From author and TPV regular Randall Wood:
I’m FREE!
In more ways than one.
Let me explain. Three months ago I tried an experiment. I pulled my books from all the other vendors and went all-in with Amazons KU program. I was following the advice of many that had gone before me and decided to give it a try to see if I could emulate their success there. It was a decision I thought about long and hard, but in the end I decided was worth the 90-day commitment.
I was wrong.
Entering KU was initially a positive. I saw a nice jump in sales, and page-reads were at a level that had me on track for a 30% increase over my average monthly income. Not as good as I had been told to expect, but not bad either.
Then, Amazon happened.
One of my biggest problems with Amazons KU program was its lack of transparency. Amazon shares little to no information on the program with its authors and is anything but clear as to how it really runs. They also have you over a barrel from day one as they can make changes to the program at anytime and without warning. As they did so right around the time I entered it. Was my timing bad, or was I simply a victim of bad luck? I’d say both. But being at Amazons mercy was my first mistake.
Right around the time I entered KU they made a change to the algorithm. This is not something they do that often, it’s a constantly evolving program and we expect it to be tweaked from time to time, but this was a major change. I heard from friends making six figures telling me they were suddenly down by up to 30%. Some even more. A few had lost income in the neighborhood of 90%. In other words, career ending losses.
. . . .
My initial upward spike quickly turned into a long slide down. I’ll spare you the details and just say that by the time the ninety-day commitment was over I was pulling down the same numbers as I had been when I was wide. And that was with my first book Closure being offered FREE. (I’d been forced to put a price of $2.99 on it to justify going onto KU)
So, lesson learned. KU is as bad a deal as I thought it would be. While I may have gained a few readers that I might not have reached the old way, it just wasn’t worth it to be exclusive to Amazon.
. . . .
I’d heard stories of books getting a drop in ranking, or a slow turn-around when coming out of KU, or even a period of time-stoppage where the book sold nothing and sat as if frozen for a few days only to have a sudden spike before returning to normal. I got none of that. What I did get was something new.
My first book Closure has 1500 reviews on Amazons US website alone. 92% of these reviews are 4 star or above. One has 223 up-likes and has been the first review you see for years. Guess what’s at the top of the page now? That’s right, 1, 2, and 3 star reviews. I guess this is Amazons form of the doghouse. How long will it last? Who knows. But I can tell you this, it won’t change my mind about leaving KU. I should have trusted my instincts and business sense in the first place. If there was any chance of me trying KU again in the first place they’ve just made it harder for me to consider it. If anything, it’s made me even more determined to build a readership on the other platforms. I’ve seen battered wife syndrome while working as a paramedic, I certainly won’t let Amazon put me in that kind of relationship.
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Wow … it’s so interesting to read this and see almost universal agreement. KU is really, really fantastic for me. I keep thinking of going wide, but I don’t think I can afford it.
I only mention this because the one thing I’ve learned since I first self-published is that every book, every author, and every situation seems to be different. It’s worth listening to other people’s experiences, and even experimenting, but in the end, your books will sell the way they’ll sell and it might be completely different from how somebody else’s books sell.
It sounds like you got hosed by Amazon’s algorithm, so I can see why getting out and going wide makes sense.
On the other hand, I have to say that I looked at your books page and while I used to love thrillers like you write, I have NEVER liked covers like yours. My first reaction to seeing the pictures was, “of course sales are down, for books looking like that.” I hate busy covers crowded with stock action story art (I don’t know, maybe your cover artist got all those elements together them self, but the finished product just anti-sells me).
Looking through the synopses, I could see young-me liking them a lot more than current-me does. The problem for authors is that young-me, with wide open tastes, had no money, while current-me, with money, has cooled on some genres I liked before.
Best wishes for better sales with your new strategies, anyway.
I wonder if Amazon is gonna notice the exodus from KU/KDP Select, and then offer incentives for those who stay in long-term (not jump in and out of it). Ya never know what they’ll do to keep their supremacy. It might end up benefitting the loyalists. I’m curious to see how that works out.
I feel ya, Randall. Same thing happened to me, except mine was during the huge scammer debacle of January 2016. I went all-in to KU, my income dropped to 30% of what it was, and I suffered until I could go wide once more. Never again, unless I’m trying a pen name.
Totally agree. Launching a new pen name is about the only reason I can think of for going back.
Same here, S.J. I haven’t in a few months, but last time I looked at KU, it was all scammers, all the time. I released a book that was totally buried by the stuff, and that’s when I decided, no more, and went wide.
Until Amz shuts out the scammers and improves their search function, I’ll only consider putting a new release in KU, and then for only one 90-day term. KDP Select just doesn’t offer enough bang for the buck these days.
I also agree with you, Randall, about Amz tilting things toward their own imprints. When I get recommendation emails, almost all the books I look at are Amz imprints. And now I’m having the same problem I used to have with trad pub books: what they’re offering isn’t what I want to read. I’m back to re-reading the books on my shelves.
Not good customer service, Amazon!
I tried Kindle as a sole platform; put my books in KU; took them out; put them back in. I never saw more than a book or two change in sales from one condition to another, so I’m like “meh” as far as whether it’s positive or negative.
Good for you, Randall. Welcome back.
Every time my Amazon sales have fallen (and they’ve fallen off a cliff a couple of times), sales everywhere else have picked up: not quite enough to pick up all the slack, but enough to provide remarkable stability.
Thanks Joe!
Another thing that made my decision was that every piece of work I have out there was ( this is what I’ve been told anyway ) “perfect” for KU.
I write long, several 120k word thriller novels, and I have a serial novel that averages 20k words an episode that is currently at episode 14 and counting. I have a good-sized mailing list and good reviews, yet KU didn’t work for me.
So I have to wonder if this was just bad timing? I’m being told by some that it was and that I should try again when the dust has settled on the algo change. Okay, but for how long? Until the next algo change? Or the one two years from now? When does it end? The uncertainty and darkness of KU is just too much for me. Others may not feel that way and that’s fine if it works for them, it just doesn’t work for me.
Amazon is a business and they will do what they want, as long as people don’t leave. But I find myself saying “C’mon man!” every time they chip away at the store a little bit more. They are tilting things heavily in the favor of their own imprints now, something we use to protest when it was the Big Six doing it and it was called coop space. In black and white terms indies are now competing with both trade published books AND their own largest distributor. What do you do when your biggest competition is also your biggest mover of books and your biggest source of income?
So, Amazon is now one of many vendors for me. That’s fine, I was doing well WIDE and was much more comfortable about Amazon then. I hope to be back where I was shortly, moving on, and actually selling books rather than chasing page-reads and algorithms.
I wonder if Amazon really just started KU to kill off all the competing subscription book services and hamstring the other retailers. I don’t see how the program is long term profitable or sustainable. At this point, it seems like a failed experiment that Amazon keeps around for the ancillary benefits.
Amazon is a business and they will do what they want, as long as people don’t leave.
My speculation is that Amazon wants authors to leave KU. The pay for pages model is designed to force out books that are not read, leaving a truly select collection that people like.
This would be a self-selecting model that delivers a cadre of authors who have demonstrated their appeal.
Want a high probability of finding a book you like? Go to KU. Expect more changes. I predict a score that will indicate the average number of pages read per download. That wold an interesting sort parameter.
I have to disagree with you there, Terrance.
For Amazon its a perfect world. They get the content for free, control every aspect of the deal, pay whatever they want, and on top of that, demand exclusivity/deny the competition of the same content. What business wouldn’t want that!?! Its a money making machine! If it has an alternate goal/use its icing on a profit cake.
I’ve said this before, but the guy who came up with KU deserves a corner office with a gold plated desk. As a business move its perfect. I have to give credit to Amazon for pulling it off. The guys at the other subscription services are kicking themselves for not thinking of it first.
That guy does deserve a corner office. But, I’m looking for the reason they are changing things to the extent that people are leaving KU. They don’t have a history of incompetence.
Those who are leaving are doing so because they don’t have the page-reads to make it worthwhile. That gives us a trend of an increasing average number of pages per download.
Unfortunately they don’t call to confide anymore.
I would speculate that KU will be altered in the future to become like the Prime Reading program – and books will be offered for free to Prime members as another benefit.
I’ve been all in since the inception. But the latest algorithm change around the first of November has really hurt. Now the question is what to do. My books renew on KU about mid-March and my inclination today is to seriously think about going wide. Like Randall, the sudden changes, without notice and without explanation (not that they owe me an explanation, I know, I know, it’s their store and they can do as they please etc etc) is more than my old heart is willing to put up with anymore. I’m tired of chasing algos and tired of competing with Amazon’s own books. I’m looking at all alternatives for selling books.
From what I’m reading on that Kboards thread, John, you’ll have a lot of company. 🙂
Something happened around the first of September that knocked the wind out of my sales/pages read. A lot of people noticed the same thing. I had a release in August and one in September which basically did nothing. It was like they weren’t even there. October was a bit worse than September, only saved because they finally got around to sending the follower email, four weeks after the story was published. Four weeks. Not days, not hours, weeks.
Then November came, and it was a nightmare. I cried so much it wasn’t even funny. Talk about a huge pity party!
Oddly enough, the majority of my stuff came out of KU in mid-December. Guess what happened? Best month in months. I was worried when the enrollment ended, afraid I’d seen the last movement for the month, but sales picked up. Books that hadn’t had any interest in years started selling. Color me suspicious.
Now, I’ll admit I have a fancy tin foil hat on, but something strikes me as really weird that I can go from nothing one month to boom (my version of it, anyway) the next with nothing — absolutely nothing — different except for the KU situation. No new releases, no ads, nothing. And so far, this month is looking pretty good. I’m a prawn, but it means a lot to me. Still going wide, though.
That’s been what’s happening with my sales!
The days they’re lower than usual on Amazon, sales through Kobo and/or B&N tend to make up the difference. Sales through both perked up quite a bit once I switched to D2D, but Kobo sales are increasing at a better rate.
On Jan. 3, I was happily surprised to see my Kobo sales were 1 higher than my Amazon sales for that day. That’s a first (and man, I hope it becomes a regular happening!).
There’s also the problem that any momentum already built up in the other vendors will vanish — any reviews, following, etc. You don’t get that back when you return — you have to start over.
I think if you really want to experiment in KU, the sensible thing is to use it for one series only, and then go wide after a while.
That is a HUGE problem. Most vendors put your book in “inactive” status and you keep your reviews. Apple is the one that really cost you in this regard as you loose everything.
Well, not everything, you loose all your reviews but you keep your ratings. Example: I had something in the neighborhood of 500 reviews of Closure on Apple before I took it down. Now I have zero reviews, but I kept 88 ratings for a 4.5 star.
Better than nothing, but it hurts to loose those reviews and have to start over.
Do you upload to Apple yourself or go through a distributor? I do direct and didn’t lose reviews when I disabled my few titles to waste my time with KU. What I did lose was the small amount of traction my books once had. Used to sell a few dozen copies with Apple in a month, every now and then breaking a hundred, but since returning I’m lucky to sell four or five.
I go direct to Apple as well and the reviews are gone. If there’s a way to keep them I have yet to learn of it.
If you know how please share as I’m sure there are many who would love to know!
Traction is something I’ll have to watch for and hopefully regain. I was doing well at Apple too. 🙁
* lose
Normally I wouldn’t bother to correct someone’s spelling on the internet, but a writer really should know the difference between ‘loose’ and ‘lose’, and you used it three times in your comment so I know it’s not a typo.
As KU has never worked well for me, I leave one YA backlist book in it to remind me why I stay out of it.
You don’t have to go “all-in” with KU, do you? Sorry if that’s a fatuous question, but it seems like this kind of service is something an author could use to drum up interest in their brand without putting everything into it.
‘All in’ as in that ‘book’ can’t be found in electronic form anywhere else. You can have other ebooks ‘wide’, just not the ones in KU. (With mine on a couple websites I can’t go KU, but that’s okay by me. 😉 )
.
Whenever someone tells you to take their advice, you can be pretty sure that they’re not using it.
I think he was asking whether you have to put all of your books into KU, and clearly you do not. You make a separate decision about each title and so can have some books in KU and some books not in KU, which is how my wife and I have always done it. However, lately we have been moving more and more books out of KU for the same reasons many authors are doing so.
From the other side of the table, I’m considering dropping my KU subscription as a reader. The search feature is awful, there just doesn’t seem to be a heck of a lot of content I want to read (or I’m just not finding it), and the non-fiction selection is simply bad beyond belief. That last must be seen to be believed.
I can see a KU subscription working, and working quite well, as a value for your money proposition if you’re a fan of YA type books, Romance or Fantasy. And I guess tilt to the “power-reader” end of the spectrum. I do read in those genres, just not often enough to make me feel I’m getting my money’s worth.
But…Marvel Unlimited is also $9.99/month, and why not catch up on all those Daredevil back issues I’ve never read?
I’m considering dropping my KU subscription as a reader. The search feature is awful, there just doesn’t seem to be a heck of a lot of content I want to read (or I’m just not finding it), and the non-fiction selection is simply bad beyond belief.
I don’t even know how to use the KU search feature. But when I use the normal Amazon search feature, I stumble on enough KU free books to make it worth the $10. It’s all a function of individual tastes and preferences.
“If anything, it’s made me even more determined to build a readership on the other platforms.”
Anything on your horizon for your own platform? J.A. Konrath (I think) discussed that a while ago.
Dan
I have looked into it, but its always been toward the bottom of the to-do list. Perhaps its time to change that? I know a few authors who sell using Gumroad and other similar services, but I’ve no data on how many books they move.
So yes, its on the list, just not at the top. I’ll be watching Joe to see how he does.
konrath just sold a series of books to a trad publisher.
If I look at Closure’s overall reviews I get a lot of three and up reviews. If I select Verified Purchase reviews I get a lot of three and below reviews. ETA: I filtered by top reviews which generally have several helpful votes.
When I review books I have read through Kindle Unlimited my reviews do not get a Verified Purchase badge. Also, a lot of the recent higher star reviews are only one or two lines so they are unlikely to attract helpful votes.
It’s my understanding that you may be implying a lot of things that do not represent the truth, though it’s easy for one to fall in such trap, considering how Amazon’s product pages works.
“If I look at Closure’s overall reviews I get a lot of three and up reviews.”
The average review is 4.5.
“If I select Verified Purchase reviews I get a lot of three and below reviews. ETA: I filtered by top reviews which generally have several helpful votes.”
As you said, you’re just looking for the most “helpful reviews”–whatever that means. If that was the most reader’s opinion, Closure’s average rating would be 3 or lower, which is not the case.
“When I review books I have read through Kindle Unlimited my reviews do not get a Verified Purchase badge.”
Closure got, at most, around 50 reviews from the 3 months it was enrolled in Kindle Unlimited.
“Also, a lot of the recent higher star reviews are only one or two lines so they are unlikely to attract helpful votes.”
Exactly my thoughts. Which is something most authors should consider, when evaluating the public’s reception of their books. And this message was the main purpose of this reply.