[Les Turner]

I am only weeks away from finally publishing my first novel and was wondering who would be my lucky first customer... only to realise it would more than likely be myself.

Is it wrong to buy copies of your own books to get a run on the board?

 

[Alain Gomez]

I always buy a copy of all of my work.  One, to just see what it looks like on all my devices.  And two, so I can show them off to people. 

 

[Maria Romana]

I bought three or four copies of my novel when I first posted it.  I wanted to see how it looked with each revision.  At the time, I didn't realize you could just contact Amazon and ask them to push the latest copy to your device .  I didn't buy my calorie book, though.  I now know how to sideload, and I didn't feel like paying for something I had written!  They really should let us download our own stuff for free.

--Maria

 

[Zachery Richardson]

I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but I wouldn't do it anymore. I had to do it quite frequently with the print copy of my book and it was one of the worst feelings I've had as an author to log on to my Lulu account and see 250 copies ordered and remember that they were all my orders. I would trade all of those for a single legitimate sale of my Kindle edition.

 

[Angela Carlie]

I always want to be the first to buy my eBooks to make sure everything came out correct. I freak a little thinking it's available to the world without me getting an opportunity to look at it the way readers will be seeing it.

As far as the paperbacks go--I do buy author copies for reviewers, giveaways, and book signings.

 

[Guest]

Yes, but after the first thousand, the wife insists I stop spending the grocery money.

 

[Phoebe Matthews]

Back when I was writing for NY they used to send me boxes of books and I still have stashes taking up closet space, outdated stuff. Now a couple of my series are put out by ebook publishers who then make PODs available thru Amazon and B&N and so I do order a copy of each to keep. And this year my new Turning Vampire series is from a print-only publisher (ebooks are sold thru the other sites) and so I again have a new box of books sent by the publisher. I will take them to a fantasy convention and they will be great advertising. Don't know if that answers your question, but probably you will want print copies so that you can see how they look and you will need one for yourself and one for your mom? My parents were always the first to read my stuff when I started out. Now my daughter is my fan club.

 

[BrianKittrell]

I buy one of each to check formatting on the reader's end and so forth. The only one I haven't so far is the omnibus eBook edition because I've already checked the three books included in that collection.

 

[HeidiHall]

Last October was the first time publishing for me so I ordered copied for everyone in my family and gave them (personalized and signed) as gifts for the holidays. I have a huge family, so it made Christmas shopping a breeze and everyone loved them. The kids still get regular gifts, but everyone else... copies of my books. It's nice that this year they'll be getting two (if I can get the next one finished in time). They say the best gifts are the ones that mean something and I can't think of anything more personal than a book I spent so many hours putting my heart and soul into. Plus, now they have bragging rights and something to show their friends when they ask what I'm up to.

I hope that next year I'll be able to give them all the Kindle version... on a Kindle .

 

[kyrin]

I order each of my books on Kindle so I can check the formatting. Sometimes, you miss things using the preview option in KDP.

It's also nice to be able to show your book to someone on your Kindle.

 

[rsullivan9597]

Don't try to "gain the system". Having a copy to check formatting is fine. But artificial attempts to raise your rankings is just a waste of time - they are weighted to "fall off quickly" and only "true" sales that are consistently coming in make them sticky.  Plus, you'd waste a lot of money. My top seller at the moment sels 250 copies a day and that only gets him to a rank of 300ish.  When Victorine was in the Top 100 she was selling 1,000 books a day. 

Just let the sales come naturally. You can use gifting to give to reviewers which will add to your count and hopefully get reviews but don't send them "blindly" approach a blogger that reads on kindle and then if they agree to a review send them a gift certificate as a means of getting it on their device.

 

[Cheri Schmidt]

I have a Kindle and a Nook. So like other who have already replied, I always buy at least those two just to make sure it looks right on those devices. My husband is software engineer by trade and always like that one last check to make sure things look perfect.

I've printed one of my books via Createspace and order copies for reviewers, friends, promos and the such.

 

[Glenn Bullion]

I always buy my own books, but like others have said, to see how they look on devices.  I don't always trust that Kindle preview window before uploading.

 

[wonderfulray]

I always buy one. As others have said, I do it to check the formatting. I convert them to mobi and look at them on my Kindle before uploading, which should show exactly what readers will see, but it doesn't hurt to make sure. You want to be careful to give it as professional appearance as possible.

Also, although in the grand scheme of things one copy isn't going to be significant in boosting the sales rankings, that first sale will create a sales ranking for the book. I think it's a good thing if shoppers can see that someone has bought it.

 

[Decon]

Yes, but after the first thousand, the wife insists I stop spending the grocery money.

I would buy the print copy for my own use and to send out for reviews. I bought my eBooks to see how they looked not realizing Amazon would send a free copy.

 

[Guest]

I always buy one copy of the pritn book from Amazon, just to make sure what the customer gets is the same as what I saw in my proof.  When CS first started, some of the printers they farmed out work to were not consistent.  So my proof copy did not always match the distribution copy in terms of cover color consistency or other technical issues.  It also lets me track how long it takes for a sale to appear on my sales report. 

 

[JRainey]

Yep, but like everyone else has said, I do it to make sure they look nice. Helps me sleep easy at night.

 

[Amanda Brice]

I didn't buy my own book. I had the .prc (which is what I uploaded to KDP) and could upload it myself to my Kindle to check how it looks. I saw no reason to buy it.

I have, however, bought some copies of my print version, but those are to give away to friends and family (and also to keep on my shelf).

 

[JRTomlin]

I am only weeks away from finally publishing my first novel and was wondering who would be my lucky first customer... only to realise it would more than likely be myself.

Is it wrong to buy copies of your own books to get a run on the board?

No, not everyone does.

I have yet to buy a copy of my own novels although I am going to in order to fill a Goodreads giveaway. Otherwise, I'm afraid my OWN opinion is that it is useless. It doesn't keep anything "on the board."

 

[swolf]

No, I don't.

Too damn expensive.



Seriously, I don't own a Kindle.  I do check the .prc file with Kindle for PC before uploading it, so I don't see how buying a copy and viewing on K4PC is going to help much.