Summer/Winter Promotion 2012 Metrics

Hi, everyone. I just calculated my metrics from the month-long Summer/Winter eBook promotion in which I participated. This was my third year and each year I have learned something.

I had 36 transactions this year, many of them for multiple titles. Here is how it fell out by book:

In The Eye of The Beholder: A Novel of The Phantom of the Opera - 23 copies
You Had to Be There: Three Years of Mayhem and Bad Decisions in the Portland Music Scene - 11 copies
2010 Hindsight: A Year of Personal Growth, In Spite of Myself - 5 copies
Les Pensees Dangereuses - 10 copies

For comparison, here is the article I wrote with last year's metrics: Summer Promotion Analytics. I had 226 "sales" during the same promotion last year. I think the reason remains the same as what I posted in the wake of Read an eBook Week: KDP Select is having an effect on those of us who opt out of it in that it dilutes the value of the "freemium" promotion. When someone can get free books every day of the week (and I know some people who have yet to pay for a single eBook since there are so many freebies available on KDP), it is less of a value to have an occasional promotion like what I do.

A lot of people ask, "Well, why don't you join KDP Select, then?" The answer is simple: I have an audience that goes across eReader platforms and I'm not willing to turn my back on that. I am on Kindle, just not in the Select program. The exclusivity aspect just makes no sense to me (although others feel differently, which is their right).

I will continue to do my semi-annual promotions; I am grateful for the continued support and the new readers.

Thanks, as always, for reading.