# Is it just me or are sales not being reported for everyone?



## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

We have a free promo for Megan's New Year today & tomorrow & it shows only 41 downloads since this morning but it's ranked

#399 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
* #19 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Contemporary Fiction

So obviously it's getting lots of downloads.

AND ... does anyone understand how or why amazon is categorizing books in categories the author did not assign when uploading a book?
We designated this a Paranormal Romance. But I never see that category come up.
It's been listed in fantasy, fantasy/futurisic, and this contemporary fiction category.

Why does amazon ask for us to assign categories & then ignore them?

sigh ...


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Definitely wonky for most of us. A lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth in the BBOS thread.


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## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

Looks that way - I've got a free promo going so to have no downloads seems unlikely in the extreme.


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

thanks all: that makes me feel normal at least.

I also "heart" amazon believe me. Not complaining just confused by their twists & turns.


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## Kay Bratt (Dec 28, 2011)

I usually have 40-50 sales by mid-day and I'm showing only 1 sold and 6 borrowed. So I know something is wrong unless the world has decided they hate me as of last night midnight EST.


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## BrianKittrell (Jan 8, 2011)

The beginning of a new month can be wonky sometimes. Usually the weird stuff happens after the first week, but maybe they're trying to give us monthly reports earlier than a few weeks past the 1st?


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

The most obvious explanation for the fact that I have zero sales today is that the world decided on Feb 1 that I suck. I resist any temptation to blame Amazon software for all that sucketh. I want all the credit.


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## K.R. Harris (Jan 25, 2012)

Yep, I think something is out of "sink". Just checked my sales number's and they are almost nothing compared to yesterday.


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## Kenneth Rosenberg (Dec 3, 2010)

Ah, so glad I stumbled into this thread!  No sales for me at all today, and that's after ending a two-day free promo yesterday.  At least now I feel better about it.  Hopefully all will shake out soon and we'll see some real numbers!


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Dalya said:


> Eeks! I think they assign categories somewhat based on the keywords you choose when you upload it. I do heart Amazon, for all the opportunities they do give us, but not being able to pick your category is frustrating.


Here's what Amazon told me about categories.

Further, I checked your KDP account and see that, you've chosen the below categories on KDP:

FICTION / Anthologies
FICTION / Romance / Short Stories

The categories you chose has exported on the web site as follows:

Books > Literature & Fiction
Books > Romance > Anthologies
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Romance

Please note, the categories you choose on the KDP web site is as per BISAC standards; however, the one that is displayed on the web site is a broader classification on it; hence, the categories you chose did not export as it is, on the web site. However, we can manually assign the categories to your book.


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## julie sellers (May 6, 2011)

KayBratt said:


> I usually have 40-50 sales by mid-day and I'm showing only 1 sold and 6 borrowed. So I know something is wrong unless the world has decided they hate me as of last night midnight EST.


I too have 1 sold and 6 borrowed. Strange.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Thank goodness it's not just me. After nearly 50 sales yesterday to end up with two borrows and one sale today had me hyperventilating.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Yep, me too. Sales are at about 20% of normal, and I have an ad running today...


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

I finally got one US borrow. Hmm... Yeah, I think that is wonky. Either that and the entire world including Amazon has decided they hate all of us.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

Me too. I'm at 66 borrows and 5 sales. Can't wait for it to start working again!


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## velicion (Sep 22, 2010)

I'm so glad that I found this thread. 


(Phew)
It did cross my mind upon checking and seeing only two borrows that the kindle reading public have all realised that I'm truly rubbish at writing.


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

So glad to read this.  I have a promo on the ebooksforabuck site today and had lowered my price to .99 for it!  I show 3 sales and most everyone does well on there...I had convinced myself that spirits had come down and announced that my writing blows so much that everyone should ignore my promo.  Sigh.  3 sales at .99?  If I sell one book I make twice that at my $2.99...hope this glitch IS a glitch for us and I see sales later from it.


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## Sarah Woodbury (Jan 30, 2011)

I think that not all servers (or whatever Amazon is using now) have the issue. Today, just to give an example, I have sold 20 of one book and 5 of another--and although both books usually have a similar rank (between 3000-5000), the book with 5 sales is ranked 3912 and the book with 20 is ranked 4917.  Obviously, something is a bit odd about this!


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Wow, glad I'm not the only one. I thought it was weird I should start off the month with more borrows than purchases.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

I prefer to believe that the people at Amazon are taking the day off in preparation for a big Groundhog Day celebration tomorrow. If the groundhog sees his shadow, I can't bear to think of what will happen to Amazon's servers.


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

Thanks again everyone!

And to add insult to my Kindlejuries, my gmail won't deliver mail (except for a few) since midnight. And that is really weird.  And I can't find any way to solve it.

I think I'll go to bed now and hope tomorrow everything is fixed.


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## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

I'm having wonky sales reporting too. At least, I hope it's wonky.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

I think it's just KDP select titles perhaps.  My non-Select novel seems fine.  My KDP select novel was free yesterday and today.  It had 10,000 DL yesterday and today it had 140 during midmorning and nothing before or after. . .but it's still ranked #15 free.  So something is definitely off.


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## angeleyez320 (Jan 25, 2012)

I only show 2 borrows for today which is odd and off kilter.


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## FrankZubek (Aug 31, 2010)

I'm in the middle of a 3 day freebie on Select and I think that the Wednesday "Hump Day" is actually "Slump Day" because I had 130 dowloads last night and today I'm struggling with barely getting to 10 downloads and evening is approaching!


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## amykwrites (Aug 13, 2011)

Perhaps that Free Promo that Konrath/Goldberg/Black/Crouch/Nicholson blew up the reporting on Select titles.

http://bigkindleboogie.blogspot.com/p/free-kindle-thrillers-feb-1-2.html

My books are not in Select and the reporting looks fine.


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## Shelley K (Sep 19, 2011)

My ranks are staying where they would if sales were about normal, yet I've sold 1 each of 2 titles.

I wonder if it's just delayed because it's end of month/new month, and they rolled out that icky fancy new bar at the top.


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## Jaci Byrne (Dec 28, 2011)

Yep, something is rotten in the State of Denmark (oops, Amazon) I saw 30 sales for the 31st Jan and they have now disappeared. And nothing showing to date. Hmmmm.... Patience or Persistence needed? Maybe someone from Amazon could answer this thread?


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## K.R. Harris (Jan 25, 2012)

Jaci, same here. Had 20+ sales yesterday and now gone.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

K.R. Harris said:


> Jaci, same here. Had 20+ sales yesterday and now gone.





Jaci Byrne said:


> Yep, something is rotten in the State of Denmark (oops, Amazon) I saw 30 sales for the 31st Jan and they have now disappeared. And nothing showing to date. Hmmmm.... Patience or Persistence needed? Maybe someone from Amazon could answer this thread?


Are your sales gone when you switch back to January? My January sales are still there and the numbers are correct.


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## MH Sargent (Apr 8, 2010)

None of my books are in select, but sales are off today too. As I recall, this has happened before right on the first of a new month. Let's hope things even out soon.


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## K.R. Harris (Jan 25, 2012)

Gertie, no my January sales are not there either (do not appear to be correct anyway).


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## ETS PRESS (Nov 4, 2011)

Not only are the brown bars rotten, but my ranking has plummeted big time.


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## Tamara Rose Blodgett (Apr 1, 2011)

I agree with Edward. I think it's Select titling that is wonky. Because my non-Select are reporting normally, my Select, wonky! In the extreme


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## wildwitchof (Sep 2, 2010)

I've been wondering if I should learn to love beige. Zippo for me. Non-select. But that might just be me :-(

On the other hand, I had a great month on Barnes & Noble in January. Go romance.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Hmm-yeah.

With only five reported downloads, I thought my freebie was a monumental failure and was choosing to lick my wounds and go and actually--y'know--write. I'm not a rankings junkie, so didn't even look at it it until just now, and it's ranked 59 in SF. So something is obviously happening.

OK. I feel better now.

*wonders when we'll get to see download numbers*


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## Kathleen Valentine (Dec 10, 2009)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> I prefer to believe that the people at Amazon are taking the day off in preparation for a big Groundhog Day celebration tomorrow. If the groundhog sees his shadow, I can't bear to think of what will happen to Amazon's servers.


I think you've nailed it!

I've had 156 sales across 6 titles NONE of which are in Select and NOT ONE sale in a Select title. I don't know if this means anything or not but it seems odd.....


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## Emma Daniels (Jan 21, 2011)

I just think everyone hates us. Nobody loves us. Might as well go and eat worms. 

UK sales seem to be doing better than the US sales for me which is unusual. So I'm hoping not to have to eat worms and that it really IS a glitch.


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## Jaci Byrne (Dec 28, 2011)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Are your sales gone when you switch back to January? My January sales are still there and the numbers are correct.


Yes - Gone - all gone after Jan 28th. But I know I saw sales on 29th - 31st Jan because I had just come off my KDP Select Freebies and was watching the REAL sales like a bl---y hawk!


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

So sorry about your end of Jan sales gone missing.

I'm just keeping my January page open so I can bask in the glory of all those beautiful post-free sales.


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## MH Sargent (Apr 8, 2010)

Writers on KDP's Community thread are discussing this issue. Lots of writers with wonky sales today. At least we are all in the same pea soup. 

http://forums.kindledirectpublishing.com/kdpforums/thread.jspa?threadID=27356&tstart=0


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## K.R. Harris (Jan 25, 2012)

Jaci, sounds just like mine. I had just comee off free too.


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## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

Kathleen Valentine said:


> I think you've nailed it!
> 
> I've had 156 sales across 6 titles NONE of which are in Select and NOT ONE sale in a Select title. I don't know if this means anything or not but it seems odd.....


Same here. Select book-no sales, non-select-sales. Must be a glitch.


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## Kay Bratt (Dec 28, 2011)

If it is a glitch, will our sales be found and given to us? Or are they lost in the great abyss of Amazon?


PS. We Selectors are being punished. I knew this would happen. *doom*


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

KayBratt said:


> If it is a glitch, will our sales be found and given to us? Or are they lost in the great abyss of Amazon?


I wouldn't worry about them being lost. Sales have been behind many, many times in the past and they've always caught up within a day or two.


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## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

"I wouldn't worry about them being lost."

But that's what I do best!


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Another sale and another borrow just showed up. All my sales (as few as there are) have been for Select books.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

ToniD said:


> "I wouldn't worry about them being lost."
> 
> But that's what I do best!


Nah, I read Badwater - it was a great book, so worrying can't be what you do best


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## JEV (Jan 7, 2012)

I was attributing it all to global warming, but I like the wonky angle much better.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

JEV said:


> I was attributing it all to global warming, but I like the wonky angle much better.


Global warming seems like a good alternative theory.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

JRTomlin said:


> Global warming seems like a good alternative theory.


Sales are trickling in so the ice cap must be melting.


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## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

edwardgtalbot said:


> Nah, I read Badwater - it was a great book, so worrying can't be what you do best


Thank you, sir, you just made my day a whole lot brighter!


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## Kathleen Valentine (Dec 10, 2009)

JEV said:


> I was attributing it all to global warming, but I like the wonky angle much better.


I'm going with the annual pre-Groundhog's Day panic.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

Argh! This is driving me wonky. So far, I'm showing as many borrows today as would normally take me a month to accumulate. So, I'm dying to see what the sales figures actually are. I've got to be selling something, since my ranking went up from 359 to 295 in the paid store this afternoon. I swear KDP is making me OCD. Hope they fix the problem soon.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Kathleen Valentine said:


> I'm going with the annual pre-Groundhog's Day panic.


As long as we don't keep repeating this day over and over. (just watched the movie for about the 20th time)


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

I'm going with the mega-free, multi-author promotion bringing KDP to its knees.


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## teashopgirl (Dec 8, 2011)

I made Notes to Self free today and it's driving me nuts that I have no idea how many copies are moving.  The book is currently ranked #91 overall, so that's a good sign. Still, I hadn't realized today that I check my sales easily 25+ times per day. I need to chill.


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## PatriceFitz (Jan 8, 2011)

I logged 66 sales of my political thriller yesterday, and for hours today NOTHING.  Finally I have a measly TWO sales, but oddly, 19 borrows.  Hmmm.  But certainly better than nothing!  

My price for this book is $7.99, so I make considerably more on sales than borrows.  What was the borrowing bonus for December?  $1.70 per borrow, or something like that?  So January will probably be a slightly higher rate, since they made the pool $700,000, rather than $500,000.  And I see that February is projected to be $600,000.  I guess Amazon keeps playing with the numbers... just like the rest of us!

Thank goodness for this thread.  I was feeling pretty glum.


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## George Berger (Aug 7, 2011)

I have no sales, no borrows, and no free downloads, but that's completely normal.

Still, no reported returns either, so it could be worse.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

George Berger said:


> I have no sales, no borrows, and no free downloads, but that's completely normal.
> 
> Still, no reported returns either, so it could be worse.


Did you ever start out the month with a -1? Yes, it's possible and I'm living proof.


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

> Did you ever start out the month with a -1? Yes, it's possible and I'm living proof.


Hmmm...that must mean someone else sold you your book and they got the royalty!


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Caddy said:


> Hmmm...that must mean someone else sold you your book and they got the royalty!


The scurrilous knave!


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Sophrosyne said:


> Argh! This is driving me wonky. So far, I'm showing as many borrows today as would normally take me a month to accumulate. So, I'm dying to see what the sales figures actually are. I've got to be selling something, since my ranking went up from 359 to 295 in the paid store this afternoon. I swear KDP is making me OCD. Hope they fix the problem soon.


Although something is clearly screwy, keep in mind that a bunch of readers can get a new borrow now that it's a new month. So I don't think having a load of borrows today is unexpected.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

edwardgtalbot said:


> Although something is clearly screwy, keep in mind that a bunch of readers can get a new borrow now that it's a new month. So I don't think having a load of borrows today is unexpected.


Borrows also count as sales, so they will affect ranking.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

teashopgirl said:


> I made Notes to Self free today and it's driving me nuts that I have no idea how many copies are moving.  The book is currently ranked #91 overall, so that's a good sign. Still, I hadn't realized today that I check my sales easily 25+ times per day. I need to chill.


Glad to hear it's ranking well


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## teashopgirl (Dec 8, 2011)

Thanks, MrPLD. It's at #78. I don't want to go to bed because I want to see if it edges up another notch before the free promo is over.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

teashopgirl said:


> Thanks, MrPLD. It's at #78. I don't want to go to bed because I want to see if it edges up another notch before the free promo is over.


Given that you cracked the #100 mark, I'd say that you're now going to progress very nicely.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Even worse, I can't get into my Kindle app on my Iphone. Will the horrors never end?


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## Karly Kirkpatrick (Dec 13, 2010)

Same here! I've been going crazy all day! Just started my free promo too and it was stalled at 9 downloads most of the day, but my ranking is really high, indicating way more than that. Makes me wanna bang my head against the wall. I did email them, so they'll have one more crabby note to read!


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

How about we all just forget about this and go and write?

Or is that too radical a solution?


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## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

Patty Jansen said:


> How about we all just forget about this and go and write?
> 
> Or is that too radical a solution?


HAHAHAHAHAH! Okay, you hang up first.


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

Must say it's fun to read a lively thread by writers (as long as it's not snarky).

Y'all are makin' me giggle.

Megan's NY (free promo) is now at a staggering 57 downloads & # 120 in the top 100 free. Clearly everyone who bought a Kindle in the past 3 yrs just tossed them all overboard leaving only 57 to carry the load.


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## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

Last month, when my ranking hovered around 10k, I was selling about 10 copies a day (of one book).  The last three days, in a new ad campaign, my ranking has been hovering at around 8k, and I'm selling about 10 copies a day.  Some gear or algo seems to have shifted.  But what can you do?  You just gotta have faith.


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## BrianKittrell (Jan 8, 2011)

Yeah, they're coming in now. There was some kind of blockage.


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## George Berger (Aug 7, 2011)

BrianKittrell said:


> Yeah, they're coming in now. There was some kind of blockage.


Possibly a case of zombie children in the pipe?


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## BrianKittrell (Jan 8, 2011)

George Berger said:


> Possibly a case of zombie children in the pipe?


hehe If only it were that interesting. Probably a case of "somebody dropped coffee on the server again."


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

I stole all your sales. I am evil like that.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Krista D. Ball said:


> I stole all your sales. I am evil like that.


I KNEW it. She is a sales vampire and sucked the sales right out of the servers!



Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Even worse, I can't get into my Kindle app on my Iphone. Will the horrors never end?


Oh no, now the vampire sucked apps out of iphones! Where are the torches and pitchforks? 

Edit: A few sales have trickled in, about half what I got yesterday, but still. *throws body in front of the server to protect her few measly sales*


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

BrianKittrell said:


> Yeah, they're coming in now. There was some kind of blockage.


Boy do I know that feeling.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> I KNEW it. She is a sales vampire and sucked the sales right out of the servers!


Like I said, it was the avatar. As soon as I switched, the evil came back.



> Oh no, now the vampire is sucked apps out of iphones! Where are the torches and pitchforks?


Your sales are mine!

(Actually, I've been doing rather well the last few days, but had three reviews come out on bigger blogs within a week of each other. I think it helped a lot)


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## George Berger (Aug 7, 2011)

You were licking your lips and your fangs were shining;
I was dying just to ask for a taste.
We were typing together on some writing forum
by the light of the moon;
You know there's not another moment to waste.

And then you _sucked the sales right out of my book_;
Oh-it must have been while you were dissing me.
You sucked the sales right out of my book,
And I swear it's true,
I was just about to say I sold two...​


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## David Adams (Jan 2, 2012)

George Berger said:


> You were licking your lips and your fangs were shining;
> I was dying just to ask for a taste.
> We were typing together on some writing forum
> by the light of the moon;
> ...


I _love_ this.

My sprite-zero soaked keyboard, sprayed with fluid ejected from my nose in a fit of laughter, will probably disagree.


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## cidneyswanson (Feb 1, 2011)

Kathleen Valentine said:


> I'm going with the annual pre-Groundhog's Day panic.


I broke Amazon's KDP Select. I'm sorry.

I had a minor character from my novels post on "Tips for a Successful Groundhog's Eve Party" here http://bit.ly/w6khks

I'm guessing the folks who normally keep the servers running got busy party-planning instead. 
Cidney


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

Anyone still got a free-select book going on today (ie, the next hour), I'll gladly pick up copies to read


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

MrPLD said:


> Anyone still got a free-select book going on today (ie, the next hour), I'll gladly pick up copies to read


Me who started this thread and got STOLEN from by the evil she-devils sucking up sales.

Megan's New Year -- click on book in siggy


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

Hrmm... it's already back at $2.99


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

MrPLD said:


> Anyone still got a free-select book going on today (ie, the next hour), I'll gladly pick up copies to read


Me. Watcher's Web (below). No idea what's going on today.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

Whooop, no, I know what's wrong, your book in the siggy is linked to "Shelly's Second Chance"


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

Patty Jansen said:


> Me. Watcher's Web (below). No idea what's going on today.


Thanks - done ... more material to waste the nights away


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

MrPLD said:


> Whooop, no, I know what's wrong, your book in the siggy is linked to "Shelly's Second Chance"


What the hey What did I do? Oh good grief. How in the world did I manage that and yet get the right cover?

Wonder if I could even duplicate that error. 

Thanks for finding.


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## Alex Owens (Mar 24, 2011)

Turnabout is fair play.... I just snagged a copy of Guardian  Had to find something to pass the time while I watch my KDP not moving :-(


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

Kpfowler said:


> Turnabout is fair play.... I just snagged a copy of Guardian  Had to find something to pass the time while I watch my KDP not moving :-(


Thanks - interesting pricing strategy I see withyour books, $1.33 etc - how's that work out?


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## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

Unbelievable to have 8 free downloads for the whole day. I even have a few more sales on an 8.95 book than on my current freebie. For those who want one, Uncivil Liberties, a political thriller, is at: http://www.amazon.com/Uncivil-Liberties-Connor-Novel-ebook/dp/B0045U9TXU/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_12

Sales have been trickling in since late last night and spasmodically today. I keep wondering, as does everyone else, when the numbers will JUMP to reflect actual sales. Clearly Amazon is (are - for my UK friends) doing something unusual associated with the beginning of the month. My sales are about forty percent of normal. I actually expected Borrows to jump with the new month, and they have done so, but did NOT expect sales to disappear.

At least it generated another four page thread.

GR


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

MrPLD said:


> Hrmm... it's already back at $2.99


Actually it looks like that clicky goes to the wrong book!

Edit: Oops. I see you noticed that.

Picked up some freebies.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

Gordon Ryan said:


> At least it generated another four page thread.


Quite right - well, at least it's entertaining, in a morbid sort of way. Picked up Uncivil Liberties.


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## Alex Owens (Mar 24, 2011)

MrPLD said:


> Thanks - interesting pricing strategy I see withyour books, $1.33 etc - how's that work out?


 I like prime numbers. That, and I was trying to boost my cut of each sale up a little. Since those are mostly shorts and collections, I didn't feel I could go up to $1.99 (that only works for erotica  ) but I wanted to be higher than all the .99-centers. Maybe readers will think it's a Sale price and feel like they're getting a bargain too.

That and I really like prime numbers, especially the number 3!


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## HeidiHall (Sep 5, 2010)

Thank goodness for KB... I was about to sink into a major depression! Sales are starting to trickle in, but my one non-select title is outselling the rest by a bunch. I did notice that between 10pm when I was last on Amazon and now, the user interface looks complete different... maybe that has something to do with the slower reporting. Although, my ranking doesn't look great either so maybe everyone discovered I'm a hack . I hope they get everything ironed out by the morning when my next freebie (ADoR) takes another 2-day ride.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

My sales are STILL not showing up. My borrows are usually 10% of my sales. According to my borrows, I should have sold over 1000 books today. But I've only sold... are you ready for it... 3. Yup. 3.

Still waiting for my numbers to show up.


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## David Adams (Jan 2, 2012)

I'm still showing no sales either, but... I had a slow couple of days beforehand. It could be that I just haven't had any...


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

I'm guessing that Amazon still has ~55 minutes to go before its midnight/roll-over?


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

No, it's gotta be an error.

2 days ago, I had 220 sales and 6 borrows and my rank was #2517
1 day ago, I had 189 sales and 18 borrows and my rank was #425
Today, I have 3 sales and 115 borrows and my rank is #258

That just seems... off.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

KDP Select Authors seem to be having issues, regular KDP authors are not.

Although, some of the numbers seem to be adjusting now, but it's not fixed for everyone yet.


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## Remington Kane (Feb 19, 2011)

This is driving me nuts. I'm always checking my numbers like a crack addict that needs a fix, but now, it's like someone has replaced my crack with baking soda. My numbers are so far off it's ridiculous.


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## Skate (Jan 23, 2011)

After 3 books being free for 24 hours, the most books I've given away is 24, but that book reached #143 in Free Kindle. Makes no sense whatsoever.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

Oh, good. I was starting to worry that maybe everyone in the world just decided to borrow instead of buy!


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## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

MrPLD said:


> Quite right - well, at least it's entertaining, in a morbid sort of way. Picked up Uncivil Liberties.


PLD, when you finally get around to reading Uncivil Liberties, don't be shocked when you find the initial terrorist action takes place in the Brisbane River, followed by Surfers Paradise. Love both places and had to add them to the story. Then it moves to America.

GR


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

Gordon Ryan said:


> PLD, when you finally get around to reading Uncivil Liberties, don't be shocked when you find the initial terrorist action takes place in the Brisbane River, followed by Surfers Paradise. Love both places and had to add them to the story. Then it moves to America.


Thanks - having lived in those two places in the past it'll be quite a nice change to read a book where not everything happens in the jungles of Cambodia (or Amazon), the plains of Africa or the cityscape of NY / LA


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## portiadacosta (Feb 28, 2011)

Ah well, at least the returns system is working perfectly...


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## Juliette Sobanet (Oct 8, 2011)

Mine is definitely off too. Glad to see this posting because I was beginning to worry! Hopefully they'll fix it soon


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## S.A. Mulraney (May 20, 2011)

I'd say it's still off. There's no way I can be maintaining my position and improving my position on the 13 sales and 32 borrows (What!?) now on my report. Either that...or borrows have been given some serious weight.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

SAMulraney said:


> I'd say it's still off. There's no way I can be maintaining my position and improving my position on the 13 sales and 32 borrows (What!?) now on my report. Either that...or borrows have been given some serious weight.


I'm maintaining my position on 2 sales and 1 borrow, so I don't think it's fixed yet. 

All I can say is, it _better _be broken, or I'm going to be spiraling into the depths of depression or the slough of despond or the pit of despair or the swamp of wretchedness. And if I can't find one of those, I'll just get in bed and pull the covers over my head.


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## Harris Channing (Nov 23, 2010)

I think they're trickling in but very slowly.  I hope they fix this soon, as it's driving me and my OCD nuts!


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## julie sellers (May 6, 2011)

I'm not having much trickling going on except in returns!

When I woke up yesterday morning, I had 1 sale and 6 borrows. Then sometime mid-day, that sale changed to a return and I got another borrrow.

This morning when I got up I had 4 sales, 5 returns and 12 borrows. It seems now people are returning books they purchased last month??

I hope not! Hopefully there are some sales lurking out there somewhere!


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

julie sellers said:


> I'm not having much trickling going on except in returns!
> 
> When I woke up yesterday morning, I had 1 sale and 6 borrows. Then sometime mid-day, that sale changed to a return and I got another borrrow.
> 
> ...


Could be they are buying by mistake, returning the book and then borrowing it. I had some of that go on when my freebies went back to paid.


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## julie sellers (May 6, 2011)

Sophrosyne said:


> No, it's gotta be an error.
> 
> 2 days ago, I had 220 sales and 6 borrows and my rank was #2517
> 1 day ago, I had 189 sales and 18 borrows and my rank was #425
> ...


It's not really off because you wrote this post on Wednesday so it was Monday when you sold the most. That's also usually a good day for me. Rank isn't figured by the amount of books you sold, it's the amount of books you sold over time in comparsion with all of the other books.

So you 115 sales got you a higher rank because theorically only 258 books sold more than yours that day (except there is carryover from other days, but that explaination is better done by Modwitch)

Julie


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## julie sellers (May 6, 2011)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Could be they are buying by mistake, returning the book and then borrowing it. I had some of that go on when my freebies went back to paid.


I've had that happen as well, but with my rank holding in the mid 2K range, I'm hoping there's a bunch of unreported sales...


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

I have to ask - when you come off the "free" mode, is it normal for your ranking during the free period to be cast aside and revert back to your prior ranking?  I went from #550 -> #303,000+


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## Birdie (Feb 2, 2012)

Hi everyone! I'm new here. RJ Parker recommended the board to me. I'm new to the world of kindle authoring and learning so much from you wonderful folks! Thank you!

My sales are wonky as heck right now. I, too, still show hardly any sales for yesterday/today, just four, when the prior days had been much, much higher. I also have a disproportionate number of borrows. I hope this is just a glitch!

I'm still feeling my way around this site. So happy to be here!

Cheers,
Birdie


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## S.A. Mulraney (May 20, 2011)

Now my rankings have disappeared, so I _really_ can't figure out what's going on! I think I hear the wahhh-mbulance coming.


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## Susanne O (Feb 8, 2010)

SAMulraney said:


> Now my rankings have disappeared, so I really can't figure out what's going on! I think I hear the wahhh-mbulance coming.


So are mine, phew! I thought it was just me. I think someone must have tripped over a cable somewhere.


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## Guest (Feb 2, 2012)

Okay. It seems not I'm the paranoid when I've seen my ranking counter is playing hide and seek. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> I'm maintaining my position on 2 sales and 1 borrow, so I don't think it's fixed yet.
> 
> All I can say is, it _better _be broken, or I'm going to be spiraling into the depths of depression or the slough of despond or the pit of despair or the swamp of wretchedness. And if I can't find one of those, I'll just get in bed and pull the covers over my head.


Yeah, I acquired 3 total sales overnight, but my ranking is about where it was 2 days ago, when I had about triple the sales. My borrows haven't budged since about mid-morning yesterday. I'm sure it will get worked out. I just wish I was like some of you and when it was fixed, it would be this great amazing number, but I'm sure it won't be.


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## portiadacosta (Feb 28, 2011)

MaryMcDonald said:


> I just wish I was like some of you and when it was fixed, it would be this great amazing number, but I'm sure it won't be.


That makes two of us. I have a horrible feeling that even if/when he numbers are corrected, mine will still be fairly paltry.


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

I hope they get it fixed soon -- I have a freebie coming up on Saturday and will probably have an OCD meltdown if the numbers are still wonky.


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## SeanBlack (May 13, 2010)

On my bestselling title I had sales of:

Tuesday: 175
Yesterday: 2 (then 2 returns) so net 0 sales.
Today: 15

I'm assuming it's a glitch and will be corrected but it does make me think slightly about the wisdom of giving Amazon exclusivity via Select.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

MrPLD said:


> I have to ask - when you come off the "free" mode, is it normal for your ranking during the free period to be cast aside and revert back to your prior ranking? I went from #550 -> #303,000+


Yes, completely normal. Usually within a day or so, you'll start to see sales come in and the ranking improve. Hard to even make conclusions with what's going on with numbers and rankings today.

As for me, the free novel that had close to 10,000 downloads on tuesday (it had 9000 when I went to bed with 3 hours until west coast midnight, and had still done hundreds in the previous hour), was ranked between #15 and #18 free all day yesterday. I got one block of 140 sales come in between 9 and 11Am eastern time, then nothing except 3 returns late in the day. Although I hate to be one who says, "My sales were off, so something must be wrong with the system," it doesn't seem possible that a book on the first page of the free books all day had zero downloads.

This morning at 8AM eastern time, my rank was back to 40,000 paid, just a little higher than it was before it went free. Sales numbers were up to 162, and I finally had a couple sales of my KDP Select shorts as well. I have no idea how many of the 22 additional are paid sales, perhaps a handful. Now an hour later, my rank has disappeared and one more sale is showing up.

So it's possible/probable that current sales are now appearing again, but the backlog has not been cleared. One thing to remember is that even under normal circumstances, you occasionally see a delay in sales reporting and rankings, so it's impossible to say for sure if current sales are "working normally" and it's only the backlog that has to be caught up.


----------



## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

portiadacosta said:


> That makes two of us. I have a horrible feeling that even if/when he numbers are corrected, mine will still be fairly paltry.


Yeah, I just keep reminding myself that I'm expecting this month to be bad. I just completed my third novel, and it is going through the beta/editing stages this month, so I'm not even going to do any promos/free books until it is up. (so I can add the book link to the first two books) It's so hard to wait though!


----------



## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

MrPLD said:


> I have to ask - when you come off the "free" mode, is it normal for your ranking during the free period to be cast aside and revert back to your prior ranking? I went from #550 -> #303,000+


Absolutely normal.


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## RachelHowzell (Nov 4, 2010)

Sales rankings are back up.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Absolutely normal.


Thank goodness for that - else I'd have a hard time retaining my body parts when the writer finds out


----------



## EC Sheedy (Feb 24, 2011)

RachelHowzell said:


> Sales rankings are back up.


Wondering if there is anywhere to check for any kind of Amazon announcement on whatever is happening to sales and rankings? Do they have an page for authors anywhere?


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## RachelHowzell (Nov 4, 2010)

RachelHowzell said:


> Sales rankings are back up.


And just like that... POOF... presto-chango. They're gone again. Six more weeks of winter.


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## Guest (Feb 2, 2012)

Sales reporting is severely screwed up. I'm showing way more sales for books according to Amazon Associates than I do for the same book on KDP.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

edwardgtalbot said:


> As for me, the free novel that had close to 10,000 downloads on tuesday (it had 9000 when I went to bed with 3 hours until west coast midnight, and had still done hundreds in the previous hour), was ranked between #15 and #18 free all day yesterday.


Can't even to begin to fathom those numbers.


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## S.A. Mulraney (May 20, 2011)

RachelHowzell said:


> And just like that... POOF... presto-chango. They're gone again. Six more weeks of winter.


LOL...the KDP groundhog.


----------



## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

Woke up this morning thinking, it's gotta be fixed. Just got to be fixed.... Sigh. And to add insult to injury, my rankings are gone on both the Select and the non-Select book. Maybe some coffee will help.

Birdie, welcome to the boards. You sure picked a high-drama time to join.


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

Has anyone emailed Amazon for an explanation?

I'm about to do that. They usually take a day to respond.

p.s. for those who saw my posts last night, my email is STILL not up & running. They're still trying to restore their server. Maybe they share servers with Amazon?


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## MH Sargent (Apr 8, 2010)

LB Gschwandtner said:


> Maybe they share servers with Amazon?


Too funny.

Now my actual book pages have no rankings. My Author Central page has rankings. Go figure. I certainly can't.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

MH Sargent said:


> Now my actual book pages have no rankings. My Author Central page has rankings. Go figure. I certainly can't.


Somewhere, in the dungeons of Amazon, there's a lot of IT-geeks being whipped very hard until they fix these problems... I dare say the DBA's are copping it bad "What do you mean you registered 'Little Bobby Tables' and then everything went dead?".


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

EC Sheedy said:


> Wondering if there is anywhere to check for any kind of Amazon announcement on whatever is happening to sales and rankings? Do they have an page for authors anywhere?


Yes. On your KDP dashboard, right next to where you click for reports, you'll see community. That's where you go to discuss all things KDP.


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

FYI -- Here's what I emailed Amazon    I'll let y'all know if/when I get an answer (caution: sometimes these answers are pathetically generic or completely off the mark)

Hi: All the Indie authors are wondering what's going on with sales, Free Promo downloads, rankings & general wonkiness with Amazon's numbers since midnight Jan 31.

Any answers?

For instance, I've been running a free promo for Megan's New Year (Kindle ed) for Wed & Thurs this week (so now).
Yesterday it showed 41 downloads for over 16 hours but the ranking overall said 399.
Now it shows 1577 downloads but the book is ranked # 41 in the top 100. Which is not possible with that few downloads.

Having done this before I have seen what #s are required to get near the top 100 and these don't do it.

Others are reporting sales disappearing, rankings all over the place, and general disarray @ Amazon.

Anyway I'd love to hear what to expect about corrections of these numbers & sales.

Thanks so much
Laura B Gschwandtner


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## Karly Kirkpatrick (Dec 13, 2010)

I wrote almost the exact same email and cut and pasted my ranking. I had a ranking in the 500s on the free store and I'm #4 in love and romance, and this is on 140 free downloads. Yesterday I was in the 500 or 600s and #8 with NINE free downloads. I seriously thought I was taking crazy pills. 

I got the auto response from them, but no info yet.


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

Karly Kirkpatrick said:


> I wrote almost the exact same email and cut and pasted my ranking. I had a ranking in the 500s on the free store and I'm #4 in love and romance, and this is on 140 free downloads. Yesterday I was in the 500 or 600s and #8 with NINE free downloads. I seriously thought I was taking crazy pills.
> 
> I got the auto response from them, but no info yet.


Wonder how many crazed authors have asked amzn about this so far.


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## Coral Moore (Nov 29, 2009)

I predict their answer will be "It's a glitch."

I think whoever mentioned that it had to do with Select titles only was right though. The one short story I have through Select seems to be the only one impacted, my other two titles are fine.


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## John Avery (Nov 20, 2011)

MrPLD said:


> Somewhere, in the dungeons of Amazon, there's a lot of IT-geeks being whipped very hard until they fix these problems... I dare say the DBA's are copping it bad "What do you mean you registered 'Little Bobby Tables' and then everything went dead?".


LOL They should cut off their food next.



LB Gschwandtner said:


> FYI -- Here's what I emailed Amazon  I'll let y'all know if/when I get an answer (caution: sometimes these answers are pathetically generic or completely off the mark)


Thanks, Laura. I'll be interested in what they have to say.



Birdie said:


> Hi everyone! I'm new here.


Hi Birdie.


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## W.W. (Jun 27, 2011)

This is killing me, people. Yesterday I watched my ranking rising, while a big fat ZERO sales were showing up. Today the ranking wasn't there on the books' pages. So I went browsing in the category one of my books had been ranked in, and it is #1. Yep. Now, before you get excited for me, this is a very small subcategory, but I have never gotten higher than #5 (for just a second) in that category, and now I'm #1, with ZERO sales!

And that title, Venture Untamed, isn't in select!

So I hit #1 in my little category, and I don't even feel like I can tweet about it, etc., because what if it's a mistake?


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

So I hit #1 in my little category, and I don't even feel like I can tweet about it, etc., because what if it's a mistake?
[/quote]

Ahhh take no prisoners. tweet away.


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## Karly Kirkpatrick (Dec 13, 2010)

Good point too, as one of the previous posters mentioned, my sales on my non-Select books seem normal. It's just my select title that is completely insane. I still wish they'd make a category too, just for free downloads. But that's a gripe for another day!


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

Karly Kirkpatrick said:


> Good point too, as one of the previous posters mentioned, my sales on my non-Select books seem normal. It's just my select title that is completely insane. I still wish they'd make a category too, just for free downloads. But that's a gripe for another day!


Why wait for another day? Maybe we should start a gripe thread?


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

John Avery said:


> LOL They should cut off their food next.
> 
> Thanks, Laura. I'll be interested in what they have to say.
> 
> Hi Birdie.


Y'all want me to waterboard them? I got skills, I tell ya! Mad skills!


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Another sale has trickled in. Oh, the agony of de-feet. (note to self: stop this mad pacing)

Just checked again before I posted and more there are more trickles. Hopefully, the waterfall will arrive soon.


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## W.W. (Jun 27, 2011)

But my, NON-SELECT title has risen from #14 to #1, with ZERO sales.


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

To those of you saying it is only Select, please know it is not.  I am not in Select and have posted here that it is also happening to me.  Others have posted that are not in Select and it is happening to them.  It just seems hit and miss.  If an author has several books, some are affected, some aren't.  Who knows why, really.


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## John Avery (Nov 20, 2011)

One can only hope that someone's keeping track of actual sales in the mean time.


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## Lisa J. Yarde (Jul 15, 2010)

On KND's ebook, tracker, all of mine have a sales rank of 10,000,000, despite those titles showing sales this morning in KDP. On Amazon.com, no sales ranking at all. Misery loves company, folks, but I'm sure KDP will sort it out.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

_"One can only hope that someone's keeping track of sales in the mean time."_

We can rely on the fact that Amazon wants the money from the customers. They bill credit cards, and they can't do that without tracking sales. KDP sales reporting isn't necessary to do that.


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

ALERT!
Amazon must be in reboot mode now as ALL the Top 100 Rankings have disappeared.

I think they're working over the interwebby with my email hosting peeps. Which BTW, since their "restore" of the email server is now only @ 27% (for the 2nd time mind you) I won't get any email response from amzn until THAT is fixed. IF I get all the lost emails from 48 hrs+ at all. Big IF.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

Good. I'm glad to see we're all on the Titanic together.  When I woke up this morning and it was the same thing, I was starting to think that maybe my book just wasn't selling.

I emailed KDP yesterday. No response yet.


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

AND ... it's raining in So. FL. Titanic indeed! Or maybe end times?


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## John Avery (Nov 20, 2011)

Terrence OBrien said:


> _"One can only hope that someone's keeping track of sales in the mean time."_
> 
> We can rely on the fact that Amazon wants the money from the customers. They bill credit cards, and they can't do that without tracking sales. KDP sales reporting isn't necessary to do that.


Hi Terrence, for the sake of discussion: How do we know that the KDP reports aren't mirroring faulty credit card sales tracking?


----------



## N. Gemini Sasson (Jul 5, 2010)

Mine have been fine. Weird. (I'm non-select, btw.)


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## Susanne O (Feb 8, 2010)

Here is something else that's really weird. I noticed on my bookshelf that one of my novels, 'Swedish for Beginners' is now listed as 'draft'. It's still for sale and it's possible to buy it. Just to make sure, I tried to upload a new version but got an error message. Then I went to buy the one that's there and it worked fine. The sale showed up about 2 hours later.

Don't know what to do. I have e-mailed KDP to tell them but the haven't replied (surprise)


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Looks like Amazon went into "just reboot the whole fricking thing" mode this morning. I have no doubt that they back up sales information so it's not going to be lost.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Sophrosyne said:


> Good. I'm glad to see we're all on the Titanic together.


Indeed, although given how many on the Titanic drowned, "glad" may not be the right adjective 

I'm 100% confident Amazon will handle keeping track of numbers and we won't lose anything. Credit card systems have all sorts of redundancies, but I expect that even outside of the credit cards, Amazon has double and triple coverage to make sure nothing gets lost. That coverage gets a higher priority in the system that the pieces that actually output info to the screen.

My only concern would be how/if this is impacting sales behavior. In fact it may have helped me, since my book stayed ranked in the top 20 free all day yesterday and got that visibility. But what we don't know is how big an impact this glitch is having on the all-important algorithms, and how Amazon shows books to potential buyers.


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## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

MaryMcDonald said:


> Y'all want me to waterboard them? I got skills, I tell ya! Mad skills!


She knows whereof she speaks...shudder.


----------



## Kay Bratt (Dec 28, 2011)

Susanne OLeary said:


> Here is something else that's really weird. I noticed on my bookshelf that one of my novels, 'Swedish for Beginners' is now listed as 'draft'. It's still for sale and it's possible to buy it. Just to make sure, I tried to upload a new version but got an error message. Then I went to buy the one that's there and it worked fine. The sale showed up about 2 hours later. Don't know what to do. I have e-mailed KDP to tell them but the haven't replied (surprise)


My novel, Chasing China, has been in 'draft' mode for over a month for no reason. I also bought it myself to ensure it was working correctly and it is. As long as sales and borrows keep coming, I haven't worried about it much. But would like to know what they say if you get an answer!


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## Susanne O (Feb 8, 2010)

KayBratt said:


> My novel, Chasing China, has been in 'draft' mode for over a month for no reason. I also bought it myself to ensure it was working correctly and it is. As long as sales and borrows keep coming, I haven't worried about it much. But would like to know what they say if you get an answer!


I'll let you know.


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## John Avery (Nov 20, 2011)

KayBratt said:


> My novel, Chasing China, has been in 'draft' mode for over a month for no reason. I also bought it myself to ensure it was working correctly and it is. As long as sales and borrows keep coming, I haven't worried about it much. But would like to know what they say if you get an answer!


Sounds like you may have started to post a change (book details or pricing etc) in your KDP bookshelf and not finished.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

N. Gemini Sasson said:


> Mine have been fine. Weird. (I'm non-select, btw.)


I'm not showing any sales at all for my non-select books.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

_"Hi Terrence, for the sake of discussion: How do we know that the KDP reports aren't mirroring faulty credit card sales tracking?"_

We can't know it without inside knowledge. But we can look at the characteristics of the two systems. One is the ordering/billing/delivery (OBD) system. The other is the KDP reporting.

The OBD is vital to the life of the company. The time and effort devoted to that kind of system, the backups and redundancies included, and the attention from management reflect that importance.

KDP reporting isn't necessary for anything. Nothing depends on it. It's just a nice gesture from Amazon to some of its suppliers. They can eliminate KDP reporting and nothing material happens. Authors would get paid through the payables system at the end of the month. KDP reporting isn't necessary for any downstream operations.

So the OBD system is far more robust and flexible. It can, and probably does, recognize impending problems every day, and route around them. There is no reason to devote the same level of resources to KDP reporting, not in building it or fixing it.

We can always say it is possible the OBD system has crashed, but it's far more probable a weak system has failed while the strong one keeps going. We have seen it several times before. I even bought a book today. The transaction hit my bank, and the book hit my Kindle.


----------



## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

Now PubIt, too, seems to have a black hole reporting event.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

Never underestimate human error. I worked for a big company some years ago and when one of our servers went down, we didn't think it would be a problem, since we had fail-safes in place. Unfortunately, some IT person had gone in and deleted all our info and the back-up info, trying to fix the problem. So we had to reboot to an older version and manually re-input all the missing info from our hard-copy files. If there were no hard copy files, we'd have been screwed.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Walked the dog and the trickles did not turn in to a stream (although the dog streamed very well).

Fixed lunch. Still no stream.

Ate lunch. No stream and even the trickles have dried up.

I think I'll take a nap.


----------



## Kay Bratt (Dec 28, 2011)

John Avery said:


> Sounds like you may have started to post a change (book details or pricing etc) in your KDP bookshelf and not finished.


I bet that's it! I was playing around with the price points to see the royality differences, but I ultimately left it where it was. Thanks, John!


----------



## 41352 (Apr 4, 2011)

Hm... So odd. My trilogy of short fantasy tales, Dreamwater, is $1.99 but when I check the book page on Amazon it shows the older price, $.099....   I wonder why.


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

ToniD said:


> Now PubIt, too, seems to have a black hole reporting event.


Ack ... end times as noted previously


----------



## Kenneth Rosenberg (Dec 3, 2010)

Woo, hoo, _No Cure_ just hit -1 sales for the month! I'm killin' it! (Does that mean I have to pay Amazon )


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

Kenneth Rosenberg said:


> Woo, hoo, _No Cure_ just hit -1 sales for the month! I'm killin' it! (Does that mean I have to pay Amazon )


No. You'll have to split that with all of us.


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## Kenneth Rosenberg (Dec 3, 2010)

LB Gschwandtner said:


> No. You'll have to split that with all of us.


  Can I cut the pennies into slices?


----------



## George Berger (Aug 7, 2011)

Kenneth Rosenberg said:


> Can I cut the pennies into slices?


If you've got one of those amazing Ginsu(TM) scissors, easily!


----------



## John Avery (Nov 20, 2011)

George Berger said:


> If you've got one of those amazing Ginsu(TM) scissors, easily!


LOL



Chrystalla said:


> Hm... So odd. My trilogy of short fantasy tales, Dreamwater, is $1.99 but when I check the book page on Amazon it shows the older price, $.099....  I wonder why.


Hi, Chrystalla. Amazon has chosen to discount your book.

"We reserve the right to set the retail price we charge for the books you provide to us. We may offer your book at a price below your list price if, for example, the price at which a competitor sells your book, or the price at which we sell a physical edition of your book is lower than your list price. In that case, if you chose the 70% royalty option, your royalties will be calculated off of this offer price for sales that qualify for the 70% royalty option. If you chose the 35% royalty option, you will be paid off of the original list price you chose."


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## B.A. Spangler (Jan 25, 2012)

I've had a few people I know purchase my book but as has been reported - I'm not seeing anything show up in reports.

Is that common?


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

bxs122 said:


> I've had a few people I know purchase my book but as has been reported - I'm not seeing anything show up in reports.
> 
> Is that common?


None of this is "common" but there are often lags between rankings & reporting of actual sales/downloads etc. I've never seen them last this long tho'.


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## W.W. (Jun 27, 2011)

I just found _Venture Untamed_ listed as #15 in a bigger category, Religious scifi/fantasy. And now I show 1 sale, for today & yesterday. How does a book move from #85-ish to #15 overnight with 1 sale?


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

_"I've had a few people I know purchase my book but as has been reported - I'm not seeing anything show up in reports.
Is that common?"_

I'm not aware of any statement from Amazon that they provide realtime KDP sales reporting, so I don't think it's something we should rely on.

Some people see rank and sales move at the same time. Others see sales move before rank. And others see rank move before sales. I have experienced all three, and each lasts for a few months. But the fact that we can see rank move before sales indicates that KDP reporting can easily lag behind the customer clicking the BUY button.

However, that's how things normally operate. What we are seeing today is not common.


----------



## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

Now besides sales being a mess, ranking a mess, my description is a mess.  It is updated, but the sentences are broken off to look like a rattlesnake on crack wrote them.  That should really boost sales...

I called them and they are fixing it, but it could take 3 to 5 days.  Great.  Right during the time I am on Michaels ebooksforabuck.  They then transferred me to seller support and I was on hold about 15 minutes.  He put me on hold another 15 minutes while he checked on the sales reporting/ranking problem...then he disconnected me.  LOL

On a positive note, January now shows more sales than it did before.  Of course, they may have already disappeared for some reason...


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## Katy MN (Jan 4, 2012)

Is this fixed for others yet?  Mine still seems wonky.  Had about 18 sales show up last night/early this morning, and then another day of nothing.  My ranking is around 4200, which for me tends to translate to at least 25 sales per day.  Trying not to obsess, but ugh!


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## S.A. Mulraney (May 20, 2011)

> I called them and they are fixing it, but it could take 3 to 5 days.


  Oooooh Noooo! 

Ok, well, at least I can stop checking for a while. It's just that I'm ranked higher than I've ever been and it would have been nice to keep track of it.


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## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

Katy MN said:


> Is this fixed for others yet? Mine still seems wonky. Had about 18 sales show up last night/early this morning, and then another day of nothing. My ranking is around 4200, which for me tends to translate to at least 25 sales per day. Trying not to obsess, but ugh!


I also have a book at 4300 and I'm showing 6 sales yesterday and 2 today. I'm so glad I have the KBers to assure me, but ... man! Gnashing of teeth!! Gnash gnash!

K, getting back to writing. As we all know, it's the only right answer to all the questions.


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## Benjamin A. (Oct 1, 2011)

My rank has been falling (when it does show up) so I'm sure I get to enjoy the BBoS for a while regardless of this issue. I can hope (or pretend) for now that mine aren't being reported either though right?


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## Katy MN (Jan 4, 2012)

I know this is a newbie question, but what does BBoS stand for?


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## RJ Parker - Author &amp; Amazon Top Reviewer (Nov 10, 2011)

Nope..still a mess. My FBI in the UK went from 12,000 rank to 4,000 with only 1 sale? and, I have it in law enforcement and I noticed earlier it was under the genre mathematics lol.  Also, I can't gift to anyone. I gift to anyone in law enforcement and it says "please type in a valid email address", tried several times and no go. 

What I don't understand is this... why haven't Amazon made an announcement about the sales/ranking  issues? An author who is under #10 in the Kindle Store called them and someone she was speaking with denied there is a problem...see, that kills credibility to me. Now I wonder how many books get sold and not reported on our sales info. Counting down under the 90 days are up so I can use other venues as well.


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## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

Katy MN said:


> I know this is a newbie question, but what does BBoS stand for?


BBoS = Brown Bar of Shame.

It's the brown area in the KDP reports that shows when you have zero transactions for the month. I hope KDP doesn't change it to a cheery shade of orange! That wouldn't be right.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

I have a book that's ranking in the 200's with only 9 sales. 

It looks like it's fixed today -- at least, I'm getting sales reported today, but yesterday is still an unfixed mess.


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## shel (May 14, 2011)

Dalya said:


> I also have a book at 4300 and I'm showing 6 sales yesterday and 2 today. I'm so glad I have the KBers to assure me, but ... man! Gnashing of teeth!! Gnash gnash!
> 
> K, getting back to writing. As we all know, it's the only right answer to all the questions.


I want to write, I really do, but this weirdness is so distracting. At least to me it is. While you gnash I'm going to Grrrrrrrr a little!


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## Sharebear (Sep 25, 2011)

My free book has a ranking, but my paid book, nada. And no sales on the paid book since the start of the month after selling about five a day before that. My free book, has had 60 downloads in the past two days, but it's ranking has dropped. 
Weird weird weird


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

I'll chime in with the all kinds of crazy going on.

I've only sold 44 books today, including borrows (5) and I'm ranked #2,745. It doesn't make sense, everytime I think I should go down in ranking, the thing goes up. So bizarre.

And Kenneth, you and I are kindred free books  You're an Also Bought for my book.  So weird. I started yesterday off with -1 sales too. And yesterday, I made 1 sale all day, to balance out to 0, and I was ranked #6,700 in the Paid Kindle store. No idea what's going on, but I'm thankful at least that the ranking appears to be in my favor.


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## destill (Oct 5, 2010)

I've been experiencing all kinds of issues: free books that go back to paid at the absolute END of their category listings despite good sales volumes, zero sales for books enrolled in KDP Select for the past two days, rankings all over the map, etc.



Terrence OBrien said:


> I'm not aware of any statement from Amazon that they provide realtime KDP sales reporting, so I don't think it's something we should rely on.
> 
> However, that's how things normally operate. What we are seeing today is not common.


While I would never rely on it, this is a quote straight from the KDP Select site: "Instant feedback - Check real-time performance of your books in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library."


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## Sharebear (Sep 25, 2011)

Just did a little check... most YA books have no ranking, at least none that I could see that match where they actually are.
The only one I found that was totally correct was Hunger Games.

For example, looking at Teen SciFi number three, is not even ranked in Teen SciFi on it's page though predominately on the list.

Update: I'm back on the list, just near the bottom... sad day.


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## cidneyswanson (Feb 1, 2011)

edwardgtalbot said:


> My only concern would be how/if this is impacting sales behavior. In fact it may have helped me, since my book stayed ranked in the top 20 free all day yesterday and got that visibility. But what we don't know is how big an impact this glitch is having on the all-important algorithms, and how Amazon shows books to potential buyers.


AND


Elizabeth Ann West said:


> I'll chime in with the all kinds of crazy going on.
> 
> I've only sold 44 books today, including borrows (5) and I'm ranked #2,745. It doesn't make sense, everytime I think I should go down in ranking, the thing goes up. So bizarre.


I posted (in the Mega-thread for going select) about seeing the algos glitch/change/tweak this week, beginning Sat. My book went free a _*single day*_, had almost 8,000 downloads, #34 overall kindle store, and experienced a very, very, weird ride in rankings. I had gone free two times already, so I knew "what to expect."

This time I'd been POI'd (early slot) so I was expecting to break the top 1000 paid post-free. (I'd hit 1600 paid the time before with 5500/#62 overall.) Let's just say it didn't happen that way this time. The parabola on the graph DH math-geek made was actually upside down from last time with some weird flattening. The lower ranking def. translated into lower visibility/sales post free.

But--I'm still a fan of select. 

Back to writing my next while the rankings are a blank today. 
Cidney


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

OK. So now I have the first positive realtime statement and I can't rely on that observation anymore. But I suspect if I asked the computer guys, they would say a sale can be reported in realtime, but the probability is low since the priority assigned to KDP is so low it walks under doors.


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## W.W. (Jun 27, 2011)

So, now my ranking appears on Venture Untamed's page, and it says it's #17 in children's martial arts for kindle, but when I go to that category & browse, there it is—still #1!

There's a big dofference between #17 & #1. WHICH IS IT? Gah!


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## julie sellers (May 6, 2011)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> I'll chime in with the all kinds of crazy going on.
> 
> I've only sold 44 books today, including borrows (5) and I'm ranked #2,745. It doesn't make sense, everytime I think I should go down in ranking, the thing goes up. So bizarre.


I'm ranked #2,564 and I've sold 12 and had 16 borrows since the 1st. That's even crazier...


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## julie sellers (May 6, 2011)

cidneyswanson said:


> AND
> I posted (in the Mega-thread for going select) about seeing the algos glitch/change/tweak this week, beginning Sat. My book went free a _*single day*_, had almost 8,000 downloads, #34 overall kindle store, and experienced a very, very, weird ride in rankings. I had gone free two times already, so I knew "what to expect."
> 
> This time I'd been POI'd (early slot) so I was expecting to break the top 1000 paid post-free. (I'd hit 1600 paid the time before with 5500/#62 overall.) Let's just say it didn't happen that way this time. The parabola on the graph DH math-geek made was actually upside down from last time with some weird flattening. The lower ranking def. translated into lower visibility/sales post free.
> ...


Cidney,

I had 8000 downloads and made it to #27 free on Friday. When I went back to paid, the highest rank I've made was in the low 2Ks.

When I went free in December, I had 10K downloads, only made it to #90's in the free store and over two days and made it to #175 in the paid store within two days.

Not so, this time!


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## Katy MN (Jan 4, 2012)

You know what's going to be nice, though?

When this all gets figured out and we instantly jump by dozens (or hundreds!) of sales!


----------



## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

Katy MN said:


> You know what's going to be nice, though?
> 
> When this all gets figured out and we instantly jump by dozens (or hundreds!) of sales!


I'm setting aside a chocolate truffle to celebrate that moment.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

I think you all should get off the internet and go write something.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Krista D. Ball said:


> I think you all should get off the internet and go write something.


If I agree with you, is that going to be a problem, or are you getting used to that happening?


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## Skate (Jan 23, 2011)

Krista D. Ball said:


> I think you all should get off the internet and go write something.


I object to the logic of that statement. I'm not a logical person


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## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

Katy MN said:


> You know what's going to be nice, though?
> 
> When this all gets figured out and we instantly jump by dozens (or hundreds!) of sales!


Katy's been drinking the Kool Aid.

GR


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Katy MN said:


> You know what's going to be nice, though?
> 
> When this all gets figured out and we instantly jump by dozens (or hundreds!) of sales!


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## Sharebear (Sep 25, 2011)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


>


If this is the Kool Aid, count me in!


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

edwardgtalbot said:


> If I agree with you, is that going to be a problem, or are you getting used to that happening?


Oh, if you are doing what I say I generally will leave you alone.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

Is it just me or is KDP down entirely?  I can't access it anymore.


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

Never mind. It was just me.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Sales are better but ranking is worse. The good news is my UK BBOS disappeared.


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

Caddy said:


> I called them and they are fixing it, but it could take 3 to 5 days. They then transferred me to seller support and I was on hold about 15 minutes. He put me on hold another 15 minutes while he checked on the sales reporting/ranking problem...then he disconnected me. LOL


Who/what did you call?

Did this person tell you what the problem was/is [sorry to say it still is...]?

And what was the estimated time to fix it based on -- did he/she say?

And finally, why were you being transferred to "seller support"?


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Rankings are gone again. I'm not waiting for this to be fixed. I'm breaking out the champagne now, 'cause now's when I need it.


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## K.R. Harris (Jan 25, 2012)

Pop a cork for me too Gertie. Mine are gone again also.


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## kaykay543 (Jan 10, 2012)

I figured something was up. Amazon shows my newest book as my second best seller but shows no sales. Hmm. On 01-31 it shot way up in ranking but again showed no sales. Still shows no sales. Crazy stuff.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Rankings are gone again. I'm not waiting for this to be fixed. I'm breaking out the champagne now, 'cause now's when I need it.


I just saw my book at #1,879. I'm already celebrating!!!! AND I've almost sold as many books in ONE DAY as I've sold since my book became available on Amazon in September. Don't think I will break any genre ranks, but shoot, this was all just a test of going free. I saw a #3 next to MY book on the free contemporary fiction.

I am far more than satisfied.


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## cidneyswanson (Feb 1, 2011)

julie sellers said:


> Cidney,
> 
> I had 8000 downloads and made it to #27 free on Friday. When I went back to paid, the highest rank I've made was in the low 2Ks.
> 
> ...


Julie, Thanks for chiming in. Good to know, in a "Rats! I'm sorry!" kind of way. That is, it feels better to know I wasn't alone. Thurs was my free day. Yeah, the weekend was bizarre. . . no day three bounce . . . Ah, well. Still thrilled to be a writer being paid for it.



ToniD said:


> I'm setting aside a chocolate truffle to celebrate that moment.


I'm going to go buy a truffle to set aside to . . . you get the idea! And it was a great one, Toni! 
Cidney


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Congrats, Elizabeth!

I've had 5 sales of the book that was free since 7:30AM when I first checked. No way to know how many paid sales it had before that today. My rank is 14,000, which is possible with 5-7 sales in a 12 hour period.  Still no sign of all those lost freebies from yesterday.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

edwardgtalbot said:


> Congrats, Elizabeth!
> 
> I've had 5 sales of the book that was free since 7:30AM when I first checked. No way to know how many paid sales it had before that today. My rank is 14,000, which is possible with 5-7 sales in a 12 hour period. Still no sign of all those lost freebies from yesterday.


You helped me keep the faith. Mark and Saffi made the book free in UK and Germany and it's doing well there too.

I have no sign of the lost sales from yesterday either, so keep the faith. I don't think 1 sale gave me #8,000 ranking yesterday. I think the whole system is wonky still, not sure that 64 sales warrants #1,879 (but I took a screen shot) but I have no experience.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> You helped me keep the faith. Mark and Saffi made the book free in UK and Germany and it's doing well there too.
> 
> I have no sign of the lost sales from yesterday either, so keep the faith. I don't think 1 sale gave me #8,000 ranking yesterday. I think the whole system is wonky still, not sure that 64 sales warrants #1,879 (but I took a screen shot) but I have no experience.


64 sales for a rank of 1879 sounds about right. For the first 2-3 weeks of January it wasn't enough, but the past ten days, sales on Amazon have slowed down in terms of how many sales it takes to achieve a given rank.

Since my "sales" for yesterday were freebies, I don't so much worry about them missing. The key is to see whether I can get all that time spent in the top 20 free to translate to an increase in paid sales over the next 2-3 days. We shall see. . .


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

I got a rank of 225 in the paid store with 9 sales.  

Btw, on my cell, all the Amazon buy buttons are gone. But they're still there on the iPad, so that's good. can't wait until they fix whatever's going on.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Sophrosyne said:


> I got a rank of 225 in the paid store with 9 sales.
> 
> Btw, on my cell, all the Amazon buy buttons are gone. But they're still there on the iPad, so that's good. can't wait until they fix whatever's going on.


I can't get into the Kindle app on my iphone at all.


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## George Berger (Aug 7, 2011)

My sales rank appears to be continuing to update (i.e. plummet like a rock) in Author Central, so the OCD types might want to check there for their fix...


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## Susanne O (Feb 8, 2010)

Rankings are gone again. Will they ever fix what's wrong?


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

I haven noticed though that the sales counts are working okay now - as my free book for the day is scooting along nicely, a LOT better than on Monday.  Monday was truly an awful day.


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## MonkeyScribe (Jan 27, 2011)

I have my ENT ad running today. I'm afraid it's going to go the way of my two day Select promo given all the problems.


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## portiadacosta (Feb 28, 2011)

MichaelWallace said:


> I have my ENT ad running today. I'm afraid it's going to go the way of my two day Select promo given all the problems.


Yeah, I've picked the most rubbish time to run my three day Select freebie too. I feel like Lloyd Bridges in Airplane.


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## Guest (Feb 3, 2012)

To me almost nothing is working. Bestseller ranking is missing for at least one of my books (Now it's missing from both.). Sales counter, who knows it's working or not as Novelrank also got false data in January. My raised price did not raise at all, but kept on the previous price with some sort of mysterious discount (Regardless the new price was approved.). And Amazon also had switched the order of the authors of my paperback and killed my "Created" credit too without any reason, which was approved before as it came from Createspace. In the last months I've written more letters to KDP than to my writing partner and this is starting to bother me.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

I've got "Tree of Life: The Darkening of Deacon" on for 3 days... doing very well so far, screaming along.


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## FrankZubek (Aug 31, 2010)

If I may I copy/pasted this answer I gave to a similar thread- they both seem to fall under problems and glitches in the system

..........

MY book just came off of a 3 day freebie period and while the book is back online for sale- my rankings have vanished as well

BUT......  I have a small theory

Could it be that the servers, being as they are computers of various speeds and powers and jiggawatts etc.....
are simply taking a little bit of time adjusting the number crunching and data processing to our individual "pages" and it just appears to be slow or pulling a 'vanishing act' when we drop in to check on it?

Could it be that Amazon- being as large a corporation as they are- has multiple servers in various locations around the country/world ( and these are called server "farms" ) and if so- it takes time for the computers to process the info we are looking for- especially during peak use periods?

Like when you load a page- any page- as you surf, YOUR computer takes a few moments, depending how powerful your computer is to show you the current, up to date version of whatever webpage you are visiting?

Of course this is a theory based on the limited amount of computer knowledge I have and how servers run
PLUS the fact ( which again is ONLY a theory and assumption of mine) that Amazon might not be buying and setting up quite as many servers they might really NEED to service the ever growing demand that their customer base requires? (Being a large corporation and as we know, many corporations take their time growing their infrastructure because doing so means spending money--- NOT that Amazon is doing such stuff but it might be part of the reason we're seeing such glitches. After all it has ONLY been a month since the big Holiday season and a portion  of those 3 million new Kindle customers are just now getting online)
And maybe Amazon has a practice of buying up new servers to SERVICE the demand only quarterly or whatever
Thoughts?


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

Could be a hardware / resource issue --- though I'm wondering if they did a transaction/DB rollover to go from Jan->Feb and botched up/overwrote something then had to spend the rest of the time trying to rollback and still operate concurrently... fun fun fun.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

MrPLD said:


> Could be a hardware / resource issue --- though I'm wondering if they did a transaction/DB rollover to go from Jan->Feb and botched up/overwrote something then had to spend the rest of the time trying to rollback and still operate concurrently... fun fun fun.


This is the most likely scenario, though the fact that rankings keep disappearing and reappearing as well suggests that it could be a little more complicated. But I agree that sales reporting has been mostly back to normal since yesterday for current sales, just they haven't gotten the backlog refreshed yet. I would think that EOD tomorrow when prior six weeks' sales reports get updated, we should see the full numbers (unless those get delayed too).


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## Gone To Croatan (Jun 24, 2011)

edwardgtalbot said:


> This is the most likely scenario, though the fact that rankings keep disappearing and reappearing as well suggests that it could be a little more complicated.


It definitely looks like something has gone horribly wrong with their database(s). Not only have my rankings vanished, but when I tried to log into Author Central UK yesterday it said I wasn't registered, then I said I wanted to register and it took me right to the page I set up a few days ago. Now the page is still there, but all the books are gone. Yet if I go to the book page, they're still linked to the author page.

Hopefully it will be sorted before long and whoever screwed things up will be in the stocks for us to throw virtual rotten cabbages at.


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## Katy MN (Jan 4, 2012)

This is starting to stress me out... since January 31st, my ranking has fallen from low-3000s to 6500 today, sales appear to be been down by over 50% (but borrows are up, which is doubly weird).   Ranking on the Amazon book page has vanished, although I can still check it through Author Central.  It's been days -- this is really no fun at all.  :-(

I keep worrying maybe there's NOT something messed up with their system and my book is just tanking!  Please someone reassure me that's not true?


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## Katy MN (Jan 4, 2012)

Not to be totally crazy, but this is my Author Central screenshot -- did my sales really just fall off a cliff in the last two days? After an amazing January, I'm now ranked lower than I've been since December!


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## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

My sales yesterday and so far this morning seem to be back on track (best I can tell, since the track changed after my freebie promo), but rankings have come and gone capriciously.

Still waiting for the Feb 1 backlog to appear, chocolate truffle at the ready.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

ToniD said:


> My sales yesterday and so far this morning seem to be back on track (best I can tell, since the track changed after my freebie promo), but rankings have come and gone capriciously.
> 
> Still waiting for the Feb 1 backlog to appear, chocolate truffle at the ready.


I already drank the champagne.


----------



## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

I downed the champagne and chocolate truffles on wednesday before I was forced to move on to harder stuff  

Was nice to see the Also-boughts recalculate this morning. I'll be interested to see if the sales start to pick up by tomorrow.  They haven't been worse than before, and I'm now priced a dollar higher, but no major bump yet.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

It's the middle of a work day, so I don't expect much. Four sales overnight, which is lower than usual, and two since this morning, which is also lower but not by a lot.


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## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

> rummaging in Gertie's and Edward's kitchens to see if there's any bubbly left in the bottles <


----------



## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

_"Sales counter, who knows it's working or not as Novelrank also got false data in January."_

Novelrank gets the same data everybody else gets.

_"PLUS the fact ( which again is ONLY a theory and assumption of mine) that Amazon might not be buying and setting up quite as many servers they might really NEED to service the ever growing demand that their customer base requires? (Being a large corporation and as we know, many corporations take their time growing their infrastructure because doing so means spending money--- NOT that Amazon is doing such stuff but it might be part of the reason we're seeing such glitches. After all it has ONLY been a month since the big Holiday season and a portion of those 3 million new Kindle customers are just now getting online)
And maybe Amazon has a practice of buying up new servers to SERVICE the demand only quarterly or whatever
Thoughts?"_

All those things are possible. However, it's also possible they have all the servers they need and are having a software and file problem.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Terrence OBrien said:


> _"Sales counter, who knows it's working or not as Novelrank also got false data in January."_
> 
> Novelrank gets the same data everybody else gets.


To expand on what Terrence said, novel rank does NOT get sales data. They get ranking data and they extrapolate from it. If you have more than about one sale a day, the sales numbers will be way way off, by as much as 80-90%. Novelrank is great for looking at ranking trends, but the sales numbers should be ignored.


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

Katy MN said:


> Not to be totally crazy, but this is my Author Central screenshot -- did my sales really just fall off a cliff in the last two days? After an amazing January, I'm now ranked lower than I've been since December!


@ Katy
Where did you get that co0ol graph? Where @ Author Central? I've never seen that.

As to everyone else posting ... I'm getting taken out for a lovely dinner tonight where I will order vodka before even glancing at the menu. This week has been a server nightmare. My email is FINALLY back and inundating me with batch after batch of old emails.

Don't have any facts on what AMZN has been doing all week but clearly it's all f-d up.


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## HeidiHall (Sep 5, 2010)

My sales are majorly tanking, too. EXCEPT for the one book I don't have enrolled in Select...

I hope this is either a delayed reporting issue (although I doubt it due to the ranking charts), or I need to do twice as much promoting as I did last month (BOO!). It is discouraging after a fabulous January to fall so mightily


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

I show no sales since around 2 AM this morning EST (my daughter is potty training, so it was a Mommy wake up moment). Same ranking for the 10 hours, and no sales. 

Something's weird. I broke onto the Women's Fiction Best Seller list, even moved up from 98 to 86. Hard to believe you can do that with no sales.


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## Katy MN (Jan 4, 2012)

Yup, Author Central!

Go under "Sales Info" and then click on "See more info about this book's rank" and you'll see it!



LB Gschwandtner said:


> @ Katy
> Where did you get that co0ol graph? Where @ Author Central? I've never seen that.
> 
> As to everyone else posting ... I'm getting taken out for a lovely dinner tonight where I will order vodka before even glancing at the menu. This week has been a server nightmare. My email is FINALLY back and inundating me with batch after batch of old emails.
> ...


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## &#039; (May 24, 2011)

Has anyone considered that the website belongs to Amazon: a company that is worth $88 billion? Everything on their website is geared towards producing more sales. If it's broken, they have to fix it for their benefit, not for the benefit of thousands of long-tail authors. We upload our books under their terms, not ours. If they decide to rearrange the way they present the site to their customers, then we have to go along with it. Sure it's annoying but we'll get over it. Try fixing your own website without causing yourself a headache, and then imagine what it would be like making changes to a site the size of Amazon's.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Shelagh said:


> Has anyone considered that the website belongs to Amazon: a company that is worth $88 billion? Everything on their website is geared towards producing more sales. If it's broken, they have to fix it for their benefit, not for the benefit of thousands of long-tail authors. We upload our books under their terms, not ours. If they decide to rearrange the way they present the site to their customers, then we have to go along with it. Sure it's annoying but we'll get over it. Try fixing your own website without causing yourself a headache, and then imagine what it would be like making changes to a site the size of Amazon's.


I'm sure it's a right mess! I thought the point of the thread was just to help assure everyone something wonky is going on by comparing what odd behavior we're seeing. I don't have an issue with Amazon trying to fix their site, it appears they are employing a new look altogether (white at top, no more familiar blue). I keep getting different versions of the site every time I load it.

It's just frustrating for me as this is my first time at the rodeo. I've never been higher than #12,000. I'm over the moon, I just am waiting with bated breath to know if it's real, or if I was a bizarre effect of the day things went crazy on the Amazon servers...


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## ShaunaG (Jun 16, 2011)

My books are not in Select but my sales are not what they were in January. I know there's a chance that sales could've slowed down after the Christmas rush, but my sales over at B&N are consistent with what they were in January. I'm a little discouraged, hoping it's just a reporting glitch but I'm starting to think maybe not. It's just strange that every day in Jan (including the 31st) I was averaging 35-40 sales on Amazon and Feb I'm crawling. I mean as soon as the month ticked over my sales plummeted on Amazon. Le sigh.


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## Katy MN (Jan 4, 2012)

That's exactly what happened to me. Went from consistently 35+ per day to 30 *total* for the first 3 days of February so far (plus 7 borrows). That has to be a glitch, right? UGH.



ShaunaG said:


> My books are not in Select but my sales are not what they were in January. I know there's a chance that sales could've slowed down after the Christmas rush, but my sales over at B&N are consistent with what they were in January. I'm a little discouraged, hoping it's just a reporting glitch but I'm starting to think maybe not. It's just strange that every day in Jan (including the 31st) I was averaging 35-40 sales on Amazon and Feb I'm crawling. I mean as soon as the month ticked over my sales plummeted on Amazon. Le sigh.


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## portiadacosta (Feb 28, 2011)

ShaunaG said:


> I mean as soon as the month ticked over my sales plummeted on Amazon. Le sigh.


I've noticed this phenomenon on the turning of the month. And *before* the current reporting mix up. It's like an elevator shaft opens up on day one of the month, and my sales figures plunge down it. Mind you, it's happened so often that there's barely a lower level to fall to now.


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

Katy MN said:


> Yup, Author Central!
> 
> Go under "Sales Info" and then click on "See more info about this book's rank" and you'll see it!


@ Katy
Thanks!


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## billb (Feb 2, 2012)

My sales are so poor I have hardly noticed but I did think it was a bit odd to have such few freebies go out when it went crazy last time.

I stay positive though, what else canya do?


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

Katy MN said:


> That's exactly what happened to me. Went from consistently 35+ per day to 30 *total* for the first 3 days of February so far (plus 7 borrows). That has to be a glitch, right? UGH.


Me too.


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## Joseph Rhea (Nov 9, 2009)

Since nearly everyone else has chimed in, I will add that sales for my book are 1/10 what they were the last week of January. That's ~100/day down to <10/day!
The only good news, for me anyway, is that I received three 5-star ratings this week, bringing my total reviews up to 29. 

I am hoping this numbers mess will be cleared up soon, though. Good reviews only take you so far...


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Dalya said:


> EDIT: Nope, it's definitely BIZARROTOWN for KDP reports. I'm having a freebie on one of my books (Charlie, the first one in my sig) and I'm the top 5 of some categories, yet showing only 2 downloads for the day. ERRRR not possible.


Yes, it sounds like some current reporting is working (my sales took off after 9AM this morning when the also boughts got recrunched after going free), but it's still having problems. I think most people indicated that yesterday, sales were being reported pretty accurately, though even then maybe not 100%. They're obviously messing with things today again, probably trying to fix whatever went wrong on 2/1.

Deep breaths are in order I would say. We have no control over any of this and until we feel more confident that Amazon's numbers are working again, making decisions based on sales data from the past 3 days is likely a mistake.


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## ShaunaG (Jun 16, 2011)

Dalya said:


> EDIT: Nope, it's definitely BIZARROTOWN for KDP reports. I'm having a freebie on one of my books (Charlie, the first one in my sig) and I'm the top 5 of some categories, yet showing only 2 downloads for the day. ERRRR not possible.


Yeah not possible. One of my freebies has over 2k downloads and is hovering around #10 in it's category and another freebie has around 400 downloads (been free a while) and it's around #80


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## Karly Kirkpatrick (Dec 13, 2010)

Same here. At least it's been going up, but I'm only at 443 free downloads since my freebie time started on Wednesday, yet I'm #668 (not great) in the free kindle store and #8 in a category (Science Fiction, Fantasy and Magic). It just seems weird. Also, haven't heard from Amazon yet. I'm really hoping they get it figured out soon. So far, this free giveaway, if that's *really* the number, is a complete fail and I'll probably pull this book from Select when time is up. Was considering putting another title on Select if/when I pulled the other title, but right now, not thinking I'll bother. 

The last time I did a free promo, I gave away thousands in the first couple days. Either that or free isn't what it was before Select. Ah well.


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

Karly, my experience sort of mirrors yours.

2-say free on Foxy last month got 17,000 downloads, into top 20 free, & then two days after it was over sales went really well for 2 weeks then started falling off again.

2-day free on Naked Gardener last month got 14,000 downloads & into top 30 & sales were great after that until FEB 1 (the witching date)

2-day free for Megan 2/1 & 2/2 got about 4500 downloads, as high as 48 top 100 (seemed too few downloads to get that high). BUT SALES of Shelly were very good. 

And now sales are almost totally dead in the water.

Yet rankings continue to improve since early this a.m.

I'm assuming Amzn is retooling/redesigning the site where books are concerned. Possibly adding/migrating servers?  Maybe something went down & they're doing a restore?

There's no chatter I can find on the web about it. So who knows?


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

LB Gschwandtner said:


> I'm assuming Amzn is retooling/redesigning the site where books are concerned. Possibly adding/migrating servers? Maybe something went down & they're doing a restore?
> 
> There's no chatter I can find on the web about it. So who knows?


KB _is_ the chatter on the web! We're on the cutting edge.


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## Sarah Woodbury (Jan 30, 2011)

The first of the month has often been bad, like some terrible threshold was crossed at midnight on the 31st.  First week in June, first week in July, first week in August.  September, November, and December were particularly gruesome.  It may be a product of the consumer, as well as Amazon mucks around with things on the first?  Rent is due so people don't buy books?


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

well MY rent is due on my books (I'm a mean landlord) so things better get better soon.


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Sarah Woodbury said:


> The first of the month has often been bad, like some terrible threshold was crossed at midnight...


I'm just guessing here, but maybe Amazon implements, from time to time, new algorithms. Up until the summer everything was fine, then I started to experience short bursts of tanking sales. Each time a little bit longer, each time a little bit worse. They always seem to recover, but never to the same level they were before. Only those lodged firmly in the upper 10,000 to 20,000 rankings are apparently exempt.
Or, I'm seeing far too much in my spreadsheets... Still, I can't shake off the feeling that Amazon is sort of rearranging the odds. Maybe to make room at the top?

I wish modwitch could give a sound mathematical analysis of what is happening. Or a more educated guess than mine at least.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

edwardgtalbot said:


> Yes, it sounds like some current reporting is working (my sales took off after 9AM this morning when the also boughts got recrunched after going free), but it's still having problems. I think most people indicated that yesterday, sales were being reported pretty accurately, though even then maybe not 100%. They're obviously messing with things today again, probably trying to fix whatever went wrong on 2/1.
> 
> Deep breaths are in order I would say. We have no control over any of this and until we feel more confident that Amazon's numbers are working again, making decisions based on sales data from the past 3 days is likely a mistake.


Agree on the deep breaths. My sales yesterday normalized or at least pretty close. I'm not sure about today. They seem to have slowed down but sales often show in KDP in spurts anyway.


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

I had a great January. Sold a bit of everything, which is always nice to see.


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## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

Question: when the Feb 1 backlog sales do show up, will they be added to the total on the month-to-date unit sales? Or will they be tucked into the prior-six-weeks tally when that updates?

Anybody have any experience with missing sales being updated? I mean, prior to this event.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

_"Anybody have any experience with missing sales being updated? I mean, prior to this event."_

Something similar happened earlier last year. I think the problem was sales missing from Wed and Thurs. They started dribbling in on Sunday, and everyone seemed updated by the following Friday. Some people saw the make-up early, some later. It was the same pattern. Sales were not reported in KDP, but rankings were maintained.


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## Kay Bratt (Dec 28, 2011)

ToniD said:


> Anybody have any experience with missing sales being updated? I mean, prior to this event.


I receive my AmazonEncore sales report only once a month. I received one for November, and then when December came out they said my November numbers were incorrect (to my detriment) and showed a correction. However, they paid me for the incorrect number anyway because it was their error. (and it was only about 24 off)

I know that the situation is different than KDP, but it should give you faith that Amazon is honest.


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## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

Thanks for the info Terrence. So, sales were updated in the regular daily reports?

Thanks Kay, good to know. I don't doubt KDP honesty; was just wondering where updated sales would appear. And yes, I should go do something more useful. Like write.


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## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

I do have a sinking feeling about algorithm shuffles and the end of all things good.

Amazon giveth; Amazon taketh away.

Maybe I should go back to painting?


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

I have faith in Amzn. They want sales as much as we do.

I'm thinking it's like a department store rearranging its displays. They don't want people coming into the store and seeing the same stuff all the time.


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## Rachel Schurig (Apr 9, 2011)

Someone posted over in the KDP forum that they heard back from Amazon support. According to the poster they are aware of the problem and the sales have been recorded correctly on their end. They said that they expect the missed sales to show up soon. Hopefully this is all true! 

My sales today and yesterday seem more normal but I still haven't seen those Feb 1st sales show up. Maybe they will magically appear overnight


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Thanks Rachel for the info!

For me, it's going to be thousands of free sales that all of a sudden show up.  In order to know how much I've actually sold in the meantime, I'm gonna have to keep checking sales every hour so I know what it was before the deluge hits.  At least, that's the excuse I keep telling myself. . .


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

edwardgtalbot said:


> Thanks Rachel for the info!
> 
> For me, it's going to be thousands of free sales that all of a sudden show up. In order to know how much I've actually sold in the meantime, I'm gonna have to keep checking sales every hour so I know what it was before the deluge hits. At least, that's the excuse I keep telling myself. . .


check mine too, OK? I'm working on the next book.


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## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

LB, when you refer to those sales charts from Author Central, remember that they reference printed books, not KDP sales. Two different sets of numbers and charts. There are no charts (to my knowledge) for KDP except those you might create for yourself.

GR


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

Gordon Ryan said:


> LB, when you refer to those sales charts from Author Central, remember that they reference printed books, not KDP sales. Two different sets of numbers and charts. There are no charts (to my knowledge) for KDP except those you might create for yourself.
> 
> GR


thnx Gordon. I figured that when I looked.

With my first Kindle Book, Naked Gardener, I charted sales. But after a few months I let it slide. After all, I'm a writer/artist, not a number tracker/cruncher.


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Gordon Ryan said:


> LB, when you refer to those sales charts from Author Central, remember that they reference printed books, not KDP sales. Two different sets of numbers and charts. There are no charts (to my knowledge) for KDP except those you might create for yourself.
> 
> GR


That can't be right. I have charts in AC and I have no printed books.


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## Rachel Schurig (Apr 9, 2011)

Gordon Ryan said:


> LB, when you refer to those sales charts from Author Central, remember that they reference printed books, not KDP sales. Two different sets of numbers and charts. There are no charts (to my knowledge) for KDP except those you might create for yourself.
> 
> GR


I do see a chart for my KDP sales. On my chart there's a drop down menu which I can switch between paperback and kindle edition.


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

Rachel Schurig said:


> I do see a chart for my KDP sales. On my chart there's a drop down menu which I can switch between paperback and kindle edition.


huh. must check again. thnx


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

LB Gschwandtner said:


> huh. must check again. thnx


found it. Now how to copy & paste it here?


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## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

Very glad to see the new charting for KDP sales. It was not there the last time I looked, but I have to admit I haven't looked in quite awhile because I only have a few of my books on Create Space and available through print version.

Thanks for pointing this out to us.

GR


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Yep, I see the charts for KDP books too. . .and Gordon is right that it is an addition in recent months.


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## &#039; (May 24, 2011)

The KDP charts in Author Central are for rankings, not sales.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Things are still pretty wonky. My sales are showing up in bunches. Two to three hours with nothing and then all of a sudden, half a dozen sales show up.


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## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

Same here, Gertie. (still hoarding my truffle)


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Either none of my sales have caught up yet (at all), or February is going to come in at about 20% of January. Ouch!


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

ToniD said:


> Same here, Gertie. (still hoarding my truffle)


I hope you brought enough truffles for everybody because this has turned into a long haul.


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## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

LB Gschwandtner said:


> I hope you brought enough truffles for everybody because this has turned into a long haul.


Okay, I'm buying the Costco-size box of truffles. Somebody else chill the champagne (Gertie and Edward drank it earlier so we need a new supply).


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## portiadacosta (Feb 28, 2011)

dgaughran said:


> Either none of my sales have caught up yet (at all), or February is going to come in at about 20% of January. Ouch!


Eeek, I'm selling next to nothing, so 20% of that... isn't very much. 

Any truffles going spare?


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## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

Shelagh said:


> The KDP charts in Author Central are for rankings, not sales.


Sorry, Shelagh, I knew that but wrote sales in my note. I should have known since few (if any) of my books have had #60,000 sales, but several are ranked that high. LOL

GR


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## sgroyle (Aug 21, 2010)

edwardgtalbot said:


> Yep, I see the charts for KDP books too. . .and Gordon is right that it is an addition in recent months.


Not recent addition - I've been looking at those charts since December 2010 - I have no printed versions of my books - "Green" author


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

You know what's frustrating? On Feb 1st, my sales/ranking shot up like a rocket climbing Everest. It's the highest I've ever gotten and I still have no flipping idea how many sales that amounted to. I know my ranking went down after that and the lower ranking translates to about 100 sales and 60 borrows per day. But I wish I knew what the higher ranking achieved! It's like a personal milestone, like coming in with the top of your field for the first time ever, but the timer broke so you have no idea how fast you've run!


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Rachel Schurig said:


> Someone posted over in the KDP forum that they heard back from Amazon support. According to the poster they are aware of the problem and the sales have been recorded correctly on their end. They said that they expect the missed sales to show up soon. Hopefully this is all true!
> 
> My sales today and yesterday seem more normal but I still haven't seen those Feb 1st sales show up. Maybe they will magically appear overnight


I'm a long way from the world's most trusting person, but I have confidence that it is true. I have yet to feel that Amazon had lied to me. I am not sure whether my sales are normal now or not. I had two novels free today and have never had giveaways that low, but it could happen.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

All Amazon has to do is get the monthly sales and payments right. The daily KDP stuff isn't necessary. It's just a nice convenience for suppliers.


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## &#039; (May 24, 2011)

Gordon Ryan said:


> Sorry, Shelagh, I knew that but wrote sales in my note. I should have known since few (if any) of my books have had #60,000 sales, but several are ranked that high. LOL
> 
> GR


Gosh, Gordon, sales of some of my books would be selling 250,000+! Still, low sales don't cause the angst that some of the authors here are experiencing; there is joy in every sale for us low rankers!


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

So fyi everyone. Here's a copy of my email to amazon & a reply tonight. The reply is at the top so my email is below that.
p.s. as expected not any specific info herein.

Hello Laura,

We're currently experiencing a reporting issue that has caused errors in the display of your February sales information on our KDP site. Our engineers are working to resolve this as soon as possible and expect the reports to be corrected next week.

Please be assured all your sales are being recorded accurately, however there seems to be an error with it updating on your KDP account.

We're sorry for any inconvenience this has caused, and appreciate your patience and understanding.

============================================
If you need to provide us with more information about this issue, please Reply to this e-mail.

Otherwise, did we answer your question? Do you have another question? Use the appropriate link below. You may need to copy and paste the full link into your browser:

Yes, you answered it:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/survey?p=A29KVOXOQK88N5&k=hy

No, you did not answer it:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/survey?p=A29KVOXOQK88N5&k=hn

I have another question:
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/contact-us
============================================

Regards,

Sherin
Kindle Direct Publishing
http://kdp.amazon.com
=============================
Connect with KDP and other Authors and Publishers:
Like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/KindleDirectPublishing
Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/AmazonKDP

---- Original message: ----

Publisher Code: AVXH0I7FQ45PI
Customer Name: Laura B Gschwandtner
Subject: wonkiness on Amazon

Hi: All the Indie authors are wondering what's going on with sales, Free Promo downloads, rankings & general wonkiness with Amazon's numbers since midnight Jan 31.

Any answers?

For instance, I've been running a free promo for Megan's New Year (Kindle ed) for Wed & Thurs this week (so now).
Yesterday it showed 41 downloads for over 16 hours but the ranking overall said 399.
Now it shows 1577 downloads but the book is ranked # 41 in the top 100. Which is not possible with that few downloads.

Having done this before I have seen what #s are required to get near the top 100 and these don't do it.

Others are reporting sales disappearing, rankings all over the place, and general disarray @ Amazon.

Anyway I'd love to hear what to expect about corrections of these numbers & sales.


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## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

LB, now that's a general answer, but clearly an answer which displays that they understand there is a problem, even if they don't define what it is and how to correct it.  But it appears that another week will be required to correct it.  Continue waiting and seeing, I suppose.

Thanks for sharing with us.

GR


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Thanks for posting Amazon's answer, Laura. Sounds like all the problems aren't resolved yet. 

I've had decent sales of my Select books and no sales of my non-select books. Maybe all my sales are being reported and maybe not. I'm trying not to hope for a rush of sales when the reporting catches up because I think most of my sales are actually registering.


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

One last report on this:
Today Amzn sent me yet another email saying they're still working on it but this one was so generic nobody signed it.

AND ... sometime in the last hour a huge glob of #s showed in my sales results. One book that had a free promo on 2/1 jumped from 4600 to 10200. Really tough to figure out sales vs. freebies in that.

Others with no freebies also showed sales jumps.

So amzn is working out the kinks I guess.


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## MonkeyScribe (Jan 27, 2011)

Terrence OBrien said:


> All Amazon has to do is get the monthly sales and payments right. The daily KDP stuff isn't necessary. It's just a nice convenience for suppliers.


That's my thinking, too. Given that I haven't been paid yet for October or November, a few delayed sales is the least of my worries.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

I couldn't check my sales for a couple of hours and came home to 14 sales of one book, but my ranking, which has been hovering in the high teens, is now in the high 20's. It just doesn't make sense.

I guess I just need to be patient, but it's hard when I have another two day free run starting tomorrow.


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## Mike McIntyre (Jan 19, 2011)

LB Gschwandtner said:


> AND ... sometime in the last hour a huge glob of #s showed in my sales results. One book that had a free promo on 2/1 jumped from 4600 to 10200. Really tough to figure out sales vs. freebies in that.


This just happened to me, too.


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## ToniD (May 3, 2011)

My missing Feb1 sales showed up, too. Whew.

Michael, that's terrible that they haven't paid you for those months. Any explanation?


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## lewaters (Jun 25, 2011)

I didn't have any sales for the last couple of days and then I suddenly had 12. My rank does not improve with sales. I thought it was just a dry spell so at least it was nice to see that there must be a glitch effecting sales and rankings. I hope they fix this soon.


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## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

My sales/downloads on 1 book shot up by 450 today.  I did a free promo on Feb 6th, so I've no idea if these were freebies or some sales.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

I also just had a jump in sales and yet no increase in ranking. Perhaps they were sales from when there were glitches that were already shown in the rankings? Or else rankings are being very, very slow to adjust. Not sure what's going on.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

If the sales are from Feb1, there is little chance they would affect today's rankings.


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## Kathleen Valentine (Dec 10, 2009)

Everything makes so much more sense now....................


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## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

Had the same result today, with several hundred additional downloads on a book that was free early in Feb. I just lumped those numbers in with the pittance reported on Feb 1 & 2, counting them as freebies. If any are sales, it will be a surprise with the weekly summary.  So, perhaps it is becoming safe to enter the water again (list a new freebie) since the sharks have been tamed.

GR


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## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

Gordon Ryan said:


> ... perhaps it is becoming safe to enter the water again (list a new freebie) since the sharks have been tamed.
> 
> GR


WHAT?! No, it is never safe! In KDPSelect, it is always an exciting avalanche or crushing disappointment or soaring victory or somewhat acceptable semi-defeat. There is no safe.


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## Steve Silkin (Sep 15, 2010)

Gordon Ryan said:


> Had the same result today, with several hundred additional downloads on a book that was free early in Feb.


Same here. If I hadn't seen this thread, I would've thought I'd hit the big time!! 

(I'm really glad I saw this thread before I'd seen the added numbers. It would've been an awful disappointment when reality set in.)


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## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

Steve Silkin said:


> Same here. If I hadn't seen this thread, I would've thought I'd hit the big time!!
> 
> (I'm really glad I saw this thread before I'd seen the added numbers. It would've been an awful disappointment when reality set in.)


As Dalya has inferred, there is no reality, only ups and downs. Good luck in-between.

GR


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

Grr. This is so frustrating. And it's going to be a long wait until Sunday to find out if any of those sales were paid or not (my book was free on February 4th).


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## cidneyswanson (Feb 1, 2011)

Just adding to the consensus that sales are showing up _*today*_ which happened . . . _*ago*_. I "sold" twice as many titles today as yesterday, but dropped a gut-wrenching 1000 places in the rankings. So, naturally I came to Kindleboards to find out what, exactly, was wrong with my picture! 

Ah, well. 
Cidney


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## portiadacosta (Feb 28, 2011)

I too had a big jump in 'sales' for my Select title that was free on 1/2/3 of Feb. I assumed it was just the missing downloads from 1st Feb, when there were barely any. I never really look at my rankings [don't need another reason to weep/gnash teeth] so don't know whether they've changed or not.


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## India Drummond (Nov 1, 2010)

Gordon Ryan said:


> Had the same result today, with several hundred additional downloads on a book that was free early in Feb. I just lumped those numbers in with the pittance reported on Feb 1 & 2, counting them as freebies. If any are sales, it will be a surprise with the weekly summary. So, perhaps it is becoming safe to enter the water again (list a new freebie) since the sharks have been tamed.
> 
> GR


Same here. My novel Ordinary Angels was free Mon and Tues this week and I gave away 14,500 copies, even making the top #10 for overall Kindle freebies in the US and the UK and #1 in my genre. Today I wake up to find that Wed overnight I supposedly had 1100 sales. *blink* On a book that usually sells 100-200 copies PER MONTH. But my sales rank sure doesn't reflect that many sales (#4200 Kindle / #97 Fantasy Romance--no doubt 1100 sales in 8 hours would put me a tad higher on the bestseller list.)

My guess is that all but about 15 or 20 of those were freebies that for some reason didn't get registered until Wed night. Of course I'd _like _ to have sold 1100 books in one day, but I suspect something wonky has gone on behind the scenes.

On the plus side, I have noticed the sales of my other books have normalised--they'd tanked in the past 10 days. Now they're back at least to pre-Christmas numbers, which is a relief.


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

Not to worry, everyone. The great news is someone in ITALY bought one of my titles. 

I take that as an omen. We ARE approaching the Ides, y'know.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

LB Gschwandtner said:


> Not to worry, everyone. The great news is someone in ITALY bought one of my titles.
> 
> I take that as an omen. We ARE approaching the Ides, y'know.


Bought it? You mean paid actual Euros for it? I haven't even been able to crack IT with a free book. Congratulations. That's awesome.


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

You know, I don't want to be a big complainer, and I know that Amazon has given us a wonderful opportunity to sell our books...

...but when things are messed up on such a huge scale, it probably would have been nice for them to at least send out emails explaining the situation. There are a lot of people who don't hang out on the Kindleboards and who may be thinking they got tons of sales, and who are going to be really disappointed when they check their six weeks' royalties sales report this coming Sunday.


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

ChristinePope said:


> You know, I don't want to be a big complainer, and I know that Amazon has given us a wonderful opportunity to sell our books...
> 
> ...but when things are messed up on such a huge scale, it probably would have been nice for them to at least send out emails explaining the situation. There are a lot of people who don't hang out on the Kindleboards and who may be thinking they got tons of sales, and who are going to be really disappointed when they check their six weeks' royalties sales report this coming Sunday.


Aw go ahead. Complain. If not us, who? If not now when?


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## Jackal Lantern Books (Aug 30, 2011)

So glad I found this post. After having a monstrous Nov-Jan, Feb has been completely wonky. Not following any of my normal sales patterns at all. I was afraid I had somehow done something wrong or suddenly lost all my readers. But I'm still pretty new to the game, so maybe Feb is just slower for sales than others months. It seems to be picking up though. Hopefully for everyone!


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## Joseph Rhea (Nov 9, 2009)

I thought things were clearing up for most people, but at least in my case, my rank is going up and down like I'm getting regular sales, but nothing has changed on my official KDP record in the past 24 hours. In three years of doing this, this is by far the weirdest week I've seen. Also I haven't yet received what I think might be missing sales from last week. If I really don't have any missing sales, then my book went from selling about 75-100/day the last week of Jan, to less than 10/day on Feb 1st, and hasn't recovered. I guess that _could_ happen, but it seems unlikely.

I guess it's another reminder not to pay attention to daily sales or ranking, and just keep writing, and hope that everything works it self out...eventually!


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## Lexi Revellian (May 31, 2010)

Joseph Rhea said:


> If I really don't have any missing sales, then my book went from selling about 75-100/day the last week of Jan, to less than 10/day on Feb 1st, and hasn't recovered. I guess that _could_ happen, but it seems unlikely.


_Replica_, after being free on 27th and 28th January, sold 201 on 31st January, 20 on 1st February and 88 on 2nd February (UK days, hence the 20 before breakfast on the 1st.)

That suggests to me missing sales between 100 and 130. Catch up sales that appeared yesterday, 10th February, were about 70. I'm beginning to wonder whether I will ever get paid for the unreported sales.

Lexi


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## Richardcrasta (Jul 29, 2010)

Suffering horribly too, sold one book all of yesterday, and an average of 3 a day all February, and it feels chilling.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Richardcrasta said:


> Suffering horribly too, sold one book all of yesterday, and an average of 3 a day all February, and it feels chilling.


I have the terrible feeling that all my sales are actually being reported because I sell several in my series every day. I consoled myself with the fact that none of my non-select books were selling at all and maybe those sales would catch up. Alas, I sold one yesterday, so that hope is gone.

They did say next week, right? I don't think it's next week yet.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

I mailed KDP a couple of days ago. They replied yesterday that all _my_ sales are now caught up in the weeklies (I had no catch-up flurry of sales like many). I checked the weeklies, and maybe $12 of sales were added to last week's total (which was down BIG). KDP confirmed that the delays affected ALL markets (UK, DE, US etc.).

My sales fell of a cliff some time on Jan 31st and were rotten for quite a few days. But prior to that, I had severe reporting delays in my account anyway. But for the first few days of Feb, things were totally screwy (like everyone else) and I had daily messages in Author Central warning me of the delays. Plus sales were running about 20% of normal. Even my banker title, that _always_ sells 5 -10 a day (and has done pretty solidly since it was released in July), was down to 1-2 a day.

However, I find it hard to believe that only $12 worth of sales were missing. Something doesn't compute. It's a bit of stretch to think that my sales, which were on a big upward trend (for the last 10 days of January I was hitting 15-20 a day) suddenly collapse to near nothing at the exact same time that the Amazon system goes totally screwy. It's a bit of a coincidence to say the least.

I'm not going to get into a back-and-forth with KDP about this. I've found the customer service to be deteriorating quite badly over the last few months. I've had tangles with them recently over books dropping categories, inaccurate price-matching, and VAT, and I really don't want to mark myself out as a problem.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

dgaughran said:


> I'm not going to get into a back-and-forth with KDP about this. I've found the customer service to be deteriorating quite badly over the last few months. I've had tangles with them recently over books dropping categories, inaccurate price-matching, and VAT, and I really don't want to mark myself out as a problem.


I've had a problem with categories, too, and got a totally unsatisfactory reply back from them. Price matching was also a problem, but they did fix that right away.


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## destill (Oct 5, 2010)

If I am to believe my sales numbers are accurate, right now, then the first 10 days of February have been the worst sales since August, 2010, when I began publishing eBooks. I can't imagine how that's possible. 

I've received no standard messages from Amazon, other than one response to an inquiry I made about another matter. (I'd asked WHY one of my books seemingly was stuck on the very LAST page of its category and not moving, despite sales.) The reply didn't answer my question. It merely confirmed that my book was listed in its proper category. This title is a KDP Select title, yet, when I searched the categories in the KDP Lending Library, the title didn't show up at all. These problems occurred after I ran a free promotion in mid-January.

I am thoroughly unimpressed with the way KDP Select has worked for ME. There seems to be no way to communicate by phone with anyone at KDP. I tried using Author Central to make contact, and the person I spoke with said he couldn't help me with anything other than my paperback titles.


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## Lexi Revellian (May 31, 2010)

Maybe Amazon has changed the algorithm again? Modwitch would know.

My titles took a dive September 4th 2011, very noticeable on the graphs, which was the last time there was a major algorithm change.

Lexi


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## LB Gschwandtner (Jun 21, 2010)

Late breaking (sort of) news.

Everyone posting here seems to have some of the same problems but also some rather individualized problems. All I can think is that anything related to numbers after 1/31 @ midnight for about a week went haywire @ amazn.

That said, I've found KDP customer service to be responsive, altho' they do take their time and sometimes the responses are just, "we're looking into it & will get back you you again." which they always have.

So my latest (the third) response to my inquiry about a free promo that just did not add up is below. This is the most concrete response I've received from them except for the previous one I posted here saying -- basically -- yes the numbers are wonky but all your sales will be correct in your sales reports.

Here's the response:

_
I am following up on your inquiry about the Free Promotions scheduled on January 26 for your title "Shelly's Second Chance."

Our technical team has confirmed that we experienced a temporary technical glitch where your book's free promotion wasn't correctly applied in all the Kindle Stores on January 26. We are truly sorry for any inconvenience this caused.

We'd be glad to arrange for you to have an extra day of promotion for your book if you'll write back and let us know what day you would like it occur. Please provide the ASIN and new promotion date at least three days advance to ensure proper scheduling.

Thanks for your co-operation and understanding._

I think that's fair and appropriate. And again. I'm a huge Amzn fan across the board. Can't wai to see what happens with their actual store in Seattle. cheers!


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

LB Gschwandtner said:


> Late breaking (sort of) news.
> 
> Everyone posting here seems to have some of the same problems but also some rather individualized problems. All I can think is that anything related to numbers after 1/31 @ midnight for about a week went haywire @ amazn.
> 
> ...


That's great to know they responded and with more than just an apology. I hope you take them up on the offer and have a great free day.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

LB Gschwandtner said:


> So my latest (the third) response to my inquiry about a free promo that just did not add up is below. This is the most concrete response I've received from them except for the previous one I posted here saying -- basically -- yes the numbers are wonky but all your sales will be correct in your sales reports.


Are you saying you did have downloads on the 26th that showed on the report but that you knew there had to be more because the rankings changed when sales did not?

I did well on the 26th, but not nearly as well as I did with the previous free run (different book) and my current free run (different book) has already surpassed the free run on the 26th and 27th. My UK numbers were way down, too.

Maybe I should write them.


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## Richardcrasta (Jul 29, 2010)

Is anyone else having trouble with Createspace books too?
I have sold just 1 in 10 days compared to nearly 40 in January. Makes no sense.


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## JDMiller (Dec 21, 2011)

As of today, I've had two sales in Createspace...which is definitely off the previous trend in January. Unfortunately, I don't have any additional data yet so I can't definitively say that there is a problem. 

In KDP, I had zero sales in February, then I suddenly had a few dozen about two days ago, and now I'm silent again. 

I'm assuming there is still a problem but what do I know. I'm just waiting to see what happens. Everything about self-publishing with Amazon is a learning process for me right now.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Even within the last two days I have had sales appear on KDP which did not affect ranking, which makes me think they were adjustments for previous unreported sales and my rankings compared to sales on all novels still appear wonky--sometimes related and sometimes not.

And my sales across the board this month have been horrendous compared to the previous two months which is just peculiar. Why would they suddenly drop off a cliff like that? Across two genres?


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## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> Even within the last two days I have had sales appear on KDP which did not affect ranking, which makes me think they were adjustments for previous unreported sales and my rankings compared to sales on all novels still appear wonky--sometimes related and sometimes not.
> 
> And my sales across the board this month have been horrendous compared to the previous two months which is just peculiar. Why would they suddenly drop off a cliff like that? Across two genres?


I would love to know what failed from 1/31 to 2/5 because knowing that would reveal where 50% of my sales volume is coming from. 

B.


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## Terrence OBrien (Oct 21, 2010)

Thought experiment:

Suppose everyone experienced the exact sales that are reported for February as of today. Suppose they are indeed correct. Further suppose there was no glitch in the system. 

If the sales are accurate, to what would we attribute the decline? That's a good place to start an analysis. 

Maybe we have to face the prospect that sales really have fallen, and we can't console ourselves that it is due to a computer error in KDP reporting.


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## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

But I do believe there was a glitch. Real-time ranks vanished for days. Sales did not correspond to ranks for the 2-3 days after the rankings came back. And my (at least) sales-to-rank ratios are now back to their mid-Jan norms. I also observed some really wierd movements in the ranks during that period. (High-selling books vanished, etc.)

B.


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## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

JRTomlin said:


> And my sales across the board this month have been horrendous compared to the previous two months which is just peculiar. Why would they suddenly drop off a cliff like that? Across two genres?


Agree with JRT. February is lackluster and I have a feeling it is in addition to the mechanical errors in reporting, especially the freebies. Combine failed reporting with a sales slump and the result is anxiety across the board. Still, the ups and downs of this business are part of the process. Much like standard commissioned sales.

Now I'm looking for the January monthly report and Borrow figure. Having two, then three per book Borrow figures will give us a bit more certainty about Select earnings. One question will be have Borrows dropped to the degree of sales?

GR


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

I couldn't even GIVE away novels this month, much less sell them. My sales look to be about 1/3 of what they were in January. The only thing I can do is not worry about it and finish the projects I'm working on. I guess some months just suck. Won't be the first and probably not the last. It's just frustrating not knowing to what degree it's the anomalies of sales and to what degree it's some glitch. But a drop off that sudden is just weird.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

My sales in the UK are slogging along as normal, but my sales in the US have just stopped dead since February 1. Of course, it might just be a dry spell. I've had dry spells before where I have gone for several days without a single sale. But if so, it's uncommonly long.

But February seems to be weird in general. The traffic to my blog/website more than halved from February 1 on. Again no explanation why, since my Google pagerank hasn't changed.


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## wildwitchof (Sep 2, 2010)

As someone with some data from other retailers (I often sell half my modest numbers on BN and didn't go into Select), I can confirm that February is slower than January. If it weren't for KB, I wouldn't have thought there was an Amazon reporting error, since the drop is across the board. My numbers on BN are about half that of January. Interestingly, my Amazon numbers are about the same--but that was quite tiny (as all you Selectors rode off into the sunset while I gnashed my teeth.)

Of course, it's only Feb. 10. But I thought I'd add my two pennies.


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## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

Terrence OBrien said:


> Thought experiment:
> 
> Suppose everyone experienced the exact sales that are reported for February as of today. Suppose they are indeed correct. Further suppose there was no glitch in the system.
> 
> ...


You may be right. Could it be... all those freebies, dozens of them, maybe a couple of hundred, in readers Kindles. I'm struggling as it is trying to read what I want to read, and what others have asked me to read and comment on. And I still have not read 87 of the 100 Classic Novels I bought from Amazon for $2.99 (each volume). So...


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

As near as I can tell, the sales/borrows required to keep a ranking between 5K and 10K have remained relatively steady the past couple weeks. This is down from most of January, but still higher than before Christmas.  I haven't seen a major dropoff in sales for long enough that I can say my sales are really down. Checking my sales every two days, in the past I've seen as much as 50% variation be just normal fluctuation.

That said, I suspect that the problems Amazon experienced the first week of Feb were worse than just delayed KDP reporting.  I remain convinced their also boughts were screwy in some cases, and on 2/1 rankings were frozen for much of the day.  Both of these could have a material impact on sales, either up or down. And as we know, a couple days of major drop in sales can really kill the way you're hooked into the algorithms. This is at least one possible explanation for a downturn starting on 1/31 or 2/1 and continuing. Is it THE explanation? probably not for everyone.


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## HeatherVivant (Dec 30, 2011)

T.S. Eliot: "April is the cruelest month."

Unless you're selling Kindle books, for which February is the cruelest.

The good news is that rather than obsessing over rankings and sales figures, you can reverse Eliot's name and take that as an imperative: "Toilest."

Toilest, thou authors! Write something new and wonderful!


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## PorterlanceBooks (Jan 12, 2012)

Today, it looks like there are still issues.  My rankings for one of the books I publish ("New Discoveries" by Matt Zachary - it's a Gay Romance Book), have went up nicely today, but there are no new sales showing up since the 7 this morning (and the rankings already went up for that).  Same in the UK...rankings going up, but only one sale which was 12 hours ago.  

So, I guess there are still sales not being reported....


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## cidneyswanson (Feb 1, 2011)

edwardgtalbot said:


> As near as I can tell, the sales/borrows required to keep a ranking between 5K and 10K have remained relatively steady the past couple weeks. This is down from most of January, but still higher than before Christmas. I haven't seen a major dropoff in sales for long enough that I can say my sales are really down. Checking my sales every two days, in the past I've seen as much as 50% variation be just normal fluctuation.
> 
> That said, I suspect that the problems Amazon experienced the first week of Feb were worse than just delayed KDP reporting. I remain convinced their also boughts were screwy in some cases, and on 2/1 rankings were frozen for much of the day. Both of these could have a material impact on sales, either up or down. And as we know, a couple days of major drop in sales can really kill the way you're hooked into the algorithms. This is at least one possible explanation for a downturn starting on 1/31 or 2/1 and continuing. Is it THE explanation? probably not for everyone.


Edward, what do you reckon is needed to stay in 5-10K range? I'm moving in that range and wondering what sales numbers will force me out of that range. Should have kept my own records, but since you mentioned that you had numbers . . . Will ya' share?
TIA
Cidney


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## Gordon Ryan (Aug 20, 2010)

cidneyswanson said:


> Edward, what do you reckon is needed to stay in 5-10K range? I'm moving in that range and wondering what sales numbers will force me out of that range. Should have kept my own records, but since you mentioned that you had numbers . . . Will ya' share?
> TIA
> Cidney


Cidney, one of my books, The Callahans: The Complete Series, has been in the 3,000 to 6,000 range for about a month now, following an exceptionally good free download of 26,000 over two days. It came back with sales of 150 or so per day, declining slowly for the next several weeks. For the past ten days it has been a steady 8 - 15 sales per day, maintaining the above ranking range. It sells for $8.95, so that probably accounts for the lower sales figures, but enough to keep it in a good ranking spot. (It contains five full volumes, each of which is available individually for $3.99.) Hope that answers your question.

ETA: I should also have noted that this book draws about 5 or 6 Borrows a day which are also used to compute rankings. Sorry for the omission.

GR


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## Richardcrasta (Jul 29, 2010)

HeatherVivant said:


> T.S. Eliot: "April is the cruelest month."
> 
> Unless you're selling Kindle books, for which February is the cruelest.
> 
> ...


I hope you're right. I've had no mid-January sales tsunami, and no "correction" that was expected this week. One sale per day for a list of ten books is beyond cruel--it's staggering. I feel there's something wrong beyond the cruelty of February.

Still, I'll drop all sales-minded work for the next week, and devote my energy to writing.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

cidneyswanson said:


> Edward, what do you reckon is needed to stay in 5-10K range? I'm moving in that range and wondering what sales numbers will force me out of that range. Should have kept my own records, but since you mentioned that you had numbers . . . Will ya' share?
> TIA
> Cidney


Absolutely. I would say 10-13 per day in a combination of sales and borrows to stay at a ranking of 10K. If you have prior large sales days within the previous month or so, it may not take that much. My book hasn't been under about 5K since Christmas, but my best estimate of what it currently takes to remain around 5K is about 20-23 per day combination of sales and borrows. Again, prior large sales days will skew that a bit, while having little or no prior sales might mean it takes a little more than that.

These numbers for me suggest that Amazon sales (or at least sales/borrows combined) have increased roughly 20-25% since the fall. But I don't know if the same increase holds true for books ranked significantly better - my gut would say that those may have increased more.


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## Jackal Lantern Books (Aug 30, 2011)

I am wondering if the upswing of authors enrolling in KDP Select isn't what is, at least in part, slowing sales.... There are so many free giveaways now, maybe that is getting reader's attention? When I last posted my FEB numbers were way low and all over the place. It hasn't changed much as the month continues. I will have a fantastic day and then its like my books just died and went into lala land for a day or two and then it picks up again. My borrows on the one book I have enrolled in KDP are pathetic. I wonder if the number of authors enrolling in the program is out numbering the people enrolled in amazon prime? 

I even went so far as to drop the prices on my series books to help boost some sales again. This has helped, and I don't plan on keeping the lower price past FEB, but my numbers have improved. 

As an added note, for those keeping track of the KDP free promo's, the first one that I did, just 3 days after I published my book, went fantastic! Better than I could have asked for, especially considering I did little to no promo for it, other than post on twitter and facebook on the 24 hours of the event. I just wanted to get some numbers on the board sort to speak, and get some readers coming back for book 2 in the series. And I didn't even post here on kindleboards about the promo because they were down the entire day I ran my promo. 

A couple weeks later I decided to run another promo, this time with much more advance notice and promo to various bloggers, tweeters, etc etc etc .... my free promo was pathetic in comparison. I didn't even give away half as many as my first attempt. And I know my books were shared on MANY twitter / facebook pages, blogs etc. 

Luck of the draw? Bad timing? It is all still a learning experience for me here  But I am definitely hoping for a better, not so roller coaster, March!


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