How Newspapers / Magazines Deceive Readers

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A Joke? Statistics about the numbers of e-Books versus print books – taken from companies that sell only print books? Yes, that’s right – or have you ever purchased an e-book at WalMart, Costco, Sam’s Club, Target or K-Mart? How can statistics be true if one (large) part of the measurement is not taken?

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Flawed Survey, Sloppy Research, No Fact-Checking…
“Print Books Still Outselling e-Books” or “Print Books Outsold Ebooks In First Half Of 2014” are the big headlines these days at newspapers and magazines, from PublishersWeekly to GoodeReader and Huffington Post.
“According to Nielsen’s survey, e-books constituted only 23 percent of unit sales for the first six months of the year, while hardcovers made up 25 percent and paperback 42 percent of sales.”

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What’s NOT Included in these Articles:

• The fact that NielsenScan covers a maximum of 75% of the US and UK book market
• NielsenScan does NOT count e-books at all! How can they compare print vs e-books?
• From which book retailers and which publishers – trade and / or independent publishers?
• Does it include used book sales or only new books? Just launched books or back lists? Book retailers usually stock only new books…
• In which countries are these stats taken – probably it means just the USA.   But after all we are on the world-wide web, right?  And in countries who are avid e-book readers, the picture looks completely different, e.g. the Netherlands, who has more e-book readers than the UK, or Germany.
• According to Nielsen: “Library, professional, corporate, premium, export, and some specialty retail sales are not included in the BookScan physical panel.
• NielsenScan does NOT report any Print-on-Demand books including CreateSpace!
• Amazon reminds authors:
  “Note about Amazon print sales: Sales reported depends on which retailers selling your book and participate in Nielsen BookScan, and whether your book is registered with one of the companies from which Nielsen derives its list of reported ASINs. If your book is registered with the Ingram Company, for example, you will see sales info. If your book is Print on Demand, your publishing company may not report ISBNs to Ingram and you may not see sales information. If a disproportionate number of your books are sold by stores that do not report to Nielsen, your sales information may underestimate your total sales.”
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  These are the Facts:
  
• Millions of independent published books, Print-on-Demand books and e-books as well as retailers are NOT included at all in Nielsen’s statistics
• How wrong Nielsen’s numbers are, can be found in several articles, one of these on Forbes, where authors proofed their royalty statements, that have completely different book sales numbers.
• NielsenScan covers only major book chains and mass markets, such as WalMart, Costco, Sam’s, Target or K-Mart in the United States and Great Britain. Presently they try to target the Australian market.
• Amazon cautions: Most Amazon print sales are included in the sales figures; however, Kindle or other e-Book sales are NOT included because those figures are NOT reported by Nielsen BookScan.

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A Harvard University Article Explains:
“Prior to BookScan, the only source for market data for some individual titles were Best Seller lists, compiled by publications such as the New York Times that survey selections of book stores from which they generate estimates of rankings. However, these published lists don’t indicate how many copies of a book have sold or the relative sales among books on the lists.”
“Since 2009, BookScan does supply weekly “book charts” to the Wall Street Journal, but they are just best seller lists. The bottom line is, only book publishers have comprehensive sales data, and they don’t usually make it public. Strange as it may seem, we know of no reliable, publicly-available way to get comprehensive statistics for book sales at this time. Nielsen BookScan, which reports point-of-sale data, but even that claims to represent only 75% of all retail sales!”
“If you are looking for current sales figures, you can use Amazon.com to get a general idea, although it relies on very recent numbers, so the figures are not really accurate. The “Author Central” feature on Amazon.com does provide BookScan data to current authors only.”

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How Bestsellers Are “Made” by NielsenScan
“Bestseller doesn’t necessarly mean it is a terrific book, worth to read. It rather shows a 2-3 week old sales statistic of books that sold well in chain bookstores and at independent booksellers, who are connected in a certain country (e.g. USA or UK) to Nielsen BookScan which currently covers approximately 75% of retail sales.”

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To Compare e-Book Sales with Print Sales
Paper books and e-books will co-exist peacefully.  Most book lovers read their favoured titles not only in print, but as well in e-book format.  A comparison of e-book sales with print sales will NEVER show the real numbers!  Good only for a catchy headline, but it lacks the journalistic facts: who, when, where, what, why and how.
If Nielsen wants to deliver serious stats, they would have to be done world-wide, at all book retail outlets and all publishers – small, big, trade or independent.  So, if someone is stating statistics they need to be explained: from which country and which retailers those “statistics” are rendered and that they not show the real picture – especially when they are taken from retailers who DO NOT sell e-books at all.  It’s like comparing apples and pears, don’t take them seriously!

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BookBoon Offers Everyone to Participate in a Survey:
“In June 2014 we started a new eBook survey to get an idea of the latest trends. Please help us by answering our 11 questions (takes maximum 2 minutes). At the end of the survey you can see the preliminary results. Click here to start the survey.”

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The Dark Side of Bestseller Lists

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… or how newspapers don’t tell the whole truth – and not only newspapers, but also book statistic firms, wealthy writers and certain big publishers. Have you ever wondered how some books could reach bestseller status? And how could this be, so short after they are on the market?

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BookScan or BookScam?
But first a statement: Bestseller doesn’t mean it is a terrific book, worth to read. It rather shows a 2-3 week old sales statistic of books that sold well in chain bookstores and at  independent booksellers, who are connected in a certain country (e.g. USA or UK) to Nielsen BookScan.  Sales of online retailers and book departments at big box stores, such as WalMart, Cosco, or Sam’s are not counted – neither are digital books or audio books, which are neglected by Nielsen BookScan as if they are not existing at all! Seems their book statistic methods are thirty years old and/or they have too tight connections to the big five publishers…
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Jeffrey Trachtenberg from the Wall Street Journal wrote an investigative story: “The Mystery of the Book Sales Spike”: How are some authors landing on the Best-Seller lists? They are buying their way!
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He described books that “hit The Wall Street Journal’s list of best-selling business titles upon its debut. The following week, sales of the books, written by first-time authors, plunged 99% and fell off the list. A week after selling enough copies to make it onto the Journal’s business best-seller list, more hardcover copies of the book were returned than sold, says book-sales tracker Nielsen BookScan.”

However it was enough to allow authors to put a label on his book: “Best-Seller”. Good for his reputation and a doorway to get speaking and consulting engagements.
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How could these authors reach Best-Seller status?
Well, there are (very expensive) Marketing firms who charge the author ten-thousands of dollars, not only for their services, but to actually BUY their books during a certain week. They advertise this with: “We create campaigns that reach a specific goal”, “On the bestsellers list,” or “100,000 copies sold”…
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Nielsen BookScan who delivers the data of sold books to large newspapers, such as the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, denies any manipulations and says it prevent its sales data from being manipulated. However the way their stats works and the way the newspapers report it, opens doors wide open to manipulations: it includes quantities bought by corporations or associations either for re-sale or free distribution, and quantities purchased by their authors, regardless of whether the writers intend to re-sell the books, give them away, or use them.

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Even so-called reputable, traditional publishers are involved into this kind of scam.
Read the whole story by Karen Ballum: “How Much Would You Pay to Be a Bestselling Author?” an eye-opener, I promise you!

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are almost 700 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

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3 Ways to Reach the Bestseller Lists

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Nick Thacker wrote a great blog post how authors can beat the bestseller lists. Here are some snippets from his post:

“Authors have tried to find the “magic bullet” method of getting their book placed side-by-side with the likes of Dan Brown, J.K. Rowling, and Robert Ludlum.  It’s a well-known fact that the bestseller lists e.g. at the NY Times Book Review are just proprietary algorithms that would make Google proud, and which select and churn out “bestsellers” left and right – sometimes before the book even hits the shelves.

It’s been rumored that these lists are contrived forms of propaganda intended to keep the “establishment media” agencies ahead of the game.

There’s another way to “the top.” While it isn’t via “traditional” channels, such as landing on a well-respected list or having a daytime spot on Oprah, but it’s a just as – or perhaps more-more-satisfying way to achieve success in the scary world of books: making a ton of money and attracting a bunch of new readers without the strings, constraints, and conditions of big publishing.”

Number one is: WRITING MORE BOOKS!  Number two and three…

Nick Thacker writes: “Over the past few months, I’ve studied just about every marketing tactic, promotional strategy, and book-selling trick known to the self-publishing world. Some worked, some didn’t, but I discovered a truth that authors like J.A. Konrath and others have been preaching for a while: The more books you have available to be purchased, the more you will sell.”

Read it all on Nick Thacker’s blog post and follow him on Twitter @NickThacker to find out why it is so important to have lots of books out there and what step number two and three to success are.
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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are more than 520 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

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Once More: KDP Select

KDP Select is a new program allowing authors of Kindle e-books to earn money by allowing their titles to be lent out to American (only) Amazon Prime customers.

Authors do not have to be USA-based themselves.  “Prime customers” are allowed to borrow one Kindle e-book free of charge per month under the KDP Select program.

 

However, authors don’t get any royalties from this program – as their books are loaned out free – but Amazon has set aside a substantial fund (an estimated $6 million during 2012), which is shared out every month according to how many times each e-book has been borrowed. With low-cost e-books your earnings per loan are almost certain to be higher than your royalties per sale. During the last two or three months it hoovered around $1.60 and $ 1.70 – even for books that were priced at $0.99.

Terri Reid, author of several paranormal mystery books, earned over eight times more money from paid sales of her KDP Select books compared to the month before she joined KDP Select.  She also earned $8,000 from the KDP Select fund in January.  “KDP Select has added a wonderful boost to my sales – many new readers have written to me mentioning they have borrowed my first or second book and then purchased the rest of the books in the series,” said Reid.  “I’ve also found that the ability to offer my books for free has brought my sales to a whole new level.  I highly recommend the KDP Select program.”  Other authors are not so happy about their figures.

The KDP Select program has been the cause of much discussion among Kindle authors, with some contending it offers a poor deal for authors. This is largely because, if you want to take part, you are barred from selling your e-book digitally through any other outlet during the (minimum) 90-day period your title is available through the program.

It’s estimated that 27,000 titles were registered in the first 24 hours.  When Amazon launched the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library it contained around 5,000 books. There are now over 100,000 Kindle titles available on Prime.

David Gaughran wrote: “Aside from being listed in the Lending Library, and having those borrows positively affect Sales Rank – which leads to increased visibility on the various Bestseller Lists, coming off a successful free run can massively affect your position on the Popularity Lists, often putting you on the first page or two overall . As a lot of Amazon customers believe that the Popularity List is the Bestseller List, this can be a huge driver of sales.”

Don’t forget: Whenever a book is free (to “buy”) on Amazon, often other titles by the same author see a spike in sales.

Read more about the KDP Select Program:

http://www.amazon.com/prime

http://www.bookbuzzr.com/blog/book-marketing/my-kdp-select-free-experiment-3-days-free-and-the-aftermath/

http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/amazon-the-importance-of-popularity/

http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2012/01/guest-post-one-authors-first-month-in.html

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