To capsulize, THE RIVER was available FREE on Amazon for January 23/24, while DIVINE INTERVENTION was FREE from January 21-25.
THE RIVER - in 2 days on Amazon.com, 20658 people downloaded my thriller for free and have now been exposed to my work. The lowest rank I saw was #10 in overall top "bestsellers" for FREE Kindles, which meant anyone looking on Amazon for free ebooks would have seen my title. It made #1 "bestseller" in 3 categories during the promo time: #1 Technothrillers, #1 Adventure and #1 Action & Adventure. It beat out one of Amanda Hocking's titles. Two new 5-star reviews during this promo.
Foreign Amazons: 1186 (UK), 63 (DE), 2 (FR), 1 (ES), 0 (IT) = 1252 free copies
DIVINE INTERVENTION - in 5 days on Amazon.com, 19787 people downloaded my thriller for free and have now been exposed to my work. The lowest rank: #23 in overall top "bestsellers" for FREE Kindles, which meant anyone looking on Amazon for free ebooks would have seen my title. It made #1 "bestseller" in Police Procedurals and #6 in Women Sleuths.
Foreign Amazons: 1047 (UK), 77 (DE), 5 (FR), 0 (ES), 0 (IT) = 1129 free copies
Total free downloads and new readers reached: 42886.
My two titles now show up on other Kindle ebook pages in the 'Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought' section. More exposure.
I did notice a small surge in sales of Imajin Books (my publishing company) titles by other authors during these promos. It appears that some readers may have purchased one of our other titles after reading one of my books.
THE RIVER - one full day after the promos ended only 20 people borrowed THE RIVER with the new Kindle Owner's Lending Library. As per Amazon's terms, I'll receive a percentage of the $700,000 pool based on how many times my book was borrowed during the month. I expect the payment to be very small as it will be shared between thousands of authors with thousands of ebooks. As I predicted early on, Amazon's example was much higher than I'll receive (and I'm probably not the only author who won't see much.)
DIVINE INTERVENTION - since THE RIVER was more popular, I'm expecting the borrows on DI to be less. Again I doubt I'll see anywhere near what Amazon gave as an example of income. My guess is I'll get less than $5 for the borrowed books. I'll let you know.
The Ugly:
Some writers have reported a huge surge in sales immediately following their free promo. I recall reading one author's stats where they reported averaging 500 sales per hour for the first few hours. Yeah, not me. Though I went into this experiment with positive thoughts and some expectations, I was not surprised to see my sales of THE RIVER are about what I normally would get. No surge. No obvious sales afterward. I realize this could occur over some time. Not everyone will read their free downloads in a week; some may not open my book for a year or more. But seeing no surge in sales afterward is disappointing. I was hoping to see a noticeable difference.
I guess that depends on what you consider a success. I consider it a success when over 40,000 new readers discover one of my novels; there's a good chance that many of them will buy one of my other titles. There's also a good chance that many won't buy another of my books because they either a) didn't like my book or b) they only want free ebooks and aren't willing to pay for them. Both reasons are human nature.
I went into this experiment with one main goal: to get exposure to readers. I got that. Of course I'd love to see a huge surge in after-sales, something concrete to point to so I can say with all certainty that KDP Select is the best program for authors and is worth sacrificing other sales channels for. I can't quite say that.
To be fair, I need more time to evaluate this program. A week from now could make a difference and I could see many new reviews and more sales of my other titles. Time will tell if this program is really worth ticking off readers who don't have Kindles or who don't want to shop via Amazon. If I notice a surge in sales, I'll let you know.
If you found my experiment helpful, please consider purchasing THE RIVER, "a gripping combination of suspense, sci-fi and adventure...a cross between Michael Crichton's Timeline and Dan Brown's Angels & Demons," on Amazon for only $2.99.
Or DIVINE INTERVENTION, "a fan of J.D. Robb will thoroughly enjoy this one...a genuinely Canadian crime novel...leave(s) you smoldering," on Amazon for only $2.99.
For more stats:
The KDP Select Experiment: Part 6 - The Untouchables
The KDP Select Experiment: Part 7 - Enter the Dragon
The Kindle Select Experiment: Part 8 - Alice in Wonderland
The KDP Select Experiment: Part 9 - After the Sunset
6 comments:
Great info Cheryl! Really appreciate you sharing, and hope more will do the same. I think we'll need some long-term stuff from multiple authors to figure out if KDPS is a positive.
I do believe in the exposure factor, so I'm hoping your overall sales will go up because of all those freebies downloads. Maybe it'll just take a bit, as lots of people (me too!) download stuff for reading 'later'.
Anyway, best of luck!
EJ
Hi EJ,
I'm glad you found this info helpful. I think you're right about only being able to truly evaluate this program after some time and analysis. Some authors are too impatient and want the quick fix big bucks making program NOW. This biz just doesn't work that way.
Authors who are patient and test different strategies will figure things out much sooner than those who try something once and then give up.
I do hope to see a rise in sales, one that I can say without doubt is a result of KDPS. I'll let you know if I do. :-) Happy writing and reading.
You are leader in the quickly changing publishing industry. I thank you for sharing and letting us all learn from your fearless forays into the unknown!
So you gave away thousands of your books for free, thereby devaluing your own product. Last week I only sold 200 books but at a profit of 10 dollars a book. Do the math. All Amazon is doing is using your hard work to make profit and giving you nothing. Wake up! Value your own work and don't get a reputation of being a free author.
Anonymous, thank you for sharing your thoughts. Don't worry about me; I've always valued my work and I expect to get paid for it. But I also have smart business sense and a background in advertising and marketing.
I have not devalued my product. I put it on sale for a few days. Most businesses have sales and we don't devalue them.
I have now exposed 2 of my 9 ebooks to over 40,000 people, most of whom had probably never read my work before.
I'm now seeing an increase in sales on BOTH titles. (Read Part 6 of my experiment)
Amazon gave me the opportunity to reach those 40,000 readers and they'll pay me for my sales.
If you're making a profit of $10/book, great for you. You reached 200 people who may or may not tell people they liked your book. I reached over 40,000. Do the math.
Update: I have now sold over 380 copies of the 2 titles that were in the KDP Select program--in 2 days with little effort or marketing. I wonder how many will sell in a week...
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