Kindle Daily Deal

Noah Body · Jul 9, 2013

This is just a placeholder for the moment, but one of my books was selected for the Kindle Daily Deal on July 22.

This happened to me last November, and during the day of the sale, I roped in over $8,000. In one day.

The book in question is a bigger fish, so I hope to have good news to report. Its sales have been declining over the months, and at the moment, I'm looking at 203 sales with 71 borrows so far for July.

So that having been said, I'll furnish more information once the sale kicks off.

Calle Jay · Jul 9, 2013

Congrats. I keep wondering how to get selected for the KDD. Nothing I found says how.

J. Tanner · Jul 9, 2013

How to be part of Kindle Daily Deal in 3 Easy Steps:

Step 1. Have a pro-quality cover, an enticing blurb, good reader response (reviews) and sell a lot of books.
Step 2. Price $3.99 or higher.
Step 3. Get super lucky.

(1.5 of these steps are within your control.)

Cranky1 · Jul 9, 2013

Congrats!

Noah Body · Jul 9, 2013

Calle Jay said:
Congrats. I keep wondering how to get selected for the KDD. Nothing I found says how.

I asked that question, and this is the response Amazon gave:

[FONT=&quot]"There are many factors, but mainly we want to make sure we’re offering the customer a great quality book, so high ratings and lots of reviews contribute a lot."[/FONT]

Mclesh · Jul 9, 2013

Congrats, Noah! How long has your book been out?

Calle Jay · Jul 9, 2013

J. Tanner said:
How to be part of Kindle Daily Deal in 3 Easy Steps:

Step 1. Have a pro-quality cover, an enticing blurb, good reader response (reviews) and sell a lot of books.
Step 2. Price $3.99 or higher.
Step 3. Get super lucky.

(1.5 of these steps are within your control.)

It's step three that gets me. Just can't control luck! Step 1 and 2, mastered, but that darned number 3...

Calle Jay · Jul 9, 2013

Noah Body said:
I asked that question, and this is the response Amazon gave:

[FONT=&quot]"There are many factors, but mainly we want to make sure we’re offering the customer a great quality book, so high ratings and lots of reviews contribute a lot."[/FONT]

Thanks, Noah!
I have high ratings, but a low number of reviews.

merrihiatt · Jul 9, 2013

Good luck, Noah!

Andrhia · Jul 9, 2013

Holy cow, congrats and good luck.

Noah Body · Jul 21, 2013

Well, I'm calling it quits for the day. The deal starts tomorrow, so it'll be interesting to see if the numbers come close to the zombie book that went previously or fall way short. Or wildly exceed them.

Anything's a help, though. At the moment, the book has 395 sales for July.

Noah Body · Jul 22, 2013

Currently sitting tall at 1049, so far...

Cinek · Jul 22, 2013

Noah Body said:
Currently sitting tall at 1049, so far...

Woo! Congrats. May I ask how much you are making per book? Looks like a good day, in any case.

Cranky1 · Jul 22, 2013

Noah Body said:
Currently sitting tall at 1049, so far...

Is that for the total month of July or all those downloads from today alone?
Either way, awesome!

Noah Body · Jul 22, 2013

That'd be total for July. Currently at 1517, which would give me a total of 1122 sold so far today. At $1.99 at 70% royalty, that comes out to be just under $1,563. The sales are less than HALF of what the zombie book did so far, but it's still dinero in the banko.

LOTLOF · Jul 22, 2013

Noah Body said:
That'd be total for July. Currently at 1517, which would give me a total of 1122 sold so far today. At $1.99 at 70% royalty, that comes out to be just under $1,563. The sales are less than HALF of what the zombie book did so far, but it's still dinero in the banko.

To get the 70% royalty rate Amazon requires you set the price between $2.99 and $9.99. If the price is $1.99 the rate would be 35%.

Noah Body · Jul 22, 2013

Yeah, except for when they come to you for the Daily Deal. Then it's 70%. My second time at bat with this, so I'm pretty confident I've got it right. And just to be sure, I read the agreement they sent when they made the offer.

Spell-it-out · Jul 22, 2013

Noah Body said:
That'd be total for July. Currently at 1517, which would give me a total of 1122 sold so far today. At $1.99 at 70% royalty, that comes out to be just under $1,563. The sales are less than HALF of what the zombie book did so far, but it's still dinero in the banko.

Congrats bud!

Noah Body · Jul 23, 2013

So the end tally was 2315 total sales, with 1920 being generated yesterday alone. Final ranking that I'm aware of (it could have gotten higher overnight) was #41 overall. That would be an estimated cum of about $2,567, including Amazon's rather usurious transfer fee. Not bad for one day, but about half of what my zombie title generated in November.

ajaye · Jul 23, 2013

Congratulations

I know bugger all about selfpublishing and found this thread interesting.
Do you think there will be a snowball effect, with higher ongoing sales and reviews than there would have been without the daily deal?

Noah Body · Jul 23, 2013

Well, probably not, since in this instance I don't have similar properties. I'm going to think it's a stretch to hope that folks who buy an SF adventure book will turn around and buy into a zombie apocalypse series, though some certainly will. But not enough to buoy sales across the board.

stranger · Jul 23, 2013

Noah Body said:
Well, probably not, since in this instance I don't have similar properties. I'm going to think it's a stretch to hope that folks who buy an SF adventure book will turn around and buy into a zombie apocalypse series, though some certainly will. But not enough to buoy sales across the board.

But you are up to #41 in the Kindle store. That visibility within Amazon has to be worth hundreds of extra sales on that title alone, even if there is no crossover.

Noah Body · Jul 23, 2013

#40 now actually, which breaks my previous record! Yeah, it's going to be worth some sales for that title, and it MIGHT elevate the visibility of my backlist, but I've been checking those titles out pretty regularly over the past day, and haven't seen anything like that. Yet.

But I'd have been an idiot to refuse their offer, and while the sales didn't mirror what happened with the other book, it certainly panned out well. I made over two grand, versus a likely haul of $75 for the day. (Previous daily sales were around 21 or so per day.)

swvaughn · Jul 23, 2013

That's pretty freakin' awesome.

Congrats!

$3.99, huh? I am now inspired.

ClarissaWild · Jul 23, 2013

Nice, congratulations

If I may ask, how did you get so many sales in the first place? What was it that made people buy your book? Did you do a lot of marketing? Or something else? I'm curious, just so I can make my own books (and marketing strategy) better

Can always learn from other people, hehe.

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