THE Group for Authors! discussion
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Any authors in the KDP Select Program?
I'm not sure about the comment on the dark vs. light covers. My books have featured both and have had equal success. I can say that one of the most memorable book covers I've ever seen was the mass paperback cover for Stephen King's Salem's Lot, which featured a completely black embossed cover, including title, of a face with a single red drop of red from the corner of the mouth. I also would like to mention that some of the most successful book series in the past few years - Twilight and the "Gray" series all have had dark or black covers. And then there's the original cover of The Hunger Games - black and gold, though subsequent books were red and blue, which, I suppose were representative of the thematic motif of each book as the series changed.
I think that rather than deciding what color cover sells better, a writer should should choose the cover that best represents the book. Also, think about this - if you enter a bookstore and all the books have light covers (or vice versa), then the book with the different color will stand out more.
But different genres have different looks as well, so I suppose it's what works best for your particular book. I just wouldn't dismiss a book because of the color of the cover.
A note about the KDP Select program. I am a member of it as I mentioned before, but I only use it one time with each new title. After that one free day, the readers almost always come back to my other titles for which they pay full price. The program isn't magical, but it does get your book out there. And, Amazon pays you monthly. I waited six months for a payment from another online vendor even though my books were selling well for them. But then that's another thread entirely. :)
Renee
Regarding dark covers, I think the issue is more about the clarity. A black background can make white pop without making it difficult to read text or view images. It's when the reader has a difficult time deciphering what an image is supposed to be or not being able to read a title or author name (generally because of lack of contrast and font choice) that make a cover less effective.
Jaq D mentioned this point, but I wanted to emphasize it: the biggest thing to remember about cover design is that it has to be legible at thumbnail size. Make sure to shrink your cover to about the same size as Smashwords and Amazon uses in their listings, and see if it still pops out at you. Have a friend or two look at it and see if they can read your title and figure out what your cover art is supposed to be. I suspect that one of the objections to dark backgrounds is that the cover can end up looking muddy at thumbnail size.
I published a Scandinavian crime novel in early February on Amazon and Barnes and Noble so that isn't in the KDP select program. To help generate interest in my book I put some books of short stories out there and some individual short stories and I have put some of those in the free program. I found I had a lot of downloads in the US and in the UK but I'm not sure it has helped with sales. In March I put three books on one day free days and had 358 downloads. I had another book called SHORTS - Five Free Short Stories which was having some kind of sales every day and this just stopped selling for a week after the free downloads. I'm not sure why that would be and I'd be interested to know if anyone else had this experience. That book is starting to sell again now but not at the level it was selling before the downloads. However, I would agree with the point one of the other reviewers made - 358 people who did not know who I was now have a copy of one of my short stories or a book of short stories. I'm new to Goodreads and I'm thinking of offering a different short story as a free download on Goodreads - has anyone tried that?
The issue that has arisen with free downloads is that there are a lot of people who simply download as many free books as they can get their hands on. They may not even ever read them. I know when I first purchased an iPad, I downloaded the Kindle app and did that very thing. I have hundreds of books that I haven't even opened yet. There's a steady stream of free books every day, so why should a reader pay for something they can get for free? It's a double-edged sword.
I guess it depends on how your other ebooks do through other sites such as iBooks or the nook. If you are selling well there, it might not be good to pull your book from those places for the 90 day exclusive. But if not, I can't see why it would hurt to try. Success from the program seems hit or miss. As I said earlier in the thread, my horror book was downloaded less than 400 times with no follow up sales. That is good in that nearly 400 people at least saw my work but bad in that the 5 day free promotion was suppose to help my sales. On the other hand, my current free offering, Tamed, has been downloaded 15,000+ times in the first 3 days. So, when my publisher recommended doing this with Tamed, I was hesitant because of my poor showing with my self published short story collection. In hindsight, I'm glad I tried it again. From what I gather, it has a lot to do with genre, cover, and luck. Good luck if you decide to try it.
I have over five different ebooks enrolled in the KDP program and the question is; how many other sales am I missing from the other platforms? My most recent publication http://www.amazon.com/How-Fish-Good-H... will be free Sunday 4/15/12 and the results would be the basis for my staying or opting out!
I'm in the KDP Select program. One of my short stories "The Wheel of Justice" is available to download for FREE today and tomorrow through KDP Select.Hilariously funny dark humor and biting satire combine in this short story set on an American TV game-show of the near future.
UK – http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Wheel-of-...
US – http://www.amazon.com/The-Wheel-of-Ju...
DE – http://www.amazon.de/The-Wheel-of-Jus...
FR – http://www.amazon.fr/The-Wheel-of-Jus...
Best wishes, Stephen Livingston.
I ran my first two free days on March 29 & 30. There were 790 downloads and I hit #1 in several categories. This gave me good exposure. My book had only been out two weeks with no sales. Now I'm selling 2-3 per day. I finally I received my first unsolicited book review (not my mother, wife, child, friend, or acquaintance)for "Praying the Gospels with Martin Luther: Finding Freedom in Love". See it at http://amzn.to/HnWVUj. It will be free again on Amazon, Thursday and Friday - April 19 & 20.
let me start by saying this is my first book ever so I am very very new to all this.I started the KDP almost 90 days ago. I have a post apocalyptic ebook called After the Storm. I did my first giveaway as two days and gave out 564 in feb. In march I did another 2 days and only gave away like 370 or so. My sales have been ok but I have little to compare them to. (I sold over 350 in march at $2.99)
I don't know how much my give aways had to do with my sales but I think I'm going to stay with the program for now until I have a second book to sell so I can use the KDP giveaways to try and push sales for both books.
If this info helps anyone awesome. If you see from my info that I am doing something horribly wrong please feel free to let me know. Thanks ! :)
350 books in a month is very good IMO. My final tally for the 5 day giveaway that ended yesterday is 21,466 downloads. Hopefully it turns into sales. I have sold 12 or so today. It has already turned into 3 unsolicited reviews which is part of the goal.
Please don't get me wrong, I'm completely content with my sales numbers. They are a hundred times better than I thought they'd be. I just think i should wait til my second book is up for my next free give away. I think I will stay with the KDP for now though even if it is exclusive
Just to clarify, Amazon KDP is Kindle Direct Publishing and Amazon KDP Select is the program that requires exclusivity. They are two separate programs. You can be in Amazon KDP and have your e-books available elsewhere. Not so with Amazon KDP Select.
Yes, sorry I meant that I am staying in the select program for now since I have been having good results so far.
Don, I knew what you meant, I just thought (in case someone was reading quickly), it would be good to be very clear which program you were referring to.
Here is a blog I wrote on my experience with the program and things I did during the 5 free days.http://epertase.blogspot.com/2012/04/...
Douglas wrote: "My book that is free starting today is Tamed..."Hi Douglas,
I just added you as a friend (hope that's okay). I'm super excited for you! I think that Tamed is going to be the book that hits - I just downloaded it the other day and will begin reading. Great work on getting a press release out there and really hitting the circuit. I just received the release because I have a google alert with "werewolf" as a key word. Please keep us posted as to how the novel does with the KDP select. I think that 20000 downloads is an amazing start! ;) Now if we can just get these people to pay for the novel! Off to read your blog post now...
Merri wrote: "Just to clarify, Amazon KDP is Kindle Direct Publishing and Amazon KDP Select is the program that requires exclusivity. They are two separate programs. You can be in Amazon KDP and have your e-book..."Thanks for clarifying, Merri - I think a lot of people (including me) don't know there are two different programs.
Hi Stacy. I didn't realize the pr was even out until you said something. Thanks for friending me and for the kind words. I hope you enjoy Tamed. I've been in the top 3,000 ranking since the promo ended which means I'm selling a few books at least. I haven't asked my publisher how many yet. Ill be anxious to hear what you think of Tamed, especially since you are a big enough werewolf fan to have a google alert set. I think it is a direction werewolves haven't gone and I'd love to hear your take. Thanks again.
Sounds great, Douglas! Here is the link to your release: http://www.mmdnewswire.com/kindle-dow...
I really would love to chat more with you about how you're promoting, a few strategies, etc. I'm really looking forward to reading it - especially as it's a different take on the genre (just as mine is). I think we end up dealing with a different set of issues when we try to creatively break out of the standards for any genre. It's so important to be the first to do that though! Maybe you and I can do some cross-promotions. Shepherd's Moon has been doing very well, but it's been a lot of work! It would be nice to team up with another person in the genre. Either way, I look forward to talking a little more with you!
Jaq wrote: "I've put 
for free promotion on 4-5 May, fingers crossed we'll see how it goes."Good luck! I'll look for it! You may want to get it listed with Pixel of Ink if you haven't already...
Good luck. I hope you get tons of downloads,
Fool's Journey, my paranormal mystery, is free on Kindle today and tomorrow. Enjoy -- or give as a gift!http://www.amazon.com/Fools-Journey-e...
I signed one book up, just to try it. Anybody know which days are best for giveaways? I have two left. I've had three midweek giveaways so far. (I avoided weekends because it seems hardly anyone is online then.) The first got 600+ downloads; the second 150+; and the third only 80. Is this typical? Is it the same audience every time, so that it results in diminishing returns? I can't see where my book is being promoted during the giveaways. How do people find it?
If you want to give away the most books possible run a fri/sat promotion. At least this is my experience. But no one will promote it unless you give them the heads up in advance. Your best bet is to let the freebie websites know about two weeks in advance, post on all the freebie facebook pages, and promote it on your social media accounts and ask your pals to do the same. Amazon does nothing special to promote it except list it under free ebooks.
Is there an extra step needed to extend the promotion to Amazon.co.uk or does that happen automatically?And then the promo would start at 8am in the UK?
And Rebecca, if there is an Amazon flub up, who did you contact to fix it?
Is the promotion just giving your book away for free or is there something more that KDP offers to help with advertising?Thanks!
I too think it happens automatically. My free days resulted in downloads in the U.S., England, and one in Germany. Those are the only three countries I registered with an author page, so that may play a part. I applied to many of the free listing sites, like POI, in plenty of time, but none listed me.
If you check out the Amazon Kindle forums, there are threads about free books each day and links to the sites that promote free books.Marian, Amazon KDP Select does no advertising for self-published titles.
Paul, the book is listed in free across all Amazon sites.
Merri wrote: "If you check out the Amazon Kindle forums, there are threads about free books each day and links to the sites that promote free books.Do you have a link to one of these forums? I'm not really that lazy, but I couldn't find them.
They change every day. What I mean is that a new thread is started every day. Here's a link to the general Amazon Kindle forums: http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle/re...You can always access the Amazon Kindle forums by scrolling down to the bottom on any Amazon book page. the most active threads are listed there. Just click on "Amazon Forum."
One of my short stories "Recycling" is available to download for FREE today as part of the KDP Select program:US - http://www.amazon.com/Recycling-ebook...
UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Recycling-ebo...
Best wishes, Stephen Livingston.
I was writing a novel for fun and then found out about KDP and was quite excited. In March I published my book and sales were only 8. Then I put it on free for Friday, Sat and Sun before Easter and sales were 5,500. I know they were free but the knock on was that I have since sold 1,150. So the system works.
Congratulations, Patricia. I'm glad you had success. I had a similar situation with one of my e-books. That is not always the outcome, however. It is not a system you can rely on for the same response every time. I wish you continued success.
As part of the KDP Select program one of my short stories "Choose Your Future" will be available to download for free tomorrow, the 27th of April 2012.UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Choose-Your-F...
US - http://www.amazon.com/Choose-Your-Fut...
"Choose Your Future" - an award winning short story about the near future. First published in the anthology "Scotland into the New Era" this story was a winner of the inaugural Canongate Prize for New Writing. It is written in the second person and explores themes of art, science, politics and self determination.
Best wishes, Stephen Livingston.
Have any authors noticed a decided decrease in April sales on Kindle compared to March? Mine have dropped off by 50% or more, and others are also reporting low April sale figures.
mine slowed after April 16, but so did my blog hits.
It's the spring slump. It happens across a lot of online retail markets, not just books. Fairly normal for many online sellers. Sales should pick back up around Memorial Day.
When is Memorial Day? I hope that's not the same as our Remembrance Day because that's not until November ;)
Concerning April, it was my best month ever both for KDP Select free downloads and sales.
Really? You're the only person that's said that! ;)
I too had a great April. But I have only tried the program in march and April. But after my huge April giveaway days, I'm still selling pretty decently two weeks later.
I have had my book up on amazon since December and April has been my best month so far as well in terms of sales. I didn't do any giveaways in April.
You won't see it until you are in the top 100 for your specific genre. Then it will be below your overall ranking.
Here is a well-thought article about the KDP Select program. I found it insightful. See what you think.http://visionforwriters.com/visionjoo...
I'm debating about when to do my next promo. I was thinking about Mother's day or somewhere around it. Any thoughts or suggestions? Any help is appreciated.
Lanie
I was thinking the same thing. I might shoot for Memorial Day instead. It would give me more time to plan and advertise. Marketing can be such a pain lol.
I went for a Saturday morning to sunday night one a couple of weeks ago. Put it on my facebook personal page, tweeted it and blogged it. I got about 600 US downloads and 250 UK ones (and a few Italian and German ones). Sales have done better since, and I got my first UK and US reviews shortly after. But sales aren't exactly jumping to hundreds a week or anything - 26 this month so far, and 10 "borrows"
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10,000 is good. You should get a large sales swell from that, probably for a couple of weeks. When it dies down you should hopefully still be higher than you were before the promo.