#WWWblogs 1 week to go with #KDPSelect – My thoughts & why I’m renewing #indieauthor #indie

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The first 3 months

It’s been an interesting 3 months using KDP Select for the first time. So far the biggest impact has been having my book enrolled in Kindle Unlimited. The page numbers read has increased each month from 0 in Aug, 768 in September and 786 in October. The figures are modest, but they are still readers, that’s what matters most to me!

I’m always so happy when I check the daily report to see the line on the graph has moved up. Thank you unknown readers, whoever you are.

I’ve yet to see an increase in reviews or sales through KDP Select, but I’ll take this success and continue to be positive about it – after all I sold nothing through Smashwords and the various retailers after the pre-order buzz for Visions of Zarua.

So based on the small success of Kindle Unlimited, I’m going to renew for another 3 months. At least I no longer feel as if my book is completely lost amongst the thousands.

5 day free promo or Kindle Countdown deals?

The next question is shall I run a 5 day free promo or go with kindle countdown deals again? People seem to have mixed opinions on what works best. I suppose it depends on the outcome you require. I want to encourage readers to read and review my book, I’m not so interested in hitting Amazon’s best seller lists for free book downloads. That would be great of course, but my genre is too big to get near those rankings.

With the Countdown Deals at least I understand how things work this time around. I’ll make sure I run the UK & US deals starting on the same day! Thanks Terry Tyler for pointing that one out!

Amazon Ads

I’m also going to promote the Kindle Countdown deal this time, which I plan to do via Amazon Ads: Sponsored Product and Product Display Ad for the sale period and maybe a few days after as well.

My current Amazon Ads have cost me quite a bit with only one sale coming out of 64 clicks! I don’t understand why so many people have clicked on the Ad (which shows the book cover, tag line, cost and star rating) and not followed through. Maybe some of them have gone on to read it via Kindle Unlimited. I have asked Amazon if there is more data available regarding these clicks, and will let you know if I hear back from them.

Hopefully combining the Ad’s with the Countdown Deals will see a better return.

Other book sales sites

I want to try other sites that promote book sales, can anyone recommend any that aren’t too expensive?

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I hope you’ve found my 3 month experiment with KDP Select helpful.

My other posts were 1 month in with KDP Select and 2nd KDP update

What are your thoughts and experiences on the scheme? If you have any tips to share, I’d love to hear them!

And of course, if you have read Visions of Zarua, would you consider leaving a review? Just a short one, letting other readers know what you think and what you liked / didn’t like.

 

23 thoughts on “#WWWblogs 1 week to go with #KDPSelect – My thoughts & why I’m renewing #indieauthor #indie”

  2. I hope your second run with KDP gets you more book sales. I know it’s frustrating to see the page reads increase but not the number of books being sold but I think staying positive is the best way forwards.

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  3. Congratulations on your page number reads increasing! As for the click-through rate: I know there’s a lot of info on Jane Friedman’s blog where author’s have used ads and analysed what worked and what didn’t (Though the last one I read had to do with Facebook ads, I’m sure there are others as well.), and there’s tons of info on book promotion and other areas of publishing. Good luck!

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  4. Congratulations on your page reads! It takes time to get those sales and reviews. One of my first books still has 4 reviews 2 years since it got published and another one is stuck at 23. I’ve never tried Amazon ads but I am doing Facebook ads and doing well. Out of four books, only one is still in KU and I took advantage of free download days last week since I had 4 more before my term renews next week. I’ve since seen a rise in page reads since that run and I documented my book promo strategies on my other author blog. For my free download days, I use Bknights on Fiverr.

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  5. Some great info here, Suzanne – thanks again. I think I now need to make a huge spreadsheet of the different options – it’s overwhelming! But for the moment I’m just writing. I’ll only start advertising when I have three books ready.

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