on Amazon …
Well, I made my ebook ‘Cuddle Muddle‘ free for two days last week and plugged it on some Freebie sites, Twitter & Facebook, taking advice from some ‘so called’ ebook Gurus. One had a list of 50 freebie sites and I dutifully accessed some of them, putting my details in a few days before my book was due to go free on KDP Select. Some of the sites required a listing on the Free day so I got up early and did that chore too.
Now the fun started and I watched my KDP reports page to see how many people were downloading a free copy. After a slow start my book began to go from 220000 up to 6000 and then to 2000 in the Free Book rankings. By the end of the two days it had peaked at 715. So what were the scores on the doors for my KindleFire colour picture ebook for preschoolers?
600 + downloads.
Now I was pretty pleased with that especially as I made a cack-handed fist of self-promotion on Twitter. So after the two free days were over I attempted some analysis.
I reckoned most of the downloads came from the Freebie sites so I wouldn’t be getting many sales of the companion ebook ‘Wiggle Jiggle’ from that. Those who buy freebies tend to, er, buy more freebies. It takes a lot to convince readers to part with their dosh when so many good (and bad) ebooks are freely floating around the web. By all accounts about 50000 are released each day … which makes my position of 715 not bad at all.
So how come I did okay? I also reckon some downloaders are only interested in how I managed to create my Fixed Layout ebook and have downloaded it to pick it apart with their software.
So how many downloaders will buy my next book and be interested in any others? That is the real question and I’m erring on the pessimistic side here. That’s probably realistic. I am lucky to have a track record in traditional publishing and that has helped with creating an interest, if not a buzz, but I don’t expect to break any sales records – just yet!
I thought it would be fun to see how many ebooks these gurus are selling. I was surprised to discover that all the ones I had read were selling books ranked lower than 2 million. Yet their sites acted as if they were storming the charts and selling millions. I guess it is wise to always question the advice you get on the web.
In a few weeks time I will probably make another ebook free and see how that goes. When my KDP select time is up in two months I will probably duck out of it and promote my stuff on my site and with sellers other than just Amazon. I don’t like having my eggs all in one basket. No one knows how the ranking/sales algorithms work. I certainly don’t.
What also struck me as my book lodged at number one in the Animals>Bears category in the Free list was the dross that was being bought alongside in the Paid list. Really badly drawn books with dull narratives were coining it in. Most had a low price point so I guess that readers were just having a punt, but a few were priced high and still selling.
I could see that these ones had the same sort of Tags and these Tags were liked, and that must help get the book’s ranking up.
It’s all just a game really, and one that doesn’t pay off for the professional picture book author and illustrator. Personally I like dealing with a traditional publisher who can offer editorial advice and an advance. Such deals are never easy to come by but they are always worth having.
I shall continue creating ebooks while writing my ‘traditional’ books – and it’ll be interesting to see how this ever changing ebook market pans out. If you have any comments feel free to drop me a line by clicking ‘Leave a comment’ below.
Hi Steph,
I used software from a small company called U-DO-IT to give myself a break from creating stuff to fit the KIndle fixed layout guidelines. I do have experience with coding & epubs and I have found that making an epub with square illustrations was successful. I would struggle to do this in fixed layout because the devices/screens are all so different.
Probably the only work around I can think of is to put a square drawing on a white rectangular background in Photoshop (or other photo editing software). Make sure this background (with its square drawing) is eventually saved as a jpg suitable for the web to keep the file size down, eg 1024wx600 @ 72 ppi. You need to chop it in half to make two sub-images each 512×600. But ensure this ratio is suitable for the device you are aiming for. My images for the kindle fire are 512wx600h at 72ppi.
Don’t forget that the kindle (and iPad) screens are actually showing 2 half images side by side, which is why each of my landscape spreads are really made of two 5×12 by 600 images that get put together. Means that half your rectangular background & half the square drawing would be on left side and half on the right – and gets electronically joined to make the full image on a 1024×600 screen.
Might be better work rounds than that – I am certainly no expert. If you don’t mind larger files sizes and paying Amazon a greater fee for downloads ( They charge over a certain size) then make your images bigger. I always make mine ridiculously huge and then reduce the resolution when putting them on the web. Why do large resolution images? – in case you want to print them as published books. Hope that helps.
message: Hi Alan,
I have just been reading your blog about ebooks and creating fixed layouts.
I have just finished writing and illustration my first childrens picture ebook and would like to publish it with a ‘square’ fixed layout, but am struggling with this much more than I thought I would.
I have created my book in Adobe InDesign. Might your be able to give me some advice?
Many thanks,
Steph