# Going Wide : Sharing Data on Selling Beyond Amazon's KDP Select Program



## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Starting this thread because we all do individual update threads on when we make the transition from KDP exclusive to take advantage of Amazon's programs, to distributing wide. The posts shared will give future authors an idea of what the transition looked like at the time the author moved in the new direction.

When possible, it's helpful to have numbers for comparison, and maybe an explanation of which vendors you are selling books on. 

Here is my first major update:

Due to diminishing borrows, despite adding more books to the KU program, I decided last December to start pulling my books. By end of January, I had 3 titles pulled out, by end of February, I had 5 pulled out. The only book still in KU is my first novel, Cancelled (which sell 2-3 books a month and 2-3 borrows a month, it's mostly just a forgotten book). It comes out in March.

I didn't get A Summer Shame out of KU until February 21. March will be my first month ALL of my historical fiction titles are out.

In February, which was an insane month for me ( first time a book has been #1 in a subgenre for multiple DAYS, yippee), I had 51 borrows still. LOL. Most of those were latent borrows, borrows people made before a book was pulled out. I had 1212  ebook sales on Amazon (not including borrows).

For all other channels, I had 129 sales, with Nook being biggest (79). January's sales on Nook was 35, so I am still growing. Earnings for all other channels on all books was $383.49. The last month of full borrows I had was December where I made $510.51. The fact that my outside venue sales are within $120 of that total, I definitely think I made the right move FOR ME. 

Here are some takeaways:

* It definitely is easier to make money on the other venues when you have a catalog of books. I am still in the one reader at a time mode, where I share my Nook or Apple author page for example on social media every few days, and that's the days I see clicks on the bit.ly and usually 1 sale of a few of my books. In other words, I am reaching a reader or two interested in my titles, and they are buying multiple titles at one time. If I only had one or two books, my earnings would be a third of what I have.

* I saw my Amazon sales rebound to cover the earnings from borrows when I pulled my books out. Because my royalty is higher than the payout, it didn't take the same volume of sales to make the same amount or more in revenue.

* Others have said a free book makes it easier to get traction. I am testing a low cost loss leader, my Christmas novella, that is $1.75, on all vendors. I plan to have another 20k story out at the same price next month. I don't want to do free, but I do agree with the wisdom of an inexpensive way readers can try me out.

THEY say (the trade pubs) that Amazon has roughly 65% of the ebook market. Right now, my other vendor sales are 9% of my total ebook sales, 12% of my total ebook revenue assuming $1.40 for those 51 borrows. I don't think that's too shabby for just two months of an attempt, and not even one month yet of all books out everywhere else. My original plan was to take until June of serious work on my part to sell books everywhere, not just Amazon. I am optimistic that with another $8.24 book releasing next month wide, March or April will see $500+ in other than Amazon ebook sales.

Everyone HAS to make their own decision. I think KU can be great in many situations. I am only sharing this for other authors to see how long it can take and the kind of circumstances it can take to see some return on going wide. I do link to my Rose Room catalog at the back of ALL of my books so readers can easily find the vendor they love best to buy books. I am doing my best to promote my books on all vendors as evenly as possible, but Kindle links do still get top spot when I am making a list.
Modify message


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## SB James (May 21, 2014)

Great analysis!
As for the "Amazon is 65% of all ebook sales," I think that's going to change this year. As I begin reaching out more to my target audience, I'm finding they aren't shopping on Amazon. 
I also believe things are different when you have a loss leader that is still paid as opposed to a permafree book. I recall when The Beginning was still 99 cents. Hardly anyone bought it. Anyone who had bought The Inventor's Son might have seen it and bought it, but that was it. On B&N it was even worse.
Once I had The Inventor's Son out of Select (where in KU, it performed quite badly), it was different. Then, especially once I went wide, The Beginning would get downloaded, then The Inventor's Son would sell--on other sales channels. With Amazon, the permafree does not seem to work as well as it does elsewhere.


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## Guest (Mar 1, 2015)

Adding mine in.

I came out of Select at the end of January 2015 and I just finished February 2015 and this is what I found.

AMAZON
I sold 9.3% more books in February (a 28 day month) than in January.(Not including free, or lends)
I earned 8.6% less in February than January 2015 (I dropped a book to 99c, then free'd it)
My last KUL/KOLL borrow was on the 26th February, a month after leaving KDP Select. (I haven't calculated any income from this)

I unpublished one book in February.

OTHERS
Createspace I sold 100% more paperbacks. (2)
D2D I sold 7 books (5 Free) against 4 books in January.

In addition, I finished the major revamp of my website ready to promote sales from my own platform later in the Spring.
I did various small promotions - one from KB which didn't produce me much, another two from Fiverr, again insignificant results and a couple of email promo's, again, only a small impact on sales.


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## Herc- The Reluctant Geek (Feb 10, 2010)

Sometimes it feels to me like I don't make enough of an effort. To be honest, I took a peek in here because I didn't really understand the title...

Thanks for all the info   It's what make this board a fabulous resource.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Is the new title better? If not, tell me title you want.


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## Guest (Mar 1, 2015)

It should be titled

ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ AMAZON


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## kathrynoh (Oct 17, 2012)

I love being non-exclusive to Amazon. I got out of Select in Oct last year with most of my books and pretty much straight away have been earning more elsewhere (mainly itunes) than on Amazon. In December, KDP was only 30% of my income. I've not noticed a huge drop in my KDP earnings either. I did get a high number of borrows from KOLL on the first couple of months but that soon died out.

The only time I've questioned it was when I released a new book in a new series in December. It never really took off and maybe if I'd done Select for the first 3 monthsthen gone wide with it when I released book 2, I'd have got more momentum. Or maybe not. Maybe the book just didn't resonate with readers.


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## Guest (Mar 1, 2015)

Thank you for sharing. My results have been similar.


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## Guest (Mar 1, 2015)

kathrynoh said:


> I did get a high number of borrows from KOLL on the first couple of months but that soon died out.


I noticed the downloads when I went free on my first book were a humungous 2,000+ the first two days. Now that the serial downloaders are done it's a more healthy 200 D/L's a day. I suspect the borrows/lends are much the same - furious to start with then steady afterwards.



kathrynoh said:


> The only time I've questioned it was when I released a new book in a new series in December. It never really took off and maybe if I'd done Select for the first 3 months then gone wide with it when I released book 2, I'd have got more momentum. Or maybe not. Maybe the book just didn't resonate with readers.


I've had this thought with my latest book that never went into Select. It's not gaining much traction, but I'm going to give it time - it might yet fly.


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## SB James (May 21, 2014)

TobiasRoote said:


> It should be titled
> 
> ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ AMAZON


Yes!
It really is like being freed from book jail.


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## Cactus Lady (Jun 4, 2014)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> * It definitely is easier to make money on the other venues when you have a catalog of books. I am still in the one reader at a time mode, where I share my Nook or Apple author page for example on social media every few days, and that's the days I see clicks on the bit.ly and usually 1 sale of a few of my books. In other words, I am reaching a reader or two interested in my titles, and they are buying multiple titles at one time. If I only had one or two books, my earnings would be a third of what I have.


That's a great idea, to share your author pages at the other sites! I never would have thought of that.

The big thing I've noticed since pulling my two books that were in Select out is the novel, while it was in Select/KU, was getting a regular number of sales followed by returns and then borrows. It's hard to tell, but it looked like people were buying it then returning it so they could borrow it instead. Since coming out of Select, I've run a promo on that same novel and moved a decent number of copies, and not one return on it.


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## sela (Nov 2, 2014)

I started out in KDPS and did really well there for the first two years of my career and even made enough to quit my day job in November 2013 because my Amazon income exceeded my day job income by 50%.

I started pulling out my books from KDPS in April 2014 to go wide with a multi-author boxed set and decided to pull out completely. In the summer I was wide and was doing really well on other retailers due to several Bookbub 99c promotions. Then KU happened and my revenues on Amazon dropped by 50% in the third quarter of 2014 at the time that the Bookbub long tail was starting to wane on the other retailers.

So I panicked. At the time, I decided to go all back in with KDPS and KU. At first, the increased revenues from borrows made up for the loss of income from other retailers, but that soon waned and I saw my income slide to almost half of what it was in Q1 and Q2. OW!

Here's the sad story in Amazon income for 2014:

Q1: $14,318.19 average per month (Jan, Feb, Mar)

Q2: $15,003.88 average per month (Apr, May, June)

Q3: $8,585.10 average per month (July, Aug, Sept)

Q4: $8,892.08 average per month (Oct, Nov, Dec)

I decided to pull out of KDPS for all my full-length books and keep my novella series in KU because it does well there as instalments are 99c and my revenue on Amazon is only $0.34 per sale while it is $1.30+ for borrows. I have 7 novellas in a series in KDPS.

My bestselling series is completely out of KDPS as of January 2015 and sales are starting to pick up on other retailers. I just enrolled the series in Google Play and will see how I do there. My other series which doesn't sell nearly as well is now almost completely out and I just put it on other retailers a few days ago. Haven't made a sale yet but it is not live at all retailers yet. 

I put the first book in my bestselling series free and Amazon price-matched it. I have put the first book in the lower selling series free but it hasn't gone live yet on the other retailers. Will see if having a permafree first book helps this series as it has really languished in terms of sales and revenues. 

Permafree for the first book in the bestselling series is working OK for me but not as well as I hoped. It has been three weeks since I put my book permafree and while I have had 15,000+ free downloads, the increase in sales on the other books in the series has not significantly increased my revenues and the downloads per day has declined. I make more now than when I was in KU or when I had a 99c sale on the first book, but not enough for me to break out the dancing shoes. Maybe my expectations were too high. 

So I am glad I am going into wide distribution as KU was no longer working for me and my revenues declined. I have not had enough time wide to know if going wide will make up the difference.


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## anniejocoby (Aug 11, 2013)

That's a great start, Elizabeth! 

I've posted this before, and it bears repeating: other platforms take patience and time. When I got on those other platforms, I don't think that I did as well as you, Elizabeth. Now, Amazon is around 43% of my income, and shrinking all the time. On my recent BB promo, iBooks surpassed Amazon's sales. 

Here are my .02 on this thread, which I love that you have started:

1) Go direct, and do it in the beginning. I've learned my lesson on that. When I first started, I was looking for a shortcut, so I uploaded through SW and D2D. Then I started making money on those platforms, calculated how much I was losing to the aggregator, and decided to pull my books from the aggregators and upload direct. When I did so, I lost every.single.one.of.my.reviews. That hurt, let me tell you. 

What are the advantages of going direct, besides the obvious (the 10% haircut you get by going through an aggregator)? There are three major benefits. One, you can get on the radar of the company faster than if you have an aggregator, and you can participate in that platform's promotions. Two, you can customize your links. That's a big one for me, personally. Three, if you go direct from the get-go, you don't have to worry about 150 reviews and ratings disappearing overnight (that's what happened to me).  

2) Still upload to D2D, though, because Scribd is unpredictable. Scribd, I admit, was always an after-thought for me. But, for some really odd reason, I have actually started making money there. I made over $300 there in January, and over $250 in February. I think that I made over $200 there in December, too. Have no idea why, but I can only say that I'm glad that I kept my books over there. 

3) Google Play is a slow-burner. I was there for over a year, seeing nothing but coffee money coming in for several months. One month I made $24,500 on all platforms. That same month, I made around $50 on Google Play, LOL. But it started to rise, little by little. This past month, I broke $1,000 there. That's one of those platforms that nothing seems to affect. You just have to have infinite patience, and remember to put your key words into the description. I put mine as a string at the end of my blurb, which looks tacky, no doubt, but there's no other way. 

Those are my takeaways, FWIW. Other platforms can be a REAL boon. I've read other posters on KBoards say that Amazon is becoming a shrinking part of their income, so I'm not the only one making going wide work. But one thing that I would advise against would be to put your books on other platforms, and pull them in a few months because you aren't seeing action. It takes time. 

Also, I would advise finding out what genres do well on these other platforms. It is true that everything is genre specific, and romance, which I write, does tend to do well on all platforms. Some genres might do better in Select than in going wide. I would do your homework before making the leap. 

I wish everyone here luck with going wide! It's worth it, trust me!


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Here is the page I designed for the back of all of my books. It's not perfect, but it works. Eventually, I'd like to fix a few issues and make a separate page per device, but right now that isn't high on the priority list as I have a novel I HAVE to put out next month.

http://www.elizabethannwest.com/roseroom/catalog.html

My design was based on the fact that most readers coming from just finishing my book aren't going to want to sift through pages and pages of my books to find the buy button for THAT book on another vendor. So this brings them to a page where all of my books are advertised with images that slide, and they can just click the button for the place they like to buy books best, or see places they may not have considered. Also, this means I NEVER have to updat links, I ONLY have to add a new image advertiser to the image slideshow when a new book comes out.


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## D-C (Jan 13, 2014)

Here’s mine:

At the end of Jan and into early Feb my UF series (was x3 novels, is now x4 novels) rolled out of KU & KDPS. 

Prior to this I’d been exclusive to Amazon for just over a year (and been publishing for a year). My first in the series was priced on average, at $3.99.  I released a new novel on average every 3-4 months (priced at $4.99). I utilised KDPS countdown deals and ran 99c promos every couple of months. BookBub have yet to accept me, after submitting every month. (I’m wary of putting figures here, but I will say my first in the series sat happily in the 5k rankings for several months in the summer of last year).
When I left KDPS I had 3 full length novels already published and was about to release the fourth. December ‘14 and January ’15 were my slowest months on Amazon since publishing in Feb ‘14 (with my Bk 1 ranking dropping to around 15k-20k). The second week in Feb, I left KDPS, and used D2D to distribute to Apple, Nook, Tolino, Scribd, PageFoundry. I went direct to Kobo. I also set my first book to permafree (I was very hesitant to do this. Nobody likes to give their work away for free, and as it had been doing well as paid, I dragged my feet). 

For the first few days; very little happened. I may have panicked a little. 

Thankfully, I’d scheduled a few promo sites to kick start things: I Love Vampire Novels - ILVN, BKnights, & Freebooksy.

I tracked those promos on Amazon but don’t have the daily data from D2D (I’ve not figured out how to do that yet):

Freebooksy netted me nearly 1500 downloads. 
Bknights was the next day at over 700 copies, and 600 the following day.
ILVN netted me over 800 free downloads.
Fussy Librarian 100 (above the daily average)

The result three weeks on:

Free:
In three weeks, I’ve given away over 10k copies of book 1. This still scares the pants off me.  

Paid:

Buy-through rate across all vendors (those that download the free book and go on to purchase book 2): 10% (When bk 1 was paid, I had an average buy-through of around 70%)

Apple is my second biggest seller, and equates to 30% of my paid sales. I’ve no idea why my series took off in the few weeks it’s been there, but I suspect it had something to do with setting the first book free. For some reason, the series has done exceptionally well in the UK store, with the second in the series being in the paid fantasy bestsellers list next to the likes of George R R Martin. The first book sat at the top of the free fantasy list for almost a week. 

My Amazon sales have rebounded, and my Amazon income is back up to pre-KU levels – helped by publishing two further novels since KU hit.

Nook sees marginal sales at about 4%.

I haven’t shifted anything on the other vendors. Kobo is as dead as the dodo.

I no longer worry about what Amazon will pay me out of the ‘magic pot’ each month, and I have diversity, should something go screwy at Amazon. I have a novella, that I’ve left in KU, because it seems silly to remove a 99c novella, when Amazon pay me over $1 per borrow (I give it away free for my subscribers anyway. This is the kind of daft thinking that drove me nuts while I had my novels in KU).

I’m now looking into going direct with Apple, so I can take advantage of the visibility there. 

What works for me, may not work for you. I write in a popular genre. I have x4 novels out. I’ve just set the first to free. All these variables will affect an author’s income.


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## Cactus Lady (Jun 4, 2014)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> Here is the page I designed for the back of all of my books. It's not perfect, but it works. Eventually, I'd like to fix a few issues and make a separate page per device, but right now that isn't high on the priority list as I have a novel I HAVE to put out next month.
> 
> http://www.elizabethannwest.com/roseroom/catalog.html
> 
> My design was based on the fact that most readers coming from just finishing my book aren't going to want to sift through pages and pages of my books to find the buy button for THAT book on another vendor. So this brings them to a page where all of my books are advertised with images that slide, and they can just click the button for the place they like to buy books best, or see places they may not have considered. Also, this means I NEVER have to updat links, I ONLY have to add a new image advertiser to the image slideshow when a new book comes out.


Wow, that's another great idea! thanks


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## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

I'm pretty new to this but here's my journey so far.

All my books were/are first released into Select. KU was already in place when I started. My 1st book was published in mid-Oct '14.
I was so inspired by this book that I went on to write and publish another 5 books between Oct and early Dec. The last book from my 1st round of releases will drop out of KU tomorrow.

My first 4 books weren't doing well either in terms of sales or in terms of borrows, so I didn't feel nervous about going wide with them. My 1st book fell out of KU in mid Jan but I it was a slow and steep learning curve, so my book didn't quite go wide until early Feb. I'm going to break it down by book since my books span different genres within my niche:

Book #1 (chicken keeping): Dec and Jan both got 1 borrow. Going wide - 1 sale on iTunes. Since it's priced at $3.99, I'm doing better wide so far
eBay #1: 4 borrows in Dec, 7 borrows in Jan., 1 borrow in Feb. Going wide - 1 sale on iTunes (making less going wide but it was sold within 2 weeks)
ebay book #2: 4 borrows in Dec. no sales/borrows in Jan. Sold 2 on iTunes (price is $5.99)
ebay book #3: 2 borrows in Jan. 0 sales on other vendors

Foraging was my biggest seller on amazon and was gaining traction so I was more nervous going wide.
27 borrows in Dec
47 borrows in Jan
42 borrows in Feb (2 weeks)
Going wide: 2 sales @$3.99 on itunes (in 2 weeks)

I'm playing with pricing and promos on the foraging book right now so my numbers will be skewed this month. 
I use D2D for Inktera, iTunes, Scribd., Tolino and sometimes Kobo (if I have problems uploading that title).
I tried uploading to Scribd myself but it didn't process properly. I then found out that you couldn't use the borrow function if you upload directly.
I upload directly onto kobo, Nook and GP. 
So far, I have no sales on any venue other than iTunes. I'm quite hopeful with the iTunes sales so far - 6 sales across 5 books within 2 weeks.

I have all my books with links to all platforms listed on my site http://byjillb.com I have buttons to my author page on each of the platforms on my site footer. I also used affiliate links to each vendor leading to each specific book. 
I used to include amazon links to my other books in my books. However, to make things easier for me when I go wide, I now direct readers to my website for links to my books.

Looking at OP's site, I'm wondering if I should just make giant buttons to each platform on the homepage? It might be more intuitive than having the buttons in the footer?


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## John Ellsworth (Jun 1, 2014)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> Here is the page I designed for the back of all of my books. It's not perfect, but it works. Eventually, I'd like to fix a few issues and make a separate page per device, but right now that isn't high on the priority list as I have a novel I HAVE to put out next month.
> 
> http://www.elizabethannwest.com/roseroom/catalog.html
> 
> My design was based on the fact that most readers coming from just finishing my book aren't going to want to sift through pages and pages of my books to find the buy button for THAT book on another vendor. So this brings them to a page where all of my books are advertised with images that slide, and they can just click the button for the place they like to buy books best, or see places they may not have considered. Also, this means I NEVER have to updat links, I ONLY have to add a new image advertiser to the image slideshow when a new book comes out.


This is great stuff and beautifully done page. I'm marking for when I go wide. Thanks EAW!


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## GoneToWriterSanctum (Sep 13, 2014)

I do not accept VerticalScope's Terms Of Service on Kboards, and have asked for my account to be deleted, along with all of my posts.

If you are here as a result of a Google search, _*leave now*_. The owners of this site are interested only in your possible ad revenue.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

That's  great! My only suggestion would be since the books don't click, to put the buttons top and bottom, and maybe consider down the road some way to visually differentiate them. 

Putting them top and bottom is because on my screen, I couldn't see it all, and when the books didn't click, I didn't know what else to do. If the buy buttons were at the top too, then I could click right away to the vendor I want, or browse your books, and click on the vendor I want at the bottom.

Alternatively, perhaps you could make the list of vendors a vertical menu in the sidebar with your books in the middle. 

I hope I am not offending! It took me ages and headaches to make a design that worked on multiple screens, with lots of readers telling me this didn't work or that didn't work.


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## Herc- The Reluctant Geek (Feb 10, 2010)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> Is the new title better? If not, tell me title you want.


Definitely better 

In my defense, it was 1 am here in the land of Oz and I had been playing a computer game for 12 hrs without a break. Things were a bit _virtual _when I dropped by the boards.


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## GoneToWriterSanctum (Sep 13, 2014)

I do not accept VerticalScope's Terms Of Service on Kboards, and have asked for my account to be deleted, along with all of my posts.

If you are here as a result of a Google search, _*leave now*_. The owners of this site are interested only in your possible ad revenue.


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## GoneToWriterSanctum (Sep 13, 2014)

I do not accept VerticalScope's Terms Of Service on Kboards, and have asked for my account to be deleted, along with all of my posts.

If you are here as a result of a Google search, _*leave now*_. The owners of this site are interested only in your possible ad revenue.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

PERFECT!!! Seeing the buttons works!


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## A past poster (Oct 23, 2013)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> That's great! My only suggestion would be since the books don't click, to put the buttons top and bottom, and maybe consider down the road some way to visually differentiate them.
> 
> Putting them top and bottom is because on my screen, I couldn't see it all, and when the books didn't click, I didn't know what else to do. If the buy buttons were at the top too, then I could click right away to the vendor I want, or browse your books, and click on the vendor I want at the bottom.
> 
> ...


Great idea!!! Thank you for sharing.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

I have March numbers finally. 

I am experimenting with a permafree since March 23 on the first book in The Seasons of Serendipity. I'm not going to lie . . . it's PAINFUL to watch 10,000 copies poof go out the door. I bought advertising on ENT, Bookgorilla, BK Nights and EreaderIQ and got down to the top 100 twice (#81 and #71). 

But, it's also for the greater good, and I'm not just talking about myself. My genre is hopelessly closed gates mentality, and by making my book free, I AM bringing new readers to the genre. I can see this in the 5-star reviews A Winter Wrong is getting from readers who don't have a single other JAFF title in their review history, but other genres in there instead. That's awesome. Of course, the most recent 1 and 2 star reviews come from JAFF readers, my business minded tactics and thinking bigger than just the few JAFF communities have ruffled some feathers of late. A handful of people who thought themselves gatekeepers to the community are NOT liking one bit I have encouraged my author friends to join us in the Janeside, and some bullying occurred, which usually no one talks about, but oh yeah I blogged about it. Because a few people who think JAFF should ONLY be full-length novels and only priced certain prices if you are deemed worthy enough to price that high are not going to intimidate me. I'm "new" but I'm not NEW.  

The readers were floored, but when they went to go see what I was talking about, they understood that that's why our genre has so many authors who do one and done, the onslaught of nastiness some new authors get (usually based on their success) is ridiculous and premeditated and I wouldn't say that lightly. To put this in perspective, this is an entire community of authors who have NEVER heard of Bookbub because they see advertising a book as somehow a dirty thing and they've never NEEDED to advertise. I really wish I was kidding.

So back to results. Good news is sales revenue on OTHER channels rose from 9% in February to a solid 10.8%. That's paperback, kobo, nook, google, and everything not those three on Draft2 digital (apple, scribd, tolino, page foundry). I did exclude sales from my preorder that hit the last day of the month from Amazon's side because the other venues didn't get a preorder so that didn't seem fair to hold that against them.

I released 2 titles at the end of February (23rd) and one title that had 587 preorder March 31. Overall revenue from February to March though increased 222%. I didn't hit 10k yet, but I'm working towards that as a goal. I came in at just a little below $8k for the month total as just raw revenue. That's incredible to me! I wish I got to keep all of that, but there are serious expenses to doing what I'm doing, even with mostly DIY. But after editors, taxes, expenses, and translations, I will be throwing about $3500 to the "paycheck" account. And I will have another release in April (a stand alone novella) and then possibly two books in May. That double release thing definitely bears repeating, things went crazy when I did that . . .

So yes, where I'm standing right now I feel like I have made it solidly to midlist author status. I can write and release a book each month and things are growing faster than that. I haven't tested another month yet where I don't release anything. I will be testing that I think though in July because we are moving then, and I'm good, but I don't think I'm THAT good unless I take a novella I write in June and make it 100% ready to just publish automatically to keep my release schedule momentum up.

I still think writing and releasing regularly is a bigger key to my success than just my genre. Others in my genre do spike low but then fall out now about 30-60 days after their release to the +#140,000 rankings. Some much higher than that. Without a regular release, readers forget you. But the good news is it doesn't HAVE to all be novels. You can change up your lengths and while not all of your readers may love it, Amazon rewards you with the same "you're publishing again, thank you for adding content to our library so we can sell more other stuff" visibility stuff like emails etc. based on your overall fanbase.

I'm still working on cracking the other venues, and that's why I have the permafree because I'm at a loss myself and I do acknowledge that they are very much like Amazon circa 2012/2013 in terms of what discoverability tools just work. Plus, I do have the added fail safe that when someone buys Books 2, 3, 4, it's like they bought all 4 under the old flat pricing. So those that never buy Book 2, they were never my customer, and those that DO like the series and buy the rest are no different monetarily to people who bought the whole series before Book 1 when free.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Some questions (hoping you'll forgive for not being exactly on topic):

1) What is JAFF?
2) Can a man write Romance with a man's name and sell any Romance books?
3) What is the avg OR normal word count for a book/novel/story in Romance?
4) What is the best/hottest Romance sub genres?

Don't ask me why I'm asking    I just hope I get a few answers.  I'm pretty sure JAFF isn't "Jazzy Angels Free Fall" hehe.

Thanks,
SM


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## Crystal_ (Aug 13, 2014)

Salvador Mercer said:


> Some questions (hoping you'll forgive for not being exactly on topic):
> 
> 1) What is JAFF?
> 2) Can a man write Romance with a man's name and sell any Romance books?
> ...


1) Jane Austen Fan Fic
2) Not many male pen names in romance. I'd use initials or a female pen name.
3) There are tons of serials, novellas, and novels. There is absolutely no average.
4) Contemporary romance is always popular, but that is a very broad category


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## sela (Nov 2, 2014)

Update on my March results. By the end of January, I had pulled my bestselling series off KDPS and went wide. Sales in February were pretty paltry despite going permafree with the first novel in the erotic romance series. I was holding steady, up a slight amount over January but sales on other retailers were minimal. Maybe 15%. Then Apple did a promotion of my permafree and I saw 35,000+ downloads in March and a huge sell through that saw my income for March almost triple over February. Feb income was $8500 and for March was $22000, most of it due to the Apple promo. In March, Amazon was only 32.8% of my income. In January, it was 85%. I expect that once the effect of Apple's promotion diminishes, I will find my new normal. I have no idea what that will be, but in the short term, going wide has been very good for me. Whether it will be good in the long term remains to be seen but hopefully, I will now have a wider audience for future books.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Crystal_ said:


> 1) Jane Austen Fan Fic
> 2) Not many male pen names in romance. I'd use initials or a female pen name.
> 3) There are tons of serials, novellas, and novels. There is absolutely no average.
> 4) Contemporary romance is always popular, but that is a very broad category


Thanks Crystal. You know it felt slightly odd, if not awkward, to ask those questions. Reminded me of my first Weight Watcher's meeting at my work just over 2 years ago. 31 of us, 30 women and 1 man. Yup just me. But it worked after 26 months and my favorite part is all the attention I get from the ladies. Anyway I had to ask since Romance seems to be such the topic and I'm way off with Fantasy so I was wondering what the hubbub was all about. Just trying to see things from this particular perspective.

Now off to look up Jane Austen. The name sounds familiar but I haven't a clue. 

Regards,
SM


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Full disclosure: I have never been in Select and went wide from the start.

In March my B&N sales really took off. No idea why, since I didn't have a promo or anything. I guess it's algorithms kicking in. For some reason, it was mostly my science fiction that did well at B&N last month.

At any rate, B&N, Amazon.com and Amazon UK each made up approx. 20% of my total sales. DriveThruFiction, a niche market that performs very well for me, was about 15%, Kobo 10%, Apple 4% (I've never really been able to gain much traction there for some reason). The rest was made up of smaller Amazons, ARe and Smashwords. Scribd and Tolino haven't reported in yet.

The total market share of all Amazons vs. everybody else was 48% vs. 52% last month, which continues a trend I've been observing for a while, namely that Amazon's share is dropping (though sales itself are steady), while everybody else's market share is rising.


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## Guest (Apr 5, 2015)

TobiasRoote said:


> Adding mine in.
> 
> I came out of Select at the end of January 2015 and I just finished February 2015 and this is what I found.
> 
> ...


AMAZON
I sold 381% more books in March than February.
I earned 353% more in March than the previous month
I gave away 6000 copies of Pattern Ship. 
I went into KU on a new part-novella - no figures on that yet will add something later when the numbers are out.

OTHERS
CreateSpace: I sold 50% more paperbacks. (3)
D2D: I sold 120 books (103 Free) against 7(5) books in February.

The overall impact of going permafree and Wide is that my income has jumped tremendously (although not stratospheric, like some) and the promise of further growth on Apple and B&N this month is encouraging.

This month (April) I hope to have two books out, part 2 of the part-novella as well as the final book in a trilogy. Although illness has caused some delay as well as moving cities and the wife going back to the UK for ten days. We will see how it goes.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Salvador Mercer said:


> Some questions (hoping you'll forgive for not being exactly on topic):
> 
> 1) What is JAFF?
> 2) Can a man write Romance with a man's name and sell any Romance books?
> ...


Just so you know, I don't write romance.  my books are classic fiction and historical fiction. I don't have the big pay off a romance reader expects, I write more dramas. There are a number of make writers in JAFF : Jack Caldwell, C P Odom, and Alexander McCall Smith just joined the ranks with his modern Emma ( he is trade pubbed author of The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, and Emma turns 200 years old this year).

The trick is not one genre though to make a living, it's finding a niche hungry for more books that you are passionate about and then getting three titles ready to go for it after you've studied it awhile. I have a thread about figuring out Underserved markets and the three titles thing is because Amazon rewards repeated publishing.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> Just so you know, I don't write romance.  my books are classic fiction and historical fiction. I don't have the big pay off a romance reader expects, I write more dramas. There are a number of make writers in JAFF : Jack Caldwell, C P Odom, and Alexander McCall Smith just joined the ranks with his modern Emma ( he is trade pubbed author of The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, and Emma turns 200 years old this year).
> 
> The trick is not one genre though to make a living, it's finding a niche hungry for more books that you are passionate about and then getting three titles ready to go for it after you've studied it awhile. I have a thread about figuring out Underserved markets and the three titles thing is because Amazon rewards repeated publishing.


EAW,

Oh yeah, you're one of my heroes on Kboards. I look at your spreadsheet, that you shared a few months back, for inspiration and of course I read all of your posts when you share information with the rest of us noobies.

I was thinking along the lines of how other successful authors write, especially in the romance genre, because I had a small love interest type thing going in my Fantasy book and I felt that I had no idea what I was doing with that very small subplot. So I've downloaded a small romance book as well as one erotica book (short stories really) just to get a feel for the writing and how another writer might approach emotions with regards to characters.

I've since learned to have a healthy dose of respect for what a romance author does. It's much harder, imho, to write about inner emotions and convey deep feelings than say to describe an awesome battle scene with the undead and dragons LOL.

Hope I wasn't intruding too much on your thread.
Regards,
SM


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Oh I'm the last person to be all "you're OFF TOPIC" lol.  I like organic see where threads go. As far as being anyone's hero, I don't particularly like that . . . I mean I understand the idea of looking up to the people who found their definition of success before you, I do that myself. But I don't care for some of the "status" some people get like everything they say can't be wrong, I have been wrong before, we all have been. 

I kick myself that I let three years pass before writing anything else because in my head nothing was good enough. It really wasn't until I got to the "I don't give a flip" in terms of what OTHERS thought about my writing because I was writing stories for my little happy butt that things really took off. Now, that said, I DO study craft all the time, about every 2 weeks I'm reading a new book on writing. I just read James Scott Bell's Superstructure and then laughed because my last book followed that scene beat list on accident. LOL. Still a good read though, because now I know what to call my particular brand of plotting (where yes I DO like to plant elements at the beginning that come back at the end), and I can explore the boundaries of each puzzle piece more thoroughly. 

When you accept that the only person holding you back is yourself, suddenly the world is wide open. Because you can let yourself go!


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## Chris Fox (Oct 3, 2014)

Thank you to Elizabeth, Sela and everyone else who shared their numbers going wide. My books come out of Select on April 25th, and iTunes will be featuring me on April 28th. I really have no idea what to expect, but seeing you guys take the plunge has given me the courage to do the same. I don't like having my eggs in one basket (Happy Easter haha), and feel like this will both result in more long term revenue and give my more control.

No Mere Zombie will launch wide rather than in select like the others, and I'll admit I'm nervous about that. Hopefully Apple makes up for any losses on Amazon!


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Chris - for what it's worth, MOST people I talk to and my own results too, coming out of KU, the Amazon sales immediately jumped up enough to cover the lost borrows because the royalty on a $2.99 is nearly double the borrow rate.

And April is alredy chugging right along for me. I made just shy of $500 total on the other venues last month ($474 I think it was, my ledger is upstairs), but in just 4 days, my "other" vendor sales are at $100 for THIS month . . .  I'm trying very hard NOT to get too excited, but I constantly feel like some dam is about to break loose for me and suddenly I'm going to be seeing serious money on the other vendors which is amazing.

I think once you get to a certain number of books, it just makes sense to go wide. It gives your books additional earning potential without having to go any extra work. My first German translation just finished yesterday too, and a beta reader is looking over it. Then that will be out in about 2 weeks! Another way to capitalize on one story making the most money it can.


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## sela (Nov 2, 2014)

Chris Fox said:


> Thank you to Elizabeth, Sela and everyone else who shared their numbers going wide. My books come out of Select on April 25th, and iTunes will be featuring me on April 28th. I really have no idea what to expect, but seeing you guys take the plunge has given me the courage to do the same. I don't like having my eggs in one basket (Happy Easter haha), and feel like this will both result in more long term revenue and give my more control.
> 
> No Mere Zombie will launch wide rather than in select like the others, and I'll admit I'm nervous about that. Hopefully Apple makes up for any losses on Amazon!


Congrats Chris for going wide and for scoring an Apple promo! That's great! I would suspect that having Apple promo you will make up for any losses on Amazon. Hopefully more than you could have imagined.


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## Mark Tyson (Sep 22, 2014)

SB James said:


> Yes!
> It really is like being freed from book jail.


It's Ironic. I sometimes think that Amazon would retain more of the loyal authors, as they are trying to keep with exclusivity, by being non-exclusive. I know I would love to use the perks of select while still being wide. The way it is now, I will never use select again unless something changes.


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## 57280 (Feb 20, 2012)

Thank you, Elizabeth, for another valuable and generous post!

On a related note, does anybody know if there are "alternate" takes on other genre categories? I could see how an alternate H.G. Wells TIME MACHINE might be really fun, for example...


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## delly_xo (Oct 29, 2014)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> Here is the page I designed for the back of all of my books. It's not perfect, but it works. Eventually, I'd like to fix a few issues and make a separate page per device, but right now that isn't high on the priority list as I have a novel I HAVE to put out next month.
> 
> http://www.elizabethannwest.com/roseroom/catalog.html
> 
> My design was based on the fact that most readers coming from just finishing my book aren't going to want to sift through pages and pages of my books to find the buy button for THAT book on another vendor. So this brings them to a page where all of my books are advertised with images that slide, and they can just click the button for the place they like to buy books best, or see places they may not have considered. Also, this means I NEVER have to updat links, I ONLY have to add a new image advertiser to the image slideshow when a new book comes out.


This is fah-reaking genius!


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## Guest (Apr 5, 2015)

1) JAFF - every day you learn something new.

2) Thanks for starting this thread. Sorely needed.

3) Regarding this: As for the "Amazon is 65% of all ebook sales," I think that's going to change this year. As I begin reaching out more to my target audience, I'm finding they aren't shopping on Amazon. 

I think it's closer to 60%.
By year end it'll be 50% to 55%.

4) I think the inflection point is crossed. Now Amazon share is going to keep going down and Apple share is going to keep going up. B&N - not sure.
Kobo (Rakutan, the parent company) has bought Textr, the email list from Borders, Overture (the library books app) and they might become very big. Google is selling a lot of Android tablets. It isn't serious about selling books, but if it does get serious it'll get more share.

Amazon is in a bit of a bind. They aren't selling very many tablets and kindles (when compared to Android and Apple). And they aren't acquiring retailers or apps like Kobo is.
So where do they get new market share from? The weak hands (Borders, B&N) are either gone or close to hitting the limit. Now Amazon has to compete against Apple, Kobo (i.e. Rakutan), Google. And that's a much tougher fight than the baby dinosaurs of Borders & B&N. In fact, Amazon is a bit of a dinosaur now because they have websites but not devices (Kindle Fire and Kindle aren't selling much).

This change in market share means more and more authors are going wide. Which, in turn, means that Amazon is losing

1) Exclusive books.
2) Cheap books that were only available at Amazon.
3) Free Books that were exclusive to Amazon.
4) All those indie authors pointing readers exclusively to Amazon.

Amazon is basically fed by all the authors pointing everyone to Amazon. If that traffic supply gets split up Amazon is in deep deep trouble.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

ireaderreview said:


> ... Google is selling a lot of Android tablets. It isn't serious about selling books, but if it does get serious it'll get more share...
> 
> ...Amazon is in a bit of a bind. They aren't selling very many tablets and kindles (when compared to Android and Apple)...
> 
> ...In fact, Amazon is a bit of a dinosaur now because they have websites but not devices (Kindle Fire and Kindle aren't selling much)...


Am I missing something or doesn't the Kindle Reading App work on Android and Apple devices or were you referring to this and not just tablet numbers?


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Casper Bogart said:


> Thank you, Elizabeth, for another valuable and generous post!
> 
> On a related note, does anybody know if there are "alternate" takes on other genre categories? I could see how an alternate H.G. Wells TIME MACHINE might be really fun, for example...


There are many. Sherlock Holmes (careful, only SOME of the original stories are public domain), Alice in Wonderland, H G Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, many 18th and 19th century authors are all fair game. And, many of us had to read the original titles in school, so there is somewhat of a built in fan base or at least audience with a reference point.

Important, HG Wells is STILL under copyright in the UK and Europe until December 2016. http://www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/UK/hgwcopy.html so you want to do your due diligence since copyright law changes country to country. And I'm not a lawyer and I have no idea if you being based in the US and publishing in the UK would shield you, I would suspect not since it would be civil action, not criminal.

Now, if you are not writing fan fiction, and just inspired by, there are works not in public domain yet that authors still market to fans of that genre. Like Anne R. Allen's The Gatby Game is about a man who was murdered, but happened to live his life like he was Jay Gatsby. Trust me, The Great Gatsby is not public domain . . . yet, thank you Sonny Bono.  I can't wait for the Fitzgerald material to come available to play with. 

Some don't like the idea of fan fiction or derivative fiction on the classics. I think it's a great way to keep those classics alive and relevant to a whole new generation.

Oh and fairy tales too are a HUGE market. I would love to see a horror writer take the original Grimm fairytales and build on their original dark origins.


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## Chris Fox (Oct 3, 2014)

Salvador Mercer said:


> Am I missing something or doesn't the Kindle Reading App work on Android and Apple devices or were you referring to this and not just tablet numbers?


It does run on both devices, but as Apple gets more serious about selling books they're shining more of a spotlight on iBooks. That makes it far easier for iPhone / iPad users to discover iBooks (since it's installed automatically) than to discover the Kindle App. If Google does the same Amazon is in a tough position, because they don't have the same kind of native access on those platforms.


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## 58907 (Apr 3, 2012)

I pretty much bookmark all your threads, EAW. Such great information, tips, positivity...thanks again! 

I'm definitely going to redesign my book landing page after viewing yours (very beautiful), and will use the link instead.


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## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> Here is the page I designed for the back of all of my books. It's not perfect, but it works. Eventually, I'd like to fix a few issues and make a separate page per device, but right now that isn't high on the priority list as I have a novel I HAVE to put out next month.
> 
> http://www.elizabethannwest.com/roseroom/catalog.html
> 
> My design was based on the fact that most readers coming from just finishing my book aren't going to want to sift through pages and pages of my books to find the buy button for THAT book on another vendor. So this brings them to a page where all of my books are advertised with images that slide, and they can just click the button for the place they like to buy books best, or see places they may not have considered. Also, this means I NEVER have to updat links, I ONLY have to add a new image advertiser to the image slideshow when a new book comes out.


Elizabeth, did you create the page yourself? (It's great; I want one.) If so, what plug-ins/software/insert-technical-jargon did you use?


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Augusta Blythe said:


> Elizabeth, did you create the page yourself? (It's great; I want one.) If so, what plug-ins/software/insert-technical-jargon did you use?


My wordpress site has the salutation theme on it by parallelus. This is a premium theme (you have to pay for it) but it's the only one I've found that lets me section off content inside a post members only and public only. Here's the demo page that explains how it works with shortcodes. If you can understand this, you could make a really snazzy place to encourage readers to JOIN your wordpress site. http://para.llel.us/themes/salutation-wp/

My Rose Room catalog was created using Adobe Muse. But, you could recreate it with any slide show and making buttons labeled with the various vendors your books are available. It's a little different than how books are usually marketed. Usually, authors do pages for individual books. And I understand that . . . but when I sat down and thought about what do *I* want as a reader after I read a book by an author I just love? That answer was, I want a one click solution to GO to all of her books on the store I prefer to buy books on. Voila! Buttons that link to my author pages on every vendor.

Since having the Rose Room, even before I went free on the first book in the series, I began to see sales on the other venues begin to increase. I started with a two week campaign of actively tweeting my other venue links. Like using #nook and #iBooks with a link to THEIR store, instead of the tried and true Kindle. On days the tweets went out, I saw 1 or 2 sales on those vendors. Then randomly, I'd get a sale on those places, even after I stopped the social media tweets. And I noticed an uptick in the links I was using for my buttons. it was like a near match to match, see 2 clicks on a day on my google button, there'd be a sale there.

Hope that helps.


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## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

Thanks, Elizabeth.  I've seen an uptick on other vendors the last couple of months and I'd like to keep that going.  I also like the idea of not needing to update front and back matter in each book with every new release.  Great stuff!


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## davidjdelaney (Jan 17, 2015)

Chris Fox said:


> Thank you to Elizabeth, Sela and everyone else who shared their numbers going wide. My books come out of Select on April 25th, and iTunes will be featuring me on April 28th. I really have no idea what to expect, but seeing you guys take the plunge has given me the courage to do the same. I don't like having my eggs in one basket (Happy Easter haha), and feel like this will both result in more long term revenue and give my more control.
> 
> No Mere Zombie will launch wide rather than in select like the others, and I'll admit I'm nervous about that. Hopefully Apple makes up for any losses on Amazon!


I've a little waiting to do (June 12th) but my second book should be just about done by then so I think I'll be jumping ship from Starship Select and going wide. The Stories here are really inspiring to try it out and see where it goes. Thanks to everyone who shared their numbers.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Well another month done and I have more numbers. 

This month I did not have a release. I had a book go out March 31, and I put together an omnibus in preparations for Book 5 of my Seasons to release end of May. I also buckled down and caught up on my paperback layouts (and made more than $300 this month in paperback sales, so good time spent there! LOL). The Book that released March 31 (A Virtue of Marriage) had a ton of preorders so it never zoomed down the ranks, but has sold more than enough to have already "earned out."

It's important to note that since going wide, my Amazon sales have NOT dropped. Yes, I kept releasing. March 23 I made A Winter Wrong permafree. But this month with no original release compared to January 2015, the last time I didn't do a release, my Amazon earnings are more than DOUBLE in April.

So here's the big shocker: *everything other than Amazon's digital sales made up 19.4% of my total earnings (potentially more as Scribd sales are not in).*

I count paperback, Nook, Kobo, Google, and everything else on D2D as other than Amazon, my insurance policy that should an algorithm change or something happens to my ability to sell on Amazon, I am not dead in the water.

To recap: 
February was 9% 
March was 10.8% 
April was 19.4.% (I think the permafree for a first in series has made a world of difference, plus my equal opportunity for links to all my venues, not just Amazon when I promote books).

Thanks to Bookreport, I have also determined that while short term novels give me a much bigger jump in earnings because they are priced higher, my novellas actually earn MORE wordcount for wordcount. I compared the last 2 weeks of sales for Spring, Summer, Autumn to the 2 novels I have (the novels adding up to 130,000 words, the novellas adding up to 108,000 words) and the novellas sell more per title ($30 more on average). I will monitor this as both series get a new title going into the summer months, but I think it might mean I need to stay true to me and write the stories I write best: novellas.

Here's to a marvelous, mad sales May for us all! ::cheers::


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

Thanks for posting this. Before KU my earnings looked like this:

Amazon: 66%
Everywhere else: 33%

After KU my earnings tanked even though I was wide. I crawled out of that pit of despair and I'm now doing better than I was before KU. The bad news? My earnings now look like this:

Amazon: 80%
Everywhere else: 20%

The good news is that now "everywhere else" is now more than I was struggling to make on Amazon in August. The bad news is that I hate that the 'Zon represents so much of my earnings. I need to go direct "everywhere else". I hope if I can show Apple how many reviews I've got through my SW distributed titles on their platform they may be convinced to feature me when I go direct with them.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

I think this might be my last month of sharing, unless people want to continue? Right now I will confess I am in a bit of a holding pattern as my family is moving this month. I also had to cancel TWO preorders because my personal life crashed hard in May. Oldest had emergency surgery (he is FINE now), my daughter and I both caught bronchitis (I am still sick, working through it), and work for the move just avalanched. There is no excuse, and I told my readers that, this is 100% my fault and I apologized. My next book will go out sometime this week (probably Friday), and then another one end of the month or more realistically, July.

So, May did not do too poorly at all, considering No release. In fact, I have not released fresh content since March 31, and I released a boxed set of the first four novellas in late April.

I count paperback, Nook, Kobo, Google, and everything else on D2D as other than Amazon, my insurance policy that should an algorithm change or something happens to my ability to sell on Amazon, I am not dead in the water.

To recap: 
February was 9% 
March was 10.8% 
April was 19.4.% (I think the permafree for a first in series has made a world of difference, plus my equal opportunity for links to all my venues, not just Amazon when I promote books).
and May was . . .

*24.7%*

My total earnings for all venues in May was $3073.66 (I had more revenue with a pen name, but to keep apples to apples, I am only comparing EAW numbers since pen name was a test in KU). Also in May, there was a break in my Itunes earnings as I am now direct with Apple. Still working on putting all 10 titles up over there. I share my total earnings so people can answer the question (yeah, are we talking 24% of $10 or what?). Not because I am trying to brag in any way, shape, or form.

Paperback sales are still going really strong since I raised my prices. I explain that in the paperback post I made. tl;dr is make your paperback prices a healthy royalty for YOU, the places that sell your paperback get your book for a price that has nothing to do with the price you set, and you cut will always be the same. They will discount the paperback as they feel like it with the discount coming from their cut.

Total books sold in May on the EAW name was 703.  If I exclude paperback sales, my Not Amazon sales account for 14.5% of my total earnings in May. So at the VERY least, even if you are exclusive to KU, make yourself paperbacks.  You may not earn 10%, but you absolutely CANNOT earn an extra 10% if you don't have one.

Now, to the writing cave!


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## Fannin Callahan (Jun 8, 2015)

Thanks for all the info! I've only just published my first, so this is all like little nuggets of gold to me. I plan to eventually go wide, but not until I have the next three installments released.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> I think this might be my last month of sharing, unless people want to continue?...


Oh yeah, you got lurkers following you here. I just put in 8 hours to update my template for my second book for createspace and did so at your suggestion months ago. Hope you feel better and thanks for sharing!


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## Julz (Oct 30, 2014)

Woah, sounds like a crazy month!! But glad you and your family are all doing better  I actually just found this thread today and am finding it ridiculously helpful, so if you would continue, I'd greatly appreciate it. But totally get that family and writing come first  Good luck with your move!


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Another month, more data.

This past month, I moved house. As in 2 weeks I was barely able to chat on social media, and no, I did not get another book out. But that book is finished now and ready for July! 

Overall, month to month, without a new release, my earnings dropped.  My last new content release was March 31.

June dropped from May's overall earnings by 20.6%. 

My not amazon ebook earnings were 20.65% of my total earnings of $2471.03. That is paperbacks and Google, Nook, Kobo, iTunes. I am now direct on all of those. I am not including Draft2digital because of when their reporting hits. My other ebook earnings not Amazon were 15.81% of my total earnings. As far as ebook market share, taking paperback sales out of the equation entirely, Amazon holds 83.38% of my electronic sales makret share.

I think it was neat to see decay this far, because I haven't released. I am not unhappy with how it has taken me 3 months to really fall to where I'm like "I have to step it back up!" Now that we are settled, I am back full in business and will have a book release next week.


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## Lisa Blackwood (Feb 1, 2015)

I love these kinds of threads; I hope you keep posting them as time allows. (I'm sure the lurkers would love it, too.)


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

A new release is always a cool thing  

Thanks for sharing EAW.


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## Secret Pen Pal (Dec 27, 2013)

"I think this might be my last month of sharing, unless people want to continue?"

I find your threads and posts to be among the most valuable on KB and this one has been timely given the KU changes. Your post about using Wordpress came at the right time too, as I had to move suddenly and that's a simple solution for backups and working from different devices. 

So, whatever you want to share, I'd be glad to see you continue -- and it's valid to take care of your other priorities. Those are a lot of changes. I especially empathize with the disruptions of moving.  Thanks for all the inspiration and I wish you well with getting better and getting moved.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

As long as my posts are helping and not hurting, I will do my best to continue.  I love Kboards. We're a rambunctious bunch, and sometimes it is nice to get into a nice heated discussion to let off some steam and even when I disagree with others, I know we are still on the same overall team.  

I have VERY exciting news . . . I snagged a Bookbub ad for July 10th and I just found out today, thanks to another Kboards member helping me network, Apple is going to feature my freebie 4 days later as part of their promotions. I am so energized to work hard this month and really make the most of these opportunities. It's been a great validation that if you just keep doing your best and putting yourself out there, eventually good things can happen. 

My to-do list though is now officially, officially, ten miles long.


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## daffodils321 (Oct 31, 2014)

Great news, Elizabeth  

Just wanted to chime in and say I always appreciate your posts. Love it if you continue sharing--of course as your time and schedule permits. I haven't yet had a chance to implement all the things (particularly advertising) you've alerted my attention to but they are on my to do list (which is also very long   )


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

First Bookbub ad?  Which book and paid/discount or free?  Will be fun to watch   Good luck and congrats on getting the indie writer's holy grail of paid advertising


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## bberntson (Oct 24, 2013)

I've been contemplating going wide, but I admit, it kinda spooks me.  I do a lot of free promotions and get a good sales spike, but it fades pretty fast.  KDP makes it so easy to advertise.  Do you simply buy the same ads everywhere you would for free and .99 cents for Amazon but just add the other outlets?  My sales have picked up over the last few months and my author ranking is higher than it's been, but with the new KU, and the summer slump, I feel a little dead in the water.  I also do speculative fiction, which might be better wide.  I guess, I'll never know unless I try it.  Thanks for the info, Elizabeth!


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## Guest (Jul 2, 2015)

Please keep sharing. This is critical information.

For Authors and for everyone in the ecosystem.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

It's not quite my first Bookbub ad. It's the first one I am paying for. Back in Jan 2013 they picked up my book Cancelled when it was in the top 10 free list and ran it on spec, back when they were still growing. 

I am promoting my first in free series because I have Book #5 done to put out. So A Winter Wrong.

If I wasn't picked up, my plan was just to put the money towards Facebook and Google ads.

As far as going wide, the main "causes" of my success there, in my opinion, are:

#1 I write in a genre with massive international appeal. Jane Austen is universal.

#2 I keep my readership energized between releases by writing live on my wordpress site. At the bottom of every post are links to the books in that series on every venue.

#3 I equally promote all venues. When I share a link, it's to my Catalog page which has a button for every place a reader can buy my books. This has hands down changed how much I sold across the board. A Nook user never clicks my Amazon link and goes "oh well" and walks away.

#4 My prices are not discount (other than the free book, first in series, which makes a bigger deal on the other venues, not so much Amazon anymore). This means I can survive with low volume. For example, I sold 31 books on Google this month, but that was $104.53. The ONLY time I saw that kind of money in a month on Cancelled was after a free promo. Usually it just made $5 or $10 a month. If I was priced at 99 cents or $2.99 for all of my titles, that would have been less. And no, I am not gouging readers. The readers who read my books are looking for good quality stories in my niche that are $9.99 and less. Authors often listen to a small section of readers who only want discount prices, and that's ok, that is one way, another way is to go after those readers who will pay retail first, then discount later when say the book is a year old. I also have books at a variety of prices.

#5 I don't try to do it all (contrary to popular opinion).  I rarely use my mailing list, but I do have one. I focus on optimizing what I can do well instead of trying to do a bunch of different marketing things poorly. I am working on social media scheduling, something I am good at. I am now using Edgar.

I don't think I am better than anyone here, and maybe my strategies won't work for another. But sharing what we do and how we do it at least gives others a chance to try it out.


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## Chris Fox (Oct 3, 2014)

Congrats, Elizabeth! I'm glad it's working out for you =)

I couldn't be happier that I went wide. My sales are higher than ever, and I LOVE Apple as a platform.


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## Chinese Writer (Mar 25, 2014)

Congrats! I love seeing your success.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

SimonePond said:


> I love this thread. It really inspired me to go wide a couple months back. I'm still not seeing anything on the other channels and I miss my Select borrows, but I'm hopeful that having my "series starter" for free will help pick up some visibility on the other venues. I'm giving the experiment at least six months. Thanks for all of your input and advice. Invaluable.


Simone have you made a simple catalog page? I know mine is fancy because I made it with Adobe muse, but on any blog you can make a simple page with your book covers and just a button or image for each venue. Then put that link at the back of all of your books. I know this works. This week I've had 18 clicks on my Nook bitly link on my catalog page. Yesterday, I made $26 in books on Nook. It makes it super easy for readers who get your first free or promoted book to go back to your site and go to their preferred vendor.  Like Staple says, make an Easy button.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

Another vote for sharing as long as you remained inclined to do so. It's valuable info.

And congrats on surviving your move and you impending Bookbub!


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

Thanks for sharing Elizabeth!

I didn't ever have my novels in KU. I had been trying to build sales on I-tunes, kobo and B&N since I started in August, 2011. I've done several bookbubs for Gastien (the first book only, both free and .99). Each time I had done well for a few months and then fade. Until...

Then I had the snafu with the publisher I signed with and the first 2 books of my House series. To make a long story short, I asked to get out and they let me out and gave me rights back...but by now it was too late to do much with a half done 4 book saga no one much had heard of. So I got the other two written. 

While I did so, I had another Gastien bookbub last summer. A few good months and then back to not a real income. But my monthly royalties had at least grown. However, B&N and I-tunes made up about 50% of it.  The House series finished in the fall and it was dead in the water. Another Gastien Bookbub in Dec. This time, for some reason the tail lasted and I made livable income December, January and February. 

I was so frustrated about House! I tried a couple times for a Bookbub, but thriller is highly competitive. FINALLY on the 3rd or 4th try and 3rd set of covers, I got accepted for March 1. By March 31, I had made $15,000 on the other 3 House books because of that Bookbub ad for the first book, which is perma-free. 

April was about $5,000 and May was about $3,000. This month I did $2,000. I have a Gastien Bookbub ad coming up in July. Some say the money dries up after one or two times, but Gastien has been in several times and always makes me money. WHen it no longer does, I'll stop running it. 

The interesting thing is B&N and Apple continued all through 2015 to make me anywhere from 25% to 50% of my income.

I am working on a 2nd thriller series (psychological thriller is what I write) and hope to get a Bookbub for that when it's complete at 4 books. My goal is to have 4 series and only have to advertise once a year for each on Bookbub or other places (if I get in). WHen I have more series I can do them each less than once a year. 

I began to write episodic m/m romance in KU in December, under the name of Sibley Jackson. The first set of six 10,000 word books made me a few thousand in 2 months. The 2nd set had not done as well, but I haven't promoted it as much. The first set is about a rock star and people love rock star stories, so I have pulled those now from KU and instead of making the shorts episodes wide I am going to write the story in more detail and make it 3 60,000 word novels, going wide, again with the pen name. That second set? It stays in KU for now, simply because I won't make it a novel, a series or a bundle until I have the rocker series done...as it follows it. 

Oh, by the way, just for the record, I don't go direct for Apple. D2d does mine. They have gotten me into 2 promos on Apple. One for Gastien and one for House. So you don't have to go direct to get into promos. I only started on Apple, I think last fall.

When I have the rocker series under my pen name that's another one I'll try to get into Bookbub.

So far I'm on target to make about $58,000 in royalties this year. It isn't huge, but I'm not trying to make six figures a year. I play too much and have too many friends and family I do things with...and I wouldn't have it any other way. Hey, if it happens, cool. But it won't be how I define success. If I wanted to define it with money I'd have stayed in advertising.   

My original goal was $4,000 a month. Now I know I need $6,000 a month so I can pay someone to do all the non-writing stuff, or least most of it.  And a proofer, as I do all my own. That takes as much time as writing another novel, so as soon as I can do so, I will pay for a proofreader. 

It took me 3 1/2 years to reach my modest goal...and I realize I may fail to continue making the money needed. However, it sure feels good to be on target for more than I had first aimed for. 

KU won't be part of those plans, unless I throw in a few shorts. Not with the time it's taken to build an audience elsewhere. I will also say the readers on B&N and Apple don't expect you to price your books ridiculously low, they are also more loyal about reading the whole series and one of my biggest fans is from B&N. And, right now, I don't know why I'd take the time to write shorts for KU with the amount they plan on paying. 

I won't take your time saying all the things I do to promote. Just wanted to share how I built my income...and it's still in the "new" for me stage as far as having made some bank for once! I do believe in perma-free although I don't move books like some do. It has made a big difference for me. I also believe in pricing novels at $4.99. I always have, since about 4 months into publishing. Maybe I'm missing some sales, but if I were at .99 I would have to sell 111 novels to equal the royalties of 10 at $4.99.


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## Guest (Jul 3, 2015)

Herc- The Reluctant Geek said:


> Sometimes it feels to me like I don't make enough of an effort. To be honest, I took a peek in here because I didn't really understand the title...
> 
> Thanks for all the info  It's what make this board a fabulous resource.


OMG, thank you. I was starting to think I was the only one 

I still don't even understand what the original problem was and why a change of some sort was needed; and I also didn't know there were so many options to put ebooks out there. I knew about Amazon. I put my book up on Amazon.


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## AmieStuart (Oct 25, 2013)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> I think this might be my last month of sharing, unless people want to continue?


Elizabeth,

I hope you keep posting. I've got a book coming out of KDP the end of this month and I"m heavily debating doing .99 or free. There's two other books in the series, a fourth coming in October and a fifth in January so lot's of incentive to go wide with my series. But numbers. LOL

Amie


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## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

Sela said:


> Q3: $8,585.10 average per month (July, Aug, Sept)


I live in hope of achieving this. It would solve a lot of my problems.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

As of last month (revenue removed):

ACX                                        19.05%
Amazon Stores                        52.90%
Apple                                      2.93%
Createspace                            0.44%
D2D (B&N, Scribd, Oyster)    12.31%
Google Play                              7.52%
Kobo                                        4.86%


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Mark, thank you for sharing those numbers!!! I want to be you in a few months!


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

The percentage each vendor has in your total income goes up and down a fair bit depending on events that are often out of your control.

Kopbogate put a big dent in my Kobo percentage (it went down from being 70% of earnings to 25%). One series started selling in Amazon UK and it is still selling. I still have no idea why.

You go wide because you want to spread the risk if a retailer goofs up. Sales percentages will never be static or equal.


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Hi Elizabeth -

Thank you so much for starting this thread. I hope you continue posting as long as you are able and that others will also keep posting their results.

Within a couple of months I'll be making a decision whether to launch my first completely self-published novella in KU or go wide, so I'm watching these threads closely.

I only have one book of my own where I can get comparison numbers, but here they are. These are release month sales (around 600) for ONE book... so a very small sample to draw any conclusions.

MARCH SALES - 1 BOOK

Amazon 85%
Google Play 1%
B&N 3%
iTunes 1%
Kobo 1%
ARe 9%

All Non - Amazon sales - 15%

Those percentages look in line with a lot of others. If I knew I could get the other retailers up to even 25-30% the decision would be much easier.

Obviously I would be most upset about losing ARe as I know I have readers there. What's the word on releasing in KDP and then going wide after 90 days? Does that work or is it a worthless strategy?


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

I have yet to publish on Are, I should look into it! Also this fall, I am launching my own very smartly designed sell direct to readers system using Gumroad. I don't expect my direct sales to ever take over my Amazon sales, nothing like that, but I am hoping to make direct sales 10-20% of my overall earnings so I have a safety net I 100% contol. Gumroad has a Send to Kindle button for readers to immediately send the books they buy from authors to their devices. It also has an app for Android and Iphone (iPad users would need to send it to the kindle app or sideload).

I think doing KDP for 90 days and then wide releasing is a brilliant plan for new pen names or authors just getting started. It is NOT something I would suggest once you have a few books out wide (and I think it really takes 3-5 titles to start making a difference) because it sends the wrong message to your readers. I have readers who found me on Google Play now coming and commenting on my site when I post chapters. I am NOT going to tell them that Kindle readers get my books 3 months early.  That's awful! So I think at a certain point, you start making inroad on other devices, you need to respect readers equally.


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Thanks Elizabeth - 

I think ARe is especially good for m/m, which is what I'm doing right now. They also seem to have a pretty good erotica audience.

I appreciate the advice on KU. The thing with the readers is exactly what I'm worried about. I don't really have a dedicated readership yet, but Taste did well enough I'm hoping some people will be interested in snatching up the new release.  I hate telling people they can't get something where they normally shop and I dislike contributing to Amazon's virtual monopoly. On the other hand, the KU visibility for unknown authors is attractive.

And, thanks again - I had forgotten that once I wasn't signing away rights I can direct sell. That's something to look into!


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

After having my sales on other vendors take a nose dive from 30% to less than 20% after KU 1.0 wen tout, they were 35% of all sales in June. I haven't broken it down by vendor, but Apple and GooglePlay were the biggies, with Nook next. However, Kobo has been gaining steam.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

I celebrated my four year indie publishing anniversary today, so I did a retailer percentage breakdown for my total lifetime sales. The short version is that Amazon.com is down and almost everybody else is up or steady. All Amazons taken together make up approx. 69% of my total sales and Amazon.com is only 55% of those Amazon sales. Here is the complete breakdown:

Amazon.com: 38.8%
Amazon UK: 14.1%
Amazon DE: 12.9%
Kobo: 7.1%
Barnes & Noble: 6.2%
Scribd: 3.5%
DriveThruFiction: 3.1%
Apple: 3%
OmniLit/AllRomance: 1.9%
Amazon AU: 1.45%
Smashwords: 1.4%
Tolino general: 1.05%
Amazon CA: 0.97%
XinXii: 0.8%
Casa del Libro: 0.65%
Weltbild: 0.5%
Amazon FR: 0.5%
Amazon IT: 0.4%
Libiro: 0.3%
Amazon BR: 0.24%
Baker and Taylor Blio: 0.24%
Page Foundry/Inktera: 0.16%
Amazon ES: 0.16%
Amazon IN: 0.16%
Feedbooks: 0.16%
BookRepublic: 0.16%
Buecher.de: 0.08%
Der Club: 0.08%

The full post with lots of analysis is here.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

How is it August already? How? Hmmm? Someone pressing fast forward on the time/space continuum? 

Well I have more data, July's insane numbers brought to you by Bookbub, a feature on Apple's Romance page, and BookButterfly. Let's see some numbers!

To recap:
February was 9% 

March was 10.8% 

April was 19.4.% (I think the permafree for a first in series has made a world of difference, plus my equal opportunity for links to all my venues, not just Amazon when I promote books).

May was 24.7%

June was 20.6%

and July was  . . .  20.7%

Yep, I appear to have stabilized. And since this month marks the FIRST every 5-figure royalty amount across all 10+ books, that's not just a little bit of money that 20%! Over $2,000 is from my outside vendors. The pecking order was Apple (40.3% of the not Amazon money), Nook (27.5%), Google (12.1%), Kobo (11.5%), paperbacks (7.4%) and then a smidge from D2D because their reporting won't be finalized until halfway through the month. 

This month I revamped my catalog page to also make pages of single books for promotion sake. Now, with social media campaigns, I can feature a single book and drive traffic to a page with the book cover, blurb, and page count. The buttons along the right side still all go to my author profiles on the various vendors.

August will be big time writing month for me, and maintaining social media marketing to go out every single day. Then September we're opening this baby back up to full throttle because the kids go back to school!


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Incredibly Apple has caught Nook. It took only a month to race up my charts.

I was introduced to a rep at Apple, and my books now have proper series info on the sales pages. 2 promos of the boxsets were featured in those itunes slider thingies back in June. That was a great month, and now July revenue has caught up with Barnes. Audible has continued its decline since the two KU programmes  Which means Apple is helping me to run in place faster and not loose income. 

I'm getting quite puffed out... running without getting anywhere has become my reality. I haven't released a new title this entire year. maybe that's it.


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## Katherine Stark (Jul 30, 2015)

I was originally planning to put new releases in KU for the first 3-6 months, then pull them once borrow earnings drop off in order to distro them widely. After this, I'm not so sure. If you were starting out right now, would you say to go wide from the beginning, or still give KU a shot for the initial release surge?

I'm also a little confused between "sell them direct" and "upload them to D2D." It looks like D2D is still an aggregator that takes a percentage, right? So this is different from uploading them directly? So should I not bother with D2D/Smashwords, since they take a cut?


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Katherine Stark said:


> I was originally planning to put new releases in KU for the first 3-6 months, then pull them once borrow earnings drop off in order to distro them widely. After this, I'm not so sure. If you were starting out right now, would you say to go wide from the beginning, or still give KU a shot for the initial release surge?
> 
> I'm also a little confused between "sell them direct" and "upload them to D2D." It looks like D2D is still an aggregator that takes a percentage, right? So this is different from uploading them directly? So should I not bother with D2D/Smashwords, since they take a cut?


I was in KU1 last year for 6 months. But as I added MORE titles into the program, my overall borrows kept falling. When I pulled my books out, my Amazon sales immediately rebounded to cover the lost borrow money, so the borrows I was getting, were just cannibalizing my sales. That doesn't mean that's true for everyone. My books have niche keywords, and fulfill a need to a readership that is always looking for more quality titles to read. I also released 2 books in one 30 day window last July and then again in September. I have not gone 90 days without a release since last summer. I think that's vital no matter which path you choose.

But the program is entirely different now, too. I really can't answer what any author should do. It did take a strong 4-6 months to build my following on the other vendors. Like Mark, I too have an Apple rep. And I passed her on to two other deserving authors that I know have been on Apple for years. 

I am a very long-term planning author because I started this while my family did not rely on my income for daily living. My husband is a Naval officer and we move every 2 years. This is the only profession that packs up and moves nicely.  So when I make decisions, I'm not really thinking right now, but 5 years from now. I've been tempted by the dazzles of the new KU program, but the potential of the other venues to turn into revenue streams like Amazon is stronger. Just seeing Apple bring in over $800 this month, I am energized by that. It means to me I have NOT topped out, not by a long shot! There's still hundreds of readers out there that might like my books and they might not all shop on Amazon!

If you have not published anything yet, Amazon is a good place to cut your teeth. Release 2-3 titles on top of one another making SURE you're targeting at least a Hot New Release list you can get on with just a few sales, and then try to get those 5-10 sales in the first few days. Certainly, you can try KU for 90 days to help boost your visibility even more. I don't think for a new author using KU fir 3-6 months and THEN going wide is a bad plan. What ticks off readers is when you go back and forth. And know that it won't be just 1 or 2 months and wide will suddenly work for you, but a good 6 months to start seeing traction. And whether or not you can afford that 6 months of no borrow/pages read money is a personal one.


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## Susanne123 (Jan 9, 2014)

Hi Elizabeth and other commentators,

Just a quick note to say how much I appreciate these threads. Right now I don't have anything to contribute, but when I do, I'll share, too.

Thanks again.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

I have August numbers!  

I had my first audiobook release end of August (like yesterday, sold 7 copies so far, woohoo! I'll take it!) and another German translation yesterday as well! So far the German translations have been a challenge, I put them in KU until I have 4 or 5 to really make inroads elsewhere for readers looking to read in German. 

Kids are back in school as of today so I am 100% back to work!  

August was a good month, I made nearly $5500 total. I sold 1886 books and had 3588 free downloads. Big, big surprise was Kobo this month, I was included in their Boxed Set promotion and did really well there! 

The breakdown was:

Amazon $4014 (1484 sales, 2562 free)
Apple $381 (112 sales, 344 free)
Google $267 (65 sales, 174 free)
Kobo $474 (111 sales, 147 free)
Nook $208 (74 sales, 361 free)
Audiobooks ~ $24 (7 sales)
Paperback - $92 (33 sales)

Since January, my YTD total sales is 22,702 and free downloads is 71,677. I am hopeful by October 31 I will hit that 100,000 copies of my JAFF books out there on devices. Now to get back to writing!  I do not share numbers to brag, but to help give an idea of what CAN happen. I am very happy that although my percentage of Not Amazon earnings has more or less stabilized, my actual revenue for the other vendors is a number I am happy with if for whatever reason Amazon suddenly becomes a dead zone for me. When I first started last summer I only hoped to make $600-$1,000 a month on my books. That was enough to make the part-time work hours worth it. Of course, now I'm into this full full-time, lol, but even if I didn't have Amazon's earnings, I would still be satisfied that I was making headway. My new goal is to have 50 products for sale by December 2016, that includes books, audiobooks, translations, and bundles. I know I can do it!


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Congrats and do keep sharing, it's very inspiring for us prawns behind you


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