# My turn for a promo post - Day 60 - Book 2 live, another round of promos underway



## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Everybody seems to enjoy following these, so I'll give it a go.

The Fuller's Apprentice went up for pre-order on September 4, priced at $0.99.  I announced it on my Facebook author page, and shared it on my personal page.  I've got a pretty big group of friends, and I worked on building some interest for about a week before by putting up daily posts with snippets of info about characters and world building.  I got 15 preorders the first day, and a few each day after that, ending up with 24 (one of which was my husband, so we could see when it went out and check it on our various devices).  The best ranking it got to was in the 23,000's, on the first day when I got the most pre-orders in the quickest time. It hit the hot new releases list in Teen & Young Adult Sword & Sorcery Fantasy eBooks, where it got as high as #17 (It's now at #33).

It just went live.  Current ranks (I just played around with keywords to try to get in a couple more categories, which hopefully will show up tomorrow):
#76,244 Paid in Kindle Store
#229 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#321 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#1245 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Epic

Promos scheduled:

9/8/15 - Bknights - $5.00
9/9/15 - Bargainbooksy - $25.00
9/10/15 - Awesomegang - $0
9/11-13/15 - Patty's Specfic Promo, although she hasn't put it up on her site yet

Also submitted to: Getbooksdaily, Indiebooklounge, Kindle Book Promos, eBookLister, ReadCheapy, and Armadillo eBooks - all $0

I plan to leave the price at $0.99 for at least a couple weeks.  Then I'll raise it to $2.99.  It's in Select, so I'll use some free days later.  

At the beginning of October, or maybe earlier, I'm releasing a prequel novella that I'm going to make permafree.  I'm offering a different prequel novella as an incentive to sign up for my mailing list - it's set up and ready to go out in the auto response email whenever anyone subscribes.

This is Book 1 of a four book series.  Book 2 is already on pre-order, with links and a sample chapter in the back of Book 1.  It will go live at the beginning of November.  Book 3 is with my beta reader; I plan to have it on pre-order when Book 2 goes out, and release it at the beginning of January.  Book 4's rough draft is complete.  I'm working on editing it right now, with the intent to have it ready for pre-order when Book 3 goes out, and for release at the beginning of February.

Whew.  I've been working on getting this series ready since I published my first book.  It's been a lot of work, but it's all coming together now the way I planned.  Thanks to everyone at Kboards for all the great information and advice that helped me make this plan.  Let's hope it results in actually selling some books to people I don't know.


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## andrewpyott (Aug 27, 2015)

Sounds like everything is under control! Good luck!


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

I'm very pleased with my launch day.

9/8/15 - Bknights - $5.00 - 16 18 sales, 3904 page reads
9/9/15 - Bargainbooksy - $25.00
9/10/15 - Awesomegang - $0
9/11-13/15 - Patty's Specfic Promo

#17,318 Paid in Kindle Store
#65 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#69 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age (I added coming of age to my keywords right after it went live)
#94 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

#12 in Hot New Releases in Teen & Young Adult Sword & Sorcery Fantasy
#13 in Hot New Releases in Teen & Young Adult Sword & Sorcery Fantasy eBooks
#23 in Hot New Releases in Teen & Young Adult Coming of Age Fantasy eBooks
#51 in Hot New Releases in Epic Fantasy

The sales are great, but what really surprised me was the reads. TFA has a KENPC of 882, so I make a lot more for each full read than for a sale at $0.99. I'm excited that people do seem to be reading it all the way through, and very quickly.

I'm pretty sure almost all of the sales today were due to BKnights. I pretty much tapped out my Facebook friends and family with pre-orders. I did make a post today announcing the release and pointing out that it can be borrowed and that borrows help me, so some of the reads might come from that. I think doing it this way, with a short pre-order and promotions on launch, worked pretty well. I've had at least a few sales every day, which hopefully will help the rankings.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow, because Bargainbooksy only sends out one or two in Teen and Young Adult (which I chose over Fantasy because it was only $25 vs. $40), and there won't be any free books on the list to compete with. People who subscribe to Bargainsbooksy are looking for books to buy cheap, which mine is, not for free. So I'm hoping for a good spike.

If only there were somewhere to advertise that specifically targeted KU subscribers, I'd love to use them. Does anyone know of something like that?

Now I just need to work on getting reviews. Off to read find and read threads...


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## Northern pen (Mar 3, 2015)

Don't be afraid to raise your price beyond $2.99

You have a healthy sized book and can easily price at 3.99 or 4.99. 

I have no problem selling at 3.99 and will be using 4.99 for large fantasy novels. Your 0.99 for couple weeks is good idea.  

my 2 cents... and good luck


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## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Thanks for posting this! It's so incredibly helpful to see these kinds of posts.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Day Two:

9/8/15 - Bknights - $5.00 - 16 18 sales, 3904 page reads
9/9/15 - Bargainbooksy - $25.00 - 24 sales, 5609 page reads
9/10/15 - Awesomegang - $0
9/11-13/15 - Patty's Specfic Promo
Ongoing - M.L. Katz's Fantasy Promo

Also submitted to Book Preview Club, ebooksaurus, eReader Utopia, Book Hippo, and JustKindleBooks, all $0. I'm trying to add 5 new free sites each day. On another thread today someone shared this amazing site: http://www.readersintheknow.com/list-of-book-promotion-sites. It's making finding places to submit to so much easier!

#7,284 Paid in Kindle Store
#35 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#38 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#55 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

#10 in Hot New Releases in Teen & Young Adult Sword & Sorcery Fantasy
#12 in Hot New Releases in Teen & Young Adult Sword & Sorcery Fantasy eBooks
#18 in Hot New Releases in Teen & Young Adult Coming of Age Fantasy eBooks
#34 in Hot New Releases in Epic Fantasy

Another great day. I'm feeling kind of giddy .

Sales were pretty spread out over the day. For a while I was getting sales, but my rank was getting worse. Early this morning my ranking topped out around 7000, rose to over 10,000, then went back down to the 7000s again. Positions on the HNR lists did a similar dip and rise.

Checking the report graphs right after midnight is depressing. The line plummets to the bottom, and you have to wait for it to creep up all during the day. Will it pass yesterdays? By how much? Will it reach my record high?

I worry a little about tomorrow, because I don't have a paid promo. But Awesomegang gets good buzz around here, so we'll see. I have a very strong urge to throw money at more promos to keep this climb going. I may do BookButterfly early next week. But it would probably be more cost-effective to wait to spend until more books in the series are out. So far I haven't gotten any more buys on the pre-order for Book 2.

KU reads continue to perform really well. I think that's the most exciting part - my book's not just sitting on their Kindles, people are actually reading it. Now if they'd just leave a review or two .


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Sounds as if it's going really well! Congrats on the launch and sales so far. Watching with interest (I have my own next launch in a couple of weeks).


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## vlmain (Aug 10, 2011)

Congratulations. I just love seeing these posts. They are very inspirational. So happy you are seeing good results.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Not having a paid promo today really made a difference. I added some for next week, though, so hopefully I can keep this train going for a while.

9/8/15 - Bknights - $5.00 - 16 18 sales, 3904 page reads
9/9/15 - Bargainbooksy - $25.00 - 24 sales, 5609 page reads
9/10/15 - Awesomegang - $0 - 7 sales, 5806 page reads
9/11/15 - Patty's Specfic Promo - $0
9/12/15 - Patty's Promo - $0
9/13/15 - Patty's Promo, Just Kindle Books - $0
9/14/15 - Pretty-Hot - $0
9/15/15 - Discount Book Man - $15 $3
9/16/15 - Betty Book Freak - $8
10/3/15 - Robin Reads - $15
Ongoing - M.L. Katz's Fantasy Promo

Submitted to NewFreeKindleBooks, OHFB, ReadFreely, The Virtual Bookcase

#10,060 Paid in Kindle Store
#46 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#47 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#67 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

#11 in Hot New Releases in Teen & Young Adult Sword & Sorcery Fantasy
#12 in Hot New Releases in Teen & Young Adult Coming of Age Fantasy
#14 in Hot New Releases in Teen & Young Adult Sword & Sorcery Fantasy eBooks
#21 in Hot New Releases in Teen & Young Adult Coming of Age Fantasy eBooks
#36 in Hot New Releases in Coming of Age Fantasy
#38 in Hot New Releases in Coming of Age Fantasy
#44 in Hot New Releases in Epic Fantasy eBooks
#64 in Hot New Releases in Epic Fantasy

These aren't really new HNR rankings, it's just that I only now went and looked in all my categories and found where i was on all the lists.

Despite the low sales, my rank was stickier today than yesterday. The seventh sale came in early afternoon, but as of 11:30 I'm only down from the 7000s to the 10,000s. I think I briefly broke into the 6000's this morning.

The reads are still higher than before, but the number hasn't budged for hours. I'm thinking it's probably a reporting glitch and more will come in a batch later. I'm still loving seeing that people are reading it. Still no reviews, pre-orders of Book 2, or sign-ups to my mailing list, though. I'm going to have to actively solicit reviews, and I was hoping not to have to do that.

I did go and find my listing on Awesomegang, but it was tiny and about 7 pages into their list, so I doubt it had any effect at all. Oh well, you get what you pay for. Actually, I guess 7 book with essentially no promo isn't bad.

I asked for next week from Robin Reads, and it looked like they had several slots then open on their calendar, but they gave me Oct. 3. I can work with that, though. I'm going to raise my price on Sept 20, and I can drop it again briefly in conjunction with releasing the novella I'm going to make permafree. Unfortunately, I don't think it will be quite long enough after release to use a countdown deal - that's 30 days, right?

I hope Patty's promo goes great over the weekend. I'm ready to send it out to my social network, such as it is. I also intend to pick several to buy for myself - a few of them I've had my eye on for a while.

Then next week the new promos will kick in. If I can get it up to where it's consistently selling at least a few books a day and getting some borrows and reads when I end this round of promos, I'll be happy. That should set the stage for releasing the novella at the beginning of October and Book 2 at the beginning of November.


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

12:09 AM Central time

#10,060 Paid in Kindle Store


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Another good day!

9/8/15 - Bknights - $5.00 - 16 18 sales, 3904 page reads
9/9/15 - Bargainbooksy - $25.00 - 24 sales, 5609 page reads
9/10/15 - Awesomegang - $0 - 7 sales, 5806 page reads
9/11/15 - Patty's Specfic Promo - $0 - 18 sales, 8798 page reads
9/12/15 - Patty's Promo - $0
9/13/15 - Patty's Promo, Just Kindle Books - $0
9/14/15 - Pretty-Hot - $0
9/15/15 - Discount Book Man - $15 $3
9/16/15 - Betty Book Freak - $8
9/18/15 - 9/29/15 - Goodreads Giveaway - $0
10/3/15 - Robin Reads - $15
Ongoing - M.L. Katz's Fantasy Promo

#8,318 Paid in Kindle Store
#40 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#40 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#60 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

Still on the Hot New Releases lists in all my categories.

I was having a pretty good day, and then about 6 sales came in in the last hour or so, and it ended up great.  The reads just keep going up.  One person even borrowed White Blood and read the whole thing.  And yet still no action on other fronts.  I can understand why people borrowing aren't interested in the pre-order - they plan to borrow Book 2 when it comes out.  But I would think they might like to subscribe to my list so they'll be notified.  And I hoped they would be drawn to the novella I'm offering as an incentive - it expands on a piece of backstory mentioned briefly (but significantly) in TFA.  And why will nobody review?  I'll go hunt for reviews if I have to, but I would like at least a few to come organically.

Looking forward to tomorrow, when Patty's Specfic promo kicks into high gear.  I've already bought a couple of the books, and will probably pick up a few more.

Edited to add: I lied - I should have actually checked my pre-orders. One more for Law of Isolation, for a grand total of 2!


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

You might get 1 in 500 to review it. Some people will buy to read it later, so give it time.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

geronl said:


> You might get 1 in 500 to review it. Some people will buy to read it later, so give it time.


Sigh. Someone else said one in a hundred, so I thought maybe I was getting close. I shall endeavor to be patient.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

I've just borrowed The Fuller's Apprentice and White Blood (in the UK, so it won't do anything for your US ranking, but at least you'll make more from the pages read than from the sales). I'm fascinated to read White Blood - I've never come across a story about a wet nurse before. A very under-appreciated role in history, I think.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Pauline, in my non-author life I'm a volunteer breastfeeding counselor, and I've always loved fantasy, so combining the two was natural for me.  I got the idea for White Blood when my kids were little, while I was taking a 10+ year break from writing.  When I got back into writing again and decided to do my first Nano, I didn't want to use White Blood in case the Nano style of writing fast didn't work for me.  So while playing around with ideas I thought would be light and fun, I came up with Fuller's Apprentice.  It turned into something much bigger than I'd ever planned.  I finally wrote White Blood for my third Nano.  I picked it to polish and publish first because it was a stand-alone, and I was looking at trad publishing at the time.  I found Kboards while I was working on publishing it, absorbed the advice about writing a series, and turned my attention to my Tevenar books.  I'm so glad WB is getting a little love now.  Once I get more Tevenar books out, I'll probably give it a promotional push.  I think the audience should cross over pretty well - they're right in the same genre.


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## Susanne123 (Jan 9, 2014)

"Everybody seems to enjoy following these, so I'll give it a go."

Hi Angela,

You're so right! I certainly love following these posts. I've got yours bookmarked.

Best wishes.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Continuing to do well.

9/8/15 - Bknights - $5.00 - 16 18 sales, 3904 page reads
9/9/15 - Bargainbooksy - $25.00 - 24 sales, 5609 page reads
9/10/15 - Awesomegang - $0 - 7 sales, 5806 page reads
9/11/15 - Patty's Specfic Promo - $0 - 18 sales, 8798 page reads
9/12/15 - Patty's Promo - $0 - 14 sales, 8244 page reads
9/13/15 - Patty's Promo, Just Kindle Books - $0
9/14/15 - Pretty-Hot - $0
9/15/15 - Discount Book Man - $15 $3
9/16/15 - Betty Book Freak - $8
9/18/15 - 9/29/15 - Goodreads Giveaway - $0
10/3/15 - Robin Reads - $15
Ongoing - M.L. Katz's Fantasy Promo

#5,147 Paid in Kindle Store
#30 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#30 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#41 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

So will my reads make it past yesterday's number before midnight, or will I have my first day they don't go up?  Either way, it's a very good number.

I'm very happy with how this release is going.  It makes me want to hurry and get Book 2 out.  I've still got a few things I have to finish for it to be ready, but if I get those done I'll consider whether to stick to the plan or move it up.  The problem is, I still have a significant amount to do on Book 4 (which is twice as long as the rest), and I'd like to keep up a consistent release schedule.  Two month intervals should give me time to get Book 4 finished comfortably.

I'm planning on shifting my focus in Oct and Nov (while Book 4 is with my editor) to finish Book 2 and write Book 3 (for Nano) of a different series, in a different genre (science fiction romance), probably for a pen name.  I think that series has a lot of commercial potential, but I'm going to have to work to balance the two series.  I might just keep writing the SFR in the background until all 8 books are finished.

I have plenty of Tevenar books to keep releasing pretty regularly - after these 4 are out, I have a 4 book prequel series written, though they need some pretty heavy revising.  And I have ideas for follow-up series to both of them, plus another time period I'd like to write about.  And did I mention i have two other unrelated stand-alones I'd like to get out eventually?  That's what happens when you write for 10 years before getting serious about publishing.  I think I'm going to be busy for a while .


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

Angela Holder said:


> Sigh. Someone else said one in a hundred, so I thought maybe I was getting close. I shall endeavor to be patient.


I made a book free and gave away over 1,400 copies and I might have gotten 3 reviews from that. Maybe.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Angela Holder said:


> Pauline, in my non-author life I'm a volunteer breastfeeding counselor, and I've always loved fantasy, so combining the two was natural for me. I got the idea for White Blood when my kids were little, while I was taking a 10+ year break from writing.


Just wanted to say - I started reading White Blood and I'm loving it! It's so refreshing to see an original angle in fantasy. I get a bit tired of the same old same old - the wizard, the swordsman, the thief, the assassin, etc. The wet nurse - that's different! Although, a heart-rending beginning.


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## Lisa Blackwood (Feb 1, 2015)

What a great start.


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## Jordan Rivet (Jan 13, 2015)

Glad to see this promo is going well. Good luck on the next few days, Angela!


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Just wanted to say - I started reading White Blood and I'm loving it! It's so refreshing to see an original angle in fantasy. I get a bit tired of the same old same old - the wizard, the swordsman, the thief, the assassin, etc. The wet nurse - that's different! Although, a heart-rending beginning.


I'm glad you're enjoying it! I know, but it had to happen that way .

Reads took another leap up today. I think Sunday is a good day for people to hang out at home and read.

9/8/15 - Bknights - $5.00 - 16 18 sales, 3904 page reads
9/9/15 - Bargainbooksy - $25.00 - 24 sales, 5609 page reads
9/10/15 - Awesomegang - $0 - 7 sales, 5806 page reads
9/11/15 - Patty's Specfic Promo - $0 - 18 sales, 8798 page reads, 1 pre-order for Book 2
9/12/15 - Patty's Promo - $0 - 15 sales, 8244 page reads
9/13/15 - Patty's Promo, Just Kindle Books - $0 - 17 sales, 13,351 page reads, 2 pre-orders for Book 2
9/14/15 - Pretty-Hot - $0
9/15/15 - Discount Book Man - $15 $3
9/16/15 - Betty Book Freak - $8
9/18/15 - 9/29/15 - Goodreads Giveaway - $0
10/3/15 - Robin Reads - $15
Ongoing - M.L. Katz's Fantasy Promo

#5,414 Paid in Kindle Store
#31 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#31 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#41 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

Patty's promo has done very nicely for me. Thanks, Patty!

TFA wasn't in Just Kindle Books's email or on their site. I don't know whether they decided not to run it because of no reviews, or if it will show up later.

I am so lucky that KU2 happened before I released. My book is perfect for the new system - long, but fast to read. People seem to be reading it through. I priced low, thinking that in the short term I'd be giving up money in exchange for eyes. But it turns out I'm getting both. The low price and KU both let readers try my book out with little risk. And at around $4.50 per KU read, I'm earning as much as if I had it priced high.

It's fun ranking in all the Hot New Release categories, but I'm not sure it's driving many sales. Borrows, maybe.

A couple more pre-orders, yay! Still waiting on reviews.

Several promos coming up this week, including a couple paid, so hopefully I can keep the train going a little longer. I'm planning on raising the price to $2.99 on the 20th. I'd leave it at $0.99, but I told people that was a limited time only price, so I need to raise it for a while, at least. i'll see how it does there, and drop it again if I need to. I'll also put up the prequel novella then and start working on making it permafree.


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## JanMoran (Jun 17, 2012)

Hi Angela, thank you for sharing your experience. It's really helpful to see what can be accomplished on a budget!

Jan


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## JanMoran (Jun 17, 2012)

Hi Angela, I'm a little new here...is there a link for Patty's Promos, or is this a friend of yours? Your results are great -- kudos! Just created new covers, so trying to jumpstart my series again... 
-Jan


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

JanMoran said:


> is there a link for Patty's Promos, or is this a friend of yours?


Patty Jansen is a Kboarder who organised a joint let's-all-promote-each-other weekend for fantasy and scifi authors. There's a long thread about it (it's just finished).


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Jan,welcome to Kboards! Your covers are very nice. About the promo, what Pauline said. Here's the thread: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,219579.0.html.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Two free promos today. I was in the Just Kindle Books email, and Pretty-Hot put me right at the top of their webpage. It really shows in my sales - this has been my second best day, after Bargainbooksy. Actually, now right before midnight it's tied with Bargainbooksy day.

9/8/15 - Bknights - $5.00 - 16 18 sales, 3904 page reads
9/9/15 - Bargainbooksy - $25.00 - 24 sales, 5609 page reads
9/10/15 - Awesomegang - $0 - 7 sales, 5806 page reads
9/11/15 - Patty's Specfic Promo - $0 - 18 sales, 8798 page reads, 1 pre-order for Book 2
9/12/15 - Patty's Promo - $0 - 15 sales, 8244 page reads
9/13/15 - Patty's Promo - $0 - 17 sales, 13,351 page reads, 2 pre-orders for Book 2
9/14/15 - Pretty-Hot, Just Kindle Books - $0 - 24 sales, 8219 page reads, 2 pre-orders for Book 2, 1 mailing list subscriber
9/15/15 - Discount Book Man - $15 $3
9/16/15 - Betty Book Freak - $8
9/18/15 - 9/29/15 - Goodreads Giveaway - $0
10/3/15 - Robin Reads - $15
Ongoing - M.L. Katz's Fantasy Promo

#4,407 Paid in Kindle Store
#23 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#27 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#39 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

My reads aren't as great as yesterday, but they're still right up there with Friday and Saturday - pretty good for a weekday, i think. Rank is the best yet. I hope that means there's a lot of borrows out there as a result of the promos that will see reads over the coming days.


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## vlmain (Aug 10, 2011)

The number of page reads you're getting compared to sales is fascinating to me. It makes sense to me that readers who subscribe to these promo sites are bargain hunters who would also be KU subscribers, but seeing the numbers in black and white really brings that home for me. It makes me wonder how much money an author would be leaving on the table if they did a lot of promoting via these sites without being in Select. I had considered going wide with my next book but now I'm more convinced to stay exclusive.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

vlmain said:


> The number of page reads you're getting compared to sales is fascinating to me.


Me too. I noticed with my last two launches that borrows rose sharply, but only after the initial discount price and promo ended and the price rose. With a regular promo (not a launch), borrows burbled away at the same level during the promo and then rose afterwards, when the price went back up.

However, the most recent promo (last weekend) saw pages read drop to their lowest ever daily figure. But it's really hard to tell what's actually going on with pages read, so I don't know whether it means anything.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Another new height for page reads, and pre-orders! Plus a review, which is great even though I know who it's from and already knew she loved it .

9/8/15 - Bknights - $5.00 - 16 18 sales, 3904 page reads
9/9/15 - Bargainbooksy - $25.00 - 24 sales, 5609 page reads
9/10/15 - Awesomegang - $0 - 7 sales, 5806 page reads
9/11/15 - Patty's Specfic Promo - $0 - 18 sales, 8798 page reads, 1 pre-order for Book 2
9/12/15 - Patty's Promo - $0 - 15 sales, 8244 page reads
9/13/15 - Patty's Promo - $0 - 17 sales, 13,351 page reads, 2 pre-orders for Book 2
9/14/15 - Pretty-Hot, Just Kindle Books - $0 - 29 sales, 8219 page reads, 2 pre-orders for Book 2, 1 mailing list subscriber
9/15/15 - Discount Book Man - $15 $3 - 25 sales, 15,757 page reads, 3 pre-orders for Book 2, 1 review
9/16/15 - Betty Book Freak - $8
9/18/15 - 9/29/15 - Goodreads Giveaway - $0
10/3/15 - Robin Reads - $15
Ongoing - M.L. Katz's Fantasy Promo

#3,328 Paid in Kindle Store
#17 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#25 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#31 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

I hadn't heard of Discount Book Man before, but in an e-mail from one of the other sites I signed up with I got a discount code that took their normally $15 promo down to $3. That was too good to pass up. I got a very nice placement near the top of their page, with a big picture and full description. It's paid off quite well.

I have a feeling many of the reads coming in today are from people who found it through the promos yesterday. I think your theory about bargain shoppers is probably pretty accurate, vlmain. I keep being surprised by how many reads I'm getting. I hope it means that most people who borrow it are reading it all the way through.

My rank got as high as the mid-2000's this morning before slipping a bit. Right now I'm ranking higher than Terry Pratchett's new (last ) book .

Tomorrow is Betty Book Freak, then that's it for promos until October. We'll see how much manages to stick, especially after I raise the price to $2.99 on Sunday. I'm hoping borrows at least will continue.

I sure am enjoying the ride .


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## Adair Hart (Jun 12, 2015)

Great stuff Angela! The 15th was a great day for you. I have a better appreciation for page reads now after being live for a week with my first book, and yours are awesome   I also have a better understanding of rank now and have enjoyed watching you climb it. Good luck on the remaining days,  I am bookmarking this in my promotions folder!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Wow, those are some great numbers - both sales and pages read! Awesome!


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

Glad to see Discountbookman.com came through for you. It has been my labor of love for the last year.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Vinny OHare said:


> Glad to see Discountbookman.com came through for you. It has been my labor of love for the last year.


Thanks so much for the discount code, Vinny. I'm curious - do you run all the services in your sig? Are they targeted at different audiences? Awesomegang didn't do too well for me, but I'm pretty sure that's because I only did the free option and was buried way down the pages. Pretty-hot and Discount Book Man were both great, because I had a big spot right at the top. They were both easy to use and looked really good. Thanks again!


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

Hi Angela

Yes I run all 4 but I have a lot of help. Here is the short story lol. I started Awesomegang because I couldn't get any promo site to promote my book because it had 0 reviews. It took off like crazy, think we had 18,000 submissions the first year maybe more. I started getting a lot of erotica/romance books getting submitted to it so I started Pretty-hot with the idea that I would use that site for all the erotica/romance books. Well, what happened was the authors that were using it for their erotica/romance books started submitting the their other books they have written. I made the choice to add categories to Pretty-hot for these other books. While it was heavy in the erotica/romance category in the beginning it branched out to paranormal romance, then paranormal etc. It has a totally different audience than Awesomegang. I am sure there is some overlap between all the sites though since I promote all 4 heavily on social media.

Pretty-hot also features the book for 5 days on the homepage (I usually leave it for 7 unless we get a lot). BookReaderMagazine does 7 also as does Discountbookman. Of course the newer ads go to the top it is still nice to promote them that long. None of my sites are 1 day promo only sites. This of course throws off the promo threads numbers   

Never being one to sit still Bookreadermagazine.com was born. I wanted to have a site that talked about books and focused more on author interviews and letting the reader choose the books based on the interviews. There is no free option to get a book listed because I didn't want a site filled with a lot of books. The homepage featured ad is priced higher to keep the Paleo diet books or books of the month from guru classes etc off the website. 

I am a website builder/seo guy at heart so I took the lessons learned from the 3 sites and made discountbookman.com. I spent a year building traffic to the site using books the were submitted to the other 3. In some ways the author that submitted to the other sites got a bonus and didn't know it. As I was making it I decided to focus on books 2.99 and under. Most of the books under that price seemed to do well especially with the birth of Kindle unlimited. I also have something in the works on that site that hasn't been done on the others (yet). I will announce it in a few weeks. 

The reason you didn't do as good on Awesomegang was because it was a free ad. As you can figure the featured ads do a lot better than the free.  I keep the ad price reasonable for Awesomegang at $10. It started that way and odds are it will always be only $10. My main goal is to help authors. You also see on all the sites I allow links to the authors website and social links. I want authors to be able to get traffic to their website and/or get newsletter subscribers. It isn't all about getting them to Amazon to buy the book with me. It is a little longer sales cycle. 

Since Discountbookman is in its first year of taking paid submissions I wanted to offer a discount and that is the coupon code you found that made it only $3. I came up with that number because it is what it cost me for my coffee at Starbucks lol. That code was Trial and it will be good for a the year. With the exception of Awesomegang all the other sites have $5 or 10 off with the coupon code kboards. It is my way of saying thanks to the authors here on the boards. 

Right now I am making a website where you can submit a featured ad to one site and have it go on all 4 of my sites for one price. Registered the domain the other day. Thanks for your question I hope it clears things up.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Wow, Vinny, thanks for all the great info.  Your sites are very professional and provide a great service.  I especially like the idea of being able to submit to all 4 at once.  Are you planning to offer staggered days - one site each day for 4 days?  I think that would work better to build momentum than all on one day.  Maybe even offer an every other day option.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Best day yet for sales!

9/8/15 - Bknights - $5.00 - 16 18 sales, 3904 page reads
9/9/15 - Bargainbooksy - $25.00 - 24 sales, 5609 page reads
9/10/15 - Awesomegang - $0 - 7 sales, 5806 page reads
9/11/15 - Patty's Specfic Promo - $0 - 18 sales, 8798 page reads, 1 pre-order for Book 2
9/12/15 - Patty's Promo - $0 - 15 sales, 8244 page reads
9/13/15 - Patty's Promo - $0 - 17 sales, 13,351 page reads, 2 pre-orders for Book 2
9/14/15 - Pretty-Hot, Just Kindle Books - $0 - 29 sales, 8219 page reads, 2 pre-orders for Book 2, 1 mailing list subscriber
9/15/15 - Discount Book Man - $15 $3 - 25 sales, 15,757 page reads, 3 pre-orders for Book 2, 1 review
9/16/15 - Betty Book Freak - $8 - 41 sales (one WB), 14,752 page reads, 1 pre-order
9/18/15 - 9/29/15 - Goodreads Giveaway - $0
10/3/15 - Robin Reads - $15
Ongoing - M.L. Katz's Fantasy Promo

#2,294 Paid in Kindle Store
#9 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#11 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#20 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

I'm on the first page of the HNR list in 7 of my 8 categories, page 2 of the 8th.  I'm up to #4 on one of them.

Betty Book Freak chose my cover as her banner for the day, which I'm sure got me some extra attention.  There was a slight error - apparently I accidentally put $0.00 instead of $0.99 when I submitted, so it was listed as free in the e-mail, and on the website at first.  Luckily I checked the website fairly early in the day and was able to get her to correct it.  It obviously didn't hurt sales.  I wonder if it may even have helped, if people clicked because it was free, then decided to spend the dollar anyway.

Seeing those sales go higher and higher really makes me want to keep throwing money at more promos to keep it going.  But I'm going to restrain myself and save my money for when the later books come out.  The next push will be at the beginning of October, with the release of the prequel novella and the Robins Reads promo.  I'm thinking I'll put the novella out about a week before so I'll have time to get it set to permafree.  Then I'll do another push at the beginning of November with the release of Book 2.


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

wow!


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## Guest (Sep 17, 2015)

Awesome!  Congrats 

I'd taken Betty out of my list for my upcoming promo, but I think I'll be adding her back in :-D


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

Thanks Angela

I wasn't thinking about staggering the promo days. You would be amazed how many authors only do 1 day promo's though. I would say 90% of authors wouldn't use the service if it was staggered. Have to think about that.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

All right, I was wrong about yesterday being my peak.  Today was better.

9/8/15 - Bknights - $5.00 - 18 sales, 3904 page reads
9/9/15 - Bargainbooksy - $25.00 - 24 sales, 5609 page reads
9/10/15 - Awesomegang - $0 - 7 sales, 5806 page reads
9/11/15 - Patty's Specfic Promo - $0 - 18 sales, 8798 page reads, 1 pre-order for Book 2
9/12/15 - Patty's Promo - $0 - 15 sales, 8244 page reads
9/13/15 - Patty's Promo - $0 - 18 sales, 13,351 page reads, 2 pre-orders for Book 2
9/14/15 - Pretty-Hot, Just Kindle Books - $0 - 29 sales, 8219 page reads, 2 pre-orders for Book 2, 1 mailing list subscriber
9/15/15 - Discount Book Man - $3 - 26 sales, 15,757 page reads, 3 pre-orders for Book 2, 1 review
9/16/15 - Betty Book Freak - $8 - 45 sales (one WB), 14,752 page reads, 1 pre-order
9/17/15 - Read Freely - $0 - 49 sales (one WB), 20,256 page reads, 3 pre-orders, 1 review (on WB)
9/18/15 - 9/29/15 - Goodreads Giveaway - $0
10/3/15 - Robin Reads - $15
Ongoing - M.L. Katz's Fantasy Promo

#1,528 Paid in Kindle Store
#5 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#6 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#10 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

My rank got up as high as #1400 during the day.  I'm on the first page of the HNR list in all my categories, and in the top 100 overall in all but one.

I finally got a review - on White Blood .  None of all the hundreds of people who've bought or borrowed Fuller's Apprentice have left a review (except one friend), but one of the handful who've read WB did.  Scratching my head at that one.  It was, however, a very complimentary 4 star review, and I'm delighted to get it.

I was in the Read Freely e-mail today, which I hadn't been expecting because they never got back to me with a specific date.  I'm sure that helped keep the ball rolling a little longer.  But I think I must also have succeeded in triggering whatever Amazon algorithms kick in to make a book more visible, because it just keeps improving.

I've already covered the cost of all six covers for the series, plus what I've spent on promotions.  Another few days of earning like this and I'll break even on everything I've spent.  Then I'll be able to put even more money into promotions for the later books.  Of course, I really don't expect it to go on like this indefinitely.  But every day sales and reads go up, my imagination gets a little bit more carried away .


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## Overrated (Mar 20, 2015)

Angela, congratulations! I love promo threads, and I really love promo threads where the OP is sticking to a modest budget. It's easy to get carried away. Your numbers are fantastic! Add me to those who find the page reads numbers fascinating. I am one of the few people I know who reads in KU IRL, so I'm always interested to see those hard numbers of others' experiences with them. 

Or maybe, I'm just the only person that will admit it and all my friends are hiding their reading habits.

Also, Vinny, thank you for sharing all that info. I've been really pleased with the response I've gotten using Awesomegang. 

I hope you update this for your remaining promos.


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

Lisa Manifold said:


> Angela, congratulations! I love promo threads, and I really love promo threads where the OP is sticking to a modest budget. It's easy to get carried away. Your numbers are fantastic! Add me to those who find the page reads numbers fascinating. I am one of the few people I know who reads in KU IRL, so I'm always interested to see those hard numbers of others' experiences with them.
> 
> Or maybe, I'm just the only person that will admit it and all my friends are hiding their reading habits.
> 
> ...


Thanks Lisa for the kind words. I am glad you are happy with Awesomegang promos. My team and I work hard at helping authors.


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

Thanks, Angela - this was both awesome and truly inspiring.

Vinny, I am definitely signing up for Discount Book Man for a big October promo I am putting together.

Gosh, I love these promo threads!


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Vinny OHare said:


> Since Discountbookman is in its first year of taking paid submissions I wanted to offer a discount and that is the coupon code you found that made it only $3. I came up with that number because it is what it cost me for my coffee at Starbucks lol. That code was Trial and it will be good for a the year. With the exception of Awesomegang all the other sites have $5 or 10 off with the coupon code kboards. It is my way of saying thanks to the authors here on the boards.


Is the discount code still available? If so, where can I find it?

I submitted #Berlin45 to Discountbookman today for 23 Sept. However, I'm not sure it went through since the site gives no automatic message saying the information has been received. So I re-submitted all the info. Still no confirmation.

Did you receive it?

Thanks.

Philip


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

Philip Gibson said:


> Is the discount code still available? If so, where can I find it?
> 
> I submitted #Berlin45 to Discountbookman today for 23 Sept. However, I'm not sure it went through since the site gives no automatic message saying the information has been received. So I re-submitted all the info. Still no confirmation.
> 
> ...


I don't want to take away from this thread with service questions. If you didn't get a confirmation email odds are we didn't get it. I don't know why you always have problems submitting to my sites you seem to have more issues than anyone else. Very strange.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Vinny OHare said:


> I don't want to take away from this thread with service questions. If you didn't get a confirmation email odds are we didn't get it. I don't know why you always have problems submitting to my sites you seem to have more issues than anyone else. Very strange.


Vinny, it's not just Philip - I never get a confirmation email, either, but it always seems to go through OK.


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

Thanks Pauline

His doesn't come through at all no matter which site of mine he uses. We have exchanged a lot of emails about it. I submitted the details of his book to my site manually and it worked as planned. It really drives me up a wall since I can't replicate the problem. We moved Awesome to a new robust server probably about 6 months ago and the issue of email confirmations is hit or miss.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Late report for yesterday.

9/8/15 - Bknights - $5.00 - 18 sales, 3904 page reads
9/9/15 - Bargainbooksy - $25.00 - 24 sales, 5609 page reads
9/10/15 - Awesomegang - $0 - 7 sales, 5806 page reads
9/11/15 - Patty's Specfic Promo - $0 - 18 sales, 8798 page reads, 1 pre-order for Book 2
9/12/15 - Patty's Promo - $0 - 15 sales, 8244 page reads
9/13/15 - Patty's Promo - $0 - 18 sales, 13,351 page reads, 2 pre-orders for Book 2
9/14/15 - Pretty-Hot, Just Kindle Books - $0 - 29 sales, 8219 page reads, 2 pre-orders for Book 2, 1 mailing list subscriber
9/15/15 - Discount Book Man - $3 - 26 sales, 15,757 page reads, 3 pre-orders for Book 2, 1 review
9/16/15 - Betty Book Freak - $8 - 45 sales (one WB), 14,752 page reads, 1 pre-order
9/17/15 - Read Freely - $0 - 51 sales (one WB), 20,526 page reads, 3 pre-orders, 1 review (on WB)
9/18/15 - Goodreads Giveaway live - $0 - 51 sales, 25,513 reads, 3 pre-orders, 1 review
10/3/15 - Robin Reads - $15
Ongoing - M.L. Katz's Fantasy Promo

#1,093 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#4 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#7 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

Up to #2 in a couple HNR categories, top ten in several others.  Book 2 is showing up on the HNR lists, too, as high as #17.  I need to tweak its categories to get it everywhere Book 1 is.

I posted on Facebook about my free novella, and got several mailing list sign-ups.  That one really is better read after Book 1, but I'm not complaining.  I think it's one of the best stories in this world, so hopefully it will draw in anyone who reads it first.

A nice 3 star review.  Can't argue with the criticism (if only they knew how much worse it was before I fixed a bunch of stuff), and overall very positive.  It's posted on Goodreads as well, so I think the reviewer is using the Goodreads scale where 3 is better than is typical on Amazon.

This launch has been more successful than I dared hope.  Crossing my fingers that the momentum continues, especially after I raise the price Sunday night.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

These are awesome numbers, Angela! And a brilliant ranking.   If I do half as well on my release next week, I'll be ecstatic. Hope this produces a really long, profitable tail for you.

PS I LOVED White Blood - 5* review incoming.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

P2F and need to read, not sure how I miss any promo post, they are my favorites   I did see your book in several of my emails so it must be working!


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

JanMoran said:


> Hi Angela, I'm a little new here...is there a link for Patty's Promos, or is this a friend of yours? Your results are great -- kudos! Just created new covers, so trying to jumpstart my series again...
> -Jan


She'll do it again in December, we hope.

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,219579.275.html


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

This is getting crazy.

9/19/15 - 61 sales, 28127 page reads, 5 preorders (up to 27 total)

#997 Paid in Kindle Store
#4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#4 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#7 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

Every day I think things are going to level off or start to slide, and then they don't.


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

Keep it up! We are all rooting for you and hope this last a long time.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

You've managed to achieve escape velocity for your book and escape Amazon's gravitational abyss that most of us endure down here LOL  

Do keep posting, if you have the energy.  If I can't take the ride myself, I enjoy watching someone else  

I just noticed I'm a bit too emoticon happy today  

Break me of this habit  

Keep it going!!


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## R.U. Writing (Jul 18, 2015)

Wow!! Amazing page reads!!


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## Elliott Garber (Apr 8, 2013)

That's so wonderful, Angela, congrats! And this was with no other promotions yesterday?


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Elliot - No, no new promotions.  I think it's still on a couple of Vinny's pages (Thanks, Vinny!) but getting pushed farther down by new stuff.  My Goodreads giveaway is live and will be until the 29th.  A few of the free sites I submitted to are permanent listings.  As far as I know, that's it.  Everything else is due to Amazon's mysterious magic.

9/21/15 - 70 sales, 41,798 page reads, 9 pre-orders (up to 36), 1 review (5 star, but I can't see it yet)

#863 Paid in Kindle Store
#4 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#7 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

Since tweaking Book 2's keywords, it's now in 10 categories.  It got the two adult Sword and Sorcery categories (book and ebooks), in addition to everything Book 1 is in.  So I tweaked Book 1's keywords to try and get there, as well.

The outage this morning doesn't seem to have had any ill effects, thank goodness.  I was pretty worried for a while.

Covered my eyes and changed the price to $2.99.  I really hope I'm not shooting myself in the foot.  But even if it drops sales down 20 to 50 a day, I would have considered that amazingly high just a few days ago.  And I can always change it back if I need to.


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## Elliott Garber (Apr 8, 2013)

That's so great, Angela! 

You're at #703 now, even after the increase in price to $2.99. 

And wow, over 40k page reads in one day!


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

You are still on Pretty-hot until the end of the day and DiscountBookMan until tomorrow night I believe. Like you said though they are down on the page by now. 

I would love to figure out how come this tail is so long but I gave up. My theory which is just a guess is that changing your keywords and having amazon getting hits from 17 different promo sites has something to do with it. Just a guess though.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Vinny, I'd love to know, too.  I mean, I'd like to think it's because I wrote a great book , but even if that's true, how are people finding out?  It's not like they've been leaving droves of rave reviews .

Being in so many categories must help, as must being up at the top of the HNR lists - I didn't see much when it first hit the lists, but when it got up into the top 10, and especially the top 3 of a few of them, things really picked up.  I'm at #1 in two HNR categories right now .

It helps my reads that my book is long - 145,000 words, plus a 5000 word teaser chapter for Book 2 - and got a high KENPC - 881, when the 6 x 9 paperback is right at 400 pages.  To be as high as they are, though, I figure it must have a pretty high percentage of full reads.

Sales seem to be on a similar pace as they have for the last few high-sales days.  I'm already at 43, and there's still plenty of day left.  I seem to tend to get a spike late in the evening.  I'm in Central Time, so maybe it's bedtime-ish in Pacific Time?  Sometimes a few sales get added to the previous day after midnight here, too.

I'm still kind of shellshocked .  Two weeks ago I was a complete prawn, with a single published book that had been flatlined for a year. Now I'm well on my way to being one of the success stories.  I'm just amazed and delighted that these stories and characters that I've been living with for ten years are finally out there, getting read and enjoyed.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Raising my price did not hurt my sales at all.

9/21/15 - 66 sales, 51,790 page reads, 7 pre-orders (42 total), 2 reviews (1 TFA, 1 WB), 4 mailing list sign-ups

One late-reporting sale bumped yesterday's total to 71.  We'll see if today eventually matches it.

#637 Paid in Kindle Store
#2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#2 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#3 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

#1 in two HRN categories

This has been an amazing two weeks.  I didn't expect to do anywhere near this well until maybe, if I was lucky, after two or three of the books were out.  Something about my book is striking a chord with people.  I can't wait to see where it goes from here!


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## RinG (Mar 12, 2013)

Congratulations! Those are some really impressive numbers!


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

Have they been buying your other books too, I wonder.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Geroni, I've had 4 sales and about 5 reads of White Blood since I started promoting The Fuller's Apprentice.  It hadn't gotten any action for months before.  I've got 47 pre-orders of Law of Isolation, which will go on sale at the beginning of November.  That's all I've got out right now.


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

it is always cool to see books taking off. Timothy Ellis has 5 books out and he's hitting the stratosphere over there.


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## Susanne123 (Jan 9, 2014)

Salvador wrote: "Do keep posting, if you have the energy.  If I can't take the ride myself, I enjoy watching someone else"

I'm in the same camp, Angela. Love that you're taking the time to update. Congrats and continued forward momentum.


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## Cheryl Douglas (Dec 7, 2011)

Looks like you're still flying high, Angela. Congratulations. I know it takes time and energy to put this kind of promo together and it was so great of you to share your results with us. Thank you!


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

I spoke too soon.

9/23/15 - 40 sales (1 WB), 46,553 page reads, 11 pre-orders (53 total), 1 review

Yesterday ended up at 68 sales.

#668 Paid in Kindle Store
#2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#3 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#3 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

Sales way down today, probably as a result of the raise in price. It was still my second highest earning day by a lot, next to yesterday. I would be happy enough to sell fewer copies but earn more money, except I know this is going to drop my ranking. I'll lose visibility, and that will hurt both sales and borrows. But I'm still going to let the higher price stand until the promos I have scheduled the first week of October.

I just uploaded the prequel novella, Calling, to D2D and hit publish. Once it's live and free at the major sites, I'll put it up on Amazon and start working on getting it permafree. My goal is to have it free by the first week of October so I can run some promos on it in conjunction with the ones for TFA.

I'm going to keep reporting daily, for those who have expressed an interest. Also, it makes a good record for me. I might cut down on the commentary some, though.

Thanks for all your congratulations! I'm very pleased with this launch, even though it looks like I'm into the tail now. I didn't expect it to stay high forever. And I've already gotten a great return on my modest investment.

But I have to admit, it was awfully fun seeing this today:


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Angela, you may not see as much drop in rank as you think. In my (limited!) experience, a higher price leads to more borrows, as people who might have paid $0.99 decide to use their subscription or Prime borrow instead. I've always found that borrows shoot up after a promo ends.

Thanks for continuing to update. I'm finding it fascinating to watch you hit the stratosphere. And to think I knew you when you were only selling a dozen or two copies a day... erm, two weeks ago! Long may it last for you.


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## cdk (Feb 28, 2015)

Congratulations on your great results.  Like everyone else, I've really enjoyed following this thread.
Maybe I missed it earlier in this thread, but how did you figure out how to have a 99 cent promotion, for a couple of weeks, from the date you first published if you're in Select and getting page reads?


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## E.M. Cooper (Feb 27, 2015)

Well done Angela and thanks for the information about possible promo opportunities.


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## Adair Hart (Jun 12, 2015)

Angela Holder said:


> I'm going to keep reporting daily, for those who have expressed an interest. Also, it makes a good record for me. I might cut down on the commentary some, though.


You're doing great, Angela! Keep posting, I enjoy reading your commentary and results. I'm curious to see how your tail goes!


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## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

Just to inject a bit of hope (because we all run on hope around here  ), yesterday seemed like a very slow day on Amazon overall. In my experience, Tuesdays are generally the lowest day of the week for sales -- my theory is that no one wants to work on Mondays so they buy books instead, but when Tuesday comes around, everyone's gotten over Monday and suddenly realized they have all this work they need to do, so they spend all day working and not reading or looking for new books...

(That's how I work, anyway. Tuesday is "oh crap I really need to get stuff done!!" day.  )

So you may be surprised and your sales might go up again today. Regardless, congratulations on a fantastic promo run!


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Thanks, everyone! I think I'm going to switch to posting updates in the morning - it works better with my schedule. Plus it helps me catch those late reporting sales.

9/23/15 - 37 sales, 51,230 page reads, 15 pre-orders (71 total)

#777 Paid in Kindle Store
#2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#3 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#4 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

Sales were down again, but reads were up, and earnings remain great. Rank is sticking much better than I hoped - it's drifted down a tad, but overall stable, still high enough to put me at the top of several HNR lists. Pauline, I think I'm seeing what you described. Pre-orders are terrific. Book 2's rank is climbing - it's on the HNR lists, too, first page on several.

My prequel novella, Calling, is live on B&N, Apple, and Kobo now, so whenever I want to hit publish and start the process of making it free on Amazon I can. I'm still debating the best timing for that. I'd like to have it become free and start promoting it close to the beginning of October. Does anyone have experience with how long it takes to get Amazon to price match? Should allowing a week be long enough?



cdk said:


> Maybe I missed it earlier in this thread, but how did you figure out how to have a 99 cent promotion, for a couple of weeks, from the date you first published if you're in Select and getting page reads?


I just set the price to 99c manually and took the 35% royalty. Select is separate from the 70% royalty. That confused me at first, too.



S.W. Vaughn said:


> (because we all run on hope around here  )


Isn't that the truth!


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

9/24/15 - 24 sales, 46,132 pages read, 10 pre-orders (81 total)

#804 Paid in Kindle Store
#2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#3 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#3 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

Sales took another steep drop, but everything else is holding steady.  My rank is much more stable than I expected.  Moneywise, I'm still ahead by raising the price - I'd need to sell around 144 books at 99c to equal the royalties I get for 24 sales at $2.99.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Angela,

I'm really glad you posted.  I'm reading your post, especially the early on promo sites and trying to get as many of them lined up as I can for my new release.  Great news to see your numbers every day.  I don't have the same as you do, so I can only hope 

Keep sharing, at least for this month!


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

9/25/15 - 36 sales, 52,740 pages read, 10 pre-orders (91 total), 1 mailing list sign-up (and 1 unsubscribe), 2 reviews (2 and 5 stars)

#852 Paid in Kindle Store
#2 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#5 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

Sales bounced, rank is holding up nicely, set a new high for pages.  I'm getting close to the 10 reviews a lot of promo sites want; I just hope the average is high enough to qualify once I get there.  Overall a very encouraging day.  If this is where it levels off until the next release, I'm in great shape.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Those page reads are amazing.  I think being in the top 3 of any of the categories helps with the visibility and you look like you're there in several of them.  Congrats and continued good luck!


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Sorry for missing a few days.

9/26/15 - 34 sales, 40,792 pages read
9/27/15 - 36 sales, 46,497 pages read
9/28/15 - 30 sales, 50,071 pages read

I lost track of how many came in on which day, but I'm up to 133 pre-orders for Book 2.  Up to 10 reviews, although the average is only 3.8.

Current stats:
#1,176 Paid in Kindle Store
#4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#5 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#7 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

I got a Science Fiction and Fantasy newsletter from Amazon today with my book shown in "Bestselling new and upcoming releases."  Sales and reads so far today haven't shown a spike; they're both about on a par with what I've been doing for the past week or so.

I hit publish on my prequel novella, Calling, and started the process of making it permafree.  I'm not going to notify my mailing list or Facebook about it until it's free on Amazon.  It's live, but so far no sales at $0.99 and no promotion.  That's just as well - I don't really want people buying it when they could get it free soon.  It's been up free everywhere D2D distributes for a few days and gotten a sprinkling of downloads.


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

Take a screen shot of the amazon newsletter and include it in your newsletter.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Angela Holder said:


> Sorry for missing a few days.


You mean you're not symbiotically attached to your computer, waiting to give us instant updates on your progress You have a life outside Kboards  Quite unacceptable. Desist immediately.

Actually, I've been following your continued amazing progress via EbookTracker.  But it's nice to have you back.

PS The 10th review is mine, which isn't showing up on Amazon yet. But you can read it on Goodreads, if you want. Or my blog.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

PaulineMRoss said:


> You mean you're not symbiotically attached to your computer, waiting to give us instant updates on your progress You have a life outside Kboards  Quite unacceptable. Desist immediately.
> 
> Actually, I've been following your continued amazing progress via EbookTracker.  But it's nice to have you back.
> 
> PS The 10th review is mine, which isn't showing up on Amazon yet. But you can read it on Goodreads, if you want. Or my blog.


LOL!


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## J. Dane Tyler (Jul 8, 2010)

Wow, continued and heartfelt congratulations, Angela! Really terrific results, and thank you for the ongoing diligence to keep the post alive and updated. It's an amazing thing to watch!


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

PaulineMRoss said:


> You mean you're not symbiotically attached to your computer?


Um, this is disturbingly close to the truth .

Thanks for the congratulations. And thanks very much for the reviews, Pauline.

09/30/15 - 38 sales, 35,642 page reads, 11 free downloads of Calling

Currently at 141 pre-orders.

#1,095 Paid in Kindle Store
#4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#5 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#7 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

My prequel novella, Calling, went free late yesterday afternoon. I'm announcing it to my mailing list and Facebook today, and I'm going to set up some promos for it. It was frustrating not knowing exactly when it would go free, so I couldn't book promos just in case the price change hadn't gone through by when it was scheduled. Now I can go to town .

On Saturday I have a Robin Reads promo that I set up back when I was doing the others - that was the date they gave me. I plan to manually drop the price on TFA back to 99c for the day, since it hasn't been at full price long enough to do a countdown deal. I'm going to look at the sites I couldn't use before because they require a minimum number of reviews and see if I'm eligible for any of them now. If so, I may do another promo or two if I can schedule them that soon. But I'm mostly going to concentrate on promoting Calling and save more promo of TFA until Book 2 comes out at the beginning of November.


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## Eva Chase (Aug 8, 2015)

Angela Holder said:


> My prequel novella, Calling, went free late yesterday afternoon. I'm announcing it to my mailing list and Facebook today, and I'm going to set up some promos for it. It was frustrating not knowing exactly when it would go free, so I couldn't book promos just in case the price change hadn't gone through by when it was scheduled. Now I can go to town .


Just so you know, your novella isn't showing as free on Amazon.com to me in Canada yet. You might want to give them a nudge to make sure they're price matching for all customers, not just US ones, since many of us international folks use the .com store for ebook purchases (and you'll lose those possible downloads from your promos).


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Eva Chase said:


> Just so you know, your novella isn't showing as free on Amazon.com to me in Canada yet. You might want to give them a nudge to make sure they're price matching for all customers, not just US ones, since many of us international folks use the .com store for ebook purchases (and you'll lose those possible downloads from your promos).


Thank you for letting me know! I just submitted the original free request Monday - any idea of how long I should give them before I nudge? From reading posts about others' experiences, apparently it often takes a little while for the price match to filter through to all the Amazon sites. I've been submitting to free promo sites this morning, and I had to skip a couple UK-specific ones because it's not free there yet, either.


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## Eva Chase (Aug 8, 2015)

Angela Holder said:


> Thank you for letting me know! I just submitted the original free request Monday - any idea of how long I should give them before I nudge? From reading posts about others' experiences, apparently it often takes a little while for the price match to filter through to all the Amazon sites. I've been submitting to free promo sites this morning, and I had to skip a couple UK-specific ones because it's not free there yet, either.


Unfortunately I've never dealt with a permafree myself, so I have no idea. I'm not even sure how it works. It's the Amazon.com website I'm looking at (not .ca)--but maybe it will appear free to me _there_ after the change filters through to .ca? My point is that if you're submitting to deal sites using the .com link, there are likely plenty of international folks following those deals who purchase from .com, who will go to .com to purchase and not see the free price even there. Something to at least keep in mind when you're following the numbers. Hopefully someone more experienced can advise on why that happens and how to fix it!


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Sales were very slow all day yesterday, but enough came in late that I ended up with total still within my post-price-rise leveled-off range.

9/30/15 - 25 sales, 41,956 page reads, 24 free downloads of Calling, 2 email list subscribers

At 159 total pre-orders.

#1,176 Paid in Kindle Store
#4 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#7 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

Calling is moving slower than I expected. I'd heard that free books typically got a couple hundred downloads just by showing up. Maybe the fact that it's short is hurting it. Yesterday I signed it up for a bunch of free promo sites, and today I'm going to choose a few paid ones and get them scheduled for next week. Also I got it out to Facebook yesterday, but didn't get it out to my mailing list, which I'm going to take care of today.

I checked a few of the international sites, and it's still not free on any of them. If anyone in the UK, CA, AU, or anywhere else wants to report it, here's the price matching links:

iBooks - https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1042707632
B&N - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/calling-angela-holder/1122687965;jsessionid=19B35B46D1C285092500F3F7C75E10C2.prodny_store01-va12?ean=2940152207019
Kobo - https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/calling-6

Actually, those are all the US sites, and I don't know how to get to the international ones. But I put it up on D2D free from the beginning, so none of those stores has ever had a price associated with it.

My daughter found 2 typos in TFA, _after_ I'd already ordered 50 copies from Createspace . Oh well. If they snuck past most of us so long, hopefully they'll escape most readers' notice. I'm resisting the urge to go after the boxes of pretty books with white-out and a pen .


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## Penang (Jun 28, 2011)

Thank you for posting this thread! You did amazing!! Congrats


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

At the moment it's easier to sell books than to give them away:

10/1/15 - 44 sales (1 WB, 2 Calling), 36,527 page reads, 23 free downloads

169 total pre-orders

TFA:
#1,139 Paid in Kindle Store
#4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#5 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#7 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

Calling:
#4,618 Free in Kindle Store
#9 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > Two hours or more (65-100 pages) > Teen & Young Adult
#18 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

Sales were very good yesterday, after being way down the day before.  I wonder whether some sales got reported late.  Or maybe I'm already starting to see a little sell-through from Calling.  Tomorrow TFA has a promo with Robin Reads, so I'm hoping for a nice bump.

I spent yesterday booking a bunch of promos for Calling.  Here's the schedule:

10/5/15 - Genre Pulse, $40
10/6/15 - Book Butterfly, $25, BKnight, $5.50
10/7/15 - Book Butterfly cont'd, Discount Book Man, $0 (There was a problem with Paypal when I paid, and Vinny graciously waived the fee.)
10/8/15 - Daily Free Books Book of the Day, $17
10/9/15 - eBookSoda, $10, Booktastic, $5

I've also requested Sweet Free Books and haven't heard back from them yet.  These are on top of a bunch of free sites which don't tend to confirm dates.

Buying promos is fun.  I'm normally very frugal, so when I do spend money it's both difficult and a treat.  I keep reminding myself that I'm reinvesting some of my earnings back into my business.  I'm looking forward to seeing my green line soar up high next week.


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## Jarmitagetheauthor (Sep 30, 2015)

How exciting! I've written quite a bit but I've not done much in the way of promotion. Now that my series is finished and I have a prequel on the way, I think it's time. I do worry about throwing money at promotion but hopefully it will be worth it. If I can get anywhere near your success, I'll be a very happy bunny indeed. I love posts like this.


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

Glad to see you chose Discountbookman again. 

Paypal has been doing updates and changing settings as it gets further away from Ebay. Looks like you hit us up just as the update was going through.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Robin Reads gave me a great bump in sales on Saturday - 106 (my previous high was 71).  I manually dropped the price to 99c for the day and raised it again Sunday morning.  I didn't plan on having a promo day at this point when I was scheduling them; I just took the date RR offered, but it worked out really well.  I'm hoping this bump will have a tail that carries me through TFA's 30 day cliff, which is coming right up.

10/2/15 - 32 sales, 40,798 page reads, 21 free downloads
10/3/15 - Robin Reads ($15) 106 sales, 34,167 page reads, 32 free downloads
10/4/15 - 49 sales, 44,798 page reads, 16 free downloads

At 198 total pre-orders for TLOI.

#908 Paid in Kindle Store
#3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#3 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#6 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

TFA's rank got back up into the 700's for a while.

Promos for Calling get started today.  First up is Genre Pulse.  It's the most expensive, so I'm eager to see how it works.  As of 8:00 am, I'm still at 0 free downloads, so the e-mail must not have gone out yet.


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## Jane Killick (Aug 29, 2014)

Great thread!

Can I ask how you approached promo sites for a new release before it was released? Did you put it on pre-order so you could send the Amazon link to the sites ahead of time? If so, how long did you have the pre-order up for?

Or did you apply to the sites with the promise that you would publish the book in time for the promo?


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Jane - Yes, I put up a pre-order for about a week before I released TFA. That was long enough to get it into the sites I used. I actually set up a pre-order for Book 2 (TLOI) first, waited until that was live, put the link for it into Book 1 (TFA), and then set up the pre-order for Book 1. I was within the 10 day window, so I had to be sure to upload the final version and wasn't able to make any changes until after it went live.

Today is Day 30, so I'll be off the HNR lists tomorrow. I'm in the regular top 10 in several categories, so hopefully it won't hurt too much.

Here's my results for the past couple days. Promos are for Calling, except The Fuller's Apprentice is featured at https://thevirtualbookcase.wordpress.com this week. Calling is getting a few $0.99 sales because it's still not free worldwide.

10/5/15 - Genre Pulse $40 - 38 sales (32 TFA, 6 C), 44,543 page reads, 152 free downloads
10/6/15 - Book Butterfly $25 Day 1, BKnights $5.50 - 29 sales (24 TFA, 5 C), 39,173 page reads, 388 free downloads

221 total pre-orders

The Fuller's Apprentice:
#1,303 Paid in Kindle Store
#4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#5 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#7 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

Calling:
#348 Free in Kindle Store
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > Two hours or more (65-100 pages) > Science Fiction & Fantasy
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > Two hours or more (65-100 pages) > Teen & Young Adult

I'm definitely seeing an uptick in reads which I suspect come from people borrowing while visibility was up from the Robin Reads promo. Sales of TFA are drifting down, though. I'm not yet seeing any sell-through from Calling that I can identify.

Coming up today is Day 2 of Book Butterfly and Discount Book Man. I kind of wish I'd scheduled Book Butterfly alone on their days, since they offer a guarantee but don't offset for other promos run the same day. (Which is totally fair; there's really no way to know which downloads came from which promo.) The guaranteed me 500-800 downloads over the two days, which if today is anything like yesterday I'll make, but with BKnights good reputation I wonder if I could have gotten more with him on a different day. Oh, well, it's hard to schedule these things exactly, because you can request dates, but for a lot of the sites, when they accept you they tell you what dates they've got available, which aren't always exactly what you asked for.

My rating is hovering right around the minimum required for some of the bigger sites. It seems like every time I get a good review that pulls it up, a low review comes in and drags it down again. I don't begrudge the low reviews, I just wish more of the people who liked it enough to read all the way through, join my mailing list, and/or buy the next book on pre-order would leave reviews as well. I hope by the time Book 2 releases at the beginning of November I'll qualify for the pickier sites like Book Barbarian and The Fussy Librarian.

Holding my nose and getting ready to plunge off the 30-day cliff!


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## Jane Killick (Aug 29, 2014)

Angela Holder said:


> Jane - Yes, I put up a pre-order for about a week before I released TFA. That was long enough to get it into the sites I used. I actually set up a pre-order for Book 2 (TLOI) first, waited until that was live, put the link for it into Book 1 (TFA), and then set up the pre-order for Book 1. I was within the 10 day window, so I had to be sure to upload the final version and wasn't able to make any changes until after it went live.
> ...
> Holding my nose and getting ready to plunge off the 30-day cliff!


That's interesting. In the promo I have booked for later this month, I did it all a month out. Mostly because I wanted to have a punt at BookBub and ENT (both said yes!!). I don't think pre-order is a good idea if you don't have a lot of fans, but then having the link is really useful. I didn't realise that you could do a pre-order that was less than 10 days away, so I will keep that in mind.

Best of luck jumping from that cliff. Given your launch month, I reckon you will fly!!


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## anotherpage (Apr 4, 2012)

Good luck


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## TFHinton (Jan 8, 2015)

This is all really interesting stuff, Angela. Thanks for posting and I'm really happy for your success!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Angela Holder said:


> My rating is hovering right around the minimum required for some of the bigger sites.


I've had this issue, too. I did some research, and although there are a few sites that have minimum ratings requirements, there are more that don't, or that set a more realistic level of 3.6 or some such. BookBub doesn't have any restriction, for instance, nor does ENT (for the standard option). And some that advertise a 4.0 minimum don't stick to it. So don't worry too much. It's more important to get past the critical 5, 10 and 20 milestones, which you're well on the way to doing.

I'm so glad you're continuing the updates. It's fascinating to watch your progress. I wish I were doing half as well.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Time for another set of numbers.

All promos are for Calling (free novella).

10/7/15 - Books Butterfly Day 2 ($25), Discount Book Man ($3 with code) - 17 sales, 41,251 page reads, 133 free downloads
10/8/15 - Daily Free Books Book of the Day ($17) - 29 sales, 30,980 page reads, 140 free downloads
10/9/15 - eBook Soda ($10), Booktastic ($5) - 23 sales, 31,022 page reads, 129 free downloads
10/10/15 - Sweet Free Books ($5) - 23 sales, 28,931 page reads, 137 free downloads
10/11/15 - 28 sales, 27,333 page reads, 91 free downloads
10/12/15 - 23 sales, 27,286 page reads, 42 free downloads
10/13/15 - 30 sales, 32,406 page reads, 27 free downloads
10/14/15 - 22 sales, 23,074 page reads, 37 free downloads

TFA, current:
18 reviews, 4.0 average
#1,973 Paid in Kindle Store
#5 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#9 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#12 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

Calling, current:
2 reviews, 4.0 average
#2,247 Free in Kindle Store
#5 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > Two hours or more (65-100 pages) > Teen & Young Adult
#6 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > Two hours or more (65-100 pages) > Science Fiction & Fantasy

307 pre-orders for TLOI (Book 2)
28 mailing list subscribers

Calling isn't moving as well as I hoped.  I've given away a lot, but compared to the numbers I've seen others on KBoards quote for free downloads, mine aren't very high.  I suspect the cover and blurb are not as appealing as they could be.  I'm thinking about going back to my cover designer and getting a new one with a person on it.

TFA stayed on the HNR lists for 2 days past 30.  Not sure what was going on there.  I didn't see a sharp drop - it's continued to average somewhere around 25 sales a day, which is keeping its rank around 2000.  Reads remain high, although they're drifting down.  If it can hold at this level until Book 2 releases, I'll be very happy.

The Law of Isolation goes live on November 3.  I've got the editing done, except for one person who's proofreading and will get it back to me by October 20.  My husband is going to do the conversion of the (almost) final version tonight, and I'll upload it and mark it final well ahead of the deadline.  I'll fix any typos found in the proofread and update it as necessary.

I set up a 7 day 99c countdown deal on TFA for the week after TLOI goes live, and I'm working on scheduling promos.  I've been accepted by Book Barbarian, and I've got requests in for ENT and Books Butterfly.  I don't want to re-use any of the sites that prominently featured TFA just a month ago, but I'm looking at paid slots for some that I used as free then, and at the ones that did well with Calling. Also any that i now qualify for based on reviews.  I'm upping the amount of money I'm spending.  With two full-length books available, I'm anticipating my reads increasing, which should easily pay for the promos even if sales don't.


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## TFHinton (Jan 8, 2015)

Looks like everything is going pretty well. By the way, I love The Law of Isolation cover! Are you able to say what cover designer you used?

One thing that I would say as a reader (I could hardly give any advice a a writer, not having published a book yet) is that I'm not sure where Calling fits in with your other books. Is it a prequel, in which case you might want to add something like 'book 0'? Or is it another story in the same world, in which case you could use a different series name (but still include 'Tevenar'). Just a suggestion, do with it as you wish.

Loving the thread,
- Tom


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

I didn't accomplish much last week due to dealing with a dental issue (cracked tooth - ow ow ow), but that's taken care of now and I'm getting back on track.

Sales and page reads mostly from The Fuller's Apprentice, although occasionally White Blood or Calling has a sale or WB has page reads.  Free downloads from Calling.
10/15/15 - 16 sales, 28,379 page reads, 32 free downloads
10/16/15 - 26 sales, 25,645 page reads, 32 free downloads
10/17/15 - 14 sales, 21,630 page reads, 26 free downloads
10/18/15 - 18 sales, 29,383 page reads, 37 free downloads
10/19/15 - 20 sales, 24,936 page reads, 30 free downloads
10/20/15 - 18 sales, 25,120 page reads, 26 free downloads
10/21/15 - 22 sales, 21,403 page reads, 23 free downloads
10/22/15 - 18 sales, 23,784 page reads, 19 free downloads
10/23/15 - 12 sales, 21,168 page reads, 18 free downloads
10/24/15 - 17 sales, 22,101 page reads, 19 free downloads
10/25/15 - 26 sales, 19,320 page reads, 34 free downloads

Total pre-orders: 408 for The Law of Isolation, 15 for Beyond the Boundary Stones

Current ranks: 
TFA
21 reviews, 4.1 rating
#2,141 Paid in Kindle Store
#7 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#14 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#15 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age

Calling
4 reviews, 4.5 rating
#4,037 Free in Kindle Store
#14 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > Two hours or more (65-100 pages) > Teen & Young Adult
#22 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

TLOI
#17,040 Paid in Kindle Store
#61 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#85 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#86 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

BTBS
#86,303 Paid in Kindle Store
#255 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#256 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#354 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery

I put up a pre-order for Beyond the Boundary Stones (Book 3) in order to get the ASIN and put a link at the end of TLOI before it goes live.  So far I've done nothing with it, not even an announcement to my mailing list or Facebook, and it's already gotten 15 pre-orders  .

Promos for The Fuller's Apprentice to coincide with The Law of Isolation release:
11/3/15 - The Law of Isolation goes live at $2.99  Calling in Patty Jensen's First in Series Free Promo
11/4-11/10 - The Fuller's Apprentice $0.99 Kindle Countdown Deal
11/4/15 - Awesomegang $10, SweetFreeBooks (requested) $5
11/5/15 - BooksButterfly (requested)
11/6/15 - BooksButterfly (requested)
11/7/15 - BookSends & EReader IQ (requested)
11/8/15 - EReader News Today $25, Book Barbarian $15
11/9/15 - The Fussy Librarian $10
11/10/15 - None (yet)

I was excited to finally hear from ENT that I'd been accepted.  I wouldn't have chosen to schedule them on the same day as Book Barbarian, but I gave them the full range of dates to pick from and that's what they came back with.  That day will make a nice peak to build toward.

I underwent a rite of passage by making my first request to BookBub and getting rejected  .  I'm planning to submit again as soon as the 30 day window opens for the round of promos I'm going to do in early January to coincide with the release of Book 3.  I may do a free run on TFA then, or I may run it at $0.99 again.

I didn't notice any sharp drop at TFA's 30 day cliff.  It's still doing a slow glide down.  I'm looking forward to this next round of promo to revitalize it.  Hopefully I'll start reaping some of the benefits of having multiple books out in a series.  I don't know if having pre-orders available counts in Amazon's algorithms for that or not.

My goal this week is to get the last little bit of proofreading done and uploaded for TLOI.  My editor got back to me with comments for BTBS, so I also want to get through those and make all the major revisions I'm going to.  Starting Saturday at midnight I'm doing Nano.  I plan to write another Tevenar prequel novella, then finish the science fiction romance I started last Nano, which is about half done.

Tom, thanks for your comments!  All the Tevenar covers were done by Lou Harper.  I'm really pleased with her work.

Calling is a prequel, set about 14 years before TFA.  I should probably add a note to that effect to the blurb.  I don't want readers to be confused.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

The Law of Isolation is live, Calling did great in Patty's promo yesterday, and the countdown deal for Fuller's Apprentice starts today.

10/26/15 - 27 sales of TFA, 15 downloads of C, 27,886 reads of TFA, 177 reads of WB
10/27/15 - 10 sales of TFA, 21 downloads of C, 22,914 reads of TFA, 185 reads of WB
10/28/15 - 23 sales of TFA, 1 sale of WB, 20 downloads of C, 21,486 reads of TFA, 110 reads of WB
10/29/15 - 18 sales of TFA, 1 sale of WB, 18 downloads of C, 21,563 reads of TFA, 693 reads of WB
10/30/15 - 18 sales of TFA, 7 downloads of C, 20,988 reads of TFA, 263 reads of WB
10/31/15 - 9 sales of TFA, 11 downloads of C, 23,468 reads of TFA, 791 reads of WB
11/1/15 - 18 sales of TFA, 12 downloads of C, 19,548 reads of TFA, 101 reads of WB
11/2/15 - 14 sales of TFA, 440 sales of TLOI (presales going live) 28 downloads of C, 23,459 reads of TFA, 1365 reads of WB
11/3/15 - 12 sales of TFA , 51 sales of TLOI (presales and new sales) 270 downloads of C (Patty's promo), 20,533 reads of TFA, 501 reads of WB, 6288 reads of TLOI

As of this writing:

TFA:
#3,564 Paid in Kindle Store
#17 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#22 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#23 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age

TLOI:
#1,880 Paid in Kindle Store
#10 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#13 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#17 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age

C:
#698 Free in Kindle Store
#2 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > Two hours or more (65-100 pages) > Science Fiction & Fantasy
#3 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > Two hours or more (65-100 pages) > Teen & Young Adult

46 preorders for Beyond the Boundary Stones

Today kicks off my KCD and round of promos for TFA:
11/4/15 - Awesomegang $10, People Reads $8.99, SweetFreeBooks, $5
11/5/15 - Reading Deals $15, Fire and Ice $5
11/6/15 - BKnights $21, Bookstastic $10
11/7/15 - eBookSoda $15
11/8/15 - BookBarbarian $15, eReader News Today $25
11/9/15 - The Fussy Librarian $10, Contentmo $2, Free Kindle Books and Tips, $25

I hope to see sales and reads of TFA, and sell-through and especially reads for TLOI.  There's an awful lot of people in KU who read TFA that I'm hoping will snap up TLOI and read it.  I think TLOI is a better book.  It doesn't have the pacing issues or episodic plot of TFA.  The epic plot kicks into full gear, with the fate of nations at stake, while I hope it keeps the focus on the characters that TFA established.

Nano is well underway.  I'm working on Into the Storm, a prequel novella set about 20 years before TFA.  I'm getting to write about some of my favorite characters much younger, reveal a few surprises that I've known but readers haven't, and wallow in a good tragedy.  If you've read any of the other books you know what happens, the challenge is in making the how interesting.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Looks like you have a great launch of your second book, and I agree with you on Patty's promo, I got a lot of free downloads of my book with no other promos so that is a great marketing process that she has going.  I intend to participate each month for as long as she let's me  

Good luck on your KCD!


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## GK DeRosa (Nov 4, 2015)

Hi Angela,

I'm about to do a Countdown deal with my first book in the series to help launch the second book. I'm trying to figure out which discount sites to promote it on. How do you know how many sales you're getting from each of the different sites? Thanks and congrats on all the sales, it sounds like you're doing great!

GK DeRosa
www.wilderbook.com


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

Countdown deal is off to a good start.

11/4/15 - Awesomegang $10, People Reads $8.99, SweetFreeBooks, $5 - 57 sales for TFA, 21 sales for TLOI, 94 downloads for C, 11,734 reads for TFA, 10,047 reads for TLOI, 768 reads for WB, 21 preorders for BTBS (67 total)

TFA
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,112 Paid in Kindle Store
#12 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#15 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#17 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,039 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#10 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#12 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#16 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age

Great sales for TFA, all right for TLOI.  Great tail for Calling from Patty's promo.  Great total reads, but reads are down for TFA compared to what they've been the past week or so.  Not sure why having TLOI out would take away reads from TFA, unless people were rereading it and have switched.  Does KU even pay for re-reads?

GK - The only way to really know how each individual promo performs is to run them alone on separate days.  After you've read enough of these promo threads, you get a feel for which ones consistently give good results.  And I think there's a cumulative effect, where people that subscribe to several of the lists see your book over and over and eventually get interested enough to check it out.

Coming up today:
11/5/15 - Reading Deals $15, Fire and Ice $5

Fire and Ice sent me the link to their blog post last night, and it looks great!  They let you include an excerpt for no extra charge.  I tried to pick a short, exciting one that ended on a cliffhanger.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Never heard of Fire & Ice, let me know what you think of them today and good luck!


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

Keep it up! Glad we could help yesterday.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

11/5/15 - Reading Deals $15, Fire and Ice $5 - 53 sales of TFA, 15 sales of TLOI, 39 free downloads of Calling, 18164 page reads of TFA, 21,025 page reads of TLOI, 12 preorders of BTBS (Total 79)

TFA
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,073 Paid in Kindle Store
#11 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#13 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#17 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age

TLOI
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,856 Paid in Kindle Store
#14 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#19 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#21 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age

I'm up to 43 subscribers on my mailing list.

Nano: 11,126 words

Another nice day of sales for TFA.  Can't split between the two promos, of course, but together they performed well.  I should have positive ROI for the day just from sales of TFA, not even counting reads or sell-through.

Today is BKnights and Bookstastic.


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## Angela Holder (Mar 19, 2014)

11/6/15 - BKnights $21, Bookstastic $10 - 48 sales of TFA, 19 sales of TLOI, 14,756 reads for TFA, 25 downloads of C, 19,312 reads for TLOI, 633 reads for WB
11/7/15 - eBookSoda $15 - 47 sales of TFA, 17 sales of TLOI, 1 sale of WB, 25 downloads of C, 15,332 for TFA, 20,242 reads for TLOI
11/8/15 - BookBarbarian $15, eReader News Today $25 - 93 sales of TFA, 18 sales of TLOI, 1 sale of WB, 31 downloads of C, 15,536 reads for TFA, 19,810 reads for TLOI

At 114 total pre-orders for BTBS.

TFA
#1,028 Paid in Kindle Store
#7 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#7 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#9 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age

TLOI
#2,988 Paid in Kindle Store
#14 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#19 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#21 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age

The combo of ENT and Book Barbarian on Sunday gave me my second-best day of sales for TFA ever (behind Robin Reads).

TFA's rank is being sticky on the downside.  Similar numbers back in September got me into the 600's.  That was more of a steady climb, without weeks of lower numbers to weigh it down.  I'm thinking it's really important to get a new book as high as possible in the rankings immediately after release, particularly the first book of a new series.  It seems to set a ceiling that's hard to push past (or even up to) later.  And it also seems to set a floor, at least for a while.  Even when sales of TFA were low for a couple weeks, it never dropped below the 3000's.  I'm sure that would decline over time if I didn't promo and sales stayed low, but slower than if it had never gotten that high.  And rank for book 2 is limited by how many people read and enjoyed Book 1 and wanted to go on.

Reads for TFA are still down from where they were before TLOI went live.  It's been on sale that whole time, so it might just be a result of people buying instead of borrowing.  That hurts my revenue in the short run, but I think in the long run might be better because it means people are more invested in my books.  In the past I've seen increased sales correlating with increased reads in the following days, I think due to the higher visibility.

Running today: The Fussy Librarian $10, Contentmo $2, Free Kindle Books and Tips $25, Books Butterfly $15.  I'm not expecting much from Contentmo (they ran a free listing of Calling and I saw nothing at all, which for a freebie seems especially lame).  But they offered a deal specifically aimed at KU readers, who I'm very interested in reaching since my books do so well in reads.  And it was only $2, so what the heck.

I don't have anything booked for tomorrow, which is the last day of the promo, which might be a mistake because I'll miss some full-priced buys in the tail.  But it's a little late to grab anything now.  I don't think it's possible to end a countdown deal early.

I'm happy with how things are going, particularly with how many people are pre-ordering Book 3.  I'm also continuing to get a steady trickle of mailing list signup, sometimes 2 or 3 a day.  TFA has accumulated a few more reviews, a couple low and a couple high.  People seem to love or hate the story, depending on whether the way it's different from the standard fantasy appeals to them or not.  But even some of my low reviews mention that it's well-written, which is nice.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

I agree with your assessments Angela, however there is at least one missing ingredient in getting a new release to catch that Amazon wave, and I don't know what it is... yet... 

Congrats on a very good release schedule, promo and overall platform.  You seem to being doing very well and that bodes good for all us indies!


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