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Lanie
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Mar 31, 2012 08:21PM
So I pulled my book from smashwords and signed up for Amazon's KDP Select...now what? lol
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Let us all know how it works, of course. I have my short stories on smashwords but I am thinking about putting my novel into KDP select, but I am not sure about the pros and cons, so I am eager to hear what you think.
After a two day promo on KDP Select, I saw a sales jump. I'm trying to get the sequel done before doing the next promo. This program seems to work well.
Could someone please help me with this query. I've just tried to reduce the price of one of my titles to $0.00 on Kindle Direct Publishing and find I cannot do so.Is joining KDP Select the only way I can make it free??
Cassian
Cassian wrote: "Could someone please help me with this query. I've just tried to reduce the price of one of my titles to $0.00 on Kindle Direct Publishing and find I cannot do so.Is joining KDP Select the only w..."
I would love to help you but honestly, I have no idea. I'm still a bit lost about how it works.
Cassian wrote: "Could someone please help me with this query. I've just tried to reduce the price of one of my titles to $0.00 on Kindle Direct Publishing and find I cannot do so.Is joining KDP Select the only w..."
Cassian, the only other option is to publish on Smashwords and then set it to free there. Once it shows up at B&N or Apple as free, you get friends to report it as free to Amazon and they price match. It can be a tricky proposition, however. If you just want a few days of free, you might end up stuck that way if Kobo or one of the other smashwords vendors is slow to upload your new price.
Also, Amazon can be slow in letting you bring the price back up from a match.
I've toyed with the idea of creating some 5 to 10k short stories to tie in with a series and set them to free using the Smashwords price match strategy. The idea would be to use them as loss leaders.
Thanks, folks, that is helpful and already has me thinking.I thought this might be taking an already interesting thread on a tangent so I started another in the group. It ties this query to one about the Smashwords coupons system.
I looked at the other thread as well. While I think that you have a lot more personal flexibility with Smashwords, the reason I went with Select is that I have heard nothing but good reviews about it.I'm still trying to figure out how it all works and I can say that I find the Smashwords dashboard much more user friendly than KDP's. But if it helps sales, I'll do what I must.
Thanks LanieMy other option is not to make my book free but to drop it from its regular $3.99 price to $0.99 on both Amazon and Smashwords for a shortish period, and maybe soon repeat the exercise
My inclination to do this grew after I read somewhere online today that far more people read the books they buy for 99c than do those who obtain their titles free
Also, charging even just a nominal amount signals that the author at least values his/her work ...
Cassian wrote: "Thanks LanieMy other option is not to make my book free but to drop it from its regular $3.99 price to $0.99 on both Amazon and Smashwords for a shortish period, and maybe soon repeat the exercis..."
One of the things about the Select Free Promo is that they see your regular price but it's crossed out. That way, they get it for free but see that you had a price that values the work.
I've seen threads on the customer forums that advocate filtering out the low price works (especially the 99c) because they are actively trying to avoid indies.
I set mine at $2.99 for the regular price. I think it's worth that and I certainly didn't want to set it too high.My first promotion using KDP will be Wednesday. I'll let you know how things turn out. :)
Thanks again, everyone - you've got me thinking again (particularly that perhaps I should avoid the 99c price point).A note to Lanie - good luck with the promo. You might want to take a peek at my Twitter profile (name is same as my nom de plume, Cassian Brown). My speciality it retweeting news of authors' promotional discounts and I don't stray off message.
Update: My first KDP promo did absolutely nothing for my sales. Which makes me wonder, what am I doing wrong? Or...and this is definitely a possibility, am I just being impatient?I need help. There has to be something I'm missing.
Part of the issue might be that there is another book by the same name. Both are in the KDP select program and both and free right now. That could be confusing readers.I haven't read the book but the cover looks good and the blurbs seem interesting. Its gotten a few good reviews, so maybe you are just being impatient.
Patience is not exactly one of my strengths, but I'm working on it lol.I think a lot of it may be that I simply need to advertise more and cover a broader range of sites and venues. I'm working on that as well.
As for the same name issue, if they don't have the link directly to my book, I can see how there could be some confusion. The titles aren't exactly the same but close enough to cause a mix up to be sure.
Both books pop up on an amazon search, so if they aren't looking for your name specifically they could end up downloading either book. I don't how significant that is, but it's the only thing I could think of.
Thanks for looking at it. :)I don't know how much difference it makes either. Not much I can do about it though.
Lanie, I'm using 2 of my 5 free days from the KDP Select this weekend with my short story, "I Brake For Whales." It's ranked #50 on the short story list but it's done zilcho for sales of my new novel - right now! Gotta look long tail - people download lots of free stuff a bunch at a time. When they finally get around to reading it, THAT'S when they go back and say, "Hey, I like this writer, what else does she have?" In other words, I don't think there is an immediate and direct correlation.
Cheers and good luck~
Leigh
That makes perfect sense. But, to hear some of the comments made by other authors in the program, you are led to believe that the results are more immediate.I'm not complaining and I don't regret going with KDP...yet. I have been given some very good advice that I intend to follow. With a little luck, some hard work, and good advice, I think I can make this work for me. :)
I get most of my sales on Smashwords followed by B&N. I can't imagine going exclusive to Amazon to be part of the program.
I see a lot of people say that, but I wasn't seeing a ton of action on either one of those sites so I thought I would give KDP a try. It certainly couldn't hurt me at this point. I know what my main issue is though. Marketing, marketing, marketing, and oh yeah...more marketing. I'm learning all of this as I go along and making adjustments accordingly.
There is so much to learn that I've had to start taking notes. I hate taking notes.
During my 5 free days, I gave away 344 copies of my short story collection. That translated to 0 sales after. For me, I was putting out a short story collection outside of my published books to test the amazon select program and I found it to be a failure for me. Maybe one of the 344 people who downloaded it bought one of my published books but I would have no way of tracking that. If that is the case, then I would reconsider my opinion on the 90 day exclusive with Amazon. Otherwise, I'm not real thrilled with it.Let me add, 0 reviews posted as well.
This is slightly off topic, but does anyone know how Amazon deals with Smashwords. I know if you publish on Smashwords they have a kindle version, but does it show up on Amazon's site? How about on the kindle itself? In other words, looking at this from the opposite angle what is the possible downside of ignoring KDP and going with smashwords?
It's really refreshing to hear a negative comment about the program from someone who has used it. I'm sorry you didn't have better results. I was feeling pretty downtrodden about mine, but as I said before, I'm still learning. Just trying to keep my chin up at this point.Best of luck!
No, it does not show up on Amazon. I don't own a kindle, but use the app on my phone for it and the files are rather iffy about being transferred properly. I don't know how well it works with the actual kindle.
I have never had a problem putting a smashwords book on my kindle, but I am more technical than a lot of people. Well unfortunately even if the select program and free days are bust you can't really afford to miss the Amazon and Kindle markets. Final question, after your ninety days of being exclusive can you publish it to smashwords?
I believe so as long as you uncheck the automatic renewal button for the kindle select. it is default set to renew for 90 more days.
Success or not with KDP can also be a matter of timing. There are more and more authors participating as the program continues, which means there is a glut of free books. As this occurs, the possibilities of having a title/author noticed by running the free promo diminish a little.That's not to say it's not worth it, but it's also worth constantly evaluating. I did one of my books as KDP Select beginning in February and decided to split up the "Free" days with two days in Feb. and the remaining three days in March. I had more than 7000 free downloads for those two consecutive days in Feb. but only 350 or so free downloads for the same title in March (in three consecutive days). I don't know why except that there were more free books available in March than there were in Feb., and it was a different month. Feb seemed better overall sales-wise for me than March was.
I can't say whether or not participating in KDP has had a positive impact on sales for my other titles (I have seven published, full-length historical romances out there, four of which are my own, rights-reverted, re-released titles, and the remaining three of which are still owned by the original publisher, HarperCollins/Avon). It's too soon to tell...the long tail and all that.
I will say that in the short term, January was a much stronger month, sales-wise, than either February or March for ALL of my titles, and I had none in KDP in January (and only three of the four I own up yet).
So I do think some of what works or doesn't has to do with timing and surplus or not of product. As the supply of free books increases, demand/downloads of each individual title will go down, except for a few that gain traction for other reasons/word of mouth etc. It's the nature of the business beast.
--MRM
