5 Ways to Become a KDP Select All-Star

A few days ago, I was blessed and humbled to receive an email proclaiming that I had been chosen as a KDP Select All-Star for the month of August. This is a brand-new incentive offered by Amazon “to reward the books that are most popular with our customers.” Amazon determines ‘most-read’ rankings by combining the number of books sold with the number of qualified borrows from Kindle Unlimited and the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. My book, Amish Baby, was ranked #95 on this list, so I will be receiving an All-Star bonus.

Want to be the writing equivalent of basketball All-Stars Kobe and Lebron? Check out these tips below! 😉 Image courtesy of 5thquartermag.com

This honor made me think of all the steps I’ve taken to reach “All-Star” status, and of course, I want to share them with you! So, here they are:

1. Know Your Numbers – We’re well aware of how important it is to track the sales of our eBooks. By noticing which of our titles sell well and which don’t, we can determine the direction of future projects and tailor our marketing efforts. But now, there’s another reason as well–to land on the KDP Select All-Star list, there are certain sales quotas. I can’t tell you how many sales and borrows the #1 book on the list had, but I can tell you how many mine had. Amish Baby, the book that landed me on the list, sold  3,782 net units in August, and 853 units were borrowed under Kindle Unlimited. As Kindle Unlimited continues to gain popularity, I expect that we will need a higher number of borrows in the future to make this list. My estimate is 50% more for the month of September, based on the fact that the number of borrows is rapidly increasing. It will be interesting to note how the trends change over time–as Kindle Unlimited continues to pick up momentum, we may need less sales to land on the list, as long as the number of borrows balances it out.
2. Choose non-DRM versus DRM – When you publish on Amazon, you’re always asked whether or not you want to “enable DRM.” DRM, or Digital Rights Management, is a feature designed to inhibit the unauthorized distribution of your book. Basically, it prevents your work from being shared with people who are not buying it. Amish Baby was the first of my books in which I chose the non-DRM option, since I’d heard that encouraging your work to be shared can actually increase sales. And I couldn’t have been more right. Amish Baby has been my best selling book so far.
3. Try, Try Again – We’ve all heard this many times: It’s super rare to break out and be recognized on Amazon (or any other platform) with your first book. This means that, unless you’re an exceptional case, you’ll probably have to release many eBooks before Amazon will choose you as an All-Star. For example, Amish Baby was my fifteenth eBook!
4. Have a Catchy Cover – I theorize that one of the reasons Amish Baby is selling so well is because of its cover. Before releasing the book, I did a split test with two different cover concepts, and the one I chose received the overwhelming majority of votes from my Facebook fans. Since readers really do judge a book by its cover, it pays to have a well-designed, appealing book cover.
5. Use Your Free Days – KDP Select free days are an amazing way to jack up book sales. This is especially true when you have more than one book published on Amazon. I make it a point to schedule two KDP Select free days–and promote them heavily–every week. I have never offered Amish Baby for free, but sales of this book and my other books always increase on my KDP Select free days.

So there you have it, indie authors: 5 ways to become a KDP Select All-Star. I hope that these tips help you. If you landed on the list and have any additional feedback, please let me know. I always love comparing notes!

5 Easy Ways to Make Your Kindle Countdown Deals Count!

Last week, I ran a 48-hour Kindle Countdown Deal on my Amish Hearts Box Set: Books 1-4. This is the complete collection of all my Amish Hearts novellas, and is normally priced at $3.79. It’s always been one of my slow sellers, hovering around a rank of 100,000 on Amazon; I’ve theorized that it’s probably because the $3.79 price point is a little odd, and might seem expensive to some. However, this box set offers a cheaper price per novella than buying the books separately at 99 cents apiece or purchasing the infinitely more popular Amish Hearts Box Set: Books 1-3 for $2.99 and picking up Book 4 separately. Weird, huh? But let’s save the topic of buyer psychology for a later blog post. 😉

Kindle Countdown Deals are a relatively new addition to the KDP Select family of promotions. With Kindle Countdown Deals, authors can offer their books at a temporary discount. Because the books are cheaper and are listed on the website http://www.amazon.com/kindlecountdowndeals, they become more discoverable. Another benefit of Kindle Countdown Deals is that they allow authors to retain their usual royalty even if the price of the book is below $2.99 (the minimum price for a 70% royalty) during the promotion.

Kindle Countdown Deals sound great in theory, but even so, they’re kind of like the awkward adolescent cousin of KDP Select Free Days. They’re younger and newer, and no one seems to understand them very well yet. Before I set up my Kindle Countdown Deal, I combed other blogs to research the best ways to promote it, and I found very little–quite the contrast to the wealth of blogs about KDP Select Free Days, as well as the scores of websites and Facebook pages dedicated to advertising temporary or perma-free eBooks.

So, I devised my own promotion plan, and it worked well. I didn’t experience the runaway success of my first KDP Select Free Day promotion, but the box set did peak in the high 20,000s on Amazon–and that’s definitely a step up from 100,000. The report from Amazon showed that during the promotion, my royalty per hour on the box set rose by 240%, while my revenue per hour was hiked up by 257% since the previous week. In addition, sales on the books in my Amish Hearts spinoff series, Amish in College, rose during the promotion.

So, here’s how I ran my Kindle Countdown Deal. As always, it’s a learning curve, and I’ll keep you posted as I become more successful and better acquainted with these beasts. 🙂

1. I listed my book on select websites. Many websites that list “deals” (as opposed to freebies) charge for their services, but I didn’t want to use those. Instead, I promoted on a handful of websites that listed Kindle Countdown Deals for free. Some examples are eReader Utopia, Kindle Books & Tips, and  Goodreads groups like the UK Amazon Kindle Forum. I let the sites know about the deal 4 days before it started, since many websites need a little time to compile their list of featured books.
2. I promoted the book to Facebook groups. On the first day of the Kindle Countdown Deal, I posted links to the book on several Facebook groups geared toward Kindle deals and author promotion. Here are a few that I used: Indie Author Book Promotion, Authors and Book Lovers Discussion Group, Kindle Freebies, New Authors, and other eBook Info, Book Promotion, Online Book Publicity Group, Books, Books, and More Books, There’s an eBook in the Room, and Books Gone Viral.
3. I spread the word on social media. On the day the promotion began, I posted links to the book on my own Facebook author page, Google+, and Twitter. I also continued to post tweets throughout the promotion.
4. I blogged about it. On the day the promotion started, I wrote a blog post about it. Blogging about your promotions is essential because it increases your searchability–it’s just one more place that your promotion can be found on the internet. Also, it allows you to reach an audience that already finds your work useful, and gives you fun new material for your blog!
5. I sent out a newsletter. On the day the promotion began, I sent out my kristinaludwig.com newsletter. I was due to send one out anyway, and realized that this would be the perfect day for it. I kept my email conversational and non-spammy, and discussed other content that readers might find useful, such as my latest BPL episode on YouTube and the next book I’d be offering for free on Kindle. Then, after the free info, I pitched the Kindle Countdown Deal.

Other authors out there, have you tried Kindle Countdown Deals for your books? If so, did you find them useful, and what promotion techniques did you use? I’d love to hear your experiences!

Business, Publishing, and Life Vlog Episode 2

This week has already been an exciting one. I was interviewed for the My Fire Point podcast, and will be sharing that with you as soon as it’s posted! This show is extremely motivational and fun, so I definitely recommend checking it out.

And, in keeping with my new Monday tradition, here’s the episode of BPL that Antonio and I filmed this weekend. We share 3 more tips in the fields of business, publishing, and life.

My publishing tip is about using free days on KDP Select, and I can’t tell you how valuable that has been for me. Here’s a blog post I wrote on the subject.

What do you think of BPL? Are you interested in being a guest? If so, feel free to comment below or email me at info@kristinaludwig.com. I’d love to hear your tips.

99 Cents Is the New $2.99: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of eBook Pricing

eBooks have increased in popularity by leaps and bounds over the last few years. In fact, sales are up 4,456% since 2008! And why not? They’re accessible, they’re delivered instantly, there’s a wide variety to choose from…and they’re cheap.

KDP Select free days and Kindle Countdown Deals are the current trends on Amazon. Kindle Countdown Deals allow authors to discount their eBooks priced at $2.99 or higher for up to 7 days per 90 day KDP Select period. The book must be discounted by at least $1.00, and the minimum price with discount is $0.99. Authors like Kindle Countdown Deals because they continue to receive a 70% royalty on the books sold during this period — even if the books are priced lower than $2.99, the usual 70% royalty cutoff. And, of course, readers like Kindle Countdown Deals because they can get deep discounts on their favorite books.

 

There’s a definite discount vibe that has pervaded the eBook industry in the past few years. When I published my first eBook in December 2011, most eBooks were priced at $2.99. However, in subsequent years, the hot price point has decreased to $0.99. Today, many full-length novels only cost $0.99 — in essence, 99 cents is the new $2.99. And with the advent of KDP Select free days, free eBooks have become so common that free is like the new 99 cents.

Free and cheap eBooks are awesome for readers. Low pricing allows them to take a chance on new authors or genres, and with the KDP Select free days, savvy consumers can download eBooks without ever paying a penny.

Many authors appreciate the concept of 99 cent and free eBooks as well. For new authors, low pricing is the perfect way to get their names out there and deliver their work into the hands of readers. When I first began publishing eBooks, I saw the 99 cent price point as my gateway; sell tons of cheap eBooks, and readers would be more likely to buy my later books priced at $2.99 or higher. But while it’s been relatively easy for my 99 cent books to rank in the top 10,000s on most days, I’m still working on cracking the $2.99 code.

Some authors, however, detest the cheapening of eBooks. Sometimes, I find myself falling into that camp. After all, writers are artists, crafting pictures with words. We spend weeks or months on our manuscripts, capturing the images and stories in our minds that just have to be told. We spend even more time honing those manuscripts, submitting them to editors, making changes, and doing the finishing touches. We hire cover designers, because people really do judge a book by its cover. We do keyword and SEO research to find the most discoverable category for our books. And then we promote the heck out of those books. I’ve said it before, and I’ll reiterate it here: indie authors aren’t just artists, they’re small business entrepreneurs. And the Walmart-esque standard of “everyday low prices” on our eBooks sometimes drives me crazy. No artist wants to feel like his or her art is cheapened.

What do you think about the trends in eBook pricing: good, bad, or ugly? I’d love to hear your opinions!

 

 

4800 eBook Downloads in 48 Hours: How to Optimize Amazon KDP Select Free Days

This Monday and Tuesday, I experienced another milestone in my journey as an author: I listed my new eBook, Rumspringa Break, as free on KDP Select. I’d heard the free-day success stories of authors like Joanna Penn and Tom Corson-Knowles (i.e. thousands of downloads, gargantuan jumps in Amazon rankings), so I was excited and a bit intimidated to try it myself.

Rumspringa Break‘s two-day free period exceeded my expectations. My book received about 4,800 downloads (4,728 to be exact), and peaked at #59 Worldwide in Free Books on Amazon Best Sellers. It was #1 in the Teen & Young Adult Short Stories category, and #2 in the overall Short Stories category!

I performed many steps in preparation for my free days, and am eager to share them with any new authors out there who want to get noticed on Amazon.

Here’s my step-by-step free-day promo strategy!

1. As soon as my book launched, I recruited reviewers: friends and family, other authors, and indie book reviewers. I’m still not an expert at getting reviews, but my book did have five by my first free day, which helped it to rank higher on Amazon.
2. I planned my promo days to be within two weeks of my book’s release to optimize its “new release” discoverability.
3. Since self-published authors gain the most momentum by using only one or two free days at a time, I decided to use two.
4. Starting four days before the scheduled free days, I planned my attack — armed with an arsenal of free-book promoting websites, Twitter handles, and Facebook pages from a video by Tom Corson-Knowles. Some websites needed to be notified days in advance, others only on the day of the free promotion. Also, some of the websites would only list books with a certain number of four- or five-star reviews, which made me grateful I’d thought of that ahead of time. Several of the Facebook pages were closed groups, so I joined the groups a few days before I wanted to promote. Planning ahead was crucial!
5. On the first free day, I posted descriptions of my eBook on all the free-book promo Facebook pages.  I repeated this on the second free day.
6. On the first free day, I announced the book on my Facebook author page and my Google+ page. I also included an eye-catching graphic with the announcements.
   

   The eye-catching graphic I used on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

7. On the first free day, I tweeted three times about the book, with a slightly different leading tweet each time.
8. On the first free day, I launched a two-day Facebook ad campaign that helped to drive traffic to my author page and the book. I received ten new likes on my author page.
9. On the second free day, I launched a Twitter ad campaign targeted at followers of popular teen figures (i.e. Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez) and free-book Twitter handles (i.e. Bookyrnextread and FreeKindleBooks).

Then, I sat back and let it happen, making key observations along the way. The interesting thing was that before the promo, I had sold 40 copies of the book in 10 days and my Amazon ranking was fluctuating between 30,000 and 50,000 in paid Kindle books. The morning after the promotion my rank had plummeted down to around 150,000 in paid Kindle books. As the day progressed, however, my ranking rose steadily. I sold about 90 books in 1 day, and my Amazon ranking went up to 1,800 in paid Kindle books.

Total downloads on Amazon KDP

Although Amazon does not disclose the algorithm it uses for recommendations, I believe that my success during the promo triggered the algorithm to recommend my book to more Kindle users after the promo.  The other interesting thing was that during my free promo, my other short story, A First TIme for Everything, sold about five more copies per day than usual. I am not sure if this happened because there’s a link to its Amazon page at the end of Rumspringa Break, or if it happened because the Amazon algorithm recommended the book more — probably a combination of both.

I’m now in the midst of an experiment: I’ve listed A First Time for Everything for free today, and I’m doing no promotion whatsoever except on my Facebook author page, Google+, this blog, and Twitter. Then, on Friday, I’m offering Rumspringa Break for free again, but I’ll be promoting it the same way I did earlier this week and trying out some new tactics as well. I will be sure to blog about the outcome of this “experiment” and the new promotion strategies I learn along the way. And if you haven’t checked out my eBooks yet, feel free — literally — to take advantage of the promo days and download them!