Obviously, this program is directed at regular readers. It wouldn't make much sense to pay the fee unless you read at least two books every month. The more you read, the better the deal. And you have to be prepared for the fact that none of the traditionally published bestsellers will be available.
I have one book in the program, my romantic suspense Unwritten Rules. Because this book has been out for two years, it would be unfair--and undoubtedly inaccurate--to attribute slow sales to the introduction of Kindle Unlimited. The program has, however, injected a new element of fun into the experience of being an indie author. I can now connect with my readers in a direct, real-time way.
I've never been much of a techie, but with Kindle Unlimited I've gleefully surrendered to the seduction of real-time data. In July, Amazon started calculating KU borrows in a different way. They assign a number of pages to each book based on adjusted length--the Kindle Edition Normalized Pages. Unwritten Rules has 501 KENP. The sales dashboard shows the number of KENP read each day, so I can see if someone is actually reading my book, right then and there, and it adjusts periodically during the day. I feel like I'm reading along with them!
For example, today, someone(s) has read 145 pages. That may change by tonight. Yesterday, the total was 351 pages. I can see when a reader begins the book, when they really get caught up in the story or have more time to read, and when they finish. If I had bigger numbers, this wouldn't be possible, but for now, it's a lot of fun. Last month, I had a 448-page day, then a couple of quiet days, then a 498-page day. This likely represented two readers who finished the book around the same time. I checked my book page on Amazon a couple of days later and found a new five star review. Now that's instant feedback!
For Labor Day weekend and in honor of Unwritten Rules' second book birthday, I'm running my first sale. The book will be priced at $.99 from now through Monday night. If you haven't read it, here's your chance to pick it up at a bargain price! And I'd be thrilled if you'd help me spread the word. I don't expect this sale to have any effect on my KU numbers, but I'm looking forward to watching them on Small Town Christmas Tales when it releases October first.Alison
www.alisonhenderson.com
12 comments:
I do the exact same thing, Alison. We can stalk our readers' habits! Someone read all 516 pages of An Uncertain Destiny in one sitting a couple of days ago. That tells me either they have too much time on their hands, or I did something right! I like this new pay by the page system. Good luck with your sale!
Alison and Jannine, you both have found the upside to this page-reading strategy Amazon has going. Amazon is looking over the reader's shoulder as he/she turns the pages...now that's spooky! But I see how you could track how the reader engages..assuming those pages being read are one reader's journey. I though my statistics reflected a cadre of readers; can I actually desegregate to individual readers?
Rolynn, you can't distinguish between readers. But when you get a jump for the same number of pages as your book is long, you can basically guess it's one reader. My indie books (and Alison's) have been out for a while now, so neither of us is probably burning up the charts with multiple readers at this point. With a new book, you'd hope it would be different!
Jannine, I had the same experience last month when a reader obviously finished the book in one day. Don't you wish you had time to do that? LOL
Rolynn, it can seem a bit creepy, but it's interesting from an author's perspective. As Jannine explained, this only applies with low borrow numbers. If you can't make sense of your KU numbers, it's probably because you're selling too many books--a wonderful problem to have!
I've read a lot about this, and it seems it's more fair than the old method where everybody got the same pay. Good luck with your experiment!
Thanks for explaining, Alison and Jannine. I get it now. I'm amazed at how quickly the info comes to the sales grid...but how slow the royalties are in coming :-)
Leah, I can't complain because the book I have in the program is a relatively long one. I'd probably be mad if I had a lot of novellas that used to be paid the same as full-length novels.
Sounds like you have fun with this, Alison. It is kind of freaky, like peeping in on someone. LOL Thanks for explaining how this works.
If there's a way to have fun with low sales, I'll find it! LOL
Sounds like so much fun. I have one indie title out. I'm going to have to look into this. Still love that cover, Alison.
Thanks, Margo! I've got a really great one in the works for the next bodyguard book. Now all I have to do is write the book! LOL
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