World, Writing, Wealth discussion
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Stats and Marketing Results

I don't have that much record so far, but I'll gladly share my scarce results-:)
I understand a lot of unlimiters pick up the book, right? Do you see 'spillovers' after the free days?

For what it's worth, this is what my stats looked like on my best promo day, which was on a Sunday in June. I know there are a lot of variables, but it might give an idea of how many downloads are needed to get somewhere in the top 100 Kindle Store:
#77 in Free Kindle Store
1600 downloads
Author Rank 7,000

My best promo day was Monday, July 4th:
#81 in Paid Kindle Store ☚ in my little category
203 copies sold (this was better than July 1st to 3rd combined)
Author Rank 4,477 overall / 515 Contemporary Romance
EDIT: #4,052 in Paid Kindle Store Overall, which is where Hood sits normally. Just saying.
Hugs,
Ann

So look what Amazon just showed me today when I was looking at my KDP pricing. Apparently this new graph is in the beta stage.


@Miss Tara: Thank you! But...
I haven't a clue. And I swear to you, this isn't a case of hoarding secrets and shizz like Mr Alex has said some authors do. Ugh.
Honest to goodness, I have no idea what the heck happened. Like, I literally threw it on KDP one day to shut my buddy up (he'd been bugging me for a month straight haha) and it's been selling since day one. The first promoting I ever did was during the SIA event and even then, I promoted everyone else's stuff like crazy, but not really mine at all.
I'm even nervous about changing my cover (planning to do so very soon) because I figure it has to be that, right? Plus, the blurb? And some luck??? I reeeeally don't know!!!
Yes, when readers personally email me, I happily engage them in conversation, but I mean, that's a dozen people at most, eh? The one thing I DID do the second I listed on Amazon was start seeking out reviews. Been doing that from the beginning. Besides that...
*blank stare*
Hugs,
Ann

I also sent out emails to my mailing list. Mind you, this was to help my fellow indies and not myself. All my subbers already own my book, right? Or at least they'd better! Grrrr. Haha. And Twitter. But again, I only focused on promoting other peeps. Until the end of Monday, cuz I got super excited about making the Top 100, so I totally tweeted out a screenshot and told ppl to buy it LOLOLLLL. I am such a dork!!!
More hugs,
Ann

Obviously for free downloads, they are going off of units downloaded. Do you suppose it is the same for paid ranks? Or are they going off of the dollar amounts?

EDIT: Okie dokie, found this!

Seems accurate to me? Yes? No? You just don't care? LOL
Hugs,
Ann

All told, since publishing in April/May, I've had about 3,000 downloads (free and paid), and 500 books read on Kindle Unlimited. I'm hoping to perk up my ranks with a free promo I am running on Sunday! I think if I stagger my free promo days over the 90 day Select period, I can stay pretty steady in the Kindle store. At least, that is the hope :).

probably this is the one single thing that had the biggest effect. didn't your email coincide w/your big jump in sales on 4 July?
if so, then the reason for this effect is b/c of the doubling effect. a merchant was going to do something for a king and told the king to pay him a penny on the first square on the first day and then double it on the next square every day thereafter. the king exhausted his kingdom's treasury long before reaching the last square on the chessboard. so, if a very enthusiastic reader of yours--an evangelist (I believe guy kawasaki at apple coined the term decades ago) is able to convince at least two other people that your book has value for them, then you're likely to double your sales--much more so than an ad, reviews, or sales discount--and then those two people convince two other people, and so on. the key, though, is to find not just readers who love your books, but evangelists who can persuasively communicate its value to other people. note that an evangelist is not a salesperson or does s/he have salesperson techniques nor goals. an email list--even over reviewers--is the most likely group to contain evangelists.
furthermore, everyone should have an online media kit to help their evangelists spread the word about their books.
Marie wrote: "Conclusion: Marketing my book at full price through these platforms has not resulted in direct sales."
thank you, Marie and Annie--and everyone in the SIA group--for giving me the privilege of seeing your numbers and learning from your experiences.
Tara wrote: "http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-things..."
thx--and Ann too--for the link. it was a good reminder that amazon has their own internal algorithms for determining bestsellers and that free are probably included in the calculations (however, they are probably weighted less than paid). (here's a further link to the source of that table (Ragan: http://www.theresaragan.com/salesrank...). although Ragan's data is older than 2015 and she readily admits that KU changes this chart, her chart roughly mirrors the authorearnings chart (scroll down to the "head (or long) tail" chart in http://authorearnings.com/2016-digita...).
EDIT: it's not clear to me who--Ann or Tara--found this link first, but on my second perusal, it is really worth a more in-depth read tomorrow. it has a section on spacing a launch out over a week, which, at first blush, seems to me to be a really effective approach.
Annie wrote: "I'm inclined to believe that it's based off copies sold not dollar amounts. "
good job. you're the XO, Awesome Ann.

There is this phenomenon of good sales from day one. Obviously there are people, who check new releases or whatever and a whole package of: cover, title, blurb, author's bio, first few pages must work well. Freshly released book is still an unknown from the point of view of its content, quality, etc, so it's not reviews and overall content. Moreover, Owen from SIA group or someone else, mentioned that one of his books had an excellent 'touchdown' on Amazon and he or his co-writer tried to do exactly the same launch for another book and it just didn't repeat.
From what I saw reported, SIA promo event did something good to most participants, but my impression was that wellsellers got a nice boost, while the rest had less impressive results..
Some people report spending hundreds/thousands USD on marketing and promos and report back that the results are abysmal..
So what are possible conclusions from the above?
1. There is no known formula for success and the (vast) majority of titles don't shoot up -:(
2. It's worth trying successful strategies that others report as working and see whether it works for your book and experiment on your own
3. To try, but to be cautious with spending, unless you manage to pinpoint something that works and brings back sales
4. To manage expectations, I guess -:)
5. If nothing works, then maybe to abandon the entire idea of dealing with promos and stuff, so not to waste time that can be well spent elsewhere?

Don't want to make you more nervous, but after you've poped up those happy pills, just thought of reminding that 'the best is the enemy of the good' -:)
Anyhow - good luck, if you do it!
I've held sort of polls on my own covers and the results were that most people didn't like the first two, while liked the third. So, I probably should be changing the less likeable, but to change something good?


probably this is the one single thing that had the biggest effect. didn't your email coincide w/your big jump in sales on 4 July?"
Yes and no. Most definitely no.
Lemme tell you a bit about my awesome possums (a.k.a. my subbers). While a super tiny bunch, they are undoubtedly awesome and loyal as shizz!! They will buy all my books and download other books in whatever genre I ask them to. BUT, cuz there's always a but…
95% of them will NEVER speak up publicly.
Remember when I said "The one thing I DID do the second I listed on Amazon was start seeking out reviews. Been doing that from the beginning"? (yeah, yeah, I just quoted myself) The reason I did this was because I HAD to. It took me all of 5 mins to realize that while they’d all buy my stuff, NO ONE had the balls to write a review for me.
To give you an idea, of 30+ reviews ~6 weeks in, less than a handful are from my "evangelists."
Why is this?
Because the idea of having a physically disabled character (and the attraction to him) is still very much a taboo in their minds. They attach a stigma and even shame to it. Most have never told another living soul. And I totally get the apprehension. People love to judge things they don’t understand. Because it’s much easier to assume than...oh, I dunno...ask questions, eh?
Personally, I just don’t care what others think. If I wanna read something or write something or *GASP* even be attracted to it, then that's my right and I'm gonna do it openly. Without apology. You (the "royal" you!! haha) wanna judge? Knock yourselves out. Saves me the trouble ^_~
But, yeah, EVERYONE assumes I’m harboring this secret group of supporters, eh? Well, they ARE secret but that’s their own doing, not mine. I appreciate their support a great deal. However, I can guarantee that they are NOT boosting my numbers in any way, shape, or form.
I am NOT complaining, though! I think it did me a lot of good, actually!! I mean, I had to get off my butt and figure out a different way to get reviews, right?
@Mr Nik: Yeah, believe me, I'm anxious about the cover for sure! I might do a week-long test and see if my sales suffer and change it back if they do. I'm still undecided, atm (this is probably my gut instinct screaming, "Nooooo!!" LOL)
@Mr JJ: I believe those numbers are from 2013? Were you looking at the overall ranking? Or just in a smaller category...? Dunno haha.
Hugs,
Ann
EDIT: And OMG! I missed something!!
*hugsssss Miss Tara*
Okay.

bummer. i guess that renders this data point useless as supporting evidence.
however, i still think that my hypothesis that evangelists would play a significant role in discoverability is a worthwhile one to explore.
anyone else willing to share their emailing list data (by that, i mean size and level of activity) to test this hypothesis?
but, come to think of it, an evangelist doesn't necessarily need to post reviews to spread the news; in fact, it might be more likely that they spread the word offline and in-person. they could be part an important component in the process of a work "going viral".
(side note: be sure to check out the latest promo experiment in SIA: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...)

I know, eh? But, yesss, methinks your hypothesis is quite valid! I'm doing my best to build up a (more vocal haha) readership for the release of book two. So *fingers crossed* I'll have some valid data for ya soon...
Hugs,
Ann
(re side note: Mm-hm! Miss Christina did extremely well!! I'm watching for Riley's on the 5th too. Gonna try my darnedest to give him a decent push!!!)

so, we all know the power of compounding. let's apply it to promoting.
isn't it simply doubling? if 1 person (you) tells 2 people about your book and those 2 people tell two more, then you have 5 people who now know about your book. the formula is 1+2^x, so if you want to reach 1 million people, then the equation is 1+2^20 = 1 + 1,048,576 = 1,048,577, which is 21 iterations.
(i'm awaiting a correction or at least a challenge.)
then the challenge becomes how to convert all of those that your evangelists have reached into customers. but i'd argue that it's easier to convert a person into a customer if you have a personal connection and also if you heard it from someone who is really enthusiastic and if that person told you because they know you well enough to know that you'd probably be interested in that item/book.
and how can you maintain the momentum of enthusiasm over 21 iterations?
and one of the tools that you can provide to your evangelists to help them is an online media toolkit. now that is not my brainstorm. of course, it's been around for awhile, but my most immediate source is Hyatt's Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World.
thoughts?


Enjoy! http://kindlesamurai.net
Thanks

USS Krakowski peaked at #4027 overall in paid sales on June 11, 2015.
For the month of June 2015 (and this includes the 19 days after it peaked) the book sold 145 copies and was borrowed by 294 times (this was before KU 2.0 when they paid by borrows not pages read). With simple math, it works out to 14.6 copies a day. Even if accepting those sales might have been skewed toward the beginning of the month, I know it did not reach the midway point of 25-70 that the chart points out.

Huh... *scratches head* ...no idea. I could've sworn those numbers were from 2013 but I could (very, very) easily be wrong hahahaha!!
Nowadays, 14.6 copies a day - while awesome sauce! - would put ya around 10-15K. But it's so darn volatile I can't even be sure of that...
*strangles the Zon's confusing algorithms*
Hugs,
Ann
EDIT: Oh! And newly released books get quite a bit of a boost from what I've seen. A couple months later, you're on your own *smirks*

In the meantime, if anyone wanted to stalk, check my book out, and/or show it some sharing love, here is some linkage :)
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DM7BUSS#...
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01DM7BUSS
Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01DM7BUSS
Amazon IN: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B01DM7BUSS
Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01DM7BUSS

In the meantime, if anyone wanted to stalk, check my book out, and/or show it some sh..."
Good luck, Marie! Shared your post on Face

getBook.at/DavenportHouse
Now I feel terrible because I have ignored any links like this because I did not realize they would redirect to Amazon! Now I get it *sigh*.
Thanks for everything, Annie <3
Thank you Nik!

My pleasure, Miss Marie. Here's some more love for ya: ♥♥♥
And anyone else who wants some: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Okay. I'm stopping now. *smirks*

I'm ashamed to say that I was ignorant of booklinker and never tried to figure it out until now. Because you gave me a nudge in booklinker's direction, I can now do something I have never been able to do on any other promo! And that is, track how many downloads come from the marketing sites I submitted to, versus the promoting on Facebook and Twitter!
Booklinker not only shows how many clicks your link gets, but from which countries! Since I did not know about this before, and submitted only Amazon URL's to the marketing sites I signed up with, I will be able to tell just how much those sites are working for me versus FB and Twitter promoting with the help of friends! Your possums are amazing, Annie. I wish I had been using booklinker all this time. Doh!
And now for my ENT observations. The email came out at about 11:30am PST and I was the 3rd listing from the bottom. It appeared that I had about 300 downloads from that within an hour. And with help from Annie and friends, it looks like I had about 100 clicks (downloads?) within an hour of sharing on Facebook groups and whatever magic she worked with her possums. This is shaping up to be my best promo yet. Also got a 5-star review! I am so excited :) Thank you!


USS Krakowski peaked at #4027 overall in pai..."
thx for sharing!
did you do any promos?
have you done any of late?
for sci-fi, i just started researching ads a few hours ago:
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/abo...
the one w/the most visibility is the top-right corner:
* 300W x 250H: $275/month = $9.17/day
* break-even point = 138 books@$2.99ea (70% royalty rate) = 4.58 books/day
"On average, Lightspeed’s readers purchase 1.25 hardcovers, 2.5 paperbacks, and 2 ebooks per month."also the traffic for 2015:
* pageviews: 849,740
* sessions (visits): 493,310 (1,351/day)
* users (unique visitors): 310,430
I would classify this kind of ad as:
* direct
* interest-specific (aka "targeted")
* fee
thoughts?

ah, booklinker. cool. i added it to my promos spreadsheet--even though it's not a promo site, it's a good tool to use w/promos.

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #79 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Historical Fiction > United States
#6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical Fiction
Paid marketing sites:
ENT $35
Reading Deals $14.50
Sweet Free books $7
Ebook Daily $10
Total marketing $ spent: $66.50
Free (not guaranteed) marketing sites. I do not know the results of submitting to these, but I do it every promo anyway:
Armadillo
Freebooks
Kindle Book Promos
It's Write Now
Ebook Lister
Bookzio (did not feature me)
Addicted to ebooks (did not feature me)


Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #45 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Historical Fiction > United States
#4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical Fiction
I've almost made enough royalties from sales of the sequels today to break even on marketing costs. I anticipate that the sequels will continue to sell steadily over the next few weeks.
I have not done any promoting today for Kindle Unlimited like I usually do, and I only have about 1/2 the KENP that I usually have. Interestingly, most of the KENP are for Book 1.

My sequels (books 2 and 3) made it to #3 and #4 in Teen Historical Fiction. I have a really good feeling about this week!

My sequels (books 2 and 3) made it to #3 and #4 in Teen Historical Fiction. I have a really good feeling about this week!"
more so than the free stats by themselves, the ones above and the following are the most telling stats:
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Historical Fiction > United States
#4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical Fiction
good job! ganbatte!

Results: free one-day promo, 2436 downloads
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #43 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Historical Fiction > United States
#3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical Fiction
Looks like between 200-300 downloads came from Facebook and Twitter posts...I think the bulk of the other downloads were from the marketing sites I submitted to. This beats my best promo day by 800 downloads. I'm very happy! I recommend the ENT promos if you can! Well worth the $35. They accepted me on my first attempt and I think we are only allowed to run a promo with them every 90 days. I liked the layout of their email and the fact that they showed a discount from my paperback price instead of ebook price, so the discount looks quite substantial. Best of luck, everyone :).

Those are great results.
I did a 5 day free promotion on Kindle for my book

Hopefully some of those downloads will spark some reviews, and word of mouth.
I think that I need to get my next two books out asap to create credibility as an author who can produce good work quickly.

have you done any of late?..."
None. Not sure if I just put it out at the right time or if there was something about the overall package that made readers take a chance on it, but it happened to capture three paid sales on day 1 and I think that was what put it on the radar because for a new book, that pulled it into a ranking around 30-40k and from there it just snowballed.
After a couple months when the sales headed towards the flatline, I spammed the usual Facebook groups, but I always had my doubts about the effectiveness of those "Promote your Book" groups. I've created little promo images with Gimp and posted them on Twitter, but it's one of those lines you walk where you want to promote without turning away followers who don't want the spam.
There are a couple Stargate fan groups I participate in on Facebook (really should branch out, but don't want to spend that much time). As you can see on my profile here, I use the cover of my latest book for the profile pic. If someone clicks on my FB profile, it will take them to my "marketing" page basically using the account to do the advertising, but using the soft sell so if they don't want to see it, they don't have to click my profile, but the book remains visible through my profile.
Otherwise, I am now using the free books as promo material. I scrawled the short story While Time Can Wait and wished to use that as a promo, but it wasn't until I went to SW that I could set it perma free and let people scoop it up. Since it is a short story, I don't feel setting it free devalues anything. And I know a lot of people are only on these sites for the free stuff and aren't likely to buy the paid material (guilty myself), but I think it puts my name out there and drives the attention from the right audiences unlike FB and Twitter.
I set The Siege of LX-925 perma free as the first in a series. Again, it doesn't devalue the work because when I released the box set, the entire first book becomes free when they open the Look Inside or download SW's preview file. When someone takes book 1, they are not getting anything extra anyway, so I figure I might as well release the individual book free and get it in the hands of people who might not bother with the Look Inside or download the preview for the boxset.
When I brainstormed Dione's War, I had the same idea. But since it was going to be one massive epic, I intentionally wrote the first part as a somewhat bottle episode within the larger work so that I could put it out independently as a preview...in the way some people write a prequel to a series and give it away, it becomes the hook that I hope would lure buyers to the full volume.
I am actually thinking of collecting those "Look Insides" into a single collection and releasing them as a separate sampler. The thing about SW is that unlike Amazon, I can see how many people actually view that sample of the book as well as how many simply view the book's sales page. People scoop up those free books, but they don't take the free preview samples from the paid books when they visit the page. Experience with Dione's War tells me that if I release the preview as a "free book," it will get into more hands.
I know it would upset people to get a collection of incomplete stories, but I do intend to make it very clear instead of tricking them into taking it; and the idea is not without precedent. Free Comic Book Day gets people all excited for the free comic books their shop is giving out, but in reality most of them are nothing but bite sized previews of the paid comics - something they could have seen by picking up a paid comic off the shelf and flipping through it, but apparently they didn't. There is actually another instance that is coming to my mind, but I honestly can't bring it into focus and remember what it is right now.
Books mentioned in this topic
A Subtle Agency (other topics)A Subtle Agency (other topics)
Davenport House (other topics)
Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World (other topics)
Hood (other topics)
Facebook: After promoting heavily on the most popular Facebook groups for Kindle, I do not believe that I have seen any direct sales from posting my book with its price. However, if my book is free for the day and I post advertising the promotion, I believe I see quite a few downloads from it. I also see KENP pages read when I post my books to groups that are specific to Kindle Unlimited. Therefore, I have decided to target my Facebook marketing more specifically to KU subscribers unless my book is on free promo, at which time I will post to all of the groups.
Twitter: I do not have an account of my own, but I have tweet links for being a member on Ask David. I have not seen any sales when I tweet about my books at full price. However, I have seen downloads when I tweet that my book is on free promotion, and I see KENP pages read when I post my book with the hashtag #KindleUnlimited.
Conclusion: Marketing my book at full price through these platforms has not resulted in direct sales. For me, these platforms are effective for marketing only during free promotions and to KU subscribers. Others might have different results, but experimenting with these platforms over the past few months has enabled me to narrow my marketing efforts and hopefully be more effective in the future.