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Thread: Anyone Else with Significant Decrease in Oct Sales?


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Permlink Replies: 108 - Pages: 8 [ 1 2 3 4 5 | Next ] - Last Post: Nov 21, 2011 2:28 AM Last Post By: wellhouse
if_books

Posts: 73
Registered: 08/02/08
Anyone Else with Significant Decrease in Oct Sales?
Posted: Oct 14, 2011 2:55 PM
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I'm stunned by my sales for the month that are approximately 1/3 of the normal level. There was a mistake early on, that KDP admitted to and corrected. I wonder if the same software giltch is still a problem.

Thoughts appreciated.
Linda
lee3731

Posts: 59
Registered: 03/02/11
Re: Anyone Else with Significant Decrease in Oct Sales?
Posted: Oct 14, 2011 5:12 PM   in response to: if_books in response to: if_books
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MY SALES FOR OCTOBER SO FAR ARE REALLY, REALLY POOR. ALMOST AT A STANDSTILL AND THAT'S UNUSUAL. I DID CONTACT KDP, BUT NO ANSWER FROM THEM YET. I AM PRETTY SURE SOMETHING IS HAPPENING WITH THE KINDLE REPORTING SYSTEM. HOPEFULLY, IT'LL BE CORRECTED SOON.
L. L. LEE
TAXING TALLULA, THE SISTERS: LOST IN BROOKLYN, FOUND IN SAN ANTONIO, MURDER BY THE BAYOU.
mccollum_scifiaz

Posts: 2
Registered: 05/07/09
Re: Anyone Else with Significant Decrease in Oct Sales?
Posted: Oct 14, 2011 6:31 PM   in response to: if_books in response to: if_books
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I have been tracking my sales all year. My sales peaked in July at 47 books per day. As of last night, they were down to 19 books per day. The explanation for this is simple. There is a reading season. It runs from approximately June 15 through September 15. People are back in school and work and are no longer on vacation, so they are reading less for enjoyment and more as part of their schooling/jobs. My current sales are tracking what they were from February through May. My best day ever was August 27, the day before Hurricane Irene was scheduled to hit the East Coast. I sold 84 books that day.

The good news is that Amazon's latest release of Kindles, and especially the Kindle Fire, will substantially increase the installed base. I seem to be getting a microscopic percentage of the installed base, and so, if the base increases, my sales will increase proportionately (a very great oversimplication). Next reading season, I hope to do a lot better. We shall see.

Michael
columnfive

Posts: 147
Registered: 06/20/08
Re: Anyone Else with Significant Decrease in Oct Sales?
Posted: Oct 15, 2011 5:11 AM   in response to: mccollum_scifiaz in response to: mccollum_scifiaz
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LOL, everybody always cites a DIFFERENT season as the [i]best[/i] book buying one!

FACT: Sales have been on the decline in all markets, domestic and foreign, due to a so called double dip recession/depression worldwide. Here, in the digital publishing universe, it's been compounded by a glut of free/cheap/spam eBooks undermining 'consumer confidence' and the industry in general.

Just saying.

[b]http://FifthColumnBooks.com[/b]
http://amazon.com/dp/B001HBIBNY.
mccollum_scifiaz

Posts: 2
Registered: 05/07/09
Re: Anyone Else with Significant Decrease in Oct Sales?
Posted: Oct 15, 2011 5:54 AM   in response to: columnfive in response to: columnfive
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It's possible that it's the economy. However, it looks very cyclical in my charts. September appears to be the mirror image of June. We'll know for sure next summer.
sambates32

Posts: 59
Registered: 09/22/11
Re: Anyone Else with Significant Decrease in Oct Sales?
Posted: Oct 15, 2011 6:36 AM   in response to: mccollum_scifiaz in response to: mccollum_scifiaz
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My sales for this week are also at 1/3 compared to previous, my smashwords sales are even worse. I was initially really worried until I saw threads with similar reports.
lee3731

Posts: 59
Registered: 03/02/11
Re: Anyone Else with Significant Decrease in Oct Sales?
Posted: Oct 15, 2011 9:57 AM   in response to: sambates32 in response to: sambates32
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Would be great if the KDP team would put an end to the guessing games about what's causing the slump in sales. Just received a response from them. Same one everyone is getting. The reports are accurate. But since the email from them was addressed to Michael and my name is Lee, I wouldn't put a lot of trust in the message. (LOL)
velvet202

Posts: 78
Registered: 12/11/10
Re: Anyone Else with Significant Decrease in Oct Sales?
Posted: Oct 15, 2011 10:27 AM   in response to: lee3731 in response to: lee3731
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Around 1/3 here too. I find that strange.
martitalbott

Posts: 4,134
Registered: 07/29/10
Re: Anyone Else with Significant Decrease in Oct Sales?
Posted: Oct 15, 2011 10:36 AM   in response to: lee3731 in response to: lee3731
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Hi Michael, I mean Lee. If that weren't so funny, it would be frightening.

My sales are down too and It does not make sense. There is something way wrong. On my author central, sales info page, they list my worst sellers under bestsellers. I emailed them over a week ago and they said they were working on it. Isn't that program tied directly into the sales ranks and sales reports? If that is not working, how can we trust the rest? My paperback sales are never correct on author central either. They said CreateSpace was not sending them a report, Createspace didn't even understand the problem. I give up.

In September, KDP emailed me saying they had found an error and were correct it in my July six weeks report. Not to worry, they paid me the right amount. My June six weeks report showed 200 more sales than my month to date. When I pointed that out, they fixed it and I lost all 200 sales. I didn't check August or September, What's the point if I am just going to lose those sales anyway?

Besides, the six week reports are a monster for someone like me to figure out. I wish they would give us daily counts instead. How hard would it be to break the six weeks report into days so we could see which were in the previous month and which were not. I vote we send them thousands of requests for that feature.

Ok, going to stop complaining now. .

Marti's Author page -- http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003XSYENA
Need an inexpensive editor? Try Frankie at fjsutton@yahoo.com
Want formatting help? Check out http://www.eformatters.com
if_books

Posts: 73
Registered: 08/02/08
Re: Anyone Else with Significant Decrease in Oct Sales?
Posted: Oct 15, 2011 2:45 PM   in response to: if_books in response to: if_books
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Someone made the comment that their Smashwords sales were down. I exclude Amazon from my Smashwords sales, and they are on par (almost to the penny) with the 2Q sales in other venues. Yet, my Amazon Oct. sales are approximately 1/3 less than usual.

Linda aka Mary Clay
jigsaw_press

Posts: 5
Registered: 06/10/10
Re: Anyone Else with Significant Decrease in Oct Sales?
Posted: Oct 16, 2011 3:23 AM   in response to: if_books in response to: if_books
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Please, someone, anyone, explain to me what incentive does Amazon have to fix their faulty reporting?

None.

If they fix everything and report sales accurately, they lose money instead of the author and/or publisher being left out in the cold.

No incentive to fix a darn thing. The whole system of simply taking Amazon's word for sales and payments works to their advantage. Especially with a majority of authors and/or publishers saying, in essence, oh well.

They must think we're all pretty stupid out here. What they don't realize is word of mouth will get them eventually. They're not too big to fail, even now.

I remember Jeff Bezos begging, hat in hand, for salvation way back when Amazon almost went under. And we readers, authors, independent publishers, we came to his rescue only to be treated now as if he doesn't need us and never needed us. It's good to be king, I guess, especially when you don't have to be accountable for your actions.
hotbutteredbooks

Posts: 117
Registered: 05/28/10
Re: Anyone Else with Significant Decrease in Oct Sales?
Posted: Oct 16, 2011 4:39 AM   in response to: jigsaw_press in response to: jigsaw_press
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As far as I can tell...everyones sales are down by 1/3 or more. Mine have almost dryed up totally, dropping 60% and continuing to be less and less. There is no way to tell if its a reporting glitch or just slow sales but my sales ranking has only dropped a little. That normally means all sales are slowing. I remember sales being sliggish last year until after Christmas and then sales shot straight through the roof!
I am hoping things will improve by then.
martitalbott

Posts: 4,134
Registered: 07/29/10
Re: Anyone Else with Significant Decrease in Oct Sales?
Posted: Oct 17, 2011 7:49 AM   in response to: hotbutteredbooks in response to: hotbutteredbooks
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"... my sales ranking has only dropped a little."

I'm glad you pointed that out. My sales rank hasn't dropped accordingly either, so maybe it is a basic slow down of sales across the board. Of course, my sales ranks aren't rising either. They just fluctuate up and down by a few thousand each day.

Marti's Author page -- http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003XSYENA
Need an inexpensive editor? Try Frankie at fjsutton@yahoo.com
Want formatting help? Check out http://www.eformatters.com

davidbainaa

Posts: 25
Registered: 10/08/11
Re: Anyone Else with Significant Decrease in Oct Sales?
Posted: Oct 17, 2011 9:10 AM   in response to: if_books in response to: if_books
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I also can't help thinking something's up. I want to NOT think so, but...

I have the #1 bestseller in horror at Smashwords, with several others in that top 10 & 20 - but sales here at Amazon this month are almost nonexistent. I posted elsewhere in this community about a 100% confirmed sale earlier this month not appearing. That's how stagnant my sales here are - I can tell that a single individual sale was not reported.

A note to support just resulted in an obviously cut-and-paste letter about the six-week reports, which didn't really have much to do with what I asked.
notjohn

Posts: 15,239
Registered: 01/06/10
Re: Anyone Else with Significant Decrease in Oct Sales?
Posted: Oct 17, 2011 10:59 AM   in response to: mccollum_scifiaz in response to: mccollum_scifiaz
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**There is a reading season. It runs from approximately June 15 through September 15**

Like others, I had a fantastic summer, with monthly sales up about 50 percent over the spring months. September was a disappointment, and October looks as though it may be worse (and yes: the drop is about 33 percent compared to July and August). However, I really don't think there is a "reading season," at least not for my books, which aren't what you'd call beach reading. I've been publishing on the KDP since November 2007, and this is the first autumn crash.
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