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Post by Ted on Jun 28, 2012 5:28:25 GMT -8
Anita, what was your experience with the KDP Select program?
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anita
Full Member
Posts: 134
Joined: Jun 6, 2012 8:57:42 GMT -8
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Post by anita on Jun 28, 2012 7:28:42 GMT -8
Keeping in mind that I only have one novel on Amazon, my views may be skewed.
It was the first book that I'd ever written and it was released in December 2011 in paperback and came out in February 2012 on Kindle. In my naivete, I was satisfied with the results that I was getting with KDP Select.
I did the usual things to promote my book (along with a few specialized tricks that I will share in another post) and met all of my rather low sales goals. I ran a free listing day and sent out 1 tweet to publicize it. I had around 1500 downloads and even saw some residual sales from the promotion.
In April, my sales plunged and I learned here and in the Kindle Authors forum that authors were trying to blame it on warmer weather and the fact that many people had received Kindles during the holidays and had loaded up with gift cards, etc... The asumption was that people were no longer spending money on ebooks because they had other things to do or no longer had free gift cards to spend. I actually bought that for a short while.
May sales were still in a slump and free listing days only yielded 80-150 downloads, even with repetitive tweets. That wasn't enough to bump the book to the top of any list for greater visibility. In order to get more sales, I started sending out regular tweets to followers that were interested in the underlying topic of my fiction. This helped sales slightly, but some told me that they had a Nook and wished that they could buy the ebook for their device. The only option available to them was to purchase the overpriced paperback. (Yes, I did just call my paperback overpriced!)
It wasn't until my Smashwords titles began to get premium status and I learned how to use the dashboard tools to unravel my sales data. I realized that I was selling a lot of erotica ebooks through Barnes & Noble, iTunes and other premium channels. My current quarterly sales are way beyond anything that I expected, while my Smashwords site sales are modest. I only started writing erotica on a lark to see if I could do it and didn't expect to actually make any money at it.
I started wondering how my ebook would do in Barnes & Noble and iTunes, but there was no clearcut answer because the book couldn't be listed there as long as it was enrolled in KDP Select.
While my novel will continue to be enrolled until the end of July, I now realize that I severely handicapped myself with KDP Select. I've only had a total of 2 library loans through KDP, so the benefits of the lending library are dubious at best for an unknown author. I'm constantly running into people online who would like to download my ebook in a format that is compatible with the Nook and other eReaders.
From my standpoint, anything that offers you fewer income streams and exposes you to fewer customers is NOT a good thing. With a sequel to my novel coming out soon and a third one being edited, I've got plans to try a few different ways of marketing my books. I will report back to everyone here as to how successful I am in my endeavors.
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Post by Ted on Jun 28, 2012 8:26:49 GMT -8
Anita, I often wondered about the Select program. Thanks for sharing.
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Post by garyweston on Jun 29, 2012 0:48:04 GMT -8
Hi, Ted. Any more thoughts about my comments? Have you (or anyone else) tried phoning a few local libraries to get some idea on how much they would expect to pay for an ebook? They are usually forthcoming. It would be interesting to find out. Out of curiosity, I would also like to find out if the other libraries are insisting on DRM as is the case with Wheelers libraries. Good to see M C and the gang getting us a new affiliate. Just to make it clear, I have a lot of time for M C and the team and more power to them, just not convinced on this issue. Please note there is a big time difference from you to me here. Regards, Gary
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anita
Full Member
Posts: 134
Joined: Jun 6, 2012 8:57:42 GMT -8
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Post by anita on Jun 29, 2012 4:37:43 GMT -8
Hi, Gary! I did just receive a payment notice from Amazon for my novel. I happen to know that a librarian in a nearby town ordered a paperback copy of my book and I was shocked to see how little I received as a royalty for that copy. I have to hope that it will benefit me in the way of publicity since the librarian read a copy first and shared it with her hubby (though it is Chick Lit) I tried to call the Central Library that is local to me and was unable to find out how much they pay for ebooks. It was rather frustrating. I think that there is probably only one person that knows the information in the entire city's library system and that person probably has minions to answer the phone and keep me from getting to him or her! Browsing the local library's website, it appears that thier digital library is provided by a company called Overdrive. I've never heard of that company, since I am new to all of this. This is Overdrive's website: www.overdrive.com/default.aspx
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Post by Ted on Jun 29, 2012 8:16:54 GMT -8
Hi Gary,
Ebooks at local libraries in Lower Mainland of BC have DRM. No one knew royalty structure. I'll try again later.
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