KDP Select Day 37

I just put my only KDP Select title, Budget Travel Tips, up for free again, have to use up those days for sure. Talk among the blogosphere is that there are too many books out now for KDP to be a useful marketing tool. At least not the way it was at the start. And I have also read grumblings about strange things happening with sales figures, perhaps it's a glitch, who really knows.

You can read some of the stories and posts here, here and here.

I am stuck for the whole 90 day stretch though. At first I thought, screw it, I'm not going use my remaining free days but then decided against that. By no means am I being flooded with sales, but my sales have been bumped up when I compare them to my prior numbers.* I also put out another eBook which I'm sure helped things along as well.

*Joined KDP Select April 18th and used first free day on April 28th

Before KDP Select my sales for each month including all titles were (numbers do not include Nook sales or amazon free downloads):

November: 2
December: 0
January: 2
February: 2
March: 0
April (before KDP select): 1

After joining KDP on April 18th, sales through the rest of April: 3

May: 15
Minus one return and one purchase from me as a gift to a friend so 13.

And like I said, these are not high numbers, however the fact that so far this month I have sold 13 copies is making me hopeful. Especially when I look at the fact that all together for 6 months I sold a combined total of 10 books.

Obviously I hope this free day will lead to more sales. I posted links to my other available titles at the end of the free book, so we will see and of course I will keep you posted. I would also love it if someone would leave a review, if it's good yay! for me if it isn't then after a good cry (I'm sensitive yall:) I can use it as constructive criticism and work to improve my readers' experience.

Wish me luck as I wish you.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and happy writing!

Free eBook For Mother's Day

Woke up in a good mood and feeling generous :)

http://brokesinglemombooks.blogspot.com/

Click for easy breezy directions to get one of my eBooks as a gift!

Happy Mother's Day!

Why I'm Still Pursuing Self Publishing Even With Low Sales Numbers

I was over at JA Konrath's blog and read a post by Romance Author Ann Voss Peterson. In it she describes the horrendously low "royalties" she was making as a writer for Harlequin Books, 6% and 2.4%. WTH!

Even with Amazon and Barnes and Noble's lowest royalty rate of 35% and 40% respectively you are way better off.

You can read the whole post here.

You may be asking why a post by a Romance Author should be inspiring me to continue with my journey of self publishing my non-fiction eBooks. The reason is this, the numbers.

Plain and simple I am a single mother with 3 children and 1 grandchild. I would like to be able to support my family in a comfortable lifestyle. I would like to work from home and be able to be there when my boys get home from school. I want to be able to take a few days or a few weeks and be able to visit and reconnect with my daughter who lives 4 hours away. Or with my best friend in California or my cousins in New York City.

And if I am able to make a living as a self published writer, those are things I can do.

I write non-fiction but low royalties are one of the main reasons so many writers (fiction and non-fiction alike) are moving into the realm of self publishing, and why you should too.

So because of scary low ball royalties of 2.4% I will continue to try and find a way that works for me to promote myself and my books.


Because I want a fuller life and the ability to be there for the "every day" things with my kids and grand daughter, I will keep writing and praying.


And because I believe that other single parents can be helped by my eBooks I will soldier on.

Happy writing!

Amazon KDP Select Experiment - Non Fiction Travel Book Day 19

KDP Select

It's a little after midnight and so officially day 19 of my KDP Select Experiment. And as I mentioned before, my sales are not making me rich, but they are rising. Usually I sell about 1-3 eBooks per month on Amazon and about the same on Barnes and Noble.

Last month on Amazon I sold a total of 6 eBooks and had 200+ free downloads.

So far this month I have 8 total sales and one return for a net of 7 sales. And since it's only the 7th of the month I say I am ahead of the game in comparison to my sales the past few months.

There is so much information out there, advice about what days are good and bad days ( I did it on a Friday) to list your books for free and where and how you should advertise/promote your free days that it can make a girl crazy.

I submitted my last free day to 3 sites, freebies4mom.com and freebooksy.com, the name of the third escapes me at the moment. I checked on the 27th when my book was free and didn't see my eBook listed on either site. So I don't have any advice as far as getting traffic using listing sites except for all three were very easy to submit to.

I am sure they are flooded with entries though, so no hard feelings on my part. On the upside it makes me feel as if the posts I wrote on my blogs may have helped, which would mean that I can (prayerfully) expect a decent amount of downloads and subsequent sales for the remaining 4 free days I am allotted.

Ideas

Over the weekend I read the rest of Kindle Cash and reread Kate Harper's eArticle on selling Articles on for the Kindle. After doing a few keyword searches as suggested in Kindle Cash I have decided to write a few articles (or booklets if longer) about some of the topics I found that I am interested in writing about and that have high searches but low competition.

As always I will keep you posted.

Happy writing!

Amazon KDP Select Experiment - Non Fiction Travel Book Day 16

My feelings have been hurt people. Someone returned one of my eBooks. Cut to me curled up in a corner crying, whaaaaaaaaa!

Okay I'm back :)

I really was upset when I saw the return, and my mom, trying to make me feel better suggested that the person simply read it and asked for a refund because it's a short booklet. You gotta love moms, dontcha?

I am sensitive so I really was a little sad, but then I though, eh, not everyone is going to like my style of writing. After that I was fine.

And guess what? I am currently #5 out of the top 100 eBooks today for Non Fiction Family Travel. This made me smile even if, as you can see, you only need break the 40,000 barrier to get into the top 5. Hey, I'll take what I can get.

And I now know that it is due to just that 24 hours I posted my eBook for free. Since I have no reviews yet (sad face) the free downloads somehow brought my book up the ranks and the subsequent sales have kept it there. I wish I could say the same for my other eBooks.

So on Day 16 of my KDP Select experiment, I'm happy.

P.S. No sales over on Barnes and Noble so far this month.

Happy writing!

Amazon KDP Select Experiment - Non Fiction Travel Book - Day 15

Just wanted to let you all know that Since May 1st, I have had 4 sales! One of my $750 Budget Vacation book and three of my Budget Travel Mistakes booklet. I have to assume this is due to my free day last Friday. And I know those are hardly earth shattering sales, lol, but for me to see 4 sales within the first couple of days of the month is awesome since that (or less than that) is what I usually see at the end of the month for total sales across all three books.

And surprisingly the book I thought would sell the most, sells the least. I just assumed people would want to find a way to visit one of the most expensive cities (New York City) on a shoestring budget. Sigh! Ya just never know.

Anywho, Praying it isn't a fluke and that sales continue.

Happy days!

Amazon KDP Select Experiment - Non Fiction Travel Book-Day 14

Just an update. After my free day promotion I checked my downloads and was very excited to see that 240 people now have my book on their Kindles. :)

It never occurred to me to check the foreign downloads. I did that today and was happily surprised to see 29 more copies had been downloaded on that day.

I should really get into the habit of checking all sales/free downloads and not only at amazon.com.

Happy writing!