picture of Amazon rankings and how they work (or don't). Also, thanks for the links to Epic Kindle, Digital Ink, and Digital Book. Useful!
John
Russell wrote: "a description of how the algorithms at Amazon work Oh, man. There's algorithms. Caarrrap. I hate those.
I'll check out the blogs. thanks
JW wrote: "(Now I'll take this thread down another side street) Help! I uploaded and published a collection of short stories on Kindle and left out the title page. :( So I "unpublished" it via the Bookshelf,..."Maybe this thread topic will be of help:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...
Russell wrote: "My last two blogs are about my KDP Select experience, including pros, cons, and actual results to free promos, as well as a description of how the algorithms at Amazon work & why they help some on ..."Russell: I found the blogs interesting, but what I see as a trend among all those who blog about their experiences on KDP Select is a lack of sales data. Everyone mentions the thousands of downloads, and the rise in rankings, but not in the number of paid sales that followed. Can you illuminate us please? It would shed some light on the cost-risk balance sheet.
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If its any consolation, I received the exact same reply to my inquiry. My site has links back to Amazon and Amazon is the ONLY point of sale. I don't think Amazon wants to deal with all the possible permutations of circumstances and sends out a generic reply.
Considering there are 800,000 authors and maybe half are going Select and maybe half of them have websites and/or have had their work on review or blog sites, I don't think Amazon is going to monitor where every blurb appears with an eye to banning a source of income for them. If I were selling my work as a pdf on my site, that would be a different matter.