[nico]

I just wanted to share our experience with Amazon with the WC community. Our sales of our most recent release were truckin' along well for the first 30 days, then they immediately fell off a cliff on day 31. I know others have seen this before, but i just wanted to offer another data point. It seems like a lot of our buyers must have been browsing new releases in the last 30 days. Perhaps this also feeds into other Amazon lists?

I hope this bit of bad news for us helps others plan their marketing strategy and expectations. On to the next release!

 

[TexasGirl]

Yes, this was a phenomenon Phoenix and a couple others discovered early last year.

It seems that the algos base the also boughts and pop listings on the last 30 days of sales. If you have a big sales day factored in--a freebie give away or a big promo like ENT, then when that big day rolls off, so does your visibility.

 

[vrabinec]

Yeah, but if you have steady sales while it's in the new section, it wouldn't drop off because of a single big day going by the wayside, it's dropping off because instead of having a front and center place to be visible, it's now relegated to competing with the other millions of titles that are "old." It's nice that they show the "30" day column, but I kinda wish they'd show the "90" day column there as well. But you have to specifically ASK for that one.

 

[nico]

vrabinec describes our case. We don't use freebies, so we've had pretty steady sales for the first 30 days, then a major (downward) adjustment exactly on day 31.

And even with a big ENT promotion we did earlier this month with a different book, we saw little impact outside of the promotion day and the day after. For us, the first 30 days seems to be at least an order of magnitude better than the next 30 days. Thems some powerful promotional tools Amazon has!

 

[momilp]

I have nothing to add to the conversation, but wanted to say that I really, really like Love is Blind's cover.

 

[valeriec80]

I'm coming up on this for Slow Burn (this weekend, I think), and I'm worried because it's already dropped from the 300s down to the 800-900s since Saturday. I shudder to think how much worse it will get.

Well. Not shudder. That's putting it far too strongly. I'm still ridiculously pleased to be doing as well as I'm doing. But I am really hoping to stay in the upper 5000 until I can get the sequel out in mid to late March.

However, Amazon giveth and Amazon taketh away, so there's no real way to predict that.

 

[nico]

I'm coming up on this for Slow Burn (this weekend, I think), and I'm worried because it's already dropped from the 300s down to the 800-900s since Saturday. I shudder to think how much worse it will get.

I totally feel you. We're not going to have Elizabeth's next novel out until April or May, so we're in worse shape for the near term. But we're also delighted by how well we've done so far and in this for the long haul.

 

[C.P.D.Harris]

For a while some people were trying to take advantage of this by manipulating their publication dates.

While I was checking this out I noticed a few books published from 2015 to 2035. Not sure how that helps since it does not get you on either the 30 day list or the 90 day list...

 

[Mathew Reuther]

For a while some people were trying to take advantage of this by manipulating their publication dates.

Apparently you can still get on the 30 day list (not sure about anything else) by changing your pub date. I know this because my second edition of Day Breaks came out more recently than either of my other two books, but my first edition came out more than 30 days ago.

I'm still on the 30 day list.

Now, what that means to any other algos, I have no clue. I can only track the one.

 

[TexasGirl]

Sorry, I missed that it was a brand-new release. Well, yes, your first 30 days puts you in the mix as a new release--much higher overall visibility as long as you are selling. That does end on day 31.

People have had mixed results with manipulating the pub date.

 

[nico]

Not really interested in manipulating the pub date. Seems a bit dodgy. I'll just have to keep working on new promotional strategies. Strategy #1: Get that next book out!

 

[TexasGirl]

Seems a bit dodgy.

I'm with ya. First time someone told me they'd done it, I was like--really? Seems like an easy loophole to close.

I get something out--anything I can, every two weeks.

 

[wolfrom]

A cliff ahead? Because I didn't have enough to worry about.

 

[EC Sheedy]

A cliff ahead? Because I didn't have enough to worry about.

I actually don't remember standing atop the cliff, so falling off shouldn't hurt too much.

Really, every time I read about this algo stuff, it makes me wonder whether any promo--other than the occasional iffy free run-- matters very much. It seems our fate is in the burly hands of the Algo Gawds, in that they giveth and take away.

 

[Ben Mathew]

This is very useful, clear information. Thanks for posting.

What was the magnitude of the difference between your first 30 days and the subsequent days: 2x, 10x, 20x?

Does this mean that we should concentrate ad campaigns into the first 30 days, to amplify new release visibility? I remember a blog post by David Gaughran that made me think I should be doing this. Said he would expand in his upcoming book "Let's Get Visible."

 

[nico]

What was the magnitude of the difference between your first 30 days and the subsequent days: 2x, 10x, 20x?

I don't have good data on this since i don't track daily sales and we just hit the 30 cliff a couple days ago. I can add that our 99c novella had a less dramatic drop-off than our 2.99 novella, but the latter also didn't reach as high on the list either. Of course, your genre may vary. Romance is a unique market, as far as i can tell.

 

[Shalini Boland]

I noticed that my latest release was in the top 3 of Amazon's 'hot new releases' chart, but it was only featured for the first month. My sales dropped a little after I fell off the chart. Not sure if my other novels were previously on this chart, or if it's a new thing.

So I guess I better hurry up and get my next novel out...

 

[nico]

Of course, according the the Forbes article in the other thread, none of this matters. Back to the drawing board to figure out how to reach our audience outside of Amazon.

Edit: *sarcasm*

 

[Jay Allan]

You have to consider the Forbes article in context. 

First, a lot of the 48% knowing what they want to order are the millions buying the mass bestsellers.  People hear about those and stampede to buy them, and they all know what they are looking for.  If a few million people buy 50 SOG or the lastest Grisham, that's a lot of people going to buy a specific book.

Second, don't forget, all or most of your repeat buyers (whether in a series or not) know what they want too.  They stumble on book one, but book two they know they want.  Actually, you want to develop a lot of your sales from the "knowing what they want crowd."  That's your fanbase.  If you have 200 people on a mailing list and announce a book launch or you post on your blog and people go to buy it...those are all in that 48%.

I suspect those percentages buying because of also boughts, new releases, and bestseller lists are a much higher percentage of the dollars actually in play than the gross numbers suggest.

IMO, the first, second, and third priorities for any author should be to get on (and stay on) those lists.

 

[Ben Mathew]

This thread is excellent evidence that Amazon algorithms matter. Otherwise we wouldn't have the 30 day cliff.