Sorry I have been out of the loop. My sister came to
visit, so I took a little vacation time to hang out with her. I will have to
admit, releasing my second book at the beginning of her two week visit probably
wasn't the best promotional planning...lol.
As you may know, I officially released the second book in
my Dion series, Where Will You Hide?,
on July 21st. I also decided to take advantage of the KDP Select program with
Amazon. I did write a blog lamenting the fact that Amazon is trying to take
over the world (read it here) and my hesitation to join, but many authors have reported success with the
program. Since it is only a 90 day commitment, I decided to give it a try.
I enrolled both of my books in the program, and did two free
promotional days for my first book Where
Will You Run? on 7/23-7/24. Thanks to shout outs from Ereader News Today/ENT (website,
Facebook), Paranormal Book Club (website, Facebook), and some of my awesome
author friends; I had a significant number of downloads. It was a crazy two
days. Since then, the sales numbers for both books have been
steadily rising inlcuding some borrows. That is great news! However, I was also exposed to a couple of
Amazon policies I was not aware of. Surprise!
First: The royalty policy. If your book(s) is priced
between $2.99-$9.99, you are eligible to receive a 70% royalty. I sell my books for $2.99,
so I qualify. Sounds like a great deal. However, when I looked at my royalties report, I noticed that several of
the book sales were listed at a 35% royalty instead of 70%. When I emailed Amazon about the
discrepancy, I was told that the 70% royalty only applies to purchases in some
"territories." The places listed were Andorra, Austria, Belgium,
Canada, France, Great Britain, Guernsey, Germany, Italy, Isle of Man, Jersey,
Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, San Marino, Switzerland, Spain, United
States, and Vatican City. Now that may sound like a lot of places until I
actually looked. Andorra? Isn't that where Gandalf was born? I'm just kidding. Andorra is actually a small planet in the Andromeda Galaxy. There were several
other odd places like Guernsey and Vatican City. What's missing? Australia,
Central and South America, Japan, China, Africa, Russia, and other places that
should be obvious inclusions. I'm not sure how they decided what
"territories" should be included, but they are missing a huge chunk
of the market which damages an author's earning potential by effectively
cutting royalty earnings in half while Amazon makes approximately the same amount on the sale either way. Amazon won't tell me where those books were
purchased from, so I just have to trust them. Uh...right. You do remember; I am
a bit paranoid.
Second: The other fun Amazon policy I found was their
ebook return policy. I had never had any returns, but after getting several
this past week, I decided to check it out. Amazon will give a full refund for
an ebook as long as the request is received within 7 days of purchase even if
it has been read. No, I'm not kidding. People can purchase a book, read it in a
few days and return it for a full refund. You may be thinking "People
wouldn't do that Michelle." Consider this, the Kindle Prime membership costs $79.00 per
year and you can "borrow a book" a month according to the information
I found, so I am assuming that is just one book. However, you could buy a book,
read it, and return it in the same week for a full refund. That's an average of four
books a month at no cost. There may be some small print somewhere that limits
the amount of ebook returns a person can make, but I couldn't find it. On the
Kindle forums, there were several people who mentioned that they hoped people
didn't take advantage of the return policy. Several others responded by saying
that Amazon wouldn't let people do that. They obviously have more faith in
Amazon than I do.
I don't mean to sound jaded or more paranoid that usual. I understand that Amazon needs to make their customers happy, so they will buy more products which may mean that authors get the raw end of the deal at times.
I signed my deal with Amazon, and I have to live with my decision. I will just
have to see how things play out over the next 90 days. Would love to hear your
experiences with KDP Select, Amazon policies, or opinions on the subject.
Hi Michele. The issue you raise is a complicated one.
ReplyDeleteHowever, if you borrow a book, you technically haven't paid for it (although yes, you've paid for the Prime Membership). So someone who borrows the book (which you the author are paid on) and someone who purchases it and then returns it are different animals as you know. (What I don't get it why someone would return a free book? That's just weird.)
I've sold thousands of books using KDPSelect and for me, it's been terrific. You definitely have to get the word out across all your channels and others you've never heard of. There is a list of free KDP Select book sites I'm compiling for a future post, but for now, check out the Novel Publicity blog -- Emlyn (or maybe it was Pavarti) has some great suggestions.
xo
It is complicated. I was using the Prime members as an example of people who pay for the service of borrowing (which authors do get paid for) versus people who buy books and return them at no cost to themselves (which authors do not get paid for). I just wanted to point out that it is silly that Amazon makes Prime members pay for the service of borrowing books and yet they offer a return policy that allows people to buy, read, and return books without having to pay for them.
DeleteThank you so much for the suggestions and the info Rachel!! You always have the best tips!
To clarify, the books that were returned were books that were purchased, not the free books. I didn't make that very clear in my blog :)
DeleteHello, Michelle. As fate would have it, I'm sitting here at my laptop, watching the final numbers come in as my two-day event draws to a close. Thanks for sharing. This is only my first week with Amazon, so I will have to wait and see what happens for me. Thanks for sharing some of the sites that you used, too. I didn't know about some of these places for advertising free books. I will definitely take advantage of them for my next giveaway.
ReplyDeleteI hope you've had a great weekend. I've got one more week of vacation left. If we get a chance, it would be great to chat. Let me know... *waves*
-Jimmy
Would love to chat Jimmy! My vacation is over, so I should be online more. Will catch you on FB or Twitter :) *Waves back*
DeleteI don't like exclusives, so I don't do KDP Select. However, I HAVE seen the return thing happening. I spent a good ten days watching each book, in series order, be sold and returned two days later, when the next book would be bought.
ReplyDeleteThis culture of free books concerns me greatly. While I'm glad people are reading my books, I still have bills to pay.
Thank you for sharing that Susan. It is exactly what I was afraid of. That's what is happening to me. While giving out free books for promotional purposes can help sales and get more exposure for books/authors, it does seem to be creating the idea that people shouldn't have to pay for books. Ebook return policies like Amazon's are helping customers do just that.
DeleteWow. I never knew people could even return ebooks.
ReplyDeleteEstevan Vega
I didn't know that either until this happened. I was really surprised.
DeleteI'm not a fan of Kindle Select either. I tried it out with one book and only used one of my free days since I felt too many copies were going for free. As Susan says, we authors have bills to pay too! I prefer Smashwords with its multi-ereader format output, Paypal payment method for royalties and all round user-friendliness.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people do like Smashwords because of the multi-reader format. It's that kind of "thinking outside the box" mentality that will help them compete with Amazon. Thank you so much for your comment. Good points.
DeleteHi Michelle:
ReplyDeleteYou provide more eye-opening information. It should all be collected from around the 'net. As for the royalty teeter-totter, an author friend recently informed me that she's getting NO 70% royalties because they say she lives in Great Britain (she has resided in Boston for years, after living in G.B. for awhile).
Given what you posted on my blog about the strongarming to go Createspace (I'm considering them right now,) that certainly does not endear me to them. Thanks for that. It gives me food for thought, as Lightning Strike is a VERY viable alternative for POD (as well as several others.)
Further, I have not heard Goodreads put that policy into effect, but the info is eyebrow-raising. GR ought to be high on the priority-list of any fledgling author, and it would be great to see them distance themselves from any and all commercial entities.
Thank you Shawn. It is important for indie authors to support other venues, but you made an excellent point in your post about people going with what they find familiar and comfortable. People are going to go to Amazon because it is what they know. So as self published authors, would we really be making a difference by using other venues like Smashwords or Nook and snubbing our collective noses at Amazon? I doubt it. I want to sell books, so until someone comes up with something better, I'm afraid I'm stuck.
DeleteYou're right about Goodreads too. They should distance themselves from all commercial entities, not just Amazon.
Delete