I see this question in alot of self-publishing Facebook Groups, so I thought I would address it here and give you guys the resource that I personally use.
People always wonder, once they self-publish their books on Amazon–
How will I know when I make sales?
The short answer is: You won’t. Amazon is not going to let you know, so you’ll have to go looking for the “Reports” tab in your Kindle Direct Publishing dashboard.
When you click that tab, you’ll see this strangely vague chart.
You’re welcome to zoom in on this, because it tells you absolutely nothing (except for the fact that I sell some books every day, which is super awesome).
If you have more than one book for sale, you’re going to need to click the “Try the new KDP Reports beta” link, which will give you a more detailed report of what books you sold. FYI, this feature has been in “beta” for several years and I have honestly never seen them make one change, so this might just be how KDP reporting is for the foreseeable future.
I have a bunch of non-fiction books in the KDP system, plus I have been working on a low-content side hustle for a couple years and have published 2,000+ books for that.
No, that’s not a typo. I’ve been working on this book for several years, and as part of my “practice what you preach” philosophy, I now have over 2,000 low-content books in my library. Pre-order that book if you want to find out more about that and learn how to publish low-content books yourself.
Here’s a problem, though: once you have that many books for sale, you really need a reporting system that comes to you, rather than one you have to log in and look for a million times a day. For some reason, Amazon has not enabled this type of automated reporting for its KDP system (whereas if you sell on FBA, they totally have it!).
With this in mind, I went looking for a third-party software that sends notifications when sales are made, and I found that (and much more!) in KDPChamp. In fact, I was so impressed with this software, I made friends with the developer, (Irineous Theodorou), and he agreed to answer some questions for us today!
Q: Why should authors use KDP Champ?
A: It is fast, it is reliable, we are constantly new features added, it is available on the phone, all data is encrypted to ensure the security of our users. In addition to that, it has integration with Amazon’s advertising platforms that enables the user to track their spending and sales with the click of a button. Customer support is our #1 priority and we are there for you at anytime to provide you with the best service!
What got you interested in helping authors track their book sales?
Summer of 2020, me and my brother in law were going on our regular walk at the beach when I couldn’t help but notice that he was obsessed with checking his phone every 2 minutes. I asked what is all the worry about and he told me that he just released a new book and he was constantly checking if he made any sales. And he said to me “Only if there was a tool that would notify me when I have a new sale!”, and this is how the idea was born. I knew that authors would love to check their book sales on their phone and at a glance without the need to constantly keep refreshing the KDP Reports page.
What do you say to authors who say they are not “techie,” meaning they think they are going to have a problem installing and using KDP Champ?
I am always trying to improve the onboarding process as much as possible and minimize any friction on the user’s side. Of course, if someone is feeling that they will have problems setting up KDP Champ, they could always email me and I will reply almost instantly during UK working hours and weekends. I have a reputation of being very responsive and provide support to all my users at any time and I will keep it that way. I have also created videos on how a user can submit their cookies which can be found on Youtube at my channel called “KDP Champ”. I am always open to suggestions on how to improve the setup process and I am more than happy to adjust it at any point in favor of my users.
What is your biggest author success story since starting KDP Champ?
I have a best selling author on my platform that we became really good friends through KDP Champ. He was using Amazon’s advertising platforms for he book advertising and he was wondering why he is spending so much money and getting no sales. With the help of KDP Champ he managed to narrow down which book ads are not having good ROI and was able to closely monitor his ads through KDP Champ which in return helped him increase his ROI from 10% to over 200%. In addition to that this author along with many others, managed to save hours of work when calculating his AD Spend vs Royalties from all the different Amazon advertising marketplaces.)
