View from the Free Train
A month ago Amazon price-matched Stray as a freebie. Today I've unhitched from the free train, setting the price to $0.99 on Smashwords. This will filter to B&N, Kobo, and Apple and eventually Amazon will price-match again - a process which can take between two days and several weeks - so if you were thinking of suggesting someone check out Stray, warn them the price will go up soon (and then again after Caszandra has been released, when I intend to set Stray back to its 'normal' price of $2.99).
For those interested in the value of the free train, here are the results of my free month.
In September (before free) I sold 35 books total on Amazon US (and some unknown small number on other sites where I can't view sales immediately).
In October (and the last day of September post-free) I gave away 14885 copies of Stray on Amazon US. Many of these will have been to people who will never read the book, or who are not the ideal audience for my genre, but just sensibly collecting the freebies while they're there.
However, some obviously read the book, since I sold at Amazon US:
638 copies of Lab Rat One48 copies of the Medair duology36 copies of Champion of the Rose12 copies of The Silence of Medair11 copies of Stained Glass Monsters9 copies of Voice of the LostThe majority of the freebies went in the first week or so, and then the giveaway rate slowed down. It's still going at a 100 or so a day. Sales of Lab Rat averaged at over 20 a day for quite some time, but now have slowed to a little over 10 a day. The cross-overs to my other books were a nice bonus, particularly since my fantasy is rather different from the Touchstone Trilogy, and won't necessarily work for the same readers.
Stray also went free on various other sites and (though I can't say exactly how many), I seem to have sold a few books on those as well. I also picked up over 20 reviews on Amazon, and maybe a dozen reviews on other sales sites, book blogs, Goodreads, etc. Reviews are valuable, both in explaining the book to potential readers and by sheer weight of numbers showing that the book has been considered worth reading. I'd read that the free train does attract negative reviews and found this to be true - I picked up two more one star reviews (from people reading only the opening of the book), but this was more than balanced out by positive reviews.
The free train is a way to raise a book's profile, and get into Amazon's Also Bought recommendations. I'm fairly sure that Stray will sell at least a few a week despite no longer being free. It remains to be seen whether word of mouth will lift the series' sales again, but overall I would unequivocably recommend the free train - at least for the first book in a series.
For those interested in the value of the free train, here are the results of my free month.
In September (before free) I sold 35 books total on Amazon US (and some unknown small number on other sites where I can't view sales immediately).
In October (and the last day of September post-free) I gave away 14885 copies of Stray on Amazon US. Many of these will have been to people who will never read the book, or who are not the ideal audience for my genre, but just sensibly collecting the freebies while they're there.
However, some obviously read the book, since I sold at Amazon US:
638 copies of Lab Rat One48 copies of the Medair duology36 copies of Champion of the Rose12 copies of The Silence of Medair11 copies of Stained Glass Monsters9 copies of Voice of the LostThe majority of the freebies went in the first week or so, and then the giveaway rate slowed down. It's still going at a 100 or so a day. Sales of Lab Rat averaged at over 20 a day for quite some time, but now have slowed to a little over 10 a day. The cross-overs to my other books were a nice bonus, particularly since my fantasy is rather different from the Touchstone Trilogy, and won't necessarily work for the same readers.
Stray also went free on various other sites and (though I can't say exactly how many), I seem to have sold a few books on those as well. I also picked up over 20 reviews on Amazon, and maybe a dozen reviews on other sales sites, book blogs, Goodreads, etc. Reviews are valuable, both in explaining the book to potential readers and by sheer weight of numbers showing that the book has been considered worth reading. I'd read that the free train does attract negative reviews and found this to be true - I picked up two more one star reviews (from people reading only the opening of the book), but this was more than balanced out by positive reviews.
The free train is a way to raise a book's profile, and get into Amazon's Also Bought recommendations. I'm fairly sure that Stray will sell at least a few a week despite no longer being free. It remains to be seen whether word of mouth will lift the series' sales again, but overall I would unequivocably recommend the free train - at least for the first book in a series.
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Andrea
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Oct 31, 2011 07:22PM
Glad you enjoyed it Turtles!
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Likewise. I was emailed a free copy of Stray after seeing a post for Lab Rat One in the FirstReads giveaways and saying 'why not - no risk in a free book'. I was very impressed by Stray - enough that I immediately bought Lab Rat One and was disappointed when I realized that Caszandra wasn't out yet. I've got no issue with reading 'popcorn' sci fi, but these were much, much better than that - and I definitely wouldn't have come across them if it weren't for your FirstReads promotion or gotten to that part of my to-read queue any time in the next year if Stray hadn't been free.
