Indie Book Club discussion

This may be nothing, but I found it curious. I haven't exactly become a bestselling writer with my first book, but I was selling copies here and there during the time I was still enrolled in the KDP program on Kindle (though I had no Borrows). As soon as my enrollment period ended and I decided not to renew, my sales dropped off to near zero. I guess it could just be how things roll, but I thought I'd ask if anyone else has experienced the same thing. Incidentally, I have nothing personally against the KDP program; it just wasn't resulting in any Borrows for me and required me to be exclusive to the Kindle platform only, so it was a "business" decision. Anyway, I hope my experience is a one-off thing, but there it is. Any thoughts?

I'm still with KDP Select, so I can't speak directly to your question, but I've noticed that if I don't keep doing "free" days my sales and borrows drop off significantly. Almost as if KDP has set it up so that you "have" to keep doing promos. Has anyone else noticed this?

That's a good point. I suppose after the 5 days are up, you can't make your book free any longer but you can still have sales. Still have the exclusivity thing, though. I wonder how much of the total ebook market Amazon controls, as opposed to Nook, iBooks, Kobo and Smashwords (plus others).

(re message 1) I had the same experience. There could easily have been other factors at work -- this wasn't long after Amazon changed some of their algorithms. (I believe it was last June or thereabouts.) But it did make me wonder.

Interesting, Karen, because my time frame was close to the same (end of last July). That's when my enrollment period ended, and the sales dropped off a cliff.

There is talk about that on the KDP forums. I saw a few extra sales on the back of a promo just before I left. This month is Ok but once again all my UK sales have vanished. I suppose in a way it being in the Kindle Library increases visibility maybe.

My sales have been fairly constant (apart from January, which frankly was crap). There are so many factors it is hard to tell what works and what doesn't and what affects what.

I've noticed this, but I don't think it's (completely) intentional. My feeling is that the further you get from your last free day, the more alternate titles get 'inserted' between you and the readers, because their free days (and thus higher # of downloads) are more recent and as a result are ranking higher than yours.

I'm sure there's some generally complex math involved :), and of course Amazon is going to do their best to keep you in their program. Having the best reading selection is what sells their devices (and thus more content).

I haven't had the opportunity to experiment with .99 promo vs. free yet (i've only been published for ~3 months), but if/when I do, I'll be sure to put the results up somewhere.

I only published my debut novel eight days ago and had two KDP Select free days in the hope of attracting attention to the book. Whilst over 700 people downloaded the book over those two days, I have yet to see a single sale. I'm hoping it's simply because those 700 people just haven't got around to reading the book yet and letting their friends know about it but it's really highlighted to me what a slog it is for an unknown author to try and get noticed amongst everyone else.

It is only just over a week Nathan:) It does take time. I usually don't read a book as soon as I down load it.

I used my free days then opted out of select. I had a few sales as a result of the promo. When that little bump ended, the sales stopped entirely. The book was never a huge seller but I must admit to having the feeling that I'm being somehow punished for leaving. Probably just trying to make excuses for the poor sales by being paranoid!

I'm thinking the same thing!

haha! I'm actually really pleased I stumbled across this thread now. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one suffering Paranoid Angst of Diminshing Sales. (P.A.D.S)
Maybe we should start a new group!

Yes, a Support Group! I like it. Currently, I'm taking something Joe Konrath said to heart when someone asked why he doesn't do much marketing anymore (yet is consistently up there on the bestseller lists), and I think it applies to us and how we can finally begin to see some sales:

"The best advertising for your writing is your writing. Write a good book people want to read. Then another. Then another. Then another. Write until the world can't ignore you anymore."

I did a study recently on my own and found that, of those authors who had books on the Top 100 Paid Bestseller List, the majority had at least 8 books out before they were even discovered! Which means that those first 8 books didn't do very well, at least not until they broke out and achieved success and financial independence! Gives one hope.

That's a very interesting bit of research, I shall take some solace from it being as I'm half way (and a bit) there!
You can tie yourself up in knots thinking about how to market yourself and I'm sure there are plenty of avenues to go down if you want to pay.
But are they sustainable?

The current flavour of the month seems to be Bookbub and it looks like it gives terrific returns. I'd be interested to know though, how many of those authors who it propells into the top sellers are still there a few weeks later? Short term succes, yes but it's got to be a long term game, hasn't it?

I'm going to copy that quote and make it my screen saver! It's simple but inspiring!

If you can view Samples, I would look at a given number of authors on Bookbub who actually write well; that is, they have gotten over that hurdle and are of publishable quality. Look at their sales when they begin, then a week to 2 weeks later, then a month or two after that. Then we might get a decent picture of just how helpful it is (unfortunately, as you have seen yourself, there is a lot of dreadful stuff out there right now).

Keep at it! Write well, write often and prosper!

Yes, there is still no good type of "review" system (that I know of) that weeds out the horrible writing and makes room for the good. It is the epidemic of the Indie scene. It is good because people can self-publish / self-produce, but that also leaves the glaring bad being that is it is garbage, you can still publish it. I have nothing against this conceptually, but I think that the indie community needs to do a better job (as a whole) at supporting each other, reviewing each other's works so that we can all grow in our writing / reading experience. It should be that if a book is rated poorly there definitive reasons why that can help the author learn their craft, and also if is is good to help us learn what people like and what just isn't entertaining. The problem is the 5 star or 1 star reviews that just say "This was awesome!" or "This is crap. Don't buy it!" If I ever run into an indie book that has no reviews yet I just at the opportunity to read it and review it because I can give my honest opinion and know that the rating will not be (at this point) bogged down with the meaningless 1 star / 5 star ratings. I also am able to help the author out while giving them greater exposure.

On a site point, all of my reviews are done on Goodreads. Does anyone know of a good reviewing service with honest and helpful feedback? Goodreads is more of a socially interactive site than a review service.

LibraryThing is not bad because Readers on there are pretty dedicated and serious. Other than that, I wait until someone approaches me asking to review my book (whether on their blog or otherwise). And I don't pay for Reviews, obviously. The Bad: I only have 7 Reviews on Amazon itself in the past year. The Good: the majority are decent and heartfelt (Avg. 4.5 Stars)! I have a few Reviews on other sites, including Goodreads here, that the Reviewer prefers not to put on Amazon, but that's fine by me.

I would offer but you are fantasy and so am I:)

No problem, Alexandra! And have a good weekend, everybody!