It’s over; the great experiment is finished at last and it
will not be repeated. At least, not by me. What the heck is she talking about,
you ask. Why the Kindle Select exclusive for ninety days book promotion, of
course.
I heard a lot of pro and con arguments about this one so I
thought I would give it a go myself when I published Immortal Tigress. I am
happy to report that Immortal Tigress is now back on Smashwords and soon will
be available everywhere fine e-books are sold. Yes, it is still up on Amazon
too.
So what was the result of this experiment? No difference at
all. I gave Amazon the exclusive for ninety days, put the book up for the free
five days, (three and later two) Promoted it as hard as I could, but saw no
real improvement over the performance over any of the other books I have put up
without the exclusive. Neither did I see an increase of sales on any of the other books that might be related. In the long run I don’t believe it was worth it to hold
the book back from other sellers for ninety days. So, in my case, Kindle
exclusive was an epic fail.
All right, now on to the late Sunday ROW80 check in or the
early Wednesday check-in.
The goals.
1. Blog twice each week.
I’m behind on this one. I need one more. Did way better
last week. I’ve been focused on promoting Shelly’s Turn.
2. Continue to read and comment on the blogs
of my fellow writers
I did manage this one.
3. Write at least 4K words per week.
Already made this one. Life is good.
4. Read at least one book every two weeks.
Looking for something new right now.
Posts
I'm sorry your experiment failed :( I haven't self-published anything yet, but I'll keep your experience in mind. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa, it was only a fail in that it didn't live up to anything near the hype. The book is doing fine anyway and I expect it to do a lot better once Smashwords has distributed it to all the other retailers. I just don't believe it was worth it to give Kindle the exclusive for 90 days.
ReplyDeleteMy Kindle Self-Publishing has lead to the sales of, wait for it, two books. Yes, that's all I've sold is two solitary little books. Not quite the best seller of my dreams yet!
ReplyDeleteJanet, I feel your pain there. Immortal Tigress sold, and is selling about the same as the other books I published on Amazon without giving them the exclusive.
DeleteAw, that's a bummer that the Kindle exclusive didn't pan out, Pru. I haven't tried it and not sure I want to. Thanks so much for your input.
ReplyDeleteHi Lynne, I do recommend publishing with Amazon, but the Kindle exclusive deal is not worth it in my books. Better to get your work out to as many retailers as possible as quickly as possible.
DeleteI'm really sorry your promotion didn't work out the way you had hoped, Prudence. :( I read somewhere that the excitement of the Amazon Kindle Select was wearing off. So many people have an abunance of books sitting on their kindles and iPads already that they aren't reading, buyers have become more selective. Even when the book is free. It doesn't surprise me. I haven't decided what I want to do yet, self-publish or persue traditional. I am rather confused at the moment.
ReplyDeleteHi Debra, I believe the excitement has worn off. However, I am still a confirmed self-publisher. I've done it over thirty times now and have no regrets at all.
DeleteI'm all about holding on to my rights and spreading my work are far afield as I can.
Sorry it didn't net you more sales, Prudence. But I appreciate you sharing your experience. I plan to publish in August and have been thinking about whether to do the Select program. But, it seems like it's not working as well for people now. So, I'll probably just release everywhere and see what happens.
ReplyDeleteHi Rhonda, yeah it seems like the new was worn off before I got there. However the book is doing fine anyway. I suggest releasing everywhere at once. That's always been my plan and will continue to be so. This was a one time only experiment.
ReplyDeleteI have heard varying degrees of success with the Select program, Prudence. Who knows. Maybe next time will be different.
ReplyDeleteAnd I popped ove to your author page and hit the like button!
Hey Sheila, that seems to be the general consensus. Oh, thanks for the "like" I "liked" you back. Can't believe I hadn't already done that.
DeletePrudence, I'm sorry to hear of your Amazon select experience. It's a lot of work to promote and NOT see the results you had hoped for. I, and others like me who hope to follow your path can't thank you enough for sharing the outcome of your experiment. I hope that Smashwords will be more successful for you. And fear not, I liked you already and on Amazon and Facebook. Have a great weekend Pru and enjoy your beautiful summer wheather! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Karen. The thing here is, Amazon is still my main source of revenue. It is just that the exclusive thing was a waste of time and by avoiding it I can get my work into Apple, Sony, B&N, etc so much faster using Smashwords as a distributor. This self publishing thing is a steep learning curve for sure.
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