# More like a Funeral March than March Madness



## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

March sales for me, that is.

I've been doing well the last few months but suddenly, and I don't know why so I'm blaming it on Amazon's sudden Affiliate Program Bomb, my sales plummeted drastically. I mean DRASTICALLY. From a good 50-100 a day to 5-10. Arghhhh.

I didn't run a promo since beginning of Feb. and it wasn't a free one so I shouldn't have fallen off the cliff like this.

Anyway, just a rant. I get frustrated when I think I'm finally doing okay and growing and then something like this punch me in the gut. Maybe March Madness will show up and I'll be cheering soon. Thanks for listening. Hope your month is starting better than mine!


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## ChristopherDavidPetersen (Mar 24, 2011)

I feel your pain  

I've been doing this for two years now. In that time, I've seen Amazon tweak "things" and completely wipe out my earnings, where I had to start all over. I'm doing REALLY great now, but I'm quite certain they "help" me out again in the near future and I'll have to start all over... AGAIN! Grrrrrr.

I consider Amazon a very unstable company because of the wild roller coaster ride I've been on, so to lessen the impact of their changes, I've shifted my books to other vendors like B&N, Kobo, etc (as well as others through Smashwords). I'm starting to see decent numbers rolling in outside of Amazon, so at least when they start to play with people's livelihoods again (which I know they will), it won't hurt so bad.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

I'm getting that, too.
The change has been so drastic that I ended up buying my own book yesterday to see if there is something wrong with my account!
I checked AC, checked to make sure the categories aren't messed up, etc. It's that drastic a change. This does not bode well.

Then again, that single sale moved my rank from something like 120k to 70k.  Weird.


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## Todd Young (May 2, 2011)

Yes. It's certainly frustrating. My first book (published in 2010) stayed in the top 100 in its genre for almost eighteen months. When I published my second, it stayed there right alongside it. But somewhere along the line some algorithm change altered the way books "stick" in the rankings. They seem to have a shelf-life now of a few months (or that's how it seems to me) and then they automatically start slipping away.


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## Chris Northern (Jan 20, 2011)

You are not alone. Not that that´s likely to make you feel better about it but.


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## George Berger (Aug 7, 2011)

One of the late Virgil Fox's masterpieces.


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

I'm sorry to hear I'm not the only one. I do have my books with other vendors but Amazon is currently the place all my books do super-well (or at least, till this month!).

I've only been doing this since end of 2011, so my experience is very limited. Usually I take the ups and downs without much complaining, just reading the board and trying to learn from others. But this sudden drop from 100 to 5 (for my newest book) totally flummoxed me!

Need. Chocolate.


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## SEAN H. ROBERTSON (Mar 14, 2011)

Sorry all, but sales are still streaming in, same pace as last month. No change for me.


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## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

Hmmm...

My book was selling 100 copies a day two weeks ago, and now it's selling 10. But I figured that was what happened when you weren't a hot new release anymore.

Everything else seems to be about the same-ish, honestly.

Maybe it isn't normal. Maybe it IS evil algorithmical changes! GRRR.

Chris is so right about the unpredictability of selling on Amazon. One minute you're up, the next... not so much. I've been through the ups and downs before, and considering that having a book selling 10 copies a day steadily used to be an "up" for me, it is a "down" I'll take any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

(But I do wish it would level out and stop plummeting on me. If it's ranked down around 100K next week, I might throw myself a pity party. A private one, of course, because nothing all that awful is really happening. I can't complain, but sometimes I still do. )


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## wildwitchof (Sep 2, 2010)

What's killing me is Barnes & Noble. The bottom totally fell out over there. Amazon isn't great, either, but BN is a sudden drop to 0.

I'm really eager to see the Apple numbers post on Smashwords. 

That could be part of the problem, everyone--Smashwords and other sites are doing massive promo this week for Read an eBook Week. I'm giving away THIS TIME NEXT DOOR, and lots of copies are flying out. It could certainly put a dent in Amazon sales if enough readers are taking advantage of the promotions.


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## 48306 (Jul 6, 2011)

Kobo dropped to nothing for me this month. Granted I didn't sell well there, but at least a couple of sales a day. Now, one book sold in 7 days?


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## Al Dente (Sep 3, 2012)

Things aren't going so hot for me, either. I think I made 29 sales so far this month. I'm trying to get more books out to keep me from dying. My wife, on the other hand, is still selling anywhere between 20 - 50 books a day, so who knows what's going on?


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

Thanks, all, for commiserating with me this morning. I just came home from the roof. Looking at the sales, I think I made more money roofing today. Hee.

I had better get my behind in gear and get that short story out. Nothing like a newborn to liven a funeral (ahem).


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## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

Just wanted to chirp in that I'm having the exact same experience.  I'm thinking I might have to start sacrificing something to a volcano or begin chanting to the full moon out in the woods with a sacrifice from Kentucky Fried Chicken.  Or maybe just really put on the steam and get my next release out.  Buh.


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

I haven't noticed a drop on Amazon this month, but the past two months were already pretty terrible. I think maybe I already fell over that cliff *smiles wryly*. I hope I can get a new book out late this month, which might help a bit.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

My Amazon sales fell off the cliff in September and are clawing back only slowly, despite having made the first book in a series free.

The Amazon cliff came at the same time as a bump on B&N and Kobo to lift my total sales to higher levels than they have ever been. I'm selling OK, just not on Amazon.


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## AnitaDobs (Sep 18, 2012)

Yep, not so great for me either. If I didn't have a new release out it would be worse. Which only makes me think with the Amazon model new releases have to come thick and fast, and even then, there's no guarantee they'll do well.

The way I see it, their algo has two 'virtual' effects which are basically the equivelent of an actual bookstore. A 'new releases shelf' (an algo push for the first 4 weeks... seems like it used to be around six if you ask me), and the HNR section, which is like the shelf at the front door of the bookstore... but that can crash quick too.

The algo's just seem to be getting more ruthless is all. Although when Amazon goes good, it seems to go super good, so that is still something I suppose.


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## ShaunaG (Jun 16, 2011)

I don't understand why they do this to us. They make a lot of money from us, why hurt us by randomly testing these algorithms? I was really, really looking forward to January this year because Jan-April of last year was huge for me and I have way more titles out now, and really, it's just been... eh. Things did pick up, but not like they should have and then Feb was disappointing but I know the day things changed in March: the 3rd. Huge shift and very painful.


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## Aya Ling (Nov 21, 2012)

Erm, I'm actually selling better this month. My princess book is averaging a sale a day, when it was about a book every three days last month. Not a big change, I know, but still comforting to see! And I've no idea why--no price change, no promo, no new release. The only change I see is that my also-boughts changed from KB-er's books to BBW erotic romances


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## ingrid avluv (Feb 15, 2013)

It's always been up and down like that with Amazon. I've been publishing paperbacks for 5 years. My income has fluctuated up for 200% from one month to the next, with no noticeable reason. 

I've never gone anywhere but Amazon, but I might have to.


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

ingrid avluv said:


> It's always been up and down like that with Amazon. I've been publishing paperbacks for 5 years. My income has fluctuated up for 200% from one month to the next, with no noticeable reason.
> 
> I've never gone anywhere but Amazon, but I might have to.


I understand fluctuations. It's the way of life in self-employment, unless you have a certain market locked in for a period of time (say, in roofing, you get the work of a whole subdivision, so you know you're guaranteed paid for the length of time you're doing the roofs there till it's done).

But it's a shock to the system to go from, e.g., 30 sales a day in one book to just one or two a day. There was no slow-down. It was just a snap of the fingers. The first day, I thought maybe it was a glitch. The second, I was still in denial, that maybe it was a bad two days. A week later, with the Sunday sales report showing me the difference in pay, I'm in "OMGWTFBBQ" mood .

I know there's no guarantee of fabulous sales every week or month in our business. But it would be nice to have an inkling what happened.

It's a new day. I hope everyone has fab sales this weekend!


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Yep, March 3-4 is when things took a dive.

I suspect price. It's a very easy thing to target in various algorithms and it, for the most part, punishes indies.


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## ScriptLand (Feb 9, 2013)

I am brand-new to Amazon, as an author/publisher.  I put my first book up February 28th.  I ran two free days on KDP on the 4th and 5th.  I had categories, because I was ranking in the top 100 for my genre for free.   

Then the categories seem to have disappeared on the 5th.   After the promo, I updated my cover, made a few edits and added some information at the end including a link.  I also changed my blurb.  I waited for it to go through review and then go live again.  It went live Thursday night.  Yesterday afternoon, I noticed my cover was changed to the new one, but my blurb and inside information were the same.   I still didn’t have categories.  No changes today.  

Also, to give an indication of sales, I am sitting in the 78k area for all paid books, yet I’ve only had 3 sales and one borrow.  I was sub 400k last night, when apparently one sale pushed me up to into the 78k?  That seems pretty drastic.


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## Anne Frasier (Oct 22, 2009)

DDark said:


> I'd love to know if they did one of those algorithm changes everyone talks about. I can practically pinpoint the exact day that my sales cut in half, and it reminded me of in the past year when that happened and other authors had similar results around the same time period.


i still suspect they tweaked them about the time the affiliate/free books notice went out. something def happened. rankings for all of my titles changed drastically overnight. this would be a really good time for B&N to try to get back into the ebook game and lure some post-select authors over there.


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## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

ScriptLand said:


> Also, to give an indication of sales, I am sitting in the 78k area for all paid books, yet I've only had 3 sales and one borrow. I was sub 400k last night, when apparently one sale pushed me up to into the 78k? That seems pretty drastic.


And now you understand the truth of the matter. Only about 100,000 books are selling at least a copy a day in the Amazon store, because being ranked at 100K probably means you sold a book within the last 24 hours.

Most books don't sell very well.



DDark said:


> Bingo. Sales fluctuate daily/weekly/monthly and this can happen, but when it cuts over 50% in one day and then sales are consistent after that, I'm skeptical that this is just the nature of the beast.


Well, but it is, though. Maybe they did change something, but since they are always changing things, and since we have no control over that, the nasty fluctuations are part of the ride. Besides, I've been helped by the algorithm changes. It's a two-sided coin. There are those of us who got dumped, but when we did, some lucky schmucks took our places. Now _they're_ selling lots of books, and they're really happy.

But I don't mean to say that we shouldn't try to figure out what the change was, because that's always fun. 

Let's consider what we know:
A) Amazon has cracked down on affiliate income, possibly indicating that the money that they paid out to affiliates was more than the money that they were making from them, given that the affiliates were claiming a huge portion of free downloads rather than sales.
B) My book that fell in the rankings drastically was a new release, which dropped a bit after falling off the hot new release charts, but then cut in half around March 2-3. 
C) My old books continue to hang around ranks that they usually would, which is anywhere from 30K-100K. They are unchanged. Did anyone else have books that were selling between 1-5 a day that took a hit? As of right now, I'm going to hypothesize that the ranking change hit books selling significantly more than that.

So, the change may be to keep a bit of churn on the bestseller lists, meaning that they've weighted recent sales more than past sales, but only for books in the upper part of the charts?


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

I had an interesting talk with an Amazon rep on the phone last week, and one of the things we discussed was what this very thread is about. I wasn't brutal or nasty to him, but I've been with KDP since 2009 (then it was DTP) and I told him, "Look, every single time you guys change something, my sales go down. Every time. Then I work my way back up over a few months, and you guys change something again."

Not all authors have had my experience, of course.

Also, I realize Amazon's goals and mine aren't necessarily the same, and that Amazon owes me nothing (beyond my contractual 35 or 70 percent), but I have to question the sense of toying with their own algorithms, listings, etc. on so often a basis. It seems somewhat counterproductive to me.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Ty Johnston said:


> I had an interesting talk with an Amazon rep on the phone last week, and one of the things we discussed was what this very thread is about. I wasn't brutal or nasty to him, but I've been with KDP since 2009 (then it was DTP) and I told him, "Look, every single time you guys change something, my sales go down. Every time. Then I work my way back up over a few months, and you guys change something again."


So what was his response?


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## Harriet Schultz (Jan 3, 2012)

Quiss said:


> So what was his response?


Yes, please share.
I'm actually glad to see this thread since I thought it was just me who'd tanked this week. I had the sense last month that Amazon did "something" that helped to dramatically increase my sales and then undid that "something" this week. That's about how technical I can get.


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## 13893 (Apr 29, 2010)

Does anyone else have this yellow bar message in Author Central?

"Sales Rank Updates Delayed
Your historical Sales Rank data has not been updated since February 1, 2013 while we conduct necessary systems changes to improve this service. We apologize for the inconvenience. Once rebuilt, your historic Sales Rank data will include the missing data since February 1, 2013."


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## KevinMcLaughlin (Nov 11, 2010)

My sales are on track to roughly triple this month, compared to Feb (assuming nothing changes later this month, which of course it likely will!). It's my 99 cent ebooks selling well, too, if that helps any.

I think the takeaway here is that in any given month, some books will go up, others will go down. It is not a predictable business.

Unless you were paying the affiliate sites for ad space for your free books every month, I don't think we can blame changes in sales on the affiliate changes. Makes no sense. So - some of it is just luck, which books are being found right now. Some of it is maybe loss of visibility, as books fall off the new release lists. Some of it is perhaps related to the sequester, which has a lot more folks nervous about spending money right now.

Keep writing.    My strong suggestion is to worry less about small dips in sales and more about overall annual trajectory. You want 2013 overall sales to be up from 2012. Quarter by quarter analysis can be useful, too - so comparing Jan-March 2012 with the same months in 2013 can be helpful. But comparing one month to another month is apples to oranges, in this business.


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

Ebb and flow as things might, dropping from 50-100/day to 5-10 a day is pretty drastic. Was that literally overnight? Any more details you can provide, Gennita? Did you have a big promo of any kind 30 days before the drop?


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## Ardin (Nov 1, 2012)

I dropped from 3-5 per day to nothing at about 4 March, but I figured it was because my last free promo was a month ago, and wore off.


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## LilianaHart (Jun 20, 2011)

It's time to shake things up a bit! If you find you've hit a stall or if sales start to drop, the best thing you can do is get some kind of new content up to reboost the amazon algorithms. If you don't have a novella, short story, or new novel to put up yet, I'd suggest bundling some of your current work in a boxed set. Maybe bundling your Crossfire Series into a 3 book boxed set and price at 7.99 or even 9.99. I'd do the same thing with your other series, but space it out, maybe another at the beginning of May.

When things start to slow that's how the survivors in this game survive. You just keep shaking things up and readjusting how you do things until you catch hold and can stay consistent. Your books are really good, and as soon as you start to get more content up I think you'll really start to see an increase as things catch on.


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## portiadacosta (Feb 28, 2011)

Hugs, Gennita. I feel your pain. It's the sudden drops in sales that are the shockers... A gradual decline seems natural and understandable and more bearable, but these elevator drops take the heart down with them.

Last August, I finally thought I was getting somewhere, after about 18 months of self publishing on Amazon I was seeing some good numbers, then in Sept, they slashed the cable and numbers plummeted overnight. And this week it's happened again, only this time there wasn't far to fall as I only sell one or two copies a day to start with.


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## ChristopherDavidPetersen (Mar 24, 2011)

LilianaHart said:


> It's time to shake things up a bit! If you find you've hit a stall or if sales start to drop, the best thing you can do is get some kind of new content up to reboost the amazon algorithms. If you don't have a novella, short story, or new novel to put up yet, I'd suggest bundling some of your current work in a boxed set. Maybe bundling your Crossfire Series into a 3 book boxed set and price at 7.99 or even 9.99. I'd do the same thing with your other series, but space it out, maybe another at the beginning of May.
> 
> When things start to slow that's how the survivors in this game survive. You just keep shaking things up and readjusting how you do things until you catch hold and can stay consistent. Your books are really good, and as soon as you start to get more content up I think you'll really start to see an increase as things catch on.


WOW! Now THERE'S a great idea! I'm ALL over that!

You know Liliana, we had a great round of complaining going on here and you go ahead and throw out something constructive... UGH, kill joy


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## Guest (Mar 9, 2013)

Every couple of months Amazon seems to change something that majorly effs up sales for many people. If there was a gradual drop - as would be logical - I suppose people wouldn't be bothered too much. But the changes in sales tend to be rather drastic. I was consistently selling around 100-120 copies of my first release until last March. Then came a jump off a cliff down to 30, and it's been below 30 per month ever since.^^

I'd also be interested in that rep's answer, Ty.


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

SPBreit said:


> I'd also be interested in that rep's answer, Ty.


And to others who asked ...

His answer wasn't really much. The marketing rep seemed somewhat surprised and said something like, "so a rising tide _doesn't _lift all boats in the case of Amazon?" When I confirmed this, he told me he would send the information up the ladder, and that he was speaking with a number of indie authors to get their opinions of KDP, Kindle, Amazon, etc. We also talked a little about CreateSpace and Author Central, but focused upon KDP.

My own thoughts are that the big drops aren't necessarily caused by anything Amazon has done intentionally, though I admit I'm probably wrong about this. My guess would be that books and e-books that see a big, overnight drop in sales probably got bumped from the "Customers Also Bought ..." lists, or a top 100 list, or a 30-day list, or something similar, something that occurs naturally (in a manner of speaking).


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## Anne Frasier (Oct 22, 2009)

LKRigel said:


> Does anyone else have this yellow bar message in Author Central?
> 
> "Sales Rank Updates Delayed
> Your historical Sales Rank data has not been updated since February 1, 2013 while we conduct necessary systems changes to improve this service. We apologize for the inconvenience. Once rebuilt, your historic Sales Rank data will include the missing data since February 1, 2013."


whhaaattttt?? no! but now i'm running to look again. this could explain some stuff.


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

LKRigel said:


> Does anyone else have this yellow bar message in Author Central?
> 
> "Sales Rank Updates Delayed
> Your historical Sales Rank data has not been updated since February 1, 2013 while we conduct necessary systems changes to improve this service. We apologize for the inconvenience. Once rebuilt, your historic Sales Rank data will include the missing data since February 1, 2013."


Mine seems to be fine.

My sales, on the other hand...


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

LilianaHart said:


> It's time to shake things up a bit! If you find you've hit a stall or if sales start to drop, the best thing you can do is get some kind of new content up to reboost the amazon algorithms. If you don't have a novella, short story, or new novel to put up yet, I'd suggest bundling some of your current work in a boxed set. Maybe bundling your Crossfire Series into a 3 book boxed set and price at 7.99 or even 9.99. I'd do the same thing with your other series, but space it out, maybe another at the beginning of May.
> 
> When things start to slow that's how the survivors in this game survive. You just keep shaking things up and readjusting how you do things until you catch hold and can stay consistent. Your books are really good, and as soon as you start to get more content up I think you'll really start to see an increase as things catch on.


This. A thousand times this. When sales stall, try something new. A bundle, a promo, a BookBub ad, a collaboration with another author, and work like crazy for your next release.


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

Edward W. Robertson said:


> Ebb and flow as things might, dropping from 50-100/day to 5-10 a day is pretty drastic. Was that literally overnight? Any more details you can provide, Gennita? Did you have a big promo of any kind 30 days before the drop?


For Tempting Trouble sales have been great around 30 to 50 a day and sometimes double that. Then I had .99cts promo with Bookbub and sold 1600 in a day. After that I was going gangbusters with 100 or so daily till end of Feb when it suddenly dropped to two or three a day. My other series also dropped to single digit sales around 4 Mar.


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

LilianaHart said:


> It's time to shake things up a bit! If you find you've hit a stall or if sales start to drop, the best thing you can do is get some kind of new content up to reboost the amazon algorithms. If you don't have a novella, short story, or new novel to put up yet, I'd suggest bundling some of your current work in a boxed set. Maybe bundling your Crossfire Series into a 3 book boxed set and price at 7.99 or even 9.99. I'd do the same thing with your other series, but space it out, maybe another at the beginning of May.
> 
> When things start to slow that's how the survivors in this game survive. You just keep shaking things up and readjusting how you do things until you catch hold and can stay consistent. Your books are really good, and as soon as you start to get more content up I think you'll really start to see an increase as things catch on.


Planning all that this month, Liliana. Hoping something will move the needle! And thank you for your kind words abt my books!


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

Deanna Chase said:


> This. A thousand times this. When sales stall, try something new. A bundle, a promo, a BookBub ad, a collaboration with another author, and work like crazy for your next release.


Understood. And yes I will be booking ads and getting a novella out. I just wanted to share with the usual data peeps here my sudden plunge from top 100 seller to 17000, that's all.


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## Satchya (Sep 5, 2012)

As the business manager for DH's books, I spend a lot of time browsing AlsoBots, looking for patterns or any other information that can help us make marketing or sales decisions.  One thing I've noticed time and time again is a sales surge caused by a new book that will show up on the first page of our AlsoBots list.  We often will ride the tailwind of that book's surge for quite awhile, and I will sometimes check their ranking numbers daily while they are "hot."  Once they start to cool off, our sales decline as well.  The best we can hope for is another new book that appeals to our "typical" fan (so that we are high in their AlsoBot list), and ride their tailwind too.

It's entirely possible that a book whose tailwind you were riding (so to speak) fell off a Hot New Release chart, or a 30-day cliff.  It isn't always something you did, or that your book did.  

Occasionally, when I notice there are many new books in our main categories, and we are not necessarily showing up in their AlsoBots, we will run a week long .99-cent sale to goose sales and get our book(s) into the AlsoBots of the newer books in our category.  I call it "refreshing our AlsoBots."  I have no evidence, really, that it's an excellent strategy or anything, but our books have sold consistently for a long time.  Don't get me wrong, they are slowing down a little at a time every month past release, but not much, and my strategy has kept us away from any "cliff-diving."

Hopefully we can keep both books visible until Book Three is released later this year using this strategy.  We can't just keep releasing on a brutal schedule, because dh works full-time and we have three very busy and demanding children.    This is the best we can do for now.


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## Rykymus (Dec 3, 2011)

Uh, I hate to point out the obvious, but Smashwords annual March promo/sale started March 3rd and ends today (March 9th.) I too experienced the drop in daily sales volume, just as it did at this same time last year when Smashwords did it's "Read an Ebook Week" promo/sale. I strongly suspect that things will return to normal come next week. So you might want to wait and see before everyone starts screaming algorithm change.

Just my two cents.


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Gennita Low said:


> For Tempting Trouble sales have been great around 30 to 50 a day and sometimes double that. Then I had .99cts promo with Bookbub and sold 1600 in a day. After that I was going gangbusters with 100 or so daily till end of Feb when it suddenly dropped to two or three a day. My other series also dropped to single digit sales around 4 Mar.


Wow, that is drastic. I'd probably get my tin foil hat out and cry in my Diet Coke. I'm so sorry that happened. Scary.


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

Rykymus said:


> ... but Smashwords annual March promo/sale started March 3rd and ends today (March 9th.)


Could be, but I don't believe the average Kindle consumer even knows about Smashwords. And the promo doesn't seem to have affected my BN sales.


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

Anne Frasier said:


> whhaaattttt?? no! but now i'm running to look again. this could explain some stuff.


What do you mean by that, Anne? Is that something bad?


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## H.M. Ward (May 16, 2012)

LilianaHart said:


> It's time to shake things up a bit! If you find you've hit a stall or if sales start to drop, the best thing you can do is get some kind of new content up to reboost the amazon algorithms. If you don't have a novella, short story, or new novel to put up yet, I'd suggest bundling some of your current work in a boxed set. Maybe bundling your Crossfire Series into a 3 book boxed set and price at 7.99 or even 9.99. I'd do the same thing with your other series, but space it out, maybe another at the beginning of May.
> 
> When things start to slow that's how the survivors in this game survive. You just keep shaking things up and readjusting how you do things until you catch hold and can stay consistent. Your books are really good, and as soon as you start to get more content up I think you'll really start to see an increase as things catch on.


This.

Whatever they did affected me too. I released a new book right when it happened and the rankings were way screwy for a while. Having a new release HELPS. Title #30 comes out tomorrow. It'll be interesting to compare it to the one last weekend cause there was totally something going on.


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## Anne Frasier (Oct 22, 2009)

Gennita Low said:


> What do you mean by that, Anne? Is that something bad?


 i thought if the ranking are simply glitchy... then the books might have lost visibility.


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

holly w. said:


> This.
> 
> Whatever they did affected me too. I released a new book right when it happened and the rankings were way screwy for a while. Having a new release HELPS. Title #30 comes out tomorrow. It'll be interesting to compare it to the one last weekend cause there was totally something going on.


Yeah, I remember you talking about it on another thread. Please do let me (us) know about the new book rankings. Would love to compare and contrast numbers before and after Mar 3/4 .

I'm also working as hard/fast as I could to get my new novella out. Like Liliana advised, it's good to get new stuff out to shake things up. The day job really makes me sleepy at night and I'm forever being tempted by the bed and TONIGHT we lose an hour! Dammeet!


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

I'm kinda mystified by what people call a box set. You mean an omnibus?

Is it a print book? I don't get what it means.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

OK, I have one, but call it an omnibus (in my sig file). I made it specifically to do print books, which I want to hand-sell at cons. They're huge books big enough to kill someone with. But I do sell at least a couple of ebook versions every month.


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## Guest (Mar 10, 2013)

I may sound like an idiot for asking this, but... when you copy and paste the text of a book to another file to make the omnibus file, do you lose all formatting eg. italics and have to manually resort them? I will be tackling an omnibus after 2 more installment of the Gothic Warrior  series so I'd be grateful to know what to expect.


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## Colin Taber (Apr 4, 2011)

My sales have been turning over more or less as they always have (outside of promo pushes).

I do have a new release that went live just 24 hours ago, so we'll see what happens with that.


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## Richardcrasta (Jul 29, 2010)

Anne Frasier said:


> i still suspect they tweaked them about the time the affiliate/free books notice went out.


What was this affiliate/free books notice about? I can't seem to find it in my inbox.

thanks.


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## Writerly Writer (Jul 19, 2012)

LilianaHart said:


> It's time to shake things up a bit! If you find you've hit a stall or if sales start to drop, the best thing you can do is get some kind of new content up to reboost the amazon algorithms. If you don't have a novella, short story, or new novel to put up yet, I'd suggest bundling some of your current work in a boxed set. Maybe bundling your Crossfire Series into a 3 book boxed set and price at 7.99 or even 9.99. I'd do the same thing with your other series, but space it out, maybe another at the beginning of May.
> 
> When things start to slow that's how the survivors in this game survive. You just keep shaking things up and readjusting how you do things until you catch hold and can stay consistent. Your books are really good, and as soon as you start to get more content up I think you'll really start to see an increase as things catch on.


Great advice. What seems certain is that many are having different experiences and it does seem hasty to assume amazon is completely at fault. And even so still apply Liliana's advice.


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

KJCOLT said:


> Great advice. What seems certain is that many are having different experiences and it does seem hasty to assume amazon is completely at fault. And even so still apply Liliana's advice.


I always hesitate to say "fault." More like consequence because I don't assume Amazon is out to hurt anyone's sales. A year ago, I wouldn't have known who to turn to, to ask why my ranking fell from a stable 3000 to 5000-ish to 17000 in less than a week. A few months ago, I would just be waiting for someone to start a thread similar to mine so I could lurk and read. It's only now that I feel comfortable enough to post this experience to be part of KB talking about it. It's the reason I've stuck around and enjoyed KB--everyone helps with trying to decipher data and sudden dead-ends. The thread contribution might not be about the same problem and I may never even get to understand what happened, but putting it out there might help a few people who were like me a year ago , just lurking and learning.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Colin Taber said:


> I do have a new release that went live just 24 hours ago, so we'll see what happens with that.


Let us know how that's going!

I'm officially now to the point that I'm afraid to look at the sales report.
Nothing cures that addiction that the fear of seeing no movement  I just read all of this morning's new KB threads and still haven't looked.


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## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

Quiss said:


> I'm officially now to the point that I'm afraid to look at the sales report.
> Nothing cures that addiction that the fear of seeing no movement  I just read all of this morning's new KB threads and still haven't looked.


Oh, man, I have so been here before. Luckily, February was so good that this month can be crap for all I care. But I know exactly what you're talking about. I hate that pit of your stomach feeling of dread and fear. Ugh.

We're crazy people. Seriously. We have to be to keep at it when everything is this uncertain. 

(I just watched the Anne Rice thread. Never give up! Never surrender! Onward! Boy, I'm feeling cheery now.)


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

Quiss said:


> Let us know how that's going!
> 
> I'm officially now to the point that I'm afraid to look at the sales report.
> Nothing cures that addiction that the fear of seeing no movement  I just read all of this morning's new KB threads and still haven't looked.


LOL. Quiss, so funny because this morning is the first time in weeks I haven't daren't check both the daily report or the six-week report. Because I knew they would make my Sunday miserable . So I'm just going to work on roof and writing and pretend it isn't Sunday.


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## portiadacosta (Feb 28, 2011)

Gennita Low said:


> LOL. Quiss, so funny because this morning is the first time in weeks I haven't daren't check both the daily report or the six-week report. Because I knew they would make my Sunday miserable . So I'm just going to work on roof and writing and pretend it isn't Sunday.


I always tell myself that I'll not check, and remain in a blissful, happy state, imagining sales... but then I get weak, and check, and there are no sales. Or barely one or two...


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## 13893 (Apr 29, 2010)

Morning routine:

Check
Feel woefully inadequate and convinced I suck
Drink massive quantities of caffeine
Check again
Sigh
Lurk in the WC
Check once more
Work on WIP (pain eases)


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## Guest (Mar 10, 2013)

I finally got 1 sale of my short that went up yesterday morning. Thanks Freya, bet you picking up and slamming that 7'2 350 lb biker in the sample helped!


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

Gennita Low said:


> I always hesitate to say "fault." More like consequence because I don't assume Amazon is out to hurt anyone's sales. A year ago, I wouldn't have known who to turn to, to ask why my ranking fell from a stable 3000 to 5000-ish to 17000 in less than a week. A few months ago, I would just be waiting for someone to start a thread similar to mine so I could lurk and read. It's only now that I feel comfortable enough to post this experience to be part of KB talking about it. It's the reason I've stuck around and enjoyed KB--everyone helps with trying to decipher data and sudden dead-ends. The thread contribution might not be about the same problem and I may never even get to understand what happened, but putting it out there might help a few people who were like me a year ago , just lurking and learning.


Did some investigating and it looked like your rank entered a pretty normal-looking slide after you reverted from $0.99 to $4.99. Looks like it hung above #5000 for about eight days after the price change, then was in the #5-10K range for another week after that. Then, like you said, around March 3, it started dropping below #10K, which is where rank tends to get pretty spiky.

Which probably felt more sudden than it was. Downward spirals can kick in fast and hard on Amazon. Really frustrating to try to keep things steady. Seen your books do great when they're promoted, though, so it shouldn't be too hard to reverse the trend...


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Bows down to Ed and his super ninja analysis skills.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

I'm probably more easily pleased than some, but after years of submitting traditionally, every single sale pleases me.

I used to submit my manuscripts to publishers, and they'd say "we've passed this up for consideration" and I'd wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, and (OK, you get the gist). I would not see any money or any readers from this manuscript. It would be sitting in this black hole called the editor's desk. And I would be slowly eaten up by frustration, unable to write the next book. I never heard back from some of those tradpub submissions. Where would I have been had I still been waiting?

When I log in, I expect nothing, and when there are sales, any at all, I'm pleased, because I made more money and gained more readers than I would have done had I not taken the step to publish online.


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## 13893 (Apr 29, 2010)

Patty Jansen said:


> I'm probably more easily pleased than some, but after years of submitting traditionally, every single sale pleases me.
> 
> I used to submit my manuscripts to publishers, and they'd say "we've passed this up for consideration" and I'd wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, and (OK, you get the gist). I would not see any money or any readers from this manuscript. It would be sitting in this black hole called the editor's desk. And I would be slowly eaten up by frustration, unable to write the next book. I never heard back from some of those tradpub submissions. Where would I have been had I still been waiting?
> 
> When I log in, I expect nothing, and when there are sales, any at all, I'm pleased, because I made more money and gained more readers than I would have done had I not taken the step to publish online.


So true!


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

The problem is that humans adapt way too easily to changes in their environment. 

I feel like the true advantage in figuring out Amazon's ways isn't to maximize sales, but so you can understand in advance that all boosts in sales are writ in water, haha. Helps diminish the sense of loss when the last rise starts to fade.

_And it will_. *Grim Reaper hand reaches from the shadows*


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## Harriet Schultz (Jan 3, 2012)

Patty Jansen said:


> When I log in, I expect nothing, and when there are sales, any at all, I'm pleased, because I made more money and gained more readers than I would have done had I not taken the step to publish online.


Great attitude and so true. Thanks for reminding me.


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

Edward W. Robertson said:


> Did some investigating and it looked like your rank entered a pretty normal-looking slide after you reverted from $0.99 to $4.99. Looks like it hung above #5000 for about eight days after the price change, then was in the #5-10K range for another week after that. Then, like you said, around March 3, it started dropping below #10K, which is where rank tends to get pretty spiky.
> 
> Which probably felt more sudden than it was. Downward spirals can kick in fast and hard on Amazon. Really frustrating to try to keep things steady. Seen your books do great when they're promoted, though, so it shouldn't be too hard to reverse the trend...


Thank you for taking the time, Ed. Much appreciated. I'll find a way to climb back up, with all the books . I've gotten used to selling several hundred a week. Must work harder.


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## donnajherren (Mar 7, 2013)

Edward W. Robertson said:


> The problem is that humans adapt way too easily to changes in their environment.
> 
> I feel like the true advantage in figuring out Amazon's ways isn't to maximize sales, but so you can understand in advance that all boosts in sales are writ in water, haha.


This is soooooo true. You can be perfectly happy with ten sales a day, and it still doesn't take long to get used to a hundred. 

This sort of thing happens to us every so often on B&N with our other pen name. We'll have awesome rankings and sales, and then it's like they tweak something, and everything bottoms out--in the bad way--overnight. Then the poor little books claw their way back up to those awesome rankings and sales and BOOM. Rinse and repeat.


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## Honeybun (Nov 25, 2012)

LKRigel said:


> Morning routine:
> 
> Check
> Feel woefully inadequate and convinced I suck
> ...


LOVE this.


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## Jorja Tabu (Feb 6, 2012)

portiadacosta said:


> I always tell myself that I'll not check, and remain in a blissful, happy state, imagining sales... but then I get weak, and check, and there are no sales. Or barely one or two...


This is exactly what I do--even worse, _I read my reviews._ What is wrong with me? I've got to learn to cut this out and just write, and read (y'alls books would be a good start), and if I'm feeling ridiculous to just make sure I put the computer away instead of obsessively checking my stats or watching endless addiction-friendly Netflix recs.


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## Honeybun (Nov 25, 2012)

Jorja Tabu said:


> This is exactly what I do--even worse, _I read my reviews._ What is wrong with me? I've got to learn to cut this out and just write, and read (y'alls books would be a good start), and if I'm feeling ridiculous to just make sure I put the computer away instead of obsessively checking my stats or watching endless addiction-friendly Netflix recs.


I'm finding that if I'm reading a story, I'm not writing a story. And I like to read. Shucks!


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## Lee Lopez (Jan 19, 2012)

I was doing okay in Select, but felt it run it's course. So I moved out of Select and put my book everywhere. My sales have flat lined completely. I have a new book come out at the end of the month, so I'll see what happens with that. You are not alone. I'd like to blame Amazon, the Illuminati or ugly blue alien, but I just think it is what it is and there is not a whole lot I can do. It seems to be a common problem right now, so you definitely aren't alone. 

Lee


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## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

Someone somewhere mentioned that the Big 6 had to come into compliance with the collusion settlement last month.  Anyone think that might have something to do with what we're seeing?  I'm still seeing a ton of indie books in the Top 100, but awhile back there was some discussion here on the boards about how compliance might be a blow to us indies.  Do you think we may have begun this new era of competition?  Or just bum luck?


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

I still believe that the big six are influencing Amazon's decisions, although few here agree. Amazon is NOT too big to be swayed by those with deep pockets. If a major publisher/advertiser/contributor wants greater visibility that us wee indies, I do believe Amazon will give them that.

It's also about money. If I were Amazon I'd rather see a bunch of $12-$20 books in the Top 100, where the sales are, than a bunch of $1.99


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

KateDanley said:


> Someone somewhere mentioned that the Big 6 had to come into compliance with the collusion settlement last month. Anyone think that might have something to do with what we're seeing? I'm still seeing a ton of indie books in the Top 100, but awhile back there was some discussion here on the boards about how compliance might be a blow to us indies. Do you think we may have begun this new era of competition? Or just bum luck?


I don't know. I just released a new book and sales are nothing like the last one I released. This is the start of a new series, so I'm sure that's part of it, but the genres are close. I was expecting better. Of course I see a lot of traditional books coming out right now too in my genre. That might be another factor. Sales for me are still decent on my first series, but they are stalling a bit.


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

EBook week at SAmashwords always dampens sales at Amaozn (for Indies at least) every March in the last 4. The way to overcome it is to join it and get your Free and discounted books out into circulation. This year I only pushed out 300 books, but in years past the number was between 700-900. Now that it ended (Saturday at midnight), things should pick up on Amazon until the next Smashword blowout - the entire month of July.

Edward C. Patterson


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

Edward C. Patterson said:


> EBook week at Smashwords always dampens sales at Amaozn (for Indies at least) every March in the last 4. The way to overcome it is to join it and get your Free and discounted books out into circulation. This year I only pushed out 300 books, but in years past the number was between 700-900. Now that it ended (Saturday at midnight), things should pick up on Amazon until the next Smashword blowout - the entire month of July.
> 
> Edward C. Patterson


Thanks for this tidbit. I've just scheduled an ad at fkbooksandtips (their new venture) for Mar 15 for the weekend. Hopefully that will get some eyes back on my books. I have two more free days at Select too, expiring end of this month, that I have to use up. Funeral March for Select for me, heh heh, until someone pops in and posts good post-freebie sales even with lower downloads. I know you're out of Select, so I've been watching you too.

If it really does pick back up, I'll find the appropriate March Madness cheer for the team!


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