Creative Reviews discussion

Hello,

I hope this fits into tips and tricks, very sorry if it doesn't.

OK so I've been thinking, yeh, I know, if I keep practising it might become a habit. But... thinking about KDP Select... First up, I should say that 'Prime' is just fast postage in my country. Nothing else. So in many ways I doubt the lending will make a difference.

However, I do see a value in the people who bought this also bought which tends to get you extra sales after a freebie, I am told.

Thing is, in my case it doesn't. So I've been thinking, yeh, I know, if I keep practising it might become a habit. But...

I have a short on Amazon in the KDP Select scheme. It is a fantasy fiction, humorous, YA story which introduces readers to two of the main characters in my novel. The idea is that it points people to my book which, in an ideal world, they then buy, for the princely sum of £1.50 because they liked the free short.

The short is in KDP select and one of the benefits of this is that I can make it free for up to 5 days in any 3 month period. I'm hoping to capitalise on that and yes, I'm also hoping that one of the features is that it slips you into the whole readers who bought this also bought...

So a lot of people 'buy' my book when it's free, which is great but many of them tend to be looking for other free books rather than any particular genre. This knackers the 'people who bought this also bought' algorithm. These other freebies don't always fall into any related genre to mine; YA, humour or fantasy which means that the Amazon algorithm doesn't always get primed to recommend my book to the most appropriate groups of readers.

I'm not 100% sure if there is a way round this but what if all writers in similar genres got together in clusters and set two or three days in each KDP Select 3 month cycle to make their book free? Then we could shout about it and see if we could get recommended a bit more accurately afterwards.

At the moment the entry for my novel on Amazon.co.uk (the dead tree version) says people who bought this also bought the works of L Ron Hubbard. That's not really the right audience and I suspect the people who have been recommended my work on L Ron Hubbard's page are somewhat bemused to find my book recommended to them.

That makes me wonder about whether clusters of similar authors having promotional days at once might help. If enough of us did it, the random freebie folks might end up downloading more books in a similar vein and Amazon would be more likely to hit the right audience with its recommendations.

So, if a group of us set, say, two or three days for cluster fantasy/sci-fi/humour/ya freebies over a 3 month period would anyone like to join in?

Do you think it might tip the algorithm and make its recommendations a bit more pointy? I'm wondering if it might at this early stage.

Sorry this is probably as clear as mud but I'd welcome your thoughts.... anyone?

Cheers

MTM
Few Are Chosen
Warning: contains car chases, futuristic technology and sarcasm
Unlucky Dip Prequel to Few Are Chosen
sadly not free on Amazon.co.uk or any of the others.

That sounds excessively sensible. I think it would take a lot of downloads to get them to count it but it's def worth a try for those in Select as there doesn't seem to be a downside - if all of you publicise all of them then all your books will get 5 times the exposure they otherwise would have.

I'd play myself only am not in Select so making my stuff free anywhere but Smashers is a bit hit and miss at best.
JAC

Thank you. I hope some more people sign up. This time of year probably wasn't the best one to suggest it!

Cheers

MTM

I would join in the fun, but don't have the ability to make my books free on Amazon. I've tried. If there's a way, I haven't cottoned on to it!

Well... If you put one of them into the KDP Select scheme you can choose five days over a 3 month period when you can make it free. However, if you make it free elsewhere and are then able tell Amazon.co.uk that it's free on Kobo and Amazon.com that it's free on Barnes & Noble, I am told that usually does the trick.

A lot of people find that once the book stops being free it gets extra sales by din't of being in the best sellers lists... Sadly, despite the fact my book was the 5th most popular free downlaod and in the top 200 it didn't work for me! Curses!

I hope that info helps. I suppose it's not beyond the realms that this could be done without anyone having to be in kdp select... although it's probably really unethical... dunno...

Cheers

MTM

Dale wrote: "I would join in the fun, but don't have the ability to make my books free on Amazon. I've tried. If there's a way, I haven't cottoned on to it!"

If it's on smashwords for free, and therefore B&N or one of the others, Amazon will match the price. 'Someone' needs to alert them then to the lower price ('Tell of us a lower price?').

One of my stories just went free on amazon (it happened sometime in the last two days, I only found out when I visited my usually quiet dashboard, and saw all the downloads.

:) Georgina.

MTM wrote: "However, if you make it free elsewhere and are then able tell Amazon.com that it's free on Barnes & Noble, I am told that usually does the trick."

I believe that if you self publish through Amazon, you are not allowed to sell it cheaper anywhere else. It's in the rules you agree to when you publish with them. And I've heard that if they catch you breaking that rule they can and sometimes do kick you off altogether. So unethical or not, you have to decide if you want to take that risk.

There's a purler! In 18 months I never picked that up. Thanks.

Cheers

MTM

Chris wrote: "MTM wrote: "However, if you make it free elsewhere and are then able tell Amazon.com that it's free on Barnes & Noble, I am told that usually does the trick."

I believe that if you self publish th..."

KDP: 'From time to time your book may be made available through other sales channels as part of a free promotion. It is important that Digital Books made available through the Program have promotions that are on par with free promotions of the same book in another sales channel. Therefore, if your Digital Book is available through another sales channel for free, we may also make it available for free. If we match a free promotion of your Digital Book somewhere else, your Royalty during that promotion will be zero. (Unlike under the 70% Royalty Option, if we match a price for your Digital Book that is above zero, it won't change the calculation of your Royalties indicated in C. above.)'

and:

'You must set your Digital Book's List Price (and change it from time-to-time if necessary) so that it is no higher than the list price in any sales channel for any digital or physical edition of the Digital Book.'

I read through it, can't find mention of a lower price. There's quite a few posts about titles going free on Amazon due to them being free on smashwords. In GR too.

If you can find the reference can you post the link here.

:) Georgina.

If there is a clause, and KDP contact me I can honestly say I didn't know (I read through terms & conditions). And Amazon, and kindle owners will benefit from my ebook going free.

I've had no interest in it on Amazon before this point, but I've had very good downloads from smashwords and B&N.

With 171 downloads from Amazon in the last two days (going up on average of about 4 per hour), that's a lot of people reading it. When I release my next instalment, a novella, it won't be free anywhere. But if those people who managed to get to read the first instalment for free, (hopefully:)) buy the second, that's money for Amazon.

Georgina.

Oh, I should add, I'm not in KDP Select.

Also (yes, me again), I have four of my short stories (free ebooks) opted in for distribution through smashwords to Amazon. I realise they are trying to work things out and all is pending, but these titles, if and when they go through, will be free, due to smashwords.

Now here's a thought.

Someone said on a blog the other day that the main reason Amazon are dragging their feet with the whole Smashwords thing is that they're looking at them as competitors. At the time I thought "hah" as Smashwords seems so tiny in comparison....but thinking about it, have you seen Smasher's exponential-looking growth curve?

Jeff Bezos is a canny bird and ran Amazon through a lot of loss-making years and general ridicule, back when it started; I find myself wondering if he isn't recognising the curve and starting to look at them with rather more wariness?

It may be that that's completely wrong and untrue, but if Smashers is a company that Jeff Bezos can be arsed to bother about as he has done (among others, obv) with the exclusivity bit of Select, then perhaps that's a company worth watching as if it was that insignificant, Bezos would hardly even notice it, you'd think....

Anyway, just something that occurred.

More on-topic, and back to the cluster freebies, maybe the thing to do is to find books that would have broadly similar audiences then put in a link to a special page on your website where there is a list of the others and money-off codes for Smashwords. That way Amazon don't get vexed at advertising Smashwords but readers might be in with a chance of getting deals. Downside - no impact on placing or the algorithms though...
JAC

J.A. wrote: "Now here's a thought.

Someone said on a blog the other day that the main reason Amazon are dragging their feet with the whole Smashwords thing is that they're looking at them as competitors. At th..."

And what about the free book on smashwords, that's not free on amazon? Is it breaking the KDP rules (not KDP Select) to have the same book on smashwords for free?

And I agree, smashwords is competition, look how quickly they have set up, and adapted to each new change. I also think it's a wonderfully free platform for writers.

This is an old blog post but a funny one about smashwords and amazon (Fiction Circus: Smashwords We Love your Motorcycle)

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%...

'You must set your Digital Book's List Price (and change it from time-to-time if necessary) **so that it is no higher than the list price in any sales channel** for any digital or physical edition of the Digital Book.'

I certainly read this as a requirement that you cannot list a book cheaper anywhere else. If the Amazon price cannot be higher than the price elsewhere, then if the price elsewhere is zero, you must set your Amazon price at zero.

This should not affect your ability to offer coupons through Smashwords. It just means your list price should be the same.

I can't imagine that Amazon is checking every indie author's prices on every site. However, I know I read commentary that said some people were getting in trouble for pricing their books for free elsewhere, thereby forcing Amazon to meet the free price. Most likely source would be Joe Konrath's blog (http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/) or Digital Book World (http://www.digitalbookworld.com/), but I don't have time to search for the link.

It may be that Amazon has tweaked their rules so that it doesn't matter anymore. I thought the issue was that Amazon still paid you royalties, even if the book was a free promotion. Some authors were taking advantage of this to price their books lower elsewhere, thereby forcing Amazon to lower the price, but still pay the full royalty. But if Amazon has changed that that with this policy: "If we match a free promotion of your Digital Book somewhere else, your Royalty during that promotion will be zero" maybe they don't have to worry about it anymore.

Chris wrote: "'You must set your Digital Book's List Price (and change it from time-to-time if necessary) **so that it is no higher than the list price in any sales channel** for any digital or physical edition ..."

Thanks, Chris. I see it now. I was looking for something a little more clear like: It is against KDP rules to offer the same ebook elsewhere for free! (which is similar to the above, only really spelt out).

I'm on the lower scheme (not the 70%, but the 35%) (Don't ask me why, it was something to do with the tax and the confusion and the fact that I still don't know what I'm doing. :)

"If we match a free promotion of your Digital Book somewhere else, your Royalty during that promotion will be zero"

This definitely applies to me, I don't get any royalties during this time that the book is free.

Of course if I was contacted, I'd immediately raise the price on smwrd, and apologise, and probably give a little curtsy too (just to be extra nice).

:)

I just saw this thread and

(a) am not enrolled in KDP Select nor do I intend to with my upcoming SciFi Thriller

(b) would be interested in "clustering" with other SciFi and/or thriller authors to see if we can "force" the Amazon suggestions to each other's books on the Amazon site.

(c) do not see the point of the whole side trip down the free path as the point of trying to get people to click "suggestive selling" links is to get them to spend money--more money.

So.

I'm into pairing up with anyone who wants to try to figure out how we can get our books linked. I know of one or two ways but they require spending money (as in I buy your book, you buy mine and we each do it with 2 accts and voila, we're suddenly linked by FOUR sales which is apparently sufficient for Amazon to think we share a customer base).

I'm not willing to do that for a large number of books but for a 99c book or three maybe. Basically if I spend 99c on your book and you spend 99c on mine, and we end up linked, we've recouped 70% of our money and gotten something better--linked.

I do NOT want to do this with the book I currently have out--or not with SciFi or Thriller people. Anyone got a Romantic Comedy they want to link? Or an Inspirational? I'll link Dicky's Story with a RomCom in a heartbeat :)

Glad I'm procrastinating and rummaged through my notifications today or I might not have seen this thread even then! Thanks for posting MTM

-sry

No worries. That sounds like an interesting idea. I'm on for anyone who has written humour or fantasy who wants to give it a go.

Maybe we should get a pairing thread going...

Cheers

MTM