Publishing On Kindle: KDP Select Pros And Cons

My 90-day contract with KDP Select ends this month, which means that I'll have to decide whether I want to renew with this service. It's a pretty big decision, so here are some of the things that I've liked -- and haven't liked about my experience with KDP Select so far.

CON: KDP Select asks authors to grant them 90 days of exclusivity. This means that you can only sell your books on Amazon -- not on Smashwords, Lulu or even your own website. This greatly limits authors who want to diversify their products.

PRO: However, 90 days isn't a very long period. It's not like KDP Select is asking for five years of exclusivity. And out of all of the indie publishing platforms available, let's face it -- Amazon gets the most traffic.

PRO: KDP Select authors' books can be borrowed in Kindle's lending library. Amazon Prime members can borrow your work for free ... but you still make money from borrows. So far, I've made almost as much money from borrows as I have from sales, so I really like this feature.

PRO: KDP Select gives you five days during a 90-day period during which you can give your book away for free. The idea is to put your name out there and gain publicity. I've had mixed results with this, but my last run was successful. Sales went up for quite a while after the promotion and I got several more reviews on my Amazon and Goodreads pages.

CON: I don't plan to do another free giveaway because, well, I want to make money from my book -- even if it's just 99 cents a download. I'd rather promote my work in a way which will encourage people to actually buy BAND GEEK. And 99 cents is about as cheap as you can get outside of getting it for free. Besides, Smashwords allows authors to giveaway books whenever they want; there's no limit on days. But again, Smashwords' traffic isn't as high as Amazon's.

CON: I find it very difficult to get visibility and a higher ranking on Amazon. When my book has sold well, my visibility goes up... but when sales slow down, so does my ranking. It's a vicious cycle and a system that's designed to reward already-successful authors. I wish that Amazon had some promotional options for indie authors (other than free days) to put their names out there and get their books on the most visible pages.

PRO: As I've said a few times now, Amazon gets great traffic. I've heard mixed things about Smashwords and authors' success on that site. It reminds me a bit of how I tried to sell my jewelry on Etsy and ArtFire, but didn't sell a thing on the latter, simply because ArtFire doesn't get Etsy's traffic. Still, it would be nice to have some more options for my writing.

As of now, I'm leaning toward not renewing my KDP Select contract. I can still sell my work on regular Kindle/Amazon and at least try Smashwords and Lulu. It can't hurt to see what happens since both sites are free. And if I don't like those results, I can always re-sign with KDP Select. In the end, I just want to do what's best for my book and I'm glad that indie authors have a few choices.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, just 99 cents!

Kindle Direct Publishing: Pricing Your Book

I published my novel with Kindle Direct Publishing almost three months ago, but am still trying to figure out what the best price is for it. Thankfully, Kindle makes it easy to change your book's information, including its price, so self-published authors can experiment and see what readers are willing to pay.

I initially sold BAND GEEK for $2.99 because several other indie pub YA titles that I like sell at that price. However, what I didn't take into account is that these authors are more established than I am and have had their work up on Amazon for a while. Readers know what they're getting with these authors so they're willing to pay a bit more for their work. New authors, like me, still need to prove themselves. That said, I did manage to sell a few downloads at $2.99, but it was mostly to friends and family members. After that, sale died down.

I decided to lower the price significantly and repriced my book at 99 cents. Sales went up tremendously! I guess people are looking for a bargain, especially when it comes to unknown names. I ended up making more on my book at $.99 because I sold so many more copies. I also sold a bunch of books in the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

My last free giveaway was a success and gave my sales a huge boost. It was then that I decided to take a chance and raise my price back up to $1.99. And ... sales went down. I still did alright, but not as well as before. Plus, I didn't sell any copies overseas at that price.

I've kept my book at $1.99 for a few weeks just to see how it would do, but I've now decided to relist it once again at $.99. I'd like to eventually sell my work at a higher price, but as I said, I'm still a new author and I feel like I can make up for the cost with increased volume. It's now so easy for readers to get thousands of free books for their Kindles that I need to stay competitive and remember where I stand. I'm still at the bottom of the ladder in terms of author recognition. BAND GEEK is getting good reviews and readers are enjoying it, but it's not yet a bestseller. Until that time comes, I think I'm just going to keep it at 99 cents.

I'm not epxecting to get rich from my writing. I would like to make some money, but more than that I'd simply like to get my work out there. If pricing my book low is to way to do it -- for now -- then this is what I'll do to reach my goal.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, now just 99 cents!

Publishing On Amazon: The Case Of The Disappearing Review

If you decide to publish with Kindle Direct Publishing, be warned: Lately, Amazon is really cracking down on getting rid of reviews that don't seem to be legit. The idea is to prevent authors from posting "sock puppet" critiques, i.e. reviews that they themselves have posted under fake names. In fact, authors are no longer even allowed to write reviews of other books (which I think is so unfair, but that's a post for another time). Unfortunately, whatever software Amazon uses is a little too sensitive and often deletes perfectly legitimate book reviews. It's happened to thousands of authors online (just do a Google search and you'll see plenty of write-ups) and it recently happened to me.

A few days ago, I received a wonderful five-star review of BAND GEEK on Amazon from a reader named Cornelia. She (I'm assuming this is a she) wrote:

"Band geek Melinda falls for the zany, popular trumpet player Josh. Every girl in junior high or high school who longs for a boy to see past her exterior appearance and fall in love with the real wonderful person inside (a.k.a. most girls) will relate to Melinda and fall for Josh. He sees beauty and creativity in Melinda and leads her on adventures that help her see herself in a new light. What starts off as a simple love story evolves into an examination of the morality of revenge. Is revenge ever justified? How much is too much? The stakes increased as the novel progressed leading to an exciting and satisfying ending."

What I really liked about this review is not just the fact that she gave me five stars (though that's nice!), but that she seemed to really understand my story and what I was attempting to say. Plus, it's flattering to know that I touched her enough so that she felt compelled to write such a lovely review. I so appeciated her critique that I copy and pasted it onto my Facebook author page to show friends.

Boy, am I glad I saved it because a few hours later, it disappeared. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because I copied it and Amazon took it to mean that the review was already on another site. Perhaps the writer is an author hersef or had her Amazon account taken down. I guess I'll never know, but I'm disappointed that such a great review was removed. So if you're reading this Cornelia, I just wanted to publicly thank you for taking the time to read my book and write about it. I'm sorry that your review wasn't good enough for Amazon, for whatever reason.

For the most part, I've been happy with Amazon and think that the company is pretty fair. However, I'd like to see them have a less strict review policy. As an avid reader, I enjoy looking at others' book reviews and I'd hate to see too many legit ones get lost in the shuffle.

Speaking of which, please read and review my novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

KDP Select Free Days Success Story!

Yesterday, I used my fifth and final KDP Select Free Day promotion -- and I'm finally seeing some significant results ... so far.

To backtrack for those of you who aren't aware of Kindle Direct Publishing Select's program, if you sign with them, you sign a 90-day exclusivity contract. During that time, you can only sell your work on Amazon/Kindle; you can't sell on Smashwords or Lulu, or even on your own site. However, during the 90-day period, you get five days during which you can offer your book for free. You can string all five days together or do one or two or three at a time. It's very flexible.

If you put some effort into planning your promotion, you can potentially have thousands of new readers download your book. Your work then ends up on the "customers also bought" lists, you get added exposure and you can see a bump in sales following the promotion.

But the trick is in PLANNING for your free days. The first time I tried the promotion, I did two days in a row. I didn't advertise much, other than on this blog and on Twitter. I got about 500 downloads and a slight bump in sales. Moreover, I made a few foreign sales afterward.

My third and fourth giveaways didn't go so well. One I stupidly scheduled for the United States' Election Day. Since most of my readers are American, I just didn't get traffic. I tried to advertise on more outlets, like various Facebook pages for free ebooks, but I only got about 100 downloads. The same thing happened for Attempt No. 4. I was disappointed and began to wonder if giving my book away was even worth it.

I then put more effort into publicizing and marketing my book. I set up an author page on Goodreads and tried to engage with more people on Facebook and Twitter ... and I saw a slight increase in sales, even without doing the promotion. Meanwhile, I had one free day left, which I'd scheduled for November 26 -- which just happened to be on Cyber monday. While I'd done my other promotions basically on a whim, I took the time to plan for this one. I submitted my book in advance to dozens of Free Ebook Promotional Sites so that it would be advertised on the day of my giveaway. Meanwhile, my sales continued to do resonably well.

Know what? Submitting to those sites AHEAD OF TIME worked! Yesterday, my book had over 2200 downloads -- a nice, big jump from that paltry 100 I had a few weeks back! It made it to No. 2 on the list for Free Books Teen Romance and was No. 107 overall in the Free Kindle Store. While downloading, 10 people "Liked" my Amazon page, giving me some more street cred.

I'm now seeing a significant bump in sales, at least for today. I'm not sure how long it will last, but the promotion is helping, at least for the short term.

So here's what I think helped: 1) My book was starting to get more sales, anyway, so it was moving up in rank. Therefore, when I did the promo, it went to the top of the list pretty quickly. 2) As I said before, I planned ahead. Twitter and Facebook can only help so much, but sites like Pixel Of Ink will really get the word out about your book.

My advice then is this: before doing a free day for your book, put some effort into marketing your work. If your rank is 800,000, a free day probably won't help your sales that much. Also, don't choose to do a free promotion on a whim like I did. Pick a day about a month ahead of time. This way, you have plenty of time to submit to advertising sites. Many want you to submit at least a couple of weeks in advance; the earlier you give your book's listing, the more of a chance that it will actually be listed.

Like I said, I still have to see how the longterm results of my latest giveaway pan out. But I definitely think that it's worth it for authors to at least try KDP Select.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.

FREE Kindle Book TOMORROW!

Great news! I've decided to use another one of my KDP Select FREE days. So for tomorow, November 6, 2012, only -- get my Young Adult novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD for FREE!

Of course, if you download my book, please take the time to actually read it and then review it. So far, it's getting great reviews on both Amazon and Goodreads.

BAND GEEK has a little of everything: romance, drama, family relationships, a memorable coming-of-age story... and it's extremely fast-paced. Check it out while commuting to work on the train, or while you're relaxing between classes.

So head to my Amazon page tomorrow for another FREE giveaway -- and enjoy reading REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD!

Publishing With KDP Select: You're My Obsession

Sorry for the slow blogging. I've actually been busy writing guest blog posts for my upcoming virtual book tour. My VBT kicks off on October 31, so stay tuned for more information!

Meanwhile, I think that the free Kindle book promotion has ruined me. During my two freebie days, it was so much fun to see my book's numbers rise. It got to the point where I was checking in every two minutes to see how many people had downloaded BAND GEEK.

And now I'm still checking in. Unfortunately, my stats have slowed down considerably and it's just not as much fun to head to the page. But yet I keep checking in to see if anyone has bought or reviewed my book. I feel like a crazy person who's repeating her actions over and over again.

I think that I keep looking at my stats because this is still very new to me. When I first set up my jewelry store on Etsy, I'd check in all of the time, but I now only click on that page a couple of times a day. I'm still not used to seeing my book on Amazon, though, so it remains a novelty.

I'd like to think that I will never get used to getting good reviews; that it will always be exciting to hear that someone likes my work. So for now, I'll continue to obsess over my stats and enjoy every increase and new review.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, now only 99 cents.

My Free Kindle Book Promotion Results

Well, it's the day after my free Kindle book promotion and the results are well ... mixed. On the one hand, my book rank has gone WAY up in several important categories. If you do a search on Amazon under "Young Adult Romance," BAND GEEK is now on the top of the second page! And if you click again on the link for Young Adult Romance books published in the last 30 days, I'm now No. 2! So my promotion has definitely given me a lot more visability.

Unfortunately, it didn't translate into any extra sales -- and because I've been doing this special promotion for the past two days, my overall sales rank on Amazon has dropped.

I'm not yet discouraged, though. I mean, BAND GEEK was published less than two weeks ago and already hundreds of people have downloaded it. Now I just have to hope that they actually read their free book and review it. I'm also hoping that my novel will start appearing in those "customers who bought this book also bought..." lists that appear on the Amazon pages.

I have three more free days to use before the end of the year when my 90-day contract with KDP Select expires. Next time, I intend to be more prepared. This time around, I promoted my giveaway with blog posts and Twitter blasts, but apparently there are dozens of sites that advertise free Kindle books. I came across this really useful blog by Katrina Parker Williams that lists them all. So next time, I intend to promote my book on all of these sites -- and reach that audience that's specifically looking for free ebooks.

Meanwhile, I just bought advertising space on The Kindle Book Review and will soon be doing a virtual book tour with Virtual Book Tour Cafe. Both kick off on October 31. I'm really looking forward to the tour, not only because I could make more sales, but because it'll be fun writing guest blog posts and doing radio interviews. I've never done either, so to me, that seems exciting.

I did put some money into these things, but I'm confident that it will be worth it in the end. Part of being an indie author is being a business person. It took me years to get my writing to a point where I felt comfortable enough to share it with the world. Everything else will work out in time, too.

Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, now only 99 cents!

FREE Kindle Book Promotion Continues....

OK, so apparently I'd signed up for two days of free promotion of my book instead of one. Oops! Oh, well, it seems to be working. REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD is now... drumroll, please ... #5 in the Free Kindle Store under Girls & Women (in the Children's Fiction subcategory); #9 under People And Places, #18 in Love & Romace and #437 OVERALL! That's right, it's #4-freaking-37 out of about 60,000 ebooks. Sweet!

I'm also moving up in other search categories; if you search under "Young Adult Romamce" and then click "Last 30 Days," I'm now on the first page! I was on Page 5 before. If you just click "Young Adult Romance," I'm now #103, whereas I was in the 800s before. So this crazy plan is definitely getting more eyeballs to my book. Any authors who are reading this: definitely try having a giveaway day!

Now the real challenge comes in seeing how my book fares AFTER the promotion is over. Will the momentum keep up or will it fall to the back of Kindle again? I hope not. I intend to keep this thing going.

Until then, you can continue to read for FREE, so go for it. Please read and review REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD -- for FREE!

Book Promotion! FREE Kindle Book!

Just a reminder that I'm having a special sale on my novel REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD. For two days only -- October 21 and 22 -- my book will be FREE in Amazon's Kindle store. So check it out!

FYI, you don't actually have to own a Kindle to download a Kindle book. You can get a free app that works with pretty much any computer, from a PC to an iPad. I have a Kindle app on my laptop.

If you download my book, please make sure to review it on my Amazon page. Let me know what you think!

Meantime, keep checking back with this blog for more reviews, behind-the-scenes stories about my books and for more of my thoughts on the writing process.

Publishing With KDP Select

After much thought, I've decided to enroll BAND GEEK in Kindle Direct Publishing's KDP Select program. Yes, you have to sell your ebook exclusively with them, but that contract is for only 90 days. Plus, you get five days during that period when you can sell your book for free.

Before making this decision, I read many articles from authors about their experience and most have been happy with the program. Many have seen sales take off after doing a freebie promotion. That said, I'm offering my first freebie promotion tomorrow. It's run for one day, Sunday, October 21. So make sure you check out BAND GEEK because I'm literally giving it away!

As I've said before, I'm not in this business for the money. I'll be happy if I can make a few thousand a year from writing. I'm really not expecting to get rich (though if I do, that will be very nice!). But I would like to get my work out there, have people read my words and be entertained. If doing a promotion like this helps with that then it will be worth losing some cash.

Please read and review my novel (for FREE on October 21!) REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD.