How Was October 2022 For Low Content Publishing Book Sales?
There weren’t many surprises this month. Everyday sales were pretty steady, with no real dramatic highs or lows.
Which was a bit of a surprise, as last October I had one very high day, (you can see that below). But month by month, you cannot assume that October will be similar to October next year or the previous year.
KDP can be pretty random – it’s a ride and you just have to go with it.
Working On A+ Content For KDP:
This month I decided to focus more on creating a bit of A+ Content and going forward, I am trying to create this at the same time as creating all new low content books.
Eventually, I should have enough basic templates that this won’t take very long at all.
If you’e interested in me doing a video about A+ content, let me know in the comments.
There are are some great videos out there about this already, (mention one or two…….your chic geek.)
October Lower Than 2021:
Similarly to last month, October this year was quite a bit lower thank October last year.
However, October last year had one massive day which seemed to attribute to this. Whereas this year, it was all much steadier – without any of these big days.
I have to say, I do like those bigger days because they’re always exciting. November so far has been pretty stable day by day as well… Although, there is still time for a big increase.
So, what IS the difference this year? In my case, possibly the general state of the World could be a factor.
We have a cost of living crisis here in the UK, (where I often sell around 50% of my books) and it could be people are spending less in general on the books I make in particular.
Add to that the increase in competition generally and that could play a part.
That said, previous this months this year have been higher than the previous year by some way.
Ultimately, you just don’t know how well your books will do month by month anyway – as so many factors are included in this.
My Biggest Ad Spend So Far:
However – I also had my LARGEST Ad spend this month in the UK. Bigger than ever before.
Partly this was because I set up an aggressive campaign to a brand new book in a competitive niche.
I wanted to get those initial sales to rank this book and knew it was going to cost me a bit of money.
I only spent to get the initial 10 sales and then switched it off for a while to see if I would get some organic sales.
Thankfully, I continued then to get a trickle of organic sales as well.
Then I got a five star review. The thing I had been waiting for.
I have now added the book to another Ad campaign – with others in the same niche.
If you believe in your book, don’t be afraid to spend a bit of money promoting it and getting it ranked.
That said, if you’re spending a fortune and don’t have any sales on that book at all, (or barely) then it’s time to take a look at it.
You may need to improve the book, or the niche may just be too competitive to make a dent in without considerable funds.
October 2022 LOW CONTENT INCOME REPORT:
My highest day came to – $258
My lowest day came to – $119
As you can see above, October this year was quite different to the previous year.
However, last October – typically the days were lower day by day by comparison. It’s just that one particular day there was a massive bulk order.
I only have one book that could be classed as typically Halloween related. That made a small number of sales, but nothing special.
So, I didn’t have anything that would sell more at this time of year particularly.
This is the same when it comes to Christmas and I don’t have any dated yearly planners this year. Although, I don’t think I had any last year either!
Typically I go for undated planners, which sell all year around in any case.
I did want to create a bunch of dated ones this year – just to test some out really! But I didn’t get around to creating the dated interior and I hand’t wanted to get a ready made one.
You Can See My Marketplace Stats Below For October:
Nothing really that different with the marketplace stats for October.
A chance this month is that Australia in now in the number 4 spot. However, it’s not particularly significant with a 1.28% share.
KDP Amazon Ads For October:
As I explained above – my UK Ads were the highest ever this month.
Whereas my Canadian and US were some of the lowest Ad spend.
I had to switch some off as, come November – some were just performing incredibly badly.
When the ACOS has got too high for my liking recently, I’ve tended to attempt to reduce the bid by 15% at a time, (rather than switch off).
Unless the bid is very low anyway – in which case I’ve reduced by 10%
I’ve then made a note of this and it’s just been much easier to track things and know what I’ve changed and what I haven’t.
It’s very easy to go in and change things, but if you aren’t tracking this then you’re never going to know which change actually had a beneficial impact.
My Canadian Ads:
My USA Ads:
My UK Ads:
As you can see above, my UK ads were over £400. A good chunk of this was down to a new book I was promoting.
However, a decent chunk of it was for an Ad campaign that was doing really well. This was a type of lotto campaign but for books in the same niche.
This is why the overall ACOS for the month wasn’t too bad. Since, the book I was promoting had a high ACOS – this bought the overall ACOS up somewhat.
However, 29% overall is only a small loss.
Both the ACOS in the US and Canada were profitable. So, overall the loss will have been small.
If you’re not sure about Ads or how they work, you might want to check out the brief intro I did on Ads here.
Once I exchange pounds and Canadian dollars into US dollars, my approx Ad spend was:
$602.30
I then need to add on 20% VAT which I am charged on these Ads automatically by Amazon because I’m in the UK, (some other countries will also be charged this).
This would be around – $120.46
So, that brings the total to around $722.76
By far the most I’ve ever spent on Ads in one month to date. But, thankfully not as much of a loss. I also hope that the book initial sales for, will continue to sell throughout Q4 and get more reviews.
Other Expenses:
My other expenses right now come from the same ones I’ve had in a long while and currently that comes in at around $100 at the present time.
You can see the tools I use here – some are ones I paid for out right and others are monthly subscriptions.
TOTAL EXPENSES – $722.76 Ads & $100 expenses = $822.76
TOTAL PROFIT – 5593.29 – 822.76 = $4770.24
How Was Your October?
So, how much did you make on KDP this October? Have you noticed an increase in sales now that we are in Q4…. Or has it not changed much yet for you?
Let me know in the comments!
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