Of Rain Gauges and Publishing Analytics

In Adelaide we live in the driest state in the driest continent. (Inhabited, I mean.) Technically, Antarctica receives the least amount of rain, but, it is not exactly inhabited except for several hundred scientists from various countries.

Analytics

Anyway, back to dry, old Adelaide. There have been times when rain is scarce, and in some parts of the state of South Australia, past the Goyder line, rainfall per year averages less than 200 millimetres. Hence, when there is rain on our fair city, there are a number of us in the population who like to measure how much rain we have had. So far, this last month, since I bought a rain gauge, we have received 60 millimetres. Great times for our farmers.

You could look at “analytics” as you would a rain gauge, especially if you are an indie author.

Reports

Perhaps you have a book on the Amazon virtual shelves. You venture from the safe and comfortable “bookshelf” page and click on the ominous “Reports”.

If you had done this when you first published your book, you may have been delighted to see the graph sprouting columns/bars or a line rising above the base indicating you have made some sales. Naturally, you would have sold your book to friends and family to generate these sales.

But then, a few weeks along, or months, and that graph has flatlined. Sigh! That line, as flat as the proverbial Australian desert and dry as an empty rain gauge in that desert. You have entered the “Goyder” zone of sales. You wonder what has gone wrong. Is it them? Or is it me? you ask.

In my experience, when the book sales flatline, nothing picks it up like a free promotion. Yes, you guessed it, giveaways. For example, Amazon allows free promotion for each book every three months. Free means no royalties, but is a cheap and easy way to advertise your book. People like free giveaways; they are like seagulls after chips. There’s nothing like that fuzzy feeling that someone out there has considered your book worthy to download to their Kindle to read…sometime…hopefully. Another upside is that your book’s ranking increases. 1^st is tops, most popular, whereas 15 000 000^th is not so…well, you get the picture.

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The downside of free promotion is that probably the readers download your book but never get around to reading it. They collect all the freebies, because they are free. Also, if readers download your free promotion book and actually get to read it, they can’t actually review it, either by rating it, or comment.

Comments and Ratings

There’s a belief out there in Indie publishing world that positive comments and five-star ratings beget sales, which gives birth to a higher ranking. A higher ranking on the virtual bookshelf produces more sales. For this reason, and to discourage “vote-stacking” by big-name or not-so-big-name but savvy publishers who use their computer algorithms and fake identities to generate comments and ratings, Amazon has strict criteria for who gets to rate and comment. Let’s just say an episode of a popular ’90’s sitcom concerning soup and the person dolling out the soup, comes to mind. So, if you are fortunate enough to get some comments and ratings, thank your random unrelated reader for taking the time to appreciate your book and share their feedback about your work.

I encourage you who read our Indie Scriptorium team’s current and future books, to share your helpful and positive feedback of our books on the Indie Scriptorium website. Or you might like to visit our personal websites, to share your thoughts on our work.

Feedback is Feedback

Although you may not get much feedback on your Platform of choice book page, analytics of how the sales are faring, can help you track how your book promotion is tracking. Remember that once you release your book for publication, you need to promote your book and advertise. A book doesn’t sell itself.

The analytics may indicate your in a sales-drought. Flatline. Nothing happening. Don’t be discouraged. Be proactive. Look at ways you can promote your book. Advertising, free-promotion, taking advantage of the resources available, and consistently give your book a plug on your blog or social media platform.

On the other hand, hooray! You’ve had some sales. Make the most of the higher ranking, and as the farmers do when they have good rain, they plant seeds. Again, hook more readers through your blog posts or invest in more advertising.

Special Priority Programmes (like Amazon’s KENP)

KENP—Kindle Edition Normalized Pages, is a programme exclusive to Amazon. If you opt for this programme you need to be exclusive to Amazon and not use other platforms to sell the kindle-version of your book. In this programme, a reader, who is a Prime member, meaning that they subscribe to Amazon for certain benefits such as Kindle Lending Library, can read any book in the programme for free. The advantage is that the author gets paid for every page the reader reads.

To see how your book is tracking on KENP, you can click on the KENP button on your report page and check out how many pages have been read. The Amazon report page will indicate if any KENP pages have been read.

What I have discovered recently is that as someone reads on KENP, the ranking of the chosen book improves, meaning potentially more readers, more sales.

Main Takeaway

What I hope you have gleaned from this gazing into analytics is that reporting on your sales may look scary. It may look discouraging if there are not many sales. But what I encourage you to do is have a go, click on your chosen platform’s “Reports” or “Analytics”, explore and get familiar with the graphs and information. Regularly check out how your book is faring in sales-world. I mean, a farmer regularly checks the rain gauge, the barometer and soil samples to improve productivity. The same is true of an author. Analytics is a tool. Use it.

© Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2023

Feature photo: Rain gauge © L.M. Kling 2023