# Can Good Sales Sustain Themselves?



## AnneMarie Novark (Aug 15, 2010)

I was wondering this a couple of days ago when my sales were going gangbusters. They've been very good for the past couple of months. I've been selling between 250-350 books a day on Amazon across seven books. I mean, that's good to me. I don't really "promote" a lot, just post on here and play on Facebook. I blog occasionally. But sales have been climbing steadily to my delight.

Until yesterday. Suddenly, they dropped off. I check my sales numbers four times a day; same time every day or pretty close. I woke up to 115, but then the numbers ran 29, 46, 46. I was waking up to over 100 sales every morning. This morning 47. 

My Regency novella was number two on Hot New Releases in Regencies this past week and in the Top Ten Regencies for the past month. My other books have been in and out of the Top 100 for the past 4-5 months. I get mostly 4-5 star reviews.

I KNEW it was too good to be true.

I'm trying not to panic or cry. *sigh* I know all I can control is writing that next book. But darn!!! This sucks!!!

Has anyone else experienced this?

Thanks!!!


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## AnnaM (Jul 15, 2009)

AnneMarie Novark said:


> I was wondering this a couple of days ago when my sales were going gangbusters. They've been very good for the past couple of months. I've been selling between 250-350 books a day on Amazon across seven books. I mean, that's good to me. I don't really "promote" a lot, just post on here and play on Facebook. I blog occasionally. But sales have been climbing steadily to my delight.
> 
> Until yesterday. Suddenly, they dropped off. I check my sales numbers four times a day; same time every day or pretty close. I woke up to 115, but then the numbers ran 29, 46, 46. I was waking up to over 100 sales every morning. This morning 47.
> 
> ...


Anne, don't push the panic button yet. I suspect Amazon might be lagging in their sales reporting. Several authors have reported jumps in rank with no sales (see other thread), and my sales are also unusual (down) compared to recent averages overnight.

End of month processing could be kicking in, and with the Memorial day holiday the run schedule (data processing) could be crowded or altered in the IT department.


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## kCopeseeley (Mar 15, 2011)

I, too, have noticed slow downs of my sales.  At first I was attributing it to freebies, but I don't know.  It could be something else.  These things are hard to pin down sometimes.  It's weird, but a lot of authors reported it last month.  Book selling comes with lots of ups and downs.  Maybe it's just a cycle and you'll pick up again next month.

If it's any consolation, your sales are much bigger than mine.


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## Decon (Feb 16, 2011)

AnneMarie Novark said:


> I was wondering this a couple of days ago when my sales were going gangbusters. They've been very good for the past couple of months. I've been selling between 250-350 books a day on Amazon across seven books. I mean, that's good to me. I don't really "promote" a lot, just post on here and play on Facebook. I blog occasionally. But sales have been climbing steadily to my delight.
> 
> Until yesterday. Suddenly, they dropped off. I check my sales numbers four times a day; same time every day or pretty close. I woke up to 115, but then the numbers ran 29, 46, 46. I was waking up to over 100 sales every morning. This morning 47.
> 
> ...


I'd love to wake up to that problem.  Send a few readers my way, I could do with a boost. 

It must be something to do with processing (I hope) It must be the same in the UK. My book Lunch Break Thrillers needs a minimum of 10 sales per day to stay in the crime/Mystery thriller/short stories category top ten. Overnight, only 2 sales were reported, but it is holding at rank 8.


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## John Hartness (Aug 3, 2009)

AnneMarie I know your pain - I woke up to 11 this morning after waking up to 25-35 all month. I got on here hoping I'd find threads like this to make me feel like it was a reporting glitch and not the bottom falling out of my sales. So I'm reassured that I'm not alone in my panic


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## Paul Clayton (Sep 12, 2009)

I've noticed a slight downtick in sales also.  I think it all might have to do with the overload the sale on Lady Gaga music at Amazon.  I've read where it really slowed down their servers when fifty million folks logged on simultaneously to download the tunes.  So, after everyone gets their gaga, things should begin to get back to normal.  Best!


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

Yep, mine have slumped overnight too, BUT my rank virtually stayed the same. I don't understand that.


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## Skate (Jan 23, 2011)

I've not been published for long, so I wasn't selling many, but this week I've sold nothing. What I have noticed though, is that my rankings have only slipped backwards very slowly, so I've been guessing they weren't selling as many in general. But I don't understand much about the rankings, so I could be completely wrong.


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## tawnytaylor (Feb 19, 2011)

Your regency (To His Lady's Rescue) is still in the top ten (currently #. Has your rank changed much? It's 419.

I noticed my sales numbers were a little off this morning too (almost 100 less than the day before). And yet my ranks were as good (and in some cases, better) than they have been. Maybe there is something going on with the reporting...? It's either that, or everyone had a slow day/evening yesterday. Here's hoping things pick back up today!


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## JRainey (Feb 1, 2011)

Mel Comley said:


> Yep, mine have slumped overnight too, BUT my rank virtually stayed the same. I don't understand that.


Same here!


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

tawnytaylor said:


> Your regency (To His Lady's Rescue) is still in the top ten (currently #. Has your rank changed much? It's 419.
> 
> I noticed my sales numbers were a little off this morning too (almost 100 less than the day before). And yet my ranks were as good (and in some cases, better) than they have been. Maybe there is something going on with the reporting...? It's either that, or everyone had a slow day/evening yesterday. Here's hoping things pick back up today!


Me too, Tawny, exactly 100. Surely, we all couldn't have had a bad day!


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## AnneMarie Novark (Aug 15, 2010)

Oh Wow! The Kindle Boards ROCK!!!

Thanks so much for responding so quickly everyone. I'm sorry others are in the same boat, but it is good to know it's not just me. WHEW!!!

And yes, my rankings are hovering near the same numbers as in the past couple of days even with the dip in sales.

And speaking of 100. That's about the same amount my numbers are down.

It's very odd.

We shall see . . . I feel SO much better . . . Thanks!!!


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

I've just written to Amazon and given them the link to this thread, so if you've heard of anyone else having a drop in sales get them to add a comment on here too.


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## JRainey (Feb 1, 2011)

Mel Comley said:


> I've just written to Amazon and given them the link to this thread, so if you've heard of anyone else having a drop in sales get them to add a comment on here too.


This is another thread where people are discussing the same thing happening right now: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,68471.0.html


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

It's all very spooky to me!


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## tawnytaylor (Feb 19, 2011)

It's very strange that we're all seeing roughly the same reduction in sales. If this was a certain other retailer, I'd be convinced it's no coincidence...


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

I had half my normal amount this morning, too, with no real switch in ranking. So it's either a overall slowdown, or a reporting problem on Amazon. Either way, not much you can do about it but be patient.


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## Guest (May 25, 2011)

Yes, things have been slowing down lately on Amazon. I'm much more doubtful that this is something Amazon can fix than with previous problems at BN. This could be our first taste of the summer. I'm so sure it'll be like pulling teeth in August.

There's also a small chance it has something to do with the Lady Gaga download craziness that affected Amazon in the past few days.


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## WilliamEsmont (May 3, 2010)

For several months now I've been selling 200+/day. Yesterday I sold 43. And my ranking (on Patriot) tumbled from the high 200s to mid 500s.

?


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## Patrick Skelton (Jan 7, 2011)

My sales rank went up as well...but sales have been down all week.


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## Dawn Judd (Jun 8, 2010)

I've actually had an increase in sales lately.  But I don't sell nearly what some of you sell, so who knows?  If there is a lag and I have extra sales out there, that would be sweet! LOL.


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

tawnytaylor said:


> It's very strange that we're all seeing roughly the same reduction in sales. If this was a certain other retailer, I'd be convinced it's no coincidence...


I do love a good conspiracy theory!


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## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

Just like the rest, I had a great Monday, then it stopped. Could be Amazon, could be just a midweek slump we're all feeling.


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## Christopher Bunn (Oct 26, 2010)

My sales did the same thing. They were cruising along at a very steady, predictable average and then they dropped by 50% yesterday. I will use it as an excuse to eat a chocolate-glazed old fashioned doughnut.


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## Gina Black (Mar 15, 2011)

Chiming in here with more of the same. Monday was lovely, yesterday was dismal, and today--so far--has een the same. Hope it's a reporting problem.


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## Patrick Skelton (Jan 7, 2011)

Sorry to bust everyone's bubble (including my own) but I highly doubt there's anything wrong with Amazon's reporting.  I purchased my own novel and my sale showed up within minutes on the reports.


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

Patrick Skelton said:


> Sorry to bust everyone's bubble (including my own) but I highly doubt there's anything wrong with Amazon's reporting. I purchased my own novel and my sale showed up within minutes on the reports.


Couldn't that have been a coincidence, how do you know it was YOUR sale? Or am I being daft and missing something? 

Editing to add. Why does it only seem to be a problem with the .com site, the UK sales are reporting as usual.


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## yomamma (Feb 10, 2011)

Oh good, I thought it was just me! I noticed that my ranks have remained steadily decent but when I looked at my sales, I only showed one copy sold. I thought maybe EVERYONE was having a really bad sales day.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

Patrick Skelton said:


> Sorry to bust everyone's bubble (including my own) but I highly doubt there's anything wrong with Amazon's reporting. I purchased my own novel and my sale showed up within minutes on the reports.


They had server crashes all day yesterday because of the Lady Gaga nonsense. Just because a single book sale went through right now doesn't mean they haven't reported all of yesterdays sales, or overnight sales, just yet. Not saying Amazon hasn't, but you're looking at a lot of people seeing 50% drops in sales in a single day. That's a bit drastic.


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## Patrick Skelton (Jan 7, 2011)

I've not had a sale in 2 days.  If I were a betting man, I'd put a million dollars on it.


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## tawnytaylor (Feb 19, 2011)

Meanie 

The sad truth is there's probably no lag, and sales are/were what they are/were. It's possible the system became overloaded yesterday with all the Gaga fans trying to buy her latest release and people had a hard time buying books. And if everyone's sales were lower, and ranks are relative--as we all know, then our ranks would not suffer, even with the sales slump.

I'm just hoping today's numbers are more in line with Monday's.



Patrick Skelton said:


> Sorry to bust everyone's bubble (including my own) but I highly doubt there's anything wrong with Amazon's reporting. I purchased my own novel and my sale showed up within minutes on the reports.


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## Patrick Skelton (Jan 7, 2011)

But....I'm willing to HOPE that my reported sale is coincidence!   Here's to hoping!


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## JRainey (Feb 1, 2011)

Patrick Skelton said:


> But....I'm willing to HOPE that my reported sale is coincidence!  Here's to hoping!


Well, I just gifted mine to someone in a giveaway, and she e-mailed me to confirm that she had not only received it, but accepted it. And still my sales haven't changed. Weird, because that'd be in the same time frame as you buying yours and it showing up. Silly Amazon. We're just gonna have to wait and see what happens.


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## libbyfh (Feb 11, 2010)

Yup. I'm in the same boat . Have seen a precipitous slowdown in my sales this week. I do know Amazon released a number of free books earlier this week, and wonder if that's part of the reason. But all my books and short stories are sluggish. I do wish someone from Amazon would comment.


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## John Hartness (Aug 3, 2009)

Yeah, it's kinda gotta be a server issue. There's no way my best-selling book would still be at #10 in Occult Horror with only 10 sales since 11 last night, and even less likely that my lowest-selling book would have jumped 1,500 spots up to #5,300 in the rankings with only 3 sales in that same time period. The blaming Gaga thing sounds likely, as odd as it is.


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

Has this ever happened before? If it has did all the sales show up in a lump? Just asking.


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## Guest (May 25, 2011)

Mel Comley said:


> Has this ever happened before? If it has did all the sales show up in a lump? Just asking.


Yeah, I think the last time this happened was in March. People were whining about no sales for a long time, and then they all got reported at once.


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## Raymond Birdsell (Apr 19, 2010)

Hmm ... my sales reporting page must be lagging HUNDREDS of sales behind ...

Yeah - that's the ticket.  Must be.  

Can't wait for it to catch up -


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## Patrick Skelton (Jan 7, 2011)

And mine must be 2 or 3 sales behind based on how my 180K raking shot up to a whopping 60 thousand and something raking.


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## felicityheaton (Aug 31, 2010)

My sales are down substantially against normal on the US site. UK site doesn't seem as bad. Sales are up there.

I've found sales in general on the US site to have dropped since April, but not on the UK site. I'm now selling roughly the same there as I do in the US. Before it was more like 66% US and 33% UK split.

Anyone else finding that sales have dropped since April 1st?

I removed a couple of stories then, but they weren't selling enough to have dropped me 1500 sales per month. Should have only dropped around 500 tops.

I'll wait for tomorrow morning to see if the sales filter through. Amazon seems to have this weirdness sometimes. I keep a daily tally for all books on US and UK, and sometimes a book that will regularly sell 10-20 copies, suddenly sells 0. I put it down to a lag in reporting, as the next day it can shoot back up again.

either that or amazon is swindling us all!

Felicity Heaton


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## Raymond Birdsell (Apr 19, 2010)

felicityheaton said:


> I'll wait for tomorrow morning to see if the sales filter through. Amazon seems to have this weirdness sometimes. I keep a daily tally for all books on US and UK, and sometimes a book that will regularly sell 10-20 copies, suddenly sells 0. I put it down to a lag in reporting, as the next day it can shoot back up again.
> 
> either that or amazon is swindling us all!
> 
> Felicity Heaton


Skynet is coming online. The end is near.

Amazon's computers are becoming artificially intelligent and siphoning all sales to fund new sexier microprocessors for themselves.

Pretty sure - spread the word.


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

foreverjuly said:


> Yeah, I think the last time this happened was in March. People were whining about no sales for a long time, and then they all got reported at once.


Thank you muchly.


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## JRainey (Feb 1, 2011)

John Hartness said:


> The blaming Gaga thing sounds likely, as odd as it is.


Works for everything else, I've found.

"The fax machine's dead again."
"CURSE YOU, GAGA!!"

Anyway, I just had another ranking jump with no sales reported, so I'm convinced something is up, too.


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## ChristopherDavidPetersen (Mar 24, 2011)

My sales are definitely off... as in for the last week. Part of it is I raised the price of two of my best sellers, but I haven't seen a single sale on the less popular books either (which is strange). Oh well, I'm here for the long haul. What ever happens, happens...


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## Tamara Rose Blodgett (Apr 1, 2011)

Amazon had a "weird" week last week with sales reporting...don't worry, you're doing great! Those are tremendous numbers!


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## Guest (May 25, 2011)

I'm also blaming Gaga for these weird red bumps on my skin.


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

JRainey said:


> Works for everything else, I've found.
> 
> "The fax machine's dead again."
> "CURSE YOU, GAGA!!"
> ...


Fax machine.  

My rank just went up too!


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## tawnytaylor (Feb 19, 2011)

Uh...TMI!!!!  


foreverjuly said:


> I'm also blaming Gaga for these weird red bumps on my skin.


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## Raymond Birdsell (Apr 19, 2010)

foreverjuly said:


> I'm also blaming Gaga for these weird red bumps on my skin.


That is not surprising somehow. Just seeing her online or on TV has been proven to cause several different rashes.


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## JeanneM (Mar 21, 2011)

I had a person tell me they bought my book a couple of days ago.  She reviewed it and was listed as a verified purchaser, yet that sale has never shown up.

I heard on another forum that it might have something to do with the new Look Inside feature they are trying to implement. It is appearing and disappearing. It might have caused the system to lag way behind.  I just hit 41 in the top 100 with no sales for days.  ??


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## JRainey (Feb 1, 2011)

foreverjuly said:


> I'm also blaming Gaga for these weird red bumps on my skin.


I'm blaming Gaga for the botched Apocalypse.

And global warming.

And the fact that my waffles were too crispy this morning.



Mel Comley said:


> Fax machine.
> 
> My rank just went up too!


LOL! Yeah, we don't have the internet in my office. No, I'm not joking.


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

We have had bad weather lately and the Joplin story is one of those national stories that may cut into reading time. Lady Gaga crashed the servers as well. I could see a short sales slump across the board resulting in reduced sales without moving rankings too much.

I'm not sure why there would be a delay in reporting once the servers are working again, and I assume the Gaga effect is over. Perhaps Amazon is reviewing the data before posting it. Otherwise those numbers should be updating. 

It does raise an interesting question: What expectations can we have about sales? Is it likely that if we're in the top 1000 our book will stay there for months, or will ebook sales fade over time? I know Modwitch was speculating that Amazon was playing with the also boughts in an effort to move books up and down faster. In the long run I think it serves Amazon better to have more fluidity in the rankings so customers don't see the same books over and over again in the bestseller lists. Think how boring it would be to walk into a bookstore and see the same books on the main table that you saw there three months ago. That's not good for business.


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## Guest (May 25, 2011)

Asher MacDonald said:


> It does raise an interesting question: What expectations can we have about sales? Is it likely that if we're in the top 1000 our book will stay there for months, or will ebook sales fade over time?


I feel like I can speak to this better than anybody. Inevitable has been in the top 1000 for months, spending weeks at a time in the 700s or lower, but this past week or so has seen a solid cutback, making me suspicious that the party's over. I wouldn't expect Amazon to keep showing the book to people who are passing it up, and over time that means there'll be fewer new people (especially over the summer). That definitely doesn't mean that there aren't new people who will find the book, and I'm glad to say that reviews trouncing the writing are not a factor, but I'll just have to ride out however it goes until I can get out the first book in a new series...but that won't be until September at the earliest. Sorry if I'm touching anybody's buttons by worrying over a book that's usually in the top 1k, but you'd be surprised how little money that can amount to.


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## EliRey (Sep 8, 2010)

Raymond Birdsell said:


> Hmm ... my sales reporting page must be lagging HUNDREDS of sales behind ...
> 
> Yeah - that's the ticket. Must be.
> 
> Can't wait for it to catch up -


Yep! me to me to! 

But to jump on board this has been a weird week so far with the sales not matching the rank AT ALL. I didn't have ANY sales over night yet my rank stayed the very same as when I last checked last night.


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## WilliamEsmont (May 3, 2010)

This just makes me even more determined to expand my sales into other channels. It makes me _really _uncomfortable relying upon one distributor for the majority of my sales.


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## Guest (May 25, 2011)

I blame Lady Gagga and the Rapture.  

I'm having the same problems.


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## Cheri Schmidt (Apr 15, 2011)

Same thing. Sunday was my best day ever. Monday was close behind. Then yesterday - - OUCH! Yet my ranking has remained close to the same as it was.


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## Grace Elliot (Mar 14, 2011)

Dont forget to let us know when sales go back up to normal....this is like a thriller...I'm biting my nails!


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## Justin Alexander (Feb 19, 2011)

AnneMarie Novark said:


> Has anyone else experienced this?


Yup. My mother's books (see .sig) had a 50% slump in monthly sales a couple months ago. This month she's setting sales records.

Why? Who knows. I'd like to pretend it's the blog tour we're currently running. But her sales actually started exploding more than two weeks before the tour started.

So, independent of whatever reporting errors or slowdown may be happening right now, sales will wax and sales will wane. But if your books have achieved great success (and yours clearly have), then they will continue to be successful in the long run (even if they aren't constantly maxing the gauge).


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## Sarah Woodbury (Jan 30, 2011)

Thank goodness for all you people! 

My sales tanked yesterday--by half.  I have played with prices this week, which I'm sure hasn't helped, but they're back to where they were last week and yet . . . been wondering if the ride is over.  Admittedly, it's been great and I feel so fortunate to have had this opportunity, but it does confirm again how dependent we all are on Amazon.

BTW:  My rankings are down, but they're wonky, like down for some and not for others--plus, how could The Last Pendragon go from a ranking of 17,000 at 8 am to 9,000 at 1 pm with no sales?


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## Emily Kimelman (Apr 29, 2011)

My ranking is also wonky. After reading this thread this morning I checked my ranking which was at around 48,000 then I checked a few minutes ago and I'm up to 20,000 with one sale in-between. However, I doubt I've sold so many books this afternoon to jump 20,000 spots.


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## MonkeyScribe (Jan 27, 2011)

I just *made all of this up*, but you'll have to admit, this has gone through your head more than once.



> Dear Mr. Wallace,
> 
> Yes, there have been some changes to the way sales are reported on Amazon KDP. We have decided at the corporate level to divide self-published titles from the general store and will shortly be including them on separate best-seller lists from those that include books published by mainstream publishers. During the transition period, you may see occasional jumps or declines in your relative ranking, as well as a possible decline in sales as we reset the system for self-published writers. We trust that when the new system is fully implemented, self-published writers will eventually regain the ground lost as we make this change.
> 
> ...


_Edited to move the "not real" part to the front of the message._


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## Ryne Billings (May 15, 2011)

MichaelWallace said:


> Oops, here's the definitive answer:
> 
> Okay, not really. I just *made all of that up*. But you'll have to admit, this has gone through your head more than once.
> 
> _...ducking from rotten tomatoes._


*throws rotten watermelons*


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## Sarah Woodbury (Jan 30, 2011)

MichaelWallace said:


> Oops, here's the definitive answer:
> 
> Okay, not really. I just *made all of that up*. But you'll have to admit, this has gone through your head more than once.
> 
> _...ducking from rotten tomatoes._


Holy Cow! You had me going there for a second. Terrifying to even JOKE about that!


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## MonkeyScribe (Jan 27, 2011)

Sarah Woodbury said:


> Holy Cow! You had me going there for a second. Terrifying to even JOKE about that!


You're right, I should move the warning to the front. It's too scary to contemplate.


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## Victorine (Apr 23, 2010)

MichaelWallace said:


> Oops, here's the definitive answer:
> 
> Okay, not really. I just *made all of that up*. But you'll have to admit, this has gone through your head more than once.
> 
> _...ducking from rotten tomatoes._


Gah! *Lodges several rotten tomatoes at Michael.*

Vicki


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## AnneMarie Novark (Aug 15, 2010)

MichaelWallace said:


> I just *made all of this up*, but you'll have to admit, this has gone through your head more than once.
> 
> _Edited to move the "not real" part to the front of the message._


Ack!!!

OF COURSE, this went through my mind!!! I think something like this is going on over at B&N.



WilliamEsmont said:


> This just makes me even more determined to expand my sales into other channels. It makes me _really _uncomfortable relying upon one distributor for the majority of my sales.


This. But I'm already listed with B&N, Smashwords, Sony, Apple, Kobo and Diesel. Am I missing some places?


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

WilliamEsmont said:


> This just makes me even more determined to expand my sales into other channels. It makes me _really _uncomfortable relying upon one distributor for the majority of my sales.


That raises another interesting question: Why should the exact same book sell so much better at one place than another? I can't imagine B&N shoppers are all that different from Amazon shoppers. The demographics may not be a complete match, but I can't see them being so disparate that the same book may sell hundreds of copies on Amazon and a handful on B&N. So what is the explanation? Is it that Amazon is much better at matching books with customers and B&N isn't?

All of this does seem a bit fragile. We're really at the mercy of the retailers and how they choose to display our books.


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## AnneMarie Novark (Aug 15, 2010)

JeanneM said:


> I heard on another forum that it might have something to do with the new Look Inside feature they are trying to implement. It is appearing and disappearing. It might have caused the system to lag way behind. I just hit 41 in the top 100 with no sales for days. ??


I thought about this, too. And speaking of the new Look Inside feature--my book is formatted all wonky and does not look at all like it does on an actual Kindle. Very strange and I hope this is not what's discouraged readers, because I don't know how to fix it.

Sigh.


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## Philip Chen (Aug 8, 2010)

My sales have not moved at all since early this morning  Makes me feel like I'm looking at my Nook sales.


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## MonkeyScribe (Jan 27, 2011)

Asher MacDonald said:


> Is it that Amazon is much better at matching books with customers and B&N isn't?


Or worse. There are a few people here who sell more copies on B&N or at least more than the relative market share would indicate. Personally, I can't figure out Smashwords. I sell one or two a month and have stopped putting my new books up because my time is better served elsewhere. My gut tells me that I should get 2/3 of my sales from Amazon and the other third from Amazon UK, Smashwords, B&N, etc. The reality is Amazon outsells the others 100:1, and most of that 1 comes from Amazon UK.


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

Sarah Woodbury said:


> Holy Cow! You had me going there for a second. Terrifying to even JOKE about that!


They'd have trouble dividing indie books from traditionally published books because there are so many small press publishers out there.

If anything, I think we could see segregation based on pricing. Maybe they will categorize everything at $3.99 and under as bargain books and have a bestseller list for those kinds of books. Unless this benefits customers somehow or increases sales, I don't see why they would do it, however.


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## Tara Shuler (Apr 24, 2011)

Same, here. 

I usually get 10-15 sales a day, and yesterday I got almost nothing.

Things are a bit better today, though.


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## Justin Alexander (Feb 19, 2011)

Asher MacDonald said:


> Is it that Amazon is much better at matching books with customers and B&N isn't?


Probably. When I go to Amazon I get is a list of suggested items customized to me and constantly changing every time I visit the site. When I got to B&N, I get a list of relatively static bestsellers. B&N doesn't link to their bestseller lists from individual book pages; their "customers also bought this" algorithms are atrocious; and their search functions are questionable (to the point where I'm usually better off using Google to search their site).

Basically, when I use Amazon it often feels like I'm browsing in a bookstore (which is conducive to finding stuff I wasn't necessarily looking for). B&N makes it hard to even find the stuff I'm specifically looking for, let alone discovering anything new.

They also offer a lower royalty than Amazon, so authors have no motivation to push Nook sales in preference to Kindle sales. And their associates program is inferior, which means independent bloggers are far more likely to be pushing Kindle links.


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

The royalty is only 5% lower. That's not too much. And it's 5% higher on $0.99 sales. I doubt royalty rates has anything to do with a writer's willingness to push a book. 

I do think visibility is probably the answer. For whatever reason, indie books aren't as visible on B&N. The problem with this is that it's completely reversed for some writers. H.P. Mallory sold the heck out of her books on B&N. I know for awhile Zoe Winters was doing a lot better on B&N.


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## nomesque (Apr 12, 2010)

Asher MacDonald said:


> That raises another interesting question: Why should the exact same book sell so much better at one place than another? I can't imagine B&N shoppers are all that different from Amazon shoppers. The demographics may not be a complete match, but I can't see them being so disparate that the same book may sell hundreds of copies on Amazon and a handful on B&N. So what is the explanation? Is it that Amazon is much better at matching books with customers and B&N isn't?


I think there is quite a difference in the overall demographics between B&N and Amazon customers. Disclaimer: obviously this _doesn't_ hold true for every customer. There'll be plenty of exceptions. But I think that understanding the generalised differences can be useful.

First, B&N customers are less likely to be internet-savvy. Why? The Nook was available, from the start, in physical book stores. Hands-on interaction, help from sales assistants to get running with it, no internet help required. Part of this lack means that B&N customers don't tend to go looking for Nook communities the way Amazon customers do. This affects the way reviews are written (less interest in feedback from other customers, for example) and - I think this is the big one - word of mouth. Nook books don't get as much word of mouth, positive or negative, as Kindle books.

Second (and this is pure opinion), Nook readers are more likely to be visually-focused (what pictures do I get in my head?) vs language-focused (what words were used, and how were they put together?). The Nook is more visually pleasing, it has a colour panel to display covers in an aesthetically pleasing way. A good cover will tend to draw B&N customers far more than a good blurb.

Regarding B&N vs Amazon themselves - I think the big difference is that Amazon have grabbed the concept of 'cloud' and applied it everywhere. They want people interacting. People interact on Amazon even with no direct contact - all they have to do is buy the same book and they're algorithmically linked. B&N don't do much of that, and what they do implement is rather half-arsed, in my opinion. So marketing, even if the customers were of the exact same demographic, needs to be approached from a different angle.


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## Sarah Woodbury (Jan 30, 2011)

My books actually do okay on B and N and I was really pleased with my Smashwords report through May 15.  Admittedly, 1/3 of Amazon sales, but that's not nothing.  Maybe it's my covers, because all I get over there is the little SW blurbs that don't say much.  At the same time, I agree completely that their search engine is totally opaque.  I can't complain, however, as when you type in anything to do with time travel into the Nook search, my books are right up on top.

BTW:  no influx of sales so far.  Though they've trickled in a few at a time over the course of the day, they've not made up for the lack of them yesterday and overnight.  I was kind of hoping for something dramatic at 6 pm, such as happened in March when I was caught up in that non-reporting day.  I've heard from other writer friends who don't hang out here much that they too have had pathetic sales for the last two days--completely inexplicably. 

So . . . no answers here.


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## CJArcher (Jan 22, 2011)

Sarah Woodbury said:


> So . . . no answers here.


No answers here either even after reading the KDP Support's response to my query. Here's what they said:

_I'm sorry for the inconvenience caused to you.

The sales reports information displayed in your KDP account may change depending on a few different factors:

- the day you view the reports
- the number of sales in the displayed time frame
- sales which do not complete due to customer payment issues

With many customers using payment methods which pull funds directly from their bank accounts, some sales may also take a little more time to complete in our systems and appear in your reports._

Hmmm. No admission that I can see that there's a problem and they're working on it. Sales are trickling in today but nothing to make up for yesterday.


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## Justin Alexander (Feb 19, 2011)

Asher MacDonald said:


> The royalty is only 5% lower. That's not too much. And it's 5% higher on $0.99 sales. I doubt royalty rates has anything to do with a writer's willingness to push a book.


If I mention a book and turn the URL into a link, I have a half dozen choices of where to link to but I can only include one of them. The place with the better royalty, the better ranking system, and the better associates plan is going to get that link every single time.

5% may not sound like a lot, but it adds up. For example, I've got books at $2.99 that have sold 5,000 copies. a 5% difference in royalty is $750. $750 buys a lot of things.

Good point on the difference in $0.99 royalties, though. I haven't done much with $0.99 books yet, so that hasn't really factored into things.



Asher MacDonald said:


> That raises another interesting question: Why should the exact same book sell so much better at one place than another?


There have been studies done demonstrating that if you take a randomly selected group of people, split them into randomly determined markets, give those markets exactly identical starting conditions, and then track "bestseller" lists independently for each market... that the markets will radically diverge on the basis of what is essentially random chance.

Quality will have significant impact on how things perform in a market, but only in a general way (crap sink; gold rises). And when it comes to the difference between "bestselling" and "decent sales", random chance appears to play a huge role.

So, basically, even if the demographics of Kindle and Nook users were identical and the sites identical, you'd still see large divergences in sales performance between the sites.


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## J. Carson Black (Feb 27, 2011)

JRainey said:


> Same here!


Yesterday was an awful day! Big drop in sales. But today, it's picking up again. These algorithms are a mystery! Rank went up briefly then went back down and got better.

It does make you wonder what the heck is going on!


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## AnneMarie Novark (Aug 15, 2010)

My sales improved a little this afternoon. Still nowhere like they've been doing, but better than last night and this morning.

Someone mentioned they'd had a stellar day last Sunday or so. Well, I did too. One of my best days ever. Then this.

Here's hoping things look up and sales pick up.

Kindle Boards ROCK!!!


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## Jack Wallen (Feb 9, 2011)

I'm thrilled that i have 74 total sales for the month so far. of course this is the first month i've had multiple books published, so I'm okay with that number. I have one more coming out in June and one in July. Hopefully a few months after that I'll be in this same thread with the complaints. ;-)


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## ndrake (Apr 20, 2011)

This is such a great topic; although my sales are not even close to this, I've had to wonder about it myself with the up and down routine.

N


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## J. Carson Black (Feb 27, 2011)

AnneMarie Novark said:


> My sales improved a little this afternoon. Still nowhere like they've been doing, but better than last night and this morning.
> 
> Someone mentioned they'd had a stellar day last Sunday or so. Well, I did too. One of my best days ever. Then this.
> 
> ...


Sunday was my stellar day! Unbelievable! Monday was down because Monday is a bit down, but very good. And then, yesterday. Half the sales. I hate to say misery loves company, but at least we can't blame ourselves.


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## Patrick Skelton (Jan 7, 2011)

As I said...nothing wrong with Amazon's system.


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## Emeline Danvers (Apr 11, 2011)

I'm so sorry for everyone here who has had a big drop in sales.  I can only imagine how scary it must be, especially if you've been regularly seeing some good numbers.  I hope it's just a lag in sales reporting, like someone suggested, and that all your sales are back to normal--or better--soon!


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## Dawn Judd (Jun 8, 2010)

Well, I've had several sales since I posted on this topic earlier, but my ranking actually got worse since then, so I do wonder if there was some kind of lag.


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## 25803 (Oct 24, 2010)

Like all of you guys have posted, my sales have been down quite a bit the last couple of days. But last night when I was on my Kindle and doing a little shopping, the recommendations for me weren't working. It gave an error notice that there were no recommendations for Kindle books for me at that time. This is unheard of <g> I checked it this afternoon and the recommendations are back. Don't know if that's what was up or not, but it might give light on the issue.


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## kCopeseeley (Mar 15, 2011)

This afternoon I had sales posting again.  Not a ton, but better than yesterday and my ranking is back down to its usual number.  I mean, it's usually lower, but at least it's CLOSER now.  Maybe things are looking up again?


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

Sales are posting, but now the ranking is shooting up.  Total disconnect. At least the also-boughts are still there. I think I'm gonna study with the internet off tonight.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

Easily the worst day of the month. Just hoping it has to do with it being, as my friend put it, float-check Wednesday.


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## Sarah Woodbury (Jan 30, 2011)

Hard on the heels of terrible Tuesday . . . here's to an improved rest of the week.


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

WilliamEsmont said:


> This just makes me even more determined to expand my sales into other channels. It makes me _really _uncomfortable relying upon one distributor for the majority of my sales.


William, I think you should be listed on smashwords at least.


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## CJArcher (Jan 22, 2011)

sibelhodge said:


> Well, I haven't made up any sales overnight. How about anyone else?


It's 5:30pm Thursday here in Oz and my sales were less than normal today but not as bad as yesterday.  I'm beginning to think it wasn't a reporting lag at all but a more serious Amazon glitch that resulted in no sales for several hours for many of us. I've written yesterday off completely.


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## Emeline Danvers (Apr 11, 2011)

Does anyone think there could be a possibility that data was lost during the server crash? Meaning, could the sales info have been lost, and authors end up not getting credit for the sales just before and during the crash?

I still can't believe the Amazon servers were crashed by Gaga fans.  I thought you guys were joking at first.


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## nomesque (Apr 12, 2010)

I had about 50 sales turn up today, versus 5 or so yesterday... *shrug*


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

nomesque said:


> Regarding B&N vs Amazon themselves - I think the big difference is that Amazon have grabbed the concept of 'cloud' and applied it everywhere. They want people interacting. People interact on Amazon even with no direct contact - all they have to do is buy the same book and they're algorithmically linked. B&N don't do much of that, and what they do implement is rather half-arsed, in my opinion. So marketing, even if the customers were of the exact same demographic, needs to be approached from a different angle.


I just thought you should know, Naomi, that somehow you and I are connected in the conceptual B&N cloud. IF a customers also bought bar decides to appear on any of my short stories, your stories are almost always listed among them. I have no idea why 

I agree with you about the demographics between nook vs. kindle owners.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

foreverjuly said:


> I feel like I can speak to this better than anybody. Inevitable has been in the top 1000 for months, spending weeks at a time in the 700s or lower, but this past week or so has seen a solid cutback, making me suspicious that the party's over. I wouldn't expect Amazon to keep showing the book to people who are passing it up, and over time that means there'll be fewer new people (especially over the summer). That definitely doesn't mean that there aren't new people who will find the book, and I'm glad to say that reviews trouncing the writing are not a factor, but I'll just have to ride out however it goes until I can get out the first book in a new series...but that won't be until September at the earliest. Sorry if I'm touching anybody's buttons by worrying over a book that's usually in the top 1k, but you'd be surprised how little money that can amount to.


Well, it would probably be more noticeable for you simply because you've so many so quickly. Basically, you quickly arrived at your niche audience. I think sales for any book will reach a natural peak.


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

I heard back form Amazon and they avoided the question. I even pointed them to this thread, maybe other people who this has affected can drop them an email.

According to them nothing untoward has happened.


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## JeanneM (Mar 21, 2011)

I wrote them and haven't heard back at all.  I'm still not showing any sales for three days.  Might not be unusual as mine tend to be slow, but I know for a fact that someone bought one the other day and it still hasn't shown up.  Plus, I've been going in and out of the top 100 without any sales...I wish they would fix this.

Now what is this Gaga thing everyone keeps talking about?  Did she put out a book or something?


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## Tara Shuler (Apr 24, 2011)

JeanneM said:


> I wrote them and haven't heard back at all. I'm still not showing any sales for three days. Might not be unusual as mine tend to be slow, but I know for a fact that someone bought one the other day and it still hasn't shown up. Plus, I've been going in and out of the top 100 without any sales...I wish they would fix this.
> 
> Now what is this Gaga thing everyone keeps talking about? Did she put out a book or something?


Her entire new album was available on Amazon for 99 cents yesterday. Apparently, it crashed their servers for hours.


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## JeanneM (Mar 21, 2011)

Oh my...I had no idea she was that popular.


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## Cheri Schmidt (Apr 15, 2011)

So I track my sales every morning. I'm up higher then I was yesterday....yet still haven't regained the sales track I was on previously. Also, tags appear to be missing on every page I go to.


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

Please can you write to Amazon? The more people that do this the less likely they'll be to brush it aside.

According to the email they sent me there is nothing wrong!


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## nomesque (Apr 12, 2010)

Alain Gomez said:


> I just thought you should know, Naomi, that somehow you and I are connected in the conceptual B&N cloud. IF a customers also bought bar decides to appear on any of my short stories, your stories are almost always listed among them. I have no idea why
> 
> I agree with you about the demographics between nook vs. kindle owners.


I wonder if our covers share a certain 'kooky' vibe? As in, 'this will be unusual'? *ponder*


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Mel Comley said:


> Yep, mine have slumped overnight too, BUT my rank virtually stayed the same. I don't understand that.


If everyone's sales are being under-reported in the same proportions then your ranking would stay the same even though sales have dropped.

On the other hand, everyone's sales could have dropped.

Maybe everyone is spending their 99 cents on Lady Gaga.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

The real problem here is that there is no independent vetting of the sales numbers that retailers - such as Amazon - report.

At least in print you have Neilsen Bookscan covering 60-70% of the market.

There is nothing comparable in digital.

If Amazon suffered some kind of data loss due to a crash, and lots of people had sales wiped out, we would have no way of knowing as we only have the figures Amazon give us.

They could just say "traffic was down", and we would have to accept it.

I think there has been some delay (minimum) in reporting. I uploaded a new title on Saturday (which strangely went on sale an hour later). I know for a fact that someone bought it in the UK, but the sale wasn't reported for 2 days.


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## MonkeyScribe (Jan 27, 2011)

My sales were better overnight, but nothing to make up for yesterday's bloodbath.


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

MichaelWallace said:


> My sales were better overnight, but nothing to make up for yesterday's bloodbath.


Ditto


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## yomamma (Feb 10, 2011)

Tags are gone on mine, too. Huh.

All of my titles seem to have gone back to their normal numbers except one, which is lagging sorely behind.


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## nomesque (Apr 12, 2010)

dgaughran said:


> The real problem here is that there is no independent vetting of the sales numbers that retailers - such as Amazon - report.


They do get audited, though, and I dare say having income and sales figures not matching would cause them problems. I doubt they'd fudge sales figures any more than reporting sales for one day on another day. Not worth their while to be caught out.


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## AnneMarie Novark (Aug 15, 2010)

Just checked my numbers and it seems I'm back to normal or close to it. Thank goodness!!!

But it seems no "lost" sales have been reported, unless the increase this morning IS the "lost" sales from yesterday, but that would mean . . .

Ack!!! Oh man, this way of thinking could lead to madness!!! 

Hey!!! No snide comments, y'all!!!

*grin*


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## JRainey (Feb 1, 2011)

AnneMarie Novark said:


> Just checked my numbers and it seems I'm back to normal or close to it. Thank goodness!!!
> 
> But it seems no "lost" sales have been reported, unless the increase this morning IS the "lost" sales from yesterday, but that would mean . . .


Same here. I wonder if maybe those sales from yesterday will show up on the weekly report on Sunday. In indeed there were sales, but I find hard to believe that THIS many people completely dropped off the map yesterday. Last time this happened, I didn't see the "lost" day's sales until the weekly report.


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## Amy Corwin (Jan 3, 2011)

Harper Alibeck said:


> I don't see tags on any eBooks - you're right. They're completely missing. Trad pub and indie alike.


I don't see tags either.
Do you think they decided to simply remove them altogether?

As for my sales, mine dropped slightly off yesterday, but they are back on track today, so I'm not sure exactly what that means.

But I would like to know about the tags. I wonder if they've been permanently removed.


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## Colin Taber (Apr 4, 2011)

This has been an interesting thread to read through. 

I've noticed some fluctuations in my sales, but my title and name are new enough to Kindle that my smaller figures jump around (and fall over) too much to be sure of what's going on. Some days I'll get a big sales spike because of a mention  'somewhere'  then I'll have a quiet day or two, all interspersed with spreads of things just ticking over.


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

I'm curious about the tags myself.  I noticed some readers on the Amazon forums were upset about what they saw as fake tagging from authors (all the tagging threads).  I wonder if they complained, and if Amazon took the tags down for a while to consider the problem.  Then again, it might be totally unrelated *shrugs*.


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## ChristopherDavidPetersen (Mar 24, 2011)

I'm seeing sale trickle back in too. Maybe readers just took a few days off?


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

JRainey said:


> Same here. I wonder if maybe those sales from yesterday will show up on the weekly report on Sunday. In indeed there were sales, but I find hard to believe that THIS many people completely dropped off the map yesterday. Last time this happened, I didn't see the "lost" day's sales until the weekly report.


Be interesting to see!


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## Pamela (Oct 6, 2010)

A little off the subject of sales, but several authors have noticed that all their tags are gone.  Mine are too, on the US site.  Amazon UK still has tags.  Anyone else experiencing this?


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## Lisa Scott (Apr 4, 2011)

My tags are also gone.  And while my sales at this point are very small and slow, I've had jumps in ranking I can't account for.  I normally don't check out the ranking that often, but this thread got me interested.  I went from 76,000 to 32,000 overnight with no sales.  I'm no math major but somehow, that doesn't add up.


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## Sarah Woodbury (Jan 30, 2011)

Is it possible that this server crash meant that people couldn't actually buy our books?  I know Amazon does cloud computing, but  . . .  I only say this because I realized that I had 7 sales at Smashwords on Tuesday--I never sell anything over there.  Could be someone REALLY wanted my books and couldn't get them at Amazon?


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## MH Sargent (Apr 8, 2010)

Sarah Woodbury said:
 

> Is it possible that this server crash meant that people couldn't actually buy our books? I know Amazon does cloud computing, but . . . I only say this because I realized that I had 7 sales at Smashwords on Tuesday--I never sell anything over there. Could be someone REALLY wanted my books and couldn't get them at Amazon?


Sarah, that is very scary. My sales were the worst ever yesterday. I checked early this morning and they are a bit better, but just a tad. I just checked and the tags on all my books are gone too. Something strange is going on, that's for sure.

Hopefully it will get resolved soon. I would hate for my current sales and rankings to my new norm. Yikes.


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## AnneMarie Novark (Aug 15, 2010)

Okay, I just checked my noontime numbers and they seem to be back on track.

Big. Sigh. of. Relief.

OTOH, my tags are gone, too.

Definitely a disturbance in the Force somewhere, somehow.

I need to get back to the writing . . .


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

My sales have picked up again today but my tags have vanished too!


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## nomesque (Apr 12, 2010)

Not surprising that tags have disappeared... Amazon's been rejigging the forums (based on tags), and doubtless they're doing something else in the area as well. They'll be back (or something like them).


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## AnneMarie Novark (Aug 15, 2010)

OMG!!!

Just checked my sales for the fourth and last time for the day.

Three sales!!!

Ack!!!

Hyperventilating!!!


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## MonkeyScribe (Jan 27, 2011)

Mine were selling at a good clip and then froze solid this afternoon. Another server problem, I guess.


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## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

My tags are gone but is "Look for Similar Items by Subject" with a list of the same tag names as before, each with a check box next to it, a new thing or did I just not notice it?


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## kCopeseeley (Mar 15, 2011)

modwitch said:


> Are anyone else's sales frozen? I haven't had any since about 11am (on a book selling 80+ copies a day, that's not normal!).


I'm just about to give up and walk away from my computer for the next week. This is really hard on my nerves. If things don't pick up, I'm going to end up BELOW my last month's sales and I've never done that.


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## WilliamEsmont (May 3, 2010)

MichaelWallace said:


> Mine were selling at a good clip and then froze solid this afternoon. Another server problem, I guess.


Ditto. Seemed to be back to a normal sales pace (after the Tuesday fiasco) and then around 11:30 MST (California time since we don't do daylight savings time in AZ) they ground to a complete halt. Haven't seen that happen in a loooooong time.


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

Because Amazon went all Gaga again this afternoon.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303654804576347690026027506.html

Sounds like this partnership is still a...bad romance. *dodges rotten fruit*


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## Sarah Woodbury (Jan 30, 2011)

And once again, me too.  Do we really have to go 'Gaga' again?

If I didn't pay attention to my sales (like I swore I was going to stop doing) I wouldn't even know, but then come Sunday morning, I sure would have been in for a shock!

Either we are really selling books and they will appear at some point, or we need to write off this week as a lost cause.
I do have to say that The Last Pendragon has just achieved its best ranking EVER--with no sales since noon.  Ha.


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## Tara Shuler (Apr 24, 2011)

Sarah Woodbury said:


> And once again, me too. Do we really have to go 'Gaga' again?
> 
> If I didn't pay attention to my sales (like I swore I was going to stop doing) I wouldn't even know, but then come Sunday morning, I sure would have been in for a shock!
> 
> ...


This Gaga thing is really upsetting. It's bad enough when someone like me, with only 10-15 sales a day, drops to nearly nothing. But imagine how much other people are losing? This could be costing Amazon sellers millions overall. Ugh.


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

Imagine having to process a million (additional) credit card purchases in the course of a few hours. Can Amazon's internal network handle the new load? Can MasterCard's? And now consider that many Gaga-maniacs are probably first-time Amazon purchasers. (That's why Amazon is selling the new Gaga album for next to nothing, after all.) Think of the scale of this computational task.

Remember the 90's, when a simple product launch could down entire sectors of the web? A delay in ebook sales reporting is the least that could have happened. It's a miracle the entire Amazon server farm didn't implode. Heck, it's a miracle the internet didn't implode.

And remember that we are talking in terms of REPORTED sales. We can't know the damage (if any other than delayed psychological gratification) until after the dust clears.

Take the long view. Amazon has just enlarged our potential audience.

B.


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## CJArcher (Jan 22, 2011)

B. Justin Shier said:


> Because Amazon went all Gaga again this afternoon.
> 
> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303654804576347690026027506.html
> 
> Sounds like this partnership is still a...bad romance. *dodges rotten fruit*


Thanks for posting the link. I thought this paragraph pertinent:

_The company has sometimes been slow to acknowledge problems. For example, Amazon angered clients of its Web Services business, which hosts other companies' online operations, last month when its servers suffered an outage. Amazon didn't apologize and explain the problem to customers until a week after the outage._

So maybe in a week we might find out what's going on and if we had sales or not.


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## kCopeseeley (Mar 15, 2011)

Oh no!  I've become a part of my own problem.  I bought the album for my husband. haha


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## Ryne Billings (May 15, 2011)

kCopeseeley said:


> Oh no! I've become a part of my own problem. I bought the album for my husband. haha


No judgment. No judgment. No judgment. No judgment. No judgment.

There I'm better.


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## kCopeseeley (Mar 15, 2011)

Ryne Billings said:


> No judgment. No judgment. No judgment. No judgment. No judgment.


Well, I appreciate that. LOL


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## Ryne Billings (May 15, 2011)

kCopeseeley said:


> Well, I appreciate that. LOL


Hehe. 

To be honest, I only barely know that person's name. I've never heard any of her music, and I have absolutely no idea what she looks like.


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## Tara Shuler (Apr 24, 2011)

Ryne Billings said:


> Hehe.
> 
> To be honest, I only barely know that person's name. I've never heard any of her music, and I have absolutely no idea what she looks like.


She's a staple in my household. My kids are crazy about her.

She's nuts. LOL


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## Tom Junior (Apr 4, 2011)

Something may be wrong. Earlier today, I bought an e-book for myself I really wanted to read. Since I was buying something anyway, I purchased a copy of my own little e-book. I checked my sales later in the day, and my own purchase wasn't there. I checked again just now and it still isn't. Unless Amazon, doesn't count it as a sale if you buy your own book.


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

Me too, Sibel.


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## kCopeseeley (Mar 15, 2011)

Ryne Billings said:


> Hehe.
> 
> To be honest, I only barely know that person's name. I've never heard any of her music, and I have absolutely no idea what she looks like.


Believe me, you're not missing much in the looks dept. IMO. She is pretty scary. Very artsy and out there. But the husband is a big fan, so...


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## Ryne Billings (May 15, 2011)

kCopeseeley said:


> Believe me, you're not missing much in the looks dept. IMO. She is pretty scary. Very artsy and out there. But the husband is a big fan, so...


My sister-in-law is apparently a fan of them as well. Though she (my sister-in-law) is only a few months older than me (she's 20 and I'm 19 at the moment), we're so different. I only listen to the same music that's been on my laptop for 2 years, and that music was all chosen specifically for writing. I never listen to music otherwise.


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

sibelhodge said:


> I lurrve Lady Gaga! She is nuts but she's good. But I DON'T love her when she messes with my sales!


   

I'm sure I live in a writing bubble, I've not heard any of Lady Gaga's music! 

On a more positive note I've just received a flurry of sales.


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## Tom Junior (Apr 4, 2011)

modwitch said:


> I'm seeing catch up happening now. Don't know if it will get today to a reasonable level, but at least the dial is moving.


My 1 little self-sale showed up! :-D. Hooray..now I need to write some more books.


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## WilliamEsmont (May 3, 2010)

modwitch said:


> I'm seeing catch up happening now. Don't know if it will get today to a reasonable level, but at least the dial is moving.


Same here.. Things have zoomed back into somewhat normal territory..


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Something strange is definitely going on.

I was selling strongly (for me), averaging 5 a day on one title and then it all stopped on Wednesday. My other title was selling even stronger, as it had only been released on Saturday - in fact sales on the other title went up too.

I haven't sold a single thing for 2 days, despite getting an unusual amount of publicity. I know something is up with reporting, as a friend of mine bought my story in the UK (first sale for that title there), read it, and we were speaking about it online (about the ending so I know they bought/read it for a fact). However, this Sunday sale did not show up in my sales figures until some time on Tuesday.

Worrying.


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## Skate (Jan 23, 2011)

I still haven't sold anything for six days, but my ranking still hasn't reached the lowest it's ever been and the longest I've gone without a sale before has been two days. Definitely something strange going on.


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

At the risk of repeating myself, you need to contact Amazon. Both Sibel and I have and we've seen some movement on our accounts today.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Sorry Mel,

I hadn't done it yet because they hadn't responded to my last email from May 16 re international surcharges.

Which is the best way to contact them and get a response?

Dave


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## NickSpalding (Apr 21, 2010)

No problems with Amazon UK it should be noted (as far as I can tell, anyway).


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Ok, message sent to KDP support.

Let's see if they reply to this one.

Dave


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

Good luck Dave, Nick you're right it's only US Amazon when things appeared to have gone wrong!


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## JRainey (Feb 1, 2011)

I haven't had any sales since yesterday morning, which is kinda odd because Thursday and Friday are normally my good days. So, since others are still seeing problems, I shot KDP support a message, too, though I focused more on Wednesday's issues than the fact that I didn't sell yesterday (just maybe no one wanted my book yesterday! ).

I just want to say that this is really killing me because... I'm one sale away from the big 5-0-0. And I kinda want to know if I can celebrate or not!


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## MonkeyScribe (Jan 27, 2011)

JRainey said:


> I just want to say that this is really killing me because... I'm one sale away from the big 5-0-0. And I kinda want to know if I can celebrate or not!


Is that 500 for the month, or overall? Either, way congratulations, that's a great milestone.

It's killing me, too. I just released my new book yesterday and want to see if I'm selling any copies of the darn thing.


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

JRainey said:


> I haven't had any sales since yesterday morning, which is kinda odd because Thursday and Friday are normally my good days. So, since others are still seeing problems, I shot KDP support a message, too, though I focused more on Wednesday's issues than the fact that I didn't sell yesterday (just maybe no one wanted my book yesterday! ).
> 
> I just want to say that this is really killing me because... I'm one sale away from the big 5-0-0. And I kinda want to know if I can celebrate or not!


How frustrating for you. I hope you get your 500th soon.

A quick update about 6 hours ago I had 62 sales turn up but since then nothing!!!


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## JRainey (Feb 1, 2011)

Mel Comley said:


> How frustrating for you. I hope you get your 500th soon.
> 
> A quick update about 6 hours ago I had 62 sales turn up but since then nothing!!!


That's promising, at least; sounds like _something_ is being done. Maybe.


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## ajbarnett (Apr 11, 2011)

Jeez - I know I'm only new, but I wish I could sell the amounts you guys talk about. My sales haven't dropped, but I only sell a few a day in any case. I just hope time will increase sales to match yours.


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## ChristopherDavidPetersen (Mar 24, 2011)

"Funny thing happened on the way to the forum..."

I had some good sales yesterday and another good review, but today(overnight)... NOTHING! Sigh... Good thing I didn't quit my day job!


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## AnneMarie Novark (Aug 15, 2010)

ajbarnett said:


> Jeez - I know I'm only new, but I wish I could sell the amounts you guys talk about. My sales haven't dropped, but I only sell a few a day in any case. I just hope time will increase sales to match yours.


Hang in there, AJ. Six months ago, I wouldn't have believed I would be having this problem. I could only dream about selling larger numbers, too. Keep writing and publishing and your turn will come!!!


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## AnneMarie Novark (Aug 15, 2010)

After going to bed last night with a migraine and only three sales on my last count, I woke up to twice as many as usual!!! I see after reading everyone's posts, Amazon must have been playing catch up during the night.

Let's cross our fingers and hope today isn't as crazy as the last two!!!

Very wearing on the nerves.


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## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

Had a massive amount of over night sales. They definitely were catching up.


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## VincentZandri (Apr 21, 2010)

Yup, I'm with you guys, slower than usual sales numbers...after some pretty hot sales over the past two months...Glad to see this blog cause I thought it was all me...
Vin


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## Lisa Scott (Apr 4, 2011)

I'm still new at this and able to count sales in the single digits.  A few came in overnight, but not enough I don't think, to account for the numerous times my ranking grew.  (I usually don't check so often but this thread got me curious.)  Also, another jump in rankings today with no new sales to account for it.  

In summary, what the heck do I know?


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## Sarah Woodbury (Jan 30, 2011)

Woke up to a higher than normal number of sales that _could_ cover last night and this morning, on a mediocre day, but what about Tuesday's missing sales? And Wednesday's? This week seems to have stopped my books dead in their tracks. It's like I have a 100 sales missing still.

Okay, I'll stop whining and get back to writing


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

Sarah Woodbury said:


> Woke up to a higher than normal number of sales that _could_ cover last night and this morning, on a mediocre day, but what about Tuesday's missing sales? And Wednesday's? This week seems to have stopped my books dead in their tracks. It's like I have a 100 sales missing still.
> 
> Okay, I'll stop whining and get back to writing


I agree Sarah, I don't think it's caught up on all of them. Nothing had been reported for 4 hours earlier and then a few trickled through. Still bizarre.


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## kCopeseeley (Mar 15, 2011)

Mel Comley said:


> I agree Sarah, I don't think it's caught up on all of them. Nothing had been reported for 4 hours earlier and then a few trickled through. Still bizarre.


I got one sale show up, for the book that is a new release and has sold like 20 books total this month. Nothing on my good seller yet. Still hopeful, though.


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## Remi Michaud (Apr 24, 2011)

You know, there _is_ an upside to all this. We may go to bed disappointed because there are no new sales, but then we wake up to a whole bunch.

Just trying to stay positive.


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## AnneMarie Novark (Aug 15, 2010)

Noontime sales check:  Fairly normal.

But.Not.Holding.My.Breath.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

I haven't had a sale of any kind for 3 days in either US or UK, bar one measly sale. Before that I was selling at a rate of 5-10 a day consistently.

I emailed Amazon this morning. No reply yet.


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## Christopher Bunn (Oct 26, 2010)

My sales have vanished this week as well. I've been selling a steady 25-30 a day for a long time and then...crickets. Oh well. On the bright side, the good thing is that the Spanish Inquisition hasn't shown up. Wait a second. Someone knocking on the door. Back in a moment.


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## John Hartness (Aug 3, 2009)

I seem to have caught up. Here's the last ten days' total sales - pretty easy to see the crash.

78
91
88
88
100
102
78
18
92
93

But it seems to be recovering, so I'm chalking it all up to Gaga. Or Randy Savage stopping the rapture with the flying elbow.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

Christopher Bunn said:


> My sales have vanished this week as well. I've been selling a steady 25-30 a day for a long time and the...crickets. Oh well. On the bright side, the good thing is that the Spanish Inquisition hasn't shown up. Wait a second. Someone knocking on the door. Back in a moment.


Time for the rack!


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

See, I have a more tranquil existence.  Amazon sales are still an infrequent thing for me.  So zero sales seems like all in a standard day's work.


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## Guest (May 27, 2011)

John Hartness said:


> But it seems to be recovering, so I'm chalking it all up to Gaga. Or Randy Savage stopping the rapture with the flying elbow.


Hey, your sales are looking pretty great, John. Congrats!


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## jongoff (Mar 31, 2011)

The Memorial day Weekend is coming up, and I suspect a lot of people have stuff planned for that, which probably doesn't include reading a book.  That's just a guess though.  Most people drive some distance on this holiday, and rather than read, they often listen to a book on cd.  I wouldn't worry about it unless you see a trend.


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## Cheri Schmidt (Apr 15, 2011)

This is what happens when Lady Gaga sells a CD for a 99 cents on Amazon!!!!

This is my daily sales chart for both of my books combined as of this morning. There are four days of drastically lower sales between the last two high points.


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## MonkeyScribe (Jan 27, 2011)

Cheri Schmidt said:


> This is what happens when Lady Gaga sells a CD for a 99 cents on Amazon!!!!
> 
> This is my daily sales chart for both of my books combined as of this morning. There are four days of drastically lower sales between the last two high points.


My sales drop-off looked similar. Having said that, the growth on your chart is fantastic. You must be excited.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

I got a response from Amazon. Not very satisfactory. All it essentially said was:

_I checked your KDP reports and can confirm that it is functioning correctly. Further, I verified the sales reported in your KDP reports with our records and see that they are correct.

While there is an issue in recording sales in the KDP reports of certain KDP accounts, I can assure that your account is not affected._

Ho hum. I had a few sales overnight, so at least the drought is over, but it's not back to the same level.

Dave


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## kCopeseeley (Mar 15, 2011)

dgaughran said:


> _
> While there is an issue in recording sales in the KDP reports of certain KDP accounts, I can assure that your account is not affected._
> 
> Ho hum. I had a few sales overnight, so at least the drought is over, but it's not back to the same level.


So for some of us, something else is killing sales. Summer slump, as I mentioned in another thread, or lack of tags. I don't think 0 sales is a trend I'm cool with. I went from gaining more and more readers a day, to dead. And it was like, in a day. Not a slowing down. It just stopped. 
This is where I remind myself that this a business and that it's not personal. But it IS weird.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

Tags could be a factor, for sure. Anyone know what day they disappeared?


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

Yeah I had a daft response from them too.  

I am sorry to hear that we did not answer one of your previous inquiries about the sales rank.

Please note, the sales rank calculation is based on Amazon.com sales and is updated hourly to reflect recent and historical sales of every item sold on Amazon.com. In order to keep these lists fresh, useful, and up-to-date, recent sales are weighted more heavily than sales that occurred in the distant past.

You may see the sales rank remaining the same even when there are no sales/less number of sales made for a book; as it is not only based on the sales volume of your book, it is also based on the sales volume of the other books which are available for sale on web site.

We use the sales Rank to show how items in our catalog are selling. Items are ranked within their product category only, so a book ranked at No. 1 is the bestselling book at Amazon.com, but may not be the overall bestselling item.

For the Kindle Store, the Amazon Bestsellers Rank is divided into Free and Paid. Items with a Paid rank have a value greater than $0.00. Items with a Free rank have a value equal to $0.00.

I hope this helps. Thanks for using Amazon KDP.


No mention at all of what happened this week, which is a little worrying.


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## kCopeseeley (Mar 15, 2011)

dgaughran said:


> Tags could be a factor, for sure. Anyone know what day they disappeared?


Looking for the thread. I know they were still up as of Friday, because I tagged someone's book. Can't seem to find it in the forum search, but I think it was Monday or Tuesday, which I believe is when things ground to a shuddering halt for me. It's hard to know if it was Gaga or something else, really, except that my sales don't seem to have recovered one iota.

Another explanation was the free books.


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## JRainey (Feb 1, 2011)

I got a message back from KDP support that said that I did have sales that hadn't been reported but that they should appear on the 6-week report at the end of the week (which has happened to me before); however, they didn't really say anything about ranking to me. 

I've been having an issue where sales are creeping back to normal, but my rank is staying very low (about 70,000). Seeing as I'm normally somewhere between 15-20,000, that's sort of a downer. Anyone else having this issue? 

*shrug* I'm going to back away from the problem, I think. The tags could definitely be a factor, but I feel slightly better knowing that a lot of us are in similar boats.


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## Skate (Jan 23, 2011)

I had the exact same reply from Amazon as others have had. Then they added that my last sale was yesterday from Amazon UK and that it was already showing in my report. It isn't. My UK report has been stuck on the same number for the past week. 

Ah well, maybe one day I'll get a nice surprise.


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## kCopeseeley (Mar 15, 2011)

JRainey said:


> I got a message back from KDP support that said that I did have sales that hadn't been reported but that they should appear on the 6-week report at the end of the week (which has happened to me before); however, they didn't really say anything about ranking to me.
> 
> I've been having an issue where sales are creeping back to normal, but my rank is staying very low (about 70,000). Seeing as I'm normally somewhere between 15-20,000, that's sort of a downer. Anyone else having this issue?
> 
> *shrug* I'm going to back away from the problem, I think. The tags could definitely be a factor, but I feel slightly better knowing that a lot of us are in similar boats.


Well, thank goodness it's not just me! That's what I was thinking, but it's nice to know that misery has company. My ranking has been down at the 8,000 range and now it's up in the 30,000 range. I'm pretty much ready to call May a loss, though thanks to my stellar sales earlier this month, I will just about come out even with last month.

Ah, such a learning experience, this book sales stuff.


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## JRainey (Feb 1, 2011)

kCopeseeley said:


> Well, thank goodness it's not just me! That's what I was thinking, but it's nice to know that misery has company. My ranking has been down at the 8,000 range and now it's up in the 30,000 range. I'm pretty much ready to call May a loss, though thanks to my stellar sales earlier this month, I will just about come out even with last month.
> 
> Ah, such a learning experience, this book sales stuff.


I know!  I'm in the same boat; thankfully the first half of the month was very good. I've checked my rank a few times in the last few hours, and it seems to be inching toward normal, though very, very slowly. About 1,000 places every half hour. I've never seen that happen before, so I'm giving up looking at it at this point! I'll drive myself madder.


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## MH Sargent (Apr 8, 2010)

Yes, we're all in the same boat, so I have to say, this is getting to be a pretty big boat.  Still no tags on my books and although sales have picked up since the Lady Gaga debacle, not where they should be. Rankings are lagging, but then so are sales, so it is a fine mess we're in.


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## kCopeseeley (Mar 15, 2011)

I really just want to give everyone a big hug right now.


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## Maria Romana (Jun 7, 2010)

kCopeseeley said:


> I really just want to give everyone a big hug right now.


Thanks, I think we could all use one. It's frustrating that Amazon doesn't communicate with their KDP authors/publishers. They could save themselves answering a lot of emails if they would just post an announcement in the KDP Community forums saying there's a delay or servers are down or _whatever_. Maybe all these things will come in time...

--Maria


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## Mel Comley (Oct 13, 2010)

meromana said:


> Thanks, I think we could all use one. It's frustrating that Amazon doesn't communicate with their KDP authors/publishers. They could save themselves answering a lot of emails if they would just post an announcement in the KDP Community forums saying there's a delay or servers are down or _whatever_. Maybe all these things will come in time...
> 
> --Maria


I agree, all we ask is to be kept informed.


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## MH Sargent (Apr 8, 2010)

I agree that Amazon should say something. They can put in the KDP Community posts if they don't want to send out a mass email. Just let us know that there is a problem and that they are working to correct it.


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## Sarah Woodbury (Jan 30, 2011)

I've managed to wrest a local cell phone number from my internet service guy for the last two provider's we've had.  When my internet goes down, I reboot or whatever, and then I call him:  "Is there something going on locally?"  "Yup, internet is down all over your neighborhood".  "Great".

That's it.  No calling the national line and getting someone in India, no talking through endless reboots that do not good.  Just a quick answer and I'm happy.  I just want to know.  It would be nice if Amazon could be forthcoming that way and then we wouldn't have a 9 page thread about all our sales being down!


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

Maybe Amazon doesn't know what's going on.

I'm going to gamble there are only a handful of database engineers that have both the knowledge and data available to figure out what actually happened. They have to track down the bugs and manage the data loss. They then have to report to their supervisor. Their supervisor has to formulate an email. Mid-level management has to translate the engineer-speak into tech-light and start blaming one another for the crisis. Legal has to be consulted to cut out any proprietary information. Marketing and PR have to change all the nouns and verbs so it sounds like Amazon actually did us a favor. A VP has to be dragged off a golf course to sign off on the plan. Then the lead vendor rep has to formulate new response letter guidelines. The guidelines have to arrive on the desk of the vendor reps. The vendor reps then have to get back from chai break. They have to discover that the rules have changed. Then you might get some sort of answer.

Or maybe Amazon doesn't want us to know what's going on.

Disclosure is a balancing act. On one side of the scale is the PR damage from admitting mistakes. That effects stock price. That effects executive compensation. On the other side of the scale are my feelings. My grumbling costs Amazon...nada. Let's not kid ourselves. They are the distribution channel for indie lit right now. I can't even Google my own book on B&N. My monthly blog visits number in the hundreds. All I really have is the growing word-of-mouth building up on Amazon. Amazon doesn't need to worry about me bailing. Where the heck am I going to go? Do you remember how long it took for Amazon to notify large sights like Four Square and Reddit after the EC2 cloud crash last month? Those were Amazon's big clients. Who the heck am I?

I'm only taking one thing away from the Lady Gaga crash. It is something that many of the bright minds on this board keep saying every single day. If this writing thing is more than a game for me, or a creative way to cover the cost of a few lattes, if I'm going to depend on writing for any sizable portion of my income, I need to do what any other sane small business would do: diversify, diversify, diversify.

I'm not angry about any of this. I know this is how big business works. But I am a bit surprised by myself. I've become illogical. A bubble chaser. And we all know how that story ends.

I'm changing the name of my KDP tab to SVTL (Sales Vulnerability To Loss). Apparently, I need the daily reminder. A business plan that can be throttled by the release of a single album isn't a plan at all-it's a form of Russian roulette. I'm enjoying this writing gig far to much too lose it. I need to start planning for The Rapture.

B.


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## Sarah Woodbury (Jan 30, 2011)

Thanks for that.  My IT husband said the exact same thing two seconds ago.  Just that the system is so complicated, they may know something's happening, but not why or what piece of code had ramifications far beyond what some programmer thought they were doing.  Witness the loss of my 'Also boughts' on May 10th.  The ripple effect . . .


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## kCopeseeley (Mar 15, 2011)

B. Justin Shier said:


> Disclosure is a balancing act. On one side of the scale is the PR damage from admitting mistakes.
> 
> I'm changing the name of my KDP tab to SVTL (Sales Vulnerability To Loss). Apparently, I need the daily reminder. A business plan that can be throttled by the release of a single album isn't a plan at all-it's a form of Russian roulette. I'm enjoying this writing gig far to much too lose it. I need to start planning for The Rapture.


So true, disclosure IS a balancing act. However, SOME information would be cool. Just a "heads up, things crashed" or "btw: tags are never coming back".

I like your name change, BTW. It's good to have a reminder.


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## MH Sargent (Apr 8, 2010)

Sarah Woodbury said:


> Thanks for that. My IT husband said the exact same thing two seconds ago. Just that the system is so complicated, they may know something's happening, but not why or what piece of code had ramifications far beyond what some programmer thought they were doing. Witness the loss of my 'Also boughts' on May 10th. The ripple effect . . .


Thank your IT husband for his input. It makes sense that there is a ton of code to sort through, all sorts of different servers which makes it a complicated problem(s) to fix. Hopefully, we'll get back on course soon. That said, now we're into a big holiday weekend, so that may account for some slower sales too. Or is it because they're having server problems? See? It's confusing.


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## CJArcher (Jan 22, 2011)

I wrote a blog post about putting all my eggs in the Amazon basket and how scary it can be.  All prompted by the complete halt in sales the other day.  I WANT to diversify and spread the risk but I just don't know HOW to make more inroads into B&N, Apple etc.  I'm there but I'm almost invisible according to my sales ranks.  

My sales seem to have caught up, btw.  Yesterday was an awesome day which was probably just catch-up and today is looking normal again.  Phew.


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

modwitch said:


> I think one aspect of diversifying is more books. That takes time, and they can all take a dive, but more books means more ways out of whatever thing happened. I'm slowly working on some of the other vendors, but honestly, I figure I'll live with amazon as my basket for a long time yet. So... more books, and have a nest egg put away to ride out hiccups - because there will be more.


More books, and more online retailers. We need to root for B&N, Kobo, Apple, and others. The worst thing would be if Amazon ends up with 70% share of the ebook market. That's not good for us. I hope Amazon's marketshare drops below 50%. I hope it drops well below 50%.


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## Will Write for Gruel (Oct 16, 2010)

If you want Amazon to succeed and capture marketshare to the detriment of others, you really are wishing all your eggs into one basket, and you don't get to carry the basket. 

Amazon may be friendly to you now, but that's no guarantee they will be friendly in the future. They are still in a drive to escalate ebook sales and diminish print sales. Once they've done that, who knows how they will act? And once print sales are the small change, who knows how the big publishers will attack the ebook market and what kind of money they will spend to make sure their books get displayed at the expense of yours. 

We are better off with competition. The best thing would be if Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, and others had relative strengths and each developed their own line of imprints with author-friendly contracts.


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## kCopeseeley (Mar 15, 2011)

Asher MacDonald said:


> Amazon may be friendly to you now, but that's no guarantee they will be friendly in the future. They are still in a drive to escalate ebook sales and diminish print sales. Once they've done that, who knows how they will act? And once print sales are the small change, who knows how the big publishers will attack the ebook market and what kind of money they will spend to make sure their books get displayed at the expense of yours.
> 
> We are better off with competition. The best thing would be if Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, and others had relative strengths and each developed their own line of imprints with author-friendly contracts.


Absolutely true. I want B&N, Kobo, etc. to succeed. But right now, they are doing jack squat for me as an author. I sell next to nothing on any of them. I don't WANT all my eggs in one basket, but until the others figure out a way to get indie books more notice OR I get more famous, Amazon still has the best tools for authors to help readers find their books.

Although, I have to say, I disagree with the last point. I don't care if they make their own imprints or have author-friendly contracts, but I want the opt out button on that one. I have no desire to sign a contract with ANYONE at this point. I like being a renegade.


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## Philip Chen (Aug 8, 2010)

Story idea:

In the not too distant future a raggedy band of independent writers living in caves wages guerilla warfare with the well-equipped robo-warriors of Amazon and the DTB industry.


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## 41419 (Apr 4, 2011)

I worked for a large internet company. Things go wrong all the time. Sometimes they are small and you fix them. Sometimes you don't know what the hell happened. In the latter case, for all sorts of reasons, it's usually not best to communicate that to the customer.

In any event, my US sales are kind of back to normal levels, and ranking is somewhat recovered.


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## AnneMarie Novark (Aug 15, 2010)

Updating here:

My sales are pretty much back to normal and so are rankings. Friday and Saturday, my numbers were greater/larger than normal and I think this was due to Amazon catching up. Wish my normal numbers were always that large. *grin*

Today was a little slow, but it is a holiday weekend.

I would still like to discuss whether good sales can sustain themselves through the years or does a book's sales numbers peak then decline? Konrath says ebooks are forever, but will the good sales really sustain themselves forever? I'm guessing adding new products/titles into the mix will create a bigger "footprint" and help new readers find our books and backlists, thus sustaining sales.

Must.Write.More.Books.


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