KDP Select aftermath

This is a quick report on the weeks following the KDP Select promo for Island of Fog that I ran on August 29th and 30th (read more about that in my previous post, Does KDP Select work?).

Just as a recap, the purpose of the promo is to give away Book 1 of the series for free in the hope that those readers will like it and buy the others in the series. The promo was a great success with over 6000 people downloading the free book. The boost in sales (for ALL books in the series) started immediately.

As I mentioned in the previous post, after the promo my sales increased from an average of 1 a day to 40+ a day for the first few days of September. My post was written on September 5th, so I couldn't report beyond that. Well, now I can. As the days went on, the daily count slipped to around 25 a day, then 15, and by the end of September it was mostly under 10. I kept a daily log just for fun.

SeptemberSalesTotalSat 1st4242Sun 2nd4385Mon 3rd42127Tue 4th39166Wed 5th26192Thu 6th26218Fri 7th26244Sat 8th22266Sun 9th32298Mon 10th21319Tue 11th32351Wed 12th24375Thu 13th22397Fri 14th21418Sat 15th13431SeptemberSalesTotalSun 16th14445Mon 17th21466Tue 18th18484Wed 19th18502Thu 20th12514Fri 21st12526Sat 22nd13539Sun 23rd16555Mon 24th20575Tue 25th13588Wed 26th9597Thu 27th10607Fri 28th9616Sat 29th7623Sun 30th22645.head { background:#dddddd; }.totals td { font-size:12px; text-align:right; padding:2px 8px; border-bottom:1px solid #dddddd; }

Now we're into October and sales are continuing to drop. It's currently averaging about 5 a day and I'm estimating a total of 175 or so by the end of the month. Not bad at all, but certainly not as good as September. So all this proves that a promo can be fantastic for sales, but the boost is short-lived and a more sustained long-term plan needs to be in place.

...Or more promos! Because each promo needs to be about 2 or 3 days long, and I have 5 days available within a 90-day KDP Select period for each book, I can run two promos every 3 months. I ran the first at the end of August and let sales flood in. Now, nearly two months later, sales are back to a trickle, so I can run the second promo and hopefully have another flood. By the time I'm back to a trickle again, I'll be able to renew the KDP Select program and start over. So in theory, if all promos are as good as the last, I can keep this going indefinitely.

That's not to say each promo will be a success though.

I have another Island of Fog promo planned for Halloween. I'm very curious to see if the first promo was a fluke success. Can I replicate it and get another 6000+ free downloads? Or get anywhere close? We'll see.

I ran a promo for Roads of Madness recently, just a quiet one to see what the results would be if I did no marketing beforehand -- in other words, to see if Amazon alone provides all the boosting as opposed to all the websites and Facebook pages I advertised on. The promo was pretty slow, a total of 491 downloads for the 2 days. This isn't to be sneezed at, but it can't compare to the Island of Fog promo. But why? A few possible reasons spring to mind:

It wasn't advertised beforehand. I did advertise it a little halfway through and saw no real difference, but the best places to advertise need a few days notice so the poor effort could just be because I didn't advertise on those particular websites.It's Book #5 in the series rather than Book #1, so maybe interest wasn't as high?Amazon gives an author's very first promo a really good boost in the background just to get him in the mood for other promos later. Maybe I've had my 15 minutes of fame already.

That last point is something I read somewhere. It may or may not be true. When I run the second promo for Island of Fog, I'll be advertising it in all the same places as before with a couple of additions. So if the promo isn't as successful, then that MIGHT give weight to the idea that Amazon does indeed boost an author's first KDP Select promo and then leaves him alone to fend for himself.

But if the second promo is just as successful as the first, then I think I can safely scratch that idea and consider that the Roads of Madness promo "failed" because of other reasons -- such as it being Book #5, or because it was advertised less, or it has fewer reviews, or other reasons I haven't yet fathomed.

Anyway, for all those who haven't yet bought Island of Fog and want to give it a try, mark your calendars: It will be FREE to download for Kindle on October 29th, 30th and 31st.