I hestitated before posting my novel, Vestal Virgin--Suspense in Ancient Rome, in Amazon's new Kindle Select. The program allows subscribers to Amazon Prime to borrow one book per month, and writers involved in the program spit a pot of $500,000.00
The hitch was I had to remove the book from all Amazon competitors: Smashwords, Barnes&Noble, iTunes--and leave it off those sites for three months. It meant I was completey dependent on Amazon for sales.
I hesitated, but I jumped--partly because being part of Kindle Select would allow me to promote my book for free for five days of my choice. I used three of those days this past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In those three days the book was downloaded about 5,000 times. This gained Vestal Virgin the rank of #117 in Free in ebooks on Amazon US, #38 Free in ebooks on Amazon UK. This gained the book tremendous visibility, but it also wiped out all the also-boughts that the book has garnered in the past year. Now my also-boughts are unrelated books and freebies.
When the book went back to $3.99 yesterday the rank was not too fab: about 19,000 in Kindle in the US. I wasn't particularly pleased. What had I gained? To that date I'd only had 9 people borrow the book.
But a few hours later, things began to change. Readers were borrowing the book--a day later my "borrows" have jumped from 9 to 33. And the sales rank for the book has been hovering at just over 1,000. The book is showing up on a number of bestseller lists--for example: #2 in historical suspense.
Consequently, I'm really pleased with my experiment. We'll see if sales sustain! Here are the stats from about an hour ago (9pm Rocky Mt Time, December 20):
Update Wednesday 12/21/11: Rank still dropping...
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #828 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
The hitch was I had to remove the book from all Amazon competitors: Smashwords, Barnes&Noble, iTunes--and leave it off those sites for three months. It meant I was completey dependent on Amazon for sales.
I hesitated, but I jumped--partly because being part of Kindle Select would allow me to promote my book for free for five days of my choice. I used three of those days this past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In those three days the book was downloaded about 5,000 times. This gained Vestal Virgin the rank of #117 in Free in ebooks on Amazon US, #38 Free in ebooks on Amazon UK. This gained the book tremendous visibility, but it also wiped out all the also-boughts that the book has garnered in the past year. Now my also-boughts are unrelated books and freebies.
When the book went back to $3.99 yesterday the rank was not too fab: about 19,000 in Kindle in the US. I wasn't particularly pleased. What had I gained? To that date I'd only had 9 people borrow the book.
But a few hours later, things began to change. Readers were borrowing the book--a day later my "borrows" have jumped from 9 to 33. And the sales rank for the book has been hovering at just over 1,000. The book is showing up on a number of bestseller lists--for example: #2 in historical suspense.
Consequently, I'm really pleased with my experiment. We'll see if sales sustain! Here are the stats from about an hour ago (9pm Rocky Mt Time, December 20):
Update Wednesday 12/21/11: Rank still dropping...
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #828 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > History > Ancient > Rome
- #2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Religious Fiction > Historical
- #2 in Books > History > Ancient > Rome
Suzanne, thanks for posting this. Very helpful. I'm still undecided about Select & appreciate your input. Sounds like Select is working well for you. Why do you think the borrowing rate went up? The exposure you received from "Free"?
ReplyDeleteYes, Ruth. I attribute the upswing in borrowing to the boost the book received by going free.
ReplyDeleteI chose to enter Vestal Virgin in Select because most of my sales were on Amazon. I don't think I'll keep the book in the program for more than three months, but I do think I'll enter my new book soon.
Glad your exercise with Kindle Select turned out well so far. I’ve been watching a number of authors’ experiences with it and it seems like you might be an ideal case. You have a large enough readership and enough titles up for a lending structure to benefit you.
ReplyDeleteLet us know how things go over the longer haul.
Thanks for stopping by, Hunter. I think the fact that the book has a number of good reviews (due to being out for a year) has helped.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to see how things go with a brand new book.