Kindle Forum banner

Sales Figures

3K views 31 replies 21 participants last post by  SomeoneElse 
#1 ·
A super quick question here. From time to time I see Kindle writers publishing how many copies they have sold - "100,000" etc. My question is to anyone who has done this - are these including Kindle Unlimited borrows?

I ask because a borrow is technically a sale because the reader paid to read your novel, but sometimes I see writers saying instead - "50,000 sold & 25,000 Kindle Unlimited Borrows"

I'm thinking a lot of writers are throwing their KU borrows into the their "sales" figures - am I right or wrong? Is this dishonest or not?

Thanks R
 
#27 ·
Personally, i count a sale as a sale and a free download as just that. I do lump ebook, paperback, and audiobook sales together on my spreadsheet, but those numbers are drawn from their respective totals. I don't keep track of page reads, other than on my monthly report. Way too much math involved in calculating pages read for each book to arrive at the number of borrows.
 
#29 ·
For my personal records when I was in KU, I kept track of how many KENP pages each book was and then counted one whole read as a "sale" in my spreadsheet. But I wrap that into the Amazon column with regular sales. That adds up with other sales (Createspace, audio, in person, etc.) to give me my total number sold for the book, month, and year. (Evidently, I'm a fan of spreadsheets and watching my numbers grow. ;D)

But that's all for me and my records so I can feel a sense of accomplishment when I see that I've sold X number of books this year. It also helps to determine what promos worked best and how one book is doing over another.

I wouldn't use these numbers to market. They're for me, not for the readers.

A lot of times traditional publishers will say, "A million copies in print!" or "#1 Bestseller!" to give it social proof, but I think that's a dated claim (I'm not sure traditional publishers are even using this tactic anymore). Besides, the social proof the reader needs comes from reviews since most people shop online nowadays. If they see it has a lot of reviews, it must be popular, and therefore a good read.
 
#30 ·
So--are folks saying that it's not helpful for other authors to post how many sales/sale equivalents they've had when they share their strategies and path to success? I've always taken the opposite view. If somebody's sharing marketing advice or whatever, I want to know whether they actually sell books, and to what extent. But no?
 
#31 ·
Rosalind J said:
So--are folks saying that it's not helpful for other authors to post how many sales/sale equivalents they've had when they share their strategies and path to success? I've always taken the opposite view. If somebody's sharing marketing advice or whatever, I want to know whether they actually sell books, and to what extent. But no?
No! At least I find it helpful in a place like this to hear from others, and like you said, to know what kind of results people are getting when they give advice. I just don't use the numbers for promo, like putting "52 million sold!" on my cover, like McDonald's used to advertise with their burgers. Although, mine wouldn't be like the McDonald's sign. It would be more like those little towns where the sign reads Population: 492, and then the mayor goes out with some paint to update it every time someone is born, dies, or goes on an extended vacation. But yes, I appreciate having the figures available from other authors in this type of setting.
 
#32 ·
You can track your number of borrows... if you don't get very many. Whenever you get a borrow, your rank jumps. If you don't sell enough that that jump is hidden in with a lot of other jumps, you can tell you've had a borrow.

What I've found is page reads vs borrows is more or less unpredictable. I have a book that was read through fully by a high percentage of people in its first few months. It still gets a handful of borrows, but in Aug/Sept it was far more likely to be passed over after a chapter or two. Same book. Also having later books in the series seemed to increase the number of people finishing book 1... although, again, that might just be random fluctuations.

If I were to quote sales figures, I'd leave borrows right out of it. Depending on context, I might quote pages read. Personally, mine have never been impressive enough to brag about, so I tend to keep quiet.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top