Actual success on Kindle Boards?

[D a l y a]

ABSOLUTELY.

There are some very savvy people around here.  I'd still be bumbling around in the dark with no published books if it weren't for KBoarders.  It is the thrill of seeing all those covers in my signature that puts additional pressure on me to meet my deadlines.  They are like ... my badges for our clubhouse here!

[Pearson Moore]

I want to echo what Kevis said.  I think I had the early intention of adding Kindle Boards to my arsenal of marketing tactics, but Kindle Boards doesn't seem to have anything in common with any marketing scheme.  I find no correlation between my activity here and book sales.  This is not true of my marketing efforts, where I can trace bumps in sales to specific marketing activities.

For the last seven months or so I've understood KB as a place I can visit to read other authors' concerns, reader interests, and to gather news available nowhere else--today's announcement that Amazon is going to be opening physical stores, for instance.  Based on my own experience, if you approach KB as a sales-oriented activity, you are likely to be disappointed.  On the other hand, if you pop in now and then to read a few threads, you'll probably be happier.

[Kevis 'The Berserker' Hendrickson]

And Julie, do you think it's time for a new Queen of Mean election?

My vote goes to... (insert drumroll)

[telracs]

My vote goes to... (insert drumroll)

Remember, I have chocolate...

[T.K. Richardson]

(See what I mean about free entertainment?)

[Bards and Sages (Julie)]

Blink

There are elections for that? Where do I sign up? 

Of course, even the Emperor had to be elected to the Senate before he could take over the galaxy...

[Kevis 'The Berserker' Hendrickson]

Remember, I have chocolate...

How dare you try to bribe me with chocolate? Do you think my vote can be bought so cheaply? (How soon can you send it? )

[telracs]

Blink

There are elections for that? Where do I sign up? 

Believe me, I was planning on asking you if you wanted in!

I'll PM you later.

Hmmm, we may in fact be overdue...

Yeah, my crown's getting tight.  

I'll start a thread in NQK when I get home tonight.

How dare you try to bribe me with chocolate? Do you think my vote can be bought so cheaply? (How soon can you send it? )

You know that I don't do cheap chocolate!

[Sebastiene]

It is the thrill of seeing all those covers in my signature that puts additional pressure on me to meet my deadlines.  They are like ... my badges for our clubhouse here!

Badges! I love that!

And yes, I've learned a lot from you guys. (Success? It's early days.)

[Sean Patrick Fox]

Has anyone seen any real sales increases as a result of Kindle Boards activity?

Some people have, some people haven't. I think you're going to find that on KB, you get out of it what you put into it. If you only come here to promote your work, you're going to have limited success on that front. Readers and fellow authors know what promotion looks like, and we can tell when people are only here for that reason.

[UnicornEmily]

I'd say that it's not a spectacular increase, but . . . you know?  Maybe.  I can't gauge it.

What I can gauge is that I know I've met some neat people here that I'd never meet in any other way.  And some of them have read my books, even!    So there's definitely been some sales increase, since some people have definitely found and noticed my book that way.

[ellenoc]

I've never noticed any sales spikes related to posts here, but then I consider the Writers' Cafe a friendly place for sharing indie experiences and giving and receiving support. All of KB is a friendly place IMO and kept that way by the light and sensible moderation, which makes it a lovely haven from so many places filled with snark and venom. It also seems to me that while the majority here is pro-indie, there are people willing to speak up with relatively kind reality check advice often enough that KB isn't merely a foolish cheering section.

[Doomed Muse]

I don't post here to sell books (I don't even bother putting up a thread for each book in the Book Bazaar anymore).  This place has a lot of exchange of information and ideas which is its real value, as others have said.  I've also found great cover artists, recommendations for editors, and other really useful information here.

The occasional snark is like the cherry on top. 

[Lyndawrites]

Sales? Oh yes, I remember. I think I had one, once, though it may have been in a galaxy far, far away.

I come here for the laughs — and the offers of chocolate, obviously

[telracs]

Sales? Oh yes, I remember. I think I had one, once, though it may have been in a galaxy far, far away.

I come here for the laughs — and the offers of chocolate, obviously

*hands Lynda a chocolate*

ice cream anyone?

[psychotick]

I haven't noticed any bump in sales in the last week or so, but then I didn't expect to. There is a thread for promoting your books here, but I haven't used it. Mainly I joined because of either the entertainment value or the chance to learn something useful from fellow authors. But now I hear there's chocolate too!

Seriously if you want to promote your books, my advice would be to hunt out some book bloggers and ask if they'll promote them. Other then that you can try my own patented system of writing more books and hoping one or two of them fly.

Cheers, Greg.

[EC Sheedy]

*hands Lynda a chocolate*

ice cream anyone?

I'm here picking up data crumbs from all the indie authors so far ahead of me on this newly paved road. I never thought about it as a way of getting sales, but then I've only ever puttered around the Writer's Cafe. But now that I think of it, I have bought books after reading some of the authors posts. Although I'm never quite sure why. 

Grabs chocolate and runs....

[BrianKittrell]

Father is disappointed with you, Cleric.

[Lyndawrites]

*hands Lynda a chocolate*

ice cream anyone?

Thanks, Scarlet. Aah! Who needs sales when you can have chocolate?

[Rex Jameson]

If you're looking for tactics for increasing sales, this is a great place to go. If you think that posting on these boards results in hundreds of sales, you're misleading yourself. Kindleboards is a place to research and waste time with friends.

[Marie S]

I don't know about success yet (as in book sales) but I have learned so much about publishing, etc from coming here and for that I am grateful 

[Steve Vernon]

All kidding aside, coming to a forum like Kindle Boards - to me - is a little like going to a book signing.

I like going to book signings. You meet a lot of people who dig books and you sell a few copies.

I've sold anywhere from one to forty or so of my traditionally-published books at the various book signings I've attended over the years. That doesn't even begin to touch the many copies that people just pick up at bookstores all across the maritimes and even further afield.

What I'm trying to say is the amount of books you sell at a book signing does NOT significantly affect your career and/or writerly income. You go to a signing to put in an appearance, meet some cool book-loving people and mostly talk books.

That's what I'm doing here. I've sold a few copies - and that's judging from the few people here who actively shout out to me "HEY, STEVE, I BOUGHT YOUR BOOK!".  But if I depended solely upon those people who shout out from Kindle Boards for what I earn from my e-books my wife would giggle at me a whole lot more - and not in a good way.

Any writer, e-book or not, depends primarily upon those faceless hordes out there in book-land who pick up your  book or download it upon their Kindle. I'd like to sell say 100 copies a day - (I don't) - but if I ever get to that point, the odds are that each of those 100 people are NOT going to be people I've met on Kindleboards or Facebook or any other social media outlet. They're not going to shout out "HEY STEVE, I BOUGHT YOUR BOOK"

Certain scholars and holymen will tell you that God will measure you by your scars, come the end of the day.

Come the end of the day, here on Kindleboards, I measure my success by the amount of grins.

(hence, the abundance of bad, bad jokes)

 

[Decon]

Thank you Kevis.

From a reader's point of view, an author will get of KB what they put into it.  If you stay in the WC, you will get lessons (hopefully helpful) from your fellow writers on craft, sales, etc.  If you only post in the book bazaar, you may sell a few books.  But if you come out into the main board, you will find a lot of fun stuff.  And you might find yourself tangentially selling a few books.

Re-reading this, I find myself curious about something.....  How exactly would you know if you sold a book because of KB? 

I'v have had messages for KB readers telling me thay have bought a story and enjoyed it. Some came from Book Bazzar and some as a result of posting on writers cafe, not many, but still a nice bonus. In the UK, when I interact on KU forum, another kindle forum, the same has applied. Obviously we will never know the ones who drive by and pick up your book.