Borrows vs sales of a 0.99 ebook

612 Views 10 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Terrence OBrien, Jan 15, 2013

Discussion Starter · Jan 15, 2013

Does a borrow pay more than a sale of a 0.99 book? I ask because some (odd) recent use of borrows on them lol.

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Amanda Brice

· #2 · Jan 15, 2013

I think it's totally bizarre for someone to use their monthly borrow on a 99-cent book, and yet many do. So if you get some, be happy because it's a REALLY good deal for the author.

The royalty on sales of a 99-cent book is only 35 cents. The royalty on borrows of a 99-cent book was $1.88 in December.

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Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 15, 2013

I figured, what's odder is that these are clearly labeled as short stories... maybe Prime members who don't read that much/use their borrow often (I did make some advertising posts on non-reader specific forums...)

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David Adams

· #4 · Jan 15, 2013

The borrow rate is calculated by:

(the borrow pool) / (total number of borrows). You then multiply this by how many borrows you got for all titles that month, and that's how much Kindle pay you.

Popularity, price, etc play no part. So a borrow on a 99c short story in December is worth $1.88, and a borrow on a $9.99 compendium in December is also worth $1.88.

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Discussion Starter · #5 · Jan 15, 2013

Thus the 3 borrows this week on 0.99 shorts are hilarious. And awesome.

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Amanda Brice

· #6 · Jan 15, 2013

Definitely awesome. I had something like 126 borrows on a 99-cent short story collection (4 stories totaling about 13,000 words combined) the week of Christmas.

I'm certainly not going to complain.

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Discussion Starter · #7 · Jan 15, 2013

Probably some new Kindle owners around this time of the year who just think 'borrow=free book' and aren't concerned with maximizing the use of a borrow yet.

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Atunah

· #8 · Jan 15, 2013

Probably someone playing around. Many get the 1 month prime over the holidays for a fire purchase, but then don't continue with it. So they just click on something to give it a try. Or other just don't care about the price in any case. Some are also confused as to how Prime lending works. They actually think they can get another right after they finish one. One after the other. I see those threads all the time on the amazon forums.

I personally have made sure to make full use of my prime. I have been getting my monthly prime loan from the moment they offered it. And I don't get 99 cent books. I want to make the most of my prime. I even plan ahead a few months now so I don't have to waffle anymore. But I won't use my prime loan on a 99 cent book. I can go ahead and buy those if I really want them.

As to the short stories. There are some that might have not noticed it was a short story. It happens. You look at the cover, nothing on it specifies that it is a short, you glance over the blurb and see nothing. Sometimes the notice that it is a short is at the end of the description and in many cases it doesn't show unless you click more. Also many new kindle users don't know there are so many shorts in the store in the regular book section. There is after all a kindle single section. They expect books to be, well, books. Like they are used in the bookstores. Its a combination of things.

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Discussion Starter · #9 · Jan 15, 2013

Atunah said:
you glance over the blurb and see nothing

Nah, my blurbs all indicate it's a short story if it is. Hasn't stopped me from getting a 1-star that complained about something being short though.

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Atunah

· #10 · Jan 15, 2013

glutton said:
Nah, my blurbs all indicate it's a short story if it is. Hasn't stopped me from getting a 1-star that complained about something being short though.

Yes, your blurbs are short, so the info at the end with word count or that it is a novelette, shows. There are many many more blurbs that are so long that one has to click the more to see it. When I say glance, I mean glance.

. They might only read the first sentence to see if its in a genre they like and off they go. Most readers don't spend that long to pick something to read. Especially if its cheap or free with prime.
I'd also bet that many readers have no clue what a novelette is. Especially those new to ebooks. They know books from book stores, they expect books.

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Terrence OBrien

· #11 · Jan 15, 2013

"I think it's totally bizarre for someone to use their monthly borrow on a 99-cent book, and yet many do."

Last I checked was a few months back. At that time, the list from which one borrows did not include prices. So a casual borrowing browser who wanted to check prices had to click on each book to find the price. That's a lot more work than scanning a list that displays prices.

Some people will accept the transaction costs of discovering those prices. Others won't be bothered and will simply click the borrow button for a book they want to read.

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