We count downloads by the calendar month.
If you sign up on April 19th for a First-Time Author Account, you will have 500 downloads in April. On May 1st, your counter will start over with 500 downloads.
How We Count Reader Downloads
We count reader downloads in a rolling, 24-hour window by IP address.
Example: If Tom downloads an EPUB (on IP address 1), he can download that EPUB 50 more times in the next 24 hours and your account will only show one download. We do this because some readers click the download button multiple times and we don’t feel that should count against your download limit.
If Tom downloads that EPUB at work (IP1), and then downloads it again on his Kindle at home (IP2) a few hours later, that will count as a second download. When a reader switches IP addresses, we have no way of knowing that IP2 is the same person as IP1.
Counting Downloads on a Private Link
A private download link, which is generated when a reader downloads your book through Certified Mail, book gifting, or a signup landing page, will only ever count as one download.
Not sure what will happen if you exceed your monthly downloads? Learn about download overages.