KINDLE UNLIMITED

Do Kindle Unlimited downloads affect sales rank? Definitely.

Do customers need to reach 10% of the Kindle e-book in order for sales rank to be affected? No.

All Kindle Unlimited downloads affect Amazon sales rank, even if the book isn’t read to 10%.

How do I know? I have Kindle Unlimited and recently tried this out. I downloaded two books with sales ranks above 1,000,000; these books hadn’t sold in recent months (poor books).

Although I didn’t even open the books on my Kindle, the sales ranks jumped down to the low 100,000’s. (Don’t worry. I’ll read them now.)

However, the effect wasn’t immediate; it took several hours for this to happen. (This lengthy delay is why I have now gone in and revised the finding that I posted on this yesterday.)

Authors only receive royalties when the book is read to 10%.

Kindle Unlimited customers: If you download a book through Kindle Unlimited, PLEASE read 10% of that book. Otherwise, the poor author doesn’t get paid. You could even scroll to the 10% mark. (Obviously, if the book turns out to be horrible when you open it and you feel that it doesn’t deserve a royalty, that’s different.)

This is good news: All Kindle Unlimited downloads help in some way. Even if it doesn’t get read to 10%, it still helps sales rank.

(Some books in Kindle Unlimited are losing ground with sales rank, though, simply because many other Kindle Unlimited books are being downloaded more frequently. Sales ranks have been somewhat wild ever since the inception of Kindle Unlimited.)

Read Tuesday

Imagine a Black Friday type of event just for book lovers.

You don’t have to imagine it. It’s called Read Tuesday, and it’s free: www.readtuesday.com.

Please support the Read Tuesday Thunderclap. This will help spread awareness on the morning of Read Tuesday (December 9, 2014). It’s easy to help:

• Visit http://thndr.it/1CkO2Bg.
• Click Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr and sign in.
• Customize the message. (Optional.)
• Agree to the terms. All that will happen is that the Thunderclap post about Read Tuesday will go out the morning of December 9.
• (The warning message simply means that Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr need your permission to post the Thunderclap message on December 9. This is the only post that Thunderclap will make.)

Halloween Reading

Looking for some spooky books to read this Halloween month?

https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/scary-books

Chris McMullen

Copyright © 2014 Chris McMullen, Author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

• Volume 1 on formatting and publishing
• Volume 2 on marketability and marketing
• Boxed set (of 4 books) now available for Kindle pre-order

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