UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion

Hi folks - currently I have 2 of my 3 novels NOT in KDP Select - I sell also on Apple and Barnes and Noble - not a lot but I do sell. The third is in Select.

I think one can only use the ad features on KDP if the book is in Select and only for US site?

I'd like to run an ad campaign and possibly countdown to boost sales - but is it really worth the hassle of removing my books from the other stores. The book which is in Select is the 3rd of the series (although can be read as a stand alone).

What experiences have the folks here had? Should I try an ad campaign with just book III?

Might be some help in these threads for you, AL.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I'm sure others will be along in here soon, too.

Thanks, I'll take a look when I'm not sneaking on in my lunch break:)

;)

Sorry for the late arrival on this one. An ad campaign for book 3 in a series will probably only appeal to those who already have read books 1 & 2, plus a bit of residual interest in going back to the start. I'm not saying it's not a good idea, but the impact is likely to be limited and you should prepare for that.

I did a countdown - not that successful - I got a few from UK and nothing extra from US site. That said it was book three, and yes I agree Darren, and I didn't promote it much after the first day or so.

I think I'll more likely do a facebook ad for book 1.

If I could weigh in, I went with Kindle Select for my debut book, The Scissors and the Sword. I'm happy with that decision, because it was my first book, and given that, I just wanted to reach as many people as possible (I was less concerned about the income than exposure).

That being said, I haven't been able to do any of the offers with it yet because my book has been out for less than a month (you can't do any offers until your book has been in the service for a set duration - also, changing your book's price resets this clock, so be careful with that).

As for the paid ads, I had a thread about this recently:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

The consensus appears to be that they're not useful, or certainly you won't make back as much as you will need to pay.

With Google Ads, the service has such complexity for targeting (filtering to find potential customers and doing "retargeting") that you can drill down and drill down for weeks to find the right customer-base.

Amazon's ads don't offer much control of this nature. You can only choose to advertise according to a list of interests or specify exact products to compare your book(s) to. Either way, this is still a light touch as you're at the mercy of Amazon's "recommendation" algorithms.

In short, I wouldn't recommend them until Amazon improves their reporting and control.

My only remaining concern about Kindle Select is that you must enroll your book in the Kindle Lending Library, which is like Amazon's Netflix for Kindle (you get paid for each page a person reads on the service). This wouldn't be so bad, but Amazon makes a HUGE deal on your product page about "FREE! £0.00 if you have the service!"

Personally I would disable this if I could, because I worry too many people will see this, and think,

"Well, I don't have the service, but I MIGHT do one day and it'll be free, so I won't buy this book right now"

And leave.

This has been quite a long-winded answer, but I hope you find it helpful.

you've nicely summed up what I've read and experienced Ethan :-)