This will probably be the last post in the series, for now. The experimental part of my Amazon Kindle experience is over, and barring some crazy random happenstance, things will likely remain as they stand.
And how do they stand?
Well, as you might recall, by enrolling my story "A Gunshot" in Amazon's KDP Select program, I am able to list my story as FREE for a total of five days during the 90 days it will be exclusive to Amazon. Yesterday was the second (and final, for now) of these FREE days. The first day was a qualified success, as detailed in yesterday's post, and yesterday started promisingly enough.
However, as I expected, "sales" had already peaked and by the end of the day, only 17 additional free copies had been purchased. This brings the total of paid and unpaid copies sold since my story was published on Friday to 108. Now, the LOST-ie in me likes that number, but the writer/business person can't help but be a little disappointed. Of those 108, only 19 copies were purchased with actual money. That means I should be expecting a fat royalty check of $6.65 pre-tax in 60 days time (this is how long it takes for Amazon to disburse earned royalties). And even if all 108 copies were actually paid for, this would still only have netted $37.80.
Now, you may be curious about whether or not these promotional free days have brought any further legitimate sales now that the story costs $0.99 again. So far, they have not. This doesn't surprise me. The book hit its highest point on any chart about midway through the first free day, so unless I could somehow have switched it to PAID again at that time, any exposure I would have received has come and gone. I think my own network of friends and followers has been saturated—or close to it, anyway—and they (quite understandably) aren't in the business of being a free advertising service for my writing, so it's hard to see where an adequate "new" audience would come from now.
As I suggested yesterday, it seems as though these free days might be best utilized when you have other, non-free content available within a click or two. Also, perhaps it would have been wiser to NOT run two concurrent free days. I'm not sure how the rankings would have reflected such a change, but perhaps more uninitiated people would have seen my story that way. At this point, it's all speculation anyway.
My expectations for the future aren't terribly positive. As I noted, I feel I've exhausted my own social network in terms of self-promotion. I probably won't mention the story beyond today until I have new content to share and sell, and given my abysmal rate of production, who knows when that will be? I don't anticipate more than a handful of sales—if even that many—before that indeterminate point. It can't be helped, though it is a bit disappointing.
But, at the same time, I have to admit that it was a lot of fun to watch the Units Sold climb as-it-happened, frequently refreshing the page so as not to miss anything. And this enjoyment/exposure has definitely caused me to look into my back catalog of unfinished stories to see if there is anything else I can make available with a little hard work and editing elbow grease. So, if nothing else, I guess the Kindle platform, with its relative ease-of-access and ability to trigger the brain's reward pathway, can be a tool to get people back into the habit of writing. There's nothing to be said against that!
As for financial purposes, well, it's hard to judge. Obviously, some have met with considerable success solely through this platform, but many of those are writers far more prolific than I am. These are people with one or more novels already written and edited, ready to be sold, writing in zeitgeisty genres like paranormal romance... things like that. I'd imagine most writers wouldn't see much in the way of profits, though perhaps it takes perseverance, loads of content, and/or better self-promotion?
To me, it seems as though Kindle sales could function as one small piece among several income streams. Ad revenue, physical book sales, journalism/freelancing, even ::gasp:: old-school magazine/journal submissions. I think only an exceptional few can make it on Kindle sales alone. At any rate, it certainly doesn't cut out any of the hard work or disappointment that comes with the territory for writers.
So that's it, for now. If anything changes—for instance, if I get into Kindle Singles or somehow get featured/promoted by Amazon or something—I'll be back to tell you about it. Otherwise, I think the experiment has reached a natural conclusion. Now to work on the next thing, whatever it may be!
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