A question to experienced authors/publishers

[Rosemary Fryth]

Hi all, have been absent from here a few days (deep in writing mode), however would like to ask a few questions to the regular and experienced authors/publishers here about online eBook sales.

My heroic epic fantasy trilogy has been up on Amazon three weeks now and so far I have recorded 371 sales (195 free downloads of book one, and 176 actual sales). Excluding that I'd had one borrow and no returns.

Would you consider that a decent start for an unknown book and author? The majority of the sales have been from Amazon.com, with a handful from Amazon.uk. I'm brand new to all this so have nothing to compare with.

The trilogy was written with the UK market in mind, yet oddly the biggest take-up has been from places other than UK/Europe. Does anyone have any hints about getting the trilogy known to readers in the UK?

Cheers!

[Gary Compton]

I would say from a standing start, that's pretty damn good. Well done!

Have a look at Scarfy's thread. He is doing well on Amazon - see here

[Rosemary Fryth]

Thanks Gary, I've just read that thread and Scarfy does seem to be doing well!

[Gareth Lewis]

Those are very good numbers for sales (certainly better than I get), although I'm a bit surprised at the number of free downloads for a novel. How long was it free for? Maybe it's the number of other books going free at the moment (my novelettes went free around six months ago, and the first one had around 7,000 downloads in the first week, but I'm fairly certain that was just luck and timing (and getting mentioned on a site which listed new free Kindle books)). But those are very good sales numbers to start with.

And in just a few weeks, it's likely a number of the free downloads of the first book haven't been read yet, so you should hopefully see more sales to those who enjoy it.

Good luck.

[Rosemary Fryth]

Originally Posted by Gareth Lewis

Those are very good numbers for sales (certainly better than I get), although I'm a bit surprised at the number of free downloads for a novel. How long was it free for? Maybe it's the number of other books going free at the moment (my novelettes went free around six months ago, and the first one had around 7,000 downloads in the first week, but I'm fairly certain that was just luck and timing (and getting mentioned on a site which listed new free Kindle books)). But those are very good sales numbers to start with.

And in just a few weeks, it's likely a number of the free downloads of the first book haven't been read yet, so you should hopefully see more sales to those who enjoy it.

Good luck.

Thanks Gareth. The free download was for book one only of my trilogy and it lasted for 24hrs on Boxing Day (I plan to do more free promotional days in Feb/March).

I suspect I won't see true numbers for follow-on sales of books two and three of the free book one for several weeks. As you said, I think a good number of free books were downloaded over the Christmas holidays and people are still getting around to reading them - not to mention that each book of my trilogy is around the 80,000-100,000 word mark. Not something that people could tear through in a couple of hours.

[Gareth Lewis]

For a one day promotion that's probably a good number. I think my downloads started picking up the pace when they got into the top 100 chart, and that helped slow the decline, but with only 24 hours you've got limited time to get in the chart. I'm sure I read somewhere that Amazon had slowed the rate they were recalculating rankings over the holiday so it didn't interfere with the sites performance in general, so that may not have helped. If true, then hopefully your next promotional day would see it get onto the chart faster, improving its visibility.

[rdenning]

Certainly those figures are very good for a self published author. Are you doing it via Kindle Select (ie are your books ONLY available via Amazon electronically?). I am interested in how that is working for authors.

[Rosemary Fryth]

Originally Posted by rdenning

Certainly those figures are very good for a self published author. Are you doing it via Kindle Select (ie are your books ONLY available via Amazon electronically?). I am interested in how that is working for authors.

Yes, I'm locked into the Kindle Select 'contract' for another couple of months. My books are only available electronically at the moment, however next year's project will be to one way or another get them into paperback format.

Personally I believe Select works best for authors with a series of books or trilogy. If you only have one book and you offer it free, then if people like it and want more, then there is nothing more you can offer them. At least with a trilogy I can offer book one free occasionally, then if people like it, they can then buy books two and three straight off.

[Triceratops]

I would say that's pretty damn good. And, if I'm not mistaken, I think that your offfer of free downloads had something to do with it. My publisher and I decided to drop the Kindle price on Planet Janitor, as well as offer two free downloads. It worked miracles for new reviews, a 500% sales boost and a very much improved rank. Keep doing what your doing, and don't be afraid to offer free chapters or an entire download.

chris

[I, Brian]

It's worth noting that the US market is more advanced in many things to do with the internet, and big internet companies often test things there before rolling out to other markets.

Amazon has the Kindle Fire available in the US now. I would presume epublishing is a more advanced market there.