Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Hi fellow Indies,

I am enrolled in Kindle Select, therefore I am also enrolled in Kindle Unlimited.

I would like help in understanding KENP and how it's possible to have 0 page reads since the beginning of KENP. I mean ZERO; a flat line for nearly three months is hard to swallow when KU is for me the biggest reason to be in Select.

Thanks for your insights.

The best way to confirm that is next royalty check. If you have nothing, then the flat line means nobody is reading pages. This concept is new, though, and it is possible that the server is not updating the pages read.

What is your genre? My book is ya paranormal and I have several hundred pages a day. I think romance and ya readers use KU a lot, but I'm not sure about other genres.
Do you advertise anywhere? If you use twitter, you can tweet your book with #kindleunlimited and that may help. Good luck

Ellison, we can test this easily. I just downloaded the KU version of your book, and I'll start reading it tonight. You should see your KENP numbers rise accordingly.

Use of KU varies by genre, in part. My genre is romance, and 80% of my business comes through KENP. But I think romance readers use KU a lot! I also advertise that my book is available to read for FREE on KU on a daily basis on Twitter.

Ellison, what's your marketing plan? Where do you promote your book (especially the KU part)? How are you building your author platform?

Morris, thanks for your reply, if others are seeing stats then I think I should :) I'd hate to think the server has singled me out to frustrate. Besides, machines are emotionless (I think).

Wendi, my genre is Sci-Fi, Visionary and Medical Fiction. Yes, I use twitter, facebook and google+, I guess I should promote KU option more. I'll give this a try. Thanks.

April thank you! How wonderful of you. I'm going to try boosting my KU promotions. I advertise on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Amazon (really cheap ads that don't do much with 'borrow' in the title), and have a website.

My genre is Sci-Fi, Visionary and Medical Fiction, but have romance-like keywords

Hi Ellison. One thing to keep in mind is that your book is new and it's the first in a series that isn't yet complete. I've noticed that KU readers in scifi and fantasy tend to binge read and are gun shy when it comes to incomplete series. (I guess we blame GRRM for that :})

But... I'm seeing your book come up with mine and the others from the sale now, so perhaps with the additional exposure, you'll find that people are picking up your book based on Amazon reccomendations. Also bear in mind that they may not read right away. You might see a spike in your rank but no sale. That means someone grabbed your book, but they haven't gotten around to it.

Thank you all for the encouraging words (of wisdom). That flatline is just so aggravating. I'm not expecting loads of cash to fly my way, but exposure is what I was after when I enrolled in KU. I was late in creating my platform. I think I've been counting on it being a server issue as Morris suggested, but hoping more so that there is something I could actually do.

That said, I am working on the second title (Christina, I know you're right), and will try to shape up my advertising (I'm horrible at marketing, self or product). Christina, thanks for letting me know about seeing my book (that feels kind of good).

Ellison, I doubt it's a server issue. But we can rule that out, because I'll start reading your book tonight. I have it and I'll start on it after supper.

Check your KENP chart either late tonight or tomorrow morning. There is usually some lag - they do batch updates. But the updates come pretty quickly.

I'll keep you posted.

April, will do. Excited about the test and flat line to become not flat.

And ... :) I hope you enjoy Regeneration X.

Hi, Ellison

(Taking a break from reading to add another post.) Wow, you have an amazing command of language!! And such great imagery! I am so impressed. I've started reading (obviously), so you should see that flat blue line start raising up a bit. :) Keep us updated. I'm not sure what the lag time is, but it's probably not too long.

(Hint, folks... read Ellison's book! I'm really impressed!)

April, I'm gonna cry. Thank you.

And 42 minutes after your post, nothing still.

Ellison wrote: "And 42 minutes after your post, nothing still."

Check it in the morning, and let us know what you find. That line should start moving. If not, you can contact the KDP help desk; they've always been very helpful and responsive when I've contacted them with questions.

p.s. My KENP line has not moved all evening, so maybe there's a lag tonight. I have read about 22% of your book so far. You can use that percentage and the KENP length of your book to judge the accuracy of the line graph, once it gets moving.

I'm off to bed now. I'll check back here tomorrow morning and watch for an update from you.

Ellison wrote: "I would like help in understanding KENP and how it's possible to have 0 page reads.."

I've had ONE page read! It is a little odd as I used to have several copies borrowed every month, after the change I have seen only one page read on one story.

Could be as Morris said and the server isn't working properly.

April wrote: "(Hint, folks... read Ellison's book! I'm really impressed!) "

I have it in my massive stack of books. I will get to it... *sigh* ... so little reading time these days...

Dwayne for me it's been zero for 3 months. So Yay! Wouldn't that just be grand if many of us could blame it on the server?

And I will be glad of your read whenever you get to it. I'm happy to be on your reading list.

Ellison wrote: "Dwayne for me it's been zero for 3 months. So Yay! Wouldn't that just be grand if many of us could blame it on the server...?"

Whoops. Spoke too soon. I just looked. I now have ten pages read in there. Someone's been readin' one of my books tonight.

Hopefully April's experiment will have some results for you so you know for sure if people are borrowing or if there's some other problem.

Well, I have had a couple of days where I had page reads show up in the past, so yes, it is very possible that there's server lag or evwn someone reading offline. I'm pretty sure that they only update every couple of hours if that. Seems to me that it was twice a day, but now it seems about four times.

Dwayne, maybe the nosy machine gods caught onto this conversation and fixed the situation. I'm still waiting myself.

Christina, I'm patient, I'd have to be :)

Ellison wrote: "Dwayne, maybe the nosy machine gods caught onto this conversation and fixed the situation. I'm still waiting myself."

Ellison, have you seen any thing on your KU stats yet? I got your book on KU on 8/21 and finished it on 8/23-24. I still have it on my Kindle. If you are not seeing that on your stats, KDP needs to give you an explanation as to why not. (They've always been very responsive to our issues.)

Dwayne wrote: "Ellison wrote: "I would like help in understanding KENP and how it's possible to have 0 page reads.."

I've had ONE page read! It is a little odd as I used to have several copies borrowed every mon..."

You might want to check with KDP also. Yes, there are delays at times (KDP put a notice regarding at least one), and if people read-off those page reads may come in as a big slug. We had one day with zero page reads (unprecedented) and them a huge spike following that (3x average), so something happened there.

But these are all fluctuations over 2-3 days, not weeks or months. It seems unreasonable to believe people just stopped getting your book on KU, so this may be a technical issue.

BTW: I check our KU stats hourly and the updating seems irregular. Updates appear to be more frequent in early AM and slow down in the PM. The last update appears to happen (for us) at ~9PM, and then I midnight, the page reads rollover to the next day. (This can be a large number.)

I hope this get sorted out quickly!

Owen wrote: "Ellison wrote: "Dwayne, maybe the nosy machine gods caught onto this conversation and fixed the situation. I'm still waiting myself."

Ellison, have you seen any thing on your KU stats yet? I got y..."

Hi, Ellison

Anything on your KENP chart from last night/this morning? I've read close to 30% of your book. And if Owen read it a few days ago, you would have seen those numbers, too - long before now.

I suggest that you contact KDP and tell them at least two people have read your book via KU and you have not seen the KENP pages indicated on your Sales Dashboard. There's definitely a problem, and they need to investigate. KDP Select (KU) will only work if the authors have confidence that the system is accurate.

You can find a "Contact Us" button on the KDP website. You'll have to look around for it, but it's there.

The KENP pages on my book haven't moved since I put it into the program a month or two ago. Had been thinking about adding one or two of my other books, but now I'm thinking of taking that one out again and putting it back on Smashwords.

April, thank you for this experiment. I have seen your spike, must have happened at around 2am pst.

However there has to be a problem since no other reads are recorded. Owen thank you so much for letting me know, I would have assumed from the test that discouragingly only 1 person had read through KU in 3 months.

I will be calling Kdp and I'll let you all know, in case someone else experiences the same.

This is very concerning for all of us. KU only works if the authors have confidence in the system and believe that the accounting is accurate. If Owen's read of Ellison's book didn't show up on her KENP stats, then there's a problem. If her stats aren't right, then none of our stats may be right.

Ellison, I'm at the 30% mark of your book. I'll continue reading and updating you on my progress so that you can see how it's being recorded. Do you know how many KENP pages are in your book? That number is far different from the printed page count of a book. Do you know that number? For example, my book is 390 pages in print, but it's 865 KENP (more than doubled).

Let's see what we can figure out.

April wrote: "This is very concerning for all of us. KU only works if the authors have confidence in the system and believe that the accounting is accurate. If Owen's read of Ellison's book didn't show up on her..."

865?? Wow! My book is 242 in print and 262 in KENP. How can there be such a big difference?

*edit I just checked and now it says 284. Last month it was 262. This is weird

Wendi wrote: "865?? Wow! My book is 242 in print and 262 in KENP. How can there be such a big difference? "

Hi, Wendi. I have no idea how that's figured. One other person said the same thing to me. Her print-to-KENP ratio did not match mine, either. Maybe you can ask the KDP folks to explain how they determine a book's KENP.

Maybe they go with a fix font size? Maybe April used a very small one and Wendi used a closer to their ideal size? That's the only reason I can think of.

I used Times New Roman, size 12 - which is what we're supposed to use. I used standard formatting for online books. I think they account for font size, paragraph leading, etc...

Just for the sake of comparison, my 6x9 12pt Times New Roman paperback is 286 pages, but my KENP count is 517

J. Daniel wrote: "Just for the sake of comparison, my 6x9 12pt Times New Roman paperback is 286 pages, but my KENP count is 517"

J. Daniel, your ratio (print-pages-to-KENP) is pretty close to mine.

I've contacted KDP, I'll let you know what they say. The KENP equivalent page page count is 386, the print version is 282 pages.

I received a reply that the reader downloaded my book on the 21st but did not begin reading until the 28th.

Seems they combined Owen's download on the 21st (skipped his reading on 23-24) and April's reading on the 28th (and skipped her download on the 27th).

Owen wrote: "I got your book on KU on 8/21 and finished it on 8/23-24. I still have it on my Kindle."

April wrote: "Ellison, we can test this easily. I just downloaded the KU version of your book..."

While we're all waiting to hear more about the KENP thing, I'd like to encourage everyone to read Ellison's book. Not only is she an amazing writer, but her theme is compelling, her imagery is fantastic... she writes in a believable way about something we all can only fantasize about... going back in time. Resetting the clock. Returning to our younger selves for a do-over, and all its implications. What an ambitious undertaking, and she does it so artfully and so skillfully!

Ellison wrote: "Seems they combined Owen's download on the 21st (skipped his reading on 23-24) and April's reading on the 28th (and skipped her download on the 27th)."

That's exactly what it sounds like. I downloaded on the 27th, read approx. 30% on the 27th, and have read 12% more today.

I sent KDP the following reply as they also advised I run promotions to boost my sales (although I am appreciative of the advice it is kind of off topic):

"I received a reply that the same reader downloaded my book through KU on the 8/21 and began reading on the 28th, however I was told by two separate readers:

Reader 1: downloaded the book on 21st and finished reading on 24th (no KENP pages read to reflect this in the report).

Reader 2: downloaded the book on 27th and is currently reading (103 KENP recorded).

Also, the promotions are separate from KU and KENP since the book is always 0.00 for readers enrolled in KU. As far as I know promotions therefore are irrelevant as to why my KENP shows a flat line of 0 for nearly three months, prior to Reader 2.

If you would be so kind, please review my history and advise how 0 KENP can exist for nearly three months prior to 8/28/15 enrolled in KU. And I guess then, please help me understand how exclusivity with Kindle Select can be worthwhile for an author without KU effectiveness. Otherwise it seems Kindle Select is only useful to run sales and I can do that anywhere.

I apologize in advance if my correspondence seems curt, I'm trying to understand how Kindle Select/Kindle Unlimited is worthwhile as an author trying to get her book seen and read. Thank you in helping me to understand."

April thank you very much for those musical words. I am thrilled you are enjoying it. When sales are nil, it's really great to receive some recognition. (That's not to say I wouldn't be happy to hear them when sales are booming :) ) That's just a premonition on my part, not that I would know that feeling.

Ellison wrote: "I received a reply that the reader downloaded my book on the 21st but did not begin reading until the 28th.

Seems they combined Owen's download on the 21st (skipped his reading on 23-24) and April..."

This is beginning to sound like a device "phoning home" issue, and might be due to my rural location? Although I have had no issues downloading books, how exactly and how often my Kindle reports in is something I don't know.

G.G. wrote: "Maybe they go with a fix font size? Maybe April used a very small one and Wendi used a closer to their ideal size? That's the only reason I can think of."

There is info on this on the KDP site. Christina posted about it in some detail in another thread. For a book formatted according to KDP guidelines, the KENP count is about 2x the paperback page count, and the page count ratio can't be higher much than this.

Also, I think I saw a notice that KDP was tweaking the page count algorithm, so if a book is not formatted per the guidelines, its KENP count could change. (Ours have not.)

April wrote: "While we're all waiting to hear more about the KENP thing, I'd like to encourage everyone to read Ellison's book. Not only is she an amazing writer, but her theme is compelling, her imagery is fant..."

I second this.

Owen wrote: "Also, I think I saw a notice that KDP was tweaking the page count algorithm, so if a book is not formatted per the guidelines, its KENP count could change."

Interesting, Owen. I just checked my KENP and the number has down a tad since the last time I checked. I guess they are refining their algorithm.

In case anyone is still following this thread. I have yet to receive a resolution from KDP. My KU still reports only one reader (April) total of 386 KENPC in three months. Owen was kind enough to supply info which I could send to KDP specific to his reading, but since providing that information I have not heard from them.

This is disconcerting.

Charles, yes it is. While I'm just relaying my concerns as an example, this may be an issue for others who are not experiencing what they hoped or anything really from KU (which in my opinion is a major reason for being exclusive to Amazon).

Amazon is supposed to provide their own promotion to authors in the Kindle Select program (i.e., something in exchange for the exclusivity).

I have a month still to wait for my answer.

Looking over my own KU numbers, which have never been more than a trickle, it does seem to be "missing a beat" here and there.

I think a few days of flat line would be understandable. Readers may not get back to reading the very next day or the next couple of days. After a while, hopefully you get more then one reader at a time over a period so you're never at zero or not for long.

Ellison wrote: "In case anyone is still following this thread. I have yet to receive a resolution from KDP. My KU still reports only one reader (April) total of 386 KENPC in three months. Owen was kind enough to s..."

Thanks for the update. I hope you will continue to report on this. While no program that depends on devices the way KU does can ever be perfect, I hope Amazon provides some sort of resolution on this.