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Post your reviews!
🕑 Added 2018-07-12 15:01:00 +0000 UTC Now that Evil Inc After Dark is available on Amazon.com, feel free to go over there and post your glowing review of the book! (5 stars bring out the sparkle in Miss Match's eyes, don't you think?) So much the better if you actually bought the book vis Amazon, but if you got yours through Kickstarter, your opinions are perfectly valid — and helpful!Thanks in advance!
Behind the curtain...
This is way more information that most people want, so I put it down here. Don't scroll unless you're fascinated by the economics of self-publishing.
Can we talk?
So, after the Kickstarter, and after selling them on my site for a few months. the next step for the Evil Inc After Dark was general distribution. It works like this; I release the book through Diamond Comics Distribution and Diamond solicits it to comic shops, bookstores and other retailers.
All of that is bupkiss. What counts it that releasing it through Diamond also means it gets onto Amazon.com (and other sites like Powells and Barnes & Noble) with the same presentation as a book published by a large publishing house. That means it's available for Amazon Prime shipping, one-click ordering (when it's in stock) and other things that bump sales.
Diamond buys the books from me, holds them in their warehouse, and sends them to retailers who order them.
The problem is that Diamond refuses to buy enough books to cover the amounts that Amazon is selling.
The vicious cycle
Diamond buys a shipment of books. That kicks off the book getting listed on Amazon, and the orders start coming in. EiAD starts climbing the charts for its main category — graphic novel/erotica. When the book crosses into the top 100, it kicks Amazon's algorithm into high gear and the book starts getting promoted to more people who are searching for smutty comics.
Quickly, Diamond's stock runs low. And My book's listing goes from "ships in 1-2 days" to "out of stock, ships in 2-4 months." Oddly, enough, this has a somewhat dampening effect of sales. The book falls out of the top 100, and sales dwindle. Then, the new shipment comes in, the book's Amazon listing is updated, and it starts climbing the charts again until the stock once again runs low and the cycle begins anew.
So here’s what I did...
I signed up to become the vendor for my own book. The listing is still an "official" Amazon listing, but now, instead of waiting for Diamond to make a substantial order, Amazon will buy the books directly from me, store them in their warehouse, and process orders as usual.
And here’s where you come in...
My listing has been in and out of its category's top 100 for a few months now. That's bad for the almighty Amazon algorithm. But there's one thing that Amazon loves, and it's 5-star reviews with glowing comments. Therefore...
- If you haven't gotten your copy yet — and would like one — order it from Amazon and leave a review. Amazon favors reviews from "confirmed buyers."
- If you bought your copy from Amazon, leave a review. Amazon favors reviews from "confirmed buyers."
- If you got your book outside of Amazon (Kickstarter, Backerkit, my site, etc.) go to Amazon and leave a review anyway! The more reviews — "confirmed" or not — the better!
And now you know... the rest of the story.
Good day!
Comments
Brad Guigar
And I had flashbacks of another kind... The last time I picked up Diamond's Adult Previews catalog (admittedly, quite a while ago)... it was a pretty hefty booklet. The edition that carried my two solicitations was exactly 4 pages — basically, a sheet of 11x17 newsprint folded.
Brad Guigar
Thank you so much!
Brad Guigar
Thank you! I appreciate it!
Brad Guigar
Thank you to everyone for writing reviews! I can't tell you how much I appreciate that!
Brad Guigar
That's all a part of being distributed through Diamond. They send some books to the UK where they can be distributed further from there. So an order from Amazon UK is fair game. Thank you for your review! I appreciate it!
JeffW
I'm all for you doing whatever is needed to optimise your sales ... but how does this work now for international sales? I got my EIAD delivery from Amazon UK and it was apparently shipped from within the UK. Review to follow. A nice one.
Mr. Nobody
I'm having flashbacks to 25 years ago and having to order everything through Diamond's phone book sized "Previews" catalogue, and reading about Steve Bissette and Budd Root's struggles to keep "Taboo" and "Cavewoman" out of the Adult appendix.
Caleb Davis
Review posted. Happy to support.
Kyle Voltti
Reviewed under my Canadian and American accounts... also from the looks of it FIRST REVIEW AS WELL WOOO lol
