anita
Full Member
Posts: 134
Joined: Jun 6, 2012 8:57:42 GMT -8
|
Post by anita on Aug 18, 2012 5:45:35 GMT -8
I mentioned in another thread that my books haven't been selling on Smashwords. My assumption was that this was due to a price increase. I recently made all of my erotica shorts $2.99, whereas some had been priced at 99 cents, $1.99 and $2.99. I did keep my introductory shorts free, in an attempt to lure readers into purchasing subsequent installments of the story. My freebies still seem to be popular...but they are no longer translating into follow-up sales.
I raised the prices because Amazon doesn't accept ebooks priced at less than $2.99 and I wanted to gain exposure to the Amazon clientele. That exposure has paid off and caused my sales to increase dramatically.
Since July 28th, I haven't had a single sale on Smashwords...not a one! However, my sales on the other venues through Smashwords have been going well... Sony, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, etc... are all posting really nice numbers and (if they keep up) the overall sales will beat the previous 2 quarters that I have had with Smashwords.
My second quarter royalties were 10 times my first quarter royalties and I was really pleased. Since adding Amazon into the mix, I am beating my monthly sales goals just through that one venue.... I'm not complaining... Well, maybe I am! What the heck happened to my sales on the actual Smashwords site?!?!?
|
|
|
Post by Ted on Aug 18, 2012 7:12:57 GMT -8
Anita, Smashwords itself has never been a big seller for myself either. I suspect most members will find the majority of sales come from B&N, Apple and Kobo rather than Smashwords itself.
|
|
anita
Full Member
Posts: 134
Joined: Jun 6, 2012 8:57:42 GMT -8
|
Post by anita on Aug 18, 2012 11:19:19 GMT -8
You're probably right, Ted! It just seems so odd to have my sales dip to zero at SW. Even when I just had one or two stories up, I never went so long between sales. Now I have quite a few stories up and...nothing! Sales are great overall, though. Maybe it's time for me to put up another new story. I'm just not in the mood to write erotica at the moment. I am doing the final editing on my third (straight) novel and the ideas are flooding my brain for the fourth. All the smut has fled my head!
|
|
|
Post by Ted on Aug 18, 2012 12:34:55 GMT -8
Smut: A black colloidal substance consisting wholly or principally of amorphous carbon and used to make pigments and ink.
Anita, you must feel better now all that the smut has fled your head. Achoo!
|
|
anita
Full Member
Posts: 134
Joined: Jun 6, 2012 8:57:42 GMT -8
|
Post by anita on Aug 19, 2012 7:09:14 GMT -8
EEeeuuuwWWW!! You make it sound so unappealing, Ted. I should know better than to let a wordsmith talk dirty to me!
|
|
|
Post by Ted on Aug 19, 2012 14:30:48 GMT -8
Anita, Amazon allows prices below 2.99 but you get a 35% royalty. Last year I read on Mobilreads or Kindleboards that a top seller would set his price at 99 cents until it got back into the top 100 and after a while he would raise the price back to 2.99.
|
|
anita
Full Member
Posts: 134
Joined: Jun 6, 2012 8:57:42 GMT -8
|
Post by anita on Aug 20, 2012 4:03:59 GMT -8
Thanks, Ted! I knew that Amazon would match the price of your book on other venues, but was not aware of the 35% royalty. (Is that an option when you list them through SW on Amazon or does it still apply when you list them directly with Amazon?) Since my books have never been in the top 100, it might take awhile for them to get there. I might try that method with just one series.
So far, they are all doing well on Amazon but not a single sale for the month of August on Smashwords. The other venues have had sales though the reporting has been spotty. I did notice the other day that Kobo doesn't seem to have all of my titles, so I will be attempting to follow up on that this morning before settling down to write non-smut!
|
|
|
Post by Ted on Aug 20, 2012 6:00:14 GMT -8
The 35% royalty is available through Amazon when you first set your pricing.
Your low sales at Smashwords could simply be kindle users who used to buy from Smashwords are getting them now from Amazon directly. If you are still selling well with epubs at other retailers then I would suspect it was simply a move by kindle mobi users from Smashwords to Amazon direct.
Like Apple, Kobo, B&N ereader devices it's much easier for readers to get books onto their readers by going direct to the place which sold them the hardware in the first place. Going through Smashwords means saving the ebook to a computer and then emailing the ebook to your Kindle email address and then importing it to your reader from your email. Going direct to Amazon eliminates a lot of steps.
|
|
anita
Full Member
Posts: 134
Joined: Jun 6, 2012 8:57:42 GMT -8
|
Post by anita on Aug 20, 2012 12:53:42 GMT -8
I had to give you some karma for your last response, Ted! I've been trying to figure out how to get books from Smashwords onto my iPhone or Kindle for the computer. I usually just read SW books in the browser because it seemed easier. You've just made my day, Ted!
|
|
anita
Full Member
Posts: 134
Joined: Jun 6, 2012 8:57:42 GMT -8
|
Post by anita on Aug 31, 2012 4:07:16 GMT -8
It looks like I'm going to close out the month in the same way that I started...without a single sale on Smashwords. I truly hope that people are now downloading them directly, rather than opting NOT to buy.
|
|
|
Post by Ted on Aug 31, 2012 6:22:11 GMT -8
Check your sales at other retailers, including your KDP account, and see if there was an increase. It could be that readers simply bought elsewhere. From my experience any sales on Smashwords is pure bonus as they are mainly a distributor to highly popular online retailers where readers are accustomed to shopping at. (Whoops. Just ended a sentence with a preposition. Need coffee.)
|
|
|
Post by Julie Harris on Aug 31, 2012 13:01:45 GMT -8
I rarely bother looking at the Smashwords sales page because I know its futile. All up for 2012 I've sold 27 books. I have 9 stories listed. 1 of these 9 books is selling an average of 550 copies per month on Amazon and I believe that's because one of the better known Kindle Book Reviewers got her hands on it and loved it, blogged about it. She has a gazillion followers. Had it not been for this particular reviewer I'd still be in the 20+ per month category, struggling to make $100 so Amazon can send me paper money that costs a fortune to bank and needs 32 working days to clear!
|
|
aristotle
Junior Member
Posts: 38
Joined: Mar 28, 2012 17:11:38 GMT -8
|
Post by aristotle on Aug 31, 2012 13:44:51 GMT -8
|
|
|
Post by Julie Harris on Aug 31, 2012 14:11:34 GMT -8
Thanks Aristotle - yes I have seen that before. Get stung whichever way you go!
|
|
anita
Full Member
Posts: 134
Joined: Jun 6, 2012 8:57:42 GMT -8
|
Post by anita on Sept 1, 2012 5:03:42 GMT -8
I rarely bother looking at the Smashwords sales page because I know its futile. All up for 2012 I've sold 27 books. I have 9 stories listed. 1 of these 9 books is selling an average of 550 copies per month on Amazon and I believe that's because one of the better known Kindle Book Reviewers got her hands on it and loved it, blogged about it. She has a gazillion followers. Had it not been for this particular reviewer I'd still be in the 20+ per month category, struggling to make $100 so Amazon can send me paper money that costs a fortune to bank and needs 32 working days to clear! Since I write erotica, I haven't had super low sales from Smashwords. My first royalty payment was rather low, but that was due to having very few titles up and coming into the quarterly payment cycle, midway. My 2nd quarter sales were quite nice, though I realized that I overstated the amount earlier. My 2nd quarter SW sales were 3 times the 1st quarter sales. My SW total (all sales at B&N, Kobo, etc...) for the for the 2nd quarter was about 10 times the same total for the 1st quarter. If I hadn't had many sales at SW in the past, I wouldn't be concerned. I did close the month out without a single sale on the actual SW site, though the sales through SW distribution have been strong.
|
|