Besides the relative success of my erotica books on there, a couple other thoughts went into this:
1. I don't really sell much on Smashwords or B&N. The ones that sell the most, the First Contact series of crappily-written sci-fi books, are still available through there for the same price so I can maybe pick up a few cents off them now and again.
2. Chance of a Lifetime, Girl Power, and A Hero's Journey had been free on Amazon for a while. Chance of a Lifetime for something like 2 1/2 years I'd say. I used to move upwards of 1,000 copies of it per month. Now it has slowed to maybe 100 per month. The other two don't even make that. So it just seemed like, "Why am I still giving these away?"
Which it may take Amazon a few days to catch up to the price change, meaning that if you haven't got one of those books and you were on the fence about reading it, grab a free copy now before it's over!
Amazon has pissed me off recently, but it's still the biggest source of my income, so there's no sense being petty about a couple of slights. Business is business. If I'm not happy with how this goes I can pull the plug on the KDP Select in 3 months and then republish them on Smashwords and B&N with just a few clicks.
Besides the series I listed above, I also put Where You Belong, The Night's Legacy, and Sisterhood on the KDP Select. The latter two because they kind of go with my superhero series, so I might as well. And the former just to see if it reinvigorates sales a little because I haven't sold many of that in a while. I'll just have to see how this experiment goes. As far as I'm concerned, though, I'm not really losing much since again I don't move much inventory through Smashwords & B&N. It's really very little risk for me.
The Scarlet Knight ones I decided to do new covers. They're much simpler than the old ones. I just took Rusty's image from the first book and ran it through different color filters:
And in the meantime you can get my latest holiday-themed gender swap story: Transformed for St. Patrick's Day. I think it's the shortest of these stories I've written to date, which is somewhat intentional. The gist of the story is that there's some bad green beer going around. I was going to put it up for pre-order but then I forgot to click the right options, so it'll just release now. Whoops.
5 comments:
Maybe you could do a Transformer crossover. I'm sure Hasbro wouldn't mind after the great job Bay has done with the film franchise... ;-)
On a related note, I only use Amazon for my music and books. It is the Walmart of the internet. One stop shop.
Like the new covers, consistent. And experimenting is what indie publishing is all about. Like you said, it's only three months
From what I've heard, most authors are finding they are making less since Kindle Unlimited came and this is leading to authors pulling out their books. So it's interesting that it seems to be working for you. I will watch for your results.
The different colors for the covers really makes it pop Pat, but sorry about the Amazon price change.
You sell A HUNDRED BOOKS A MONTH? And you consider that DOWN? HOLY CRAP, I sold FOUR books last month and I thought "HEY AN UPTICK." God, I might have to start hating you just on principal. Nothing personal, mind you. Just how I hate that guy who wrote "The Martian." I hate anyone who seems like they are sort of in my shoes only they do better than me.
Oh, whatever. I can't quit you. Good job on the sales. I'm just going to be quietly jealous. I'll be seething in the corner.
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