Support for Indie Authors discussion

Hey guys!

I'm new to KDP Select. My book was out before to all the channels but I wanted to try KDP so I pulled it and republished it 10 days ago.

The reporting looks pretty easy to read and I tracked stuff for a week before launching Facebook ads (last night) and I have Amazon Ads going out beginning Feb. 1st.

Most of my activity has been through the KU portion of the report so far. I know we can see when we have a sale and see how many pages are read in a day, but I also see my sales rank go up and down numerous times without anything posting to that portion of the report. And big jumps, like from 300K overall to 100K, so not just standard settling in with new books arriving daily.

I'm assuming that means people from KU are downloading my book? Maybe they hold onto it for a while and then once they actually start reading it, it shows up in KU pages read?

The other thing I see is on my Amazon book page more items populated in the category "Customers who viewed this item also viewed..."

Is there a delay of several hours (even 24 hours) between someone in KU downloading my book and the overall sales rank changing, or is that timing pretty similar to the adjustments that happen to rank 4-5 hours after a true sale?

I just wanted to try and figure this stuff out before my ads really kick in. I had heard in a webinar the other day that the reporting for Amazon AMS ads are really delayed, so to give 24-48 hours for stuff to show up on the report and to use the KDP dashboard report to daily gauge sales. I just wish there was a "# of KU Downloads" section for when your book is normally sitting at list price and not free.

Any help is appreciated :)

Let me tell you my experiences with KDP report and Amazon.
On KDP, I have seen chart indicating book sales but at the end of the month 2 units removed from chart. I observed that many time some units are shown on chart but on "Month to date", this sale is carry forwarded in next month.
Many times Amazon rank is updated within one hour, many times it is updated after several hours. The reason for ups and downs in rank (without sale) is because of sales of other books (overall and in category).
Many fellow authors say that KENP also affects sales rank, but I am not sure.
Today morning, my book was at 708 rank. When I saw 2 unit sold, I continued to check it. It went to 423. Another 2 units sold and after several hour it went up to 210. After that 1 more unit sold and it started increasing like 227, 229 and then 254. I waiting to reach it in top 100 but I think they don't want to tag me a "bestseller", that's why they are not updating my book rank. LOL

KDP reporting seems pretty quick (I would say generally updated within the hour) but ranks on product pages and author central can be more sporadic.

They say the ranks are updated hourly but sometimes during a free promotion day, it will take 5 or so hours for my book to get a rank in the free store vs the paid store, and to reflect # of downloads up to that point.

For KDP page reads, I believe the rank is affected when the book is borrowed/open. Not necessarily when the pages are read in full. Page reads show up on the KDP dashboard shortly after they happen. Good luck on your ads and your new Select enrollment!

Good luck on the KU train. It's a wild ride at times.

My advice though (based on my experience only. Mileage of others may vary) is to do the assessment on a Monday. Let a week pass. Then you probably can see trends. Market instability can give one a sudden drop in KU reads for a day and then come back to what you expect the following day. Do mind the so-called 30 and 90-day cliffs. It happens. Sales and reads taper off after a while. With the number of new offerings every day, such a decrease is to be expected. When that occurs, you may have to decide whether to boost marketing efforts or not.

KU reporting is relatively quick, as the other answers have said. It can be delayed depending on the marketplace. Amazon India for one. As to ranking, I recall reading somewhere that it is done on an hourly or daily basis depending on the present rank of the book (I did forget the posted rank cut-off). The higher the rank, it becomes an hourly algo dance. KU reads do affect rank - about 80% of the royalties of my two books come from KU reads and it shows in their BSR and subgenre ranks.

Two books, newbie here.

Again, good luck and God bless.

Marie is correct, your rank is affected by borrows at the time it is borrowed, not read, so don't obsess too much over rank.

But that’s good that it boosts visibility by raising my rank. I know I don’t get paid if they borrow and forget my book on their kindle. But at least it makes it easier for other readers to find it.

I have to say, I love the function of seeing the pages read. :)

Thanks everyone! A huge help to know how to expect the timing.

Prakash - if those are your overall Amazon rankings then you are killing it!!!! Great job.

Amie wrote: "But that’s good that it boosts visibility by raising my rank. I know I don’t get paid if they borrow and forget my book on their kindle. But at least it makes it e upasier for other readers to find it..."


Amie! Yes, these are overall rankings on Amazon India. Earlier, during July - Dec'17, my book "Life in Shackles" touched 6572 overall rank and stayed in top 10 in category on Amazon UK. I have uploaded some SS in photo section of my Goodreads profile. Please have a look.

Thanks, Prakash! Best wishes for even more success in 2018 :)

Amie wrote: "Thanks, Prakash! Best wishes for even more success in 2018 :)"

Thanks for your wishes, Amie.