What Makes a Successful Launch?

[Erin]

I am a first time author, self publishing my first novel, Angles - Part I, early November. I'm publishing through BookBaby and have no clue how to determine how many pre-orders I have on Amazon and iBooks. What is a realistic number and/or how many books will I have to sell in the first week of the launch to consider it successful?

This is the first book I've ever written and I'm putting a lot into promoting it and trying to build my platform. But I'm still an unknown author, so I'm not sure what goals to set for myself for this first book.

I'd love any advice or related topics. Looking forward to discussing!

Erin
www.erinlockwood.com

[Nik]

I don't consider my launches (and probably the flight too) as successful, but I can still have an opinion, right? -:)
So mine is this:
very few sales - not successful
Several sales each day on the average after the launch - successful
10+ average daily sales - very successful
Modest, I know -:)

[Erin]

Thanks, Nik.

10+ a day, that's what I'll aim for :) after it's launched. It's killing me to not know how many people have pre-ordered!!!

Thanks!
Erin
www.erinlockwood.com

[Eldon]

Erin wrote: "Thanks, Nik.

10+ a day, that's what I'll aim for :) after it's launched. It's killing me to not know how many people have pre-ordered!!!

Thanks!
Erin
www.erinlockwood.com"

Do you have an amazon author page? Sales are tracked there so I don't see why pre-orders wouldn't be.

[Erin]

I do have an author's page. I think maybe because BookBaby is a third party I'm going through, it's not reporting to me. I have tested myself and have over one hundred followers click the link to pre-order on Amazon but my sales say 0 and there's nothing about pre-sales.

I'm stumped.

Erin

[Quantum]

Erin wrote: "I do have an author's page. I think maybe because BookBaby is a third party I'm going through, it's not reporting to me. I have tested myself and have over one hundred followers click the link to p..."

you don't see any numbers from your sales reports > Pre-order Reports?

https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A...

[Eldon]

Erin wrote: "I do have an author's page. I think maybe because BookBaby is a third party I'm going through, it's not reporting to me. I have tested myself and have over one hundred followers click the link to p..."

Me too...that's bizarre.

[Quantum]

Eldon wrote: "Erin wrote: "I do have an author's page. I think maybe because BookBaby is a third party I'm going through, it's not reporting to me. I have tested myself and have over one hundred followers click ..."

right. since you're going thru bookbaby, you should check with them. i found this help article for how pre-ordering w/POD works:

https://support.bookbaby.com/hc/en-us...-