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Any authors in the KDP Select Program?
Like D.M. Andrews I ran a free promo on Wed/Thurs. I had more than 1500 downloads in the US and nearly 100 in the UK during those two days. The sales have continued to trickle in: 10 on Friday; 8 on Saturday; 7 on Sunday. I've seen a significant increase in sales for my other novel, and sales for the paperback version have increased, and 5 borrows.I also noticed that after the promo my novel shot up to #16 during a search for Fantasy, and #7 under Contemporary Fantasy. Before the promo my two books were dead in the water.
I was on 3 sales per day before the promo, and 133 sales per day since (now consistent for 4 days). Read my update here: http:///www.writers-and-publishers.com (read last three blog posts for fuller story)
D.M. - you've got one too many backslashes in your link. Everyone go to http://www.writers-and-publishers.com/ and be encouraged. Thanks for your information, D.M.
Aabra, I believe there's only one reason to (temporarily) list a book for free: to raise your ratings on Amazon so that potential buyers find your book more easily. The effect has a short lifespan, but if it keeps the book 'visible' after the freebie long enough to make some sales at money, so much the better.May I ask you in what genre you write? This is also critical - if it's one that can put you in the top 100 with a small boost in sales, again I don't think it hurts.
One last instance where it might do some good: you're about to publish the second novel in a series. Making the first book free may generate sales for the latest arrival.
I think that's good advice, Andrew. There are also borrows to consider. I believe Amazon are paying out $2 for each borrow for last month. Some people have hundreds of borrows per month.
Here's another incentive for joining KDP Select, at least for a trial run: in the past six months since The Bow of Heaven was published, Amazon has outsold Smashwords (including free offerings) 25 to 1. At first I bridled against succumbing to the publishing pachyderm's pernicious plan to pulverize any remaining competition under its prodigious paw (sorry, I got carried away), but it's awfully difficult to argue with a strategy that reaches the widest audience.
I write historical fiction, and maybe that just isn't Smashwords' cup of tea. As for KDP Select's 5 free days, we'll see if my guess in the post above bears fruit: the book will be free this Thursday and Friday, March 15-16.
Interesting book. I never had any success with Smashwords. Amazon is bringing in the money. I started off with just 20 sales in the first 2 months - but still more than Smashwords gave me in the same period (which was about 3 sales iirc).
Good luck with the promo - if you've prepared for it, you can get over 10k downloads in 2 days.
I appreciate the sharing of your marketing strategy on your website. I've been having relatively no success in marketing my book Healing Personal Psychology, as I have limited funds to advertise.Jasenn Zaejian
I have used every free method that I could, and try to do everything myself (editing, proofing, graphics, HTML - I've even done my own writing ;) )These are the only things I have paid for:
* webhosting for my main site (but I've had that for years)
* a small sum of about $20 to an editor to help me out with getting my first chapter right
* book cover design (a friend did it for a low cost)
I've spent a lot of money on things over the years, and I have a goal of paying no more! What I will pay for, however, are good books ;) and I'll review them.
I hope to write a summary of KDP Select soon, but I need to monitor my sales and rank for the rest of this month first.
Some time ago I registered one of my books on KDP Select and didn't think any more about it as life was busy. Having come up for air, I thought I'd check what was happening. Apparently not much, except that it has been downloaded 369. I'm not what good this does me. What actually is the point of it? Perhaps I should ask them
Sylvie, it could not have been downloaded at all unless you set up a campaign for free days. Unless you mean it has been borrowed 369 times?
Aabra wrote: "Re: free ebooks. I don't give any ebooks away for free anymore. My experience suggests that it has no effect on my sales. The one book of mine that is selling the best has NEVER been available f..."I couldn't agree more. My best sellers have never been free and the few free experiments I did had little (if any) effect on sales.
The free promotion seems to work when 1. you have a book that is not doing well and 2. you really put a lot into the campaign (mainly be preparation work) so that the dloads shoot the book up into a very visible position.Free promotions can be detrimental to books that are doing well.
D.M. Andrews wrote: "Sylvie, it could not have been downloaded at all unless you set up a campaign for free days. Unless you mean it has been borrowed 369 times?"Thanks, D.M. The number has gone up to 421 now, so I guess I must have set up a campaign for free days. I have emailed KDP about this.
You don't remember? :)Maybe it is sales? That would be good!
Unfortunately KDP support is a bit slow, so they'll probably get back to you when it's either too late to change anything, or when circumstances have corrected themselves. That has nearly always been my experience :(
D.M. Andrews wrote: "You don't remember? :)Maybe it is sales? That would be good!
Unfortunately KDP support is a bit slow, so they'll probably get back to you when it's either too late to change anything, or when ci..."
No, I don't remember as I decided to try various promotions at the same time as a lot of other things were going. KDP have replied that the book is in a free unit price match whatever that is. I have now asked who decided that and what benefit it is to the author?
Wow, they got back to your quickly. Maybe they took on more staff ;)Yes, I saw that new column on the reports, but I'm not sure what is either. Let me know that they say!
To further muddy the KDP report, my bookshelf has these factors on the Prior 6 Weeks Royalties: Net Units Sold, Royalty(%), Avg. List Price, Avg. File Size, Avg. Offer Price, Avg. Delivery Cost, Royalty $. I can't make sense out of the mishmash; maybe it has to do with the collected pool of $ from the Borrows. I wish I could tell how many were free and how many were sold. The bottom line, I had great numbers (over 13,700) and it's still selling slowly, and has made $280 since the Feb. promotion.Looping for Love
13,700. nice. you must know a thing or two about marketing. i know nothing. any suggestions?
My second promo is going on today. I perceive it's a little bit slower than the first time around, but it's still getting a nice bunch of downloads.Last time it translated into actual sales, and a few reviews, so we'll see what happens this go-round.
Overall, I've been very satisfied with the opportunity.
i admit, other than make the book available, i know not what else to do. suggestions welcome.
Ginney. Yes, I would have expected a greater swell with that number of downloads. I had about 2000 more, and the swell has lasted quite a few days now. I have over 800 sales as of day 6.What rank did you get to overall and in your categories during the promo? I was about #13 (unless I went higher when asleep - one of the problems of being in the UK!), and hit #1 in all my categories.
I DON'T know anything about marketing, except that it takes more time than actual writing. My best overall ranking was 4200, in the top 100 of Kindle books for a few days, and #2 & #3 in narrowed searches. I think running the promo for Valentine's Day was key, because the book has "Love" in the title even though it isn't a Romance. As you suggest, D.M., the right catergories is helpful. Congrats, and keep selling!
As I've said, I'll put up a full explanation of what I did once I have more stats in - though even if it drops off, it's been a benefit. Yes, promoting can take some time and be distracting!
I enrolled in KDP Select last weekend after unpublishing myself from Smashwords. Today, I received an email from KDP Select to say that my book is for sale on B&N and Kobo, still. Has this happened to anyone else?
I enrolled in KDP Select last weekend after unpublishing myself from Smashwords. Today, I received an email from KDP Select to say that my book is for sale on B&N and Kobo, still. Has this happened to anyone else?
No, but I found mine on Sony weeks after I had unpublished on Smashwords, so I emailed Smashwords to remove it and they actioned it.
D.M. Andrews wrote: "No, but I found mine on Sony weeks after I had unpublished on Smashwords, so I emailed Smashwords to remove it and they actioned it."Then hopefully they will do that for me too. Thanks, D.M.
@D.M. Here is KDP Select's reply.The price at which we sell your book may not be the same as your list price. This may occur, for example, if we sell your book at a lower price to match a third party's price for a digital or physical edition of the book, or Amazon's price for a physical edition of the book. In this case, if you have chosen the 70% option for your book, your 70% royalty will be calculated based on our price for the book (less delivery costs and taxes). We retain the discretion over our retail prices.
If you select the 35% royalty option, your royalty will be calculated off your list price, regardless of the price at which we sell your book, unless we are matching a free promotion for your book on another sales channel, in which case your royalty will be zero. You can switch to the 35% royalty option at any time.
For more details on pricing for the 35% and 70% royalty options, please visit the following link:
http://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing...
Your book is currently listed for sale on the Barnes and Noble website for $0.00.
Once the offer price has been updated on the other sales channels, you may write to us; we'll update the offer price on Amazon.
I'm not much the wiser, but assume this is because I am doing a free offer on Smashhwords?
My first free day is tomorrow for:
, tomorrow, St. Patricks day.
I too got a note from KDP saying the title was for sale at B&N. This was a previous editon from my old publisher. I've done all I can to get it off. What I'm not sure of is if KDP will go on with the promotion as planned. I'm still waiting a response from them.
, tomorrow, St. Patricks day. I too got a note from KDP saying the title was for sale at B&N. This was a previous editon from my old publisher. I've done all I can to get it off. What I'm not sure of is if KDP will go on with the promotion as planned. I'm still waiting a response from them.
Jill wrote: "I enrolled in KDP Select last weekend after unpublishing myself from Smashwords. Today, I received an email from KDP Select to say that my book is for sale on B&N and Kobo, still. Has this happe..."
The same thing happened to me, Jill. I replied to KDP with a snapshot of my Smashwords dashboard, showing them it had been unpublished, and asked for their patience and understanding. That was two days ago. The AKP (Amazon Kindle Police) have not yet knocked on the door, but my hands won't stop shaking.
On another freebie front, boy, these guys are fast! I put my book up yesterday for a 2-day freebie, and this was in my inbox this morning: http://ebooksfree4.me/2012/03/15/the-....
If you want to increase free downloads (although Aabra may be right that there is little if any value in doing so), contact sites like the above and let them know about the temporary price plummet.
It seems to be almost random how many people download my books when they are free. My main work (a 'real' book that I worked on for three and a half years) Fast Times in Palestine has 61 reviews, mostly glowing (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00513NHNI), while the rest of my books are mostly emails from previous adventure travels strung together into a quick read.But still, I wonder how people find out about the main book literally in the thousands when it's free vs. the smaller works, which only get a few dozen downloads. And even with the main book, when I hardly promoted it at all and gave it away only one day, it was downloaded 9,500 times. When I promoted it for a week and gave it away for two days, it was downloaded 7,500 times. Who knows why?
In any case, I recently put together a guide called Simple eBook Formatting for the Technophobic Author (because most of the eBook formatting guides out there are so terrible -- it was so frustrating last year when I was just getting started), and it's free today (Friday) if it might be useful to you: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007JNRTVE
Be aware that so many eBooks have been downloaded for free since Kindle select began that the great majority will never be read. On Kindle boards readers discuss the number of free downloads they have on their cloud. Most have anywhere between 200 to 2000. They also admit that they are still downloading 20 to 40 per week simply because they are free. Getting a few thousand downloads sounds great but if most aren't being read, what's the point? There continues to be over 5000 free downloads available every day.
It would perhaps be wise if KDP limited the free promotions more, and maybe they yet will. I got few borrows to begin with, too (and none before my first promotion) - but now, in March alone, I have around 250 borrows.
Having given KDP Select's reply (above) more thought, I think they are saying that if I choose the 35% royalty option, then they won't give my book away because someone else is. Does anyone agree with this interpretation?
@Sylvie,I don't interpret it that way. If you choose the 35% option, you will get 35% of your price no matter what price Amazon sells it. If you choose the 70% option, then you'll get 70% of whatever they sell it for. Example: if you price your book for $20 and they price it for $16.00, then you'll get 70% of $16.00 ($11.20) if you chose the 70% option. However, if you choose the 35% option, you'll get 35% of $20.00 ($7.00).
If you see a price of $0.00 - that's for Prime members and they can "borrow" the book. You get a royalty based on how many times your book is borrowed. That's how I read it.
The 70% royalty is available for e-books priced between $2.99 and $9.99. If you sell your e-book for $10.00, you will receive a 35% royalty. I guess Amazon believes the $2.99-$9.99 is the best selling price.
Merri, thanks for the clarification of price - I just grabbed a number out of the air, forgetting the 2.99-9.99 rule for ebooks.
"Having given KDP Select's reply (above) more thought, I think they are saying that if I choose the 35% royalty option, then they won't give my book away because someone else is. Does anyone agree with this interpretation?""Your book is currently listed for sale on the Barnes and Noble website for $0.00."
I believe what Amazon said was that the e-book was available at B&N for free so they were price-matching the free price.
Paul wrote: "Merri, thanks for the clarification of price - I just grabbed a number out of the air, forgetting the 2.99-9.99 rule for ebooks."I understand. I was afraid someone might take the number literally. :)
I think you're right Merri (what a nice name...)
I just had an interesting experience with KDP. Two weeks ago, I did the 5 days for free promo for The Fool's Journey and I had over 13,000 downloads, rose to the top of a few genre lists (suspense and occult,etc. It did translate to sales at first, about 10-15 per day, which is good for me. I decided to do 2 days free this past weekend and only had 500 downloads, and since the event ended I have had only 1 sale and my numbers are slipping quickly. Strange.
I published my book The Dark Lake on Amazon KDP, did the five day free thing, had over 1,000 downloads. That was about a month ago and I have had 59 sales since then. I had a book published with a traditional (small) publisher, and have probably only sold about 20 copies in two years for that book. I have not tried any of the other ebook publishing sites. One problem I did have was that about a week ago my book suddenly disappeared for two days with no explanation. Other authors reported the same thing. Amazon fixed the problem and sent me an apology. Overall my experience has been positive.
I'm running the last of my FREE give aways today and have had mixed responses. The giveaway I did two weeks ago landed me in the top of the Mystery/Thriller/Suspense categories and resulted in good sales over the last couple of weeks (52) -- the best sales I've had since I launched the book last year. I do plan to come off of KDP select in two weeks when my 90 days are up and play around with B&N and the iBook Store. If free giveaways generate sales here, then.... we'll see what it does on the other stores. I'll keep you posted. BTW, hope you'll check out my book, Truth Runs Deep. I've had quite a few 5-star reviews which, of course, I'm most pleased about!
Yes, I just joined. I'm having a free giveaway today...we'll see what that equates to in sales. I've made it to the top 10 in sci-fi>adventure in the US and #1 in the UK! Let's hope it generates some kind of buzz!
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The sales go up the next day not because someone has already read the book and is recommending it, but because Amazon's system connects purchasing data and makes suggestions to customers who didn't do the free download. The "people who bought this might also enjoy" suggestions.