Strange drop in Amazon revenues versus other retailers

[Eric Thomson]

I've been wide for the last four years, and early on, my monthly revenue streams were generally 60% Amazon, 40% elsewhere. From 2019 onward, that trended more towards 50-55% Amazon, 45-50% elsewhere, with most of the month-to-month fluctuation attributable to Amazon, because the other retailers were remarkably stable. That balance took a sharp left turn in December, and I'm still digging around to figure out why.

November sales: 51% Amazon, 49% elsewhere
December sales: 45% Amazon, 55% elsewhere
January sales: 39% Amazon, 61% elsewhere
February sales (to date): 39% Amazon, 61% elsewhere

The change is entirely attributable to Amazon and not because my sales off Amazon are climbing.

I know Amazon is mercilessly f*cking around with also boughts, AMS ads and pretty much anything they can (like the "Crap you might Like" carousel that totally replaced also boughts in Canada, leading to a collapse in my Canadian sales - never mind I wouldn't ever buy any of that crap in a zillion years), but finding a clear reason why the Zon would suddenly be less than half my sales isn't obvious.

Anyone else experiencing this trend? Or am I a special boy who's getting special attention from the Almighty Zon because I didn't sacrifice enough fictional virgins in my novels?

[TimothyEllis]

I've seen a huge drop in KU reading, but sales have been more or less constant.

I did see an increase in returns on 1 day, and am wondering if the Audible returns policy is now impacting eBook sales, as the reports don't seem to show all of them. That day, no returns on the reports. And yet the negative $ amounts turned up on my BR report for a while. Just guessing though as to why.

But overall, yes, things seem to be well down at the moment, but I put it on US events.

One very strange thing though, my least release got #1 tags in the UK and Aus stores, while not getting anywhere near there in the US store. That has never happened before.

[notthatamanda]

Commenting so it will show up on my reply thread. 2020 was so bad for me I got nothing useful to offer data wise as to something that changed in December, sorry.

Tim - did you ever take a look at the top 100 in your categories in the US store to see if anything popped out at you? Same author names filling up the top 100? I'm guessing big spending in AMS could have affected your release here.

[R. C.]

... Same author names filling up the top 100? I'm guessing big spending in AMS could have affected your release here.

Yes, the "top" author lists have not changed significantly in months.  Although the lists change order, a few newbies here and there, in aggregate, the top 100 authors remains relatively constant.

Yes, to break through the algorithms, a high spend (bid) is required.  I have been experimenting with where the "price point" is for bids. The early results are not encouraging. 

I kept lowering the bid until I noticed the volume of impressions change. Apparently, I hit a magic number on 4-Feb.  Impressions dropped by 68% from 4-Feb to 5-Feb.  For the past week, I have been slowly increasing the bid amounts. Impressions are increasing but not at a rate counter to the steep drop. Which means, bid amount AND bid history have value to the algorithm.

Side note: If I get put into the KDP penalty box, it is because my response, this morning, to their survey was scathing.  Don't ask if you don't want the truth.

Cheers,
R.C.

[TimothyEllis]

Tim - did you ever take a look at the top 100 in your categories in the US store to see if anything popped out at you? Same author names filling up the top 100? I'm guessing big spending in AMS could have affected your release here.

It's very possible.

I stopped doing AMS when the last ad stopped working. When I tried it again last month, the same criteria failed to work, and whatever they changed in AMS started charging me big against what I thought I'd specified. So I pulled the plug again.

On the other hand to be fair, the last book was #11 in a series which wasn't as popular as the series after it. Writing #12 now, so not expecting too much for this one either.

The test will be #7 in the series which did well for me in 2020.

It's hard to know what is going on, and it could be a combination of a lot of little things.

[notthatamanda]

RC what survey?

Edit - never mind, just got it. Off to do some scathing of my own.

Edit 2 - I wouldn't call my submissions scathing, but I didn't hold back. Overall I think the whole point of the survey is figure out how they can make AMS more attractive to authors than Bookbub, FB, etc. They want the dollars that are flowing to those advertisers and the other newsletters. I'm not sure what we could tell them that would help make AMS effective. Lower prices would be nice but in an auction system it's not really going to happen. I said transparency about what the algos are looking for would help. Also I threw in a "Let authors pick five categories and lock them in the meta data" because that's just something that still annoys me.

Off to the AMS ineptness thread to vent about other things.

[Gerri Attrick]

With the release of the first in a four book series in a popular category eighteen months ago, my sales on Amazon have shot up. On the other hand, sales elsewhere via D2D have stayed resolutely the same - somewhere between $60-$100 a month.

The new series is in KU.

I don't advertise AT ALL. I had one brief fling with AMS - on a permafree - spent very little for no return and forgot all about it. Advertising is beyond me. I don't understand the terminology, and all the acronyms do my brain in. Nor am I any good at graphics, so that lets me out of FB ads. In short, I've relied on regular releases, appealing characters, and reader loyalty.
I've been very, very lucky.

[cecilia_writer]

Thank goodness there is someone else who has had a similar experience with AMS ads - I think life is too short for me even to attempt to understand them.
I have had more or less equal Amazon and wide sales for quite a while, mostly because of Kobo. I no w also have a 4 book series in KU and seeing more regular KU reads, though nothing sells lik e a new book in my 21 book mystery series!

[alhawke]

I continue to do well with BookBub ads but fail with Amazon ads. I'm about to quit AMS efforts for like a fourth time. Maybe my books being all wide are just not a good fit with AMS.

My trend a week ago with sales was miserable with Amazon, but is now back up to okay.

The weirdest thing that I can't figure out is how one retailer will rotate with another. This happens quite often and, although I see a pattern occasionally (promos and the like), more often it seems random. I had a great run a couple months ago with Barnes and Noble with a sale daily, now quiet. I used to sell Apple like crazy, particularly with BB ads, now silence with only a trickle for like six months there.

[notthatamanda]

I'm sitting here doing ads on my also boughts and I have 5 pages of also boughts. The first day the book went on sale it had 30 pages of also boughts. They really are limiting the visibility there.

[TimothyEllis]

But when the also-boughts slider goes to the bottom of the page, sales drop.

[notthatamanda]

Oh yeah, it's on the very bottom of the book page. I made a mistake, I was on the hardcover page. When I switched to the kindle version it went up to 15 pages on the carousel. Still less than the 30 pages it had on day one when it was launched. They are just limiting the also boughts and it really hurts.

[notthatamanda]

Tweek - do you use Google ads for a specific platform in specific countries?

[notthatamanda]

I tried google but even though they gave me the advanced dashboard I couldn't figure out how to set the bids. Very basic step but I either had to let them choose the price or set it to 42 cents. I don't remember exactly, over a year ago.

Just some thoughts for anyone else who may be reading not trying to convince you of anything.

In AMS since I'm not in KU my negative keywords always include free, ku and unlimited in phrase.

I always made the bookbub ad button the price on a full price book. I had some limited success with bookbub ads that way.

By eshot you mean newsletters with freebooksy and the like?

[notthatamanda]

You're correct. Using KU and free and unlimited as negative keywords only eliminates people who put those words in their search. Since Amazon suggests things like:

Amanda Smith books ku
Amanda Smith kindle unlimited
Amanda Smith books free

It will eliminate people who search on those terms. Amazon removed the KU flags from the ad carousel. I assume it pisses readers off a little, but they get the money from the authors from the clicks regardless.

Thank you for your responses.

[LilyBLily]

To clarify, your Google ads run on Google, not on Google Play alone?

[littleauthor]

Eric, my earnings were better on other retailers in 2019 by a few hundred dollars and in 2020, sales on other retailers were double what I earned on Amazon. I have one book in KU that drops out in March. My only marketing has been through the direct promotions that each retailer offers. I use Smashwords and their store is becoming profitable. I've been wide for about 4 years as well. I haven't published anything new in a couple of years because I have an agent and a contract and have to hold off so there's no conflicts.

I have no idea how people find my books on Amazon. I'm in Canada too and the stuff Amazon shows me is stuff I've already bought so why would I want to buy it again?