# Worst month ever



## MartinWrites (Aug 17, 2011)

March is looking like being my worst sales month since I launched my first title. Anyone else experiencing a similar slump? Equally, anyone have any good ideas for reversing the trend that haven't already been discussed to the nth degree?


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

I recommend a KDP promo.


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## MartinWrites (Aug 17, 2011)

ellecasey said:


> I recommend a KDP promo.


I just tried this, gave Turn Around Where Possible for free last weekend. More than 130 people took advantage of this, including some through Amazon.de for the first time. This has yet to translate into paying follow-up sales though.


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

Did you promote the promotion ahead of time?  

Also, I took a look at your description on Amazon, and I think you need something more there.  Or at least a reader review quoted as part of the description (you can add this on Author Central) that will give a little more detail and make me want to read it.  In my humble opinion (not too humble I guess), it's too vague.


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

March has always been the month to do your discount and free promotions over at Smashwords and now at KDP. Last year I had a bad March before I realized the I was missing Read an e-Book Week and readers were flocking to those titles and holding back with regular distribution purchases. This time I took full advantage and I have been surprised - the promotions (especially FREE at Smashwords) went extremely well for the sale week and I did my one lost-leader KDP select volume for 2 days in tandem. But those promos fired strady sales for the balance of March, yeilding sales equal to Jan and Feb at regular undiscounted rpices. Your next opportunity (or slump) is June when Smashwords runs its promotion for a full month. I could break 1,000 this month mostly promotional transactions and still break 170 - 180 in monetary transactions. Last March I only had 682 of which the promotion represented 260 (I jumped on for the last two days), while regular sales were 317 (but Amazon sales were better a year ago before they changed the mattrix of their search engine, not in our favor). Hang in there. 

Edward C. Patterson
Readers Rock


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## NathanWrann (May 5, 2011)

March was my best month ever but completely flatlined last week. I did a KDP Select Free promo on Saturday and only had 107 downloads (as opposed to 2000+ on Feb 29th). The drop in downloads is probably due to the close proximity of the previous promo.


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## MartinWrites (Aug 17, 2011)

ellecasey said:


> I took a look at your description on Amazon, and I think you need something more there.


Interesting - are you referring to my author blurb or my book descriptions?

And am I not allowing enough time for the effect of my KDP Select promo weekend to kick in, perhaps?


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

MartinWrites said:


> Interesting - are you referring to my author blurb or my book descriptions?
> 
> And am I not allowing enough time for the effect of my KDP Select promo weekend to kick in, perhaps?


Your book blurb is what I was talking about. All it says is: "A young couple get off the beaten track in search of a bite to eat, and find a horrific meal..." I'm not even sure what this means. It doesn't tell me enough to give me the urge to buy it. But that might be just me!

And if you had 139 downloads in two full days, that sounds low to me. Maybe I have the info wrong. ??   For me to get large download numbers, I have to tell lots of people about it. Facebook several times a day, Twitter, book bloggers, ERT, Pixel of Ink, etc., etc. There are about 10 I used this last time. I started my latest promo today and have so far 139 downloads (since 9am PST). But I'm in YA Action/Adventure and it's a full-length novel, so a different market than you. My last promo was in YA Fantasy and had 7,290 DL over two days, and so far, this one has 2x the numbers out of the gate.

What else are you doing to market your book? I find book bloggers to be very helpful.


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## mwhetzel (Dec 14, 2011)

smreine said:


> Write more books!  Nothing bumps my other titles like a new one.


Totally agree. Released my second book last week and March has become my best month yet. Nice sales in the UK also. They must really like zombies over there. Also got a small bump on my first release with the second book.

More books equals more sales


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## Cliff Ball (Apr 10, 2010)

I would say I'm experiencing a slump. Last year, I had nearly 300 sales in March on Amazon, this year, less than 100 on Amazon. But, I am doing better everywhere else than I usually do, so that's an upside.


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## KCHawkings (Jul 20, 2011)

March has been my busiest month ever. Mind you, I did only publish on Feb 28th.

Hope things pick up.


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## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

Things have slowed for me as well.  I'm thinking that folks might have more than enough free books to read now and it will take them time to digest that.  Things will pick up in May.


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## Doctor Barbara (Aug 17, 2010)

It is a slow month!

Ellecasey, your photo is great, what's not to like?


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## Kathleen Valentine (Dec 10, 2009)

March has been way down from Dec/Jan/Feb but better than October/November so I am chalking it up to "getting back to normal" after the holidays. I did one promo but failed to do much promotion so only had about 500 downloads. But I have a new full length novel coming in April and I'm excited about that. We'll see.....


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## IsabellaL (Dec 11, 2010)

Yes, it is slow. March is usually a slow month for me so I'm not surprised. It will pick up again.


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## EC Sheedy (Feb 24, 2011)

smreine said:


> Write more books!  Nothing bumps my other titles like a new one.


I always love hearing this advice. It just seems to make so much sense.

I've been pretty lackadaisical on the promotion end of things so far, because I've been putting most of my effort into getting books up for sale. (I tell myself that anyway, although it may be that I just suck at promoting: hence major avoidance. ) Husband spent his life in sales, and I always remember his saying, "You can't sell from an empty wheelbarrow." For my effort on Amazon, I've taken that to heart.

As to March, it's been a flat month on the titles I do have for sale, but I don't have last year to compare it to, so I don't think my sales (or lack thereof) contribute much to this conversation.


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## TexasGirl (Dec 21, 2011)

We're all going to have different experiences, I guess. March is turning out to be a teensy bit lower than February, but not by much. Better than January, not as good as December.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

March has been a little slow for me, definitely down from the last 3 months. On the other hand, I didn't do much promotion because I was very intent on getting a new novel finished and out. It wasn't my worst month though, just slower.


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## MartinWrites (Aug 17, 2011)

I tweeted heavily during but not before my KDP Select free weekend promo. Maybe that's (part of) where I went wrong (that and only have 800 or so followers on Twitter!)


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

This march has been my best month ever.  Had a few slow days last week but has been otherwise steady. I had a free promo back on Presidents Day and things have been steady since, so I'm wondering if I'm just riding out a fairly good sized wave from that...although if I am, I hope the waters continue to be choppy. Surfs up!


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

Doctor Barbara said:


> It is a slow month!
> 
> Ellecasey, your photo is great, what's not to like?


Well, Doctor B, my mom says I look fat in it. I told her - it's a photo of me and I am fat! So there~! ha.

Thanks for your kind words. I'm going to tell my mom you like it.


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

The whole Kindle Select thing ended up being a bust for me and I am disenrolling at the end of this month and selling stuff on Nook and Smashwords again.  March was low, but not my worst month. I still market my books every day, update the various social networking, participate here, and try to get my website updated.  That keeps the books going.  Holidays help.  I always do well at the end and beginning of the year when people must get Kindles as presents.  Hoping for high points come Mother's Day and Father's Day.


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## Ian Marks (Jan 22, 2012)

For what it's worth, I don't recall seeing _Turn Around Where Possible_ free this past weekend (I was housebound, so downloading freebies like crazy). It's something I would have grabbed if I had.


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

March has been the best month for my DIY short fiction titles in a long time. Makes sense, however, since I'm in a well-received anthology and have been at an event and read my short fiction.


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## Laura Lond (Nov 6, 2010)

I wouldn't call it my worst month ever, but March was being rather slow for me, despite having a new release _and_ having two free runs for one of my books through KDP. I now have my best-reviewed title price-matched to $0.00 - that's what has made things going again: over 6,500 downloads of the freebie in just 4 days, the sequel's sales have increased, and some of my short stories have risen with the tide as well.

So yes, March is tough. It seems like it can take some strong measures to keep going.


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## MartinWrites (Aug 17, 2011)

Ian Marks said:


> For what it's worth, I don't recall seeing _Turn Around Where Possible_ free this past weekend (I was housebound, so downloading freebies like crazy). It's something I would have grabbed if I had.


Ian, I'll be making _Turn Around Where Possible_ free again on April 22nd-23rd, if that helps.


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## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

March has not been a terribly encouraging month for me either.

I put out a new title less than a week ago, and I just did a 2-day promo for another book, so I'm hoping things will pick up.

Then again, I really have had a lot of FUN this month.  Even without great sales.  I feel willing to take more risks and try things.

Well, here's to the end of March being awesome!


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## mwhetzel (Dec 14, 2011)

D. said:


> I feel willing to take more risks and try things.


Yes! As a newbie trying to break in there is something very free feeling about that comment. That is what I really love about indy pubbing, we can do what ever we want.

Hope everyone has a super April!

Mike


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## Edward C. Patterson (Mar 28, 2009)

I am surprised by the paid fiction this month, as March is promotion month and always adds many readers, but I generally find the field less receptive to purchasing anything. March's paid I project will equal February. I'm pleased by the response. My promotions were on Smashwords with only one tweat and a facebook announcemenet (and one on Author's Den), and my KDP lost leader with one short blast. So I was delighted by the feeding frenzy on my titles by readers over at Smashwords. I also liked that my newer books were taken most, telling me that these are return readers looking for more of me - that is my readers. (love the sound of that).

Edward C. Patterson


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## JRainey (Feb 1, 2011)

March has been slow-ish for me, too. It started out strong and then dropped off about a week ago, but I have a theory. I don't know about where the rest of you are, but here in good ol' Columbus, we've been having 80 degree days. In March. I think a lot of people are out enjoying the weather. I know I have been--while I should probably be prepping for my new release that comes out, oh... next week!


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

It's Spring Break time in a lot of areas too. I agree it's gorgeous outside. People are getting outside.


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## Danielle Kazemi (Apr 2, 2011)

Best month ever. Will it last? Probably not but I will enjoy it while it does. Put a price matched book for free which really helped draw in new readers. Three new novellas too.


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## destill (Oct 5, 2010)

March has been my best month this year...but I attribute that to one feature on eReader News Today. That single sponsorship netted over 800 sales of When Horses Had Wings. (I'd never before seen anything like that.) Without that one ad, March sales would have been lower than February's.


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## MartinWrites (Aug 17, 2011)

After all that, some late-reported sales figures meant that March wasn't quite my worst month ever after all. Having said that, it has already been surpassed by April, I'm happy to say.


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

Worst month, but only on Amazon (As always), while it's the cheapest place for all my titles, the cheapest of all the twelve retailers and my online store (Where I actually had much more income, even with one sale, then what I had for all six titles on Amazon in the last three months.). Its like if none of my books would exist at Amazon at all or deliberately wouldn't show up for the readers, regardless of the hundreds of tags, the reviews, etc, etc... It's clearly a rigged system.


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## yomamma (Feb 10, 2011)

Why is it rigged? Everyone's sales are sucking madly right now. Mine are less than half of what they normally are. You just keep going and hoping things will pick up.


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## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

March was actually my best month ever. April, however, is on track to be one of my worst. Sales were chugging along fine until about 1-2 weeks ago when Amazon did *something* to their algorithms such that my books are not getting in front of the "right" people (or so I've surmised based on other discussions going on here).

It's caused me to re-look beyond Amazon at other retailers.


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

jillmyles said:


> Why is it rigged? Everyone's sales are sucking madly right now. Mine are less than half of what they normally are. You just keep going and hoping things will pick up.


Because Amazon is always f-ed up in my case, not just in this month. And when I'm capable to sell a book for $8.88 everywhere else, but I can't sell a book for $4.99, not even for $0.99 or worse, for Free on Amazon (as the last KDP freebie day had only 10 downloads), I start to take up the question; how is it possible? And as they're changing the algorithms, which is making difference between book and book, that's already called as manipulation. And a system which is manipulated, it's called as a rigged system.


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## David Adams (Jan 2, 2012)

Danielle Kazemi said:


> Best month ever. Will it last? Probably not but I will enjoy it while it does. Put a price matched book for free which really helped draw in new readers. Three new novellas too.


I picked up more of your books but haven't found time to read them. Sorry!


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## portiadacosta (Feb 28, 2011)

scottmarlowe said:


> March was actually my best month ever. April, however, is on track to be one of my worst. Sales were chugging along fine until about 1-2 weeks ago when Amazon did *something* to their algorithms such that my books are not getting in front of the "right" people (or so I've surmised based on other discussions going on here).
> 
> It's caused me to re-look beyond Amazon at other retailers.


I think we both noted this on another thread. My April is not as good as March so far. Was on course until that *something*, then it stuttered. I'm definitely grateful for sales via Smashwords at other venues. And at ARe, although sales there have frozen too, since they had some kind of maintenance glitch.


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## portiadacosta (Feb 28, 2011)

jillmyles said:


> Why is it rigged? Everyone's sales are sucking madly right now. Mine are less than half of what they normally are. You just keep going and hoping things will pick up.


It's all we can do. Keep chugging along, writing new stuff, hoping people will somehow discover older stuff.


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## Amy Corwin (Jan 3, 2011)

The longer I do this, the more I realize that each day is a new day and each month is a new month and what happened last month was unique to last month. Because the market is constantly morphing and there are myriad factors (Amazon changing algorithms, readers' tastes change, seasonal, who knows) I've learned not to bank on what is happening to others or even what happened to me last month or even last week.  In fact, after you get used to the idea, it's really better just not to worry about it and focus on the next project.

You're better off just writing the next book than worrying about the sales of the current one. In a way, trad publishing is better in this way as you can't find out until months or years later, so why fret over it? Just write the next one and do what you can to promote. 

As they say, Don't worry, Be Happy & write the next book.


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

portiadacosta said:


> It's all we can do. Keep chugging along, writing new stuff, hoping people will somehow discover older stuff.


But here is the trick. If their algorithms are intentionally hide your books, you may write even thousand, you won't be noticed at all. This practice is good for one thing; you write something original, but people won't notice it at all because of these algorithms. And this is the moment when American publishers used to make a copy-paste product from the original, but unknown one and sell it as a "whoa-de-original" storyline as Americans won't notice the difference at all as they never heard about the original (Hunger Games is one example, but Europeans can name a lot more which had the very same fate, because of similar practices. Actually this was the primary lesson what my American mentor have taught to me; always be vigilant if you want to keep your franchise.).


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

> You just keep going and hoping things will pick up.


Or as Heinlein put it, "Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet, you can't win."



> If their algorithms are intentionally hide your books, you may write even thousand, you won't be noticed at all. This practice is good for one thing; you write something original, but people won't notice it at all because of these algorithms.


The thing is that some people are still selling. There's not a blatant and obvious "rigging of the game" here, the way there was when B&N added a thousand to erotica writers' rankings and frankly admitted they'd done so. It's not clear what's going on, but right now I don't think we have enough evidence to say that Amazon is deliberately rigging the store against indies (unless I've missed something, which is always possible). It does seem like they're messing around with the algorithms, but they may shift them back, for all I know.

My March and April have both sucked, and I'm being stymied in an effort to reach other markets by the fact that iTunes just does not seem to be getting new stuff up right now. But I'll keep plugging away. Gotta get that kid through college somehow...


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## AnneMarie Novark (Aug 15, 2010)

Amy Corwin said:


> The longer I do this, the more I realize that each day is a new day and each month is a new month and what happened last month was unique to last month. Because the market is constantly morphing and there are myriad factors (Amazon changing algorithms, readers' tastes change, seasonal, who knows) I've learned not to bank on what is happening to others or even what happened to me last month or even last week.  In fact, after you get used to the idea, it's really better just not to worry about it and focus on the next project.
> 
> You're better off just writing the next book than worrying about the sales of the current one. In a way, trad publishing is better in this way as you can't find out until months or years later, so why fret over it? Just write the next one and do what you can to promote.
> 
> As they say, Don't worry, Be Happy & write the next book.


Amy, I really like this advice; I'm going to take it to heart. I believe it's time for an attitude adjustment on my part. I'm already a firm believer of _*writing the next book as being the best kind of promotion*_. Now, I just need to stop obsessing over sales or lack there of, and get back to BICHOK.

Thanks for the wise words of experience.


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## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

Guardian said:


> But here is the trick. If their algorithms are intentionally hide your books, you may write even thousand, you won't be noticed at all. This practice is good for one thing; you write something original, but people won't notice it at all because of these algorithms. And this is the moment when American publishers used to make a copy-paste product from the original, but unknown one and sell it as a "whoa-de-original" storyline as Americans won't notice the difference at all as they never heard about the original (Hunger Games is one example, but Europeans can name a lot more which had the very same fate, because of similar practices. Actually this was the primary lesson what my American mentor have taught to me; always be vigilant if you want to keep your franchise.).


The system doesn't need to be rigged to hide books; it occurs naturally. There are hundreds of thousands of titles in the Kindle store, all of which cannot be promoted equally. The algos reward good positioning and good sales by providing better positioning and more sales. That's it. There is no conspiracy to suppress brilliant books from European authors.

As long as you position yourself well on Amazon, create a good product, and continue publishing, you'll find that you'll sell more, one way or another.


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## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

Guardian said:


> But here is the trick. If their algorithms are intentionally hide your books, you may write even thousand, you won't be noticed at all.


Of course the inventory in Amazon is manipulated. Just like every vendor everywhere manipulates inventory. When a publisher is able to buy placement on a front-of-store table or buy a dump or window placement, that's manipulation. When a sales rep goes in and personally convinces a bookseller to buy a greater number of one title than another, that's manipulation. When an author buys an advertisement or uses free as a tool to garner more sales, that's manipulation. When Amazon reorganizes its "display tables" or tweaks its algorithms to sell more books, that's manipulation.

When an author thinks a multi-billion-dollar company is manipulating the inventory just to keep his or her special-snowflake title from being seen? That's paranoia.

If you truly believe Amazon is out to suppress your vision, Guardian, try this one experiment: Drop the price of your $8.88 novel on Amazon to 99 cents, run a free promo for 1 or 2 days and notify all the freebook sites a week ahead of time and tweet to the freebook list the day of the promo, buy an ad on KND to ensure your book gets advertised there even if it doesn't get picked up anywhere else, then see whether or not you sell any copies.

And no, don't complain about selling your book for 99 cents for a week if you're not selling any copies now on Amazon at $8.88. You're not going to lose sales or money, but you will find out whether having the book at that price with you being an unknown author is the issue or whether Amazon is indeed targeting you and your book personally. Besides, if your theory is correct and Amazon is deliberately suppressing sales of your book, you still won't sell any copies, even at 99 cents.

The only way to prove a theory is to test it against ALL known variables. So go prove your theory.


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## SentientSurfer (Sep 20, 2011)

March was great for me but April has been just sad.

I can't get any traction with my latest Select Promos and worry that ship has sailed.

Back to finishing that next novel. . . .


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## daveconifer (Oct 20, 2009)

Guardian said:


> But here is the trick. If their algorithms are intentionally hide your books, you may write even thousand, you won't be noticed at all. This practice is good for one thing; you write something original, but people won't notice it at all because of these algorithms. And this is the moment when American publishers used to make a copy-paste product from the original, but unknown one and sell it as a "whoa-de-original" storyline as Americans won't notice the difference at all as they never heard about the original (Hunger Games is one example, but Europeans can name a lot more which had the very same fate, because of similar practices. Actually this was the primary lesson what my American mentor have taught to me; always be vigilant if you want to keep your franchise.).


Just out of curiosity, what was the original "Hunger Games" that was copied? I'd like to check that out...


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## cblewgolf (Jan 3, 2011)

Wish there was a "Like" button on here, Phoenix  .


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

Phoenix Sullivan said:


> If you truly believe Amazon is out to suppress your vision, Guardian, try this one experiment: Drop the price of your $8.88 novel on Amazon to 99 cents, run a free promo for 1 or 2 days and notify all the freebook sites a week ahead of time and tweet to the freebook list the day of the promo, buy an ad on KND to ensure your book gets advertised there even if it doesn't get picked up anywhere else, then see whether or not you sell any copies.


I have six books out there, not one. Each of them tried various prices, from Free to $8.88 and none of them worked at Amazon. Right now the prices are ranged between $1.33 - $4.99 (The $4.99 sells everywhere else for $8.88.).



> When an author thinks a multi-billion-dollar company is manipulating the inventory just to keep his or her special-snowflake title from being seen? That's paranoia.


I've see enough similar practices from various multi-billion-dollar companies, so what you call as paranoia, I call it as an existing reality.



smreine said:


> There is no conspiracy to suppress brilliant books from European authors.


Well, somehow we see this otherwise. Somehow every "accidentally hidden" European or Asian books used to appear as an American "original story" five to ten years after the release of the original one, where an until that time no-name American author, out of nowhere, is releasing the very same book with some minor changes.



> As long as you position yourself well on Amazon, create a good product, and continue publishing, you'll find that you'll sell more, one way or another.


If the algorithms don't let you to position yourself, what would you do? I have an original product, world and storyline, and based on the reviews, it's also a good and beautifully written product (As almost every single review write this tiny detail, something what very few books used to get from readers.) I also continue publishing, but when algorithms are presumably holding the sales and the visibility of the books back, what would you do, huh?


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

daveconifer said:


> Just out of curiosity, what was the original "Hunger Games" that was copied? I'd like to check that out...


Battle Royale by Koushun Takami, published in 1999. It's a cult book in Europe and Asia, but most of the Americans never heard about it and that's why you believe it's a "whoa-de-original" storyline. But even the logo is circle shaped in both as seemingly the cover designers had no better idea.


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

Guardian said:


> Battle Royale by Koushun Takami, published in 1999. It's a cult book in Europe and Asia, but most of the Americans never heard about it and that's why you believe it's a "whoa-de-original" storyline.


_Battle Royale_ is an awesome read, but it's not for everyone, especially those who don't care for squeamish material, because nothing is held back. The move version is entertaining enough for those who like dark horror with a Japanese flair, but I felt the novel was more realistic, making it more frightening.


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## daveconifer (Oct 20, 2009)

Guardian said:


> Battle Royale by Koushun Takami, published in 1999. It's a cult book in Europe and Asia, but most of the Americans never heard about it and that's why you believe it's a "whoa-de-original" storyline.


I see the obvious common element (although I haven't read Hunger Games or seen the movie). I wonder if the story arc gets beyond the fighting on the island, or maybe the blurb just isn't very good.

At any rate, it's currently #454 in the Amazon store so I wouldn't say that nobody's ever heard of it...


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

Phoenix Sullivan said:


> When an author thinks a multi-billion-dollar company is manipulating the inventory just to keep his or her special-snowflake title from being seen? That's paranoia.


Well, I think you're full of ...

Hold on a sec.

Ulp! Sorry, got to go. There are black helicopters hovering above my place, and each has the word "Amazon" stamped on its side.


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

Amazon is totally out to get us Canadian authors, too! They think we all live in igloos and say funny words like igloos. 

EVIL


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## yomamma (Feb 10, 2011)

Krista D. Ball said:


> Amazon is totally out to get us Canadian authors, too! They think we all live in igloos and say funny words like igloos.
> 
> EVIL


You're not Canadian, Krista. You had two sentences and neither one mentioned beer or hockey, and they didn't end with 'eh'.


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## MegSilver (Feb 26, 2012)

Krista D. Ball said:


> Amazon is totally out to get us Canadian authors, too! They think we all live in igloos and say funny words like igloos.
> 
> EVIL, ya' hoser.


fixt


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

You folks know that Canadians don't actually say hoser, right?

Beer and hockey? We're totally guilty of that.


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## EveLanglais (Nov 29, 2010)

Krista D. Ball said:


> You folks know that Canadians don't actually say hoser, right?
> 
> Beer and hockey? We're totally guilty of that.


Don't forget the poutine. Gotta have my poutine.


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

Poutine and Tim Hortons is Canadian.

Oh, and Republic of Doyle.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Krista D. Ball said:


> Poutine and Tim Hortons is Canadian.
> 
> Oh, and Republic of Doyle.


We don't believe you're Canadian until you end every sentence with 'eh'. And *cough* Canadians are nice and easy going. They never pick a fight, ya know? 

Edit: Back on topick, my sales have slumped since the beginning of the year, but nowhere near my worst month ever. *bangs, kicks and thumps on wood*


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## Glen Krisch (Dec 21, 2010)

Amazon buries originality? Doesn't that oppose the whole reason they so dominate the marketplace--the long tail? If an idea is worthy of garnering attention (if the indie author takes all the proper professional steps to warrant such exposure), then it will find its audience. If an idea doesn't sell a lot of copies, the small audience _is_ its audience.

So what I'm getting at is: be happy with your audience, make changes to get the audience you think you deserve, or stop trying.


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

JRTomlin said:


> We don't believe you're Canadian until you end every sentence with 'eh'. And *cough* Canadians are nice and easy going. They never pick a fight, ya know?


I'm a Newfie. We're always looking for a scrap.



> Edit: Back on topick, my sales have slumped since the beginning of the year, but nowhere near my worst month ever. *bangs, kicks and thumps on wood*


March was my best month for my DIY. I sold a lot more short stories than usual.


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## Steverino (Jan 5, 2011)

Krista D. Ball said:


> EVIL


Love this.
It's been a slow month for me, so I'm sucking it up and writing more.


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

Glen Krisch said:


> Amazon buries originality? Doesn't that oppose the whole reason they so dominate the marketplace--the long tail? If an idea is worthy of garnering attention (if the indie author takes all the proper professional steps to warrant such exposure), then it will find its audience. If an idea doesn't sell a lot of copies, the small audience _is_ its audience.


Or someone deliberately do this to keep the audience small for certain books. I can tell few strange stories if you want. But let me ask you one another question; have you heard about successful, non U.S. or U.K. authors on Amazon, be it indie or traditional? Because I never heard about a single one. Italian? French? German? Polish? Russian? Japanese? Many from these nations are writing in English and most of them are writing very original and good stories. Or has very good translations. So, where are they? I find it really strange that only U.S. and U.K. named authors are on the top of Amazon's Top 100 list. Not a single foreign names. On B&N I already found one on Page 1. On Smashwords I also found one on Page 2 or 3. On Lulu, I also found at least one between the bestsellers. But on Amazon? Not a single one in the first 100, not even beyond. One of my books has also reached the freebie best seller status once, for a day, then all my downloads, all my sales have suddenly stopped, then the next freebie download days had only 21 and 10 downloads, no more (I'm Hungarian by the way.).


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## Beatriz (Feb 22, 2011)

MartinWrites said:


> March is looking like being my worst sales month since I launched my first title. Anyone else experiencing a similar slump? Equally, anyone have any good ideas for reversing the trend that haven't already been discussed to the nth degree?


March was good for me but April is looking poor so far. We'll see what happens this last week.


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## EC Sheedy (Feb 24, 2011)

Guardian said:


> Battle Royale by Koushun Takami, published in 1999. It's a cult book in Europe and Asia, but most of the Americans never heard about it and that's why you believe it's a "whoa-de-original" storyline. But even the logo is circle shaped in both as seemingly the cover designers had no better idea.


Color me dense. (I'm used to it  ) But what does "whoa-de-original" mean? I've never heard this expression before.

And because this thread is about sales, I'll add that my April is so ho-hum I've stopped checking sales.


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## JRainey (Feb 1, 2011)

EC Sheedy said:


> And because this thread is about sales, I'll add that my April is so ho-hum I've stopped checking sales.


Same here! It's almost nice... until I remember *why* I'm not checking sales.


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

April is turning out to be much, much slower than March was.  No idea why.


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

EC Sheedy said:


> Color me dense. (I'm used to it  ) But what does "whoa-de-original" mean? I've never heard this expression before.


It's coming from a negative experience what I lived during a conference back in 2004 or 2005. An American screenwriter tried to sell an ultra copy-cat story as sooooo original. That story wasn't known in the U.S. either, but was well known in Europe again. What was worse, he believed I was from France. So he tried to sell that copy-cat with the worst played French accent I ever heard, and he said; "My concept is Whoa-de-Original". So, since that time I use this as an expression for copy-cat stories.


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## George Berger (Aug 7, 2011)

Guardian said:


> find it really strange that only *U.S. and U.K. named authors* are on the top of Amazon's Top 100 list. Not a single foreign names.


And we all know, of course, that people _never_ write under pen names...

Ever read any books by Robin Hobb? Seen them in a bookstore? On Amazon? She was born the somewhat scandinavian-sounding Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden.

Ever read a book by Kate Elliott? She was a finalist for the Nebula, several years back. Her legal name is the slightly less-scandinavian Alis Rasmussen.

There was a dude once named Józef Korzeniowski. You might know him, under a pseudonym, as the guy who wrote _Heart of Darkness_, which many American schoolchildren are made to read.

Want some German-sounding people? Alissa Rosenbaum might be better known than Stanley Lieber, who is in turn a bit better known than fantasist Fritz Lieber (no relation). Of course, the first two used "U.S. and U.K. names", while the latter stuck with his own name. Maybe that's why Fafhrd is less well-known than Tony Stark...


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

George Berger said:


> And we all know, of course, that people _never_ write under pen names...


But without pen names. On the other sites I found plenty, even in their best seller list. So, following your logic, everyone should deny their name and should use English pen names, so we'll have a chance to stay in Amazon Top 100. Without that, using our original names, don't even count for that. Ha-ha-ha. Joke of the year.


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

Robert J. Sawyer is Canadian and has often topped the 100 list on Amazon.com for SF (for print books, amazon.ca he's been on the top 10 list a few times).

I am Canadian and have been on top 100 lists 3 times on Amazon.


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

Krista D. Ball said:


> Robert J. Sawyer is Canadian and has often topped the 100 list on Amazon.com for SF (for print books, amazon.ca he's been on the top 10 list a few times).
> 
> I am Canadian and have been on top 100 lists 3 times on Amazon.


You still have English names, even if you're a Canadian. That's my point. People without English names... where are they?


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## George Berger (Aug 7, 2011)

Krista D. Ball said:


> Robert J. Sawyer is Canadian and has often topped the 100 list on Amazon.com for SF (for print books, amazon.ca he's been on the top 10 list a few times).
> 
> I am Canadian and have been on top 100 lists 3 times on Amazon.


Yes, Krista, but you have a very U.S. and/or U.K.-sounding name. Which is, obviously, the sole reason you're the rock star that you are today.  If you were Kristall D. Kugel, Amazon would have ruined your life and stolen your teddy bear, or something...


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

Guardian, pardon me, but I'm having a hard time getting your point. Are you trying to suggest that Amazon is deliberately keeping "unAmerican" or "unEnglish" names out of the bestseller list? As in, they are deliberately rigging the algorithms to discriminate against certain sorts of author names?


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

Lee Arthur Chane (Canadian, not his real name) - also on the top 100 list for a while
Gabriel García Márquez was in the top 100 lists for a while (and might still be)

I can keep going...

Your books aren't selling because, well, there's been entire threads fighting with you over this. So, really, until you're willing to listen, there's no point in talking.


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

George Berger said:


> Yes, Krista, but you have a very U.S. and/or U.K.-sounding name. Which is, obviously, the sole reason you're the rock star that you are today.  If you were Kristall D. Kugel, Amazon would have ruined your life and stolen your teddy bear, or something...


*snort*

If I ever write historical romance, it will be under the name Kristyna D. Koule, my name in Czech. Still too English?


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

I'll play... Here's an obvious one:

Stieg Larsson

I know you won't accept this, but have you considered that it's not conspiracy, but a game of percentages. How many UK/US authors have books on Amazon? What percentage of overall books do they represent?


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## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

Guardian said:


> You still have English names, even if you're a Canadian. That's my point. People without English names... where are they?


Let's say this is true. That having an un-English name would hurt your sales. That's not an Amazon conspiracy. That's prejudice, plain and simple. So you got choices, I figure. You either do your best to fight the prejudice or you use an Anglicized pen name. Neither are great options, I know.

But I also know writers who are hesitant to put pictures of black women on their book covers, because they know they won't sell as well. Again, prejudice. Choices.

Sucks, but it's not Amazon's fault. It's people.


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

EllenFisher said:


> Guardian, pardon me, but I'm having a hard time getting your point. Are you trying to suggest that Amazon is deliberately keeping "unAmerican" or "unEnglish" names out of the bestseller list? As in, they are deliberately rigging the algorithms to discriminate against certain sorts of author names?


Something like that. At least that's my observation. It's like the reserved place for Hunger Games trilogy is in the Top #1, #2, #3 and #4, but only on Amazon. If something is a true best seller, that one used to be best seller everywhere, not just on one site. But you won't find Hunger Games anywhere near the best seller list on B&N, Lulu, Baker and Taylor, Smashwords, etc, etc...


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

valeriec80 said:


> Let's say this is true. That having an un-English name would hurt your sales. That's not an Amazon conspiracy. That's prejudice, plain and simple. So you got choices, I figure. You either do your best to fight the prejudice or you use an Anglicized pen name. Neither are great options, I know.


Then how is it possible that I can't find foreign authors in the Top 100 only on Amazon? And yep, I know there is a prejudice against foreign authors. It's hard to forget. But I won't change my name just to impress some people.


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## George Berger (Aug 7, 2011)

Krista D. Ball said:


> If I ever write historical romance, it will be under the name Kristyna D. Koule, my name in Czech. Still too English?


Too pronounceable, I think. Kryštál D. Klbko, on the other hand... or Pha Lê D. Quả Bóng, perhaps.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

The Hunger Games books are in the top 10 on Barnes and Noble. You won't find them on Lulu or Smashwords because they aren't self-published.


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## amiblackwelder (Mar 19, 2010)

I made half in that month what I made in Feb...but taxes come in April, so business is always slower those months


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

Monique said:


> The Hunger Games books are in the top 10 on Barnes and Noble. You won't find them on Lulu or Smashwords because they aren't self-published.


Sorry, true. I haven't checked the right side, where it's hided on B&N.


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

Krista D. Ball said:


> Your books aren't selling because, well, there's been entire threads fighting with you over this. So, really, until you're willing to listen, there's no point in talking.


You fought, not me. Yes, you guys gave me advice regarding my books, and as we've seen none of you read a single line from it at all, but gave advices blindly. I remember that clearly. So, why should I listen when most of you gave advices without any knowledge, without reading anything from my works, just to lecture me?


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Many people gave you examples from your work. Perhaps, you should revisit those threads to refresh your memory.

The bottom line here though seems to be that no matter what evidence is presented to counter your conspiracy theory, you are unwilling to let it go. There's no point in discussing it or trying to convince you otherwise when you disregard anything anyone says that doesn't fit you world view. 

Good luck.


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

Monique said:


> Many people gave you examples from your work. Perhaps, you should revisit those threads to refresh your memory.


Perhaps you really should, because as far as I recall some did AFTER I told them to at least read it before giving any advice. After that, of course they've found mistakes, what even wasn't mistakes at all, but that's a different story.



> The bottom line here though seems to be that no matter what evidence is presented to counter your conspiracy theory, you are unwilling to let it go. There's no point in discussing it or trying to convince you otherwise when you disregard anything anyone says that doesn't fit you world view.


Sorry, but I'm not an American to stay silent in every single case, let my work to be trashed and let everything go. Maybe it's working where you live, but it doesn't work where I live.


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

> As in, they are deliberately rigging the algorithms to discriminate against certain sorts of author names?





> Something like that. At least that's my observation.


Okay. Thanks for the clarification. I think that tells me all I need to know. I agree with Monique; I see no point in discussing this further. Conspiracy theories aren't really worth debating.


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

EllenFisher said:


> Conspiracy theories aren't really worth debating.


Well, it's unfortunate that they aren't worth debating in the U.S. In Europe we still love to ask questions when we feel the necessity of it, when we feel that something is not right. Well, we love to look for answers and we don't label it automatically as a conspiracy theory when someone have a different opinion and the answer doesn't ring right to our ears. But we live in two different cultures. I have to accept that.


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## NS (Jul 8, 2011)

I've never connected my name to sales... I don't think Mainak Dhar's name affected his sales in any way.


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## BrianKittrell (Jan 8, 2011)

Guardian said:


> Then how is it possible that I can't find foreign authors in the Top 100 only on Amazon? And yep, I know there is a prejudice against foreign authors. It's hard to forget. But I won't change my name just to impress some people.


Mainak Dhar (spelling?) was selling rather well at one point at least. He's a non-U.S./non-U.K. writer (I think he's from India, but I'm not going to say I know 100% for sure if that's the case). His name, to me, doesn't sound U.S./U.K./English, and he wrote and published under his real name. You can look him up on Amazon to see current rankings and stats. I think he lists his sales or profits somewhere publicly.

To suggest that people have prejudices would be correct. Whether you like it or not, everyone has some kind of prejudice based on their own life experience. Readers are people, and their prejudices and life experience will affect their decision-making in some way or another--whether it's a purchasing decision or what they might do or where they might go for the day.

It's not a conspiracy. It's human nature. And Amazon lists books for sale by sales rank (and a few other factors). These books remain on the bestseller lists because people are buying them.

Even Amazon does promotions for its own books to get them to rise up the sales rank. They drop some slow movers to $0.99 and send out promotional emails, put up ads, etc. Whatever it takes. Why would they do this if they can just hit the "I Win!" button and lock something at a specific sales rank?


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

I AM NOT AMERICAN. The most offensive thing you can say to the Canadian is referring to us as Americans. So, with that in mind:

Amazon is not suppressing you.​
Further, I am a huge critic of Americans who insist on things being "their" way (i.e. insisting on referring to the _First Nations_ peoples in my books as _American Indian_s - even after I say, no, that isn't correct). I'm a huge critic of Americans who give bad reviews for books that don't use American spelling.

These are well established traits I have, which many people on KB can attest.

Now, I say all that...and I'm saying that no, Amazon is NOT suppressing the works of those with non-American or Uk, or non-English names. Your work is not being suppressed. It's simply not drawing a readership. There is a rather large difference.


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## jnfr (Mar 26, 2011)

Amazon is in the business of selling people whatever people want to buy. Their only interest is in promoting things that sell.


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

> Well, we love to look for answers and we don't label it as a conspiracy theory when the answer doesn't ring right to our ears.


Put it this way-- can you prove it? When B&N added a thousand to every erotica author's ranking to knock them off the bestseller list, it was hard to miss the pattern-- it was unmistakable. They then actually acknowledged they'd done it. That was fact. Unless you have hard facts, then there's simply nothing to discuss. You could be right. You could be wrong. Without data, there's just no point in further discussion, IMHO.

My point is, no one's stopping you from looking for answers. Feel free. But I don't see the point in discussing it with you unless you actually have facts to support your assertions. If you're looking for facts to bolster your theory, then why not start a thread specifically on the topic, so as not to derail this one further? There may be other authors who've noticed the same pattern and would love to discuss it, but they won't know to look in this particular thread for the discussion.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Dhar's results were excellent even if his methods were not.

But really, don't bother trying to convince Guardian of, well, anything. He's shown that he's not the least bit interested in any sort of logical discussion.


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

BrianKittrell said:


> To suggest that people have prejudices would be correct. Whether you like it or not, everyone has some kind of prejudice based on their own life experience. Readers are people, and their prejudices and life experience will affect their decision-making in some way or another--whether it's a purchasing decision or what they might do or where they might go for the day.


Well, I'm talking about this. So it's existing, just as I thought. Thank you very much for the confirmation.



Krista D. Ball said:


> Now, I say all that...and I'm saying that no, Amazon is NOT suppressing the works of those with non-American or Uk, or non-English names. Your work is not being suppressed. It's simply not drawing a readership. There is a rather large difference.


Well, I've seen enough strange things from Amazon in the last months (Before someone would ask for proof, I can send various snapshots about those incidents.). And not I'm the only one who said that my works are presumably suppressed by some unknown reason. As one of my books hit the best seller list, then suddenly everything has stopped. Sales, downloads, everything. On the first three KDP days I had more than 1000 downloads. Then as it hit the best seller list, everything has stopped and do you know how many downloads my book got, regardless of the marketing? 21+10 under two days. So, I find this very strange, so as I can't sell a single book for 0.99, not even for 4.99 on Amazon, but I can sell it everywhere else on a higher price? Nah, strange things are happening, but this is too strange.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

So, how're your sales doing, everyone?


Betsy


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

Betsy the Quilter said:


> So, how're your sales doing, everyone?
> 
> 
> Betsy


I had a great short story month in March, Betsy!


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## George Berger (Aug 7, 2011)

If we assume for a moment that you are correct, and that Amazon are systematically perpetrating a policy of xenophobic discrimination against all authors whose pen names are insufficiently American or British, as you attest to be the case; if we accept that this is the primary reason why your books have not become the bestsellers on Amazon that you clearly think they were destined to be; and if we accept, as you insist, that it is only Amazon which displays this behavior, that Barnes and Noble, Lulu, et cetera are free of guilt in this matter, allowing books to achieve their true potential regardless of the ethnicity of the name on the cover, then surely, _surely_, you must be doing demonstrably better at those other sites than at Amazon, right? Because Amazon have it in for you, the evil, ruthless, no-goodniks that they are, after all.

Amazon: #373,671 Paid in Kindle Store
Barnes and Noble: Sales rank: 921,570

Drat. It's almost like your conspiracy theory is completely unfounded in reality, or something...


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

> So, how're your sales doing, everyone?


I've still got one (an erotic romance) doing well. The rest are sinking fast. So I'm going to do the logical thing and get a couple more erotic romances up this next month.

Also, I've sold fifty copies of one book in Germany over the past two months. That's a record for me!


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

EllenFisher said:


> I've still got one (an erotic romance) doing well. The rest are sinking fast. So I'm going to do the logical thing and get a couple more erotic romances up this next month.
> 
> Also, I've sold fifty copies of one book in Germany over the past two months. That's a record for me!


Wow. 50 in Germany? That's fantastic.


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

Uuuuuuuuuuuultra slow, Betsy. Thanks for asking. Two is at the 700k barrier, one is following the traveled distance of MSL Curiosity, around 370k. 

Ellen. Check your mail.


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

> Ellen. Check your mail.


To reiterate what I said earlier, I suggest starting a thread on the topic so that you can discuss this matter with people who are interested in it. I don't mean to be discourteous, but I don't think I'm adequately interested in the topic. But if it is really a problem, surely others have noticed and would like to discuss it on a dedicated thread.



> Wow. 50 in Germany? That's fantastic.


Yes, over two months, all on a book I had free through Select. My other free books, however, haven't sold at all in Germany after coming off free status. It's a colonial American romance; maybe historical romances happen to be popular over there?


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## jnfr (Mar 26, 2011)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> So, how're your sales doing, everyone?
> 
> 
> Betsy


I continue to be a "Successful Indie". Thanks for asking, Betsy, you're always so nice.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Krista D. Ball said:


> I had a great short story month in March, Betsy!


I have another of yours in my 800-book To-Be-Read list, Krista. But this month I'm not reading Canadian authors. 

Betsy


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

Betsy the Quilter said:


> I have another of yours in my 800-book To-Be-Read list, Krista. But this month I'm not reading Canadian authors.
> 
> Betsy


That's good. I needed something to feel oppressed by. Skanky cover art and Amazon conspiracy theories just doesn't get me going like it used to.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> So, how're your sales doing, everyone?
> 
> 
> Betsy


Betsy is conspiring against me. I posted an answer and she disappeared it with her Super-Quilter power!

Considering my whining about Select, I'm not doing that badly on sales; however, I tend to have realistic expectations. One of these days if I ever get a novel in the Top 100, I'll die of shock. I have three novels below 20K and for me that's not terrible. I miss the day when I had several around 5K but still...

Really not terrible especially since one is my newest novel.


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## Phyllis Lily Jules (Dec 5, 2011)

I've been published for almost four months now, and every month gets better and better. March was a big leap, then April's one free day was stunning, with lots of sales the following two weeks. It's dried up a bit in the last few days, but I'm going free later this week, so we'll see how that goes. I'm very happy being in select. And here.

Guardian, I had two of your books on my kindle to be read (which is a third of your books). I got them for the gorgeous covers, which I think you did, and the intriguing storyline. But your conversations here haven't helped you with me. I know you've said I'm just one of the billion of possible readers for your work, so who cares if you lose me, but you don't really know how many readers you might be losing behind the scenes. I'm vocal, but how many aren't? Maybe your sales will pick up if you quit blowing things off as invalid, persecuting, oblivious, and naive. I'm none of those things, and probably would have been a good reader for you, back before all these dismal threads of yours. Why don't you step back a bit and reconsider?


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

JRTomlin said:


> Betsy is conspiring against me. I posted an answer and she disappeared it with her Super-Quilter power!


While I've been known to use my super powers on you, JRT, I don't believe I've used them in this thread so far....

Betsy


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> While I've been known to use my super powers on you, JRT, I don't believe I've used them in this thread so far....
> 
> Betsy


Huh. So you say, but I clicked on 'post'. I know I did. *squinty-eye look*

Sounds like a conspiracy of Super Powers to me.

(You do know I'm joking, right?  )


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

JRTomlin said:


> Huh. So you say, but I clicked on 'post'. I know I did. *squinty-eye look*
> 
> Sounds like a conspiracy of Super Powers to me.
> 
> (You do know I'm joking, right?  )


I thought maybe you were gaslighting me....


Back to discussing "Worst Month Ever."

Betsy


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## Rykymus (Dec 3, 2011)

April is my best month yet, although it did stop growing around tax time.

Guardian: I am neither agreeing or disagreeing with you. And I know nothing of your work so I shall refrain from commenting. But I have to wonder, if indeed what you say is true, then why not just play the system, appear to be an "acceptable" author so that Amazon won't discriminate against you. I mean, its about selling books, isn't it? I know it is to Amazon. I mean, if you're looking for literary recognition, you're on the wrong publishing platforms. Digital publishing is where writers go to sell books, not seek critical acclaim.

Also, is there some law I don't know about that requires Amazon to give everyone the same and equal treatment? It's their company, isn't it? I know that if I was running an ice cream shop and strawberry was selling better than vanilla, I'd push the strawberry and make more money.


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2012)

Rykymus said:


> Guardian: I am neither agreeing or disagreeing with you. And I know nothing of your work so I shall refrain from commenting. But I have to wonder, if indeed what you say is true, then why not just play the system, appear to be an "acceptable" author so that Amazon won't discriminate against you. I mean, its about selling books, isn't it? I know it is to Amazon. I mean, if you're looking for literary recognition, you're on the wrong publishing platforms. Digital publishing is where writers go to sell books, not seek critical acclaim.


Why don't I play the system? #1, because I won't change anything in my books to impress Amazon, especially as they're the retailer, not a publisher. #2, because I'm not worshiping companies. #3, because I'm not a droid to play any system blindly, without taking up questions when I have to. Also critical acclaim, literary recognition and sales are not drawing out each other. At least not where I live.



> Also, is there some law I don't know about that requires Amazon to give everyone the same and equal treatment? It's their company, isn't it?


It's called as basic business etiquette, business code. If you're a retailer, you should give the same chances for everyone (Otherwise your system is corrupt and manipulated.). Free race, based on equal chances is one of the key elements of Capitalism.


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## Rykymus (Dec 3, 2011)

If you actually think that any corporation got to the top by being fair to everyone it dealt with, then you really don't understand capitalism, especially not American capitalism. I'm not saying it's right. But if you think you know the way that someone is playing the game, and you refuse to play by their rules, then you will loose, plain and simple.

I'm out.  Who's next?


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## Guest (Apr 25, 2012)

Rykymus said:


> If you actually think that any corporation got to the top by being fair to everyone it dealt with, then you really don't understand capitalism, especially not American capitalism. I'm not saying it's right. But if you think you know the way that someone is playing the game, and you refuse to play by their rules, then you will loose, plain and simple.


See? This is the reason I won't worship companies as I do know what American Capitalism is all about. And here is a hint; the problem is that I never loose. Plain and simple.


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## James Roy Daley (Dec 10, 2010)

My 2¢ - 

Sales have been slow for me for the past few months. Oh well...


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## J. Tanner (Aug 22, 2011)

ON TOPIC: April continues a slow decline from January, but still better than all 2011 months.

OFF TOPIC:



Guardian said:


> Or someone deliberately do this to keep the audience small for certain books. I can tell few strange stories if you want. But let me ask you one another question; have you heard about successful, non U.S. or U.K. authors on Amazon, be it indie or traditional? Because I never heard about a single one. Italian? French? German? Polish? Russian? Japanese? Many from these nations are writing in English and most of them are writing very original and good stories. Or has very good translations. So, where are they? I find it really strange that only U.S. and U.K. named authors are on the top of Amazon's Top 100 list. Not a single foreign names.


In a quick parusal I see...

Madeleine Albright is at 13. (Czech)
Deepak Chopra is at 26 and 40 (India)
Stieg Larsson is at 65 (Sweden)
Daron Acemoğlu is at 76 (Turkey)



> On B&N I already found one on Page 1. On Smashwords I also found one on Page 2 or 3. On Lulu, I also found at least one between the bestsellers.


Smash and Lulu are self-pub only. But who is this foreigner sullying the front page of the BN list? I don't see it. (I need to know where to send the black helicopters... )


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Guardian said:


> See? This is the reason I won't worship companies as I do know what American Capitalism is all about. And here is a hint; the problem is that I never loose. Plain and simple.


American Capitalism as opposed to the sweet, harmounious capitalism practiced in all other nations. 

Yeah, right.

I don't really see how Amazon increases its profits by somehow suppressing or oppressing you or anyone else because of their nationality. But whatever...

Back on topic: So do we agree all agree on something? Worst or not worst?

Oh. Wait. It's KB. Of course, we don't agree.


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## George Berger (Aug 7, 2011)

I'm not having my _worst_ month ever. Merely my worst month since December...

On the positive side, sales _this_ April are, so far, a bit over 1000% better than _last_ April. (Better living through meaningless statistics, yay.)

Of course, I have nine titles for sale now, and had a mere two for sale a year ago, but...


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

Hmm...April is better than January but worse than February and March. I've given up trying to assign any meaning to all this. I'm just prepping my next book for a mid-May release and hoping that one will catch a spark. And even if it doesn't, it's just another one to add to the roster. Enough books with modest sales, and suddenly you're doing pretty well.


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## MonkeyScribe (Jan 27, 2011)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> So, how're your sales doing, everyone?
> 
> 
> Betsy


Mine are doing pretty well, thanks, but I'm an American with an English-sounding name. And when a guy in a ninja costume appeared in my bedroom one night, I didn't ask questions, I just signed the contract. That makes all the difference.


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## BrianKittrell (Jan 8, 2011)

Guardian said:


> See? This is the reason I won't worship companies as I do know what American Capitalism is all about. And here is a hint; the problem is that I never loose. Plain and simple.


If you're so against American capitalism, why are you trying to sell in the American capitalistic market? If you think Amazon is in a conspiracy against you, why do you participate by selling on Amazon?

They're honest questions.

If my morals are against drugs, I don't participate in the drug trade. If I find out a friend is actively working against everything I do, I don't invite them over for movie night. The last I checked, Amazon is an opt-in system, and to be honest, if they didn't want foreign authors participating, they could just turn off certain regions. And if they got any flak for it, they really wouldn't give a d*mn.

For there to be a conspiracy, you have to have at least two parties complicit in an act. If you're suggesting that readers are in a conspiracy not to buy foreign authors.... When I talked about prejudices, I specifically said that each reader makes his choices based upon prejudices (along with a number of other factors). They don't belong to secret clubs and collude not to buy books by authors with certain last names.

Some of those "other factors" I talked about would be:

- Story sample.
- Reviews and feedback.
- Editing quality.
- Grammar and spelling.
- Command of the language.
- Turn of a phrase.
- Plot.
- Sales blurb/pitch/product description.
- Current sales rank (confidence, people like reading popular lit, etc.)
- Exposure.
- Promotion.
- Advertising.
- Publicity.
- Recommendations by friends.

and more.

You can't just hit publish and expect people to buy the book for the sake that you've written it. Playing the Race Card (or is it Ethnic Card, or something else?) here is really absurd. If Amazon disallowed you from publishing, that'd be one thing. That'd be discrimination, but only if you could prove it. They're not stopping anyone from pushing your buy button. It's your job to get more customers to push that thing, not Amazon's. And I guarantee you that if you get people to push that thing, your rankings will go up (or down. Whichever you consider as "getting better").

It takes thousands of sales per day to get in the top 100 (usually) in the Kindle store. It's not based on Amazon-assigned numbers. It's called sales rank for a reason.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

MichaelWallace said:


> Mine are doing pretty well, thanks, but I'm an American with an English-sounding name. And when a guy in a ninja costume appeared in my bedroom one night, I didn't ask questions, I just signed the contract. That makes all the difference.


Wallace is ENGLISH sounding?

*coughs, chokes and hits Michael up side the head*

Big numpty.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Braveheart. I love that movie.


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## BrianKittrell (Jan 8, 2011)

genevieveaclark said:


> Also, Brian Kittrell is being super, SUPER sane. That is a good thing. We should all be sane. Sanity is awesome.


lol You may have seen the post prior to the... landscaping.


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## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

I am also having my worst month since December. Possibly since August, actually.

But my sales are much better than they were last April as well.

Funny the difference a year makes in perception.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Meanwhile, my April is shaping up to be surprisingly good. Whatever Amazon has done to the algorithms must be benefiting me.


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## NoCat (Aug 5, 2010)

March was the worst month I've had in a long time.  Fortunately, April has almost doubled March's sales so far.  Still can't figure out what happened in March, sigh.


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

I've ony sold one in Germany and one in Italy this month. I think I'm being discriminated against for my very English name.


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## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

CoraBuhlert said:


> Meanwhile, my April is shaping up to be surprisingly good. Whatever Amazon has done to the algorithms must be benefiting me.


Exactly. And whatever happens internally on Amazon, the truth remains this:

Some people are doing very well this month. Some people still have BBOSes. This is true of every. single. month.

(There's some serenity prayer thing right? They say it AA... Screw it. Whose first born do I have to sacrifice for an ENT mention of my freebie, hmmm?)


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## Anna K (Jul 2, 2011)

Regarding names on top-selling books, I wonder how many authors with "ethnic" sounding names change them to something more simple and easy to remember, not for fears of prejudice, but for ease of name recognition.  One of the reasons that I decided to go with a pen name was realizing how many of my close friends and coworkers could not remember how to spell my nine-letter long, eastern european-sounding last name.  There was no way that I was putting that whopper on a book.  Google searches, book reviews, and amazon searches would have been a nightmare!  I went for something simple and easy to remember - as a sales strategy.


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## George Berger (Aug 7, 2011)

Anna K said:


> Regarding names on top-selling books, I wonder how many authors with "ethnic" sounding names change them to something more simple and easy to remember, not for fears of prejudice, but for ease of name recognition. One of the reasons that I decided to go with a pen name was realizing how many of my close friends and coworkers could not remember how to spell my nine-letter long, eastern european-sounding last name. There was no way that I was putting that whopper on a book. Google searches, book reviews, and amazon searches would have been a nightmare! I went for something simple and easy to remember - as a sales strategy.


Quite a few, I imagine.

There's at least one review out there of one of my books whose author seems to think my surname is "Gerber". C'mon, six letters, it shouldn't be hard. It's not like my name is Zvyagintsev, or something - that folks can be forgiven for getting wrong. (Although in the pre-digital era, having an uncommon ethnic name might actually been useful. 'Do you have the new book by that Zelazny guy, I think it is?' is a bit more helpful than 'Do you have somebody Johnson's newest? I don't remember their first name. Or was it Johnston? It begins with a J, and his or her last book was blue-ish... but that might just have been the spine.')

_--George, it's not my fault Zbigniew Brzezinski isn't spelled like it sounds..._


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## David Adams (Jan 2, 2012)




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## Guest (Apr 25, 2012)

Anna K said:


> Regarding names on top-selling books, I wonder how many authors with "ethnic" sounding names change them to something more simple and easy to remember, not for fears of prejudice, but for ease of name recognition. One of the reasons that I decided to go with a pen name was realizing how many of my close friends and coworkers could not remember how to spell my nine-letter long, eastern european-sounding last name. There was no way that I was putting that whopper on a book. Google searches, book reviews, and amazon searches would have been a nightmare! I went for something simple and easy to remember - as a sales strategy.


Well, my name is not that hard, regadless if I'm from Hungary. Istvan Szabo. Sometimes I even leave the apostrophes from the A and the O, to make it more easier.). Americans, especially who love movies also used to know this name as it's one of the very few Hungarian name combination that they used to recognize without any problem. The other one is Bela Lugosi, the Dracula himself.  ). So I don't believe that I should change my name as it's very easy to memorize.



BrianKittrell said:


> If you're so against American capitalism, why are you trying to sell in the American capitalistic market? If you think Amazon is in a conspiracy against you, why do you participate by selling on Amazon?


This opinion is slowly formed and took shape since November. I trusted in Amazon, more than I used to trust in any other companies.



> You can't just hit publish and expect people to buy the book for the sake that you've written it.


Like if I wouldn't know. My flagship project had a pretty great advertisement prior the release (What do you think, where from it's fan page got 600+ followers? Many of the two-three book authors has the average of 200 and this book had almost three times more at launch. And FB is just once place where this books is represented.)



> Playing the Race Card (or is it Ethnic Card, or something else?) here is really absurd.


I'm not using it, Brian. I'm a Hungarian. We have pride and honor (Sometimes more than should be, yes, I admit.). But I mention it as a possibility, based on my observation.



> It takes thousands of sales per day to get in the top 100 (usually) in the Kindle store. It's not based on Amazon-assigned numbers. It's called sales rank for a reason.


Yeah, I know and I never counted for thousands of sales and I don't even count for that in the close by future. But a book, which had a strong marketing, has a pretty good website, had few things prior and after the release, and also got pretty good reviews from critiques, has only 10 sales on Amazon since November is pretty strange, don't you think? Check the threads in my signature (Crystal Shade is mostly the one, which met with most of the strange things at Amazon. In it's KD thread's newest entry there is an Intro PDF, which is also presenting every single thing what this book got prior the release as I collected few of the marketing materials and reviews into one promo document and released it.). The Space Angel thread also belongs to that book, so as the store (And Kindleboards is only just one place out of the many where this book was introduced to the people.). Read that thread, that PDF and after that if you still believe I haven't done anything to market this book, but simply just sit back and waited the miracle to happen, please tell me (Even the main character's Curiosity certificate dates back to June 2009, which was two+ years prior the release, as the release was in November 2011.). So, maybe, just maybe I did a lot more than an average author.


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## Guest (Apr 25, 2012)

Thanks David! You just made my day!


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## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

March was actually pretty good for me, and April has been the same. I think this may be due to a new way in which I started using the KDP Select free promotions. I have enough novels and short stories on KDP Select now to offer something for free almost every week of the month, and that seems to be working for me.


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## MonkeyScribe (Jan 27, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> Wallace is ENGLISH sounding?
> 
> *coughs, chokes and hits Michael up side the head*
> 
> Big numpty.


Hmm, did I _really _need to put the <sarcasm> tag in that post?


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## George Berger (Aug 7, 2011)

I've been doing some research, and I think the bias against continental Europe spreads far wider than we'd suspected.

At NBC India, an Amazon-like business serving the Indian subcontinent, their bestseller list is conspicuously absent of people with continental European names. There's Paulo Coelho, but he's from Brazil; Christopher Paolini, but he's a 'merkin; Sophie Kinsella's a pen name of a Brit. Daniel Kahneman? Israeli-American. Everyone else seems to be American or British or Indian, or maybe Pakistani, or possibly Sri Lankan.

It's a conspiracy, I tell you...


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## Guest (Apr 25, 2012)

George Berger said:


> I've been doing some research, and I think the bias against continental Europe spreads far wider than we'd suspected.
> 
> It's a conspiracy, I tell you...


See? Even that bestseller list has plenty foreign authors. But on Amazon's Top 100? Nope, you won't find a single one.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Folks, let's move on.  This thread was about whether April is the worst month ever.  Some discussion on the reasons for this is appropriate, but the current theme has been beaten to death and some of the comments approach piling on, which, as we all know, is not the KindleBoards way.

Thanks.

Betsy


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## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

What's the algorithm for defining "worst" here? Do we give equal weight to # of copies sold, borrowed and freeloaded? How does money made vs price adjustments factor in? And how much weight does rank carry? I say we need to develop a consistent algo to apply equally across our titles -- and then tweak it every couple of weeks to ensure authors can't game it. 

It is, of course, all relative. I have one book (SECTOR C) that hit in the Top 100 this month, but I price-dropped it to get it there. That means that it will do worse this month in royalties than it did in, say, January, when it earned about $4400, but will probably come out ahead of March, when it earned only $1100. It probably won't sell over 2100 copies like it did in January, but it has already sold more than the 800 copies it sold in February, though it won't make as much as Feb's $2K. And it's had fewer freeloads this month than ever. So depending on the criterion, it's either having its best month, its worst month, or something inbetween.

For a second title, Vet Tech Tales, it's been the book's best month yet across all variables except freeloads.

A third title, Spoil, has actually sold fewer copies at Amazon this month than it did in its launch month last April. It's sold far more copies at iTunes compared to the same month last year. It's not in Select, so I could extrapolate and say all titles not in Select are experiencing a sales dip. But, of course, that isn't true. It's just part of the cycle...


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## Coral Moore (Nov 29, 2009)

I've been pretty flat overall since February, which was 10% down from January. I'm not complaining though. 

Interestingly enough, I've seen a bit of a decline at Amazon but an increase at B&N and Smashwords (and their other retailers) that makes up for the difference.


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## BBGriffith (Mar 13, 2012)

Phoenix Sullivan said:


> What's the algorithm for defining "worst" here? Do we give equal weight to # of copies sold, borrowed and freeloaded? How does money made vs price adjustments factor in?


I've often wondered if Amazon gives more weight to a sale at $2.99 than they do a sale at .99. It would make sense. They make more money off the more expensive books.


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

So far April is the worst month I've had on Amazon in a while, but oddly enough it's the _best _month I've had with B&N in a while. This has also been the best quarter I've had with Smashwords (thank you, Sony) in a year.

What strikes me as doubly odd since I've done better on the non-Amazon sites is that during this past quarter I had pulled several titles from the other sites because of Select. Now I'm wondering if I wouldn't have done even better if I hadn't made use of Select.

Ah, live and learn.


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## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

BBGriffith said:


> I've often wondered if Amazon gives more weight to a sale at $2.99 than they do a sale at .99. It would make sense. They make more money off the more expensive books.


I've never seen price affecting the bestselling rankings. Nor have I seen it affecting the indie-friendly popularity list -- not when free can catapult you up to #1. Where I have seen it is in the alsobots in the pre-Select days where it seems Amazon tried to match up price, rank and genre pretty closely with each associated book.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Phoenix Sullivan said:


> I've never seen price affecting the bestselling rankings. Nor have I seen it affecting the indie-friendly popularity list -- not when free can catapult you up to #1. Where I have seen it is in the alsobots in the pre-Select days where it seems Amazon tried to match up price, rank and genre pretty closely with each associated book.


The difference in the profit to Amazon is much less than one would think also. On a 99Cent book Amazon makes about 65 cents. On a $2.99 book it makes about 89 cents. Yes, that is a difference that adds up when you're talking about millions of books, but still not as much difference as one would think..


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