What started as a summer special has extended into fall, now winter. My book at 99c.
The result? At first, not much. A few more sales but not enough to offset the price. In other words, selling more but making less. Yet this experiment was never about money. I was sacrificing profit for sales ranking. Hoping to reach more readers.
Then, in December, the book started to sell like crazy. Five times the sales of previous months. At a guess, the introduction of Kindle Fire was spurring a lot more reading. More of my books, anyway.
Amazon has since launched a free library to Prime subscribers. A Netflix for books. A set sum is divvied up by ones percentage of total borrowed books and voila, payment. Costs nothing for the customer, and I get paid? Sweet!
What did Amazon ask in return? Exclusivity. I'd have to withdraw my book from distribution from a half dozen other e-retailers.
Oh.
What to do?
Lets see, what do the facts say? In the time it's taken to write this post, I've sold more books on Amazon than all the other distributers combined. All year.
Yeah, I'll give it a try Amazon.
Sure, there is no guarantee that ANYONE will borrow my book. Could be Prime people only read name authors. That's the chance I take. But being an indie author is all about taking risks. Putting oneself out there. So if you, or someone you know, has a desire to purchase Not Just For Breakfast Anymore on anything other than a Kindle, do it fast. By the beginning of the year it'll be an Amazon exclusive.
As I only sell via Amazon this was no real risk to me, so I signed up for it.
ReplyDeleteSome people, like Perich, can sell well in other venues.
ReplyDeleteNot me.
Then again, Amazon is still King. Should take care of us both nicely.