The following post was written closer to the end of my Heartless KDP Select run—around March 2013, I believe—but was never actually posted. I'm posting it now, just to give everyone my final thoughts on my Heartless KDP Select run. Believe it or not, things have changed a great deal since this post and none of it can be laid at Amazon's door. ☺
There is a lot of controversy surrounding KDP Select. Amazon demands exclusivity and that rubs a lot of authors raw. It makes me mad but there's very little one can do about it just short of cutting off your nose to spite your face: refusing to sell your books on Amazon.
There is a lot of controversy surrounding KDP Select. Amazon demands exclusivity and that rubs a lot of authors raw. It makes me mad but there's very little one can do about it just short of cutting off your nose to spite your face: refusing to sell your books on Amazon.
I know it's not an effective tool for all authors. I decided to try it simply because the majority of my eBook sales have always come from Amazon, ever since I uploaded my first titles back when there were only 40k books in the Kindle Store (2008). When Smashwords started up, I added my titles there too and when they started distributing to the other major retailers (beginning with Barnes & Noble) I was right there with them, my titles (4 at the time) in one of the first batches of books sent out. But my highest sales were still Amazon and that never changed.
The stats for my Heartless run in KDP Select (90 days):
- Free books: 19,195
- Lending Library: 217
- Sales (not including Feb 1-4): 998
I believe it is safe to say that KDP Select worked for me. Unfortunately, I cannot pinpoint exactly what I did (or what happened that had nothing to do with me) that really catapulted Heartless out there, causing the success. I hyped the revamp for over a year, hyped the re-release (a little), hyped the free days (a lot), appeared on one site that catalogs free Kindle downloads (HUGE thank you to OHFB for that!!), and... hmmm. I think that's it, though I'm sure I've forgotten something I did. I have tons of friends who helped with the hype too and I will be forever grateful for that. (Special thank you to Linda Boulanger, Rachel Rossano, and Airicka Phoenix. ♥)
In bonus news, my Smashwords sales have also increased. They are still NOTHING compared to my Kindle sales but they are much higher than ever before. I think enrolling one of my books in KDP Select successfully got my name out there, thus increasing sales in ALL outlets.
Thank you so much for tagging along with me on this journey. It's been a rollercoaster of emotions, let me tell ya!
Things have changed greatly since I first drafted this post. Long story short, I am done messing with Amazon's exclusivity clause and will never enroll another book in their Select program. I plan to post to my author blog with the details on my decision, but in the meantime, email me if you can't wait, or don't follow my author blog: jaimeygrant (at) yahoo (dot) com.
In bonus news, my Smashwords sales have also increased. They are still NOTHING compared to my Kindle sales but they are much higher than ever before. I think enrolling one of my books in KDP Select successfully got my name out there, thus increasing sales in ALL outlets.
Thank you so much for tagging along with me on this journey. It's been a rollercoaster of emotions, let me tell ya!
Things have changed greatly since I first drafted this post. Long story short, I am done messing with Amazon's exclusivity clause and will never enroll another book in their Select program. I plan to post to my author blog with the details on my decision, but in the meantime, email me if you can't wait, or don't follow my author blog: jaimeygrant (at) yahoo (dot) com.
Lots of ♥, Heartless Readers!!!
