Giving away downloads is not the same as organically building up your fan base. The high downloads on Amazon had zero correlation to traffic on my web site.

In the weeks since, however, people have been googling my author name and checking out my web site.

Thanks to Kathryn’s article, I just announced dates for my fourth and fifth novels. I had been reluctant to commit, as I abhor missing a deadline and wasn’t sure I can deliver, but I think now I’m back to thinking like a reader.

When you self-pub, you have to be a writer, and editor, and think like a publisher and marketer too! So many hats. Thanks for the reminder to think like a reader too.

1) You introduce readers to your writing or to a series.

2) The momentum from being free and getting a lot of downloads will carry over and increase visibility (and sales, with luck) once the title goes off being free.

I suspect that both of the above CAN be true, but aren’t always.

Anyway, like it or don’t like it, these free books are here to stay until Amazon decides otherwise.

With 220 books and stories up under WMG, our breakdown is the following. Slightly over two parts Amazon, one part B&N, the rest Apple, Kobo, Sony, and CreateSpace. We sell a book at times on Smashwords itself and I can’t remember seeing a sale on Diesel through that channel.

And I do understand the 90 day aspect. That’s what I don’t like, actually. And yes, I agree 90 days is short term vs long term thinking, and that also is my point. Why worry about something for a short term when time spent on long term might be better? Again, I am looking at data from all sides on this and really trying to figure out if the exclusive aspect is worth the loss. And what can be gained besides a chance to give away books. I honestly have an open mind on this, but I need to be talked over some issues and so far I’m not seeing anything that has convinced me, or enough build-up of positive to break down my worries about the exclusive aspects of the program.

By the way, I do give away books all the time. Just not my own. I have five boxes of books sitting by the front door of the office ready to go to Goodwill to give away FOR FREE. I know Goodwill will make some money on those by finding readers who will buy them for a discount, and the rest will be trashed and recycled. I’m fine with that. I just don’t want to put my own books that I wrote into that cycle. See where I am having trouble clearing out certain types of thinking? (grin) A book I give away is something that I no longer want and am giving to a charity.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/29/2755207/publishing-industry-barnes-noble-amazon

“Publishers confirm the Nook currently holds around 27 percent of the ebook market, compared to the 60 percent minimum Amazon garners, and B&N anticipates Nook content sales to become a $750 million business by the end of this year — with international expansion on the horizon.”

Doesn’t surprise me. Everything I’ve been reading for the last year or two has had Amazon with a significant lead in ebook sales over other ebook sellers.

Of course for individual writers things vary widely, but I do know plenty who have said they get the overwhelming majority of their sales through Amazon.

My sales are more evenly split between Amazon and B&N, but the Smashwords revenue falls way behind those two. If it was just a matter of taking something off Smashwords (and with it, Kobo, Apple, Diesel, and whatever else) to get on Kindle Select, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Since I get a good percentage of my sales from B&N, I won’t go Select anytime soon. (And my sales are small, not big, and small numbers have less significance when trying to find trends.)

Amazon does a better job of making indie books visible than the other sellers.

Kindle Select is an option. It provides a marketing tool with the free days. It provides a bit more visibility because you’re one of 70,000 books in Select vs. one of over one million books in the Kindle store. There’s a lot to like about it, but that doesn’t mean it outweighs losing sales on other venues.

One thing to remember — it’s just a 90 day commitment. You talk about taking the long view with ebook sales, and in that light 90 days isn’t much at all.

However the credit is partly due to my “high price experiment” – where everybody but Amazon honored the price. (Ironically, the books which had a higher price elsewhere, though, didn’t sell much at Amazon this month, even with the lower price.)

The other reason could be related to my freebie tie-in, which had a delay before Amazon matched it.

However, I think the main reason is that B&N sold a load of Nooks. (I will have to wait for Apple numbers to see what has happened there….)

Dean, your 55% to 45% breakdown is a little surprising, but also, a lot of weight has to be given to your business model. So many books. So much coverage. You create your own visibility in a way newbies like me are years away from.

For example, my sales. I originally put King’s X up on Amazon, B&N and followed with a POD a couple weeks later.

October (e-books only)
Amazon – 16
B&N – 0

November
Amazon – 10
B&N – 0

December thru the 10th (before going on Select)
Amazon – 3
B&N – 0

Right away you can see one big difference. the “0.” The bottom-line is that that all the talk of algorithms and the the internal machinery of Amazon working to at least let people SEE your work is no joke. B&N simply does not do that. Whatever you sell on B&N will happen by the sweat equity of your own marketing (including, of course, having many books cross promoting each other.) Apple doesn’t do this for you either. Amazon does.

That’s why I’m more and more convinced that the emerging paradigm in the new world of publishing will still work just like anything else – effectively branding a quality product will lead to sales. But you still have to get eyeballs on your books. Without a long back catalogue to fuel cross promotion, I’ll take Amazon’s internal (or infernal?) machinery every time. To me, there isn’t really a choice. Not until I have more books to offer.

And also, just to be clear, going free didn’t “goose” my sales. Too understated. It took an idling automobile and STOMPED on the gas. Those 3 copies sold by December 10th at $4.99 ea., went up to around 700 (not sure because they mix it all in with the freebies so it’s hard to know precisely) plus 296 “borrows” at $1.70 a piece by New Years Day.

The visibility caused (I think by mixing in with the “also boughts”) lasts for quite a while, gradually dropping down. I went free again 13 days ago, and the results were very similar. The tail has dropped back to about 10 books a day. If you had told me in October that I’d be selling 10 books a day by mid December, I would have kissed you. But that is the low end of these 2 week cycles.

I have one day left of the 5 they allow until March. I foolishly wasted the first 2 experimenting. First, don’t do it on a weekend. And second, don’t use 2 in a row. It’s not necessary. If you space the 5 free days out over the 90 days, you can reach a lot of eyes when your on sale.

That said, there is a downside to giving it away. When the book is not valued by the “buyer” you might get some bad reviews. I try hard in my product page to dissuade people from buying my book. It’s simply not for everyone (no book is, of course). Well, one got through, and he posted a nasty, angry, and decidedly inaccurate review. Still, after I got over that, I realized it was more likely to help my cause of not only selling the books, but selling it to readers who will really dig it.

That very thing, though, is part of the beauty of what Wisehart is doing. He has no negative reviews at all. That’s because no one is surprised or confused about what they are buying (i think even the free ones), and the book delivers what it promises.

As for me and Kris, our numbers are 55% Kindle, 45% the rest of the planet. And each month those numbers creep closer together. (Now, granted, I consider paper books as part of “the rest of the planet” and they are often sold on Amazon as well as through other channels and directly to bookstores. Too hard to break out. And for this discussion, not worth the effort.)

I expect “the rest of the planet” to go past the Kindle sales sometime this summer. I’m not sneezing at the Kindle sales, they are great. Just saying that by going exclusive, we would cut out almost half our income. And I just can’t imagine Kindle promotion of any sort making that up over a consistent amount of time.

Hmmm… maybe that’s another key that bothers me. I’m into consistent and most of the responses I have heard are about how something or other in Kindle Select boosted sales for a short time. I do not care about the produce model anymore, where books spoil. I only care about selling and building readers over the long term. That might also be what is bothering me. So folks, let me know if your sales were boosted and if they lasted for more than a week.