See on Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction
Bestselling author Renée Pawlish discusses Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, the second post about KDP Select and indie authors.
(A great follow-up an earlier post that’s got me thinking and concerned. I have to wonder, is it really that Amazon has changed a formula so success on free days does not translate to success on the paid lists? Or is it that our Kindles are so full of free books that it will take a long time for us to get back to bother paying for an ebook? Is the market flooded with free? We can only read so much so fast. Your thoughts? ~Chazz)
See on tobecomeawriter.com
Filed under: publishing
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I do think the market is saturated with free and bargain books. More individuals have access to free promotions with the introduction of KDP Select, so it is harder to inch toward the top that way these days (in terms of making money). I would be interested in knowing if more established/successful writers have noticed a slip in sales since the KDP Select program was implemented.
I’ve also noticed differences in the way free books are calculated after returning to the paid list. As Renee mentioned, it’s not as effective, which makes decreases benefits of participating in free promotions.
I talk about free and bargain books ($0.99 mostly since the royalty is a negligible 35%) often with my husband. I’ve done my fair share of ineffective promotions. I’ve offered my books (especially early on) for a low price of $0.99. My results been: Not worth it.
These days, because of the new algorithm Amazon uses, I don’t see an increase in sales in paid. When I lower prices (particularly down to $0.99) the increase in sales does not match or exceed the royalties at the higher prices.
What I have found is readers will spend $4 and even upwards of $6, $7 for my books. A book priced at $5.95 yields a little over $4 in royalties. I would have to sell 11-12 books to make the same royalty at $0.99. The thing is, readers aren’t purchasing my books 11-12 ($0.99) to 1 ($5.95). Last experiment at $2.99, readers weren’t even purchasing 2 to 1.
Good business is about maximizing profits, and businesses typically only continue with promotions when they’re successful. I think fewer and fewer publishers were use free promotions like KPD Select when they notice it affects their bottom line regularly.
Have to agree. I have one novella up for 99 cents. It was supposed to be an intro and a loss leader. Hasn’t sold because free is the new 99 cents and it seems free might be going away, too. Soon I’ll be taking the novella down to combine it with short stories for a collection with a new cover and a higher price.
On the abundance of free: I get a lot of free books and I haven’t gotten to a whack of them. In fact, I’m finding that I’ll read a description and try to download it for free and Amazon reminds me that I’ve already downloaded that title. Obviously, I’ve got too much for free. Some of it I won’t get to (like hitting “favorite” on Twitter and never looking at the tweeted link again.) Other stuff I’ll get to but I don’t know when. I’ll probably also dismiss books more quickly that don’t look like they’re working out because I have so much other stuff to read. We know the trend is toward downmarket fiction, but we probably also have much less patience when the To-read Pile towers above is, digitally and metaphorically.