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Any authors in the KDP Select Program?
Yeah, I think I may be behind the curve on this one. That's another reason why I'm doing 5 days all at once - . But we will see next week. Wouldn't it be funny if the next big shift was to bookstores?
You never, ever know. :) Between this, and what I perceive are big reporting lags in KDP sales reports, and then the new formula they use to rank books, which began in May, there's always a new challenge.
Steven wrote: "I hired a guy who designed a web campaign across a variety of websites which has been really effective in driving traffic to my website. Sometimes it's resulted in notable sales, sometimes not, s..."
Thanks, Steven. I'll be looking for it.
(And good luck! I just had a two day giveaway and find that my sales are up. Interestingly, my paperback sales are up, too...)
Thanks, Steven. I'll be looking for it.
(And good luck! I just had a two day giveaway and find that my sales are up. Interestingly, my paperback sales are up, too...)
Steven wrote: "I hired a guy who designed a web campaign across a variety of websites which has been really effective in driving traffic to my website. Sometimes it's resulted in notable sales, sometimes not, s..."Steven, that's really helpful of you. If that fellow lets you post his name, I'll definitely check him out. Thanks.
Picking up on Jean's comments, my KDP Select free downloads in April and May were in the thousands, but June's totaled only 32. I'm also seeing a delay in the reporting of sales by KDP.
Lee wrote: "Picking up on Jean's comments, my KDP Select free downloads in April and May were in the thousands, but June's totaled only 32. I'm also seeing a delay in the reporting of sales by KDP."Yes, I asked KDP about it at one point and they indicated that some sales transactions like Paypal require bank verification and that can take a few days. So someone can buy an ebook but it doesn't show up until several days later. (This makes knowing whether certain marketing is working VERY difficult.)
Also, this wasn't the case when I first joined; reports were updated about every hour or so, so we could tell what was working and what wasn't. I'm not entire sure I believe the "bank verification" story.
But can you still see the change in your ranking in real time?
Jenn, I have similar experience - free downloads reporting delayed from one month to the next. This obviously had nothing to do with Paypal.
I have 3 books on Select free at the moment, and like Steven have done them for 5 consecutive days, so we shall see if I'm a fool! So far there are 1750 downloads and I'm into day 4. Sales have been extremely slow recently, so I'll let you know what happens to sales next week. Most interesting for me has been the split between the books, one very much more popular than the other two. Also the .com and .uk split. Also rankings now:The Chainmakers //5 in Historical Romance
Strands of Gold //5 in Family Sagas
Memories of the Curlew //23 in Historical Fiction
This seems incredible to me...
Wish me luck!
Reading this thread I thought I'd check my downloads for my free ebooks on KDP.I have 2 free ebooks on KDP, but I'm not in the Select option, and in the past 6 weeks had 10,783 downloads of my 2 free ebooks.
Checking my monthly reports for the past 12 months shows that number is in the low range.
Hope this helps.
Just checked again and downloads are now 2842I'm bemused...and off to bed...
@Ted - are you planning to charge at some time for your books? Are these the only books you've released? Are you also on Smashwords, B&N, etc.? I'm asking because I hadn't considered offering my books free for several weeks without being on Select. Tell us more.
I just did my first free promotion with KDP Select over the summer solstice (June 20-22). I got 5,700+ downloads and have had a whopping 5 sales in the two days since it went off free. I'm happy that nearly 6,000 new readers have my book on their Kindle. Hopefully some will read it. The free promo also resulted in my first two fan emails asking for notification on when the second book will be ready, which made my day.
I won't be continuing with KDP Select with my first book beyond the second 90-day stint, which ends in July. I hate the exclusivity restriction and Select has done very little for me up to now. However, as I release each new book of my trilogy, I may put it into Select for a single 90-day period just to do a free promotion and jumpstart awareness of the title.
I was doing great with the KDP select. This month the sales have been awful though. I'll stick it out for the moment but if it doesn't get better soon I won't be staying exclusive to Amazon.
I ran a 2 day free down load promotion with KDP. I advertised it on a couple of blogs sites. I got 8,000+ downloads the first day, putting me at #19 on their freebie best seller list. At the end of the second day the count was over 11,000. Then for some reason the free download column kept climbing, and finally stopped at 13,447!!! That says to me that there was a lot of interest in the subject, even though it is not in an easily explained genre. ( literary fiction describes it best.). HOWEVER, it did not generate actual sales. I thin I have sold about 20 copies altogether since January. The freebie was in May.I had expected at least some reviews in response to the free downloads. I got three. Out of 13,000??? They were very positive reviews, and one was from an e-zine. The reviewer even wrote a follow up interview with me which was great. But where are the sales???
Bottom line, giveaways are great for an ego boost, but in my opinion 5 days is definitely overkill, and won't boost sales proportionately.
Thanks Betsy and Michael. My free 5 days ended last night and the downloads are 3500. I shall let you know what the sales are after about 10 days, whether they are good or not.If sales are poor at least I will have learned something!
I thought it was just me! I gave away about 2000 copies, yet I have netted no more than 10 sales and few reviews. Half of the reviews I do have were from reviewers I queried. It was amazing at first knowing that people wanted my book, but I had hoped that out of 2000 I would have at least gotten 20 reviews. I don't think I'm doing KDP in the future at all.
I had a friend who did it and he really worked hard to promote it. He also did it during a book tour so sales really went up for him. I think if you do it while doing promotions during and after it can help you. He really broke it down and it encourages me to do it as well.
I just came off my third run with a free promo (first time with this particular book). I was picked up by ENT and had 7500 downloads -- pretty decent for a middle grade novel. I sat on the Top 100 list (in the 60s) and at #1 in both of my sub-cats. Went off Sunday night and have had 4 sales and 3 borrows since then. Worst promo of the three I've run.Yes, it is awesome to have new people exposed to your work. But my experience is that the free days no longer generate the same number of sales they used to. The borrow feature (getting "paid" for borrows) is about the only bonus for joining the program.
Beth wrote: "But my experience is that the free days no longer generate the same number of sales they used to. The borrow feature (getting "paid" for borrows) is about the only bonus for joining the program..."
This month I had 7 'borrows' across the board. Four for one book, one apiece for the othr three.
I had a two day promo and the sales went up. Not as high as before but still a spike; on the other hand, I raised my prices, which may have affected things, too.
This month I had 7 'borrows' across the board. Four for one book, one apiece for the othr three.
I had a two day promo and the sales went up. Not as high as before but still a spike; on the other hand, I raised my prices, which may have affected things, too.
Diana wrote: "Beth wrote: "But my experience is that the free days no longer generate the same number of sales they used to. The borrow feature (getting "paid" for borrows) is about the only bonus for joining th..."
Raising the prices is always going to affect the sales, it may level out soon though. Not that any authors on here aren't doing this but I wonder how much sales will go up if you do a lot of heavy promotion after the free sale.
Raising the prices is always going to affect the sales, it may level out soon though. Not that any authors on here aren't doing this but I wonder how much sales will go up if you do a lot of heavy promotion after the free sale.
Raising price can work either way. Some authors sell great at 99 cents. Others find that they sell more at $1.99, $2.99, or even higher.What's cool is that we have the power to experiment with price and find the "sweet spot" that earns the maximum revenue. The sweet spot is not always at the lowest price.
Steven wrote: "But can you still see the change in your ranking in real time?"No, actually-- I've been trying to figure this out. I typically see the ranking change after it registers on my KDP report. So it's looking like the rank only shifts once the purchase is recorded officially in the system.
I could be wrong, but that's how it's looking to me.
The closest thing I've seen to "real time" tracking is the ebook tracker on KindleNationDaily.com. If you visit the site and click on the EBOOKTRACKER menu item, you can set up a ranking monitor for whatever books you want (even another author's book). The tracker checks your Amazon ranking about once per hour. You can log in at any time and see a line graph of how your ranking has been changing over time.I think it's pretty nifty.
Hey Daniel thanks for that info I didn't even know they had a tracker like that. It does look pretty cool.
I didn't know that either. Does it count borrows as sales? Because I have checked out Novelrank, which sounds like it does a similar sort of function, but it goes by shifts in ranking on Amazon and assesses those as sales. Which means any fluctuations like a lending library borrow get lumped into the sales tally.It also means you have to wait for data until the Amazon system recognizes your sale and your rank shifts. And by that time you already KNOW you have the sale. :)
I probably need to not be so into it, but it appeals to my compulsive nature. :)
@Don: You're welcome!@Jenn: I think the Kindle Nation Daily monitor is pretty simplistic. It just looks at your sales rank, whatever that may be. The KND monitor doesn't say anything about sales or borrows. And I don't know if Amazon counts borrows toward your sales rank in any way.
Thanks for the info. I think borrows may affect Amazon rank. So it probably would be the same on Kindle Nation Daily as Novelrank.
Pandora wrote: "I thought it was just me! I gave away about 2000 copies, yet I have netted no more than 10 sales and few reviews. Half of the reviews I do have were from reviewers I queried. It was amazing at firs..."I had 5,000 downloads and no reviews.
My three months with KDP Select ends in two days. My over all free downloads for the entire period probably equals up to a few thousand. I haven't counted yet. From the time I started with KDP until now, my sales have seen a modest upswing. The thing is, I'm not certain how much of those sales can be attributed to KDP. I picked up a couple of reviews from random customers, which was really nice as well.
But I can't decide if I should stick with KDP, re-publish via Smashwords, or...what. I'm working on my second novel right now and I'm trying to figure out what would be best for when I'm ready to publish it.
The finer points of marketing escape me. Any suggestions?
Sooooo let me get this straight. You mark it as free and BOOM tons of downloads? Do you have to promote it as free or anything, or just make it free and these people magically find it?
Lanie, you will find lots of advice in various groups here on GR. I'm not sure if any of it is worthwhile. Some, a few, self-published authors have had great success. Most have not. Some have relentlessly promoted their work across many platforms. Some have not. I see no convincing coloration between sales and promotion. I think you should do what you feel comfortable doing, depending on your goals. If your goal is to get as many readers as possible, give your books away. It seems to work. If your goal is to build sales, I regret I have yet to figure how to do so except modestly. My sales seem to have grown modestly as a result of KDP Select giveaways plus modest promotion on GR and FB.
I had 16,100 downloads in 48 hours. I'm glad I only ran the promotion for 2 days. I managed to hit some high ranks in various categories, but those dropped out immediately after I took it off promotion. It negatively impacted my ranking after it came off "free" (I had started at a steady paid rank of 2,500 or so, and wound up at 200,000 paid rank). Sales were brisk for the first few weeks, but have steadily dropped off (my fault for not continuing 24/7 promotions but who has the time?) I received only two reviews from the 16k downloads, which I thought was very strange. In truth, I'm not seeing much of a benefit long-term. At first it was thrilling, but now that the novelty has worn off, my frustration at the need for ongoing marketing has returned. Nevertheless, if you want to see how I ran my free promotion, you can read about it here
I'm glad I'm not alone in my frustration! I did hear that Amazon revamped their sales metrics so that we are not receiving the same advantages as several months ago. Not sure how different the outcome would have been had I run this in November rather than May.
No, Travis, you have to get the word out about your free book. However, there are a lot of groups here on GR where you can do that, and there a 9 million readers on GR.
Lanie,One thing to take into consideration: how close is your second novel to being finished? One thing authors in KDPS do frequently is offer one of their existing novels as free when a new book comes out. Because, if readers like your work, their first inclination is to find something else by you. Buying your new novel will not only result in sales for you (yay!) but can also propel you up some of the Amazon lists pretty quickly -- in your sub-cats, on the Movers & Shakers board, etc. All of which will result in more people finding you and making purchases.
Travis wrote: "Sooooo let me get this straight. You mark it as free and BOOM tons of downloads? Do you have to promote it as free or anything, or just make it free and these people magically find it?"No. I found that downloads were directly proportional to the amount of promotion done before and during the selected free days. I don't believe there is any magic involved...at least there wasn't for me.
Lee, I've seen so much advice offered here on GR and on various other platforms, and you are undeniably correct; some of it is useful and some just isn't. I take what I feel I can use from each of the different sources. The same process probably won't work for everyone, so you have to take it all in and then sift out the parts that don't work for you. It involves a lot of trial and error, I know. But by constantly seeking out advice and suggestions, I find new ideas that do work for me.
I'm not looking for a magic, "I WIN" button, just new ideas when it comes to marketing, because to be perfectly honest...I really suck at it! :)
Beth wrote: "Lanie,One thing to take into consideration: how close is your second novel to being finished? One thing authors in KDPS do frequently is offer one of their existing novels as free when a new book..."
I'm shooting for August, which is the main reason why I'm so indecisive about it. If I do publish it in August, there is no point in putting the first book back on Smashwords only to take it down again.
I'm thinking about just sitting out July, but not going back to SW, and toying with the price a bit on Amazon. With a blog tour coming up and trying to get the next book ready to go, I don't really need any more headaches than I already have.
Lanie, I not only suck at marketing, I hate it! So - the only promoting I do is listing my giveaways with sites and GR groups that invite such listings and updating my blog for my fans periodically. I also interact with folks here on GR, but that's not marketing and it's fun. I don't do any promotion while interacting. This isn't a value judgment about what's right. It's only a personal preference. Having said that, I seem to have built a modest following over time.
So as an aside, what promotion have experienced authors found work the best? I have a whole list of things I can do, but I want to focus on the "tried and true" ones.
Travis, you need to define "work the best." Is your goal triple digit sales per month? double digit? Single? I don't know any self-published author here on GR who claims consistent triple digit monthly sales. There may be some who sell thousands a month, but I haven't run into them in the couple of years I have been active on the site. So figure out your goal and match it with the sales of the people whose advice you follow - if you can get them to tell you.
Booooo to secrets of success. I guess it is probably different for every person, though.
Lol. I would imagine different tactics work for different genres. I can't see using the same approach for fiction as you would for non-fiction. Some things may be the same, but not all. I've been using the GR advertising for the past month and it seems to work (once I came up with an ad that doesn't completely suck). The GR Giveaway is also a pretty popular option. And although I can't say that KDP Select is going to sky rocket your sales, the general impression that I get is that the more books you give away, the more you sell...at least that seems to be the most consistent theory.
I agree Lanie, anyway, you get 5 days, and I am assuming you wouldn't shoot them all off at once, so you can "trial and error" it.
Travis, I'm not trying to discourage you. By all means check out what other authors suggest. Then gauge how much effort you want to make and match it to your definition of success. Of course, it goes almost without saying that you first have to write a good book. The problem is that there are now thousands of self-published authors writing and publishing very good books and selling them very cheaply.I assume you are also a reader. The good news is that there are a ton of very good books to read that you can get for free or very cheaply. I make it a point to make 50% of my reads books by self-published GR authors. I have only been disappointed 7 times in almost 100 books.
Lanie, would you be willing to say how much your GR ad cost and how many books you sold after you ran the ad? This could be very helpful to those of us thinking about ads.My experience with GR print giveaways and KDP Select free downloads is consistent with your general impression: sales do go up, dramatically at first. In my case more than double, but when you're selling single digits, double digits is still modest. The thing I find remarkable is that the giveaways don't seem to generate reviews (and most people agree reviews really help sales especially on amazon). In all my giveaways I count only one review.
My KDP expires in August. I think I'm going to go the "place my book everywhere and see what sticks" approach. Since the biggest benefit for KDP as I understand it, is the lending and free promotions, and I haven't benefited from that, I figure I might as well open up my book everywhere. Maybe Nook, iPad, or other eReaders will like my book better than Amazon Kindle readers? Who knows? Might as well try and see what works. I also recently dropped my price to 1.99 from 2.99, I'll see how that works out. In otherwords, I think the key to success may be to keep trying different things. Or at least that's what I'm going to try :)
One of the most helpful things I've done to learn about book marketing was to join KindleBoards.com. It can be a tremendous time sink if you let it, but the amount of experience and knowledge over there is astounding. I suggest lurking for a while [Edit: in the Writer's Cafe] and doing some searches for threads related to whatever marketing questions you may have.To give you a taste, here's a thread that was going recently about KDP Select and "The Death of Sales Boost from Free Days":
http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php...
@Travis: I'll echo what others have said here. There is no "tried and true" marketing method. Every time I hear about one writer's success with a particular technique, I hear about another writer's disappointments with it.
I think you have to keep trying different things until you find the right combination of the techniques that work for you and the ones that you are willing to do. (That second aspect often trumps the first.)
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I had done some early free promotions with it and they were successful from my perspective, helping boost sales for several weeks after the promos.
But I've been hearing there's not that kind of boost these days, and have held off doing any more free offers. I'm about 17 sales away from my next personal sales benchmark, anyway, (I can almost SEE it! :) ) and I figure I'll just see where it goes on its own.
This has shifted so much in a short period of time, it's hard to say where the next shift will occur.