Author Earnings looks beyond Kindle

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Google, Kobo and B&N all do free. Amazon just price matches to free.

Actually B&N doesn't do free with direct loading. They end up free if you make it free on Smash or one of the other distributors. Google doesn't pay out affiliate fees and neither does B&N on ebooks (they will on print books). Kobo does pay out affiliate fees on ebooks and books. So really, it's only Amazon that penalizes for it.

[BearMountainBooks]

The B&N affiliate fee on books is more complicated than them just ending it over free ebooks. They played with all kinds of things--letting some sites get affiliate fees for ebooks and some not (I know this because I was in one of the programs for a short time). But the thing with them is they arbitrarily say "this doesn't count." For example, gift cards. Nothing bought with a gift card counts--even if it's an item that normally counts. And if the person spends MORE than the gift card it must be a certain AMOUNT more than the gift card to count. Weird things like that. Some promos automatically didn't count--when they did some of their best promotions to get people to sign up for magazines and the like, or gave away 5 dollars if you bought this or that...don't count or counted only in a certain window, etc.

The bottom line for a lot of affiliates is that they want the advertising, but they really don't want to pay for it so they end up with rules that are very hard to track, rules that change, errors you have to report, etc. I'm not saying that Amazon hasn't changed the rules and cut what they pay--they have, but they are still one of the most reliable. And if you are posting things and trying to use the mechanism to make money, you have to go with what pays best.

The other advantage that Amazon has is that they sell high ticket items alongside books (and other hobby type things that someone might blog about.) So if cooking is my hobby, not only can I post recipes, I can post links to pans, grills, dishes, etc. If books are my hobby, I can link to ereaders, music and STILL make money off of pans if someone happens to buy a pan while they are there after clicking on a book link.

Other sites do offer a longer "cookie" such that I can earn money for up to 15 days after a person visited through my link. There are a few of those that are decent, but they have to offer the longer period because people's buying habits for those items are different (selling into a niche market).

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Actually B&N doesn't do free with direct loading. They end up free if you make it free on Smash or one of the other distributors. Google doesn't pay out affiliate fees and neither does B&N on ebooks (they will on print books). Kobo does pay out affiliate fees on ebooks and books. So really, it's only Amazon that penalizes for it.

I read your post as only Amazon has free books. Not Amazon is the only one that penalizes affiliates. Slight misread.
I knew B&N did free through the D2D distributor.
I remember when they changed the rules.
One free website started putting more on sale books. He is now getting very picky about who he features.
I am still amazed at all the changes over the last nearly 4 years.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I read your post as only Amazon has free books. Not Amazon is the only one that penalizes affiliates. Slight misread.
I knew B&N did free through the D2D distributor.
I remember when they changed the rules.
One free website started putting more on sale books. He is now getting very picky about who he features.
I am still amazed at all the changes over the last nearly 4 years.

The changes are truly amazing. And most ad sites have gotten pickier. They found that by not vetting the titles at all, they lost subscribers and then they couldn't make money on ads (or affiliate links). It's very competitive. Some sites that used to carry indies don't carry them at all anymore (or only by accident) because they decided it was just easier that sorting. Of course, by and large, those sites seem to end up putting the same old sales up over and over again and they rely on Amazon to feed them deals of the day and things like that.

It's been interesting and will continue to change rapidly.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by conan50

That doesn't seem fair that Amazon can take your earnings. Is that to keep you from posting links to the free books?
It seems the whole thing with pricing is in flux. I can see a $7.99 book getting people excited when it drops to $1.99 or free. I don't think anyone gets excited anymore when the price drops on a $2.99 book, but I could be wrong.

Seems pretty fair to me.

If someone's referral links keep on being used to buy free books, you are probably primarily posting referrals to free books -- so why do you deserve to get agent fees for referring people to Amazon???

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

The changes are truly amazing. And most ad sites have gotten pickier. They found that by not vetting the titles at all, they lost subscribers and then they couldn't make money on ads (or affiliate links). It's very competitive. Some sites that used to carry indies don't carry them at all anymore (or only by accident) because they decided it was just easier that sorting. Of course, by and large, those sites seem to end up putting the same old sales up over and over again and they rely on Amazon to feed them deals of the day and things like that.

It's been interesting and will continue to change rapidly.

Or they only carry the established indies like Joe, Blake, Russell, Hugh, Holly, Elle. You know the guaranteed sellers.
Yes, it does get a bit annoying seeing the same books all the time or should I say on a regular basis.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Or they only carry the established indies like Joe, Blake, Russell, Hugh, Holly, Elle. You know the guaranteed sellers.
Yes, it does get a bit annoying seeing the same books all the time or should I say on a regular basis.

Yup. And it makes those sites a lot less valuable to me (and I mean that as a reader). But it's a lot less time consuming for them to throw up the easy stuff.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Yup. And it makes those sites a lot less valuable to me (and I mean that as a reader). But it's a lot less time consuming for them to throw up the easy stuff.

I am down to only looking at one site for books.
Everyone else looks about the same.

[basschick]

BearMountainBooks (or anyone who know) if you allow the first book in a series to be included with KU, does that increase sales on other books in the series? seems like it should work for this, but sometimes things don't work the way we'd like them to.

i know when i've gotten free kindle books that i really liked, i've bought anywhere from one to over 10 additional books in the series.

[Cinisajoy]

I don't have books there but a dear friend does just that. Yes, the friend makes very good money.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by basschick

BearMountainBooks (or anyone who know) if you allow the first book in a series to be included with KU, does that increase sales on other books in the series? seems like it should work for this, but sometimes things don't work the way we'd like them to.

i know when i've gotten free kindle books that i really liked, i've bought anywhere from one to over 10 additional books in the series.

The answer would have to be, it depends. I've heard from authors who felt it had a significant effect on sales of further books in a series, much like a freebie first book can, and others who feel that it didn't really do anything to benefit additional series sales.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I can state that rankings do change when pages are read. It appears to count much as a purchase at some point. Now as to WHEN that ranking changes (how many pages read) I have no idea. I don't pay that close attention and I have no way of knowing if one person is reading really fast or six people are reading with one person reading really fast and the others slowly and so on.

But how does Amazon know if pages are read if WiFi is off and not turned back on until after the book has been removed from the Kindle? Does the Kindle keep track and save that for when WiFi is eventually turned back on?

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But how does Amazon know if pages are read if WiFi is off and not turned back on until after the book has been removed from the Kindle? Does the Kindle keep track and save that for when WiFi is eventually turned back on?

Amazon doesn't know until the device syncs. The author can see each day how many pages have been read (newly synced that day).

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Amazon doesn't know until the device syncs. The author can see each day how many pages have been read (newly synced that day).

Sooner or later, the KU subscriber will *have* to go online to refill their queue. The reads will be recorded, the authors will get paid.

Anybody really interested in staying off the grid will have to skip KU. It's not terribly paranoid-friendly.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by basschick

BearMountainBooks (or anyone who know) if you allow the first book in a series to be included with KU, does that increase sales on other books in the series? seems like it should work for this, but sometimes things don't work the way we'd like them to.

i know when i've gotten free kindle books that i really liked, i've bought anywhere from one to over 10 additional books in the series.

That was why I put Under Witch Moon in KU, but so far, I can't tell a difference. It's only been 3 weeks, however. I have had better/more reads with Under Witch Moon than with Soul of the Desert (Soul is standalone. I did it at the same time as Moon partly for comparison and partly to see if it helped visibility of the book. I wanted to do Catch an Honest Thief because it's more in the style of the Sedona series (so while it's stand alone I thought it might lead to sales of the Sedona series) but I couldn't get it off flipcart, the India site (via smashwords) because there were support issues.

All in all, the same rules of visibility apply in or out of KU: More sales/reads leads to more visibility and more sales. Amazon's algos reward sales/reads, but you have to hit a certain threshold before they kick in to help. But if that threshold ever kicked in, I suspect that it would help sales of the other books. There are a lot of authors who use "free" to try to get there, but Amazon has virtually stopped counting free downloads towards visibility in any other (paid) category. It still helps, but nothing like it used to. There's been a lot of discussion on the writer forums about ROI with ads--if the free "sales" no longer get you "paid" visibility there is a lot less value with ads for free books (very, very little). This comes at a bad time because the ad places, from what I saw of applying, are putting free ahead of paid books. I was recently turned down for an open spot and one of the reasons given was that a cheaper book was available for advertising in that spot on that day (competing with mine for the one open slot left in fantasy/urban fantasy). Since my book is scheduled to be 99 cents on that day, I assume a free book won out.

I get the value in free for readers and I do giveaways, but of course, that can't compete with the simple download at Amazon.

Also, for those interested, there is some rumor (and a bit of evidence) that the also boughts and visibility is now partially tied to whether or not a book has a "recent" review. Recent reviews also help an author "qualify" for an ad. It's crazy. I thought if I had my money, ad places would take it. But NO. Some places require 50 reviews. When Executive Dirt came out in Aug. I planned to do ads. NO ONE and I mean NO ONE would take it without 10 reviews and a 4.0 rating. I don't generate that kind of quick turnaround from readers. One place said they would do the ad if the first in the series had 50 reviews. (It has 41 on Amazon and 104 ratings on GR. Not good enough).

Shrug.