Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie discussion

Try this ams.amazon.co.uk

And then choose the middle option.

I've had to bookmark that page because, as we know, it's very easy to lose.

Ouch... I feel for you, Alex. Nobody's replied! It's probably because we can't remember how to get started because, once we have, all we have to do is press a button that says something like 'new campaign' and then it tells us what to do next - I think.

The main thing is to choose the right keywords. I suggest you choose 'broad' rather than 'exact' and so long as you have one of the main genres as a keyword, Amazon do the rest by scattering your ads throughout that genre. From there, you can add a few authors and build it as you go along.

Maybe someone will read this not-very-helpful post and come riding to your rescue.

That unfortunately is something I have to relearn. It's one of the things I don't retain from one campaign to the next. I have some random ads running, but I've not had any results from them. I imagine you have to big higher than I am.

I've tried the 10p bid. I ought to throw in something for the Bulwark short story. I haven't done anything for that. It's been in KU for a few weeks, naturally there isn't one page read.

You've got started! Yay! You should find that when you choose an author, a suggested bid will show up and you can choose something within the range it shows. It's easiest if you just press 'apply'.

10p used to be the sort of bid that would get you clicks, but some are now as much as 60p.

Best thing to do now, I think, is to look at some authors who write in the same genre as you and go to 'add keywords' (it's there, but you have to look hard) and add their name. The suggested bid will come up automatically.

Some people suggest having 100+ names but you've got to have a pretty big budget to support the clicks!

Good luck, enjoy playing with it.

I’ve done all the keywords thing, even generated with software. I agree 10p bids got me nowhere. It’s something I really need to spend more time on. At the moment there’s no point in doing that until I’ve built my other business up to provide the income for all of that. I miss having a reliable income.

AMS US runs away with money. UK is better at the moment but you need to watch it all the time. At least I find that. There's a column called ACOS and it's wise to try to keep that column below 100% because, even though you will get some KU reads, you'll have more expenses than you imagined initially. Don't worry about the whys and wherefores of all this - just keep that column under 100% and you shouldn't be out of pocket. Some will tell you to keep it under 80%. That's difficult.

How do you keep it low? Well switch it off (left hand side button on the relevant line) and don't switch it on again until you get some money coming in.

Wanna know what happened to me? Well... US ads, I decided to go for it and really get some visibility so I upped my bids on 3 genres to something like 70c and my daily rate to $7. Within days I had racked up ACOS of 1,000% plus on all 3 of the genres. So I'll never do that again.

Keep your daily rate only to what you can afford each month if it goes to the limit.

I can understand how you feel about this Alex - gobbledegook. But once you press a few buttons you'll find that this begins to make sense and so I suggest you bookmark this page or copy some of the useful stuff.

I wish I could write it out in order for you, sorry to be so confusing. D.J. might be able to interpret!!

Ah, free, well then yes stick with 10p especially as your # 19 post states you have a 3.22 click through rate. That is very good for a non-free book but I wouldn't know whether it's good for a freebie.

You should be able to see the click-through rate in one of the columns. You look as though you have calculated it yourself. Go to a button that says 'columns', press and a box comes up. I've ticked all the boxes which gives me maximum info.

I've not had anything like that. I'm pleased with a 1. or 2. and most of my author ones are 0.5 or something like that.

I'm guessing the freebie is #1 in a series.

I think if you get a download of a freebie via the ad site, it shows up as an order in the Orders column but, of course, there's nothing in the 'Sales' column.

I think!!!!

Don't be surprised that it takes you time to absorb it all - it takes most people time! And then the mighty Zon changes things... er sorry, improves things.

I agree with you 100 percent. I think they have a team watching over every penny and nobody can get ahead of the'zon.

Ssh... we mustn't let them know we know...

What I also see is that whereas the mighty 'zon used to be champion of Indies, it isn't any more. Those with the money take precedence. Cannot complain, can we? It is, after all, a business.

Mutter, mutter.

Two and a half years ago, I had lunch with 'someone' who told me all the traditional publishers complained that they were going to pull their ads out of 'zon because they were pushing Indies. That was back in the day when we were making six figures with a quarter of the number of books. (True figures and true story). The bottom fell out a few weeks later and our numbers started a downward spiral. Not only that, reviews from reliable readers dried up. Where we were getting two to three reviews a week, we lost a huge number of them. Now when we get a review- somehow an older one drops off- preventing any of the books from reaching any type of milestone. It's a crappy thing to do to free enterprise that basically the 'zon created and nurtured. I should have seen it coming when they fired all the illustrators and started dropping all their service. Back in the old days (Do you hear the harmonica playing?) it was a pleasure to work with Createspace. It was as though they were supporting an entirely new 'uber' industry for books.

They do stuff as your book reaches certain criteria- That's why I think our books are stuck at the current amount of reviews. Somehow the one stars, no matter how stupid they are- never are taken away.
Yes, his book Stillwell came out as a Kindle pick and stayed in the first three spots (1,2,3) in its genre for almost two years. When it started slipping, I was terrified and panicked every time it dropped. At one point he had four books all int he top 100 for years. I was doing the same with my pirate and cultural series but in paperback. Nobody likes to talk about what they are actually doing financially- but how can you judge who is doing it correctly if you don't talk about that success. Julie was running my social media and she had a knack for promotion with Facebook and that helped a lot. I was spending a lot because we were testing what made a difference. Of course, Michael didn't care about anything but his goal- and that was getting a movie deal- so I made that part of my priority. The books are still in decent numbers- they are back in KU- I can officially say we make more in KU. We have a bunch of producers circling- it's not a matter of if- rather a matter of when. It's been a long, slow slog that I had to regroup every time they ('zon) changed the rules. That's why I've been quiet- I'm working my butt off for my son, right now- his books are the priority. lol. Of course, I say that when I have two books coming out - one this month, a self-help with Dr. Hausman and a joke book a publisher actually paid me to write. I did those in my spare time.

I will. It's almost done. RL and I were talking about how much has changed even with Facebook- it's not the same anymore. Now I think everyone is using Snapchat to hawk their books.

With regard to big companies chewing up new challengers, I remember watching the demise of two here in the UK.

One was a new broadband company and it attracted hundreds of thousands (that's big in the UK, Carole!) of customers in a short time. It got gobbled up by British Telecom, a company which is notoriously difficult to deal with (I speak from experience) and, of course, it is more expensive.

The second was a start-up which realized that liquids for washing clothes were much cheaper to produce than powders. Brilliant. I supported them and bought... One of the biggies bought them very quickly and carried on producing the liquids but the price is the same as the washing powder which is one of the most expensive things in my shopping basket.

My mini fight-back is to use considerably less washing powder than they recommend and I switched broadband company away from the biggie who gobbled up...

I always fight back, it just makes me feel I still have a little control over my life. Having lived in Africa surrounded by mud huts and that style of living, I can cut down like nobody else! (My little pride. Sigh).

But 'zon? We're up against many big corporations in league with it. Carole, you have done so much to fight back and I admire your ingenuity, courage and persistence and I bet there's a lot of others agreeing with that.

Thanks, Anna, I am ashamed to admit I cave in lots of times- like putting the books on KU or buying from 'zon cause it's just convenient. I do hate myself afterward.
But sometimes I wish things were similar and we lived int he fog of innocence like the last century.
Mud huts? Anna, you have lived a very interesting life, my friend!