Amazon Kindle and Book Sales Reflected on Sales Records

Two days ago, I noticed that my Kindle version of the Tales of Wooffer's Woods sales rank changed from 863,000 to 123,000. I thought , Wow, someone has purchased my little book. I looked at my Kindle page which tells me how many downloads or sales were done that day, and expected to see The Tales of Wooffer's Woods show one sale. Nothing! I waited, thinking that it may take a little time to register on that sheet, but as of this night not one sale has shown up. Two days later. My paperback also has shown sales and I have no record of those, either.

Is it possible that people on Amazon Prime can read your book and nothing register as a sale for you? I wonder this stuff. Every little sale is something I look forward to. I am not famous and probably will never be, but if someone buys my little book, I want the 2.07.

Any advice?

Love,

Betty

I gave up.

I've had that happen a few times. The sales would show up eventually. One copy of Redstone's Valley took nearly a week, and when it finally did, it was listed in the "Prior 6 weeks" report with an earlier date than had been indicated on the graph.

Ann

@ Betty,

I have just punched in The Tales of Wooffer's Woods on my Kindle.... and, since I am a Prim Member, I can download and read them all for free.

Since I have no books for sale... I am not familiar with the sales side of Amazone (yet) eg. I do not know if authors get paid for downloads by prime members... since technically the prime members are not paying for the book.
I would imagine your rating to up though.

Anyway,
this is as far as I can help with it.

Huggles,
Katja

That's true for people using Kindle Select, but you will still get paid - through the lending pool funds, or whatever it is called. I only tried it for 90 days, then decided I wanted to list with other sellers as well as Kindle. I don't remember the details, but if you do use it, Betty, you might want to check the Select info. I seem to remember that if someone does borrow your book, you might actually get more of a return than you would with a sale. If that's what's happening, it will show up on your current month's report under "units borrowed."

Ann

Oh... I just read the last part of your post about the prime members.

I would probably not take all of them off the prime program. I use the free books to find new authors that I like. Once I read a book or two from one author, I am not so hesitant to buy one from them down the line.

I know that you are not asking much for your books... and I do not know how well you are known as an author (I know that you have more experience in writing than I have, and I know that you probably could teach me loads about putting my books out there). I guess what I am saying is that my perspective right now is strictly that of a reader.

If you are getting loads of downloads and your ranking shot up by this much... word must be getting out. So, I would probably take some of them off Prime (if you are able) but still leave a couple on there.

Any thoughts from the PROS???

Huggles,
Katja

As I understand it, Prime members can only borrow one book a month. Most of the time, they will choose one of the more expensive books to borrow, since they get a better deal that way, and, as I said earlier, those borrowed books go into a pool for all Select participants, so those participants do get paid something, depending on the size of the pool and the total # of books borrowed in a month.

This page explains how it works:

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A6KILDRNSCOBA#earning

Ann

I've given up trying to understand the unexplained significant changes in ranking sans sales, sales with no rankings impact and related issues as every attempt to get a straight answer from Amazon has come to naught. I now ask the nearest tree whenever I have an Amazon-related question on the issue as the ultimate effect is the same and it avoids the frustration of having to follow up when the invariably unrelated answer to the question asked arrives.

That is some useful info Ann... I have no clue how that works.

After I clicked on the books.... I saw that it was the borrow that I would be able to get. Have had my Kindle for 2 months now... up until then I had only the Nook.

Huggles,
Katja