Right, I’m new to this, having just published my first novel, The Hunter Inside, on 12th May 2012. So, this isn’t an article providing answers and guidance on how to understanding how the aforementioned things work.
Nope, it’s a cry for help! My sales started off relatively OK I thought. Obviously lots of friends and family buy your book, but they only accounted for about half the sales I had in the first two days. But since Tuesday morning KDP Reports are saying I haven’t sold a single copy. OK, maybe nobody is buying my book. I can handle that. These things take time. Work hard, reap the rewards. Blah blah blah.
The thing that is confusing me though is that it’s slid down the rankings a lot – which makes me think that yeah, it isn’t selling just yet. What I can’t work out though, is why my ranking jumps up instead of only going down. This morning I found myself 33 thousand and something in the rankings. Then, at lunchtime, I was 31 thousand and something. How can you go up 2 thousand places without selling a single copy?
I know there are other factors. You might say – ‘It takes several hours for a sale to show up’ or ‘If someone uses a card it takes until the money clears to show the sale on the report’. I appreciate that, and the cut and pasted response from Amazon telling me similar, but this thing of going up and down the rankings has been happening for three days without any sales.
Does anyone out there understand this better than me? Are there other factors I’m not considering? Is KDP Reports broken? Does nobody want to read my book? Will Batman escape the evil clutches of The Joker?
Someone tell me I’m not mad. Or, better still, buy my book and let me know so I can test the theory. What? It was worth a try!! Seriously though, can anyone help explain how I can go up and down without selling?
photo credit: rptnorris via photo pin cc
Your guess is as good as mine, David. The First Night was ranked #260k and is now at #130k on Amazon.com after selling only 1 copy.
All we can do is be vigilant and patient – query hopeful reviewers on Amazon, wait for reviews to be posted and hope it encourages more readers to buy. It can be frustrating, but we can’t let it get to us. Have faith in your writing and yourself.
Posted by M.S. Fowle | May 18, 2012, 4:09 pmThanks Mel. It’s just all the reports I read about the KDP Reports system being shoddy. Just had a message on Twitter to say someone has bought a copy, so I can check if that goes on and maybe start trutsing their system. I thought I’d have sold 500 by now
Posted by davidmcgowan | May 18, 2012, 4:10 pmWell, apparently I’ve sold a copy in the UK and one in th US today, so it looks like no-one was buying, but it was going up as well as down when apparently it hadn’t sold! Strange.
Posted by davidmcgowan | May 18, 2012, 9:17 pmAnother update. Just gone from Amazon best seller ranking of 35K to 15K. That’s gotta be good, right?
Posted by davidmcgowan | May 18, 2012, 10:54 pmI’m right with you. To complicate matters for me I keep being told that there are ‘no reviews.’ I know three people who have written reviews, so where are they? and my sales figures seem to be stuck at 12 though I suspect there are more than that. My book, ‘Girl in a Birdcage’ was only published on June 19th so maybe thathas something to do with it?
Posted by Biddy Nelson | July 4, 2012, 1:00 pmHi Biddy
Is it possible that the reviews are on the Amazon affiliate site? For example, if you post a review of my novel on Amazon.com then that review doesn’t appear on Amazon.co.uk unless you cross-post it. In terms of sales figures, I know they’ve been glitchy in the past, but I fear they’re OK now, and we’re just not selling many books at present. I feel your pain. Instead of checking our stats, we should spend that time on Twitter or seeking out good reviews. I know that’s easier said than done though!
Posted by davidmcgowan | July 4, 2012, 3:56 pm