# What to do when sales come crashing down to nothing?



## jimkukral (Oct 31, 2011)

Several of my clients, and a few of my books, have come crashing down to nothing since July 1. We're talking hundreds of sales a month on certain books, then boom, 5 so far in July.

I have seen summer slow downs before, but this is different I think. Something happened. 

What have you done to help remedy this if it's happened to you before? 

And no, running a free select run doesn't help it. Tried that on a few of them.


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## NoCat (Aug 5, 2010)

Ignore it and write more books.


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## KellyHarper (Jul 29, 2012)

Doomed Muse said:


> Ignore it and write more books.


I like where your head's at.

Unfortunately... it's the most reliable recourse.


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## Zoe Cannon (Sep 2, 2012)

Pray to the fickle gods of Amazon?


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## Jan Thompson (May 25, 2013)

Doomed Muse said:


> Ignore it and write more books.


I like that. Now I can't remember who said it -- but a writer said that the solution to sales is to write more books. OK -- I just remembered who said it. Here:

http://blog.karenwoodward.org/2013/05/russell-blakes-26-tips-on-how-to-sell.html
"Having said all this, your best chance of making it is always writing your next book. You should always be working on the next one, and the next, and the next. Nobody ever succeeded by quitting. So if you're going to do this, do it, stop whining, suck it up, and get to work." - Russell Blake

The other day, I read to my hubby all those writing points, and he thinks that Russell Blake dude is one cool savvy writer-businessman.


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## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

Ugh.

Yes. I have been there.

First I freaked out. Then I freaked out some more. Then I got depressed.

And then I did the following actual tangible things.

-Revived the only series I'd written that sold well and wrote another sequel.
-Ran a bookbub ad.
-Wrote NA.

You're in a different position since you don't write fiction... But maybe your bestseller could use a companion book? Something that expands on the stuff you said? A workbook? A set of case studies implementing your advice?

I don't know. 

Hang in there. Never give up. Never surrender. Dream until your dream come true. Etc.


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## Victorine (Apr 23, 2010)

Yeah, unfortunately what goes up must come down. The only thing to do is keep writing and publishing more books. The popular books of 10 years ago aren't still at the tops of the charts. With the exception of very few books, the publishing industry makes their money on constantly putting out new ones. We have to do the same thing.


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## NicoleSwan (Oct 2, 2011)

Sure is depressing and panic-inducing a the same time, but I also have to agree with others, all you can do is keep writing.


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## Rusty Bigfoot (Jul 6, 2011)

Sometimes I think I need a backup plan - a way to make money w/o Azon and books. Diversify. Put all my eggs all over the place like in an Easter-egg hunt, not just in one little basket.

Prorblem is, I'm too chicken to try out anything else.


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

I've been drinking since March. It helps to make the numbers fuzzy-looking. One sale looks like eleven....


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## Willo (May 10, 2013)

jimkukral said:


> Several of my clients, and a few of my books, have come crashing down to nothing since July 1. We're talking hundreds of sales a month on certain books, then boom, 5 so far in July.
> 
> I have seen summer slow downs before, but this is different I think. Something happened.
> 
> ...


I'm in agreement: Something happened.

There are folks who still hold to the idea of a summer slump, but this is too dramatic for that, imo. One of my strong sellers went down to literally nothing over the first weekend of July. Through a .99 cent promo, I've been able to revive it to some extent, but it's frightened me enough that I'm brainstorming new ways to approach this publishing thing. The constant tinkering of Amazon algorithms - which can throw off the livelihood of authors who are bringing in a healthy sum to pay rent, feed their families, etc - is no bueno.

I'm thinking we'd be wise to join and build other sales platforms, and market the hell out of them. It works for  ARe . It can work for other genres. Aside from that, we should all be thinking about at least offering purchase options through our own websites using Oronjo (currently free), Ganxy (takes 10%), or something similar, and then promoting the hell out of them while bringing awareness to the joys (and freedoms) of sideloading .mobi and .epub files.

When readers actually own their sideloaded books, scares  like this  are a non-issue. They don't have to fear waking up one day to a wiped Kindle due to an Amazon malfunction or errant punitive action. And the author doesn't have to fear waking up one day to find their 5k to 10k sales rank has plummeted to 350k where their books have basically become invisible.



valeriec80 said:


> Ugh.
> 
> Yes. I have been there.
> 
> ...


Seriously fantastic idea. A companion book could definitely help revive the sales of the original non-fiction release.


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## chrisstevenson (Aug 10, 2012)

I've had a terrible slump across all genres, both trade and self-published for the past three months. I have never seen it like this before. I was always selling something, even the shorts. It's very bad for me at this time, and a long way off for my trade publications to hit the market.
Write more books or self-publish some backlist? Oh, I could, but I can't afford it!

chris


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## Jan Thompson (May 25, 2013)

Rusty Bigfoot said:


> Sometimes I think I need a backup plan - a way to make money w/o Azon and books. Diversify. Put all my eggs all over the place like in an Easter-egg hunt, not just in one little basket.
> 
> Prorblem is, I'm too chicken to try out anything else.


What about Smashwords? Kobo? Like someone else said -- try to sell from your own website too?

I'm with you on the eggs/basket scenario, and it worries me as I'm pre-published. At least you guys have been there, done that, seasoned, know the market. I could tank from day one. But I'll keep writing even if nothing sells. It just means I need to keep my day job.

Could it also be that the reason might not be Amazon sales?

Summer is when people:
- go on vacation and spend all their money there
- spend more money at the movies

And I daresay it's not just for book sales. It's across the board. Shops are not crowded in the sumer time. Churches also see their charitable contributions down in the summer months because people are out of town.

With vacation and blockbuster movies, there's no money left to buy ebooks. Maybe diversifying sales is one thing, but diversifying genres to include beach reads or summer reads might be an option to counter the slump?

I'm just speculating.


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## Sarah Woodbury (Jan 30, 2011)

Typically the summer slump slides into the fall fall-off. Not to be overly optimistic or anything 

Ads, promotions, new books, all can help for a while. I haven't seen the same slump on BN and Apple, FYI. Their rankings are stickier.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

jimkukral said:


> Several of my clients, and a few of my books, have come crashing down to nothing since July 1. We're talking hundreds of sales a month on certain books, then boom, 5 so far in July.
> 
> I have seen summer slow downs before, but this is different I think. Something happened.
> 
> ...


1. Cry.
2. Book a Bookbub promotion
3. Write another book

And yes, my summer slump has also been worse than usual.


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## Writerly Writer (Jul 19, 2012)

Sarah Woodbury said:


> Typically the summer slump slides into the fall fall-off. Not to be overly optimistic or anything
> 
> Ads, promotions, new books, all can help for a while. I haven't seen the same slump on BN and Apple, FYI. Their rankings are stickier.


What exactly is a fall fall-off?


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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

1.  Beg Bookbub to take you on a 99 promo.
2.  Try out new covers.
3.  Try out less competitive/new categories
4.  Try out new keywords.  
5.  Blame the summer slump for everything if it fails.


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## trublue (Jul 7, 2012)

New cover
New blurb
Bookbub
Kindle fire 
Freebooksy
Write next book.

Don't get depressed. You can do this. It's up and down for us all.


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## Chris Northern (Jan 20, 2011)

It's like a boiling pan. The best way to keep it boiling is add more fuel. I'm now confused about my own analogy because I can't decide if writing more is adding more heat or more water. Maybe both. It's early. Need more coffee.


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## TJHudson (Jul 9, 2012)

From first hand experience just keep writing. Write more, write better, write longer. I see it as a positive feedback cycle; the more you write the better you get and the better you get the more you write. Simplistic, but it seems to work.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

jimkukral said:


> Several of my clients, and a few of my books, have come crashing down to nothing since July 1. We're talking hundreds of sales a month on certain books, then boom, 5 so far in July.
> 
> I have seen summer slow downs before, but this is different I think. Something happened.
> 
> ...


I've been experiencing some really bad days too. I tend to cry and wring my hands.  Seriously, I stepped up my promotion of my perma-free and that helped a little in the beginning of the month and I have a Bookbub promo for a Select freebie coming up at the end of the month. Meanwhile, I'm just shaking my head. Reviews are still trickling in and most are 5 stars so I just don't know. I thought about new covers--maybe a half-nekkid Mark Taylor on the front. I actually found pics of the model who is on my Genesis cover and all he has is a rugby ball covering up the dangly bits.  It doesn't fit at all with the story, but desperate times call for desperate measures!

Also, I'm trying to write more and not think about it. Before, whenever I would write, I'd go check my sales afterward and I always sold a book or two. It was like a reward for writing, but lately, that hasn't been happening. *sigh*


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

Willo said:


> I'm in agreement: Something happened.


I looked at my numbers and since the beginning of the year, I'm seeing a significant drop every two months. Sale are the same, pretty much, for Jan/Feb, then Mar/April, then May/June with each pair of months considerably lower than the two before. July is the worst so far. Coincidence?

Note: this is DESPITE the fact that I published a new, well-reviewed, title in March and June.* For me "write more" is NOT working.*

Let's have some wild speculation for a fun Wednesday activity! 
- Amazon tinkered in favor of trad-published book because some mongering is going on in the back room
- Amazon no longer needs indies and is pushing them into the background
- Amazon is pushing (who knows how) only books currently in the Top 1000 or so
- Amazon is giving in to reader complaints about crappy books and are hoping to discourage the 'get rich by publishing crowd'
- It's a summer slump and things will pick up very nicely in the fall.

(having my head firmly in the sand, I'm picking the last one)


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## mrv01d (Apr 4, 2011)

Willo...come sit by me for you are smart and wise and I will be your friend and feed you chocolate  

Abrupt loss of sales volume always makes me suspicious. There have been some rumblings of a possible algo change, so this could be what's happening. We need more data.

So far, I always see a huge summer slump, but usually more in August. In fact, I'm not even bothering to release a book this August. I'm going to let my sales sink and hit it hard in September.

You need to try some marketing first to see if you can reinvigorate sales. Guest blogs. FB ads. A sale. New covers. Better blurbs. Working your mailing list etc...

And, of course, new releases always help.


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## Jana DeLeon (Jan 20, 2011)

The summer slump is not a myth. NY publishing has traditionally backed off from releasing books May through Aug because consumer buying is down. Having books available at more platforms is always a good thing but if overall book sales are down, it's not likely to make a difference. I still think the answer is to write more GOOD books that people want to read. Series is golden. If you have established series readers, they are your auto-buys. 

If you have established readership, then time new releases for a slump time to help elevate sales. I timed a release in my most popular series for the second week of June and June turned out to be my best sales month ever and it's carrying over some into July. 

Amazon does and will always play with algos in order to better their bottom line, but there's no conspiracy against indie authors. Now, if one wants to throw out conspiracy theories, take a look at the past couple weeks of NYT and USA Today bestseller lists and ask yourself where all the indie authors disappeared to.......?


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## FranceBarnaby (Feb 10, 2013)

This is my first summer slowdown, so I don't know what's normal. I was selling one to two a day. It's half that now. 

One thing the slowdown has done is stop me from keeping a daily spreadsheet. It's amazing how much writing time I wasted on that thing. I feel somewhat liberated.


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## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

Quiss said:


> I looked at my numbers and since the beginning of the year, I'm seeing a significant drop every two months. Sale are the same, pretty much, for Jan/Feb, then Mar/April, then May/June with each pair of months considerably lower than the two before. July is the worst so far. Coincidence?
> 
> Note: this is DESPITE the fact that I published a new, well-reviewed, title in March and June.* For me "write more" is NOT working.*


Quiss--You did at least one successful promotion in there, didn't you? I thought I remembered you talking on the bookbub thread. It didn't juice your numbers at all?

Yes, I should add that last year when I was so depressed, I was still pumping out books like a good soldier, but for whatever reason, they weren't books that very many people were interested in buying. Sometimes it isn't enough to write another book. Sometimes, you need to write the "right" book. And sometimes it takes two or five books to stumble onto that right book.

And sometimes, you could write and write and write and write and still never sell very well. Or you could be one of those people who has some modest success and can never repeat it. Or you could never have any success at all.

That's why we're all brave to keep trying. Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead. Never tell me the odds. (I find it's sometimes useful to pump myself up. YMMV.)


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## S. Shine (Jan 14, 2013)

FranceBarnaby said:


> This is my first summer slowdown, so I don't know what's normal. I was selling one to two a day. It's half that now.
> 
> One thing the slowdown has done is stop me from keeping a daily spreadsheet. It's amazing how much writing time I wasted on that thing. I feel somewhat liberated.


Having you considered setting the first part of the three series you have on permafree? The exposure that would give almost certainly will lead to an increase in sales.


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## Rusty Bigfoot (Jul 6, 2011)

I mention this only to see if it has any relevance to what others are seeing - I released a new book early in the summer and my sales are the best summer I've ever had. The new book is driving sales across the board. If Azon did something to inhibit Indies, they forgot me, though my sales are a pittance compared to some of you. And also, my books are good summer reading, since they're camping out kind of books, so maybe that's why summer's been good this year. But this is the first year I haven't seen a summer slump, so go figure.


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## FranceBarnaby (Feb 10, 2013)

S. Shine said:


> Having you considered setting the first part of the three series you have on permafree? The exposure that would give almost certainly will lead to an increase in sales.


I have, and I think I will. I'm waiting until the series is done--I'm working on the final episode now. I want to have the entire story available in a bundle. Fun times ahead.


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## Judi Coltman (Aug 23, 2010)

I've only had one cup of coffee so am fuzzy but, why do they constantly change algos?  Seems to me that it would benefit the Zon to not change them and maintain sales rather than tweek them and lose potential sales.  I ask this with complete honesty.  But, I also don't understand the summer sales slump (although I know it exists! : (  because that is when I buy most of my reading material so ther you go.


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## Harriet Schultz (Jan 3, 2012)

Seems to me that what's selling is poorly written FSOG clones that have fanatic readers who blog, review and buy. Check out the "This Man" trilogy. 

Sales of my series have fallen off despite 95+ reviews that average more than 4.5 stars, but not as dramatically as their abysmal rankings indicate. And because the plots of my books are complicated, I can't just churn them out so the "write a new book" thing doesn't work for me  .  Frustrating. It seems the only thing that works is Bookbub and it's getting more and more difficult to get a listing with them. (see writer pull hair out)


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## NicoleSwan (Oct 2, 2011)

Harriet Schultz said:


> Frustrating. It seems the only thing that works is Bookbub and it's getting more and more difficult to get a listing with them. (see writer pull hair out)


I'm curious, how does exposure on Pixel of Ink go these days?


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

valeriec80 said:


> Quiss--You did at least one successful promotion in there, didn't you? I thought I remembered you talking on the bookbub thread. It didn't juice your numbers at all?


It did - for about two weeks. I did a 99-cent promo which got me about 320 or so sales and a nice little bump of the other titles. But it didn't last.
I managed to snag another BookBub ad for next week (freebie promo) which I hope will save this month from utter ruin.

I'm currently working on a sort of introductory story for the series which I plan to make perma-free.



> Sometimes it isn't enough to write another book. Sometimes, you need to write the "right" book. And sometimes it takes two or five books to stumble onto that right book.


This is my worry. The problem is that reviews for the series have been pretty much awesome across the board. So it has its fans, just not a TON of them. It's very hard to try something new and different when people like what you're doing now


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## NathanWrann (May 5, 2011)

Ugh, the dreaded Summer Slump. 

But it's not as bad as the fearful Fall Fall-Off, when nobody buys books because they're all busy going back to school and getting back into work and preparing for the holidays and getting excited about their favorite tv show starting up again. 

But that's nothing compared to the Winter Wasteland. When nobody buys books because they're too depressed due to Seasonal Affective Disorder. 

But that's nothing compared to the Spring Sputter when nobody buys books because they're all too busy planting their gardens and doing spring cleaning and preparing for their summer vacation.


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## Susanne O (Feb 8, 2010)

Rusty Bigfoot said:


> I mention this only to see if it has any relevance to what others are seeing - I released a new book early in the summer and my sales are the best summer I've ever had. The new book is driving sales across the board. If Azon did something to inhibit Indies, they forgot me, though my sales are a pittance compared to some of you. And also, my books are good summer reading, since they're camping out kind of books, so maybe that's why summer's been good this year. But this is the first year I haven't seen a summer slump, so go figure.


This is my experience too. I published Hot Property, a rom-com (or chick-lit) set in Ireland about a month ago. It's selling better than any of my ten other novels but sales of those have increased too.

So... I have upped my game and now 12K into the next one, which I hope to publish at the end of the year. I used to be a once a year author, but now I'm aiming for two new books a year.


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## Buttonman88 (Apr 11, 2013)

You could always access the tools the best selling authors use.

http://authormarketingclub.com/members/premium-membership/


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## RMHuffman (Apr 1, 2013)

Expectation management! Just remember: if you're asking whether your glass is half-full or half-empty, then clearly your glass is too big. Get the smallest glass you can find, and it'll always be overflowing! 

Hnh. That's not helpful advice at all, is it? Well, it's all I got, since I released my book at the end of June, so the "summer slump" is the only thing I've ever known...


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## Susanne O (Feb 8, 2010)

Buttonman88 said:


> You could always access the tools the best selling authors use.
> 
> http://authormarketingclub.com/members/premium-membership/


Was this started by the OP?Or is there another one with the same name?


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

I'm way past summer slump and more along the lines of summer-submergence. My Kindle sales have dropped like a turtle-turd sunk into bottom mud.


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## Amanda Brice (Feb 16, 2011)

NathanWrann said:


> Ugh, the dreaded Summer Slump.
> 
> But it's not as bad as the fearful Fall Fall-Off, when nobody buys books because they're all busy going back to school and getting back into work and preparing for the holidays and getting excited about their favorite tv show starting up again.


This is actually my experience. My summers are generally fairly dead, but nothing compared to the utter wasteland of the late-August-through-mid-November period. And I say mid-November is the turnaround, but only if you have print books. My ebook sales ground to a halt from about mid-Nov to Dec 21, but my print sales were through the roof.

Actually, my single biggest day of all 2012 was December 25. (And keep in mind that I had a Nook First promo, two Bookbubs, and a Kindle Daily Deal last year, on different days. Christmas Day beat all of them.)


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## oooranje (Apr 20, 2013)

I don't have as long of a sales history as the others on this thread, but my numbers have also dipped quite a bit in the last 3-4 weeks. I write military sci-fi, and a number of series that seem to be pretty popular in the military sci fi genre put out sequels in the past month or so, so I attribute it to that, but who knows. Am working on the write more aspect...hard to do when you've got a suit-and-tie job going as well!


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## TexasGirl (Dec 21, 2011)

I've been at this since 2009 and summers do slow. I use this time to build my social media presence and to write longer works for fall.

The thing about summer, though, is it IS the time for blockbusters. So if you are writing in a hot genre (as the NA authors are now), you can break out spectacularly.

I think Amazon tweaks algos to work WITH the tide -- the beach reads, the big books, the SURPRISE! It's JK Rowling moments, the Glee surge after Cory's death. We are not on those tides, so we get pushed down. People like Holly Ward and Elle Casey ARE on that tide, so they go up and up.

There is an overall slowing of ebook growth as well. If we're topping out in readers with Kindles, but new books keep coming out, then we're going to collectively see slower sales.


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## Anne Frasier (Oct 22, 2009)

Gennita Low said:


> I've been drinking since March. It helps to make the numbers fuzzy-looking. One sale looks like eleven....


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## momilp (Jan 11, 2010)

Right now, my 5 sales don't look so terrible. It must be the wine mentioned earlier  I'm glad I stopped by on my way to start a long day of rewriting one of my novels. I can't get a bookbub add, so I can only write.


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## 56139 (Jan 21, 2012)

My best advice - plan for next summer's crash.  Write your A** off and release a book a month next summer.  Then do it again in the winter.  Then sprinkle in some novellas or a nice long serial in the spring and fall.  Plan BookBub promos for last season's books and do a lot of Facebooking.

My July is nothing like my June - which was huge, but I'm at about 1000 books right now, and almost all of them are at $2.99 or more.  So as long as I'm making money, I'm OK with low sales and rankings.


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## sportourer1s (Oct 2, 2010)

I am writing a sequel to my Napoleonic Wars espionage novel which I should have done in the first place rather than indulging myself with a new idea. Everyone knows series sell best and longest being self-fulfilling and requiring no expensive advertising, assuming they are any good of course!


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## Kathy Clark Author (Dec 18, 2012)

I fully understand the feeling and in fact we had an exact recurrence on our 27 books this month as well.

We continue to write and promote but the change in sales since 7/1 has been statistically significant. When the drop is in the 95% + range you look for systemic reasons but then you realize you can't see all the data and if you could you can't do anything about it. An author's control ends at the depression of the *submit* button or does the depression start at the depression of the *submit* button?

We're on a hig because this month book #3 in the series comes out and the first two books have won national awards and this one is 100 times better. Can't wait...go write!


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Rusty Bigfoot said:


> I mention this only to see if it has any relevance to what others are seeing - I released a new book early in the summer and my sales are the best summer I've ever had. The new book is driving sales across the board. If Azon did something to inhibit Indies, they forgot me, though my sales are a pittance compared to some of you. And also, my books are good summer reading, since they're camping out kind of books, so maybe that's why summer's been good this year. But this is the first year I haven't seen a summer slump, so go figure.


After a truly miserable June, I'm also seeing good sales (by my standards) in July. Of course, I had a new release this month, which sold well right out of the gate and even hit a category top 100 list, but I'm doing surprisingly well in general. And I don't write NA or erotica, so it's not genre related.


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

Odd. My Amazon sales have been relatively steady since February. My BN sales have plummeted since the birth of Nook Book a few months back (not that the two are necessarily related), and my Smashwords sales have steadily grown the last few quarters.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

In order for my B&N sales to plummet, I'd need to have B&N sales first. Though I did sell a book at B&N this month. I did a double take, when I saw that, because I almost never sell there.


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## Zoe Cannon (Sep 2, 2012)

CoraBuhlert said:


> In order for my B&N sales to plummet, I'd need to have B&N sales first. Though I did sell a book at B&N this month. I did a double take, when I saw that, because I almost never sell there.


I've had an unusually good month at B&N this month - I've sold two whole books.

(Of course, one of those was to my mom. But shush. It still counts.  )


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## JFHilborne (Jan 22, 2011)

I ran a Bookbub ad at the beginning of July, and the sales have been the lowest for any Bookbub ad I've ever run (down by up to 50%). Summer slumps always surprise me - I'd have thought people would be buying more books to take on vacay


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## 69959 (May 14, 2013)

This month and last have been my worst yet (I started in December). Interestingly, people are actually buying some nonfiction books I have under another name and don't think about, much less promote aside from Select every 90 days. I've actually sold almost as many of those as my novels. Which still isn't much, but I don't know why they're selling at all!  I used to get some sales from a blog that I shut down a couple of months ago. Like I said, it's just strange. 

I've got the third book in my series coming out next month and then in September I'm publishing a prequel novella to the series which I'm going to put at perma-free. I'm hoping that the combination of the two will help the sales for the series.

I also released a Kindle Worlds short story in hopes that would draw some attention to my other books. That's not exactly working yet. (Speaking of which, I'd be happy to give my Vampire Diaries KW in exchange for an honest review for anyone interested.)


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## Willo (May 10, 2013)

mrv01d said:


> Willo...come sit by me for you are smart and wise and I will be your friend and feed you chocolate
> 
> Abrupt loss of sales volume always makes me suspicious. There have been some rumblings of a possible algo change, so this could be what's happening. We need more data.
> 
> ...


<3  I'll bring the tea and cakes.

We do need more data. Now I'm thinking twice about next month's release 



Quiss said:


> I looked at my numbers and since the beginning of the year, I'm seeing a significant drop every two months. Sale are the same, pretty much, for Jan/Feb, then Mar/April, then May/June with each pair of months considerably lower than the two before. July is the worst so far. Coincidence?
> 
> Note: this is DESPITE the fact that I published a new, well-reviewed, title in March and June.* For me "write more" is NOT working.*
> 
> ...


For my wild speculation and tin-hatted fun, I'm selecting these from your list:
a) Amazon tinkered in favor of trad-published book because some mongering is going on in the back room
b) Amazon no longer needs indies and is pushing them into the background [because] Amazon is giving in to reader complaints about crappy books and are hoping to discourage the 'get rich by publishing crowd'
note on part b: Warrior Forumers of the unscrupulous variation, a part of me wants to blame this on you 



Rusty Bigfoot said:


> My books are good summer reading, since they're camping out kind of books, so maybe that's why summer's been good this year. But this is the first year I haven't seen a summer slump, so go figure.


Smart. I tend to be all paranormal/spec fic with my releases, so writing a beach read won't likely ever happen (I twitch at the idea of writing non-fantasy for some reason), but writing a beach read is probably one of the smarter moves for summer releases.



NathanWrann said:


> Ugh, the dreaded Summer Slump.
> 
> But it's not as bad as the fearful Fall Fall-Off, when nobody buys books because they're all busy going back to school and getting back into work and preparing for the holidays and getting excited about their favorite tv show starting up again.
> 
> ...


lols (in general and at "Spring Splutter")



Stacy Claflin said:


> I also released a Kindle Worlds short story in hopes that would draw some attention to my other books. That's not exactly working yet. (Speaking of which, I'd be happy to give my Vampire Diaries KW in exchange for an honest review for anyone interested.)


Ooo Me 
*Overly spirited hand raising and waving in the back row that is annoyingly difficult to ignore*

ETA: Insertion of "Pick Me" plea.


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## unkownwriter (Jun 22, 2011)

> Amazon is giving in to reader complaints about crappy books and are hoping to discourage the 'get rich by publishing crowd'


I don't want to get all conspiracy theory, but this does make me wonder. 

There seem to be an awful lot of new writers (and I use that term loosely) who have suddenly appeared on the scene expecting to be pulling in hundreds, if not thousands of sales within a day or two of publishing. They've got to be coming from somewhere.

Now if only Amazon would put some sort of quality control on Select. A minimal spelling/punctuation bot, or a program that could catch some of the worst-written stuff. It might be worth signing up if some of the crap was filtered out.


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## Pamela (Oct 6, 2010)

I had a Bookbub ad on July 9.  The book was free.  31,904 were downloaded during the two days it was free.  It was #4 in the store, #1 in mysteries, #1 in thrillers.

The first two days after the promo I had 97 sales.  Then, abruptly, all sales stopped on 7/13.  Since then, 2 sales.

Something has changed.  I won't make my money back on the Bookbub promo.  The nice thing is I got 6 reviews.  Four are five-star.

I'm definitely into paranoid conspiracy.  My book never got into the popularity lists for its categories!  ??


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

I've found sacrificing a cockerel to the Elder Gods is helpful at this time of year.


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## RinG (Mar 12, 2013)

My book has only been out since February, but this month has been my quietest yet! Since I haven't seen a 'summer slump' yet, it could just be that. Or it could be that it's a month since my last free promo. Hoping the two new books I plan to have out by the end of the year will help.


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## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

Today (Wednesday) was a bit quiet for me on 'zon. Delayed reporting, perhaps.

Something happened around July 10th on Kobo, though, and my modest sales there tripled from 10 a day to 30 a day.


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## Jana DeLeon (Jan 20, 2011)

Pamela said:


> I had a Bookbub ad on July 9. The book was free. 31,904 were downloaded during the two days it was free. It was #4 in the store, #1 in mysteries, #1 in thrillers.
> 
> The first two days after the promo I had 97 sales. Then, abruptly, all sales stopped on 7/13. Since then, 2 sales.
> 
> Something has changed. I won't make my money back on the Bookbub promo. The nice thing is I got 6 reviews. Four are five-star.


This changed quite a while back. Amazon changed algos so that sales and other burst marketing actions only had effect for a short amount of time. So your ranking moves up quickly, but unless you can hold at that sales level beyond a short burst, your rank will drop just as quickly.


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## KerryT2012 (Dec 18, 2012)

Jana DeLeon said:


> This changed quite a while back. Amazon changed algos so that sales and other burst marketing actions only had effect for a short amount of time. So your ranking moves up quickly, but unless you can hold at that sales level beyond a short burst, your rank will drop just as quickly.


Seeing as Bookbub constantly reject me and I am in hope that one day they won't how do you do this then?


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## Jana DeLeon (Jan 20, 2011)

Sarwah2012 said:


> Seeing as Bookbub constantly reject me and I am in hope that one day they won't how do you do this then?


Your book has to climb the ranks then generate enough buzz among readers that it holds up there for weeks.

Amazon's only intent with lists is to put in front of buyers the things they're most likely to buy. So if people buy it on sale, then sales plummet, the assumption is the product wasn't interesting enough to generate grass roots talk. If sales stay much higher than they were prior to the sale, then the assumption is the product is generating buzz among buyers and more likely to continue to sell at a higher rate than before the sale.

As to how to do this, I can only tell you to write a book that generates the buzz to hold. No one can say what book that is.


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## Maya Cross (May 28, 2012)

Sarwah2012 said:


> Seeing as Bookbub constantly reject me and I am in hope that one day they won't how do you do this then?


My plan is to run a sale over the course of several days, leaving bookbub for the tail end. Notify blogs on the first day, maybe book a smaller ad the second day, then bookbub the third. That way your sales are more sustained, and the spike from the BB ad isn't quite so far above your current norm. Ideally, I'll also be timing it to land directly before my sequel launch, and since the sequel always pulls up the previous books, it should lend some post ad sustainability to the sales figures.

Now I just have to get accepted by BB too =)


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## seela connor (Apr 11, 2011)

I actually visited today after a few week hiatus to see if anyone else is experiencing a slide. 

Starting abruptly on July 1 I had an abrupt halt in sales. I might normally have a couple hundred across several pen names on Amazon at this point, but I've got ~30 sales this month. 

Some of my books were hit with the adult filter, and that didn't have this kind of impact.

Meanwhile, sales have been heating up on bn.com and elsewhere.

I think something changed...


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## EmilyG (Jan 31, 2010)

My mom is trying a promo today at Kindle Books and Tips for _A Pledge of Silence_. Hopefully it will kick off some sales.


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## 69959 (May 14, 2013)

Willo said:


> Ooo Me
> *Overly spirited hand raising and waving in the back row that is annoyingly difficult to ignore*


Sounds good!  I'll send you a message.


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

Jana DeLeon said:


> Amazon's only intent with lists is to put in front of buyers the things they're most likely to buy. So if people buy it on sale, then sales plummet, the assumption is the product wasn't interesting enough to generate grass roots talk. If sales stay much higher than they were prior to the sale, then the assumption is the product is generating buzz among buyers and more likely to continue to sell at a higher rate than before the sale.


Which is an awfully harsh metric, given that the books holding steady on the bestseller lists typically have at least three other major realms of visibility, too. It's extremely difficult to compete with that when all you've got going for you is a bestseller rank.

This type of problem is why Amazon is always switching up their algos, incidentally. When they make a change, they can't predict in advance exactly how it will play out--not only will that change be impacted by every other facet of their system, but by the reactions of all the players in their ecosystem: customers, authors, affiliate sites, etc. It's complex (beyond precise predictability) and it's dynamic.

And Amazon's extremely adaptive with it. That leads to a lot of opportunity for authors, like the early months of Select, but to a lot of disruption, too. Unfortunately, at the moment, their system seems pretty harsh toward people who aren't already well-established.


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## blakebooks (Mar 10, 2012)

I'm just glad I didn't give up my exotic dancing gig, shaking it in my man thong for the tourist women off the cruise ships. Their eyes glitter like little diamonds when The Russeler takes the stage. Trust me on that.


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

Steady and profitable sales have never been better since I priced my novels at $2.99 on June 1 and swore off freebies & .99 cents sales. I've sold 133 books since then & moving higher tomorrow with my weekly Friday erotica Facebook promo on the WTRAFSOG page by Summer Daniels. $$$ 

Wish you all the best and hang in there!!


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## Pamela (Oct 6, 2010)

Russell - I was looking at your books.  Got an error message for Silver Justice.  Tried it 3 times.  Maybe just a short Amazon blip, but you might want to check it out and contact them if it lasts.


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## blakebooks (Mar 10, 2012)

Thanks Pamela. Technical difficulties. Another way of saying I'm a Luddite.


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## thesmallprint (May 25, 2012)

Maya Cross said:


> My plan is to run a sale over the course of several days, leaving bookbub for the tail end. Notify blogs on the first day, maybe book a smaller ad the second day, then bookbub the third. That way your sales are more sustained, and the spike from the BB ad isn't quite so far above your current norm. Ideally, I'll also be timing it to land directly before my sequel launch, and since the sequel always pulls up the previous books, it should lend some post ad sustainability to the sales figures.
> 
> Now I just have to get accepted by BB too =)


That seems a sound strategy, Maya. And with your reviews, I doubt you'll have any problem getting acceptance from Bookbub


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## Grace Elliot (Mar 14, 2011)

I checked in specifically to see why my sales are on the slide and it seems I'm not alone. 
I released a book at the beginning of the month and had a nice flurry of sales which I put down to my newsletter. Now sales have dropped right off, despite a blog tour. It's just as well I'm addicted to writing and couldn't stop even if I wanted to. 

Interesting that a couple of people have had mixed results on BB from free to paid. Food for thought especially as the ads are so expensive. 

My own buying habits have changed as a result of all the freebies and discounted books - my kindle is well fed and I can't remember the last time I bought a full price book. Perhaps, as authors we are part of the problem - constantly discounting work in order to attract attention, but inadvertently training readers not to buy full price books.


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## KerryT2012 (Dec 18, 2012)

Maya Cross said:


> My plan is to run a sale over the course of several days, leaving bookbub for the tail end. Notify blogs on the first day, maybe book a smaller ad the second day, then bookbub the third. That way your sales are more sustained, and the spike from the BB ad isn't quite so far above your current norm. Ideally, I'll also be timing it to land directly before my sequel launch, and since the sequel always pulls up the previous books, it should lend some post ad sustainability to the sales figures.
> 
> Now I just have to get accepted by BB too =)


You have a mighty sound plan


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## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

This happened to me in February. Overnight, I saw an 80% reduction in sales and then things went into free fall after that (i.e. a book I sold 1200 copies of in July 2012, I sold 46 copies in May 2013). I have this conspiracy theory... I feel like the algos will give you a six month window of crazy exposure to make or break it, and then you are flipped to the bottom of the list as they give another batch of authors the same opportunity. I have absolutely nothing to back this up other than some patterns, which means there probably aren't any. The only thing that has turned things around since falling off that cliff has been to release more books more often. S.M. Reine had a great thread about really cultivating your mailing list and then releasing books all the time. Starting last month, I began a schedule to release a book every month until the end of the year and things have been MUCH better (the book 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love was instrumental in making that jump). So, mailing list. More books (short stories didn't help). That's the only thing that worked for me.


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## LillianB (Jul 7, 2013)

Like some of the blog posts have said - keep writing.  During this time of year, many folks who would be reading are probably on their family vacations/outings/etc... and aren't thinking about books and reading.  Some are.  The best thing is to tell your writer's to keep writing.

It will change and get better.

-L


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## Guest (Jul 18, 2013)

Zoe Cannon said:


> (Of course, one of those was to my mom. But shush. It still counts.  )


Did she give you a three-star review like mine did?


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Joe Vasicek said:


> Did she give you a three-star review like mine did?


Now that would smart!


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## TexasGirl (Dec 21, 2011)

blakebooks said:


> Thanks Pamela. Technical difficulties. Another way of saying I'm a Luddite.


Good thing you have that other gig.



Spoiler



Call me.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

I'm seeing the usual summer slump trends but not as bad as past years. I've learned to branch out in genre which helps negate the effects. Pen names, people!

I think indie authors get into trouble when they think too much like authors. They write _one_ type of story and that's it. Well, that type of story may not sell well year round. Nonfiction, for example. I write it but the only time it really sells for me during the summer is when I make direct sales to clients. Who wants to improve themselves while sitting on the beach with a margarita?

If making more money is important to you, you have to think like a publisher. That means you are constantly producing and you are offering a _variety_ of product. Balance out those nonfiction pieces with a romance or shoot 'em up.


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## Maya Cross (May 28, 2012)

Steeplechasing said:


> That seems a sound strategy, Maya. And with your reviews, I doubt you'll have any problem getting acceptance from Bookbub


Thanks =) There is a flaw though. My second book doesn't quiiite hit their length requirement. It's 43,500, and typically they say 50,000. I feel like there's a decent chance they'll make an exception, since they sometimes do if a book looks appealing enough. Anyway, fingers crossed!


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## KerryT2012 (Dec 18, 2012)

Maya Cross said:


> Thanks =) There is a flaw though. My second book doesn't quiiite hit their length requirement. It's 43,500, and typically they say 50,000. I feel like there's a decent chance they'll make an exception, since they something do if a book looks appealing enough. Anyway, fingers crossed!


A lady of your talent, an extra 6k words is nothing


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## LKWatts (May 5, 2011)

I've been selling books for the last couple of years or so. At first it was slower and then each month got better and better but since January this year everything has come to a halt. I think that's when Amazon made an algo change that drastically reduced the sale of my books. Also I admit that I haven't done much marketing this year either and maybe that's where the problem lies. But the successful authors who I follow over all genres just keep on saying the same thing: Keep writing.

And as a person who loves nothing better than to write that's what I'll keep doing. I love calling myself a writer and if I stop writing now I wouldn't allow myself to have that title.


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## Katherine Roberts (Apr 4, 2013)

KateDanley said:


> ...I feel like the algos will give you a six month window of crazy exposure to make or break it, and then you are flipped to the bottom of the list as they give another batch of authors the same opportunity....


My feeling is that a newly released book gets a 3 month window around the algorithms. (No evidence to support this, just a feeling based on my own sales pattern). I suppose it makes sense for amazon to do something like this, since there are new ebooks coming out all the time and none of the old ones ever go out of print.

But what about the White Glove programme amazon have with agents? Is that affecting things? It seems more agents are getting to grips with ebooks this year, and more choice means books need to work harder to get noticed.

Also publishers seem to be ditching their high ebook prices... for example, my children's book publisher has been invited to submit books for a free ebook promotion at Apple, and they already do things like the Daily Deal with amazon.

And since we have a REAL summer for the first time in ages here in the UK, the summer slump might be true too...

(just edited to get rid of huge white space at the bottom!)


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## Jana DeLeon (Jan 20, 2011)

According to the numerous agents I talked to last week at RWA conference, White Glove isn't doing a thing for sales. Algos at Amazon vary depending on which list you're talking about but new releases get the biggest push in the first 30 days then drop quickly. All the authors of The Indie Voice track this sort of thing and it's consistent across releases, authors and genres.


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

As always, keep writing, but I'll add one more suggestion ... for those who have yet to do so, publish print editions. Even if you do not sell many print books, in my experience books can help improve e-book sales. If nothing else, one gains a little more exposure at Amazon.


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## ChrisWard (Mar 10, 2012)

Sold well over 100 a month from Dec to May. June was 95. July? 30. Ouch. Being proactive as I can though, upped the word counts and started stockpiling material. Build the front list, pimp the backlist. That's the plan.


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## Beatriz (Feb 22, 2011)

jimkukral said:


> Several of my clients, and a few of my books, have come crashing down to nothing since July 1. We're talking hundreds of sales a month on certain books, then boom, 5 so far in July.
> 
> I have seen summer slow downs before, but this is different I think. Something happened.
> 
> ...


I'm so glad you wrote this post. I thought I was the only one who felt the sales this summer were lousy. Maybe it's the unbearable heat?


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## Katherine Roberts (Apr 4, 2013)

Jana DeLeon said:


> According to the numerous agents I talked to last week at RWA conference, White Glove isn't doing a thing for sales.


That's interesting, Jana - nobody seems to know much about White Glove over here, it's all very mysterious!


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Top 5 reasons for a summer slump.
#1 Kids out of school.  (Trips to malls, pools etc, $$$ out of pocket)
#2 Vacations (Trips out of town,  $$$$$$ out of pocket)
#3 School supplies for next year come out in July ($$ out of pocket)
#4 People are outside more and bought their books in June
#5 Gas prices typically rise in the summer so ($$$$ out of pocket.)

People are spending their money on other things and don't have the spare cash for books.


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## Hilary Thomson (Nov 20, 2011)

Have an Amazon-lendable copy of all your books on your Kindle.  Join a bunch of lending sites.  Tell them you have a copy of your books available for lending and fill the requests for it.  It'll probably work as well as spending all day on social media sites and take a lot less time.  This may be useful if you're trying to do free and can't make Amazon cooperate.  If someone on those communities likes your book, they may also be more likely to give you word-of-mouth instead of staying silent.


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## Saul Tanpepper (Feb 16, 2012)

I pubbed two new books in June and saw decent sales of each for about a week, then hit the wall. Sales have dropped by roughly 30% month over month since April. July's been rough, but then again, I was out of the country for 4 weeks and haven't been around (here or on social media). Got another title coming out in August, and I plan on hitting the ads again. And writing. What else can you do?


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## NicoleSwan (Oct 2, 2011)

I swear at times, I should just be a model citizen of what NOT to be doing in independent publishing.  It would seem that every step of the way I manage to pick the worst options and end up with the provably worst results.

Still, right now I'm taking advice from another exceptionally popular writer and the first step for me is to only spend about 10 minutes a day with the promoting/marketing, simply finding more new bloggers, reviewers etc, incrementally exposing myself to the world a bit at a time.

While there are some sales ( for that I am thankful! ), it's a lot lower than even my worst projections.  That said, I sincerely think I've spent too much time with a group of hot-dog vendors trying to sell hot-dogs to each other ( I can't recall who coined that concept here on KBoards, but thank you ).


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## Grace Elliot (Mar 14, 2011)

Pitiful sales and a long gap between releases led me to drastically drops prices. Books are selling now, albeit slowly, but I won't cover costs even on the fairly low price advertising I'm doing. Having lowered prices across  the board, it's going to make it almost impossible to apply to Bookbub - that said, I think I'll get more titles out before taking that risk.


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

I've worked in book retail for close to 15 years, and am now seeing (with great amusement) stuff happening to self-published writers that always happened to me, and any other bookseller I've talked to, and to be honest pretty much any retailer of pretty much anything except food.

Sales are extremely fickle, and will jump or crash with little rhyme or reason, especially for something like books which don't have an inbuilt seasonality as much as--say--winter coats. 

Previously, as trade-pubbed authors, the publisher would absorb this weird variability, but now we're exposed to the full force of it.

Basically, quit complaining or trying to explain it and just keep writing.


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## StephenEngland (Nov 2, 2011)

Going to be contrarian here, but July has actually been the best month I've had since. . .April, I think? And that's despite multiple NYT bestselling authors in my genre dropping their new releases into the market.

I switched up my categories on the 20th and ran a $2.99 sale on my primary seller leading up the premiere last night of the book trailer for the next volume in the series. I've sold as many books in the last eight days as I had the first twenty of the month--and the number of signed copies I've sold off my website(also on sale) has exploded to a level I haven't seen since the book first came out in 2011. So there's that.


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## Mandy (Dec 27, 2009)

cinisajoy said:


> Top 5 reasons for a summer slump.
> #1 Kids out of school. (Trips to malls, pools etc, $$$ out of pocket)
> #2 Vacations (Trips out of town, $$$$$$ out of pocket)
> #3 School supplies for next year come out in July ($$ out of pocket)
> ...


#6 Having to spend your usual book allowance money on books for your kids' Kindles.


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## P.C. (Peter) Anders (Feb 6, 2013)

JanThompson said:


> http://blog.karenwoodward.org/2013/05/russell-blakes-26-tips-on-how-to-sell.html
> "Having said all this, your best chance of making it is always writing your next book. You should always be working on the next one, and the next, and the next. Nobody ever succeeded by quitting. So if you're going to do this, do it, stop whining, suck it up, and get to work." - Russell Blake


Thanks for this.


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## P.C. (Peter) Anders (Feb 6, 2013)

valeriec80 said:


> You're in a different position since you don't write fiction... But maybe your bestseller could use a companion book? Something that expands on the stuff you said? A workbook? A set of case studies implementing your advice?


I love the idea of a workbook. 
Thanks!


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