# Third Book Launch Promo [***FINAL END-OF-TAIL REPORT***]



## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

{Gone}


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## Paul K (Jan 11, 2014)

Good luck Pauline! Kick some arse.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

This is in many ways a repeat of the launch of The Fire Mages back in January, but with a few changes. Then, I had a blog tour, 12 days of promo and a Goodreads giveaway going on. This time, only 7 days of promo, no giveaway, no blog tour.

And immediately I see a difference. The Fire Mages sold 20+ books per day before the promo even started (excluding pre-orders). This book - only 6 per day. No idea why, but I suspect the Goodreads giveaway.

Another difference, this book had 34 pre-orders, compared with 19 for book 2 and 12 for book 1. So creeping in the right direction.

The shorter promo this time is an attempt to preserve my sanity.   However, I've chosen sites which have performed well for my books before, so we'll see. 

First out of the gate is GenrePulse, who brought in 23 sales for the previous book.


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## smikeo (Dec 1, 2014)

Awesome Pauline. I'm betting that you will pay back the promo with the borrows generated during its run.
Good luck!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Paul K said:


> Good luck Pauline! Kick some arse.


LOL. Arse-kicking underway (I hope).


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

smikeo said:


> Awesome Pauline. I'm betting that you will pay back the promo with the borrows generated during its run.
> Good luck!


Thanks! I don't expect to pay it back during the promo, but a couple of weeks at full price afterwards should do it (hopefully).


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

Hi Pauline

Just wanted to confirm your listing on Awesomegang. I have been having problems with the confirmation email going out since we changed to a new and faster service a few weeks ago. You are all set up and ready to go.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Vinny OHare said:


> Hi Pauline
> 
> Just wanted to confirm your listing on Awesomegang. I have been having problems with the confirmation email going out since we changed to a new and faster service a few weeks ago. You are all set up and ready to go.


Thank you so much! I was pretty sure it was OK, but it's nice to have that reassurance.


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

You should of got a confirmation right after you submitted. You can always email me and ask to confirm also.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Vinny OHare said:


> You should of got a confirmation right after you submitted. You can always email me and ask to confirm also.


Yeah, should have done that.


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## Chris Fox (Oct 3, 2014)

I still can't believe how quickly you've gotten three books out, Pauline. Nice work.


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## A. N. Other Author (Oct 11, 2014)

Is OHFB a good one? It's not talked about very often, and $75 is a bit pricy. I don't mind paying it, but it's 215 $0.99 books to break even (112 in select, I guess). I know there's the add-on sales for other books, etc, but if it's a good seller I'd love to try them.
.


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## AYClaudy (Oct 2, 2014)

ADDavies said:


> Is OHFB a good one? It's not talked about very often, and $75 is a bit pricy. I don't mind paying it, but it's 215 $0.99 books to break even (112 in select, I guess). I know there's the add-on sales for other books, etc, but if it's a good seller I'd love to try them.
> .


I'm curious about them too. I keep eyeing them, but never took the plunge. Very interested to see how this all goes!

Good Luck, you've got a good line up!


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

PaulineMRoss said:


> This is in many ways a repeat of the launch of The Fire Mages back in January, but with a few changes. Then, I had a blog tour, 12 days of promo and a Goodreads giveaway going on. This time, only 7 days of promo, no giveaway, no blog tour.
> 
> And immediately I see a difference. The Fire Mages sold 20+ books per day before the promo even started (excluding pre-orders). This book - only 6 per day. No idea why, but I suspect the Goodreads giveaway.
> 
> ...


Pauline,

I really like the heads up on your prior promos results (even though I have the thread bookmarked, it will save me time looking it up LOL) so do you think you can do that with your updates? List your previous book's sales with each day?

Good luck and as Fox said, great job on getting that many books out as quickly as you did.

Regards,
SM


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## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

Good luck, Pauline!

That's a good idea about running a Goodreads giveaway at the same time. I hope with my next book launch I will have the paperback ready to go in time to try that.


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## Jake Kerr (Aug 6, 2014)

Go Pauline go!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

ADDavies said:


> Is OHFB a good one? It's not talked about very often, and $75 is a bit pricy. I don't mind paying it, but it's 215 $0.99 books to break even (112 in select, I guess). I know there's the add-on sales for other books, etc, but if it's a good seller I'd love to try them.


I've used them twice now, and they gave me sales of 48 and 79 respectively, plus a very healthy second-day bounce (29 and 44 respectively). So, expensive, yes, but very effective for my particular books/genre (YMMV).

BUT they have a free option, too. Obviously there's no guarantee, but it's definitely well worth applying.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Chris Fox said:


> I still can't believe how quickly you've gotten three books out, Pauline. Nice work.


Ah, but I had two-and-three-quarters written before the first was even released. That makes it easier.  I'm slowing down a bit now.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Salvador Mercer said:


> I really like the heads up on your prior promos results (even though I have the thread bookmarked, it will save me time looking it up LOL) so do you think you can do that with your updates? List your previous book's sales with each day?


Good idea. Will do, Salvador.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Yesterday was a bust, promo-wise. I had GenrePulse booked for the full package, but I never received the kickoff email, sales were normal, so I assume the ad never ran. I've emailed James, and maybe he'll reschedule.

I still had 9 sales/borrows, but rank is slipping down into the 30K range.

Today is Bknights, which always does well for me, so let's hope the tradition holds.

*[UPDATE] *James replied, the ad DID run, and I have a link showing 100+ clicks. Even so, the 6 sales yesterday is barely better than the 4 I had the previous day, so I'm still calling it a bust. However, GenrePulse ads tend to have legs, so if there are good sales before Bknights kicks off, I'll let you all know.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Thanks for updating!  Following very closely (but not too close) but close enough


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## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

Don't worry about today. Based on your schedule, you've got plenty of bigger sales days coming up!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Augusta Blythe said:


> Don't worry about today. Based on your schedule, you've got plenty of bigger sales days coming up!


Yeah, I tried to arrange them in order of expected sales - hence ENT at the end.  We'll see how that works out...


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Yesterday was Bknights, and I had 14 sales plus 4 borrows: solid, if not spectacular. On the previous launch, Bknights brought in 22 sales and got me to an 8K ranking. This time, the book is barely breaking 20K. However, I then had a run of not-so-good days last time, and I'm hoping that won't happen this time. Steadily rising sales, that's the objective!

Today is BargainBooksy, who brought in 38 sales at my previous launch promo.


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

I just saw that your promo isn't going exactly as well as you expected so far. Since you have no ads running on May 25th the day before your book goes back to normal price I decided to do something about this. You now have featured ads on Pretty-hot.com - Bookreadermagazine.com and Discountbookman.com for the 25th.

Hopefully we can maintain whatever tale you get from ENT and bring it to your full price the next day with some momentum.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Vinny, you're a star! I've never heard of any of those but I'm happy to try them out. I usually get a good second-day bounce from ENT, so it will be great to have a bit of an extra push on top of that.

Thank you so much.


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## Nancy Warren (May 5, 2014)

Good luck with your launch. Your covers are beautiful!


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

I wouldn't be able to sleep knowing you had a empty day in the promo.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Vinny OHare said:


> I wouldn't be able to sleep knowing you had a empty day in the promo.


LOL!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Yesterday was a much better outcome: BargainBooksy brought in 29 sales. This is a little down on the result for The Fire Mages back in January (3 but still a good result. The rank is now a much healthier 6K.

Today was planned to be Midlist, but they were fully booked for the date. Try to allow at least a month's notice, they advised, when I'd actually applied more than 5 weeks in advance. Fallback was Booksends but they very politely suggested I reapply when I had a few reviews. OK, so they don't do new releases. Good to know.

So failing those two, I've filled in with a raft of cheap or free sites: RobinReads; SweetFreeBooks; Booktastik; BettyBookFreak; Ebooksoda; AwesomeGang. Hopefully between them they can bring in a good haul.


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## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Today was planned to be Midlist, but they were fully booked for the date. Try to allow at least a month's notice, they advised, when I'd actually applied more than 5 weeks in advance.


That's like the BookBub rejection I get that suggests I submit again at a lower price. Um, it's already free!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Augusta Blythe said:


> That's like the BookBub rejection I get that suggests I submit again at a lower price. Um, it's already free!


Yeah, those one-size-fits-all rejections don't always fit terribly well.


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## Antara Mann (Nov 24, 2014)

I just saw your thread today (busy with my own promo) and wish you good luck. It's good that you compare previous results with different advertisers as I think all sales on all advertisers plummet. I wanted to say that RobinReads I heard it's good only for freebies - for paid books not that much. I haven't managed to read your novel yet Pauline but will and will post a review. Great results with Bknights because when I advertised my title Back to the Viper for 99 cents on his site (the 5$ gig) I saw only 1 KU borrow. It's amazing that you get sales through social media. The only one I obtain are for free books.


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## Antara Mann (Nov 24, 2014)

I forgot to ask, where did you do the book blog tour? Is it the ones you told me in a pm earlier? regarding Goodreads giveaway, I know one must ship physical copies but surprisingly an author wrote that she sends only pdfs.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Antara Man said:


> I just saw your thread today (busy with my own promo) and wish you good luck. It's good that you compare previous results with different advertisers as I think all sales on all advertisers plummet. I wanted to say that RobinReads I heard it's good only for freebies - for paid books not that much. I haven't managed to read your novel yet Pauline but will and will post a review. Great results with Bknights because when I advertised my title Back to the Viper for 99 cents on his site (the 5$ gig) I saw only 1 KU borrow. It's amazing that you get sales through social media. The only one I obtain are for free books.


I don't think all sales plummet, necessarily, but every promotion will bring different results: different time of year, different day of the week, where it comes in the promotion campaign, and (most important) the book itself. Some books just do better or worse than others.

This is my first try with RobinReads and it's in combo with others, so I'll have no idea how effective it is. But all sites do better for free books, I think.

The social media thing is really just me hitting all my online friends.  If I tell them when there's a new book out, whether on the blog, in a tweet, in a forum post or whatever, a certain proportion will buy.



Antara Man said:


> I forgot to ask, where did you do the book blog tour? Is it the ones you told me in a pm earlier? regarding Goodreads giveaway, I know one must ship physical copies but surprisingly an author wrote that she sends only pdfs.


I was with Enchanted Tours. They did everything they said they would, but who knows how effective it was? I got a couple of reviews out of it, but I couldn't tell you if there were any sales as a result. But I just pulled them out of a hat, really. With more careful research and genre-matching, blog tours can be very effective. So people say.


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## KReadnour (Jul 8, 2014)

Nice results yesterday! Yay! I'm very surprised that Booksends turned you down. Good to know about the number of reviews you need, but I wonder what the magic number is? Anyway, good luck with the rest of the promo!


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

Just sent out an extra social media blast for you.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Vinny OHare said:


> Just sent out an extra social media blast for you.


Vinny, you're wonderful. Thank you. Today's numbers are looking good, so whatever you're doing, it's working.


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## Lisa Blackwood (Feb 1, 2015)

Watching and learning.  (I'm planning to release a book 3 of a series later in June). I love getting current info on promo sites.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Well, my little collection of free/cheap sites came up trumps: 30 sales, and a ranking solidly in the 6K zone. It would be higher but I've had a few sales from world-wide, especially the UK. So well done RobinReads, SweetFreeBooks, Booktastik, BettyBookFreak, Ebooksoda and AwesomeGang. Impossible to say which sites were most effective, but Vinny from Awesomegang gave the book an extra push, so thank you very much!

Today sees the start of the final push for the summit: my 3 biggest hitters, from past promos. Today is EreaderCafe (51 sales last time out), tomorrow is OHFB (48 and 79) and Sunday is ENT (80). I don't quite expect to hit those high numbers this time, but I should still shift a good few copies, and hopefully push the ranking up beyond 5K.

Onwards and upwards...


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## KReadnour (Jul 8, 2014)

That's a pretty impressive climb up the ladder! Here's to adding more rungs on the way up! Excited for you!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

KReadnour said:


> That's a pretty impressive climb up the ladder! Here's to adding more rungs on the way up! Excited for you!


Thank you! These are still quite prawny numbers, but it's lovely to watch my little book fly for a while.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Thank you! These are still quite prawny numbers, but it's lovely to watch my little book fly for a while.


Oh yeah! Prawny for us, but still good for what you're trying to do. Another well thought out and planned promo so I'm wishing you luck and success Pauline. Excited to see your numbers this weekend!


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## Lizzie G (Oct 12, 2012)

Somehow I missed your promo thread! I've bookmarked it now, though, and I'll be watching it. So cool that Vinnie helped you out like that. Another reason I'm a big fan of AwesomeGang. Good luck this weekend! Fingers crossed for you!


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Well, my little collection of free/cheap sites came up trumps:


What are the list of free and cheap promo sites?

Someone needs to make a sticky thread on that list at the top of the Writers Cafe


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Yesterday was a bit of a damp squib: only 13 sales from EreaderCafe, who did so well for me last time out (51 sales). So not sure what happened there. It's not terrible, but it's also not great, and it's punched a bit of a hole in my cunning upward-climbing plan. Rank has slipped below 10K.

Ah well, onwards and (hopefully) upwards. Today is OHFB which have done well by me twice before (48 and 79). Let's hope they can pull it off again.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Fingers crossed!


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Likewise crossing fingers and toes (don't ask)


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## Shiriluna Nott (Aug 26, 2014)

Good luck! Can't wait to see ENT's results. Going to try to get them to pick up my new release next month.


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## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

Fingers crossed for you!


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## a_urias (Mar 11, 2015)

Digits crossed. Knocking on wood. I've followed all your promos and launches avidly. Here's hoping ENT comes through. Good luck!


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## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

OHFB results? C'mon Pauline, if I run out of things to be interested in online I'll need to pay attention to my children.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Augusta Blythe said:


> OHFB results? C'mon Pauline, if I run out of things to be interested in online I'll need to pay attention to my children.


Heaven forfend! OK, yesterday was a better day - OHFB brought me 39 sales, thank you very much, and a ranking below 6K. That's below previous promos with them, but I'm coming round to the idea that this book just isn't as appealing as The Fire Mages. But I write stand-alones, and they vary a lot, so that's to be expected. Still, it's a nice position to be in for ENT today.


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

Pauline not sure if you know but this is a Holiday weekend in the USA. Monday is the official Holiday but this weekend people are usually outside doing bbq and stuff.


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## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Heaven forfend! OK, yesterday was a better day - OHFB brought me 39 sales, thank you very much, and a ranking below 6K. That's below previous promos with them, but I'm coming round to the idea that this book just isn't as appealing as The Fire Mages. But I write stand-alones, and they vary a lot, so that's to be expected. Still, it's a nice position to be in for ENT today.


Phew, thanks for that. Good luck with ENT today.
Vinny - it's a holiday weekend in the UK as well.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Vinny OHare said:


> Pauline not sure if you know but this is a Holiday weekend in the USA. Monday is the official Holiday but this weekend people are usually outside doing bbq and stuff.


Yeah, it's a holiday here too, and naturally I forgot that when I planned this promo. Doh! Even so, the sales numbers are down for the whole week of the promo, so I don't think I can just dismiss it as a holiday weekend thing.

It's fine. The objective was always steady sales over a period of time, rather than massive spikes, so I'm good with things so far.


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## Indecisive (Jun 17, 2013)

Hi Pauline,

I'm just catching up with this now. What is OHFB?

I don't know if you can attribute the lesser sales of this title to only one or two factors. I see two things, not having read either of these books. First, I think that the effectiveness of many of these promo sites has been declining steadily. What works now? What's going to work in a year's time? Who knows!

Second, this cover is blue, which is a less clicky color than orange/red. I don't know how important that is but it could have some effect. 

Finally, it looks like you're still in KU. Are you in KU with all three books? I wonder if KU's sales-rank-boosting powers are also on the wane.


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## Steven Carley (May 23, 2015)

Hello Pauline, you are certainly the real deal as I browse your page count of your books. You seem very knowledgeable and hopefully your new book finds success even more so than your past successes. Good luck! ; )


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

ameliasmith said:


> I'm just catching up with this now. What is OHFB?


One Hundred Free Books. The paid options are expensive ($75 or $100), but they also have a free option.



> I don't know if you can attribute the lesser sales of this title to only one or two factors. I see two things, not having read either of these books. First, I think that the effectiveness of many of these promo sites has been declining steadily. What works now? What's going to work in a year's time? Who knows!


Good point. I think readers are jaded by the sheer volume of discount deals and freebies on offer, frankly.



> Second, this cover is blue, which is a less clicky color than orange/red. I don't know how important that is but it could have some effect.


Yes! I think this is definitely true. The Fire Mages' cover just jumps out at you, I think. The other two are a bit quieter.



> Finally, it looks like you're still in KU. Are you in KU with all three books? I wonder if KU's sales-rank-boosting powers are also on the wane.


I'm all in, and I've had a lot of borrows, so I'm staying in.  Typically I get 2-3 times as many borrows as sales, when I don't have a promotion going on. I am convinced that the ranking boost from borrows has been keeping The Fire Mages aloft for months. It's never had a ranking worse than about 75K, and for most of the 4 months it's been out, it's been ranked better than 30K.

I agree there's no one factor at play here. I didn't quite expect The Mages of Bennamore to do as well as The Fire Mages - it features a 40-year-old protagonist, for one thing.  But I've more or less repeated what I did for the launch of The Fire Mages so that I can get some direct comparisons, and it's been quite an interesting experiment.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

An interim update: today is turning out to be a bit peculiar (in a good way). I have 35 sales on the board already, and there's still several hours before the ENT email comes out. I mentioned the deal price on Reddit's fantasy subreddit, so maybe that's had some impact, but otherwise - I don't know why. Not complaining, you understand, but just a bit puzzled.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

I am going to venture a guess and it's just my speculation.

Yesterday was a Saturday of a holiday weekend.  I don't think the email promos received as much attention yesterday as they sat in thousands of email inboxes.  Today, after waking up late, getting some breakfast and coffee in their systems, I think more than a few readers checked their emails going all the way back to yesterday and bought your book.

Then again it could be your reddit post.  Could you send me the fantasy link for the sub reddit and I'll post and let you know if I get any bump  

I get ENT emails so I'll look for your ad there.  It hasn't come out yet.  What a way to start the day however, with 35 sales BEFORE the ENT ad!  

You should end up with a VERY GOOD DAY TODAY!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Salvador Mercer said:


> I am going to venture a guess and it's just my speculation.
> Yesterday was a Saturday of a holiday weekend. I don't think the email promos received as much attention yesterday as they sat in thousands of email inboxes. Today, after waking up late, getting some breakfast and coffee in their systems, I think more than a few readers checked their emails going all the way back to yesterday and bought your book.


I think that's very possible. Sales started quite early in the day, US time, so that's definitely a possibility. I've noticed before that OHFB has a definite second-day bounce.



> Then again it could be your reddit post. Could you send me the fantasy link for the sub reddit and I'll post and let you know if I get any bump


I don't recommend that you just parachute in there and start promoting. They're very tolerant of regulars, but otherwise - not so much. 



> I get ENT emails so I'll look for your ad there. It hasn't come out yet. What a way to start the day however, with 35 sales BEFORE the ENT ad!
> You should end up with a VERY GOOD DAY TODAY!


The ENT email is out now, and sales were close to 50 already. Yes, should be a VERY GOOD DAY!  I might even make my very first 100+ sales day - which would be awesome.


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## Northern pen (Mar 3, 2015)

PaulineMRoss said:


> I think that's very possible. Sales started quite early in the day, US time, so that's definitely a possibility. I've noticed before that OHFB has a definite second-day bounce.
> 
> I don't recommend that you just parachute in there and start promoting. They're very tolerant of regulars, but otherwise - not so much.
> 
> The ENT email is out now, and sales were close to 50 already. Yes, should be a VERY GOOD DAY!  I might even make my very first 100+ sales day - which would be awesome.


Good Work Pauline. cheering for a hundred


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## Chinese Writer (Mar 25, 2014)

Do you feel like the borrows is helping with your overall ranking of Book 3, Pauline? I actually have a reader ask if my new release is going to be in KU. Initially I plan to stay wide, but now I’m not so sure. I’ve sold over 150 copies of my new release on Amazon vs 1 copy outside. I’m not sure its worth the months of waiting to get traction outside of Amazon as oppose to getting those borrows in that time period. And I’m starting to question whether having borrows during my promo might help with my overall ranking.


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## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

PaulineMRoss said:


> The ENT email is out now, and sales were close to 50 already. Yes, should be a VERY GOOD DAY!  I might even make my very first 100+ sales day - which would be awesome.


Woo hoo!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

artan said:


> Do you feel like the borrows is helping with your overall ranking of Book 3, Pauline? I actually have a reader ask if my new release is going to be in KU. Initially I plan to stay wide, but now I'm not so sure. I've sold over 150 copies of my new release on Amazon vs 1 copy outside. I'm not sure its worth the months of waiting to get traction outside of Amazon as oppose to getting those borrows in that time period. And I'm starting to question whether having borrows during my promo might help with my overall ranking.


Yes, the borrows help. Every download bumps the rank a little bit, whether the book ever gets read or not. And KU puts the book into another, much smaller, pool for visibility. Readers who have a KU subscription may well search for books by filtering for just KU books. So whatever rank a book may be in the whole Amazon ocean, it's going to be much more prominent in the smaller KU pool. When I don't have a promo on, borrows are 2-3 times sales, consistently. It works for me.

I think KU is great for midlist authors - those with a sales rank of (roughly) 10K to 100K, because KU will boost visibility. Top sellers can probably sell enough outside Amazon to offset the loss of KU. Those consistently below 100K aren't selling enough to be visible within KU so won't get a boost. But for new authors, I think it's great.

If you're not selling much outside Amazon, why not try KU for a 90-day cycle?


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

I'm looking for a place to post some of my work and I understood Reddit was good for that.  I'll keep my promo posts to the nearly useless FB pages


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## Chinese Writer (Mar 25, 2014)

PaulineMRoss said:


> I think KU is great for midlist authors - those with a sales rank of (roughly) 10K to 100K, because KU will boost visibility. Top sellers can probably sell enough outside Amazon to offset the loss of KU. Those consistently below 100K aren't selling enough to be visible within KU so won't get a boost. But for new authors, I think it's great.
> 
> If you're not selling much outside Amazon, why not try KU for a 90-day cycle?


 My initial thought was to put my books back into KU after the 90 day cliff. But after reading your response and my lack of traction at the other sites I might put my novels back in before then.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Salvador Mercer said:


> I'm looking for a place to post some of my work and I understood Reddit was good for that.


Oh, to post snippets of your writing? I've never tried that on Reddit. I'm sure there are subreddits where you can do that. They have writing subreddits, I know.


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## Tali Carmi (Sep 20, 2013)

Hi 
Isn't BKnights the fiver seller gig for the site "Digital book spot"?
I saw you paid $21. shouldn't it be $5?
What am I missing?

Thanks!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Tali Carmi said:


> Isn't BKnights the fiver seller gig for the site "Digital book spot"?
> I saw you paid $21. shouldn't it be $5?
> What am I missing?


You're right. Each individual gig is $5.50. All four is $21. You can ask for a Kboards discount and get the whole package for $5.50, but I don't quite feel comfortable doing that. I've always had good results from Bknights, so I pay the full whack.


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

Salvador Mercer said:


> I'm looking for a place to post some of my work and I understood Reddit was good for that. I'll keep my promo posts to the nearly useless FB pages


I joined Reddit but I can't figure out how to post anything


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Well, still a little stunned but... yesterday I had 125 sales! I think the second day bounce from OHFB combined with ENT AND I had a free day going on for The Fire Mages, which led to some cross-fertilisation. Whatever the cause, I had sales of around 50 before the ENT email even hit. That led to my best-ever ranking of #1,722, [ETA: 1,713 #1,612 #1,576] and some good positions in several sub-categories. So I'm very, very happy with that. A great way to end the planned promos.

The free day for the Fire Mages was also spectacular, because it got picked up by the almost-mythical Pixel of Ink. [ETA: And also by Flurries of Words.] I ended the day with 4,098 downloads, a rank of #32 in the free store and #1 in the Teens Sword and Sorcery category. I know it's very temporary but - yay, #1!

Today The Fire Mages is back to full price and I expect some post-free sales, plus a few returns. The Mages of Bennamore is still $0.99 but will go to full price ($3.99) tomorrow. I haven't paid for any ads today, but Vinny of Awesomegang has very kindly featured the book in 3 of his sites for free: Pretty-hot; BookreaderMagazine; DiscountBookman. Thank you, Vinny!


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## Jordan Rivet (Jan 13, 2015)

Brilliant results for the day. Congrats, Pauline! I'm actually reading The Plains of Kallanash right now!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Jordan Rivet said:


> Brilliant results for the day. Congrats, Pauline! I'm actually reading The Plains of Kallanash right now!


Thanks! All the planets aligned for once.  Hope you enjoy the read!


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## fantasy-writer (Dec 12, 2014)

Congratulations on all those sales! Your promo threads are always awesome.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Ella Summers said:


> Congratulations on all those sales! Your promo threads are always awesome.


Thank you! I'm happy to pass on what worked for me, and also what worked less well. Just glad that people find that interesting and (hopefully) informative.


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## Indecisive (Jun 17, 2013)

Congratulations on the great sales day, Pauline! Wow.


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## KReadnour (Jul 8, 2014)

Congrats on such an awesome day! So happy for you!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Thank you, folks! It just shows what can be done with a little bit of luck and some cross-pollination from one book to another. Having multiple books really works! And I'm already seeing good sales today, so here's hoping for a long tail.


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## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Well, still a little stunned but... yesterday I had 125 sales! I think the second day bounce from OHFB combined with ENT AND I had a free day going on for The Fire Mages, which led to some cross-fertilisation. Whatever the cause, I had sales of around 50 before the ENT email even hit. That led to my best-ever ranking of #1,722, [ETA: 1,713 #1,612 #1,576] and some good positions in several sub-categories. So I'm very, very happy with that. A great way to end the planned promos.
> 
> The free day for the Fire Mages was also spectacular, because it got picked up by the almost-mythical Pixel of Ink. [ETA: And also by Flurries of Words.] I ended the day with 4,098 downloads, a rank of #32 in the free store and #1 in the Teens Sword and Sorcery category. I know it's very temporary but - yay, #1!


Excellent results + Pixel of Ink?? What a way to end the promo week. Well done!


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

geronl said:


> I joined Reddit but I can't figure out how to post anything


Neither could I, that is why I asked Pauline. It looks like a maze over there and I've never gotten much cheese when I try to run mazes. I'm afraid it would be a time sink unless I have a leg up on where to go and what to do. Maybe later when my plate is cleaner.

@Pauline, that is awesome and the Fire Mages to boot is fantastic! Do share the afterglow if you don't mind. Having a bit of romance (or more) can't hurt imho, that is the big genre around here. Congrats on what looks to have been a very successful promo! Now you get to watch your books fly for a while


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## Chinese Writer (Mar 25, 2014)

I grabbed your book when it showed up on POI. Wow! Great way to end your promos. May you tail last several months.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

OK, I'm going on holiday in a few hours, and connectivity will be spotty, so I may not be able to update this thread. However, I will update with the final numbers when I get back, and also post weekly reports on whatever tail I get.

Interim update: today is going to be another good one. Bennamore has 13 sales already, although rank is drifting southwards. The Fire Mages is having a post-free bump - 40 sales so far today, and a rank in the 4K area. It was at 34K before the free day, and came back in at around 10K, so it's still improving. And I've had some lovely feedback from Reddit people, who've read one or other of the books, liked it and are going off to buy the others. Oh the joys of having several books out for people to buy.


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## Claire Frank (Jul 28, 2014)

It's been so great to watch your progress!! Yay!!


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

So fantastic to hear about your great end to the promo! Fingers crossed this tail lasts for awhile.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

I'm back from my travels, to update the final numbers from the promo for the launch of The Mages of Bennamore. Over the 8 days of paid ads, there were 274 sales at 99c and 35% royalty, plus 25 borrows. However, most of the sales came on just one day, when ENT collided with a coincidental post to Reddit, many of whose readers cheerfully went out and bought all 3 books. The 6 days since then, up to the end of May, brought in another 38 sales at full price, $3.99, plus 64 borrows. That means I've covered the $245 of the promotion quite handily. Full details of each day's results in the first post of this thread.

There has been noticeable sell-through to the other books in the series (they're all stand-alones and can be read in any order, although they are set in the same world). The Fire Mages went from 4 sales/borrows per day to 11, and Kallanash from 1 to 3. There was even more of an increase the week after the promo.

However, the balance between sales and borrows has shifted quite dramatically. I shall attempt an image insert here:










After the big spike at the end of the promo, sales drifted downwards, but borrows more than compensated. Not sure why the borrows are going up so noticeably, but I'm not complaining. It means that both the promoted book (The Mages of Bennamore) and The Fire Mages (after its free day) are sticking at around 5-7K rankings. For now!

Another complication is that The Plains of Kallanash is now in a Countdown week before its KDP Select renewal (full details in the first post of this thread). That means that it, too, has joined the party. Astonishingly, all 3 books are in the top 10K, and ranking well in various sub-categories. I know this won't last long, but boy is it fun while it lasts. 

The moral of this story, for everyone out there in prawnland, is that multiple books really do feed each other's sales. Given a bit of promotion and a dollop of luck, things can change very quickly. Six months ago, my one book was selling 1-2 copies per week. The second book bumped that up to several a day. The third book has given things another big boost (for the moment! I know things can go downhill again very quickly). So don't be discouraged if a single book isn't selling much. Just keep writing, keep publishing, keep promoting.

I'll keep this thread updated with the weekly numbers for as long as it's helpful.


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## KReadnour (Jul 8, 2014)

Thanks for the update! I'm very happy the promo went so well for you. Congrats! It will be interesting to see how long the tail will last. I'm hoping it just takes off and never looks back!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

KReadnour said:


> I'm hoping it just takes off and never looks back!


Well, that would be lovely, wouldn't it!?  But I'm just enjoying the ride while it happens (and I know this is very small potatoes compared with many folks here).


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## KReadnour (Jul 8, 2014)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Well, that would be lovely, wouldn't it!?  But I'm just enjoying the ride while it happens (and I know this is very small potatoes compared with many folks here).


Yes, yes! It is much deserved! You've put a lot of time and thought into this and every promo you've shared. I love seeing people rewarded for their efforts.

Good luck with the current promo. I'm thinking the extra countdown deal may have been a brilliant idea!


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Well, that would be lovely, wouldn't it!?  But I'm just enjoying the ride while it happens (and I know this is very small potatoes compared with many folks here).


Well for this prawn your small potatoes are much bigger than my two tater tots 

Excellent update and thanks for sharing! I'm following this closely since my dragon series books are similar in that they can be read in any order while the ranger series is a must read by number. I actually decided to change up my book order and will do another dragon book before I do another ranger book.

Post again like you did before in another week!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Salvador Mercer said:


> Post again like you did before in another week!


Will do. I shall be updating the details of the Countdown on a daily basis, as well. I've got FKBT today, then Booksends, BargainBooksy and the trusty ENT, so I'm hoping for some nice sales numbers.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

One thing I forgot to mention in my launch promo wrap-up was the increase in mailing list signups (7) and reviews ( so far. Most of this is undoubtedly due to the Fire Mages free day (4K downloads), though, but it's all very welcome.

I've rather skimmed over the Countdown promotion I've got going on this week for The Plains of Kallanash, so for anyone still following along, here's the state of play so far. The CD runs from 1-7 June; total spend: $139.

Monday was Bknights (20 sales); Tuesday was BookBarbarian (21 sales); Wednesday was FKBT (24 sales); Thursday was Booksends (33 sales). That's a nice upward trajectory, and rank has risen from 22K to 4K.

Today is BargainBooksy, and tomorrow is ENT, with a no-ads day on Sunday to ensure late ENT readers don't miss out. Full details in the first post of this thread.

And (in case I wasn't already on promo overload), The Fire Mages has 2 more free days tomorrow and Sunday, although with only low-key ads (Flurries of Words and BookBarbarian). I'm a little nervous about this, to be honest, because the book is still bouncing around the 5K mark, with 20-30 sales/borrows a day. I really don't want to lose that momentum. However, it's booked and I'll let it run and see what happens. I have 2 more free days booked for later this month, but I'll cancel those if things start going pear-shaped.

It's all one great big experiment.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

PaulineMRoss said:


> One thing I forgot to mention in my launch promo wrap-up was the increase in mailing list signups (7) and reviews ( so far. Most of this is undoubtedly due to the Fire Mages free day (4K downloads), though, but it's all very welcome.
> 
> I've rather skimmed over the Countdown promotion I've got going on this week for The Plains of Kallanash, so for anyone still following along, here's the state of play so far. The CD runs from 1-7 June; total spend: $139.
> 
> ...


Killer line up and if I may say, the beauty of not having a chrono series is that each book can be promoted individually without readers feeling they are getting a great deal on book 2 but now must go buy/read book 1 before they can enjoy book 2. That is why I have two series out like this, one chrono, the other individual like yours.

Keep the updates coming


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Salvador Mercer said:


> Killer line up and if I may say, the beauty of not having a chrono series is that each book can be promoted individually without readers feeling they are getting a great deal on book 2 but now must go buy/read book 1 before they can enjoy book 2. That is why I have two series out like this, one chrono, the other individual like yours.


It's funny, but when I first started publishing, the conventional wisdom was (and still is, to be honest) write 3 or more books in a series, with the same characters, then set the first perma-free as a funnel. So my stand-alones, all with different characters but in the same world, seemed like a big mistake. But I'm definitely seeing sell-through from one to another, and yes, readers can start anywhere. If they like the *style* they go out and buy the others. So connected stand-alones does work. Maybe not as well as a proper series, but still.



> Keep the updates coming


Will do.


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## Chinese Writer (Mar 25, 2014)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Will do.


Just notice your BookBub reject status on your siggy. Funny.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

artan said:


> Just notice your BookBub reject status on your siggy. Funny.


I'm aiming for three figures.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Yesterday's promo for Kallanash was BargainBooksy which brought in 22 sales and 13 borrows. Not stellar, but I'm happy with it. So far this countdown has brought in 120 sales and 40 borrows, so it's almost covered the $139 cost of the promotion IF I ignore the pre-promo level of around 7 sales/borrows per day. However, an instant ROI wasn't ever the objective, just more sales and more exposure (achieved), an improved ranking (achieved) and maybe more reviews (still waiting on that). 

Today is my final ad - with ENT, which hasn't let me down yet (I hope I'm not tempting fate by saying that!). Tomorrow is a no-ad day, and the final day of the countdown. I also have The Fire Mages free today and tomorrow. After that - a respite from promos for a while.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Yesterday was ENT, which brought in 41 sales and 6 borrows. That's not on a par with their previous results for me, but it's still a good haul of sales for this book [ETA: Kallanash], which has never sold quite as well as the others. It was enough to get me a ranking in the 3Ks which I'm happy with. I have no ads today, so this will be a winding down to normal sales day.

In other news, The Fire Mages was free yesterday, with very low-key promotion: only Flurries of Words and BookBarbarian, which brought 705 downloads and a ranking of #238 in the free store, and #2 in the Swords & Sorcery sub-cat. Today it's free again and I don't have any promotion at all, so it will be interesting to see if I can scrape together 300 downloads to make 1,000 over the 2 days.

Tomorrow will be the first day in a while with all three books back to normal price. I await with trepidation the return of The Fire Mages to the paid lists. It was ranking in the 6Ks before the free days, and had been for a couple of weeks. I'm really nervous that I might have broken its momentum with a low-key free promotion. But we'll see.


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## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

Good luck with the post-promo phase.  Hope the reviews start to roll in.


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## Susanne123 (Jan 9, 2014)

Hi Pauline,

This has all been fascinating to read (and the comments!).

As a newbie, I so appreciate the time you've taken to update this thread.

Best wishes for continued sales/borrows.

Susanne


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Pauline, you've put a lot of work and a lot of thought into all of your promos, and they just keep getting better. Your sales couldn't happen to a nicer person. Well, I'm really nice, too, but that's neither here nor there.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Hehe, well I double dipped having borrowed Fire Mages before, I took the opportunity to download a free copy since I spent my time reading Kallanash instead of Fire Mages.  Will be nice if you hit exactly 1k today


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## MyraScott (Jul 18, 2014)

Inspiring and helpful stuff for those of us still treading water and waiting to dive in.







Thanks, Pauline!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

MyraScott said:


> Inspiring and helpful stuff for those of us still treading water and waiting to dive in.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Come on in, the water's lovely. 

You do have the absolute best emoticon-thingies, Myra.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Come on in, the water's lovely.
> 
> You do have the absolute best emoticon-thingies, Myra.


Agreed. I have no idea how she does it, but have always loved them.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Yesterday was the final day of my countdown for Kallanash. There were no paid ads or promo, apart from a tweet or two, but the ENT second-day bounce brought in 27 sales and 8 borrows, a good result. Overall, the countdown brought in 188 sales and 54 borrows, and got the rank from 22K to 4K, so I'm very pleased with that. It's an improvement on this book's previous countdown, but that only had 4 days of paid ads. The actual daily sales were never outstanding (even ENT was lower than on previous promos), but sales were solid every day, which, to me anyway, is more important than huge spikes.

The Fire Mages had its second free day yesterday, with no paid ads, but the bounce from Saturday's promo brought in another 500 downloads, so 1200 altogether. I only paid $13 for promo, so I'm very happy with that. These free days are bringing in a steady trickle of mailing list signups and reviews, so that's a good result. I have two more free days booked, but I'm waiting nervously to see where it appears in the paid rankings. It was at 6K before the free days, and I'll be disappointed if it slithers too far down the listings. [ETA: It's back at around 8K, which isn't too desperate. Phew!]

Update on the tail from the launch promo: this past week sales plus borrows averaged 79 per day, but taking off the 34 per day from the countdown leaves 45 per day, a little down on last week's 50. Most of that is borrows, rather than sales (currently 4-5 times sales). Now that all three books are back to normal price ($3.99) I expect the sales and rankings to drop away quite quickly to my usual prawny levels. But it's been very pleasant to see the books fly for a while.


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## Randall Boleyn (Mar 8, 2012)

Great info, Pauline! Thanks again for your postings. Your results are envy worthy.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Randall Boleyn said:


> Great info, Pauline! Thanks again for your postings. Your results are envy worthy.


You're welcome.

Envy worthy? Yikes. I'd hate to think this makes anyone envious, because my numbers are quite modest compared with many, many folks here. The idea is only to inspire people to try it for themselves. My books aren't anything special, my promotion strategy isn't particularly clever or original, so anyone can do what I'm doing. When I published my first book last September, I knew nothing about promotion, not a thing. But I read threads like this one, and I tried a few things, and I'm paying it forward by reporting the results, that's all. The take-home message is: promotion pays.


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## Katherine Roberts (Apr 4, 2013)

Well, it makes me envious! This is really interesting, Pauline, and those sales are clearly a credit to your promotional efforts as well as the quality of your books. I suspect some publishing houses don't do as much. Thanks for posting. (Love those covers, by the way.)


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## Chinese Writer (Mar 25, 2014)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Most of that is borrows, rather than sales (currently 4-5 times sales). Now that all three books are back to normal price ($3.99) I expect the sales and rankings to drop away quite quickly to my usual prawny levels. But it's been very pleasant to see the books fly for a while.


I decided to enroll my books in KU after all. Now I'm regretting not doing it earlier during my 2.5 promo week when I launched book 2. I probably gave up a hundreds of borrows for the handful of books I sold at the other revenues during the promo period. Oh well, you live and learn.

Your numbers are impressive, and makes me excited to get book 3 out. I've seen a small jump in income from releasing the second book (yeah, two dinners a month!), but it's nice to see the correlation between a more books in your catalog with more income. Thanks for sharing.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

artan said:


> Your numbers are impressive, and makes me excited to get book 3 out. I've seen a small jump in income from releasing the second book (yeah, two dinners a month!), but it's nice to see the correlation between a more books in your catalog with more income. Thanks for sharing.


Yes, I've been pleasantly surprised at the jump with each book - much bigger than I'd expected. Book 1's non-promo level was 1-2 sales/borrows per week. With book 2 out, that jumped to 6-7 per day, with borrows outnumbering sales more than 3 to 1. It's too soon to guess the regular level with 3 books out (with promotion it's close to 50 a day, but that won't last), but borrows have jumped dramatically (no idea why). Obviously, other books, other genres, other times of year may see different results, but I'm declaring the policy of promoting each book on launch as a success (for me, anyway). I'm lucky in that all the books are stand-alones, so any one can act as a funnel for all of them.

As far as revenues go, I'm making a little more than two dinners' worth a month for the moment, but it's a sad fact that the highest sales are when the books are dirt cheap and the royalty is only 35c or 70c. :-(



Katherine Roberts said:


> (Love those covers, by the way.)


Thanks! I love them too. My cover designer did a great job, I think.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

An update 3 weeks after the end of the launch promo...

Week 0 (promo week): 52 sales/borrows per day, over all 3 books.
Week 1: 50 sales/borrows per day (but sales are down, borrows are up).
Week 2: 79 sales/borrows per day (but 34 are from the countdown, so actually 45, down a little from week 1).
Week 3: 50 sales/borrows per day.

This week was running above 50 per day for the first six days, but yesterday (Sunday) saw a dramatic drop from 53 on Saturday down to 35 sales/borrows. That's pulled the average down to 'only' 50 per day! Bear in mind that sales before the launch of book 3 were around 5 per day over the two books, and 50 units shifted in a WEEK was cause for celebration.  So (as you can imagine) I'm very, very happy with this.

Now that all three books are at full price ($3.99), the ratio of sales to borrows has shifted. Discounted books sell more than are borrowed, but full price books are borrowed way more often than sold (some days, 9 times more often). So this is not quite as profitable as it may appear. Even so, the overall promotion costs were covered within a few days of the end of the promo.

I don't have any more promo planned, so I know the numbers will steadily decline, but I'm hoping for a long, gentle glide rather than a plummet.


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## Adair Hart (Jun 12, 2015)

Excellent thread Pauline. I love these type of threads as it gives me a glimpse into what awaits me once I get something out and gives me a push to focus harder


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## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

That's a nice tail, Pauline. You never know - 50 per day could be your new normal.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Augusta Blythe said:


> That's a nice tail, Pauline. You never know - 50 per day could be your new normal.


I wish! That would be awesome, and also a miracle. No, things are starting to cool down a bit now, but that's fine. A gradual descent, a bit more promo over the summer and then book 4 in the autumn - that's the plan.



Adair Hart said:


> Excellent thread Pauline. I love these type of threads as it gives me a glimpse into what awaits me once I get something out and gives me a push to focus harder


Thanks, and I hope it goes well for you when you get your book published.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Excellent results and did you get the KDP payout changes email regarding borrows?  We'll be making more money I think come July 1


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## Julz (Oct 30, 2014)

Wowza, Pauline!! What a great promo!! Don't know how I've missed this until now, but I'm glad I finally saw it  Thanks for sharing!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Salvador Mercer said:


> Excellent results and did you get the KDP payout changes email regarding borrows? We'll be making more money I think come July 1


Yes!!! (I hope) Hooray for epic fantasy. 



Julz said:


> Wowza, Pauline!! What a great promo!! Don't know how I've missed this until now, but I'm glad I finally saw it  Thanks for sharing!


You've been too busy setting up your own promos.


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## Julz (Oct 30, 2014)

PaulineMRoss said:


> You've been too busy setting up your own promos.


But I could have learned so much from yours!!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

A further update, 4 weeks after the end of the launch promotion:

Week 0 (promo week): 52 sales/borrows per day, over all 3 books.
Week 1: 50 sales/borrows per day (but sales are down, borrows are up).
Week 2: 79 sales/borrows per day (but 34 are from the countdown, so actually 45, down a little from week 1).
Week 3: 50 sales/borrows per day.
*Week 4: 30 sales/borrows per day.*

A lurch downwards, but still very nice numbers compared with the 5 or so per day before the promo. Borrows to sales are running at about 3 to 1. The Fires Mages (book 2) accounts for around half the numbers, Bennamore (the new book) a third, Kallanash (book 1) the rest. Rankings are in the 15-30K range.

Onwards and downwards...


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## Julz (Oct 30, 2014)

Those are still fantastic numbers!! Way to go, Pauline  Are you thinking of doing another promo in the near future?


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Julz said:


> Those are still fantastic numbers!! Way to go, Pauline  Are you thinking of doing another promo in the near future?


Yes, I'm really pleased with the tail so far. I don't have anything else planned at the moment - I had promos for all 3 books going on almost simultaneously, and it made my head hurt, so I'm taking a break while things float gently (I hope) back down to normal sales levels. For July, I will wait and see what the new KU arrangement looks like. I write l-o-n-g, so I'm hoping for a nice little boost in revenue. I may do some promo in August, but September will be my one-year anniversary so I have to do something for that.


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Glad to see the tail is still moving along. Great numbers.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

CadyVance said:


> Glad to see the tail is still moving along. Great numbers.


Thanks, Cady! Got to say this - seeing all your books in a row in your sig like that - great covers, absolutely fabulous.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

very nice and thanks so much for continuing to post on the tail. In some ways that is even more important than the promo itself.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Pauline,

I think the best two numbers are 5 and 30.  As you indicated 5 per day across all titles before the promo compared to 30 a day now.  Despite dropping from 50 and 45, you're still getting 6 times the downloads as you were before.

Thanks for sharing.  Gives the rest of us some hope and I'm about a book behind you and really watching what you do closely (and shamelessly admitting to pinching your tactics for myself) so that I can follow.

Congrats again and enjoy that gentle Amazon breeze, which can also work the other way as well 

Regards,
SM


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Salvador Mercer said:


> I think the best two numbers are 5 and 30. As you indicated 5 per day across all titles before the promo compared to 30 a day now. Despite dropping from 50 and 45, you're still getting 6 times the downloads as you were before.


Exactly. And even though I expect the numbers to drop week by week, so long as I'm still above that baseline 5 a day, I'm very happy.



> Thanks for sharing. Gives the rest of us some hope and I'm about a book behind you and really watching what you do closely (and shamelessly admitting to pinching your tactics for myself) so that I can follow.


Just bear in mind that what works for one book/author/genre/series may not work as well for another. I'm firmly convinced, though, that the key is to establish 1-2 weeks (or longer!) of steady sales early on to get the algorithms wound up. Amazon likes that better than big spikes these days, I'm sure. Those with big mailing lists and lots of fans can do that effortlessly. I don't have that, so I do it with promotions. And it does seem that each additional book ratchets up the sales of all the others.

I'm glad all these numbers are still of interest. I'll keep going as long as the tail does.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Just bear in mind that what works for one book/author/genre/series may not work as well for another. I'm firmly convinced, though, that the key is to establish 1-2 weeks (or longer!) of steady sales early on to get the algorithms wound up. Amazon likes that better than big spikes these days, I'm sure. Those with big mailing lists and lots of fans can do that effortlessly. I don't have that, so I do it with promotions. And it does seem that each additional book ratchets up the sales of all the others.


I think you're correct. We write in different genres, but it's actually not a bad apples to apples comparison from your first promo to mine. Four things jump out at me:
1.You did seven days, I did five
2.You started with sales a day, while I was at 1 sale a month
3.You did promo on another book not long afterwards
4.You had ENT 

Your first promo had 90 more sales than I did, and your biggest day was about 50 more sales, the ENT day. I think that combined with the seven day promo period was the biggest difference. But I don't discount the value of the baseline you already had - Amazon likes books with steady 5 a day sales at $3.99.

My next one will be in second half of July (on a different book) and I am going to go the full seven days.

Thanks again for the info.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

edwardgtalbot said:


> My next one will be in second half of July (on a different book) and I am going to go the full seven days.


When I launched book 2, back in January, the promo lasted for 13 days. The first week wasn't too great, and I found it too long for my sanity, frankly, but I do think the number of days with non-zero sales had a big effect. I also used the pre-order/release to add several more days to the start of the promo: I didn't tell anyone about the promo until just a few days before release. That, plus the release day bump from friends and my tiny mailing list, gave me another week of modest sales before the promo started. Altogether, about 3 weeks of steady(ish) sales. The result was that that book was still selling, 4 months after launch (of the 5 sales a day before the launch of book 3, 4 were for book 2).

If you're interested in the details, the thread for that launch is here: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,206391.0.html.

Overall, I think 7-10 days is ideal.


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## Julz (Oct 30, 2014)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Yes, I'm really pleased with the tail so far. I don't have anything else planned at the moment - I had promos for all 3 books going on almost simultaneously, and it made my head hurt, so I'm taking a break while things float gently (I hope) back down to normal sales levels. For July, I will wait and see what the new KU arrangement looks like. I write l-o-n-g, so I'm hoping for a nice little boost in revenue. I may do some promo in August, but September will be my one-year anniversary so I have to do something for that.


I can only imagine! One promo made my head spin  Good luck with your next book!!


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## fantasy-writer (Dec 12, 2014)

Pauline,

Thank you for your very detailed posts on promos. You're awesome!


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## Antara Mann (Nov 24, 2014)

Ella Summers said:


> Pauline,
> 
> Thank you for your very detailed posts on promos. You're awesome!


yes, I wanted to say the same. Reading your posts, I got a glimpse at why I got only 20$ from my ENT ad - I decided to spare 10$ submitting to the fantasy genre instead to the women's fiction. I'll definitely apply again in 3 months and my suspicion will be tested.
However, I'll advise you to build your email list through reader magnets and FB ads - FB ads are more profitable now than ad promos and the main benefit - you don't have to discount your books. Of course, there is a learning curve but I've learnt much more complicated stuff like wordpress, scrivener, ebook compiling etc.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

PaulineMRoss said:


> When I launched book 2, back in January, the promo lasted for 13 days. The first week wasn't too great, and I found it too long for my sanity, frankly, but I do think the number of days with non-zero sales had a big effect. I also used the pre-order/release to add several more days to the start of the promo: I didn't tell anyone about the promo until just a few days before release. That, plus the release day bump from friends and my tiny mailing list, gave me another week of modest sales before the promo started. Altogether, about 3 weeks of steady(ish) sales. The result was that that book was still selling, 4 months after launch (of the 5 sales a day before the launch of book 3, 4 were for book 2).
> 
> If you're interested in the details, the thread for that launch is here: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,206391.0.html.
> 
> Overall, I think 7-10 days is ideal.


Thanks for all the info - I agree!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Antara Man said:


> However, I'll advise you to build your email list through reader magnets and FB ads - FB ads are more profitable now than ad promos and the main benefit - you don't have to discount your books. Of course, there is a learning curve but I've learnt much more complicated stuff like wordpress, scrivener, ebook compiling etc.


Reader magnets - I assume you mean a free book/novella/whatever in exchange for signing up? - are problematic. Yes, a lot of people sign up, but they're not necessarily committed to you, the author. They may just be there for the freebie. I'm happy to leave the mailing list to grow organically.

FB ads can be hugely profitable, if you get them just right, but it's also a quick way to lose a lot of money. It doesn't seem to be the case that you tweak until it works and then it stays working. Sometimes they work for a while and then stop working. And even when they work, the profit margin is often narrow. Like most advertising, they are broadcast to a wide range of people, only some of whom are potential customers.

Ads with the standard promotion outlets, on the other hand (BookBub, ENT, etc) are targeted very precisely. The only people who see those ads are people who have signed up specifically to receive ads of that type - discounted or free ebooks. They actually WANT to buy/download. Not necessarily today, not necessarily my book, but when they want something new to read, that's where they go to find it. So it's win/win. Not that other advertising doesn't work, but these promo sites are very focused.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Another tail update, 5 weeks after the launch promo ended:

Week 0 (promo week): 52 sales/borrows per day, over all 3 books.
Week 1: 50 sales/borrows per day (but sales are down, borrows are up).
Week 2: 79 sales/borrows per day (but 34 are from the countdown, so actually 45, down a little from week 1).
Week 3: 50 sales/borrows per day.
Week 4: 30 sales/borrows per day.
*Week 5: 24 sales/borrows per day.*

The 24 per day averages out to 18 borrows and 6 sales, spread over all three books, although the first book lags behind its younger sisters a little. Rankings are still in the 20-40K range for all 3.

The last few days have been a bit erratic, and then the new KU will hit on July 1st, so who knows what will happen then?


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

Sounds like you are still doing good. Most tails don't last this long.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Vinny OHare said:


> Sounds like you are still doing good. Most tails don't last this long.


The previous launch gave me a long tail, too. It may be a genre thing. Whatever it is, I'm very happy with it.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Thanks for sharing and long live the long tail... dragon tail that is...


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## KReadnour (Jul 8, 2014)

I haven't been on the boards as much and have been missing your updates. So happy to see that the tail is still going on! That's encouraging! As always, thanks for sharing!


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## Antara Mann (Nov 24, 2014)

KReadnour said:


> I haven't been on the boards as much and have been missing your updates. So happy to see that the tail is still going on! That's encouraging! As always, thanks for sharing!


Me too!
Pauline - I understand your thoughts about Readers Magnets and yet I disagree with them. The problem with email lists is that there's the question ina reader "What's in it for me". Sure, some authors receive sign ups without them but my email list took off after I included 3 readers magnets. And those people actually buy from me. Not like crazy but they are interested in my stuff. Plus I finally have an Advanced Readers Team. Which is awesome  Open rates - 89%!


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## Marseille France or Bust (Sep 25, 2012)

Have you ever tried BookDaily? I have a few books listed there, but the site doesn't come up in mentions on this forum. They have a way to advertise. Anyone?

Thanks for your thread as well. PS Bookreadermagazine.com is no longer free.  They charge $20.  Since I've heard of them, I passed.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

PatriceWilliamsMarks said:


> Have you ever tried BookDaily? I have a few books listed there, but the site doesn't come up in mentions on this forum. They have a way to advertise. Anyone?


Thanks - always looking for new promotion sites!



> PS Bookreadermagazine.com is no longer free. They charge $20.


Thanks. Perhaps I should have made it clearer - Vinny very kindly promoted my book at Bookreadermagazine for free.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

It's a full month now since the end of all the promos, and the tail is still chugging along:

Week 0 (promo week): 52 sales/borrows per day, over all 3 books.
Week 1: 50 sales/borrows per day (but sales are down, borrows are up).
Week 2: 79 sales/borrows per day (but 34 are from the countdown, so actually 45, down a little from week 1).
Week 3: 50 sales/borrows per day.
Week 4: 30 sales/borrows per day.
Week 5: 24 sales/borrows per day.
*Week 6: 19 sales/borrows per day; 7 sales per day after borrows stopped on July 1st.*

Borrows were running at 2-3 times the number of sales over the last 4 weeks, so I'd expect that to continue, although invisibly, now that KU2.0 is up and running. I'd love to be able to guess the equivalent number of borrows for the pages read count, but I can't see a sensible way of doing it. So far, my pages read have averaged 6K+ per day, but fluctuating wildly, and I expect it to take a couple of weeks to settle into a pattern.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Yeah, mine are fluctuating too, but so did my borrows.  I think we need more time to get a better idea of an average per day.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Yes, the trouble with the pages read is that the numbers sometimes come through in splurges - several hundred at a time, when someone connects their Kindle to the wifi and everything comes through at once. Other times, the numbers go up by a few pages here, a few there, and I almost feel as if I'm looking over the reader's shoulder.  It'll be a while before we get used to it.


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## Antara Mann (Nov 24, 2014)

Betty Book Freak is also not free any longer and Robin Reads is 15$. Is Bookstatic worth the money or it was Booktastic? Those two advertisers sound alike to me.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Update on the tail 7 weeks after the original promo ended:

Week 0 (promo week): 52 sales/borrows per day, over all 3 books.
Week 1: 50 sales/borrows per day (but sales are down, borrows are up).
Week 2: 79 sales/borrows per day (but 34 are from the countdown, so actually 45, down a little from week 1).
Week 3: 50 sales/borrows per day.
Week 4: 30 sales/borrows per day.
Week 5: 24 sales/borrows per day.
Week 6: 19 sales/borrows per day; 7 sales per day after borrows stopped on July 1st.
*Week 7: 5 sales/day, plus an unknown number of borrows*

Sales are dropping a little, but borrows/pages read seem fairly steady at around 6K per day. My books are very long, so that's equivalent to 7 borrows read to 100%, or (more realistically) 10-12 read to the 60% point. Typically I used to get twice as many borrows as sales, so the 10-12 number fits with that.

I expect numbers to continue to slide over the rest of this month, since I have no promos (trying to get a baseline for the new KU). I have a countdown for book 3 (the book launched at the start of this thread) in August, so that may boost things a bit.

However, there is a confounding factor: I have a pre-order up for book 4, due out late in September. Normally, I put the pre-order up a few weeks before release, telling no one until a few days before, to get a bump in rankings just before it goes live. That's worked quite well for me, since I don't have a big mailing list or hordes of avid fans waiting for each book to drop.

This time, I set up the pre-order 3 months ahead of time (I'm getting confident of meeting the deadline now!). I still didn't tell anyone, just put the link in the backmatter for the live books. But Amazon helpfully sent out emails to everyone who'd followed my author page, and that gave me a small bump in pre-orders. Then I felt obliged to tell my small (but perfectly formed) mailing list. Another bump.

And now the thing is ranking higher than at least one of the live books, has also-boughts already, and is #13 and #14 on a couple of sub-cat HNRs! Which is slightly astonishing to me. And I don't know for sure, but I suspect that it's actually driving readers towards the 3 books that are already out. So sales numbers may stay the same or even go up a little, instead of relentlessly spiraling downwards.

But who knows? This is all experimental. I just wanted to mention it for the benefit of anyone who thought (as I did) that far ahead pre-orders are only beneficial for big sellers. Sometimes they can be helpful even for us prawns.


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## sinapse (Apr 28, 2015)

Hard to think of you as a prawn after six months of watching you grow so fast, Pauline! Your dedication to your writing, to begin with, your research and planning effort, your promotional and audience aggregation management skills, your sheer persistance, and here within the KBoards community, your dedication to informing those of us who can learn from your planning and results all mark you as a professional. I've been a marketing and planning seminar leader in my past, and I would be proud to have you share a platform if I was still in that game.

And now, you're shedding some actual light (as opposed to the vast clouds of smoke seen here over the past month) on the central analytical issue many here face: how does a specific author put an "equivalent borrows" number on the KENP pages read? And does she or he really need that metric, going forward?

A few others have begun to post numbers, too, but your presentation in your most recent comments is thoughtful, clear, and well-organized. I predict, after a few months, your posts on this will be extremely useful to those of us who have a business interest in being fully or partially in KSelect.

Yes, thanks for sharing! But first, thanks for *thinking*. And then, for your work ethic, which for me pretty much defines that term.

Meantime, don't fret the statistical muddying due to the pre-order influence. You're right to call it to our attention, and I for one owe you a special thank you, since we'd ruled out preorders as part of our multi-series launch plan. Now you've given me pause. *Thank you!*


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

sinapse said:


> And now, you're shedding some actual light (as opposed to the vast clouds of smoke seen here over the past month) on the central analytical issue many here face: how does a specific author put an "equivalent borrows" number on the KENP pages read? And does she or he really need that metric, going forward?


Thank you for all your nice compliments. Although I've never been told I have_ 'audience aggregation management skills'_ before.  I'm just paying it forward, having learned so much from other people's posts here.

Agree that the 'equivalent borrows' thing is going to be a big issue. And no, we don't really need that metric. We can learn perfectly well to measure using only KENP pages read. I'm already beginning to think in terms of thousands-of-pages, and do rule-of-thumb calculations based on that. I'm sure we all are.

However, for a full year we've had a different metric - numbers of borrows - and many of us, me included, learned to lump them in with sales, and keep track of them in whatever software/spreadsheets/scraps of paper we used to record sales numbers. It's very, very frustrating not to be able to make direct comparisons between this month and previous months. But then, I'm big on numbers. Other people just look at BookReport and say: hey, I've made $(whatever) this month, I'm doing OK.

We'll get used to this, and once we have 2-3 month's data, we'll have a baseline to work from and it won't be quite so much like floundering in the dark. I really like KU2, and not just because I'm earning a bit more from it. I like seeing that people are actually reading the books. That's really cool.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

I want whatever Sinapse is smoking  

Also great posts/updates Pauline, wonderful to see you do so well.  I usually just figure 1k pages = $5 for now.  I can't compare borrows with pages yet, but I can say that in half a month it is looking like my revenue from borrows will be somewhere around 75%-100% more than the old borrow rate.  Perhaps my borrows would have gone up naturally, hard to tell and that is the main issue, not enough data for folks like you and I to crunch some numbers.

Give it some time...  

Congrats so far!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Thanks, Salvador! 

And it's lovely to see Ranger Rising still flying in the bestseller lists!


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## sinapse (Apr 28, 2015)

PaulineMRoss said:


> ... Although I've never been told I have_ 'audience aggregation management skills'_ before.


The first rule of the management seminars racket is that he/she who defines the buzzwords gets to charge the highest attendance fees


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

sinapse said:


> The first rule of the management seminars racket is that he/she who defines the buzzwords gets to charge the highest attendance fees


LOL!


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

PaulineMRoss said:


> We'll get used to this, and once we have 2-3 month's data, we'll have a baseline to work from and it won't be quite so much like floundering in the dark. I really like KU2, and not just because I'm earning a bit more from it. I like seeing that people are actually reading the books. That's really cool.


I will be the first to admit that this is nothing rational and purely visceral, but my favorite thing about the KENP reports is imagining readers reading those pages.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

edwardgtalbot said:


> I will be the first to admit that this is nothing rational and purely visceral, but my favorite thing about the KENP reports is imagining readers reading those pages.


I noticed yesterday that I'd had some pages read in Germany (yes, my numbers are low enough that that's unusual!). It was a couple of hundred one day, four hundred the next, and so on, spread over six days. And when I added up the pages, it came to 1217, exactly the length of my longest book. Some unknown reader in Germany spent six days working steadily through that book. It gave me a real buzz, I can tell you.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Things are finally starting to 'tail' off...

Week 0 (promo week): 52 sales/borrows per day, over all 3 books.
Week 1: 50 sales/borrows per day (but sales are down, borrows are up).
Week 2: 79 sales/borrows per day (but 34 are from the countdown, so actually 45, down a little from week 1).
Week 3: 50 sales/borrows per day.
Week 4: 30 sales/borrows per day.
Week 5: 24 sales/borrows per day.
Week 6: 19 sales/borrows per day; 7 sales per day after borrows stopped on July 1st.
Week 7: 5 sales/day, plus unknown number of borrows (used to be twice sales or more but who can say?)
*Week 8: 4 sales/day, plus steady pages read*

Pages read are still averaging 6K per day, but sales dropped abruptly on Prime Wednesday and haven't picked up again. Ranking is also descending fairly rapidly... Looks like this one is over, folks. I'll update again if anything unusual happens, but for now I'm declaring this a wrap.


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## R. M. Webb (Jul 24, 2014)

I just stumbled on this thread. What wonderful, detailed information! Thank you and congratulations on a well constructed promotion.


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## edwardgtalbot (Apr 28, 2010)

thanks for all the updates Pauline!


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Yeah but what a ride eh?  

Thanks for sharing, it's good to see information on marketing including the tail, gives us some ideas for what we can expect/shoot for.

Good luck on your next promo and release.

Btw, I received an email from Amazon telling me about your new release the other day since I either follow you or bought one of your books before.  Nothing like some Zon loving


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## sinapse (Apr 28, 2015)

Kudos, Pauline, for a terrific example of patient tracking and analysis. Looking forward to your September release!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Salvador Mercer said:


> Yeah but what a ride eh?


Yeah, it's been fun!



> Btw, I received an email from Amazon telling me about your new release the other day since I either follow you or bought one of your books before. Nothing like some Zon loving


Oh, very cool. I wonder if that's why I've had a spate of pre-orders on it?


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## Susanne123 (Jan 9, 2014)

It's been a fascinating thread. Many many thanks!


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Pauline,

Here you go. I think I clicked "Follow" under your Amazon author page or bought The Plains of Kallanash or both. Any who, I received this email from Amazon on July 16th.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Thanks, everyone. And thanks for posting the email, Salvador. I wonder how many people got that? I don't suppose there's any way to see how many people follow you.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Thanks, everyone. And thanks for posting the email, Salvador. I wonder how many people got that? I don't suppose there's any way to see how many people follow you.


I have no idea. I just checked and it says I'm following so at least I know who I'm following. I don't think Amazon is sharing that data unless they are and we don't know where to find it.


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