In January I signed up Off The Grid for as a Kindle
exclusive through KDP Select, not exactly knowing what to expect from the
program. Without doing a blow by blow of the experience, I can easily say my
feelings are . . . mixed.
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| During the giveaways, the book rose to #25 in Contemporary Fiction. |
There is no question that I sold way more books after
signing up for the program than beforehand, but after three months I’ve
received a grand total of “0” new reviews on the book, so that’s a disappointment.
They might come, but who knows.
The free giveaways were surprisingly successful – but then again
it’s pretty easy to buy a “free” book, right? After each free day I sold a few
hundred actual copies of the book, so in that sense the program worked well.
The book rose to #329 in the Kindle Free Store, #25 in Contemporary Fiction and
#44 in Mysteries and Thrillers.
I think every author has dealt with pricing issues before,
but since I self-published it I figured those issues would avoid me. Not so
much. Amazon discounted the book to $0.99 – the lowest price possible. This
price meant that even with sales numbers that I am proud of, I made squat in
actual money. $0.35 on every sale is pretty tiny. Amazon knows the market
better than me and I wasn’t selling too many full priced books before KDP
Select anyway, so I’m rolling with the punches.
As part of the program the book was eligible for borrowing
by Amazon Prime members. Ironically, even for a $0.99 book I got a few dozen
borrows. Personally I would have chosen to borrow a more expensive book like
Stephen King’s 11/22/63 which sells for $15, but I’m glad people wanted it.
My KDP Select program enrollment expires on April 6. I
decided to let it pass and see if I can capture any sales momentum without the
enrollment. I’ll give it a couple weeks, then reevaluate.
For anyone who has bought the book recently, I’d love to see
your reviews on Amazon – and thank you.
