Amazon: The Pros And Cons Of Success Pt2

Hello again. This is part 2. It’s like THE GODFATHER part 2, minus the Italians.

Remember those sales numbers from before? Let’s look at them again.

They’re not bad. But they’re not what they COULD have been, and that’s what has me bummed.

You see, at the peak of my success Amazon suddenly decides to take Far From Home 1 off of Free and stick it on sale for 99c.

WHY??? If it ain’t broke, then don’t fucking fix it. Remember that if I make money, then so too does Amazon. So would it not make sense to let me do my thing?

Nope. Amazon take it upon themselves to change the pace.

This is what I see. These are a few screen grabs. You’ll notice the slump…or trough, as we used to call it in the retail world.

These are just for illustration purposes really. I realized that in using Far From Home 1 as a free gateway to the series, I was really handicapped by it not being a freebie anymore. It was my Achilles heel.

So I went to every place where Far From Home 1 is listed as free. By now it’s on itunes, kobo, nook, etc etc. I went to all of these and sent Amazon the links again. Made things totally clear to them that EVERYWHERE this book was free. Sure enough, a little while later, they relisted it back as FREE.

So why all the drama? Well, luckily things have gone back to how they were. It’s like it’s reset itself. I’m glad and thankful for that. However, what if they hadn’t? What if it had caused irreparable damage? As it was, it ruined a really good month for me.

It just illustrated to me how tenuous a thing SUCCESS with Amazon can be. One minute it’s there, the next it can be snatched back from you. Maybe it’s not Amazon’s fault. I mean, look at the fantastic opportunity we Indie’s have with KDP.

But you need to remember it’s a machine. Human eyes would have seen the sales figures I was having, and would have left book 1 well alone. As it was, I think some kind of algorithm kicked in to push it back up to paid.

That’s the con. The downside. Ultimately you’re not the true master of your own destiny. You can put together the best cover and content around, and have more success with it than you could have ever dreamed.

But Amazon can take that away from you tomorrow. So sleep with one eye open.