Sagging sales for May

[Marti Talbott]

I have several books on sale for $.99 plus a new release, and sales the last two days are just pitiful. I'm really surprised especially after promoting the sale and the new book on Facebook, and sending over 700 emails to my newsletter sign-ups. It just doesn't make sense.

How are sales in your world?

[Simon Haynes]

My sales are well below normal for the past 48 hours, at least on Amazon and Smashwords (=apple/b&n for me). Kobo and Google have been better than usual for the past 7 days.

I set a short story to perma-free 3-4 days ago, and that's picking up.

[Maggie Ann]

I ran a permafree through Fussy Librarian last month and did fairly well. I'm still getting sell-thru and audio sales on it. The one I'm running this month is lagging way behind, although it's a lot longer than the first one and will take longer to read. Since the 2nd and 3rd books are 99c, I did sell four of each of those almost right away. I also don't have an audio for that series so I can't count on it doing nearly as much.

Other than that, I've sold four books through D2D and only one wasn't part of the promo, 9 through Kobo all part of last months promo, 21 on Zon from last months promo, and eight from this month's promo (already mentioned above).

Only one sale this month wasn't part of any paid ads. Pretty pathetic now that I'm looking at it.

[David VanDyke]

There is a general summer slump.

[Maggie Ann]

There is a general summer slump.

In general, that is true, but my sales usually start to pick up about now. Wish I knew why. I'd do it every month. 

[Kate Elizabeth]

Usually, I can't get arrested on Amazon, but it's the only place where I'm selling so far this month. Last month, it was Apple and Google Play.

I'm running a promo on Kobo right now, but I'm hoping that I'll get some sales there once it switches from the US to international.

[cecilia_writer]

I don't think my Amazon sales have ever been so bad since I started, but I noticed last time I checked on Smashwords that Kobo is doing a good bit better than usual and even B&N seems to be picking up.
I've had quite a long gap between releases but have been working on books in 2 different series at once, both of which are currently in their final stages of editing, so I hope things will improve once I get them out there.

[EllieL]

My Amazon sales have absolutely tanked this month. I mean I haven't even made 20 bucks when by now I should be in the triple digits. I promote, I have things on sale, but nada. Zip. Zilch.
So I'm going back to the drawing board and working on a new project to try not to stress myself over it.

[Kyra Halland]

Really bad here, too. If things keep up this way, I'll be lucky to hit $20, when my normally-expected baseline is $50 and I'd been doing considerably better than that this year up until now.

[DrewMcGunn]

Its been close to 5 months since my last book and sales have fallen off as one might expect. Still, the sales have tanked more than I had expected.

[TimothyEllis]

The cliffs have all shifted again.

The 30 day cliff is now around day 12-14. The 60 day cliff is day 28. The 90 day cliff is around day 40.

Where before a new release would give you a good solid 3 month tail, now you're lucky to get 6 weeks.

Part of this is the new AMS, and the fact that bidding is a total joke now. So what worked well a year ago, generates crickets now.

I think Amazon has abandoned its algorithm and now ranks purely on sales performance based on AMS ads. Anyone with an ineffective or no ad gets no help at all now, and I suspect is deliberately pushed down fast to bring in anything new with an effective ad going.

I dont think sales overall are sagging, but Amazon have shifted the goalposts again, and most people are still kicking the ball the old way.

[Dormouse]

I dont think sales overall are sagging  + most people are still kicking the ball the old way.

= people playing the new way are selling much more

[littleauthor]

How are sales in your world?

Horrible. I have more sales on Smashwords, Kobo, GP this month than Amazon. First time that's ever happened.

Page reads tanked with PageFlip. At the end of this month, my catalogue will be completely wide. Hallelujah. I'm never taking that KU sucker punch again.


 

[Marti Talbott]

I think Amazon has abandoned its algorithm and now ranks purely on sales performance based on AMS ads. 

Oddly, the book linked below has been a permafree for years, and it has ranked in the top 100  in its genre for years as well. What I gather from that is that Amazon credits us for each sale, and as they accumulate, it adds to the rank. I could be wrong, but I don't know of any other way to explain it. I don't do AMS ads on this book.

To prove that theory, I've marked several of my mystery books down to $.99 to see if I can improve the ranking for those as well. Frankly, I hadn't sold any of them for the first 15 days in May, and have since sold 29 at the lower price. It's painful to think readers these days are mostly bargain hunting, but it appears so.

Anyway, last night about 20 sales showed up all at once. Yet, I just realized this is the 20th and it always slows down when they start generating those "stupid" emails that say nothing useful.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003X95M94/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2

[Scrapper78]

I expect sales to slump come May.

I'm down quite a bit, but this is my third year and the third time I've seen this happen. My January high was 6k in profit. I'll be thrilled to clear 2500 in May. But that's the business. We'll see if a July release bumps me.

I did randomly have about a thousand downloads of my freebie, over a two-day period. Not sure what that was, and it hasn't really bumped my sales at all. I wonder if 'zon was cleaning up the reports on me.

[Shoe]

May was great until the past two days. KENP fell dramatically yesterday, and sales are off today while KENP is performing a little better.