Author Topic: ...and there it goes...  (Read 2850 times)

A. N. Onymous

...and there it goes...
« on: December 10, 2020, 06:17:15 PM »
Just when KDP had some really good stuff happening with their beta sales reports...WHAM!!! It all gets stuffed up in fell swoop. It was so easy before. Easy to see what books sold and where, what books were being read and where, now...CRAPOLA! Jeez they're annoying.
 

Simon Haynes

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2020, 06:31:00 PM »
I never use it because I download the reports from KDP (the original) and import them into my own software.  But I just looked and it seems to be exactly the same. What have they changed?
 

A. N. Onymous

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2020, 06:51:05 PM »
Maybe it hasn't caught up to you yet. I am talking about the beta report, not the original. The whole different colours for different books is gone so you can no longer tell which book has been read on which day and from which country. It's a bloody mess! It was shaping up to be as good if not better than book report and then they had to stuff it up. The new look is just plain weird.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2020, 06:53:13 PM by Prawny Author »
 

A. N. Onymous

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2020, 09:17:17 PM »
Okay, that's weird. I just accessed my KDP reports from my laptop and the beta reports are unchanged. When I accessed the reports from my desktop unit earlier, I had a pop-up tell me about the new and improved layout, which was absolute garbage compared to the previous beta model. I wonder if I have been selected as a guinea pig user? Anyone else have the new beta reports showing?
BTW, I don't drink anymore...just in case it crossed your mind.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2020, 09:19:36 PM by Prawny Author »
 

Simon Haynes

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #4 on: December 10, 2020, 09:22:18 PM »
Haha - drinking explains a lot of things. I haven't been sideways since 1985 (year 12 party) so you can trust I'm not seeing it through beer goggles.
 

notthatamanda

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2020, 09:31:22 PM »
I didn't get anything different.

I like the colors, although I wish they would just lock a book on a color. They start recolor coding them on the first of the month and I have to adjust to what book equals what color.
 

Lu Kudzoza

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #6 on: December 11, 2020, 01:25:49 AM »
I've got the beta version. It no longer shows which country sales or page reads are coming from unless you click a check box country by country. It looks like the new version is geared toward people with a lot of books who want to do in depth reporting. The older version was much nicer for a quick look to see what is selling and where.
 

Gerri Attrick

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #7 on: December 11, 2020, 01:31:40 AM »
No change here, but I've never cared for it and am happy to stick with Book Report. (KDP tells me I've sold 16 books today - it gives me the titles for 14, but for the remainder simply says "other books". Wtf use is that? Tchah!)
 

Lu Kudzoza

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #8 on: December 11, 2020, 01:51:03 AM »
Just noticed that I can see the country breakdown by clicking the arrow next to the book. It expands the view.
 

R. C.

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Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #9 on: December 11, 2020, 01:53:31 AM »
Something is amiss with the new reporting...

I get different results from:

kdpreports.amazon.com/orders
advertising.amazon.com
getbookreport.com

Cheers,
R.C.

A. N. Onymous

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #10 on: December 11, 2020, 05:46:42 AM »
I didn't get anything different.

I like the colors, although I wish they would just lock a book on a color. They start recolor coding them on the first of the month and I have to adjust to what book equals what color.

I f you look carefully you'll notice that the colours change during the month as well depending on your best selling/read book. The best one is always assigned the medium blue, then the next is orange and so on. If one of your books gets a hit and takes the lead, it will then change to medium blue. Well, would have if they kept it. Now it's all...blech!
You used to be able to tell at a glance all the information, now you have to hunt for it.
 

Hopscotch

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #11 on: December 11, 2020, 06:29:34 AM »
I hate change.  Life should stay as it was when I was 17, I was sure all the girls were crazy about me and my rattletrap sportscar (almost) never broke down.  But the dashboard is forcing me to flex.  The new beta offers me some new useful data but at the cost of taking away other useful data.  Too much to ask that the Zon hires for its beta-ing geeks who also are indies? 
. .
 

notthatamanda

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #12 on: December 11, 2020, 06:57:58 AM »
I didn't get anything different.

I like the colors, although I wish they would just lock a book on a color. They start recolor coding them on the first of the month and I have to adjust to what book equals what color.

I f you look carefully you'll notice that the colours change during the month as well depending on your best selling/read book. The best one is always assigned the medium blue, then the next is orange and so on. If one of your books gets a hit and takes the lead, it will then change to medium blue. Well, would have if they kept it. Now it's all...blech!
You used to be able to tell at a glance all the information, now you have to hunt for it.
I didn't know that. My oldest book is usually my best selling book, except for the permafrees, so I haven't noticed that. How 'bout we get to assign the colors and lock them in? And they can do more colors, Among Us is adding crewmates soon. Blue with stripes, red with dots.
 

Simon Haynes

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #13 on: December 11, 2020, 08:16:03 AM »
So essentially the new 'orders' report is just like the old (KDP original) one, except that freebies and paperbacks are all lumped into the same bars, and you can only deselect them, not see at a glance what you've sold in each format. (45 'sales' including 42 freebies is nothing like 45 'sales' with 2 freebies.)

There's also that 'counting' animation where the bars/charts slowly come up to the correct value, something like the reels on a one-armed bandit. (It takes 3 seconds to complete the count every time I view a chart, and I have a very fast PC. Perhaps it's because there's almost a decade worth of data?)

The dashboard still only shows today, and since I live in Western Australia that's always been 100% useless because it's 'Tomorrow' to the rest of the world - so there are never any figures until about 5 in the afternoon, and a few hours later it's 'tomorrow' again here. No option to view 'yesterday'.

I like the new KENP daily chart that goes back 90 days. Oh wait, I can do that on the old dash AND it shows right under the chart which displays paperbacks, ebook sales and freebies in separate bars. And it displays quicker.

Back to the old for me...


 

notthatamanda

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #14 on: December 11, 2020, 10:15:05 AM »
Some days the old dash lags badly, like by a day, even if I close the window and go back in. Beta usually is more up to date. I have enough books that if something sells the beta is quicker to see what it was.

Edit - and I now have the new beta which doesn't help you see in an instant which book sold. <Thumbs down emoji> That was the best part of the darn thing.
« Last Edit: December 11, 2020, 09:46:20 PM by notthatamanda »
 

She-la-te-da

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #15 on: December 12, 2020, 11:05:29 PM »
Somebody on another forum (I think the KDP one, for what that's worth) is all giddy about the new thing with the books or whatever. I just glanced at it, as I don't bother with the beta thing right now.

As usual, Amazon seems to roll out the new one to select segments, so not everyone has the same thing.
I write various flavors of speculative fiction. This is my main pen name.

 

A. N. Onymous

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #16 on: December 13, 2020, 05:48:43 AM »
Maybe I'm dense but it seems to me that they went from something bordering on practical and informative at a glance back to resembling the original, just with bolder colours. I cannot tell from the new beta report which books were read and where on a particular day anymore whereas that used to be clear at a glance. Were people complaining about the last version? Was it not working for the folks with heaps of books, do they run out of different colours after a certain amount? I will probably go back to Book Report now. Bloody Amazon are always changing things which don't need it, like Author Central. Does anyone actually like the new layout of that?
 

Maggie Ann

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #17 on: December 13, 2020, 06:26:04 AM »
Some days the old dash lags badly, like by a day, even if I close the window and go back in. Beta usually is more up to date. I have enough books that if something sells the beta is quicker to see what it was.

Edit - and I now have the new beta which doesn't help you see in an instant which book sold. <Thumbs down emoji> That was the best part of the darn thing.

Looks like the dashboard can tell you that.
           
 

notthatamanda

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #18 on: December 13, 2020, 06:39:20 AM »
There used to be the different colors and you could mouse over it and it would tell you which one. Now I just have a navy bar that also combines the free and sales.
 

Lynn

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #19 on: December 13, 2020, 06:49:09 AM »
I haven't seen the new version of the beta, but yes, some people with lots of titles complained about the colors. Sorry! Oops. I hated them. :D
Don't rush me.
 

notthatamanda

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #20 on: December 13, 2020, 08:16:03 AM »
Is there an easy way to figure out which books sold? Without deselecting and selecting them one by one? I hope that doesn't sound sarcastic, I'm not trying to be. Things that are intuitive to normal people would never occur to me in a million years.
 

Simon Haynes

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #21 on: December 13, 2020, 09:02:10 AM »
Is there an easy way to figure out which books sold? Without deselecting and selecting them one by one? I hope that doesn't sound sarcastic, I'm not trying to be. Things that are intuitive to normal people would never occur to me in a million years.

That new beta site is a perfect example of style over substance. Pretty charts, but next to useless when it comes to accessing the info.

 

Maggie Ann

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #22 on: December 13, 2020, 09:56:43 AM »
Is there an easy way to figure out which books sold? Without deselecting and selecting them one by one? I hope that doesn't sound sarcastic, I'm not trying to be. Things that are intuitive to normal people would never occur to me in a million years.

That new beta site is a perfect example of style over substance. Pretty charts, but next to useless when it comes to accessing the info.

Royalties Estimator still has the old style, but who knows how long that will last.
           
 

Anarchist

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #23 on: December 13, 2020, 10:14:17 AM »
I haven't seen the new version of the beta, but yes, some people with lots of titles complained about the colors. Sorry! Oops. I hated them. :D

The colors reminded me of USA Today.

That new beta site is a perfect example of style over substance. Pretty charts, but next to useless...

That's a good description of USA Today. lol
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notthatamanda

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #24 on: December 13, 2020, 11:38:32 AM »
Is there an easy way to figure out which books sold? Without deselecting and selecting them one by one? I hope that doesn't sound sarcastic, I'm not trying to be. Things that are intuitive to normal people would never occur to me in a million years.

That new beta site is a perfect example of style over substance. Pretty charts, but next to useless when it comes to accessing the info.

Royalties Estimator still has the old style, but who knows how long that will last.
Brilliant. I'll take it.
 

Alec Hutson

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #25 on: December 13, 2020, 11:42:41 AM »
The new Beta report is a massive downgrade. Useless and ugly.

Alec Hutson
 

A. N. Onymous

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #26 on: December 14, 2020, 06:39:12 AM »
Is there an easy way to figure out which books sold? Without deselecting and selecting them one by one? I hope that doesn't sound sarcastic, I'm not trying to be. Things that are intuitive to normal people would never occur to me in a million years.
Nope! I was only able to find out which of my books sold on the 13th through the royalties estimator and that will undoubtedly soon follow the way of the other stuff. There is no point at all to the new beta reports, they are the no different than the original as far as functionality is concerned. But I have to argue the style over substance remark because it lacks any real style.
 

notthatamanda

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #27 on: December 14, 2020, 07:58:18 AM »
The royalty estimator, chart view, bar graph is still working for a quick look to see what books sold, I don't have enough to run into the other problem where you get "other" for the rest. I just want to see at a glance which book sold, I hope they keep it.
 

notthatamanda

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #28 on: December 16, 2020, 12:40:15 AM »
The old dash board and the beta are really out of sync at least for me.

Yesterday morning I sold books 2 and 3 of a trilogy, those royalties still haven't shown up on the beta, but a standalone that sold overnight has. No returns on the regular dashboard for books 2 and 3. Maybe they just aren't going to pay me for them. Wouldn't be the first time.

 

Gerri Attrick

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #29 on: December 16, 2020, 01:46:28 AM »
The old dash board and the beta are really out of sync at least for me.

Yesterday morning I sold books 2 and 3 of a trilogy, those royalties still haven't shown up on the beta, but a standalone that sold overnight has. No returns on the regular dashboard for books 2 and 3. Maybe they just aren't going to pay me for them. Wouldn't be the first time.

Don't panic, Amanda. :) There's often quite a lag between the report of a sale and the report of the payment (irrespective of which dashboard you're using/seeing). I've sometimes had to wait 48 hours before a sale on dot com shows up in the month to date column (I'm in the UK).

It's frustrating, but I'm sure you'll get your money. Fingers crossed, anyway.
 

notthatamanda

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #30 on: December 16, 2020, 02:41:38 AM »
Thanks Gerri. I'm not really panicking. I'm just baffled. Why would 2 sales in the US store not register royalties on beta when a sale after those on the US store is showing up already. Maybe you're onto something, cause those sales didn't make it into the month to date columns yet, which means the reporting is quite messed up if my morning sales yesterday didn't get there but an overnight sale did.


 

Gerri Attrick

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #31 on: December 16, 2020, 03:24:14 AM »
Thanks Gerri. I'm not really panicking. I'm just baffled. Why would 2 sales in the US store not register royalties on beta when a sale after those on the US store is showing up already. Maybe you're onto something, cause those sales didn't make it into the month to date columns yet, which means the reporting is quite messed up if my morning sales yesterday didn't get there but an overnight sale did.

The thing is...how can you tell. The dot com store isn't broken up by country, area, or state. They are just all dot com, whether that's US or Singapore, or Russia, or wherever. For all any of us can tell, the royalty could be from one of yesterday's sales, and you are still waiting for the other and the overnight sale. There's no earthly way of knowing - unless they are on different books.
 

notthatamanda

Re: ...and there it goes...
« Reply #32 on: December 16, 2020, 04:19:05 AM »
Oh I always assumed .com was the US.

Edit - my sales from the 15th made it on to the month to date on the KDP page and onto the beta royalties page overnight (now the 17th here). 
« Last Edit: December 16, 2020, 10:56:51 PM by notthatamanda »