David Cranmer's Blog, page 105
January 4, 2012
Free Can Equal Sales
Thanks to support from friends on Blogger, Google+, and Twitter, I was able to sell a few hundred copies off the bat with the June release of ADVENTURES OF CASH LARAMIE AND GIDEON MILES and it's sequel, VOL. II. Then after the excitement died down, sales puttered along at ten or so copies a day. Not bad, but how to reach a wider audience?
Give it away seems to be the answer!
Kindle now provides the opportunity to offer your book for free for a limited time -- no more than five days to be exact. So I did it, and I stared in amazement when I hit the refresh button -- nearly one hundred copies had moved in less than a couple of minutes. Then I hit refresh again and another sizable batch flew off the virtual shelf. It went on like that for two days nonstop. I eventually ended up moving just over 3k. Now if folks had bought that many of my books, I would have pocketed a cool grand *dreams a bit* but I know that wouldn't have happened.
So what good did the free offer do?
Three thousand readers who weren't familiar with Cash & Miles now have it on their Kindle. If only a quarter of them like my heroes, then that's an improvement on future sales when, hopefully, they purchase the next book for $0.99. Additionally, I sold two hundred copies of the first volume that most likely wouldn't have been purchased if I hadn't decided to offer my book for free -- more than one person on Twitter mentioned they bought the first collection after getting the second for $0.00.
I hope you don't mind me posting about this, not bragging here, and many other writers out there are way ahead of me on this, but I thought it may be of use to a few. In a nutshell: free is good and can equal other/future sales.
Agree? Disagree? What are your experiences?
Give it away seems to be the answer!
Kindle now provides the opportunity to offer your book for free for a limited time -- no more than five days to be exact. So I did it, and I stared in amazement when I hit the refresh button -- nearly one hundred copies had moved in less than a couple of minutes. Then I hit refresh again and another sizable batch flew off the virtual shelf. It went on like that for two days nonstop. I eventually ended up moving just over 3k. Now if folks had bought that many of my books, I would have pocketed a cool grand *dreams a bit* but I know that wouldn't have happened.
So what good did the free offer do?
Three thousand readers who weren't familiar with Cash & Miles now have it on their Kindle. If only a quarter of them like my heroes, then that's an improvement on future sales when, hopefully, they purchase the next book for $0.99. Additionally, I sold two hundred copies of the first volume that most likely wouldn't have been purchased if I hadn't decided to offer my book for free -- more than one person on Twitter mentioned they bought the first collection after getting the second for $0.00.
I hope you don't mind me posting about this, not bragging here, and many other writers out there are way ahead of me on this, but I thought it may be of use to a few. In a nutshell: free is good and can equal other/future sales.
Agree? Disagree? What are your experiences?
January 1, 2012
'11 Reflections & '12 At A Glance
This post is probably more for me than anything else but I got to thinking what a life changing past year this was for our family.
2011
*Most importantly, my daughter Ava was born on Valentine's Day. The sun now rises and sets for her as far as my wife and I are concerned. Being a father at forty-one has enlivened me with a new lease on life as only a child can. Our little coconut just began crawling in the last week of '11!
*My mother's dementia worsened and it has taken a toll on the family. The good news is one of my sisters is a retired nurse and is giving our mother the best possible care. I take heart that for a few months my mom and Ava were very close. They both enjoyed watching The Golden Girls together and making silly faces. Mom would whistle and big smiles would ripple from my daughter. Bittersweet.
*In June of '11, I released Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles and then three other BEAT to a PULP collections. They continue to do well and by Dec 31st, I had sold more copies than I could have predicted at the start. Not bad, not bad for a beginner but at $0.35 a book, I obviously still need a day job. :)
*This was the year of new social networking for me. I joined Twitter and Google+. It comes easily, it turns out, because I enjoy what others have to say and interacting. Some Blogger friends have written to say they missed my meaty blogs here and I will try to improve the output.
2012
*Ava is learning so much on a daily basis, and Denise and I are eager to continue her education with books, music, etc. She loves being read to and reaches for books before we do. Gotta keep that momentum going.
*I want to do more around the home with repairs that are long overdue.
Upcoming books
*I'm releasing, very soon, the first full-length Cash Laramie novel written by hardboiled master, Wayne D. Dundee.
*BEAT to a PULP: ROUND TWO is a bit late because of some of the above life events but I'm shooting for March 1st. This collection contains some notable names in the literary and pulp circles, and James O'Barr has contributed another fabulous cover.
*Another, yet un-named, BTAP eBook is on the way. I want to keep the title quiet for now but it pushes the envelope just a bit and I'm excited about that.
*Chad Eagleton has written a Simon Rip science fiction novella.
*I also have another round of my short stories featuring Cash & Miles. This collection will reach from 1885 and all the way to 1930 when the outlaw marshal is seventy-five.
That's a little about me. And you? Was 2011 good or bad for you and what are your plans for 2012?
2011
*Most importantly, my daughter Ava was born on Valentine's Day. The sun now rises and sets for her as far as my wife and I are concerned. Being a father at forty-one has enlivened me with a new lease on life as only a child can. Our little coconut just began crawling in the last week of '11!
*My mother's dementia worsened and it has taken a toll on the family. The good news is one of my sisters is a retired nurse and is giving our mother the best possible care. I take heart that for a few months my mom and Ava were very close. They both enjoyed watching The Golden Girls together and making silly faces. Mom would whistle and big smiles would ripple from my daughter. Bittersweet.*In June of '11, I released Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles and then three other BEAT to a PULP collections. They continue to do well and by Dec 31st, I had sold more copies than I could have predicted at the start. Not bad, not bad for a beginner but at $0.35 a book, I obviously still need a day job. :)
*This was the year of new social networking for me. I joined Twitter and Google+. It comes easily, it turns out, because I enjoy what others have to say and interacting. Some Blogger friends have written to say they missed my meaty blogs here and I will try to improve the output.
2012
*Ava is learning so much on a daily basis, and Denise and I are eager to continue her education with books, music, etc. She loves being read to and reaches for books before we do. Gotta keep that momentum going.
*I want to do more around the home with repairs that are long overdue.
Upcoming books
*I'm releasing, very soon, the first full-length Cash Laramie novel written by hardboiled master, Wayne D. Dundee. *BEAT to a PULP: ROUND TWO is a bit late because of some of the above life events but I'm shooting for March 1st. This collection contains some notable names in the literary and pulp circles, and James O'Barr has contributed another fabulous cover.
*Another, yet un-named, BTAP eBook is on the way. I want to keep the title quiet for now but it pushes the envelope just a bit and I'm excited about that.
*Chad Eagleton has written a Simon Rip science fiction novella.
*I also have another round of my short stories featuring Cash & Miles. This collection will reach from 1885 and all the way to 1930 when the outlaw marshal is seventy-five.
That's a little about me. And you? Was 2011 good or bad for you and what are your plans for 2012?
December 31, 2011
December 30, 2011
Hell on Church Street
A small Baptist church in Arkansas should be easy pickings for a natural born con man like Geoffrey Webb. But after talking himself into a cushy job as a youth minister, he becomes obsessed with the preacher's teenage daughter. When their relationship is discovered by a corrupt local sheriff named Doolittle Norris, Webb's easy life begins to fall apart. Backed by a family of psychotic hillbillies, Sheriff Norris forces Webb into a deadly scheme to embezzle money from the church. What the Norris clan doesn't understand is that Geoffrey Webb is more dangerous than he looks, and he has brutal plans of his own.
"I'm hard to surprise when it comes to plot, and I'm very hard to shock, but I read this book slack-jawed and drooling. There's not a filthier, funnier, bloodier, more transgressive or more shocking book on the shelves this year. Or last, or next, probably, unless Hinkson writes another, which I certainly hope he will. An amazing debut from an instant star of the genre."
— Scott Phillips, author of The Ice Harvest, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year
"Hell on Church Street has to be one of the best noir novels of recent years, an instant classic, as relentlessly twisted as anything by Jim Thompson and Charles Willeford."
— Jason Starr, two-time Anthony Award winning author of The Craving
"Mr. Hinkson has created flawlessly etched characters inhabiting a bleak, noir landscape that's recognizable and yet altogether unique. Go ahead and attend Hell on Church Street. You will not be disappointed."
— David Cranmer, Editor and publisher of Beat to a Pulp
"If Jim Thompson's skeletal hands could clap, you'd hear his round of applause for Jake Hinkson's debut. Dark, depraved, and deadly, Hell on Church Street is a wicked story well told."
— Hilary Davidson, author of The Damage Done
Order from New Pulp Press or Amazon.
