Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

Jaq wrote: "I would as well but they still won't download to my desktop reader. :("
Jaq - make sure you are using Amazon's Kindle reader. Or if you don't want to install more software- use Amazon's "Cloud Reader" - which lets you read Kindle titles in your browser:
https://read.amazon.com/

I signed up for Select when it first came out but decided to hold off on using the promo days until I heard what was going on.
My book is serialized into five segments, all under two bucks so I wanted to hit the magic $2.99 for the higher royalty. I consolidated into three with one being the first four chapters and the Select choice.

First day I had about 280 downloads and even had several EU sales. I expect many of those went into someone's 'read later' cache as I got no sales of the pricer books for about a week. Now I'm seeing some sales and I expect they will continue.
I did a second two day and didn't get but about 120 downloads. This tells me, as it ran in consecutive weekends, that I need to change the details to get some new search terms. The first go around I hit the second page in historical fiction and #1040. This second time, I made the third page and rose to the 4,000s.
I'm going to do another two day but I'm going to try a different genre and change the search terms. In future I'm going to use a single day and wait several weeks between promos. In the meantime, I expect to see some sales in the higher priced editions. When I had the book serialized I was getting about 70% that bought the intro go for the second and then the numbers went close to 100% for the subsequent volumes.
Just for the record, all told the work is about 280K words.
I also put some samples of other writers work in the last volume. Kind of a quid pro quo.

I just pulled my book off of Smashwords, threw it into the KDP blender, and I'm about to try out the "free" promotion. I'm nervous, but I also don't have a damn thing to lose. Wish me luck!

Kyle wrote: " Wish me luck!"

Maybe. What genre?

Just kidding. Bon chance!

Kyle wrote: "I just pulled my book off of Smashwords, threw it into the KDP blender, and I'm about to try out the "free" promotion. I'm nervous, but I also don't have a damn thing to lose. Wish me luck!" Good luck, Kyle. I think you're in for a pleasant surprise.

Jaq, are you running anti virus? Try pausing it just for the download if you are.

I just ran my first KDP Select (Sat. & Sun.) I was absolutely staggered by the result: 12,828 downloads. It was far, far more than I had expected. Since then sales for NO GAME FOR A DAME have increased and I've had my first "borrows". It may be only a flash in the pan, of course since none of my older titles are in ebook format.

I ran a three day promo Fri-Sun and had over 12,000 downloads in four countries. In the past three days since it has ended I've sold over 300 books, so I consider that a success!

Jess wrote: "I ran a three day promo Fri-Sun and had over 12,000 downloads in four countries. In the past three days since it has ended I've sold over 300 books, so I consider that a success!"

WOW JESS!!! CONGRATS!!!!!!!

Jess wrote: "I ran a three day promo Fri-Sun and had over 12,000 downloads in four countries. In the past three days since it has ended I've sold over 300 books, so I consider that a success!"

I would say so, too! Congratulations, Jess.

I did okay with free promotions but since i took them off I've had very poor sales. I'm not sure whether to do them again or not. You've got it good, Jess. You're doing brilliantly!

Hi, I'm quite new to self-publishing (but not to writing - I've been subbing short stories for 15 years and novels for 10) and I joined Goodreads after I started using Amazon. Am I right in assuming that I can't put up an Amazon link to my own books that I list on here? It has to be uploaded separately but I can't do that if I'm on KDP?

For what it's worth, so far I have seven short stories and a short story collection up on Amazon, all enrolled in KDP. I'm putting up a full novel called The Tube Riders (hopefully) in a week or so and I was going to rotate the short stories on free promo in an attempt to drum up interest in the book. There's absolutely no way I'm giving my book away for free (not unless I have a sequel to sell at any rate, but that won't be for a couple of years).

I've heard lots of people saying that short stories do really well, but I haven't seen more than the odd sale here and there, and no borrows at all.

Chris Ward

If you're going to put a short story on KDP select, I hope you will say it's a short story. Several times I've thought I was ordering a book and it was advertised as a book but when I downloaded it and started reading it, it ended after a few pages. I don't really care for short stories, I prefer novels, something I can get into and spend some time with.

Some people prefer short stories and would probably like it if they were labeled short stories so they could find them easily.

I would never have considered selling a single short story, I'd always put several together to make something more book sized (and I would always say what it is).

Getting back to the KDP Select theme, what does it take to get anyone to borrow a Kindle book? My sales are pretty good, but borrows have remained resolutely zero.

I've had one borrow. I think "borrowers" have to be Amazon Prime members? I don't know how many of those there are--there's a pretty hefty annual fee.

I had a number of borrows right after my two free KDP days-- around 40, I think. This month it's tapered off; I've had about two.

Barry wrote: "Amazon Prime members? I don't know how many of those there are--there's a pretty hefty annual fee."

I'm a Prime member. It's $80 a year and qualifies many amazon purchases for free two day delivery. Members also qualify for a free service much like Netflix but with a smaller choice at this time.

Whether the $80 is worth it or not depends. Now I order all kinds of stuff from Amazon and used the prime. I buy more from Amazon but the price and tax savings easily justify it. Haven't used the video service yet.

I'm confused about something. It was my understanding that, if you choose to put your e-books on KDP select, you have to take them off the other places like Barnes and Noble and Smashwords, which I did. Now I see someone advertising their books for nook that's already on KDP select.

I thought the deal was that amazon had to have an exclusive. Am I missing something here?

It does have to be exclusive, but that doesn't necessarily stop people abusing the rules. The question is what does Amazon do if they find out?

Cheryl wrote: "Jess wrote: "I ran a three day promo Fri-Sun and had over 12,000 downloads in four countries. In the past three days since it has ended I've sold over 300 books, so I consider that a success!"

..."

Wow! I just joined KDP and uploaded a short story, so I'm really interested in finding out other author's experiences.

Yeah, what do they do if they find out? Are you allowed to apologize and quit doing it ro will you get kicked off amazon?

Peggy wrote: "If you're going to put a short story on KDP select, I hope you will say it's a short story. Several times I've thought I was ordering a book and it was advertised as a book but when I downloaded i..."

I write "A Short Story" on the cover, plus put "A Short Story of #### words" in the blurb. Then I tag it as a short story.

I imagine a lot of people will still miss it though. I used to work in an ice-shop where people would lean under the colored list of flavors we purposely hung at head height in order to ask us what flavors we had. It's just the way a lot of people are.

Chris Ward

Is everyone aware of the fact that some of the other authors have their e-books on KDP select as well as nook? One of these authors happens to be James Patterson. He has his new novel, Kill Alex Cross, on both. He's not the only one and I've contacted amazon to find out if the rules apply to everyone.

I wanted to let people know that I found KDP Select for my The Ancient Realm a huge success. I had over 7,000 downloads and stayed ranked number 1 in Children's Nature Fiction the whole five days and stayed ranked in the top 3 in Children's Action and Adventure the whole five days. I think KDP Select was a great choice for my book and highly recommend it for other authors. Good luck everyone!

No I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to someone who said they were going to start putting their short stories on KDP select. I don't mind having short stories on KDP and I've ordered some of them knowing they are short stories, but I just like to know ahead of time that they are. I've ordered some of them that claim to be a book and turn out to be like 40 pages or less on nook which would be even less pages on paperback.

Is anyone actually seeing decent borrowing numbers in their KDP Select results?

I've had only four borrows in the last month but I think, as more and more people find out about the lending library, the numbers will go up for all of us.

I was just talking to a lawyer friend this morning who is an avid read. She said she has a kindle but has just yesterday found out about the lending library. I think some people don't notice it at first.

I have two books, I decided to put the first book in the series into KDP select, keeping the newer sequel available on all channels. I ran my 5 free days in a row, today is actually the last day of the promo. So far I have had 2159 downloads of the free book and 11 sales of the second book. To put that into perspective since December I had only sold a total of 9 copies of the second book. I've exceeded that in the last 5 days alone and I believe that is because of the promo on the first book. So if you have more than one book I think it is definitly worth while to offer the first for free to garner some interest in the next in the series. So far no borrows but I'm just getting started.

Btw here's the link to the free book if anyone is interested, today is the last day
http://www.amazon.com/Loves-Fate-Love...

I seem to have had good results from KDP. I released a 30,000 word cliffhanging intro of my first novel in December and ran a 4 day free promo over Christmas (as kindling for the new fires). There were over a thousand downloads. Sales and good reviews trickled in.

Then I released the full edition of Voyage of the Dead in mid-January (by then I had fan mail begging for it) and used the last free day of the teaser to promote the release. By mid-February I was making over ten sales per day of the full book. I have a feeling that many of those sales were from people who had downloaded the free teaser.

The second book in the series will be released in two weeks, so I used one of the promo days for the full first book last week to promote release of the second book. It went up to #5 in free sci-fi-adventure, #9 in sci-fi, and #10 in horror. Gave away about 1,500 copies, including 180 in the uk, a dozen in Germany and a couple in Italy and Spain.

What surprised me was that after the promotion it jumped up in the Paid rankings from about 10,000 to 4,900!. It even got into the Top 100 Paid in Sci-Fi-Adventure for three days. I think that is because the free downloads got it listed on the "also bought" suggestions for a lot of other books.

To keep the ball rolling, I will be offering the teaser,
Voyage of the Dead Introductory First Look, for free again tomorrow and the next day. The full edition will be free again for a few days when the 2nd book, "Flotilla of the Dead", is released.

One thing I realized is that many of the free downloads will not be read immediately (For example, I have dozens of freebies waiting in my cloud right now and have no idea when I will get to some of them). So don't expect the influx of reviews, or sales of sequels, to be instantaneous. I am still getting sales from people who are only now getting around to reading a free teaser from Christmas.

As you can see, I am using the KDP promos aggressively right now to promote the upcoming release of the next book. There are many reasons for this, but a major one is that the timeline in my novel starts on April 1, 2012! Therefore, I want as many people to read it in "real time" as possible. I also want to spark word of mouth and name recognition as much, or even more, than immediate cash sales. I'll let you know how this strategy plays out.
David P. Forsyth

It works better if you have three or four books available. I have done three books on the KDP select. The first book did pretty good - and immediately received 2 reviews. The 2nd book hasn't done so well but the 3rd did fantastic and received 3 very positive reviews within 24 hours of being offered for free. It also led to a few sales of the other books that I have available.

I like it because it gets my books into readers' hands - and that is a huge obstacle. I consider it marketing - I don't have any upfront costs; it's paid for in free downloads.

A.C. wrote: "I don't have any upfront costs; it's paid for in free downloads."

Business tax wise, don't see any reason the royalties lost on the free downloads can't be a marketing expense (write off).

Its been about a month since my first (and most successful) promo. I'm starting to see sales now on the pay to read selections. Not world beating but better than before Select.

Hey guys! Great thread you got going here. I recently published a non-fiction e-book on poker, both, to KDP, as well as to Smashwords. I debated signing up for KDP Select and came to the conclusion that subscribers to Amazon Prime would probably be a little more "reading-inclined" and that there probably wouldn't be a huge number interested in non-fiction, as opposed to fiction works. Anyone here with non-fiction titles that has done well with KDP Select?

what I have noticed is my sales used to be on the weekends and now they are mid-week. I think the weekends are when the bulk of the KDP select promos are available and weekend shoppers are getting the freebies and borrows.

KDP Select seems to have been good to me so far, but I just realized that I failed to use 3 promo days before it reset. Nevertheless, I was pleased that both Voyage of the Dead and the sequel, Flotilla of the Dead, were neck and neck in the Top 100 Paid Sci-Fi-Adventure rankings yesterday. Flotilla remained there for much of today.

I credit the fact that the sequel has sold over 500 copies since it was release on April 1 to the 1500 free copies of the first book that I gave away in March. The first book is also being helped by promos of the 30,000 word intro teaser.

To keep the ball rolling I have decided to offer the full edition of Voyage of the Dead for FREE tomorrow and Thursday. It seems clear that readers of the first book are willing to buy the sequel, so I am happy to give away the first one. Wish me luck!

I've just passed the 700 paid sales milestone for Happy Hour (in just over 3 months, i.e. the 90 days KDP Select window). I'm in two minds whether to re-enrol though, since my second free promo resulted in only around 600 free downloads, whereas the first got nearly 5,000. I think I might wait until my second title is up and running to try it again.

I'm still waiting for my five day promo forThe Duke Don't Dance to come out, but I'm hopeful that it wll be more useful than the free read on Amazon Prime. I've been s bit surprised that none of my prospecyive reviewers to date have used Amazon Prime, whoch one would think to de a convenience for the frequent reviewer.

how do i get a book off of goodreads so that i can put it on kdp select?

KDP is all about trying to get reviews. It is so important to generate reviews on Amazon, that every effort to obtain them is worth it. Of course, the vast majority of people who download free books will never even glance at them. They just collect free things for the fun of it, and end up with so many that can't bother to even look at them. But if you could get a true read out of 1 percent of downloads, it would be worth it. Authors need readers, and reviewers -- if for nothing more than evidence that someone likes their stuff and will invest their precious time to read it.

Richard wrote: "I'm still waiting for my five day promo forThe Duke Don't Dance to come out."

I'd advise against a five consecutive day promo. What you will find is the first day will be good, the second will tail off to maybe half or bit better and I don't know what will happen after that as I've only done two-day twice. I've had best results doing a one day about every three weeks.

Another thing I have observed but it might just be my impression; on weekends the 'coupon shoppers' are out and won't buy anything if they can get something for free. My sales used to be strongest on the weekends and now it seems to be Mon-Tues. I'm going to try the next one on a Monday. I figure most promos are on the weekend and with less competition, my page position will increase. I usually make the second page in the historical fiction at about 35-40th. With less competition mid-week, I might be able to crack onto the first page. People aren't going to click through more than a couple pages in a genre.

I'm still experimenting with Select. I have been offering the buck intro chapter for free and the full book is in two volumes at $3.00. The price point isn't an issue. I had each volume at $3.99 for a while, prior to going with the sample. I think I might take the price up a notch.

Another thing I hate: clicking on the foreign monthly reports and seeing the brown stripe. I have some UK sales and had some DE sales which surprised me. My book has quite a bit of American dialect (like Mark Twain) and I don't see how this would translate to German. I have yet to make a sale in FR or Italy.

The Aunt Sally Team

I did a 3 day KDP free promo last weekend for my book The Aunt Sally Team, mainly to get it visible. I was staggered at how successful it was and 'm still experiencing high paid sales four days after the promo ended.

During the free days, I gave away over 8,000 books worldwide and the book hit # 2 place in the UK free bestsellers. Now it's back on paid, it's been nearly 4 days in the top 100 paid bestsellers list. It peaked at # 53 and was ranking # 2 in three categories. It's at # 71 now but still selling. I've sold well over 700 books in 3 days. Plus i've had three new 5 star reviews.

I didn't expect such a boost. The only downside is that I discovered my royalties were set at 35% instead of 70% (I'm sure I set it to &0% initially, but maybe my trackball mouse changed it back) so the first 400 I shall get only half money as much as I would have done.

I'm now doing a 2 day free promo for my other novel The Sacred Marriage (written under my pen name of Elen Hawke) and that is also getting quite a few downloads.

I really don't know why the book has done so well post promo, though it's gradually slipping down now. Others have reported much more negative results - but from my experience i would say you have nothing to lose with a new book which isn't yet visible, as doing the free promo gets you all the little spin offs like "those who bought this book bought so and so".

I'll definitely going to do another free promo when the sales drop back.

Just a clarification on the royalties bit.
For prices above $2.99 set at 70%, if the book is sold to a reader not in the US/Canada or readers who can't purchase from the UK, DE, FR, IT, ES sites, the royalties are set to 35%.
So...if your reader is in Kuala Lumpur (yes, we had sales there), they have to buy through Amazon.com and in that case, your royalties are set to 35%, not the 70% set for the US/Canada market.
We scratched our heads with that one too and after some research on the KDP forum, we found that little nugget of information.

HTH,

Chris

Justin wrote: I say give Kindle Select a try. What do you have to lose?

The part of your audience that uses ePub readers. I have talked to several readers who say that they find KDP-S a slap in the face, as it implies that the author does not want non-Kindle users in their audience.

Limiting your discoverability is not good business.

Ginney wrote: "I gave KDP Select a try in Feb. On 2/12 I did a 3-day free offer. My book "sold" 13,319, was #30 on the overall free list, & #1 on the Contemporary Fiction free list. After the sale, it is still se..."

The payment algorithm was changed for KDP-S, so that you basically are getting a lower rate after a certain date. That information was sent to all KDP authors, whether they were in KDP-S or not.

Diane wrote: "Thanks, L.H. Okay another question. If I enroll in KDP and give my book away for free, will Amazon do any promotion for me? Do they send out an email or put me on a short list of titles?"

Nope, it's on you.

Diane wrote: "Another question--my book is on Smashwords, which distributes to everyone else. If I were to take it off of Smashwords, does anyone know how long it would take for that change to reflect on the ret..."

It takes a week or so, from what I understand (I did not go KDP-S). Be advised that you lose all of your sales rank at the other locations ... and the second level (e.g., FNAC, WHSmith, etc., that pick up via Kobo) may not be as prompt.

Sharon wrote: "Ginney wrote: "The payment algorithm was changed for KDP-S, so that you basically are getting a lower rate after a certain date. "

I thought the payment was based on amount of pool/#borrows. Also, there is no royalty paid on the 'free promo days'. Only on borrows.
I have had actual sales that were paid on 35% instead of 70%. I inquired and these were overseas sales but not in the countries listed in the various markets. For instance, if I sold a book in Rumania, even those it was from one of the overseas fronts, it was 35%.

What was the algorithm change. I saw no notice.

Ken wrote: "What was the algorithm change. I saw no notice. "

http://207-171-168-158.amazon.com/kdp...

It has to do with weighting on the freebies, not the royalty rate per se. My mistake above. As I did not bother with KDP-S, I did not pay the closest attention.

I am trying KDP Select for the first time with my book Mommies' Priceless Moments. I am going to do a free promo for three days (Friday-Sunday). I have had a hard time getting the word out about my book...I hope this helps. I'll let you guys know how I do.

Amanda wrote: "I am trying KDP Select for the first time with my book Mommies' Priceless Moments. I am going to do a free promo for three days (Friday-Sunday). I have had a hard time getting the word out about my..."

Food for thought. I've had better success with one day promos. The downloads drop off substantially on days two and three. I think you will find you get a lot of 'bargain hunters' that just download freebies and then they live on their device. It's like filling up the bowl for Halloween and then leaving the bowl on the stoop. Its all gone in the first hour.