Kindlespy

Nick Stephenson advocate sit as well Steve Windsor. I haven't. I wanted but it's available only for UK, German and US citizen.
There is a video on the official site. It shows you the most searchable keywords for a category, number of sold copies per month, etc.

I use it when I'm trying to select keywords. When you're drilling down into some of the categories, I get the "cannot find data" message far more often than I don't, which is really annoying. Those smaller categories are where I need it the most.

I just started using it and it helped me decide which words I needed more of in my descriptions, which seems to have helped boost my books a bit higher in the search results.  I'll have to try it more to really see if it's helpful.

I happened to find it through Nick Stephenson. I had completely forgotten about it. So, I was just wondering if it's really all that good or not. Its a time saver and that's about all.

I came here specifically to ask about Kindle Spy (so glad I did a search before starting a new topic!). So anyway, thought I'd bump this up and see if anyone else has opinions about it.

I find the data fascinating. I realize it's primary use is for finding "profitable niches" but even if you know the genre you are going to write in, you can use it to compare what really is selling in your genre. 

It can't tell you why, but it can give you an interesting overview of what sells for an author.  You can see their list of books, size of the book, price, number of reviews and estimated sales (which aren't exact but are fairly in the ballpark.)

I probably use it casually two or three times a day, just out of curiosity. Well worth the money, for me.

I find it unreliable - constantly cannot find the data. Not reliable enough to warrant spending the money. Also, you will need to tolerate a barrage of spam email and in-your-face marketing.

Use a throw-away email address for purchasing, because you cannot get off the mailing list...

I unsubscribed to the stream of spam emails.  Haven't gotten one since. They were annoying.

The spam is kind of a deal breaker for me. You can get estimated sales from NovelRank.com as well, right? You just have to manually type it in...

The spam was annoying until turned off, but like Myra I find the data fascinating. I love KindleSpy. It's not always accurate, but it does give you a ballpark.

I tried it, but wasn't impressed.

thewitt said:

Use a throw-away email address for purchasing, because you cannot get off the mailing list...

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Are you sure about that? I unsubscribed just the other day using the link. Took about ten seconds and now no more annoying spam. It also annoys me how he says that we should watch the video for new updates because it contains "important information" when there's nothing of importance whatsoever. Just type out the instructions, I don't want to waste five minutes watching your video.

I think it's a fun tool. I used it all the time and it's the fastest way to see all my books at once with their rankings and estimated sales based on those rankings. It is very glitchy though, often have to try a few times to get the data to pull through.

Perry Constantine said:

Are you sure about that? I unsubscribed just the other day using the link. Took about ten seconds and now no more annoying spam.

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I tried unsubscribing through the link half a dozen times. It always told me I was out, and then I received the next email as well.

I ended up putting in a mail filter that moves his mail to the trash and marks it read so I don't see it any more, but it's still there. I received another one this morning.

KindleSpy is cool - Kindle Samurai is much better, in my experience. They're both cheap enough that trying them out isn't any great expense, but if you had to pick just one, I'd go with Samurai.

thewitt said:

I tried unsubscribing through the link half a dozen times. It always told me I was out, and then I received the next email as well.

I ended up putting in a mail filter that moves his mail to the trash and marks it read so I don't see it any more, but it's still there. I received another one this morning.

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Ugh, that's frustrating. Can you reply to one of the emails and ask if he will remove you manually?

elizabethbarone said:

Ugh, that's frustrating. Can you reply to one of the emails and ask if he will remove you manually?

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No, it's a no-reply email address... Maybe the unsubscribe will work for you though. I just tried it again from this morning's auto-filed-trash email. It says I'm unsubscribed, but I am guessing I'll get this afternoon's update on his new house hunting or whatever he's sending now.

I like Kindlespy. It's a decent one to have in the toolbox.