Monthly Archives: November 2015

Nov 25 2015

Puzzle Post: Fun Little Word Game

Gender Puzzle

WORD PUZZLE

Each of these 8 words is disguised.

Their disguises can be uncovered with one common key.

  1. PARQUEEN
  2. GUYLANT
  3. THERS
  4. CHERNEY
  5. MADAMEN
  6. HUNCLE
  7. MISTERION
  8. MAPER

See if you can figure out what these words have in common.

That’s the key to solving this word game.

Spoiler alert.

If you keep scrolling down…

You’ll run into the answers.

So if you don’t want to see the answers and explanation yet…

Scroll back up.

Last chance.

WORD GAME ANSWERS

Here is the answer key.

1. PARKING 2. GALLANT 3. THIS 4. CHIMNEY 5. SIREN 6. HAUNT 7. MISSION 8. PAPER

Here comes the explanation.

This word game is a gender puzzle. Find the gender in the word and switch the gender.

For example, guylant has the word guy in it. Change guy to gal to make gallant.

Similarly, maper has the word ma in it. Change ma to pa to get paper.

Write happy, be happy. 🙂

Chris McMullen

Copyright © 2015

Chris McMullen, Author of 300+ Mathematical Pattern Puzzles and Christmas Word Scrambles

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Nov 22 2015

Ad Performance Impacts Your Ad’s Chance of Being Shown with Amazon’s AMS

Image from ShutterStock.

Image from ShutterStock.

AMS ADVERTISING: CLICK HISTORY

It’s not just your cost-per-click (CPC) bid that matters.

It’s also your click history.

When you advertise with Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), click history in addition to your CPC bid determine the chances that your ad will be shown to customers.

Amazon’s bidding algorithm for advertising space via AMS takes into account the click-through rate (CTR) as well as the CPC bid.

That should make sense. You only pay for clicks; impressions are free. Also, ads with higher CTR’s and closing rates (sales per click) are more relevant to customers.

Amazon would prefer to show ads that are (A) more relevant for customers and (B) where customers are more likely to click on the ad (and then buy the product, and then be satisfied with their purchase).

A good CTR also helps you. For example, if you’re a self-published author advertising with AMS via KDP Select, a higher CTR and a higher closing rate mean that customers are interested in your book. Those are also the customers who are more likely to purchase and then enjoy your book.

Here are ways to improve the CTR of your ad, and hence improve the chances of your ad being shown to customers:

  • Choose your targeting well so that it’s a good match for your customers. If you target by product or keyword, use keywords that are a good fit for your specific target audience.
  • The ad thumbnail should clearly reveal the nature of the product. For a book, the tiny cover thumbnail that appears in the ad should make the expectations clear.
  • The title of the product and the tag line should both create interest and help to make the nature of the content clear.

Write happy, be happy. 🙂

Chris McMullen

Copyright © 2015

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

Click here to view my Goodreads author page.

  • Volume 1 on formatting and publishing
  • Volume 2 on marketability and marketing
  • 4-in-1 Boxed set includes both volumes and more
  • Kindle Formatting Magic (coming soon)

Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.

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Nov 15 2015

Kindle Unlimited: Global Expansion and Impact

Image from ShutterStock.

Image from ShutterStock.

KINDLE UNLIMITED NEWS

Amazon’s payment for Kindle Unlimited KENP pages read has dipped a hair below $0.005 per page.

There is a downward trend for KENP pages read, although is a reason behind the most recent dip, and, as we shall see, there may be good signs to offset this trend.

  • July, 2015: $0.0058
  • August, 2015: $0.0051 (11% drop)
  • September, 2015: $0.0051 (1% drop)
  • October, 2015: $0.0048 (5% drop)

It started in July at $0.0058, likely to match the projections forecast when Amazon shared their pages read data for June.

It dropped 11% from July to August, likely because there were changes in the readership and/or reading habits when the Kindle Unlimited changes were implemented, and perhaps also Amazon was adjusting KENP settings and measurements.

We saw nice stability from August to September. When we finally see some long-term stability, that will be nice. I think we’ll get there.

The drop from September to October has a simple explanation: Amazon expanded Kindle Unlimited globally, introducing it to India. The subscription price is much cheaper in India (around $4 US per month).

This global expansion pulled more readers into Kindle Unlimited, which is a good thing. But the lower subscription price in India effectively lowered the pages read rate by 5%.

That’s about to change. Starting in November, Amazon will pay different pages read rates in different countries. So pages read in India will likely pay less than pages read in the United States, for example.

Does that mean the US pages read rate will rise back up to $0.005 per page? Good question! Maybe it won’t go up, or up much, maybe it will. But hopefully it won’t drop as much next month, if at all.

But I continue to see good news in the data. For example, the KDP Select Global Fund keeps growing:

  • July, 2015: $11.5M
  • August, 2015: $11.8M
  • September, 2015: $12M
  • October, 2015: $12.4M

I see two potentially good points for authors in these numbers:

  • continued increase in the number of Kindle Unlimited subscribers
  • continued increase in the number of Kindle Unlimited pages read

Not everyone is seeing growth, but overall, I’m seeing improved pages read data for my books on average.

Of course, there is another piece of data equally important: 38,500 Kindle Unlimited books added in the last 30 days. There are now over 1.1M books in the program (it was closer to 0.6M when Kindle Unlimited started). There were 85,000 Kindle books added in the last 30 days, so competition for sales is even more fierce than for pages read.

Most authors must keep writing, publishing, and marketing to keep up in the current marketplace. Otherwise, most likely, both sales and pages read will drop.

Write happy, be happy. 🙂

Chris McMullen

Copyright © 2015

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

Click here to view my Goodreads author page.

  • Volume 1 on formatting and publishing
  • Volume 2 on marketability and marketing
  • 4-in-1 Boxed set includes both volumes and more
  • Kindle Formatting Magic (coming soon)

Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.

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Nov 14 2015

Events in PARIS – TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN…

from The Story Reading Ape’s blog

FRANCE and the FREE WORLD NATIONS may bow their heads in SORROW but NEVER in SURRENDER

Source: Events in PARIS – TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN…

(If you haven’t yet discovered the Story Reading Ape’s amazing WordPress blog, you should. Click the link above to check it out. It’s not only positive, but it’s an amazing resource for authors, and Chris the Story Reading Ape is incredibly supportive of authors of all kinds.)

PLEASE NOTE: This is a reblog from Chris the Story Reading Ape’s blog.

If you like this post, please click the link to “like” the original post before you click the Like button. Similarly, the best place to comment is to first click the link and comment on the original post. Thank you.

Nov 8 2015

Kindle Unlimited: Global Fund Stability and Marketplace Changes

Image from ShutterStock.

Image from ShutterStock.

KINDLE UNLIMITED UPDATE

Amazon announced that the KDP Select global fund for November, 2015 will be at least $12M.

It has consistently been $11M or more since May, 2015.

So this shows some nice stability.

Under the original Kindle Unlimited scheme, critics used to comment on how Amazon would low-ball the KDP Select global fund, promising around $3M at the beginning of the month, and then providing a much larger fund after the month’s end. Some tried to argue that Amazon was taking a loss because they raised the fund much higher than their initial projection.

When the new Kindle Unlimited unrolled this summer, critics revised their argument, saying that just because Amazon is offering $11M or more up front doesn’t mean they will continue to do this. Maybe it would drop down much lower later on, or maybe after a brief welcoming period, they would revert back to their old habits.

Yet from May thru November, the KDP Select global fund has held steady from $11M to $12M.

This stability is nice, and I haven’t heard such arguments from the critics recently.

Maybe the proponents for the new Kindle Unlimited who argued that the new system is more viable than the old system were right. Maybe it is more viable for Amazon financially, maybe it has added stability.

Whatever the reason, the global fund has held steady for 7 straight months.

The payment for pages read has dropped to just over $0.005 per page. There was a significant drop after the first month of the new Kindle Unlimited program, but that last two months held steady.

A new variable to the KDP Select global fund and to the KENP pages read is the added marketplaces offering Kindle Unlimited.

For example, Kindle Unlimited recently launched to India.

Whereas it costs $9.99 per month to subscribe to Kindle Unlimited in the US, the local India subscription price is the equivalent of $3.00.

This could significantly impact the payment for KENP pages read, and it probably will for October, 2015.

However, Amazon announced that they would revise their one-size-fits-all plan for pages read beginning in November, 2015.

The payments for pages read in each marketplace will take into account differences in local marketplaces. This should help to stabilize the payment per page.

However, there may be a drop for October, 2015 (we’ll find out on November 15), where this wasn’t yet factored into the payment for pages read.

The best news to me was this statement from Amazon KDP:

“Our long-term goal, as always, is to build a service that rewards authors for their valuable work, attracts readers around the world, and encourages them to read more and more often.”

Of course, it’s difficult to balance the rewards for authors with the other goals of attracting readers and getting them to read more.

But I believe this is a great long-term goal, and I do feel that in a number of ways Kindle Unlimited has helped with this goals.

Write happy, be happy. 🙂

Chris McMullen

Copyright © 2015

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

Click here to view my Goodreads author page.

  • Volume 1 on formatting and publishing
  • Volume 2 on marketability and marketing
  • 4-in-1 Boxed set includes both volumes and more
  • Kindle Formatting Magic (coming soon)

Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.

Comments

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