KINDLE E-BOOK SALES ARE GOING THROUGH THE ROOF

Amazon Best Seller!

Over the last few months I've been keeping a close eye on the volume of my sales on Kindle, and recently realized that my efforts have a wider range of importance than just my personal experience and the books I'm personally selling.

Many of you know I received a phenomenal boost back in October when Kindle put two of my books on their 100 Free Reads list for five days, and that my sales numbers continued to be high (but not THAT high) for the rest of the month (actually have continued high). But you might not know what the long term ramifications have been. And you would be unlikely to know how that has put me into a position to observe the massive changes in the ebooks market in the last few months. I have kept records of how my books have moved up and down on the charts, but that is of interest mostly to me. One of the things that I think is of broader interest is in charting the advance of sales in general.

This Free Reads boost gave my books a visibility they didn't have earlier, and I've had at least one book on a best seller list since then. As long as there's one on a visible list, buyers can easily find my books because, especially if they like what they read, one book leads to another sale, and then another, which in turn propels other books onto best seller lists. That's how HIS MAJESTY, THE PRINCE OF TOADS got there. It was never a free read, but was discovered by readers who had liked FIRE DANCE and THE MUDLARK. LOKI'S DAUGHTERS didn't get quite this kind of boost, but it is now showing excellent sales.

Since I have several self-published books on Kindle, I am able to receive immediate exact sales reports and compare them with the rankings for my books. HIS MAJESTY, THE PRINCE OF TOADS consistently accounts for half of the sales for four books,  which gives me a perspective on what is needed to keep a book on the best seller lists, and how many sales it takes to improve the ranking. I decided after Thanksgiving to offer all of my books at 99 cents through the Christmas season, and originally had intended to return to the normal $2.99 price after Christmas Day. But my sales volume was so high, I changed my mind and have kept the low price. I'm aware that this low price means I can't get Kindle's 70% royalty rate, but I made the decision because I see my job right now as to grab buyers and hopefully develop a large group of returning readers. In looking at the numbers of "also bought" books sold, I believe this is happening because people who bought one of my books have a vary high incidence of buying the others.

Sales on Kindle since Christmas Day have risen to between double and triple the pre-Christmas rate, which was high to begin with. This appears to be a general trend on Kindle, and likely is a reflection of the incredible number of Kindle readers sold by Amazon this holiday season. Every day except one in the new year has shown an increase in volume over the previous day, and I am now selling at about 100 books a day (four titles). Today is on track to record perhaps as many as 120 books sold.

Because I can compare my actual real time sales numbers with my overall ranking, I can see I'm doing only barely better than other books in my genre and in historical fiction, so the top books must be selling individually at least 80-100 per day. Yet there's only one or two of those books even appearing in the best selling general fiction list.

At the top of the Regency list, it now takes about 50 sales a day to move upward in ranking from #7 to #6, but of course the higher the ranking, the more sales are needed, while at the lower end of the lists, just a few sales will move a book from 4,000's to 3,000's. Over all, this indicates to me that the volume of sales of Kindle books has more than doubled its pre-Christmas numbers, and possibly could be three times. In the most popular genres, it might be even higher.  Several times I have noted a sudden jump in my number of sales, yet my overall ranking lowered, which tells me other genres were having even sharper volume sales increases.

I seem to do well overnight, and my ranking is often better in the morning than it is for the rest of the day. I suspect this reflects Asian and European sales. This balances with my web page stats which show I have a fairly large following in Asia and Europe. My ranking is usually higher if I first check my stats at 7 a.m. than if I don't get around to it till 10 a.m. But I also see a big jump in early evening, which may be after-work surges.

Although romance is doing very well in ebook sales, the top positions are still dominated by mainstream fiction and thrillers. Ficton that appeals to men appears more likely to be represented on the general fiction list than fiction that appeals mostly to women. However, in November I noticed there were no romances in the top 20 fiction ebooks, but now they are appearing in the top 10. I don't know if this was a fluke or not.

In romances, ebooks clearly dominate the top ten, with only a few paperback showing up. Classics such as Diana Gabaldon's and Ken Follett's books continue to be in extremely high demand and consistently show high in the best seller lists. Historical romance is not selling as well as Contemporary romance, although it sells very well.

I'm not in a position to tell you about other genres, other than these very limited observations. But I'll keep watching, just because I find it interesting.

Delle

Delle Jacobs http://dellejacobs.blogspot.com
LADY WICKED coming 2/25/2011 from The Wild Rose Press
Every proper lady ought to have a rake in her life.

Randy Ingermanson on the Future of Publishing

I just read this article from Randy Ingermanson's blog called The Future of Publishing. If you are interested in publishing and what your future is in the big flow of the mighty rivers within it, read this article. It's extremely insightful.  http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/blog/2010/07/07/the-future-of-publishing/

 It's  long and very detailed, 9 specific predictions, looking at the broad expanse of publishing and how it will change. I'm inclined to agree, although I don't see anything in this article about how Amazon and other e-distributors will fit in. I think those things, which will ultimately determine the income of published authors, are in great flux right now, so certainly I would be reluctant to make such a prediction.

I'm guessing anyway, though. Apple's iPad is making a huge play for the ebook market. Sony, Barnes & Noble and many small distributors are also diving into the melee. Amazon's Kindle intends to own the whole show. But now Google is headed toward the skirmish pile. Then there are all the small ebook publishers. Will they be squeezed out by self-publishing in e-form? Well, I think the strong and innovative will stay strong. The weaker, poorly organized companies will miss too many opportunities. And in the end- or perhaps only the immediate end- Amazon will not rule the world after all. Sorry, Amazon. To use a parallel in nature: The mighty Amazon River flows into an ocean- the Atlantic Ocean. And the ocean is bigger.

KINDLE Goes to 70% Royalties

You might have noticed my books have not been available on Kindle the last few days, or that I no longer have them listed with deep discount prices or free on Smashwords. That's actually good news. Two of them are back up on Kindle, and the other two will be soon. Here's what's going on:

As of June 30, the new 70% royalty rates are available on Kindle. This change, announced in May, doubles the previous 35% royalty rate, which was Pikersville compared to what competition was paying- 65 to 85%, depending on the site. But with Kindle selling possibly 90% or better of ebooks in general, self-publishing ebook authors couldn't afford not to use Kindle as a distributor. Amazon's one driving force all these years has been to capture the entirety of the market, though, and competition from smaller sites, which often offered free ebooks, or discounted rates, was beginning to cut into their game. After all, if an author gets 85% of the cut, as on Smashwords, he/she can sell her books at a heavily discounted price and still make more per book than through Kindle because if there's anything ebook buyers love, it's cheap or free ebooks.

But naturally, considering its true nature, Amazon found a way to leverage the increased royalty rate into a competition-bashing weapon. And authors can't really turn it down if their aim is making sales that have some meaning.

Kindle will also keep the 35% royalty rate, and authors may choose. But they can only have the 70% rate IF they do not offer their book on a competitive site for less money. In addition, the book must be priced between $2.99 and 9.99, and it must be priced at least 20% lower than the retail price of the same book in print. And, the book may not be in the public domain. The author or publisher who puts the book up on Kindle must have legal rights to its publication. In addition, there is a delivery fee based on size of file, which amounts to about a nickel on my books.

There are a few things that seem sort of contradictory, and I'm researching them, but it seems clear to me that I cannot offer my books on Smashwords or another such site, or my own site, for any price under $2.99, and clearly I cannot give them away or offer them at "Name your own price" , which I had been doing.

That was, unfortunately, one of Smashwords' best draws. But if, for example, I sold one book in a hundred for a price of about $1- and that's about how much one gets with the "Name your own price" pricing, I'd have to give away huge number of books to equal 70% of $2.99, minus $.05, or $2.04 for every book. I can count on each of my books selling at least 10 books a month, and many times, a lot more. It's kind of unpredictable. And yes, I admit I haven't been promoting in the most effective ways on Amazon, so they could be doing much better than this. To make better use of Smashwords, I'd have to give up 35% in royalties from Kindle. I can't afford that.

The question is, of course, what will Smashwords do to counter Kindle's move? I am no lawyer, but I see this strong-arm method of grabbing the competition's customers as pretty close to an anti-trust move. That's never scared Amazon off from trying similar tactics in the past, but in almost all cases they've had to back down. So I wonder what will happen next?

For those of you who are considering re-issuing your older books for which you have your rights, or if you're thinking about e-publishing some stories you don't plan to put through the traditional publishing process, maybe this increase, coming from the biggest seller of ebooks in the industry, could be good news. It's good for me, overall. With this increase, I'll be making more money per month from my older books than I ever made through a publisher in an entire quarter. And from the last owner of the company, more every month than I made in the entire year.

Kindle and the New Self-EPublishing

Most successful authors have previously published works for which the publishing rights have reverted to the author. They'd like to see their books re-printed, but finding a traditional publisher to pick them up is pretty difficult. Re-printing a paper book is an expensive proposition for a book with a limited market.

Enter Kindle.

Kindle is widely regarded as the most significant forward-moving force. Probably true. But I think it's not so much Kindle as it is the Kindle Bookstore, which arguably holds more ebooks than any other source on the internet. People buy Kindles because of the enormous inventory of titles. And the reason for this is that Kindle opened itself up to the Independent Publisher. Essentially, this means ANYBODY.

This is the perfect opportunity for re-issues. The investment is tiny, and the author receives 35% royalties. Sales aren't huge, but they are growing, and supposedly Amazon will be hiking the royalties to independent publishers to 70% beginning this month. I'm not sure of the details, but since Kindle is the biggest market for ebooks, this would be nice. Many authors feel they can afford to set a more attractive price since they don't have to share with a publisher or agent.

WHAT YOU NEED TO PUBLISH A KINDLE BOOK:
Where: on Amazon.com, Kindle Store>In Sidebar, Publish on Kindle> On top line under Kindle Books, Small publishers and Authors... Digital Text Platform, DTP link>Sign In by following directions.

I suggest reading through FAQs and other information before starting. Some of it won't make sense at first, but when you reach that point in your process, you'll have an idea where to look for your answer.

Here's a list of the information you'll need to assemble for uploading your ebook. I suggest you get it all together before you start and save yourself a lot of back-tracking.

CHECKLIST:

#1 Enter Product Details
ISBN: You don't actually need an ISBN for your own Kindle upload. But if you already have one, or are planning on other ebook releases, get one. Don't use the same ISBN for print and electronic books.
Title:
Description: 4000 characters max
Publisher: That's you
Language:
Pub Date: I suggest about 5-7 days from current date. They may get faster in the future
Categories: e.g. Historical Romance
Authors:
search key words: look for as many appropriate words as you can think of
Product Image: min 1200 pix on smallest side I used 300 dpi, 6x9"
Edition Number: (optional)
Series Title: (optional)
Series Volume: (optional)

#2 Confirm Content Rights
Worldwide or Individual Territories
You'll later be asked to confirm or verify this. I sent the email letter granting release of rights.

#3 Upload & Preview Book
formats: Word, HTML, PRC, PDF (poor)
Preview- not easy if you don't know HTML but go through the whole thing anyway. Sometimes it looks fuzzy- I'm not sure if it would be fuzzy in the finished book. I did it over just in case it would improve and it did. You could be surprised at the things that show up in the preview, or don't show up. If all else fails, cancel (trash can) and start over. Before you do, though, make sure you have copies of all the info you put into the blanks and boxes.

#4 Enter Suggested Retail Price
I decided to price low. I can always raise it later.

wait 48-72 Hours while it's being reviewed.
You might not see your product description right away- up to a week.
Be sure to read the Amazon DTP Quick Start Guide, under Getting Started Guide

SETTING UP YOUR BOOK FOR EASY READING:

You can publish your book on Kindle in just about any layout you want. You don't even have to check for spelling errors. But if you don't want to irritate your readers, it's a good idea to make sure you understand what works well for reading on the Kindle.

Your book might already be in proper book layout for a print book. But this isn't necessarily the best layout for an ereader, especially Kindle. Kindle has no page numbers because the content is so adjustable. Depending on font size and other adjustments, the number of words per line, number of lines on the screen, and therefore the number of pages changes. So you want your content to flow easily for the reader.

The first thing you want to do is remove all headers, footers and page numbers. They take up screen space and irritate the reader, who just wants to get on with your story. And besides, remember, Kindle books have no pages, so headers, footers and page numbers mean nothing.

I suggest eliminating all page breaks between chapters. And since it's an irritation for readers to keep thumbing down through blank page after blank page, which is what you get if you have a lot of lines left before the beginning of the next chapter, substitute about 5 or 6 line returns for the page break. It won't seem like enough for you, the author. But those same 5-8 or so lines can take up a lot of space on the ereader. Do 2,3,4, or whatever you choose, but I suggest doing just enough to make it clear there's a new chapter coming up. I want the first lines of the new chapter to show on the same screen as the last words of the previous chapter.

Because I use Word Perfect, I've found it best to use the Reveal Codes feature to strip out all those little codes that don't seem to be there-until I change font, format or programs. But in Word, you can often get rid of such codes by highlighting the entire manuscript, then putting in the formatting that you want all through the manuscript. For instance, you might have some oddball font codes you think are gone, but will pop up sometimes if you do a backspace in the wrong place, or other such nonsense. Select and choose ALL. Then change the font to the one you want consistently, such as Times New Roman.

It's quite possible to scan a print book if you don't have an electronic copy. Most scanners have OCR (Optical Character Recognition) ability now and can convert to text document. But they're ‟sloppy", meaning they don't always get it right- ‟cl" often becomes ‟d", for example. The best way to do this is to take the book apart and scan each page flat so you don't get a ditch or gutter distortion. I haven't tried this, but I hear it's a bit of a pain. Still, better than re-typing!

If you work from a manuscript, you probably double-spaced, and used a five-space wide paragraph indent. Not good for e-reading. Select All and change to single spacing. Set your tab at .200" or .300". You'll even like the look better yourself.

Some people don't center chapter headings, but I prefer them. And I close down the spaces between scenes, separating them only with ***. Keep remembering, ereader screens are small.

WHAT ABOUT COVERS?
A good cover is very helpful for selling ebooks, although I rate it less important than a reduced price and known author name. You probably can't use a cover from a previous edition unless it's your own creation. Even then I'd suggest you use a different cover to separate yourself and your book from the previous edition under other publishers.

Covers can be simple or elaborate. You can pay an artist- we cover artists tend to work very cheap, but not all do. You can do it yourself, too. If you're not artistic, you can buy royalty-free photos from a number of sites online, and add your own lettering. You will need some sot of program to manage your graphic tasks. Often simple programs are shareware. Photoshop Elements is pretty good for basic work. You can have your 6 year-old kid color with crayons if you want. It's your book. You do want something that gets attention and makes a reader want to buy.

(I do cover art, in case you're interested. I can do simple for around $20-25 or complex, up to around $150. Sorry but I don't have time for anything more complex.)

Don't use copyrighted material without permission! Use your own photos or maybe a friend's but even with the friend, ask him to sign a release giving you permission to use it. If you buy art or photos from royalty-free sites, check the usage agreement. They are all a bit different.

Upload a good quality cover. This means a high resolution. If you swipe photos off the internet, chances are good they aren't good quality. So it's not even in your best interest to take them.

Who edits your book? Nobody but you, unless you arrange for it yourself. You are solely responsible for the quality of your book, so be patient with yourself and the process. Turn out a product you'd be happy to buy.

Now you're pleased with your accomplishment and the book is available on Kindle. Sales start trickling in. And new questions start trickling into your mind. How can I promote? How can I increase sales? And the newly intriguing question:

Is there more to this than just Kindle?

Sure, there is. But that's for another post. Coming up:
Smashwords Makes a Splash.
EPromo
And other things E.

Under- $100 eBook Reader Is Here! and Other Exciting News

For years I've been hearing people say they wouldn't read ebooks until they could buy an ebook reader for under $100. That seemed to be a Magic price point for people everywhere. Kindle and Sony changed the price point for a lot of people by providing e-ink and better book accessibility, but still many readers wanted that cheap, no-frills reader, and couldn't understand why it couldn't be done.

Well, now there finally is one, available at Fictionwise/eBookwise sites, for $89.95. It's the eBookwise 1150. True, it's not a nice slick new model with e-ink screen. http://www.ebookwise.com/ebookwise/ebookwise1150.htm

Description:
The size of a paperback book, weighing about a pound, and with its backlit screen, the eBookwise-1150 gives new meaning to the term "light reading." The device also includes powerful electronic features that offer you a reading experience beyond that of a traditional book. You can turn pages and change the text orientation just by pushing a button. By simply touching the screen, you can enlarge the text size, bookmark pages, highlight passages, make notes, search for key words and hyperlink to other parts of the book.

Kindle, meanwhile, is planning on giving away FREE the new software for reading Kindle-formatted books on your PC.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_mkt_lnd?docId=1000426311

This might not be interesting to some people, but there is a surprisingly large number of people who have become accustomed to reading on their PC, laptops or mini-laptops (netbooks). Some of these folks, like me, were once the very people who said they couldn't read for hours on a computer screen. But that was before screens became so sharp and clear. It was also before we just plain got used to using computers for so many hours a day. Now that the Kindle software will become available any day now, this means Amazon is now a source for me to buy my ebooks. And I don't have to spend a few hundred bucks to buy a device that, for me, isn't what it's cracked up to be. In fact, e-ink screens hurt my eyes and give me headaches.

My main complaint about the Kindle and other e-ink devices is that the screens are so small. Sure, I can enlarge the font, but then I'm spending time frustratingly scrolling side to side as well as up and down. Or I have to re-format into something decidedly un-book-like that sometimes splits words in strange places or duplicates lines or paragraphs when scrolling to the supposed next page.


The Kindle DX is larger, almost the size of a sheet of paper. More my size. But at $489? I'm afraid not. But it is a factor in driving down the prices of other less-endowed ebook readers. The Kindle 2 is now $259 at Amazon, and Christmas is coming. I'm betting there will be a price reduction suddenly announced just in time for holiday shopping.

And Sony? Showing improvement- much sleeker, better models. And I've seen older models on sale at Fry's Electronics for $159-179. They're getting less proprietary, and adding more formats like PDF. You can access public libraries and Google Books Online. But not with the older model that's on sale. So you'd still be stuck with the Sony store, where books are more expensive.

The Foxit eSlick was also recently spotted at Fry's Electronics, (brick and mortar stores) as was the Jetbook. Prices for both were running around $179. It's probably no surprise to you that both companies are probably coming out with new models. Funny thing how lower prices show up just before new model releases, isn't it? But sometimes that's the best way to buy technology. Foxit, by the way, does seem to have resolved its battery drain problem, which was its major drawback.
Jetbook's manufacturers, ECTACO, have just announced they will be releasing a new model, the Jetbook Lite, which will come out at $149! It's not an e-ink screen, and is more like the eBookwise, but seems to have a few more features.


What about the Nook? A different technology that shows lots of promise. Although the reading screen is grayscale, there's a touch screen for commands that's in color. Why? Maybe because most ebooks are still text only and don't need color? But I'm still waiting for the aility to read and see books full of pictures. Color pictures. At least Nook is showing the possibility. Price: $259. Oops, right back up there in the sky.

And a new wrinkle in Nook's sleeve: Barnes & Noble is now being sued by Spring Corp for stealing the secrets of their Alex under the guise of a cooperative partner venture. According to Spring, B&N actually participated in meetings with them regarding developing a "Kindle Killer" reader, without telling Spring they actually had a device of their own under development.

The bottom line? If you want a cheap reader, it's available, now. If you have a netbook, you will very soon be able to get Kindle software and buy Kindle books without buying a Kindle.

You can still get great deals, often at better prices than Kindle, on Fictionwise and EBookwise. As for the fancy, expensive devices, well, spend your money if you want. They're good deals if this is what you want. But they'll all be better buys next year, both cheaper and better-featured. And Christmas is coming. The field is getting very competitive. Let's make that extremely competitive.