I have a lot of ideas about a lot of things. Some good, some bad. When it comes to marketing my books I decided to go through as many channels as possible. Amazon is a no-brainer so all my titles went up there straight away. Then there was Smashwords, acting as a distribution hub for Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, Sony et al. The problem with Smashwords was the reaction time to changes in content, blurb and price. Apple and Kobo opened their doors to independent authors so I was able to put my titles directly on those channels (thanks to neighbour Noel for letting me use his Mac to get the titles up on Apple - they can then be managed via the web platform). Barnes & Noble were open to a direct approach and refreshed their offering with NookPress but it remained closed to authors outside of the US and I'm in Ireland. So I replaced Smashwords with Draft2Digital as my route into B&N giving near real-time sales figures and price control.
But this wasn't enough complexity. I wanted to get my titles into other outlets. XinXii turned out to be a nice little route into german-speaking marketplaces. Then, as part of Marble City Publishing, my titles gained entry to the digital warehouse of UK distributor Gardners, resulting in listings on Hive, Kalahari, Dito, Bokkilden, Blackwell's, Foyle's, txtr and goodness knows where else.
So now my tendrils were out it was time to get into advertising. The Baptist had a nice little outing on Ereader News Today and achieved just under 400 sales at 99c sale price. I was fairly delighted and, after the two day promo period, adjusted back to $3.99 and started to rub my hands at the anticipated follow-on. Sales continued nicely but Amazon didn't re-adjust the price. I started to check my channels. Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, Sony, Barnes & Noble, who was the culprit? I had entered the full price on all the platforms, everything seemed to be under control, but Amazon were sticking to that 99c. Then I found it. Kobo were taking days to adjust the sales price on their web store, even though the Kobo Writing Life platform looked like it had adjusted immediately. The result? After five days Kobo had adjusted and Amazon were quick to put The Baptist back to $3.99. More than $150 thrown down the toilet through price comparison to the tardy Kobo pricing. Live and learn.
Excellent post. Because of you I have now found XinXii! Thanks Rubes.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Louise. Xinxii can take a while to get going and usually reports its channels around the 15th of the month, but I've had steady, modest sales in Germany, and Switzerland through the Xinxii chanels of Weltbild and Hugendubel (I know it sounds like I'm making up these names!)
DeleteRuby, don't necessarily blame Kobo for the lower price at Amazon. They lowered the price on Trevor's Song last year to 99c and kept it there until January or February. I never found another retailer who had it at that price, and it sure sold more copies than I can tell you. But those four or five months of so-called lost revenue... when I think about it, I cry. That was a lot of income. But on the other hand, how many people would have bought at the higher price point? That's the thing to dwell on.
ReplyDeleteI take your point, Susan. If I had managed the price change according to plan then I may not have had so many follow-on sales. But it was definitely Kobo. I tracked all the publishing platforms and all the outlets as I'd had a similar experience the month before with Peril after a Kindle Books & Tips ad. Seems to me that it's wise to only drop the price on Amazon. I know Pam Howes had problems similar to yours when Amazon maintained a lower price. She did get the 70% but of a reduced sell price.
DeleteI've heard of this problem with price matching from other authors, Ruby. It makes me very cautious.
ReplyDeleteCautious is correct, Carol! For my next promo I'm adjusting Amazon, B&N (via D2D) and Apple. I'll bring D2D and Apple back up a day before Amazon. Sure, my toilet is having trouble flushing with all the money going down it!
DeleteRuby, very interesting post. Thanks for writing this!
ReplyDeleteI have thrown some good money away at editing, it just seems like self-publishing is full of pitfalls. Good article, thanks for writing this!
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