# You can't beat BookBub results. (Tail: Three Weeks Later)



## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Got the email at 10:55. It's now less than 30 minutes later and my book, which was at the top of the listing in the BB ad, has already sold 160 copies. I placed a line at the beginning of the book description that the two books in the series before it were also on sale at $.99 and total sales are at 265. That's about a sale every 6 seconds.

No, nothing even comes close to BookBub. I just submitted Fallen Out, my latest, for a BB run next month.


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## K.R. Harris (Jan 25, 2012)

Awesome! Congrats!


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## K. D. (Jun 6, 2013)

Great stuff Wayne! Congrats 

Gesendet mit Galaxy S3 durch Tapatalk


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Now 4-1/2 hours into the BookBub ad and total sales have already eclipsed the ad I did last month. Sales of all titles last month for the whole day was 928, with 863 being the book in the ad. That's 7% sell through to the other titles.

So far today, I've sold 1158, with 831 being the book in the ad. That's 28% sell through to the other titles.

Thanks Pamela Kelley for the suggestion of placing a line in the book description saying the other two books were discounted as well. This should result in a huge increase in sell through.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Fallen Hunter (in the ad):  Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #427 Paid in Kindle Store 
    #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Sea Adventures
    #2 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Sea Adventures
    #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Military


Fallen Palm (not in the ad, but discounted):  Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,086 Paid in Kindle Store 
    #2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Sea Adventures
    #4 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Sea Adventures
    #13 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Terrorism

Fallen Out (published yesterday, priced at $.99):  Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,639 Paid in Kindle Store 
    #5 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Sea Adventures
    #7 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Sea Adventures
    #36 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > War & Military

Fallen Pride (not in the ad, full price):  Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,176 Paid in Kindle Store 
    #7 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Sea Adventures
    #15 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Sea Adventures
    #28 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Military


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## Crime fighters (Nov 27, 2013)

Congrats, Wayne! You should take a screenshot of all your titles so close together on their respective lists!


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## B&amp;H (Apr 6, 2014)

Congratulations Wayne, that's another great result.

And i was happy because I sold 5 books today, (I actually sold 100 this week so far, so I was happy given it's not promoted) so you must be elated!


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## Guest (May 31, 2014)

Well done, Wayne. I hope you make it in the top 100. That normally is when non BBub buyers start noticing the book and give it a try.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

K.B. said:


> Congrats, Wayne! You should take a screenshot of all your titles so close together on their respective lists!


To be honest, I don't even know how to do that, except with my old flip phone camera. 

The first two books have been in the top 20 Sea Adventures since February 3rd and the third book joined them on April 13th, a week after publishing. It held the #3 slot for two straight weeks earlier this month. The latest book, published yesterday, joined those three very early this morning before the BB ad.



Josef Black said:


> Congratulations Wayne, that's another great result.
> 
> And i was happy because I sold 5 books today, (I actually sold 100 this week so far, so I was happy given it's not promoted) so you must be elated!


I still have a hard time believing total strangers are even interested in my 'sea stories'.



drno said:


> Well done, Wayne. I hope you make it in the top 100. That normally is when non BBub buyers start noticing the book and give it a try.


That's what happened last month with the BB ad on Fallen Palm. When it broke into the Top 100, peaking at #63, it took a long time to slide back down.


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## joyceharmon (May 21, 2012)

I have to keep reminding myself I want a couple more books listed before I try BookBub - but I see these threads and get so jealous. (But it's an inspired jealous, not a mean jealous.)


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Wayne, I read half of Fallen Out in one sitting.  The water was getting cold and I was getting wrinkled so I put the book down.


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## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> To be honest, I don't even know how to do that, except with my old flip phone camera.


Here you go. Congrats!


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## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

Wansit said:


> Here you go. Congrats!


that is awesome, congrats!


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## Rick Soper (May 2, 2014)

Congratulations Wayne!  I'm going to be in a BookBub Ad tomorrow.  I've been watching your posts over the last few weeks looking forward to it, and If I can get anywhere near what you've done here today I'll be ecstatic.  Thanks for posting everything you have about the various promotions you've done, I know I'm not alone it taking notes, and getting ideas.


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## Crime fighters (Nov 27, 2013)

Cherish that picture!


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## psolares (May 31, 2014)

Congrats!

I wonder what kind of paid ads are really worth. This is all so brand new for me.


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## PanGalacticBlog (Apr 11, 2014)

Wow, I just read your numbers it's nothing short of Amazing!  Congratulations!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

psolares said:


> Congrats!
> 
> I wonder what kind of paid ads are really worth. This is all so brand new for me.


Look for my other thread, titled Final Results of Promo Blitz, or something like that.



Rick Soper said:


> Congratulations Wayne! I'm going to be in a BookBub Ad tomorrow. I've been watching your posts over the last few weeks looking forward to it, and If I can get anywhere near what you've done here today I'll be ecstatic. Thanks for posting everything you have about the various promotions you've done, I know I'm not alone it taking notes, and getting ideas.


Rick, are you doing it in conjunction with a Kindle Countdown Deal? Which Book? I ran a KCD on Fallen Hunter, which was in the BB ad, then as an afterthought, ran one on Fallen Palm for the same time period. Fallen Out is priced at $.99, too. Pamela Kelley suggested adding a line in the book description of Fallen Hunter that the other two were also $.99. Smartest advice I ever followed. Palm has sold almost 300 and my new book has sold almost 150. If you have time do it!!!

Thanks, Wansit. I finally figured out how to do it.


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## Rick Soper (May 2, 2014)

Wayne,
The BookBub ad is for The Rock Star and I'm going to doing that one for free.  It's the first in a series of three and I'm going to be doing a Kindle Countdown deal for the second one in the series, The Singer at .99 cents, which I'm doing because I saw that you'd done something similar.  The third one in the series, The Stage, I'm leaving at full price with the hope that if readers get the first two for free or .99 cents then they'll want to finish the series and hopefully be willing to pay full price.  I have two other novellas that are always .99 cents that usually sell well without promotion, so I'm hoping for a little follow through on those too.  I saw your follow through went from 7% to 28% from your first to your second promotion, so I really don't know what to expect with my first one.  Thank you for the advice, each of my book blurbs points to the next in the series, so I have my fingers crossed that they'll be some crossover.
Rick


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## D.D.Parker (May 31, 2014)

Congratulations!! That's such great news. I would totally print out that photo and frame it or at least carry it around in my back pocket just to help on those tough days.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Rick Soper said:


> Wayne,
> The BookBub ad is for The Rock Star and I'm going to doing that one for free. It's the first in a series of three and I'm going to be doing a Kindle Countdown deal for the second one in the series, The Singer at .99 cents, which I'm doing because I saw that you'd done something similar. The third one in the series, The Stage, I'm leaving at full price with the hope that if readers get the first two for free or .99 cents then they'll want to finish the series and hopefully be willing to pay full price. I have two other novellas that are always .99 cents that usually sell well without promotion, so I'm hoping for a little follow through on those too. I saw your follow through went from 7% to 28% from your first to your second promotion, so I really don't know what to expect with my first one. Thank you for the advice, each of my book blurbs points to the next in the series, so I have my fingers crossed that they'll be some crossover.
> Rick


There's still time. Add a line to the book description for Rock Star, saying that Singer is reduced for a limited time. It makes a big difference. Sell through to the final book in my series, at full price, is way up. It's been averaging about 15 a day lately and today, it's sold 50 already, more than a 300% increase and there's still 6 hours left in the day.


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## Randall Wood (Mar 31, 2014)

Congratulations Wayne,

You've got me a little apprehensive. I've got a party with the Bub this Friday for Closure, the first book in my series. I'm hoping it does as well as you have. I'll check in with numbers as soon as I have them.

Wait, isn't this the "slow season" for books, or was that myth number 1438476? I forget.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Fallen Palm's paid ranking right now:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #118 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

    #1 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Military
    #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Military
    #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Sea Adventures

Getting close to that fateful top 100!


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## EC (Aug 20, 2013)

Top 100 Wayne - you're now at 95, well done. 

Edit - now at 58.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Thanks y'all. I'm going to bed now. I have it on Kindle Nation Daily's ebook tracker and will report where it peaks tomorrow. Last time I went to bed at about #150 and found it at #63 the next day. 

Current sales have totally blown away the last BB ad. Last month I sold 928 on the day of the ad, another 595 the next day, 210 on the third day and 111 on the fourth day, for a total of 1844 in four days. 

Right now I'm at 1900 across all titles, more than 500 more than I've sold from 5/1 to 5/30 combined. Of that, 571 were the other titles. Great sell through!


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## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Wow, that's phenomenal! Congratulations! Hearing such great news about BookBub, I applied for an ad last night.


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## EC (Aug 20, 2013)

68 Now - looking good to beat last time.


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## Harry Manners (Jul 6, 2013)

That's bloody amazing, Wayne. Thanks for sharing, and congratulations on those list rankings!


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## Keith Rowland (May 20, 2014)

Congratulations, it well worth known people's experiences to see what works. Keep up the great work.


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## Liz French (Apr 13, 2014)

58! Congratulations!


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## Justawriter (Jul 24, 2012)

Congrats, Wayne!  I see you are now at #61!!


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

That's a really good suggestion of yours, Pamela. I have a free Bookbub coming up of the first one in my series and was planning to offer the second at a small discount. Now I think I might just go the whole hog and discount the rest of the series to 99c for the period of the free run and announce it in the book description of the first one. My aim is to get newsletter signups and raise visibility, so it can't hurt, can it? (Although my husband is a bit wary about the loss of income.)


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Lydniz said:


> That's a really good suggestion of yours, Pamela. I have a free Bookbub coming up of the first one in my series and was planning to offer the second at a small discount. Now I think I might just go the whole hog and discount the rest of the series to 99c for the period of the free run and announce it in the book description of the first one. My aim is to get newsletter signups and raise visibility, so it can't hurt, can it? (Although my husband is a bit wary about the loss of income.)


What loss of income? Sell through more than makes up for the discount.

Drum roll........
First the rankings, in order of the series:
Fallen Out (Not in BookBub, published 5/30, priced at $.99)
Started at #14,830. Peaked at #1028.
Currently:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,046 Paid in Kindle Store 
#3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Sea Adventures
#4 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Sea Adventures
#11 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > War & Military

Fallen Palm (Not in BookBub, reduced to $.99 on a Kindle Countdown Deal)
Started at #16086. Peaked at #427.
Currently:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #435 Paid in Kindle Store 
#2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Sea Adventures
#3 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Sea Adventures
#3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Terrorism

Fallen Hunter (In the BookBub ad, reduced to $.99 on a Kindle Countdown Deal)
Started at #9,416. Peaked at #58.
Currently: 
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60 Paid in Kindle Store 
#1 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Military
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Sea Adventures
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Military

Fallen Pride (Not in the BookBub ad, remained at full price of $3.99)
Started at #8,882. Peaked at #3,038.
Currently: 
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,553 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#7 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Sea Adventures
#7 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Sea Adventures
#21 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Military

Now for one day sales totals.
Fallen Out: 190 (11 the day before, when it was published) $66.50
Fallen Palm: 379 (Averaged 10.8 over previous 3 weeks) $265.30
Fallen Hunter: 1,416 (Averaged 13.8 over previous 3 week promo blitz) $991.20
Fallen Pride: 66 (Averaged 17.2 over previous 3 weeks) $180.84

Total: 2051 books sold for $1,503.84 in one day.
Invested: $353.95 (including all the promos leading up to BookBub, which was $260)
ROI: $1,149.89 or 425%

While I didn't make my goal of pushing Fallen Hunter slowly up the ranks to launch it into the Top 10, I'm very satisfied with the results.

Now, anyone sitting on the fence as to whether to pull the trigger on a BookBub ad, read those numbers again. BookBub just raised their prices slightly. Action/Adventure went from $260 to $280, but still well worth the investment at twice the price.

I submitted Fallen Out yesterday for an ad in late June or early July. It only has 3 reviews, but I'm hoping they'll take the results of my first two ads into consideration, when making their decision. If not, I'll submit Fallen Pride and do Fallen Out in August. Fallen Palm will be eligible again on 10/22 and I plan to submit it to the Mystery category for $620.

Over the next few days, I'll post anything I find interesting about the tail after the ad. So far today, total sales of all titles is at 219.


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## psolares (May 31, 2014)

I was about to submit an advert proposal, but I can't since I've written a novella.

The site seems to be really good, though.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> What loss of income? Sell through more than makes up for the discount.
> 
> Drum roll........
> First the rankings, in order of the series:
> ...


Those are good figures, Wayne. Let's see how I do with mine. I will try and post my results afterwards.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

> I wonder what kind of paid ads are really worth. This is all so brand new for me.


Follow Wayne's posts! He's got some great experimental data. It depends on whether you do free or 99 cent sales of course. For free I've had very nice results with Freebooksy, BookBasset, AwesomeGang, Fussy Librarian, BestEbookLovers and ebooksoda. NOTHING like BookBub, but still respectable.


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## psolares (May 31, 2014)

I've read them all. They are quite inspiring!

Probably the best campaign would be a mixture of ads between those services. Has anyone done something like this?


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

psolares said:


> I've read them all. They are quite inspiring!
> 
> Probably the best campaign would be a mixture of ads between those services. Has anyone done something like this?


You've read all my books? Did you happen to notice any problem with syntax in my Spanish speaking characters? Mi Espanol es una mezcla de Cubanos y Mexicanos.


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## I&#039;m a Little Teapot (Apr 10, 2014)

Congratulations, Wayne! I predict big things for you.


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## psolares (May 31, 2014)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> You've read all my books? Did you happen to notice any problem with syntax in my Spanish speaking characters? Mi Espanol es una mezcla de Cubanos y Mexicanos.


Wayne, I was referring to your posts  Nonetheless, I am curious to know more of your Spanish characters. In which novels have you included them?

Congrats again, fellow author.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

psolares said:


> Wayne, I was referring to your posts  Nonetheless, I am curious to know more of your Spanish characters. In which novels have you included them?
> 
> Congrats again, fellow author.


The antagonist in Fallen Hunter is a Cuban drug smuggler, who comes and goes from Miami to Cuba with impunity and part of the book is set in western Cuba and Cozumel, Mexico. In Fallen Palm, one of the characters is Puerto Rican. All my books are set in south Florida and the Caribbean, where everyone speaks some Spanish. Many people down there will use English, Spanish, and Spanglish, all in a single sentence. It would be hard to live in south Florida and not speak some Spanish.


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## psolares (May 31, 2014)

It looks really interesting! I shall take a look at it )

In a translation I would maintain your dialogues so the characterization is not altered.


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## Christine Reyes (Mar 20, 2013)

Wayne, thanks for always posting your numbers. It's so encouraging to watch you go!


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## Fictionista (Sep 14, 2012)

That is WONDERFUL! Congrats to you!


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## psolares (May 31, 2014)

Wayne, may I ask you how many copies are a top 100 in Amazon?

Best,

P


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

psolares said:


> Wayne, may I ask you how many copies are a top 100 in Amazon?
> 
> Best,
> 
> P


Only Fallen Hunter peaked in the Top 100 at #58. Fallen Palm rode its coat tails to #427 with it's own Kindle Countdown Deal. Fallen Out was just published and offered at $.99 without a KCD and peaked at #1028. Fallen Pride stayed at full price, $3.99, and peaked at #3029. All three had tremendous movement as a result of sell through, even Pride at full price sold almost 4 times more than normal.

At one point Hunter, Palm, and Out were #1, #2, and #3 respectively in their genre, with Pride at #5. Dang you Clive Cussler.


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## Shaun Dowdall (Mar 8, 2013)

Wow sounds amazing! Congratulations


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

Congratulations, Wayne!

I have one tomorrow. It will be my 4th. They always do well.


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## Victorine (Apr 23, 2010)

Thank you for posting numbers. I'm seriously considering a Bookbub ad for my new book coming out. Not sure yet. Still doing some hand wringing and considering everything. I appreciate the data. Helps a lot!


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## A past poster (Oct 23, 2013)

Congratulations, Wayne! You did a phenomenal job with your books and shared what you learned with us. Thank you!!!


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## jewishwriter (May 13, 2011)

congrats..how many reviews do you need for bookbub?


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## Error404 (Sep 6, 2012)

jewishwriter said:


> congrats..how many reviews do you need for bookbub?


They're flexible, but here's their page on it: https://www.bookbub.com/partners/submission-tips


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

jewishwriter said:


> congrats..how many reviews do you need for bookbub?


From what others have said, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason how they chose what books they accept. Fallen Hunter only had 17 when I submitted it. I just submitted Fallen Out two days ago with only four, but it has eight now.


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## Crime fighters (Nov 27, 2013)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> From what others have said, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason how they chose what books they accept. Fallen Hunter only had 17 when I submitted it. I just submitted Fallen Out two days ago with only four, but it has eight now.


I thought they had a 60 day rule?


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## 60169 (May 18, 2012)

K.B. said:


> I thought they had a 60 day rule?


I believe they'll run the same author (potentially) every 30 days, but will only feature the same book every six months. I've had good luck by also switching up which lists I am mailed out to.


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## EC (Aug 20, 2013)

It would appear that reaching the top ten is currently beyond Bookbub.  Come back in a year and that may be different.  

I believe it takes around 5,000 plus titles sold in a day to break into the top ten.  Obviously that can change with the seasons etc  I think Wayne's biggest pay off  will be to see the growth in his mailing list.  If he times it correctly in future he may be able to use a double boost of BB and his list to attack the top ten. 

How many people are on your mailing list now, Wayne?


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## Arrington Flynn (May 17, 2014)

Super exciting! Good luck getting some sleep tonight.


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## Scottish Lass (Oct 10, 2013)

Wayne, congrats, and thanks _so_ much for sharing the numbers. You're inspirational!


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## psolares (May 31, 2014)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Only Fallen Hunter peaked in the Top 100 at #58. Fallen Palm rode its coat tails to #427 with it's own Kindle Countdown Deal. Fallen Out was just published and offered at $.99 without a KCD and peaked at #1028. Fallen Pride stayed at full price, $3.99, and peaked at #3029. All three had tremendous movement as a result of sell through, even Pride at full price sold almost 4 times more than normal.
> 
> At one point Hunter, Palm, and Out were #1, #2, and #3 respectively in their genre, with Pride at #5. Dang you Clive Cussler.


Thanks!!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Here's a little information on the tail. It may take a few more days to be sure of this, but this is what I think. Having a BookBub ad on a Saturday can significantly lengthen the tail, at least at the beginning.

These numbers are for Fallen Out only, the book in the BB ad.
On the day of the sale I sold 1267. That was Saturday. 
On Sunday, it sold 354. It was actually more, but I record sales at 9:00 pm Eastern, before I go to bed, except on the last day of the month, where I use the final tally for the month. 
Since then it's sold 145 as of 7:30 am.  

In last months BB ad, the book in the ad sold 863 on Tuesday, the day of the ad. 
Then 543 the next day.
Down to 146 the following day.

While it might take a few days to sift through everything, these early results point toward the number of people that possibly don't check their email over the weekend.

Sales of other books in the series show an even higher disparity, percentagewise, over last months.

Just thinking out loud here.

Fallen Hunter peaked at #58 at 3:48 am on 6/1, slipped out of the Top 100 16 hours later and is currently at #171.

Surprisingly, the slide downward for the other titles has been slower, with the exception of the newly published Fallen Out, which doesn't have the rank history of the others, to help support it. This is probably sell through from Hunter.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Interesting. I have been considering trying for one, but the $240 for Sci Fi has me very hesitant.


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## A past poster (Oct 23, 2013)

VydorScope said:


> Interesting. I have been considering trying for one, but the $240 for Sci Fi has me very hesitant.


My experience with BookBub, like Wayne's, has been very positive.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

VydorScope said:


> Interesting. I have been considering trying for one, but the $240 for Sci Fi has me very hesitant.


I'm not saying it can't or hasn't happened before, but I haven't heard of ANY BB that failed to make a profit for the author. Maybe someone will respond and let us know. My sci-fi BB promos have always paid me back with a good profit, even when promoting free books. The follow through to the rest of the series has always been great. I dread the day when that is no longer true. Nothing lasts forever.


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## Magda Alexander (Aug 13, 2011)

I'll have one running June 14 in the erotic romance category. STORM DAMAGES will be priced at 99 cents and the ad cost me--big gulp--$480. Hopefully, I will recoup my investment through the sales of SD alone, but what I'm hoping is that readers will go on to pick up books 2 (available at the main 4 estores) and 3 which should be out by the end of the week.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> I'm not saying it can't or hasn't happened before, but I haven't heard of ANY BB that failed to make a profit for the author. Maybe someone will respond and let us know. My sci-fi BB promos have always paid me back with a good profit, even when promoting free books. The follow through to the rest of the series has always been great. I dread the day when that is no longer true. Nothing lasts forever.


Yeah told that a lot. I will probably try for a spot in the next few months, just need to add it to my marketing budget plan I guess. We will see.


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## 60169 (May 18, 2012)

I had one that didn't come close to earning out, but it was a perfect storm of things that caused it, I think.

It was my first Bub ad for that title, and I had the wrong cover/blurb to project the genre. Also, Bub messed up the blurb a little and misrepresented what the the book was about. In the end, I got less than 600 downloads at .99.

I redesigned the cover and blurb, ran it at free exactly six months later, and gave away 67,000 copies, which moved 600 copies of the other book in the series and almost 500 copies of that book once it came off free two weeks ago, all at $2.99. That more than balanced out the previous, sub par run.


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## delilahcanaan (Apr 24, 2014)

Congrats Wayne!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Today's results show the sell through very clearly. Here's the three days in a nutshell.

                            Saturday    Sunday    Monday
Fallen Out              182              50            57
Fallen Palm            344            174          289
Fallen Hunter        1267            354          292
Fallen Pride              66              19            35

Amazon still doesn't show Fallen Out as the first book in the series, so my guess is some people who bought Fallen Hunter from the BookBub ad are realizing it's the second in the series (from what's on the cover) and are buying Fallen Palm, which says it's the first in the series on the cover. I'm not sure I want to change the covers to reflect the new order. Fallen Out says "The Beginning", which should be self explanatory, once the Zon gets the orders fixed.

Both Hunter and Palm remain #1 and #2 in the Sea Adventure genre, but Out has fallen to #4. Hunter is ranked #211 in Paid Kindle and Palm is ranked #438. They'll hold the top two spots in the genre for a while, maybe a few days. The current #3 is ranked #1649 in Paid Kindle.

More on the tail tomorrow night.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Wayne,
I know I was just waiting on the sale to pick up Hunter.  Some of your other readers were the same way. 
I looked on Out as a bonus read.  Just my 2 cents.


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## Eskimo (Dec 31, 2013)

Wayne,

These are fabulous results. Did you do much promotion for Fallen Palm? I believe you did a Countdown at the same time for that title as well as Fallen Hunter. I always wondered how someone would go about promoting two books simultaneously.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

David Chill said:


> Wayne,
> 
> These are fabulous results. Did you do much promotion for Fallen Palm? I believe you did a Countdown at the same time for that title as well as Fallen Hunter. I always wondered how someone would go about promoting two books simultaneously.


Not two, but three. Fallen Out was just published and I priced it at $.99 as well. And yes, both Palm and Hunter were in Countdown Deals. I ran six ads for the three weeks prior to BookBub on Hunter, each spaced three days apart. I also ran ads for several days prior to the Palm Countdown and during it. I promoted the release of Fallen Out on Facebook, Twitter, my blog, and newsletter quite a bit. After the BB ad, I ran ads on both Palm and Hunter on Sunday and today and have more on Hunter tomorrow and Wednesday.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Fallen Out went up to $2.99 today, but that didn't affect sales. In fact it sold two more than yesterday.
Fallen Palm's Discount Deal ended, so it's back to $3.99 and dropped considerably, but before BookBub it was averaging only 9 or 10 per day.
Today is Fallen Hunter's last day at $.99, it goes to $1.99 tomorrow.
Fallen Pride hasn't changed price since it was published.
Rankings on all of them are slowly dropping, but nothing like last month's tail. Hunter is in the 200's and Palm is nearing 1000.


                            Saturday    Sunday    Monday    Tuesday
Fallen Out              182              50            57              59
Fallen Palm            344            174          289            101
Fallen Hunter        1267            354          292            327
Fallen Pride              66              19            35              45


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## Rick Soper (May 2, 2014)

Great numbers Wayne!  I've pushed a lot of free books through on the BookBub promo, but haven't gotten anywhere near the follow through you've gotten on your other books, so you're doing a lot right, and that's cool.  I hope the numbers continue for you.


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## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

congrats Wayne, I picked up all of them the first day...when I'll get around to reading them, well that's another story.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Rick Soper said:


> Great numbers Wayne! I've pushed a lot of free books through on the BookBub promo, but haven't gotten anywhere near the follow through you've gotten on your other books, so you're doing a lot right, and that's cool. I hope the numbers continue for you.


I wish someone would tell me what it is I'm doing right, Rick, so I could keep on doing it. Seriously, I'm a total noob at this, stumbling along blindly and just doing what people on here say works. I have no idea why things are going the way they have been, I just hope it continues.



KL_Phelps said:


> congrats Wayne, I picked up all of them the first day...when I'll get around to reading them, well that's another story.


I'm the same way. Picked up Rick's on BB yesterday. Or maybe the day before, my short term memory isn't the sharpest. Too much grass in my younger years. I digress.

I think I have close to 20 unread books on my Kindle right now.


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## SunshineOnMe (Jan 11, 2014)

I'm at 2 weeks from my BookBub. I noticed two things- my book has a nice ranking, and I am in totally different "also boughts" than before. 

Congrats on your success Wayne!


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## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> I think I have close to 20 unread books on my Kindle right now.


20 pfft that's child's play. I have at least 1500 (yes I have a serious issue) I need to get fans like myself ... you know those with no impulse control


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## AJStewart (May 10, 2014)

Rick/Wayne
I haven't done BB yet, but I wonder if there is a difference in follow through sales when the advertised title is paid (even 99c) vs free. Could it be that free downloaders are testing and taking anything they can for free (even not reading most of them) whereas paid have just a little skin in the game so are a more serious buyer, looking for something they actually plan to read, so are more likely to buy subsequent titles? All guesses of course. Food for thought.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> I'm not saying it can't or hasn't happened before, but I haven't heard of ANY BB that failed to make a profit for the author. Maybe someone will respond and let us know.


Some have lost money on Bookbub. Only the ones who make money tend to post. Here is a 91-page thread with data like this from hundreds of us.

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,130094.0.html


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> I wish someone would tell me what it is I'm doing right, Rick, so I could keep on doing it. Seriously, I'm a total noob at this, stumbling along blindly and just doing what people on here say works. I have no idea why things are going the way they have been, I just hope it continues.


By also discounting your other books and saying so in the description of the advertised book, you have pushed them up in the rankings and on the algorithms, as well. They all help to keep each other selling, especially if they are in different categories.


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## Rick Soper (May 2, 2014)

Yeah Wayne tried to give me that advice, but it was too late for me to try and get my blurb redone before the Bookbub date... It would have been just my luck to finally get a Bookbub date and then mess it up by getting it tied up in the republishing loophole... I did discount the 2nd in the series and saw some nice follow through there...not as much as following Wayne's advice in the blurb, but some...


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## zoe tate (Dec 18, 2013)

Delighted to read all this, Wayne. You must be very pleased that you've already given up your job, a few weeks ago, too?


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

How long does it take a blurb to change? I always do my blurb from the KDP bookshelf, so I'm assuming it just takes as long as it takes to republish - i.e. a few hours, is that right?


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Lydniz said:


> How long does it take a blurb to change? I always do my blurb from the KDP bookshelf, so I'm assuming it just takes as long as it takes to republish - i.e. a few hours, is that right?


Yeah, and in my experience it is often live before the KDP bookshelf reports it is live. I have messed with my blurb/etc a bunch over the past 6 months or so. I would say it normally takes between 2 and 12 hours pending factors unknowable to common people.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Thanks, Vydor.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

SunshineOnMe said:


> I'm at 2 weeks from my BookBub. I noticed two things- my book has a nice ranking, and I am in totally different "also boughts" than before.
> 
> Congrats on your success Wayne!


How do you know whose "also boughts" you're actually on?



AJStewart said:


> Rick/Wayne
> I haven't done BB yet, but I wonder if there is a difference in follow through sales when the advertised title is paid (even 99c) vs free. Could it be that free downloaders are testing and taking anything they can for free (even not reading most of them) whereas paid have just a little skin in the game so are a more serious buyer, looking for something they actually plan to read, so are more likely to buy subsequent titles? All guesses of course. Food for thought.


See KL_Phelps post just before yours. I'm sure that some descendant in the next 100 years will probably read all the books he downloads. 



Cherise Kelley said:


> By also discounting your other books and saying so in the description of the advertised book, you have pushed them up in the rankings and on the algorithms, as well. They all help to keep each other selling, especially if they are in different categories.


Thanks for the reminder. I need to take those lines out of the book description.



zoe tate said:


> Delighted to read all this, Wayne. You must be very pleased that you've already given up your job, a few weeks ago, too?


I would like to have waited until the planned date. Something about quitting on Independence Day fits me. But, the boss pushed the wrong buttons on 5/15 and the rest is history.


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## AJStewart (May 10, 2014)

FYI Wayne
I got an Amazon email this morning featuring 2 of your books. Nice.


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## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

Rick Soper said:


> Yeah Wayne tried to give me that advice, but it was too late for me to try and get my blurb redone before the Bookbub date... It would have been just my luck to finally get a Bookbub date and then mess it up by getting it tied up in the republishing loophole... I did discount the 2nd in the series and saw some nice follow through there...not as much as following Wayne's advice in the blurb, but some...


Rick, you know you can change your blurb in Author Central? The changes usually go live in about an hour, in my experience.


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## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

Lydniz said:


> How long does it take a blurb to change? I always do my blurb from the KDP bookshelf, so I'm assuming it just takes as long as it takes to republish - i.e. a few hours, is that right?


And if you change your blurb / description through Amazon Author Central, it takes 10 to 15 minutes to update.  One caveat, though: if you republish anything through KDP (cover, blurb, price change), you have to go back and change the blurb through Author Central after the changes are live.

Still, 15 minutes is better than 12 hours, IMHO. [ETA: What Valerie said ]

Also - congratulations, Wayne! Very well done, sir.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

That's worth knowing. I'm more comfortable sticking to one source for changes in order to avoid confusion, but if I find the blurb hasn't changed quickly enough on the bookshelf I can always dive into Author Central for a last-minute update. Thanks, all.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

AJStewart said:


> FYI Wayne
> I got an Amazon email this morning featuring 2 of your books. Nice.


Really? Too cool! Which ones? I'm guessing Palm and Hunter, as they were in Countdown Deals and still moving and shaking.


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## Rick Soper (May 2, 2014)

valeriec80 said:


> Rick, you know you can change your blurb in Author Central? The changes usually go live in about an hour, in my experience.


Yeah it's usually quick, unless it's the weekend, and then I thought there was once I was trying to do something and it didn't get updated till Monday, and I didn't want to take that chance. I was just being a little overly cautious, but thanks VJ for the Author Central advice, I was changing it at the Bookshelf and I just checked and found that my hardcovers hadn't been changed, so I got that fixed, and I'll be changing things there in the future.


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## A.C. Nixon (Apr 21, 2011)

I just want to pipe in and add my congratulations, and I'm glad your promo went well. I've not done any advertising yet, and all of these updates and results really help. 

So thanks to all of you that share your successes and not not so successful attempts.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> How do you know whose "also boughts" you're actually on?


Put your book's ASIN in the box and click go. 

http://www.yasiv.com/#/Search?q=B0050642V2&category=Books&lang=US

Wait for it to stop moving. The books with arrows pointing to your book have your book in their 'also boughts'.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Thanks, Cherise. I'd seen that before, but forgot to bookmark it.


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## briasbooks (Sep 11, 2013)

Great job Wayne. Congrats to your success!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

I'm enjoying a much better tail this time than last time. I put a number of promos on Fallen Hunter after the BB ad. Fallen Hunter is still #1 in Sea Adventures, but Fallen Palm has slipped to #4. Today's the last day of the Countdown Deal on Hunter at $2.99 and it'll go back to regular price tonight. I think it'll be at least two weeks before everything drops down to pre-BB numbers.

                            Saturday    Sunday    Monday    Tuesday    Wednesday
Fallen Out              182              50            57              59              31
Fallen Palm            344            174          289            101              26
Fallen Hunter        1267            354          292            327            115 
Fallen Pride              66              19            35              45              39


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

KL I see your 1500 and raise you to 3000.


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## Rick Soper (May 2, 2014)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> I'm enjoying a much better tail this time than last time. I put a number of promos on Fallen Hunter after the BB ad. Fallen Hunter is still #1 in Sea Adventures, but Fallen Palm has slipped to #4. Today's the last day of the Countdown Deal on Hunter at $2.99 and it'll go back to regular price tonight. I think it'll be at least two weeks before everything drops down to pre-BB numbers.
> 
> Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday
> Fallen Out 182 50 57 59 31
> ...


Just to throw another item into your equations, and I'm sure your spreadsheets reflect this, but sales mid-week usually drop off. Wednesday and Thursday are usually my worst sales days, and Sunday is always the best day of the week. So I wonder if on the curve you see a dip during the week and a rise back up over the weekend? Just a thought...


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Rick Soper said:


> Just to throw another item into your equations, and I'm sure your spreadsheets reflect this, but sales mid-week usually drop off. Wednesday and Thursday are usually my worst sales days, and Sunday is always the best day of the week. So I wonder if on the curve you see a dip during the week and a rise back up over the weekend? Just a thought...


That is not universally true. For example, I sell almost nothing on weekends, and sell much better during the week. Infact, most of my sales fall during USA business hours.


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## Rick Soper (May 2, 2014)

VydorScope said:


> That is not universally true. For example, I sell almost nothing on weekends, and sell much better during the week. Infact, most of my sales fall during USA business hours.


And it might be Genre because even on the "days" I make sales, most of them come in the evening on the West Coast between 7pm and 10pm... my Thriller readers don't come out till after dark... and I think I may check that stuff way too often...lol


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Rick Soper said:


> Just to throw another item into your equations, and I'm sure your spreadsheets reflect this, but sales mid-week usually drop off. Wednesday and Thursday are usually my worst sales days, and Sunday is always the best day of the week. So I wonder if on the curve you see a dip during the week and a rise back up over the weekend? Just a thought...


Not really a lot, Rick. That's the reason I created my spreadsheet in the first place. To see which days of the week were good and which were bad. After two months, I saw that there really wasn't any way to predict sales, day to day. I've had great Wednesdays, terrible Fridays and everything in between. I continue the spreadsheet now simply to predict income.

Both Palm and Hunter have slipped even more, but are still more than 100% and 200%, respectively, above the May average. Now Fallen Out, my newest book, is on the move at full price with help from Amazon in "Hot New Releases". It's risen from #3311 to #2309 in Paid Kindle and #3 in Sea Adventures. Today it's selling nearly as much as the other three combined.

BB Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday
Fallen Out 182 50 57 59 31 52
Fallen Palm 344 174 289 101 26 18
Fallen Hunter 1267 354 292 327 115 56
Fallen Pride 66 19 35 45 39 27


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Sales of Hunter dropped lower again yesterday, but still well above the pre-BookBub average, so the tail is continuing. Sell through on the tail is also high. With no promo at all, other than Amazon's "Hot New Releases", Fallen Out is increasing, hovering between #2200 and #1600 for the last 48 hours and #2 in Sea Adventures. The #1 book has finished its BB promo and is back to regular price. It's fallen from the 600s to the 1300s since yesterday, so I foresee Fallen Out taking #1 in SA some time today. In comparison, Fallen Pride only reached #3497, while on the "Hot New Releases" list. My previous BB ad was 15 days after Pride's release, where this one was 1 day after Fallen Out's release. A BookBub ad on another title is obviously a great time to launch a new book.

                      BB Saturday    Sunday    Monday    Tuesday    Wednesday    Thursday    Friday
Fallen Out              182              50            57            59              31                52            79
Fallen Palm            344            174          289            101              26                18            12
Fallen Hunter        1267            354          292            327            115                56            21    
Fallen Pride              66              19            35              45              39                27            28


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## Eskimo (Dec 31, 2013)

Hey Wayne, this is great stuff, congrats.

If you could have done anything differently here in terms of marketing and promotion...  what would that have been (if anything) ?


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

David Chill said:


> Hey Wayne, this is great stuff, congrats.
> 
> If you could have done anything differently here in terms of marketing and promotion... what would that have been (if anything) ?


Next time, to extend the tail further, I'll extend the Countdown Deal at $.99. When it went to $1.99 on Wednesday, sales dropped by 65% and when it went to $2.99 on Thursday, sales dropped more than 50% of Wednesday. Don't discount the power of the Countdown Deal. At 70% royalty, a loss of more than 50% in sales is a loss in revenue, when the price doubles.

The second thing I'll do differently next time is to set up the post BB promos for after the Countdown Deal. I had them start the day after BB, with two on Saturday and one each on Monday through Wednesday.

Next time will be like this: Run three promos before the BookBub ad, each a day apart using the results from my full price promo experiment. This will create a slight surge in rankings. Then run BookBub and Countdown Deal starting on the same day. Countdown Deal continues at $.99 for the max of eight days. The day the Countdown Deal ends, I'll run two full price promos each day for three days, using US and UK promos each day, if possible.


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## SBJones (Jun 13, 2011)

Wouldn't you be better off saving the pre-bookbub full price promos until after.  I can't see the small pre BBpromo bump contributing to anything.  This would give you more promotions to run at full price after the promo while visibility and rank is high across all the books.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Ranking before a promo and upward movement do matter. It matters in the weight increased sales receive, though to a very slight degree. The higher the ranking before the ad and a slow movement upward in ranking gives more weight to individual sales, pushing it higher in ranking still. This causes it to get more visibility, resulting in even more sales, when compared to another book selling exactly the same number. Here's a comparison of two ads, five weeks apart. The first had no promotions before the ad and ranked significantly lower. The second was promoted for ten days prior, slowly moving it up from about 13K to 7K before the ad.


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## MissyM (Jun 21, 2013)

This (and all of your threads) are really helpful in learning about promotion, Wayne. Thanks so much!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

It looks like Hunter, which was in the BB ad, has pretty much leveled off over the last three days. However, sell through to the other titles is going great, with the exception of Pride. But, being the last in the series, that's to be expected. Fallen Out is now #1 in Sea Adventures and #1514 in Paid Kindle. I've had no ads or promos on Fallen Out and it's only been published for 10 days.  

                  BB Saturday  Sunday  Monday  Tuesday  Wednesday  Thursday  Friday  Saturday  Sunday
Fallen Out          182              50          57          59            31                52          62          79            92
Fallen Palm        344            174        289        101          26                18          18          12          30
Fallen Hunter    1267            354        292        327          115              56          23          21          25
Fallen Pride          66              19          35          45          39                27          26          28          28


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## Jan Strnad (May 27, 2010)

Thanks for all of this information, Wayne! It's really appreciated!

I'm getting set up for a promo on _The Summer We Lost Alice_ later this month. So far I've nailed down BookBub, Fussy Librarian, BookSends, eBookSoda and Bargain Booksy for a $0.99 sale. I've yet to hear from ENT, POI and Kindle Books and Tips.

Passing on BookGorilla. Too expensive to be lumped in with 24 or 49 other sale books.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Jan Strnad said:


> Thanks for all of this information, Wayne! It's really appreciated!
> 
> I'm getting set up for a promo on _The Summer We Lost Alice_ later this month. So far I've nailed down BookBub, Fussy Librarian, BookSends, eBookSoda and Bargain Booksy for a $0.99 sale. I've yet to hear from ENT, POI and Kindle Books and Tips.
> 
> Passing on BookGorilla. Too expensive to be lumped in with 24 or 49 other sale books.


EbookSoda is primarily UK, so don't forget to make sure your price is lowered there, also. If you're running a Coundown Deal, it won't happen automatically, you have to manually change the overseas prices. Use any currency conversion calculator to get an up to date price in British Pounds. I got 4 sales in the UK using eBookSoda and that was at the full price of $3.99. At $.99 (.73 pounds currently), I'd bet you get at least 15-20. Not bad for $5.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

It's been nine days now since the BookBub ad. Sales of the featured book, Fallen Hunter have pretty much leveled off, averaging 22 per day over the last five days since the end of the Countdown Deal, with a fluctuation of +2 and -3. This average is 7 higher than the 28 day average before BookBub. I expect the average to slowly drop over the next couple of weeks to what it was before.

Sell through has been amazing. While sales of Fallen Out are augmented by it being in "Hot New Releases", it's considerably higher than Fallen Pride was after it's release and going on "Hot New Releases", even with a BB ad on Fallen Palm in the middle of its month on HNR. Pride averaged 22.5 books per day from it's release to a week after the BB ad on Palm. Fallen Out has averaged 58 per day, *after* the BB ad on Hunter.

Fallen Palm had a Countdown Deal the same time as the BB ad on Hunter. Since it went back to regular price, it's averaged 21 sales per day, where it was at only 10 per day prior to the ad.

Fallen Pride remained at regular price throughout the promo. The 30 day period prior to the BB ad, it averaged 19.5 sales per day. Since the BB ad, it's averaged 31 a day and climbing. Today it's already 4 shy of that average and has increased slowly over the last six days, as I thought it would, being the last book in the series. I anticipate sell through to Pride will last through the end of the month, at least.

Overall, I'd say the tail for Hunter will continue to decline slowly, but should stay above previous averages for at least 2-3 weeks after the ad. Sell through to the other titles has been phenomenal.

I submitted Fallen Out to BookBub on 6/1, but was turned down. It only had four reviews at the time and I had to choose a start date at least 30 days after the date of the ad on Hunter, which severely limited the number of days I could ask for. I'll submit it again in eleven days. There's some ambiguity as to how long you have to wait. The main page says four weeks, but the Tips page says two weeks. I'll split the difference and submit it on 6/21 for any date after 6/28. This time, I'm going with a much longer Countdown Deal, $.99 for a full week. If it's accepted, I'll put it back to regular price of $2.99 for a month, as BB requires and then lower it to $.99 for five months. Then it'll go to $1.99 for a month when it'll be allowed another run on BookBub.


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## DavidMacinnisGill (Mar 4, 2011)

Thanks for posting your data, Wayne. I've been following along, and now that my own Bookbub is confirmed, I'm using your wisdom to guide my own marketing decisions.


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## Magda Alexander (Aug 13, 2011)

I have a Bookbub Ad Saturday. Today I published the third book in my trilogy, so that should bring up the ranking for the other two books. Right now, they're sitting at 8,531 and 12,851 in the Kindle ebook store. We shall see where the whole thing goes.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Magda Alexander said:


> I have a Bookbub Ad Saturday. Today I published the third book in my trilogy, so that should bring up the ranking for the other two books. Right now, they're sitting at 8,531 and 12,851 in the Kindle ebook store. We shall see where the whole thing goes.


If you offer a special price on either of the other two books, make sure you add a short line about that in the book description of the one in the BB ad. That simple step created more than 500 sales of my books not in the ad, IN ONE DAY!

If you're not offering a special price on the others, you should at least put a line in the book description that it's the first book in the series. But, I'd highly recommend running specials, particularly a Countdown Deal, on the others at the same time.


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## Magda Alexander (Aug 13, 2011)

I can't run a countdown deal. I'm not in Select. But I'll take your advice about putting "First in the Storm Damages Series" at the top of the description. Thanks, Wayne.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

The last two days showed constant sell through to my other titles, now 11 full days after the BookBub ad on Fallen Hunter. Fallen Hunter is maintaining about 25 a day, up from 15 a day before the ad. The biggest movers continue to be the first and last books in the series, Fallen Out and Fallen Pride, selling 70 and 32 a day on average, respectively.

This graph shows sales of all titles 11 days before and 11 days after the ad.


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## martyns (May 8, 2014)

Interesting thread.

I've thought the bookbub model looked like it could work very well, however I've tried several times to get my books accepted for a bookbub with no success.

Is it bad luck? Or is there a specific reason they aren't accepting them? How many times have you had titles rejected by bookbub?


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

martyns said:


> Interesting thread.
> 
> I've thought the bookbub model looked like it could work very well, however I've tried several times to get my books accepted for a bookbub with no success.
> 
> Is it bad luck? Or is there a specific reason they aren't accepting them? How many times have you had titles rejected by bookbub?


So far I'm two for four. I submitted Fallen Palm three months ago and was turned down. It was suggested by others here that my cover was too low resolution and looked pixelated. I changed all the covers to super hi-res photos and made them all look the same as far as the text and submitted Fallen Palm the following month and was accepted.

I submitted Fallen Hunter a month after that and was accepted on the first submission.

I submitted Fallen Out a few days after the Hunter ad, but was turned down. I think it was for two reasons. First, it only had 4 reviews and had just been published. Second, I had to pick a date at least 30 days after the Hunter ad and that only gave me a three day window to run the ad (they only schedule up to 30 days out). I'm waiting to submit it again, when the window will be larger. It now has 19 reviews.


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## martyns (May 8, 2014)

Should I press on, trying to get my book 1 bookbubb'ed? Does my cover look okay? Or is it more likely the content?


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

martyns said:


> Should I press on, trying to get my book 1 bookbubb'ed? Does my cover look okay? Or is it more likely the content?


Absolutely keep trying. I've not heard of anyone that didn't have a good return on the money spent for the ad.

As far as your covers and content, I can't really speak to that. I've never read any fantasy novels, so couldn't tell great from average.


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## martyns (May 8, 2014)

They're quite atypical covers too. They don't follow an established layout. I get very good feedback on the art though - I'm really pleased with the artwork.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

martyns said:


> They're quite atypical covers too. They don't follow an established layout. I get very good feedback on the art though - I'm really pleased with the artwork.


If they are the ones in your sig - I love them and they, IMO, are a great fit for fantasy genre.


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## martyns (May 8, 2014)

Thanks VydorScope!

Have you ever done a bookbub? Did you have trouble getting accepted?


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

martyns said:


> Thanks VydorScope!
> 
> Have you ever done a bookbub? Did you have trouble getting accepted?


I have not. I may someday, but have not yet.


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## martyns (May 8, 2014)

I'll definitely give it at least one more try - if that fails then I don't know... I do wonder about starting my second series before I complete my first series - but since I committed myself to only uploaded edited, polished and as close as is possible error-free books it take me months to get a book ready to upload.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

martyns said:


> I'll definitely give it at least one more try - if that fails then I don't know... I do wonder about starting my second series before I complete my first series - but since I committed myself to only uploaded edited, polished and as close as is possible error-free books it take me months to get a book ready to upload.


One thing I always suggest is this. Be flexible.

BookBub charges a pretty hefty price for their advertising for a reason. It works. That said, for every book that appears in one of their ads, I'd bet at least 20 were turned down. Mostly because the author was inflexible on when they wanted the ad to run. "Oh, you have to advertise my book on June 13th, it's a Friday and a full moon and my book's is all about that. No other date will work."

The day of the week doesn't matter. The day of the month doesn't matter. *You'll do well on whatever date they put you in. *

When submitting, chose the earliest start date available and the furthest end date available. This will give you the widest possible window. In the note section, tell them any day they have room will work. Adjust your promo around the date they put you in.


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## martyns (May 8, 2014)

Thanks Wayne, that sounds like great advice!

I did give them a fairly narrow window for specific reasons. I'm now thinking I should try again, give them as big a window as possible and save my Countdown Days for when they give me the go-ahead. In some respects it might have paid dividends to tie in with the release of book 3 - but actually I should probably focus on building my readership first and this might be the way to do it. I'll try again when I'm allowed another go and I'll report back on whether it's successful or not!

I bet my narrow window of days for the promo was what killed it.  If this is the case, they ought to be a bit more open about how important a flexible promo day is.

Martyn


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

Interesting as always to read your results, Wayne. I'm waiting 9 days after my new book this time for my promo to start, because I wanted it to have some reviews. (I don't do ARCs.) In retrospect, it would have been better to have started the promo on release day or the day after, as you did. By the time the free period on the first promo book was done, it would have had the reviews. Next time! 

Still plenty of time for the promo to give it a good boost, though. Sunday is my BookBub day. I usually do as you do, start with another site or two before BB, but the rank has been pretty good for quite a while, so I decided to make the BB day Day One of the promo, give me four more days to ride the BB wave. Then the Countdown starts on the next book. I've never done my Countdowns in the same period as the free run--I see the advantage of that, but I also think that spacing them out one after the other gives you a longer ride, more cross-promo between the books, and a longer tail. I have books you can pick up anywhere in the series (don't have to be read in order)--but I think you do, too. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see how it works this time.

Congratulations on your terrific success!


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

martyns said:


> Should I press on, trying to get my book 1 bookbubb'ed? Does my cover look okay? Or is it more likely the content?


Hi Martyn. I'm not a fantasy reader so can't comment on your cover or content (although you seem to have good reviews), but I would suggest you maybe consider tightening up your blurb a bit, since to my eyes it's a bit wordy and full of unnecessary detail.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Wayne, one of your Fallen Pride sales had nothing to do with BB and everything to do with someone owed me a book.


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## martyns (May 8, 2014)

Thanks Lydniz, I know my blurbs aren't that strong - I really suck at things like blurbs and synopsis. I'm nearly done book three, but writing the blurb is the WORST thing ever. It's a different book with lots of intrigue and reveals and surprises - trying to blurb it 'spoiler-free' is proving to be impossible 

Maybe I should revamp them? Any good resources for how to write engaging and enticing blurbs?


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

martyns said:


> Thanks Lydniz, I know my blurbs aren't that strong - I really suck at things like blurbs and synopsis. I'm nearly done book three, but writing the blurb is the WORST thing ever. It's a different book with lots of intrigue and reveals and surprises - trying to blurb it 'spoiler-free' is proving to be impossible
> 
> Maybe I should revamp them? Any good resources for how to write engaging and enticing blurbs?


I have a friend who works in heating and air conditioning sales who says selling is selling, regardless of what the product is. Before his current job, he sold awnings, before that, pools. He's one of my beta readers and asked to write the blurb. Now I pay him $25 to do just that.

The blurb is a sales tool. It's the proverbial foot in the door. If you're not a salesman, hire someone that is.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> I have a friend who works in heating and air conditioning sales who says selling is selling, regardless of what the product is. Before his current job, he sold awnings, before that, pools. He's one of my beta readers and asked to write the blurb. Now I pay him $25 to do just that.
> 
> The blurb is a sales tool. It's the proverbial foot in the door. If you're not a salesman, hire someone that is.


This. I would happily pay someone $25 to make my blurbs rock. Heck I dunno enough to even rate mine never mind fix them.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Yesterday marked 21 days since my BookBub ad. Although sales have leveled off, they're way higher than the three weeks before the ad. Fallen Hunter was in the ad and it averaged 13.8 sales per day for the 21 days before the ad. Since the ad, it's averaged 46.5 and in the last week, it's been steady at 23.7 sales per day, plus or minus 4.

The real benefit has been the continued sell through. Across all three titles for three weeks before the ad, I averaged 40.2 sales per day. Not counting the new title added the day of the ad, those three have averaged 148.76 per day over the last 21 days and 71.3 over the last week.

Including the newest title, I've averaged 204.8 sales per day for a total of 4716 sales in June so far. I'm holding off doing another Book Bub ad until I can see just how long this tail will go.

Does extensive advertising before and after a BB ad, using less expensive promo sites, make a difference? Here's my sales chart showing 21 days before the first BB ad, with no promoting at all, it's subsequent tail where I began promoting the next book half way between the two spikes and the 21 day tail after the recent BB ad. There were no other promotions for two days before the second ad. I can only conclude that the promotions before the ad brought Fallen Hunter slightly higher in the ranking before the ad, resulting in more exposure during the day of the ad.


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## DavidMacinnisGill (Mar 4, 2011)

Your posts about the promo helped me reach #2 on the Kindle store and hold the spot for 24 hours. Based on your directions, I started a countdown deal on a 2nd book before the Bookbub promo and then followed up with freebie sites for the day after the Bookbub giveaway. It's still too early to tell, but it's looking good for a strong tail.


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## EllisaBarr (Apr 22, 2014)

This has been such an interesting process.  Thanks for being so transparent.  

I do wonder how much that long tail is influenced by the launch of a fourth in your series.  It seems like people say that the 3rd or 4th book is where their series takes off, so it would make sense if your BB gave you a super solid launch and what you're seeing isn't necessarily a tail, but a post-launch overall increase.  I hope that's the case, it would be wonderful.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Wayne forgot to tell you the most important thing about selling books.  
Write a fantastic story to begin with.  Then lure the reader in with more fantastic stories.
It also helps if your readers love you and tell their friends you need to read this book.

How I found Wayne.  A friend said I needed to read Fallen Palm and if I didn't like it, he would buy me any book I wanted.    The book was great.  And that is how Wayne became an automatic buy for me.


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