how many downloads?

[Brad Chambers]

How many sample downloads would you expect per purchase download? What percent would you use to decide "ok my book is crap" or "they really like this".

[James_Wilde]

If Sturgeon's Law holds, it would be 90% who thought it was crap, but I suspect the purchase rate is much lower than 10%. Not all those who don't think it's crap will think it's worth buying.

But this is hypothesis. I'd be interested to see some real figures, too.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Brad Chambers

How many sample downloads would you expect per purchase download? What percent would you use to decide "ok my book is crap" or "they really like this".

In the "shareware" business (ie "try before you buy" software), a 1% registration rate is generally considered to be pretty good. I would imagine that a similar figure would hold true for books.

[Brad Chambers]

That makes me feel a little better. I've only been on smashwords since the end of November. Just started a blog so hopefully a few things like that will help my sales. I realize it takes time but a few more sales would sure be nice.

[bhartman36]

I'll say this much: Putting my stuff on Smashwords/Amazon and watching the downloads/payment ratio has certainly been...humbling.

[bthrowsnaill]

You still can't see the sample downloads statistic on Amazon, correct? Just want to make sure, because I'm very curious to see that stat for my book; and the wording of the above seems to imply that it might be available, somehow. Thanks.

[kcmay]

Originally Posted by bthrowsnaill

You still can't see the sample downloads statistic on Amazon, correct? Just want to make sure, because I'm very curious to see that stat for my book; and the wording of the above seems to imply that it might be available, somehow. Thanks.

AFAIK, true. But the Amazon page does show the percentage of visitors who buy the book. Not all visitors will sample, however.

[bthrowsnaill]

kcmay, I see that percentage stat on your Amazon Kinshield page, but my humble page apparently hasn't evolved enough yet to have that section on it. It hasn't started shaving yet, either...
Incidentally, my Smashwords sample to sale "conversion rate" is running at about 5%. Believe me, I'm not bragging here. My sales are nothing to write home about, although every one of them is near and dear to my heart, and never fails to quicken my pulse for a bit. []

[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by bthrowsnaill

You still can't see the sample downloads statistic on Amazon, correct? Just want to make sure, because I'm very curious to see that stat for my book; and the wording of the above seems to imply that it might be available, somehow. Thanks.

You can't tell sample downloads, actually. Sorry. I shouldn't have worded it that way.

[bhartman36]

I'm just starting to put my stuff online for sale. You could measure my sales in how many White Castle sacks I could buy with the sales. I think I passed the one sack mark not long ago.

[DavidRM]

Keep in mind you have 2 main hurdles.

First, you have to convince someone even to try your sample. *Then* they have to like the sample enough to buy the book.

The first hurdle is easier to clear than the second. You just need a good title, cover and blurb (and maybe a few good reviews). The second hurdle is higher and more subjective.

So, out of the number of visitors to you Amazon or Smashwords book page, only a percentage of them will even download the sample. And out of those, you'll only get a percentage who actually buy. So you end up with a percentage of a percentage.

Which hurdle is stopping browsers from becoming paying readers? With the data you have access to today, it's hard to know. Smashwords at least gives you page views and sample download counts. That helps. But you get neither via Amazon, only the final number who buy. So...you *might* be able to leverage the data from Smashwords *some* to tinker with your specifics. But if you're like me, most of your traffic goes through Amazon and not Smashwords, so it's hard to build a good set of data on Smashwords to use for decisionmaking.

-David

PS I'm an indie software developer. That 1% conversion rate for shareware is a myth. People like to think that's the worst they could do. Reality, though, seldom pays attention to "averages".

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DavidRM

PS I'm an indie software developer. That 1% conversion rate for shareware is a myth. People like to think that's the worst they could do. Reality, though, seldom pays attention to "averages".

I must respectfully disagree, David. I've been in the shareware business since the early 1980s, and it certainly corresponds pretty well with my experiences.

[DavidRM]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I must respectfully disagree, David. I've been in the shareware business since the early 1980s, and it certainly corresponds pretty well with my experiences.

The 1% conversion rate is just a handy number people like to mention. It's easy to remember, especially now that it's been batted around as if it were fact for 20-25 years. It provides a (hopefully) low bar to clear for new developers, and a "reason why I haven't done better" for those who have had a product out for a while. "No, really, a 1% conversion rate is good. It's the average, you know."

The Ugly Truth is: There is no meaningful "average".

A huge volume of shareware/independent software is released that sells *nothing*. Just like there are a lot of books that are released that sell *nothing*. A handful (software and books) become like winning lottery tickets. You can't take a meaningful average of *nothing* and "near infinity". Even the median of such a group is less than useful (assuming you have actually accounted for the whole group; those "sold nothing" products and books are much harder to count because nobody ever sees them).

What you can do, though, is use your own numbers as a gauge and see what you can do to improve those. Find the points of failure, the points where your potential customers/readers abandon you, and experiment with ways to remove those problems.

-David

Author of The Indie Game Development Survival Guide
Developer of The Journal - Personal Journal Software for Windows, available since 1996

[old goat]

I agree with DavidRM, "The Ugly Truth is: There is no meaningful "average"."

My free cookbook ebook is hugely popular because it is free, not because it is "one" of the better cookbook ebooks.

DavidRM has some great advice which every author should follow: "...use your own numbers as a gauge and see what you can do to improve those. Find the points of failure, the points where your potential customers/readers abandon you, and experiment with ways to remove those problems."

Smashwords, and other ebook retailers, grant readers a sample of an ebook which they may read fully or abandon after a few sentences. This method assures there is no way to determine "the points of failure" DavidRM mentions.

Shifting through the sales report spreadsheet from Smashwords provides some information on what sold and when.

From that information I look for reasons why there was a large grouping of downloads/sales during a particular period.

Maybe it was near Christmas, maybe it was around the time I was doing a lot marketing on some of my ebooks.

It could simply be that someone loved an ebook and told a bunch of people who told a bunch of people.

[randyflycaster]

The problem with analyzing statistics from Smashwords is that many readers who download samples from Smashwords then buy the book from Amazon, B&N, etc.

Randy