Big Media Push Before Kholvaria Release
It’s three days until the “official” release of Kholvaria, though I put the word official in quotes because many people who have ordered the paperback version have already received their copies early.
Leading up to the big release, I did most of my advertising push around May 20th. This time around, I tried some new techniques I have not done before. My total budget was a whopping $0.00. I must say, my efforts seemed to have paid off as there was a decent spike in pre-order sales (and a slight spike in paperback sales) during that time.
My first big push was through social media. Ironically, social media is a medium I have previously bashed for not being effective enough. Still, I decided to give it a shot. Using a unique platform called Headtalker, I was able to find users willing to share two specific promo messages written by me. One message was to be posted all at once at 12:00 on the 20th and another posted all at once at 3:00 on the 21st. The first media blast was supported by 142 people – meaning that many social media users shared the message – to get a social reach of 1,190,061 people – meaning that many people were exposed to the message, though whether they saw it or read it is a different story. The second media blast was supported by fewer people, this time only 125, though the social reach was higher at 1,193,348 people. Granted, there is likely a lot of overlap between those two groups. Most of the people who were exposed to the first message were the same people exposed to the second message, but still, any visibility is good visibility. Plus, sometimes ads take multiple viewings to hit home.
In addition to my Headtalker campaigns, I decided to lower the Kindle price of Iris to $0.00 for a brief four-day period. The result was a huge spike in downloads and therefore an increase in my author rank and series visibility. This seemed to have paid off as my spike in downloads was shortly followed by a spike in KENP reads – another source of revenue for me. Interestingly enough, I decided to try this big free book push with zero advertising. I wanted to determine how many downloads a book could get just by being free alone, with no ads. The result: very promising.
Granted, I know not everyone who downloads the book will read it. I have heard there are a number of people simply out there collecting free books they will never read. Still, if it brings a spike in my book’s rank, that’s a good thing. Not to mention, there are certainly many who download the book who WILL read it.
The success of this brief free book promotion gives me even more confidence in my plan to release a free series preview book. For more about that, read my idea HERE. I have already gotten the cover made, as well as submitted a draft for review on Amazon KDP.
Though my big media push is done, it is not yet finished. Other authors have agreed to share/promote my new release on their newsletter blasts on May 27th, which should provide another boost.
Is advertising for free possible? Yes. Will I do it again? Yes. Headtalker proved to be a very useful source and I will certainly use it more in the future.
If you are still waiting to purchase your copy, wait no longer!
Click here to purchase Iris:
http://tinyurl.com/zzwxw6y
Click here to purchase Kholvaria:
http://tinyurl.com/n2cmna3
