Numbers Post!
I've been number crunching all morning. I
swear, the Humanities major in me freaks out when I see numbers (they do not
compute), but I am just enough of a nerd to want to know how these things work.
Thank God for calculators.
The Grand Total for April?
1,979
The
Guardian sold 140 Amazon US copies, 6 Amazon UK
copies, 5 Amazon DE copies, and 35 copies on Barnes and Noble for a total of
186 copies or 6.2 sales per day.
Cross
My Heart sold 1,130 Amazon US copies, 257 Amazon UK
copies, 60 Amazon DE copies, 5 Amazon FR copies, 176 copies on Barnes and
Noble, and 28 on iTunes for a total of 1,656 or 55.2 sales per day.
Vendetta sold 116 Amazon US copies, 4
Amazon UK copies, 2 Amazon DE copies, and 15 copies on Barnes and Noble for a
total of 137 or 4.5 sales per day.
Sales were fairly steady through April, and
comparable to March. They trickled upward (slightly) on iTunes from last month.
The difference? I went in mid-month and changed my category from Kids/Juvenile
books to Adult (there is no "Teen" section). Rumor was that more
teens check the adult books section (though I know authors who are doing
equally well in both categories), so I thought it might be worth the risk to
see if there was any change in sales based on categories.
Otherwise, the big news lately is The Great
Amazon Algorithms Switch. (Yes. ANOTHER ONE.) I'm linking a few posts, but the
gist of the matter is that mid-March through April, there were three separate
"lists." One list was weighted heavily toward more recent sales,
another list weighted sales within the last 30 days, and another list didn't
count or weight free books "sold" at all.
Thank you, Ed Robertson for spelling this out for us!
BUT THEN. . . .
(The Plot Thickens!)
Amazon changed their algorithms again.
Right now, it appears free ebooks aren't
going to factor in as heavily as they have in the past. So . . . people who opt
for KDP Select, set their book to free, and then ride the "boost" in
sales the three days following. . . . Um, yeah. It's not looking so great right
now. (Only time will tell, of course.)
At any rate, people are already reporting a
decrease in sales/ranking, and I had a pretty volatile sales weekend, so we'll
see how this plays out. In the meantime, there's discussion/lamenting on this thread at the Kindleboards. Obviously, no one knows for sure how the algorithms
work, a lot of people speculate, and they fluctuate so much it's almost
impossible to keep up with them. . . .
Even so, the landscape for Indies is MUCH
different this year than it was last year. I have nothing against progress or
improvements; I just hope Amazon keeps indie writers in mind when considering
their bottom line, because when we're successful, they're successful.
It's also a solid reminder not to cram every egg
into a single basket. Make sure you're diversifying and promoting your work
across all platforms.
Finally (And Always)--THANK YOU for the tweets, reviews, comments, purchases, etc. I'll stick around as long as you guys are interested, and even when I'm "quiet" (i.e. hiding out in the writing/editing cave) please know that I Do NOT take your support for granted. Ever. :D
That Is All.
Enjoy your week!
~K~
