# And So It Begins: Xbriannova's Self-Pub Thread



## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Just a few days ago, _The Keeper of Pulau Purba_ had been published (Book cover and link in signature below). Although it had a rough start with formatting issues, it did eventually settle in. Now, it takes its place amongst the millions of books in the Amazon.

This thread is going to document what comes next, whether I succeed or fail. It's going to serve as a quick log, and I hope you guys will learn a thing or two from my success or failure (or both!). Now, let's move on to the details...

The Grand Plan

With the book out and formatted to an acceptable standard, I have shifted my eyes to the matter of marketing. The original plan 2 and a half months ago had been to arrive in time for Halloween. Due to things going behind and ahead of schedule, balancing out in the end, I was able to stay the course. Thus, I have planned the following:

Free promotion from 26 October to 30 October, leading up to 31 October, Halloween, in which I hope a great deal of sales could be had.

The following services has been engaged:
Bknight: $11
eBookSoda: Potentially $15-$27
My Book Cave: Free!
Book Pebble: Free!
Booktastik: $8 - $10 Depending on Category
Bookraid: Up to $10 Depending on Traffic

EDIT: More!

Robin Reads: $30 if accepted
eBook Betty: $18 if accepted
FreeBooksy: $40

EDIT2: One More!

Amazon Sponsored Products: $70

I dearly hope all services will take up my offer. In any case, the bills could run up to anywhere between $11 to $58.

More services will be engaged tomorrow or the day after, my personal energy levels/mood and time permitting.

EDIT: The following is a list of promotional services that have accepted my book. It is heartening to know that my book fits their standards.

Schedule of promotion

Tuesday (25/10/2016): Kboard

Wednesday (26/10/2016): BKnights, eBookSoda

Thursday (27/10/2016): Book Raid, Book Pebble, Goodreads

Friday (28/10/2016):

Saturday (29/10/2016): eBook Betty, Freebooksy

Rejections: My Book Cave, Robin Reads, Amazon Sponsored Products

Speaking of costs, the expenditure on this project has so far been this:

Book Cover: US$100
Image: $10
Promotion: US$106
Total: US$216

Projected Copies to be Sold at Full Price to Break Even: 77.33

I will report on the number of downloads, KENP reads, sales and ranking as the days go by.

As of 25/10/2016, The Keeper of Pulau Purba is ranked at:

#678,495 Paid in Kindle Store

#4118 in the War Genre for e-books

#7918 in the War Genre for books (What?)

#13586 in the Horror Genre for e-books

I assume this is Amazon's way of saying that I'm at the bottom of the pile... I expected the numbers to be higher, considering that I sold nothing. It's odd.

Hmm... As of 26/10/2016, the ranking of my book is...

#29 in the War/Military Category ( )

#432 in the Horror Category (Neat, just a few more downloads...)

27/10/2016 Ranking:

I've shot up to take #2 in the War/Military category
And... #52 in the Horror category

Looks to me that I'm getting the job done. And those folks too at the promotional sites, of course.

Final 27/10/2016 Ranking:

I've shot up to take #3 in the War/Military category
And... #49 in the Horror category

Not too shabby. Dropped to the bronze medal in the military section, but I've risen to #49 in my main category, horror. Hope I can climb further when the others give up. I have hope, because I'm not even halfway through my free promotion campaign yet.

---

Command/Control Centre for Christmas 2016 promotions: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,242947.msg3416744.html#msg3416744

Command/Control Centre for Early June 2017(Phase 1) promotions: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,242947.msg3496466.html#msg3496466


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## LucasCWheeler (Feb 19, 2015)

Congrats on pushing the button!  I'll be peeking in from time to time. Wish you much success.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

LucasCWheeler said:


> Congrats on pushing the button!  I'll be peeking in from time to time. Wish you much success.


Oh hey! I noticed you hanging around quite often! It's good to see familiar faces. I hope all faces here becomes familiar to me one day. Nothing like being surrounded by friendly faces... Those faces... All bloody and disfigured... No nose, half an eye... The ears, oh God the ears... *Ahem* Nevermind 

Thanks for visiting! Thanks for your support. If you have any book promotion services you'd like to recommend, I'd love to know. Any secrets, I'd love to know too. If you have secrets, I'm standing behind you, right now. Don't look behind you. 

Haha, I'm in such a good mood! Sorry if I went overboard with the horror theme. I just can't believe I'm here, and in time for the right festivities too!


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Woke up with good news today. 2 services have answered my call to arms. They will take up the worthy cause of putting my book in front of people who wants to be deprived of sleep.  

The first post has been updated with the following info:

The following is a list of promotional services that have accepted my book. It is heartening to know that my book fits their standards.

Schedule of promotion

Wednesday (26/10/2016): BKnights

Thursday (27/10/2016): Book Raid

Friday (28/10/2016):

Saturday (29/10/2016):

Sunday (30/10/2016):

My take-away from this? Those two guys are the go-to for promotions if you have an emergency or something. You should never put yourself in that kind of situation, but you never know. I mean, a 1-day TAT is impressive! The standard TAT in businesses from where I come from is 3 days, not sure how it is in other geographical locations.


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## LucasCWheeler (Feb 19, 2015)

xbriannova said:


> Oh hey! I noticed you hanging around quite often! It's good to see familiar faces. I hope all faces here becomes familiar to me one day. Nothing like being surrounded by friendly faces... Those faces... All bloody and disfigured... No nose, half an eye... The ears, oh God the ears... *Ahem* Nevermind
> 
> Thanks for visiting! Thanks for your support. If you have any book promotion services you'd like to recommend, I'd love to know. Any secrets, I'd love to know too. If you have secrets, I'm standing behind you, right now. Don't look behind you.
> 
> Haha, I'm in such a good mood! Sorry if I went overboard with the horror theme. I just can't believe I'm here, and in time for the right festivities too!


Well, I'm glad to see that I'm becoming a familiar face. x) And your genre is... obvious. 

No need to apologize for a good mood! Soak it up! Unfortunately, I can't recommend any book promotion sites because I've never used any, because I'm not published yet. (But I'm working on it!) I've been slowly piecing that side of the puzzle together myself, and I think the strongest thing might be arranging a book blog tour. But then again, I'm just the newbiest of newbies, so take that with a grain of salt.

Good luck on getting the rest of your promotion in place.  Is this going to be a series? I don't recall from your cover thread.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

LucasCWheeler said:


> Well, I'm glad to see that I'm becoming a familiar face.


The more the better, until we suffocate from all those faces pressing against us!



LucasCWheeler said:


> x) And your genre is... obvious.


Enjoy it while it lasts. I'm going to get old and git more books out, and then it won't be so obvious anymore 



LucasCWheeler said:


> No need to apologize for a good mood! Soak it up!


Sure! Woo hoo! 



LucasCWheeler said:


> Unfortunately, I can't recommend any book promotion sites because I've never used any, because I'm not published yet. (But I'm working on it!)


Then I guess it should be the other way around with my thread, huh? Well, you've seen who has the fastest finger. I plan to engage maybe another 3-6 more sites today. You'll see who they are today.



LucasCWheeler said:


> I've been slowly piecing that side of the puzzle together myself, and I think the strongest thing might be arranging a book blog tour. But then again, I'm just the newbiest of newbies, so take that with a grain of salt.


You're right about a book blog tour... Just that it's too late for me by the time. A book blog tour takes a longer time to arrange. You need to contact the blogger, he needs to agree (usually after maybe a week), and he needs to write the review or promotional article. Only the fastest and least busy blogger can do that in the 1.5 weeks I have left. I might give it a go though, but I don't really see a review popping up this month.



LucasCWheeler said:


> Good luck on getting the rest of your promotion in place.  Is this going to be a series? I don't recall from your cover thread.


It's going to be a series, but written organically, the way series are written in the Before-Time, in the ages before the Great Amazon arose and took the world for its own. Basically, I plan to work on something else after The Keeper of Pulau Purba. I have a short story collection in mind, which will have flash fiction and poetry in between short stories to act as 'palate cleansers'. I will release it one short story at a time, until I'm done, in which case I'll release the short story in one bundle, as a collection.

It's only after that, that I will work on a series of Interquel novellas, maybe released the same way as the short story collection - One by one until they pool into a collection. I'm thinking 3-4 novellas. Then - THEN, I will work on the sequel. Could be the other way around though, you never know with the future.

My method isn't the recommended route. Everyone says to have a series first before you move on, but I just want to write what I want  The Old Ones of the Dark Age of Traditional Publishing gets to deliberate and bide their time before they rain their wisdom down on the Earth, why can't I?


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

I've added 3 more book promotion services to the list:

Robin Reads: $30 if accepted
eBook Betty: $18 if accepted
Bargain Booksy: $25

Boy are they expensive! And these guys are the cheaper and less stringent ones...

EDIT: And it looks like a few more services have raised their swords on my warcry!

The new schedule of promotion:

Wednesday (26/10/2016): BKnights, eBookSoda

Thursday (27/10/2016): Book Raid, Book Pebble

Friday (28/10/2016):

Saturday (29/10/2016):

Sunday (30/10/2016):

Darn, if all of them ends up on Wednesday and Thursday, I hope there are reader-stragglers for Friday to Sunday... Would be a waste if no one downloads on those days.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Looks like my book is enticing even the more expensive promoters. Here's an update:

The new schedule of promotion:

Wednesday (26/10/2016): BKnights, eBookSoda

Thursday (27/10/2016): Book Raid, Book Pebble

Friday (28/10/2016):

Saturday (29/10/2016): eBook Betty, Freebooksy

Sunday (30/10/2016):

I'd have to pay $15 more for Freebooksy though - I signed up for Bargain Booksy, and it doesn't allow Free books. Nah well, I guess I will have to discontinue searching for paid promoters from now on.


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## Abderian (Apr 5, 2012)

I love your cover. Good luck!


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Abderian said:


> I love your cover. Good luck!


Thanks  It's not the best, but I take what I can heh.

Right now, all I'm worried about are those horror stories in which your free promotion doesn't kick in immediately at 8:00am 

I'm very afraid I might overturn furniture if that happens to me. And I'll be in my office, so...


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

Good luck, and thanks for posting and sharing. I'm very curious how this will go for you. I've got a free promo set up in Nov. The Amazon craziness seems to have killed my momentum after I did a small countdown last week. No tail, no read throughs, and oddly sunk my rankings and sales. It's almost like Amazon doesn't like me using outside promo services now that I've been doing sponsored products ads. I'm now worrying my free promo stack will backfire.

Anyway, best of luck.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

AlexaKang said:


> Good luck, and thanks for posting and sharing. I'm very curious how this will go for you. I've got a free promo set up in Nov. The Amazon craziness seems to have killed my momentum after I did a small countdown last week. No tail, no read throughs, and oddly sunk my rankings and sales. It's almost like Amazon doesn't like me using outside promo services now that I've been doing sponsored products ads. I'm now worrying my free promo stack will backfire.
> 
> Anyway, best of luck.


Thank you for your support.

From the looks of things, Amazon doesn't seem to like anyone but itself. Screw the other E-book platforms, screw reviews that isn't from its own customers and screw indies... Okay, maybe not that bad, but you know what I mean.

I project that the results of my free e-book promotional campaign will be slightly underwhelming. I have no fan base. Singapore, my home base, is outside Amazon territory and therefore the purchasing reach of everyone I know, and the social media infrastructure I built isn't patronised by any regulars. I've signed up for many promotional services, sure, but how would a debut novel from an unknown writer (I say writer, not author, because I haven't sold a single copy of my work yet) who lives in Singapore, which is a backwater state on the artistic frontier, compare to the rest? Only time will tell.

The only thing going for me, I feel, is the timing. That has gone right for me. In time for Halloween and all that. Otherwise, I do feel that my cover's above average, so some of the more visual people might be attracted to it. Otherwise, I don't know. I might make a loss on this one, and it might only be recoverable in the future when my bibliography grows.

Considering that I lost something like S$2,910 to the stock market in the middle of this year (Not counting the handsome and tidy S$2,000 profit I made before), to lose my S$300 investment in this little project feels like nothing... Another bit of good news is that unlike investing in the stock market, I'm fully educated, trained and prepared to do all this writing and publishing business. Inexperienced, sure, but it's what I've been working towards since, hell, 12 to 14 years ago? 'Sides, I've put in time tutoring a kid, and the money I earned there is directly going in here. I'm even making a net profit if I count both my writing and tutoring together on my ledger as 'secondary income'.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

Why would your being in Singapore make any difference. There are authors selling from all over the world. Don't worry about that. Readers only care about the book.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

AlexaKang said:


> Why would your being in Singapore make any difference. There are authors selling from all over the world. Don't worry about that. Readers only care about the book.


I guess you're right on most of it, in that readers care about quality and nothing else, I guess That's the most important thing. But there's one thing I can't escape: My support base here has no access to my book, at least generally. They'd have to use a VPN or something to get an e-book and even then, they can't get a kindle reader as easily - Only specialised distributors exist for that, and only few people know about them.

I'll still be in trouble even after getting a physical print book from CreateSpace. The supply line will be overextended from the US to Singapore, and the cost higher because of currency and possibly shipping. It might not be possible to sell it in Singapore because I might have to mark up the book so high just to turn out a meaningful profit.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Well, more news. I've decided to start the promotion on Tuesday instead, for safety's sake. Don't want to lose the traffic from BKnights and eBookSoda because Amazon woke up late. Also, two services have rejected me so far.

My Book Cave hasn't specifically sent me a message yet, but I know I'm done with them because I found out that they're looking for books that come with reviews and ratings. I don't agree with their exclusivity but oh well, what can I do?

Robin Reads sent me a rejection message, but I have no idea why I was rejected. I think maybe horror doesn't appeal to their customers?

Schedule of promotion

Tuesday (25/10/2016): Amazon Sponsored Products

Wednesday (26/10/2016): BKnights, eBookSoda, Amazon Sponsored Products

Thursday (27/10/2016): Book Raid, Book Pebble, Amazon Sponsored Products

Friday (28/10/2016): Amazon Sponsored Products

Saturday (29/10/2016): eBook Betty, Freebooksy, Amazon Sponsored Products

Rejections: My Book Cave, Robin Reads

EDIT: One thing I'm worried about, though, is that I've already informed some of the services that my promotion begins on Wednesday and ends on Sunday. Furthermore, arranging the schedule this way gives rise to another concern that stragglers hoping to get the book free on Sunday won't get it.

I can't move Friday's empty slot back to Sunday, or the same thing might happen to the stragglers from Book Raid and Book Pebble. I can't very well move the empty slot from Tuesday back to Sunday or BKnights and eBookSoda might suffer if Amazon is too slow on the draw.

Sometimes I wish Amazon would give us more freedom to promote and change our prices. They remind me of my current company, which is very rigid, stupidly so.

EDIT 2: I've decided to take up Amazon's offer for marketing. 7 days from 25/10/2016 to 31/10/2016 ought to do it. That's $70, whew! But if even half of them results in sales, that'd turn a profit.

One thing I'm worried about though is that I might be going about this the wrong way. I think it'd be wiser if I save it for when my book is taken off the free promotion. In any case, I can always amend the campaign after review (I hope) or pause it until the 30th.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

So It Begins (Again). Sometime today, the 5-days free promotion will kick in, and for the first time, there's going to be downloads and (hopefully) Kindle Unlimited reads and sales. I'm also hoping to learn a few things about the system.

The first day will be a free day without promotional services advertising. I expect nothing to happen, but you never know.

On the days where there's advertisement, I'm hoping for a huge volume of sales and downloads, cause it's Halloween. But anything can happen.

There is a day somewhere in between promotions where there's otherwise no promotion running. This should tell me about how many and if there would be stragglers from a previous promotion. I'm expecting a trickle-down effect.

I hope that with this, there's going to be activity for the rest of Halloween, on Halloween day itself and after. I'll probably be doing promotions once in a while, but probably nothing to this scale since. Probably a blog tour or something.


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## P.T. Phronk (Jun 6, 2014)

Congrats on the book release! I'm just commenting to wish you the best of luck, and so that I remember to come back and see how it goes. I know that going from nothing to something, especially with a (currently) standalone horror book, is not easy! Hopefully the ads work out. YOU CAN DO IT.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Phronk said:


> Congrats on the book release! I'm just commenting to wish you the best of luck, and so that I remember to come back and see how it goes. I know that going from nothing to something, especially with a (currently) standalone horror book, is not easy! Hopefully the ads work out. YOU CAN DO IT.


It sure isn't. When I look at the pricing for promoting the different genres of books, when I look at the comparisons of the different genre markets, I kinda feel a little discouraged. 

But I'd have to plow on. It's all or nothing. I don't want to work an office job forever. As it is right now, my office job is slowly destroying my mental and physical health. And I don't know what I'll do for a living (and enjoy the job at the same time) if writing doesn't work out. It's like writing is the only thing I can do, even if I'm not writing as well as I hope I can for now.


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## NoBlackHats (Oct 17, 2012)

Wishing you all good fortune as your book gets its grand launch! 💐


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

NoBlackHats said:


> Wishing you all good fortune as your book gets its grand launch! &#128144;


Thanks!  *Straps seatbelt on*

EDIT: Oh, and some news from a day or so ago. Amazon doesn't allow even a skull on their promotional channels. Near Halloween. NEAR HALLOWEEN.  So I guess I won't be on Amazon Sponsored Products

To say that I am not angry or disappointed would be a lie.  But oh well. Can't have everything.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

As of 25/10/2016, The Keeper of Pulau Purba is ranked at:

#678,495 Paid in Kindle Store (Weren't there millions of e-books?)

#4118 in the War Genre for e-books

#7918 in the War Genre for books (What?)

#13586 in the Horror Genre for e-books

I assume this is Amazon's way of saying that I'm at the bottom of the pile... I expected the numbers to be higher though, considering that I sold nothing. It's odd.

EDIT: Spotted a grammar error in the prologue. Must... Edit... Before... Too... Late!


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## LucasCWheeler (Feb 19, 2015)

You've sold one. Keep your chin up!


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## P.T. Phronk (Jun 6, 2014)

xbriannova said:


> Thanks!  *Straps seatbelt on*
> 
> EDIT: Oh, and some news from a day or so ago. Amazon doesn't allow even a skull on their promotional channels. Near Halloween. NEAR HALLOWEEN.  So I guess I won't be on Amazon Sponsored Products
> 
> To say that I am not angry or disappointed would be a lie.  But oh well. Can't have everything.


A tip from my experience: unless there is an explicit rule saying "no skulls" (which would be really weird), you may be able to try again and get it approved.

My cover for Stars and Other Monsters was initially rejected for containing blood. Can't see it in the thumbnail below? That's because you have to zoom in reaaaally far to spot the tiny splotch of red. I guess one eagle-eyed Amazon reviewer saw it anyway. But the next one didn't.

And now I'm rolling in the glory of one sale from Amazon ads. Persistence really does pay off.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

LucasCWheeler said:


> You've sold one. Keep your chin up!


Well, thanks! No worries, it'd be hard to discourage me even the slightest from writing. After two decades of battle with both demons of the inside and outside, it would be unbecoming for me to succumb now.

Anyway, the prologue error crisis has been resolved... But there is never such a thing as the perfect book, so I'll always keep my vigilance up.

It seems that posting on Kboard has yielded some fruit.

25/10/2016 Report
Downloads: 17
KENP: 68

That's a few pennies in the jar, I think. There's nothing in my earnings, so I assume KENP during free book promotion doesn't count?

Also, The Keeper of Pulau Purba's ranking is VERY different in the Free territory. It's rated:

#40 in the War/Army e-books category

#552 in the Horror e-books category

Huh. Seems more like the fact that the categories I work in are ghost towns than me climbing the charts. Numbers doesn't quite add up. If all it takes are just 16 downloads and 68 pages read, I should be far lower on the chart. Instead, I think my genres are dying genres or something. It smells like both good news and bad news to me.

EDIT: Okay, now that's strange. No. of downloads for 25/10/2016 jumped from 16 to 17, even when there's 3 downloads today. Weird.


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

Robin Reads won't accept new releases with no reviews. Every single title matching that criteria that I've submitted has been rejected, even boxed sets with individual titles featuring reviews. Don't feel bad.

They work fine for horror (they have a horror/dystopia list); just resubmit when you have a few reviews.

Other stuff:

> Amazon doesn't include KENP earnings on their little ledger below the sales/page reads graphs. Those dollar/other currency amounts only factor in sales. So you'll either have to calculate manually or use something like Book Report (bookreport.com - highly recommended and free until you earn over $1,000/mo) to give you an accurate estimate.

> Singapore/wherever doesn't matter. You'll notice people from all over the world on these boards earning a living (or whatever your goal is) writing books. Obviously it's nice when your friends/family can easily support your work and give you a boost, but the vast majority of successful people here (99%+) didn't have enough of a pre-existing fanbase/network to sell enough books to move the Amazon algorithm needle. I wouldn't worry about it or consider it a disadvantage; just build your mailing list and fan base one person and book at a time. 

> Horror is a smaller genre than some of the heavy hitters, but I wouldn't worry about it dying. The fact that you sprung up so many ranks has much more to do with the fact that:
A) there are far less free books (maybe 100,000?; I've only seen the #s go up to about 30,000) than paid on Amazon, ergo you're ranked higher by default 
and B) lots of them have little promotion or activity going on, and thus are buried in terms of visibility, making them easy to leapfrog

Anyway, congrats on the novel release, and best of luck. 

Nick


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

xbriannova said:


> As of 25/10/2016, The Keeper of Pulau Purba is ranked at:
> 
> #678,495 Paid in Kindle Store (Weren't there millions of e-books?)
> 
> ...


Amazon has different products section for books and ebooks. I suppose paperback books all go to "Books", but ebooks might show up there too. It's a good thing because it enables a third categorization on the book's page (for me it comes from Createspace.)


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Phronk said:


> A tip from my experience: unless there is an explicit rule saying "no skulls" (which would be really weird), you may be able to try again and get it approved.


I was told in their email that they don't allow skulls, so it's basically a nail in the coffin with my book. And probably the main books of the series, because I might use the same motif over and over if I don't source for a more appropriate cover for the first book if that happens. I'm gonna keep trying, however, to see what happens. It'll probably happen in the future when I start a promotion with my book on discount rather than free.



Phronk said:


> My cover for Stars and Other Monsters was initially rejected for containing blood. Can't see it in the thumbnail below? That's because you have to zoom in reaaaally far to spot the tiny splotch of red. I guess one eagle-eyed Amazon reviewer saw it anyway. But the next one didn't.
> 
> And now I'm rolling in the glory of one sale from Amazon ads. Persistence really does pay off.


I'm glad it works for you. I've heard some reports that Amazon ads don't work. You and a few others are proof that those ads are a hit-or-miss thing, just like every other service. I'm definitely going to try, if not with my debut book, then with something else.

My skull is going to be impossible to hide though. Alas, poor Purba...


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Nicholas Erik said:


> Robin Reads won't accept new releases with no reviews. Every single title matching that criteria that I've submitted has been rejected, even boxed sets with individual titles featuring reviews. Don't feel bad.


I must have missed that part of the requirement somewhere. I could have sworn they accept new authors too... I guess it happens when you're going through so many promotion sites.



Nicholas Erik said:


> They work fine for horror (they have a horror/dystopia list); just resubmit when you have a few reviews.


I can't wait to meet the requirements of the more demanding promotion sites! Imagine the greater opportunities they present!



Nicholas Erik said:


> Amazon doesn't include KENP earnings on their little ledger below the sales/page reads graphs. Those dollar/other currency amounts only factor in sales. So you'll either have to calculate manually or use something like Book Report (bookreport.com - highly recommended and free until you earn over $1,000/mo) to give you an accurate estimate.


I tried your link, but it doesn't work. According to the message in the middle of my browser, they're renovating? Anyway, I hope Amazon could improve on this part of the service, even if it's just adding a projected earnings rate.



Nicholas Erik said:


> Singapore/wherever doesn't matter. You'll notice people from all over the world on these boards earning a living (or whatever your goal is) writing books. Obviously it's nice when your friends/family can easily support your work and give you a boost, but the vast majority of successful people here (99%+) didn't have enough of a pre-existing fanbase/network to sell enough books to move the Amazon algorithm needle. I wouldn't worry about it or consider it a disadvantage; just build your mailing list and fan base one person and book at a time.


That's encouraging to know. Here's to equal opportunity!

For the sake of understanding the craft though, I can only think of one inherent disadvantage I have left that people of many countries don't: My nation's cultures and inclinations. The people and the government are obsessive in the censorship department, regularly persecuting bloggers and writers. Singapore is notorious for having the most emotionless people in the world. The people, even the readers, can be close-minded. To be raised by such a society, and to be surrounded by them could have consequences on my creativity, writing ability and self-expression.

It's all I can do to not let it drag me down. I'm learning everyday, but I can't help but to wonder just as much what I would have accomplished had I not been born in the wrong country. As a basis for comparison, my extended family is full of artists... Who all pretty much failed to pursue their dream. I don't feel like adding myself to that list.



Nicholas Erik said:


> > Horror is a smaller genre than some of the heavy hitters, but I wouldn't worry about it dying. The fact that you sprung up so many ranks has much more to do with the fact that:


Small market eh? Well... I guess I should aim to top it then, which should be easier. I'm also planning books of different genre, many of which would probably remain horror, but with the other foot in, say, fantasy or sci-fi, or something. Already, my first novel is actually a Military-Horror, if you wanna be detailed. Closest category I can put it in is War/Army.



Nicholas Erik said:


> A) there are far less free books (maybe 100,000?; I've only seen the #s go up to about 30,000) than paid on Amazon, ergo you're ranked higher by default and B) lots of them have little promotion or activity going on, and thus are buried in terms of visibility, making them easy to leapfrog


That's good, shows that my marketing strategy's going right, right from the beginning.



Nicholas Erik said:


> Anyway, congrats on the novel release, and best of luck.
> Nick


Thanks! Best of luck for your current endeavor too!

EDIT:

Hmm... As of 26/10/2016 at the time of this edit, the ranking of my book is...

#29 in the War/Military Category ( )

#432 in the Horror Category (Neat, just a few more downloads...)


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

Robin Reads doesn't list it as a requirement, so you didn't miss anything. It's unwritten. 

I gave the wrong link; it's getbookreport.com.

Nick


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## JohnMilton (Jan 23, 2016)

Freebooksy worked for me.  I am ending my free promotion today and have had more than 1,600 downloads and reached #10 in fantasy and #125 in the free store.  A bit pricey at $100, but I already had 2 people sign up for my newsletter from it.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Nicholas Erik said:


> Robin Reads doesn't list it as a requirement, so you didn't miss anything. It's unwritten.
> 
> I gave the wrong link; it's getbookreport.com.
> 
> Nick


An unwritten rule? 

Hate it when that happens.

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out when I got time at home.



JohnMilton said:


> Freebooksy worked for me. I am ending my free promotion today and have had more than 1,600 downloads and reached #10 in fantasy and #125 in the free store. A bit pricey at $100, but I already had 2 people sign up for my newsletter from it.


Wow, 1,600 downloads!? That's a good deal  I hope it works that way for me, because US$40 is not a joke, at least for me 

Speaking of ranking, I woke up to a decent surprise...

Final 25/10/2016 Report
Downloads: 21
KENP: 68
Note: My Kboards advertisement on the free ebook thread plus my activity is all there is for this day to promote my book. Results aren't superb, but I'll take what I can get. It did propel me up the charts despite the low count.

26/10/2016 Report
Downloads: 177
KENP: 0
Note: By the combined efforts of BKnights and EbookSoda, this is what I got so far. There's probably going to be more, maybe reaching 200, but nothing explosive. I know this because yesterday's downloads jumped from something like 16 to 21 even though the day is over. It's probably delayed reporting. Notenote: In the time I took to type this, I got another 2 downloads.

Now... Moving on to the juicy parts. Ranking:

I've shot up to take #2 in the War/Military category
And... #52 in the Horror category

Pretty good so far as an upward trend. I can just imagine the spike in the curve. It's unprecedented, considering that I've never done this before hah! So this is my first time, and I'm happy enough with what I got


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Looks like my earlier comment on how there won't be much increase in downloads for the previous day is unfounded. The difference between the previous report and now is huge. It pretty much easily swallowed the downloads of the previous day.

Updated 26/10/2016 Report
Downloads: 201
KENP: 0

I think part of this can be attributed to Book Raid launching my promotion early, but it could just as likely be due to stragglers coming in. If the previous trend for stragglers remains true (not that there's much of a trend with so little data), there'd be a 31.25% increase in downloads by the end of the day. So, 177 x 131.25% = 232.31 ~ 232


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Final 26/10/2016 Report
Downloads: 226
KENP: 0

Looks like I was pretty close with my prediction. Final numbers compared to the one I saw in the morning is almost 31.25% more.

Tomorrow is BookRaid and BookPebble's turn. I wonder if they can top BKnights and eBookSoda?

Final 27/10/2016 Ranking:

I've shot up to take #3 in the War/Military category
And... #49 in the Horror category

Looks like I'm maintaining a really good standing on the Top 100 Free chart. The question is, will it translate into sales?

Something tells me that I should have tried to get reviews first - But with all the crackdowns Amazon's been handing down, meh, I don't know.

Feels like a Chicken or the Egg question if there's one. Do you have to get reviews first to get more downloads? Or get downloads first to get more reviews?


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## Awasin (Aug 7, 2015)

Apart from the requirement of promo sites for reviews, it's fine to let reviews take care of themselves.  A paucity of reviews won't stop readers from buying - or in your current launch, downloading for free - a book that looks good to them.

The only authors who absolutely need to have reviews in place when they launch are those with scam books, or those whose books are repellant (some erotica writers fall into this category; they have fans, but non-fans can leave pretty scathing reviews).  They need to have enough reviews to dilute or, better, bury the WTF? reviews from readers who stumble on them.

I didn't see a mailing list sign-up in your book.  There's one on your blog, but not your FB, and you link to those in your book, but it doesn't cost anything to get Mailchimp and put a newsletter sign-up in your book, and on your FB page.  You can then use your list to drum up reviews for your next book by offering ARCs.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Awasin said:


> Apart from the requirement of promo sites for reviews, it's fine to let reviews take care of themselves. A paucity of reviews won't stop readers from buying - or in your current launch, downloading for free - a book that looks good to them.


Well, that's one way to do things. But what about ARCs and programs like that? You know, those that provides the possibility of honest reviews? (At least that's what it says on the tin)



Awasin said:


> The only authors who absolutely need to have reviews in place when they launch are those with scam books, or those whose books are repellant (some erotica writers fall into this category; they have fans, but non-fans can leave pretty scathing reviews). They need to have enough reviews to dilute or, better, bury the WTF? reviews from readers who stumble on them.


Interesting point of view. I'd agree on some books. I've been browsing Amazon, and I saw some books that fall into that category. One book in particular had 66% 5-stars and 4-stars, and the rest are low stars with the chief complaint that they were misled.

But is it a perspective, relative thing? If the book truly is good (or good enough), then no one would say that they were misled. I, for one, however, won't seek out services that provide 'perfect reviews' - Just that I can't help but to think that at least some of those authors were thinking the same thing.



Awasin said:


> I didn't see a mailing list sign-up in your book. There's one on your blog, but not your FB, and you link to those in your book, but it doesn't cost anything to get Mailchimp and put a newsletter sign-up in your book, and on your FB page. You can then use your list to drum up reviews for your next book by offering ARCs.


Actually, I have no mailing list (yet). What you saw on my blog is probably the 'subscribe by email' button, which is for the blog. It was added in the days when I couldn't re-add the blogger 'follow' and 'follower' list for some reason, true story 

I've been working on Mailchimp, but real life happened, has been happening for the entire week. I plan to finish it up on Saturday or Sunday.

In the meantime, I have some terrible news. A kind soul here in kboards, bless that guy, has come forward with the bad news that my book appears rife with grammatical and punctuation error on the preview. He wouldn't read it because of this - Which really worries me. If a level-headed author can't take it, how many potential downloaders/fans have I lost?

The results of today's promotion, and to an extent, the entire campaign, seems to prove it:

Tentative 27/10/2016 Report:
Downloads: 31 Units
KENP: 1 Page

Note: This is with Book Raid and Book Pebble promoting.

My ranking on the top 100 free chart has dropped like a stone. I'm now:

#9 on the War/Military section, down from #3

Hell, in the Horror section, which is where I aspire to lead in, I'm not even on the top 100! I'm at #106 now. There goes my 5 minutes of fame and so begins my 5 hours of shame.

Sometimes I think that having downloads numbering in the hundreds isn't all that impressive. It's just me being a newbie who don't know any better. Can't quite remember, but someone got thousands on their debut novel. Or at least bordering on the thousand mark.

Anyway, all I know is that I've fixed a typo on the first page on the first day of the promotion (with no promotional services activated yet). When I got back to the preview today, it's still there. Honestly, Amazon!?

As for other mistakes, they're invisible to me. I can only spot a few mistakes in dialogue punctuation, but that's only after I've been informed.

This is depressing. As it is, I'm proving my known and unknown detractors right that I can't write and I can't handle the publishing industry.

I'm no doubt going to work to solve all my problems, because my passion pushes me to do so, but the emotions and pain are real.


----------



## ZLM (Jun 16, 2016)

Hey man, go easy on yourself! Think of it this way: YOU DID IT. You published a freaking book. I dunno how it is in Singapore, but me, every time I tell someone that I write for a living, they start talking about some book they WANT to write. You took the plunge, bro!

It's your first outing. You cracked info some charts, which is more than some people can say, and you're learning. Some people don't learn a damn thing, which is a huge waste.You sound like a super-intelligent dude; I have a feeling your second go will be much improved.


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## LucasCWheeler (Feb 19, 2015)

ZLM said:


> Hey man, go easy on yourself! Think of it this way: YOU DID IT. You published a freaking book. I dunno how it is in Singapore, but me, every time I tell someone that I write for a living, they start talking about some book they WANT to write. You took the plunge, bro!
> 
> It's your first outing. You cracked info some charts, which is more than some people can say, and you're learning. Some people don't learn a damn thing, which is a huge waste.You sound like a super-intelligent dude; I have a feeling your second go will be much improved.


 ^ He said it way better than I could. Learning is a life-long process, and you are living. When in doubt, write another book.


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## FFJ (Feb 8, 2016)

Congrats!

I remember the thread you started when you were working on your cover.

Continued success!


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## truc (Apr 2, 2015)

Chiming in with everyone else to say, congrats, be proud, you wrote and published a book! You've accomplished more than 99% of people out there who only fantasize about writing/publishing.

That said, if you're feeling unhappy, this might be a good time to evaluate why you're disappointed. What were your goals for this book? What were your expectations? If your goal was simply to share a great story that you had in your head, then mission accomplished!

If you were hoping that the book would sell like hotcakes right out of the gate (let's be honest, we all do), remember that there are many successful authors who sold next to nothing for a long time when they started. Generally sales picked up for many authors when they started writing more, and paying careful attention to what was selling in their genre, and writing their books to satisfy what readers wanted to buy. Persistence and research will take you far.

I read somewhere about having a fixed mindset vs. growth mindset. Fixed in this case would be "looks like I'm terrible at writing and publishing, guess I'll quit" and a growth mindset would be "hey, I sold some books! Maybe it wasn't what I was hoping for, but what can I do to make my next project even better?" 

I'd encourage you to choose the latter, even if it's hard to do.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

ZLM said:


> Hey man, go easy on yourself! Think of it this way: YOU DID IT. You published a freaking book. I dunno how it is in Singapore, but me, every time I tell someone that I write for a living, they start talking about some book they WANT to write. You took the plunge, bro!


It's worse in Singapore. Writing is partially discouraged. I'm like a failed experiment in the country's westernisation program. I turned out to be a run-of-a-mill drone who instead started thinking and having ideas of starting a career that exists outside the office or classroom.

Thanks for reminding me about the 'taking the plunge' bit. I could at least call myself a writer with pride. Hell, maybe even an author. Those 69 pages read on Kindle unlimited is still worth some money! Hehe... heh. 



ZLM said:


> It's your first outing. You cracked info some charts, which is more than some people can say, and you're learning. Some people don't learn a damn thing, which is a huge waste.You sound like a super-intelligent dude; I have a feeling your second go will be much improved.


I'll make sure my second go is much better, I'll tell you that. Can't believe what a rough ride it's been.



LucasCWheeler said:


> ^ He said it way better than I could. Learning is a life-long process, and you are living. When in doubt, write another book.


A short stories collection with sprinklings of flash fiction and poetry, more like. Not sure how that'd turn out.



truc said:


> Chiming in with everyone else to say, congrats, be proud, you wrote and published a book! You've accomplished more than 99% of people out there who only fantasize about writing/publishing.
> 
> That said, if you're feeling unhappy, this might be a good time to evaluate why you're disappointed. What were your goals for this book? What were your expectations? If your goal was simply to share a great story that you had in your head, then mission accomplished!


It's definitely my passion to share a good story. I thought what I have is something that just can't be replicated elsewhere, because of various reasons.

But then there's my life. I want to eventually make a career out of this. That's why I'm so unhappy. I've scarcely even dipped a toe in the water when a giant crocodile the size of an oak tree emerged from it. I feel that my 'career's' jeopardised right from the start. That I might have just paid an arm and a leg for some misplaced dots and hooks.



truc said:


> If you were hoping that the book would sell like hotcakes right out of the gate (let's be honest, we all do), remember that there are many successful authors who sold next to nothing for a long time when they started. Generally sales picked up for many authors when they started writing more, and paying careful attention to what was selling in their genre, and writing their books to satisfy what readers wanted to buy. Persistence and research will take you far.


I'm not too worried about sales at the moment. I know it'd take a while, might even take another book or two before something real starts happening. I'm just feeling like shit because a million guns seem to be firing at me the moment I entered the room. I'm like 'give me a break!' honestly. I just wanted to enjoy the idea of getting published, but reality struck, and boy did it strike me hard like a lightning.



truc said:


> I read somewhere about having a fixed mindset vs. growth mindset. Fixed in this case would be "looks like I'm terrible at writing and publishing, guess I'll quit" and a growth mindset would be "hey, I sold some books! Maybe it wasn't what I was hoping for, but what can I do to make my next project even better?"
> 
> I'd encourage you to choose the latter, even if it's hard to do.


I know... I'll never back off. It's just so painful. It's like what one of those Greek philosophers said. Aristotle or someone. To publish a book is like a man's way of giving birth (women are lucky to be able to give birth both ways). So the book's like my child. To put my daughter in Amazon is like sending her to school, and what's happening so far is like seeing her coming back, covered in bruises and scrapes and hearing from the teacher that she was getting bullied real bad from day one.

Get the analogy? I wished it was a little more smoother than that. And the worse part is that I'm the bad parent who didn't teach my daughter the right stuff to avoid getting all that flak. I failed her.

Anyway... I've spent some time on the book, and I've fixed the problems raised by my fellow authors, at least in the first half of the book, which is essentially the length of a regular novel on its own. Now I just need Amazon to hurry the hell up and make the change. It's still going to take a few days, won't it?

The second half will receive its due attention when I start implementing my proofreader's suggestions for that part.


----------



## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

locking while we review



eta: have removed completely off topic argument . . . . re-opening for now as this is someone's 'reporting' thread.

Remember: if you think a comment is out of line, REPORT IT -- do NOT engage in the thread as that will almost always result in a thread lock, at least temporarily.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Okay, now that the ugliness is over, I can't wait to move on.

Boy do I have some juicy info for you guys. It feels like Christmas, except it was going to be Halloween.

The people at Freebooksy and eBook Betty? They're pretty much the mothers of all promotion sites. I don't know how much of it is Freebooksy's doing and how much of it is eBook Betty's - I'll probably be investigating that in the future.

But here're the numbers:

Final 27/10/2016 Report (Thursday)
Downloads: 37 Units
KENP: 1 Page (Must have lost a reader there)
Note: This is Book Raid and Book Pebble's day. Looks like they didn't do well. Maybe Horror doesn't do it for their subscribers. Book Raid decided that the number of hits was too little to justify charging me - Good on them, those honest folks.

Final 28/10/2016 Report (Friday)
Downloads: 23 Units
KENP: 0 Pages
Note: No promotional sites were open on this day. The 23 units must have trickled down from Book Raid and Book Pebble's promotion, maybe from all preceding promos too.

And now for the GRAND FINALE! ARE YOU READY, KIDS?

Kids: Aye aye, captain!

Oooooh, who lives in a pineapple under the sea!

Here you go:

Final 29/10/2016 Report (Saturday)
Downloads: 795 Units
KENP: 0 Pages
Notes: yep, so there you have it. Freebooksy and Ebook Betty did their jobs like no other. Even BKnights can't match their performance, assuming Freebooksy and Ebook Betty are equally good. Based on pricing alone, Freebooksy might have been responsible for 500+ downloads. Could be more, could be less. Yeah, even BKnights is completely overshadowed by Freebooksy, more than twice over!

Altogether, the number of downloads I had for the Free Book Promotion campaign exceeded 1,000 Units. About 1,038 I believe. It's more than what I expected.

Because of this sudden spike in the number of downloads, my book was launched all the way to the top of the chart. I became:

#1 in the War/Military section
&
#12 in the Horror section

Well, at least for that day anyway, before my book was sent back to paid territory. Where there's another thing I didn't expect.

Tentative 30/10/2016 Report
Sales: 4 Books
KENP: Just 1 Page the next day (Another unsatisfied reader. Bet it's my first chapter like one guy said in my other thread... Maybe)

Yep, I sold 4 books on the get go. Only time will tell if those sales became aborted fetuses when their new owners returned them, or if I get 1-starred to death. I hope not.

In the meantime, my ranking has been updated in paid territory:

#952 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > War
#1411 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > War
#2640 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Horror

Hey, not too shabby! At least I'm not number 60,235 or something anymore!

My next move is to finish up the editing of the latter half of the book, and then get a paid promotion. 99 cents a book. I wonder how many will take it?


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## S.L. (Jun 6, 2016)

xbriannova said:


> Okay, now that the ugliness is over, I can't wait to move on.
> 
> Boy do I have some juicy info for you guys. It feels like Christmas, except it was going to be Halloween.
> 
> ...


The 1 Kenp usually means someone downloaded it, but hasn't read it yet.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Lee Sutherland said:


> The 1 Kenp usually means someone downloaded it, but hasn't read it yet.


Oh. That sounds a lot better!


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## Guest (Oct 31, 2016)

xbriannova said:


> Because of this sudden spike in the number of downloads, my book was launched all the way to the top of the chart. I became:


Congrats  You got a great number of downloads!



xbriannova said:


> KENP: Just 1 Page the next day (Another unsatisfied reader. Bet it's my first chapter like one guy said in my other thread... Maybe)


I get 1 KENPs now and then as well. I'm not a KU member myself, but I do wonder if its similar to what I've done when I've bought eBooks. I also look at the look inside first, so in my case, I'd never just read the first page and be done because I'd have already read it before deciding to snag it. I'll often tap them just to check the download or I'll tap a few open if I'm trying to decide what to read.

So, if I were in KU and they were borrows, I'm guessing my general habits would result in just 1 KENP going to the author until I got around to reading the whole thing. At least, that's how I look at it for the ones I get anyway :-D



xbriannova said:


> Yep, I sold 4 books on the get go. Only time will tell if those sales became aborted fetuses when their new owners returned them, or if I get 1-starred to death. I hope not.


Hopefully not. I may be overly optimistic about readers in general, but from the ones I know, I think _most_ ebook readers don't just return a book even if they don't like it, anymore than people go demanding a refund at the movie theater if the movie ended up not being to their taste or something. Now negative reviews, that's another thing, but presuming they liked the cover, blurb, and the look inside enough to buy, then the chances for it seem to go down a lot as long as the story satisfies to the end


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

Most of those downloads are from FreeBooksy. They're one of the best sites for free books.

eBookBetty (formerly BettyBookFree) is probably good for 100 - 200 of those, based on my previous experience. 

Nick


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## Joynell Schultz (Oct 29, 2016)

Just a quick "thanks for posting this" comment.  I love your data!


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## S.L. (Jun 6, 2016)

Joynell Schultz said:


> Just a quick "thanks for posting this" comment. I love your data!


Glad to see you made it to Kboards!


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Anma Natsu said:


> Congrats  You got a great number of downloads!


Thanks!



Anma Natsu said:


> I get 1 KENPs now and then as well. I'm not a KU member myself, but I do wonder if its similar to what I've done when I've bought eBooks. I also look at the look inside first, so in my case, I'd never just read the first page and be done because I'd have already read it before deciding to snag it. I'll often tap them just to check the download or I'll tap a few open if I'm trying to decide what to read.


Hmm... I see. Good insight. I still don't have a Kindle myself, much less membership in Prime or Unlimited. I wouldn't put it pass some of them to decide not to read my stuff though. Writing is such a hit-or-miss thing.



Anma Natsu said:


> So, if I were in KU and they were borrows, I'm guessing my general habits would result in just 1 KENP going to the author until I got around to reading the whole thing. At least, that's how I look at it for the ones I get anyway :-D


So yeah, I just hope they're all like you - Just checking if the file is fine or what would suit the night's reading session. My career depends on it! 



Anma Natsu said:


> Hopefully not. I may be overly optimistic about readers in general, but from the ones I know, I think _most_ ebook readers don't just return a book even if they don't like it, anymore than people go demanding a refund at the movie theater if the movie ended up not being to their taste or something. Now negative reviews, that's another thing, but presuming they liked the cover, blurb, and the look inside enough to buy, then the chances for it seem to go down a lot as long as the story satisfies to the end


I guess I'm just unlucky then, because I've just received a refund... On day one. I'm not sure if that's normal.

For a full report, I've got 6 sales total from 2 days ago and yesterday, 1 refund... That's an 83.33% chance satisfaction rate, but that could rise or fall as I get more sales. As of right now, those readers could be anywhere between 'Haven't read the damn book' and 'Help me, I'm dying of thirst but I can't put the book down!' And who knows what the metrics is for the stars they'd give once they're done.

What's the average refund rate these days from readers?



Nicholas Erik said:


> Most of those downloads are from FreeBooksy. They're one of the best sites for free books.
> 
> eBookBetty (formerly BettyBookFree) is probably good for 100 - 200 of those, based on my previous experience.
> 
> Nick


Seems to be in line with my extrapolation based on their pricing... Somewhat. Betty's $18 and Freebooksy's $40. So Bknights could be performing just as good if not slightly worse than Betty, for only $11. All of them are still worth it, I feel. Especially Freebooksy - They're on my permanent list now.

Any idea if Bargain Booksy will do as good as Freebooksy?



Joynell Schultz said:


> Just a quick "thanks for posting this" comment. I love your data!


No problem. I thought it'd help others who're just starting off. Writers write to transmit their thoughts, and a story, to readers. I see no difference with this thread. It's stuff some people might want to know. Plus, it works very well as my log, and it's like cloud apps - I can read it anywhere as long as I have an internet connection. These data would help me make decisions in the future too. If I haven't committed them to memory yet, I could always come back here to give my frontal lobes a kick.

Are self-pub threads standard practice here? I don't see anyone doing this but me... Except for one or two threads weeks ago. I took this habit from Absolute Write, learnt it from the folks there who are decent.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Looks to me like it's the end of the month! (Might not be for the some of you. It's morning here)

So basically, it's been a rough ride lately. Despite my novel getting published a month and a half ago and advertised prior to Halloween a month ago, I'd still been working to bring my novel to an ideal state of existence. Recently, it'd reached version 1.2.4, which is 75% professionally edited, up from 50% about half a month ago - but if my sources are right, it's of minor concern when it comes to quality. A few dots here and there that needs clearing up and some changes that're matters of opinion. Few are outright grammar issues.

Anyway, I've collected the data on my sales (ie Looked at my sales dashboard and getting disappointed everyday and clicking on Book Report).

Here's the results of my publicity campaign:

Downloads: 1,105 Books
Sales: 7 Books (6 priced at $3.99, 1 at $2.99, 0 at $0.99)
KENP: 1,362 Pages
Reviews: 3 Stars (From 1 Guy)    
Estimated Royalty: $22.43
Expenses Incurred: $216.00
Profits: -$193.57
Note: Sales seem to come directly after the promotions, after which it dried out. Kindle Unlimited loans seem constant, only recently possibly drying out. Based on the number of pages my book clocks up to, it's possible that 2 persons actually finished my book. Otherwise, hundreds could have just read the first few chapters of my book and then dumped it out of their system for all I know.

Looks to me like I've made a huge loss, but that's to be expected. I'm thinking of doing another publicity campaign aiming at the $0.99 crowd - I mean, at least this time I won't have a fixed period with a time limit, so it'd be remarkably easier. My choices have been narrowed down by the lukewarm review, however, as some publicity sites bar their gates to my ilk, it seems.

Regardless, a second book is on the way, which will be a short stories collection with flash fics and possibly poetry in between to spice it up. Two components have already hit draft 1, and one is well on the way there.


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## Guest (Nov 30, 2016)

to Xbriannova

Singapore is a major city. Surely there is a BOOK printer (or POD) there that can give you printed books for local readers.
This would eliminate shipping time and expense.
You would need to own your ISBN (not a CreateSpace ISBN).


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## Melmoth (May 29, 2014)

I was beginning to think I was the only poster here in Singapore.

Do you think it would help sales if you changed 'Pulau Purba' to 'Purba Island' in the title, though you lose the alliteration.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Okey Dokey said:


> to Xbriannova
> 
> Singapore is a major city. Surely there is a BOOK printer (or POD) there that can give you printed books for local readers.
> This would eliminate shipping time and expense.
> You would need to own your ISBN (not a CreateSpace ISBN).


Well... You must understand that the publishing industry here is miniscule. The printers I found charge a high price, and for such a high volume. Time would not be a problem, but expenses would be. As for buying my own ISBN... Nah, I'm not comfortable with that.

This means that I would have to be popular enough first that some fame would trickle back down to my home country before I do anything of that scale.

EDIT: Okay, did a cursory search to update my knowledge of the local scene. Looks about the same, but I think one of the existing companies might have expanded their business into Amazon-styled POD and e-book related services.

Thanks for reminding me about this!



Melmoth said:


> I was beginning to think I was the only poster here in Singapore.
> 
> Do you think it would help sales if you changed 'Pulau Purba' to 'Purba Island' in the title, though you lose the alliteration.


Interesting, a fellow Singaporean huh? Are you new here or just posting infrequently?

I've debated the title on another forum a long time ago, because back then I had a sneaking suspicion that my title wasn't all that nice.

I started with the working title 'Project Green'.

Eventually, I titled it 'Pulau Purba'

But I had concerns that it'd be too ambiguous, and when I posted about my title, I learnt just as much from others. It wouldn't work out.

I changed it to 'The Keeper of Pulau Purba' and most people liked it. Less ambiguous. The sentence structure and words would lead the reader into understanding what the title (might) mean. Way I see it, it's no different from all those other titles that doesn't mean anything until you've read the book half-way through. Other reasons for keeping the Malay noun are its authenticity, 'exotic' quality and uniqueness.

Purba Island was tossed around as an idea and the reception wasn't good lol.

In any case, it's a bit too late to change the title now, after everything haha.


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## RightHoJeeves (Jun 30, 2016)

xbriannova said:


> Profits: -$193.57
> 
> ...
> 
> Looks to me like I've made a huge loss, but that's to be expected.


Look, I'm not trying to have a go, but $193.57 is not a huge loss. You've just started a business. You can't expect to make profit from the get go.

Most businesses need $50,000-$100,000 just to get their feet off the ground. So spending $200ish to release a book really isn't a significant cost (especially when we all hope to make 6 figures...)

Besides, the phrase "made a loss" is sort of meaningless, because you're not taking the book off the shelves. When you've got 10+ books out, a solid mailing list, and more experience under your belt, this first novel will have probably earnt way more than 200 bucks.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

RightHoJeeves said:


> Look, I'm not trying to have a go, but $193.57 is not a huge loss. You've just started a business. You can't expect to make profit from the get go.


Well, I did say that I expected it. But you're right about the 'huge loss' bit.



RightHoJeeves said:


> Most businesses need $50,000-$100,000 just to get their feet off the ground. So spending $200ish to release a book really isn't a significant cost (especially when we all hope to make 6 figures...)


Personally, I think comparing a business entity worth hundreds of thousands to an individual is fallacious. $200 is, of course, nothing devastating to even a small-medium business entity, but to a guy like me with savings that isn't even in the 5 figures? It's something.

You're still right that it isn't a huge loss though despite, because I've tasted much worse.



RightHoJeeves said:


> Besides, the phrase "made a loss" is sort of meaningless, because you're not taking the book off the shelves.


I feel that it's more of a technical term. What else am I going to call it? Even a -$0.10 profit is still a loss, just that it's probably nothing. Moreover, I honestly don't know what's going to happen in the future. Book might not be taken off the shelves, but anything can happen: Amazon could suddenly suffer a crippling crisis or scandal, the internet could go bust, or I might lose the ability to write for some reason and never release a book again. You never know.

In addition to technical terms, I'm just keeping myself on my toes. Not that I'm actually that worried about the money. I surprise myself with that. I'm actually okay with being in the red, even if it'd be for a long time because I like writing. It helps a lot that I have a lot to cushion myself against lacklustre financial performance. Time is on my side, there's plenty of techniques out there I can use to try to boost it, and of course, there's my writing and passion. Just like what you said below here:



RightHoJeeves said:


> When you've got 10+ books out, a solid mailing list, and more experience under your belt, this first novel will have probably earnt way more than 200 bucks.


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## RightHoJeeves (Jun 30, 2016)

You're right. I suppose I've just read time and time again people lamenting losses and then giving up. I think it's quite easy to blend all the success stories in our head and have an unspoken assumption we're going to strike it rich right away.

Anyway, as you said, time is on our side. At least SPing gives the time to develop and audience, rather than trade publishing.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

RightHoJeeves said:


> You're right. I suppose I've just read time and time again people lamenting losses and then giving up. I think it's quite easy to blend all the success stories in our head and have an unspoken assumption we're going to strike it rich right away.
> 
> Anyway, as you said, time is on our side. At least SPing gives the time to develop and audience, rather than trade publishing.


Thanks anyway for being so proactive and caring. Reminds me of why I'm here hah. It's the community.

And on that note, I've just realised that my book appeared in the Goodreads community even though I don't remember putting it there. Somehow, 18 people are either done with the book, reading it, hoping to read it or are about to read it. It's mostly the latter two.

I just received a 4-star rating there. There's no review attached to it, but it brought tears to my eyes. Thank God no one noticed because I was at my office.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

My reviews and ratings continue to climb or maintain. On Amazon, I received a nifty 5-star review with a couple sentences justifying it. I found myself coming back many times over just to see it. Whoever it was (the person who gave the review did not customise his/her profile), he or she understood what I was going for. I'm eternally gratefully to this individual. 

On Goodreads, I received another 4-star review, and someone's following my insta-profile there. It'd driven me to take on a slightly more proactive role. I've applied to lay claim to my Goodreads account and my book that was automatically listed on it.

Been thinking after seeing all this- I think I ought to have a Christmas promotion, and here's my plan of action:

Plan A: Reduce book price to $0.99, and blast it out to the best performing e-book promo sites such as BKnights and Bargain Booksy, as well as any new sites I can find that would accept me. Tentatively, I will set the dates to be on the days preceding Christmas, so time is tight: 20th December - 24th December 2016. I will have but 5 days to arrange this. It's easier than the last time, considering the fewer administrative tasks and requirements I have to perform for this. There won't be a time limit on the $0.99 price point, so that's a lot less pressure.

Plan B: Just blast to Bargain Booksy, and reduce price marginally to $2.99. Cheaper, and could still potentially produce good results.

If you guys have any suggestion for book promotion sites, lemme know. I would also love to hear about any suggestions that could improve my book promotions plan. Or heck, tell me about an entirely alternative plan of action!

Cheers, guys.

And merry Christmas before it's actually Christmas.


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## Abderian (Apr 5, 2012)

xbriannova said:


> My reviews and ratings continue to climb or maintain. On Amazon, I received a nifty 5-star review with a couple sentences justifying it. I found myself coming back many times over just to see it. Whoever it was (the person who gave the review did not customise his/her profile), he or she understood what I was going for. I'm eternally gratefully to this individual.
> 
> On Goodreads, I received another 4-star review, and someone's following my insta-profile there. It'd driven me to take on a slightly more proactive role. I've applied to lay claim to my Goodreads account and my book that was automatically listed on it.
> 
> ...


Plan A sounds best to me. 2.99 books are a hard sell on promo sites. Here's a list of them: http://www.readersintheknow.com/list-of-book-promotion-sites


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Abderian said:


> Plan A sounds best to me. 2.99 books are a hard sell on promo sites. Here's a list of them: http://www.readersintheknow.com/list-of-book-promotion-sites


  Whoa. Now that'd cut down on research time. Thanks!

Been doing some research into pricing. Majority agrees that $2.99 is a hard sell. I agree with it. Book promotion's book promotion. Can't be one without a significant discount, and 25% just isn't it.

Thanks!


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Alright, this post is going to be my new Command Centre for the Christmas promotion. Objective is to boost the profile of my debut novel, which seems to be doing well. It should be easier than the initial campaign, considering that I have established a foothold across multiple websites and I've made a good impression so far.

As it is right now, I've sent my request to a few websites:

21 December 2016: BKnights ($11)

22 December 2016: N/A

23 December 2016: Bargain Booksy ($25), eBook Betty ($20), Kboards Book Bazaar (Free!), Goodreads Horror Aficionados (Free!)

24 December 2016: Genre Pulse ($16)

25 December 2016: Price Dropped Books ($15), Ebook News Today ($30)

26 December 2016: None. Merry Christmas

27 December 2016: eBook Discovery ($12)

Book will be priced at $0.99 before 21 December 2016., perhaps at the start of the week.

So it's going to be a 5 days promotion campaign, in the tradition of my previous promotion, leading up to Christmas. Knowing how Christmas works, chances are, I don't think a lot of people are going to be buying any e-books on 25 December and 26 December. They'd probably be busy celebrating/getting drunk/watching movies. EDIT: Campaign extended to 26 December 2016 Potentially, to accommodate ENT. But this is not concrete yet, as ENT might prefer an earlier date, or flat out reject me.

Now to find more sites for the promotion.

Notes: I still can't believe how quickly I've made the arrangements... Anyway, as you guys can see, the roster for the book promotions have changed a lot. A few services have been given a miss due to poor performance, but mostly because my book is no longer considered a new release. I tend to be a very forgiving person.

A great many new services have been introduced to fill in for the outgoing services. They look promising. Combined with how my book is looking better with those reviews and purchases, I think this Christmas is going to be a blast.

Only regret I have is not planning this sooner. I might have tried to rope in Bookbub, but it's too late, what with their delivery time.

---

Writing News: In other news, my writing has been going very well. My second book is now something like 21,000 words long. As it is a collection, it's made up of short stories and flash fictions (might throw in other forms of literature soon), and by the numbers, I have completed 3 short stories and 1 flash fiction. Working on a flash fiction right now that might turn out to be a short short story.

EDIT: Looks like ENT has decided to put my book on the 25th of December 2016 instead of 26th. This could go either way... Hoping for the best! Oh, and BKnight has just entered the combat zone! Time to start monitoring if the meatgrinder has turned out any sausages yet...  

EDIT2: Signed up at the last minute for eBook Discovery's services after seeing a recommendation for it.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Woke up with a decent surprise today. Someone, or a few people, decided to have a marathon with my book. I'd like to think it's one or a few people, since it's all in one day. If it's a few hundred people passing up my book, it would've been spread out across the week. Besides, if hundreds are looking at my book, I don't think my KENP reading rate would be so low.

Anyway, the result is almost 800 KENP reads today. Which is more than one read through of my book. It's a new record high. Somehow, that'd launched me into the 3000+ ranking in horror, even higher in the military section. It's as good a time as any to launch a campaign. I now hope that getting shot up the ranks and getting noticed like that would create a runaway train effect for the better, like an anomaly sustaining itself. That'd benefit my campaign even more.

EDIT: Gained another 5-star review, this time aiming at the apparently high fear factor of my book, with the downside being slow pacing at some places. Despite its brevity, it's good information on how I should write the sequel. It's tough though. On one hand, I can't let my novel go at 100% speed at all times, but on the other hand, I guess I should find a way to make the slower parts more appealing.


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## LucasCWheeler (Feb 19, 2015)

Glad to see you had a pleasant surprise! Good luck on the promotion and let us know how the pre-Christmas sales go.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

LucasCWheeler said:


> Glad to see you had a pleasant surprise! Good luck on the promotion and let us know how the pre-Christmas sales go.


I will. It is my hope that this thread will provide valuable or even critical data to people who are just starting out. Other than that, I'm just executing what I've learnt in Creative Writing class back in university, but not just blindly. A log's important for a writer - This thread complements my blog very well, as it will contain stuff that wouldn't fit there.

Fingers crossed. I hope that my book will reach more people. My projection is positive - I can't not succeed this time, considering that I'm starting the pre-Christmas promotional campaign on better footing than I did when I first put my book up. Still, there's a voice at the back of my head telling me that things could still go south, way south. You never know. Just gonna concentrate on making everything right and hoping that what I've done will carry me through to the end.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

My campaign begins today with BKnights.

It's been 4 hours - No sales so far. Either that or the KDP dashboard is slow to update. I'm thinking both.

We'll see how BKnights fare for the next 20 hours. I'm just beginning to consider the possibility that BKnights is only good for free eBooks, considering the way they word their promotions:

"Today's free eBooks -------->"

That's just a very misleading way to put it.

Let's see if BKnights will be able to redeem itself.

EDIT: 12 hours and still nothing. Now I'm getting really scared D:

I'm really hoping now that it's just delayed reporting.

All that doom and gloom about lousy sales in December doesn't help with my confidence either.


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## dorihoxa (Feb 12, 2016)

My Bknights promo a week ago didn't bring in any sales, either. Don't get discouraged.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

dorihoxa said:


> My Bknights promo a week ago didn't bring in any sales, either. Don't get discouraged.


Oh.

Well, thanks for the encouragement.

Hopefully, my other promotions should do something about that. But I guess I should probably strike off BKnights as an option when it comes to $0.99 promotions huh?

Basically, there's still nothing now. Hope to wake up tomorrow morning with a surprise though.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

OKay.

BKnights is officially off my $0.99 promotions list. They've yielded not even a single sale. That's serious.

Next is Booktastik, which accepted my book at the 11th hour. They haven't sent me the link to pay for their services, so I'm not sure if they're on. I'm already pessimistic about today's promotion because of that. I really don't feel like having another dead weight promotional service sapping my money.

But tomorrow will be the day when everything changes. Bargain Booksy and eBook Betty can't fail me, can they?

EDIT: Okay, chances are high that Booktastik isn't going to put up my book. When I went back to check the email they sent me, I noticed that there's a link on some words at the back that brings up a calender. There was no indication that I should use it, and I thought it was an accidental link. I figured out just now that I'm supposed to select a date from that link.

Well, [crap]. I can't totally blame Booktastik. While there was no instructions and indications for me, I wasn't thinking ahead either.

Today is lost.

EDIT2: Gonna put it up on the Kboards Book Bazaar. See if I can salvage today.

Got it up on Goodreads too. I'm amazed by the quality of the site. The thread in the Horror Aficionados' group appeared on my book page too. Let's see how much that's worth.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Looks like I lost track of time yesterday. Booktastik was supposed to come in on Thursday, while Friday belongs to Bargain Booksy and ebook Betty. Which makes it all the worse. 

Based on the results I'm seeing, I don't know what I can say to account for all the epic fail I'm experiencing.

I have a grand total of 4 sales. And I don't know where those are coming from. I doubt my kboards and goodreads ads did anything. The view rates are so low.

eBook Betty has been out for 24 hours and Bargain Booksy,  about 8 hours. Knowing the delayed reporting time, I'd like to believe that the 4 sales are coming from eBook Betty and Bargain Booksy's sales haven't registered yet.

Of course, my analysis is also based on hope. Because if the above two promotional services can't do it, then I'm well and truly condemned as having made a fatal business decision.

Because I'm not sure if the 'new' services I engaged can do it. They're wildcards now owing to the poor performance of everyone else.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

It seems that things are going better, though how long I can maintain this lucrative position, I don't know. So far, sales are as follows:

23 December 2016: Ebook Betty ($20)

Sales: 5 units.

Note: Not exactly what I expect, but it's better than nothing. According to BookReport, I've earned $1.75 out of Ebook Betty. Considering that eBook Betty costed me $20, I'd say the results are slightly below average. I might reconsider my opinion if sales continue after the promotional period.

24 December 2016: Bargain Booksy ($25) - apparently, Bargain Booksy started their campaign a little later, so I'll place it on this day as the sales report is also delayed. Could be a timezone thing.

Sales: 5 units.

Note: Mediocre! I don't know why, but I earned a mere $1.05 out of these 5 sales. This means that Bargain Booksy underperformed really badly. The only other possibility is that their audience were slow to react. Which leads to...

25 December 2016: Genre Pulse ($16)

Sales: 14 units.

KENP: 3 pages.

Note: Now this is unexpected. The numbers indicate that I've earned $4.26 from sales and $0.02 from KENP. This means that Genre Pulse breached the 25% return mark. They're officially good on my book now! Though as mentioned above, Bargain Booksy might have a hand in it, which means I won't drop them in the next promotion just yet. I might have to experiment more by spacing them apart.

Furthermore, Genre Pulse's services is exemplary. They have even provided me with a stats page: https://bitly.com/2hiRig9+

It seems that the conversion rate from clicks to sales is about 10%. And I seem to be doing better than most books.

Another thing I noticed is that Genre Pulse's advertisement doesn't end after a day. That's some awesome service right there.

Here's the Grand-Total:

Total Sales: 24 Units

Total KENP: 3 Pages

Total Revenue: $7.08

'Expenditure to Date': $61

Notes: I guess I've made back more than 10% of my expenditure so far, which is far more than what I can say for my previous promotion, at least initially. It's my hope that I will be able to recover some of the expenditure after my campaign.

This is not counting the 30% tax I'd have to pay to the US of A. A rude reminder that my country has yet to secure a more beneficial treaty with them. It peeves me off, to be honest.


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## tommy gun (May 3, 2015)

I had a new release out just before Christmas.  Lots of pushing to the mailing list and some sales.
BUT, the least amount of sales ever.
Right before christmas may have been a bad one as people are busy.  Boxing day/week it is supposed to get a bit busier.

Stay positive!


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

tommy gun said:


> I had a new release out just before Christmas. Lots of pushing to the mailing list and some sales.
> BUT, the least amount of sales ever.
> Right before christmas may have been a bad one as people are busy. Boxing day/week it is supposed to get a bit busier.
> 
> Stay positive!


I never really thought things through now have I? Well, at least I've gained the data to avoid the same mistakes.

Oh, and one other thing I forgot to report. My Amazon rankings, if nothing else, have soared beyond expections...

#94 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > War (Was about 3k before my campaign)
#133 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > War (Something like 8k just before my campaign started)
#347 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Horror (Was previously something like 12k just before my campaign started)

 I have no idea that you can rise so high by selling so few...


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## Richardcrasta (Jul 29, 2010)

xbriannova said:


> Well... You must understand that the publishing industry here is miniscule. The printers I found charge a high price, and for such a high volume. Time would not be a problem, but expenses would be. As for buying my own ISBN... Nah, I'm not comfortable with that.
> 
> This means that I would have to be popular enough first that some fame would trickle back down to my home country before I do anything of that scale.
> 
> ...


I don't know how it would work. But I have a pubishing co. incorporated in the US, with lots of ISBN numbers I couldn't possibly use myself--already paid for, a company I have paid taxes on for many years. So I don't see why I, as President of the company, can't let someone use an ISBN of mine. I don't know if others have done this: but the book would then be listed in the U.S., the most important market.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Richardcrasta said:


> I don't know how it would work. But I have a pubishing co. incorporated in the US, with lots of ISBN numbers I couldn't possibly use myself--already paid for, a company I have paid taxes on for many years. So I don't see why I, as President of the company, can't let someone use an ISBN of mine. I don't know if others have done this: but the book would then be listed in the U.S., the most important market.


Hmm... If I use your publisher number, wouldn't it make you my publisher?

Wait, so that means... This is a veiled offer for a publishing contract?


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

26 December 2016: Price-Dropped Books ($15), ENT ($30)

Sales: 1 unit

KENP: 0 pages

Notes: Their ads surfaced on the 25th, just that the sales chart is updated in the 26th. I won't pretend that I'm not angry. This is terrible. The results is just a single unit short of empty-handed, and it undermines ALL my work! I've had high hopes for these two services, but I'm sorely disappointed. The only silver-lining is that it's not entirely their fault. Perhaps the timing is off. Everyone would probably be out partying on the 25th or preparing for the next day - how many would actually be looking at the Amazon site?

I have but one more chance to maintain my rank in the 3 digits. I've signed on with eBook Discovery at the last minute. Details in my pre-Christmas promotions Command Centre above.

Because after that, I won't be promoting my debut novel until after my next book is out. I haven't forgotten that the first book is (99% of the time) always going to lose money until subsequent books are out.

Grand-Total:

Total Sales: 25 Units

Total KENP: 3 Pages

Total Revenue: $8.13

'Expenditure to Date': $105

Note: I don't know how I got $1.05 in royalty from one book at $0.99. It's probably an error on Book Report's part. I can only hope in vain that more sales are streaming in. Regardless, I've fallen short of the 10% mark. Not counting the 30% tax the US imposes on me for being a foreigner. A huge reminder of why I should try going wide.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

27 December 2016: eBook Discovery ($12)?

Sales: 7 Units

KENP: 1 Page

Notes: The reason why I put a question mark there is because I'm not sure who to attribute the sales to. There's a fair chance that it isn't eBook Discovery because of timezone. I haven't found my book on their deals page, but I'm not subscribed to their e-zine yesterday (at least by my timezone). Yet, I've hunted for my book in their facebook and twitter feeds and not found it. However, they were in a fair bit of rush for me to pay up and put my book in for 27 December. Time will tell. The World Clock indicates that it is still the 27th in some places, including the US. They say that my book will only be up on the site 24 hours after the e-zine...

So if this isn't eBook Discovery, then it's ENT at work. Price-Dropped Books offered nearly no clicks that I think they're completely ineffectual. Still, 7 units does not justify their $30 price tag. At least 9 will bring it on par with the others, and only more will clear its name - After all, it came highly recommended.

What's siginificant is the KENP read. 1 page, according to some author, is an indication of readers checking their downloaded copy, not of readers giving up on the first page. If there's true, it offers hope that the book will be read at least once throughout.

And speaking of KENP reads - There's more. I don't know why I haven't noticed it before. It'd either surfaced after the date or the bump in the graph is simply too small next to the 750+ KENP Page spike the other day. But the previous day's results should be amended as follows:

26 December 2016: Price-Dropped Books ($15), ENT ($30)

Sales: 1 unit

KENP: 8 pages

Note: So, further notes. 8 Pages of KENP. That could mean 8 people have downloaded the book through KU and checked their copy. Either that, or some of them are really cautious, and checked more than a page. What matters is that there is hope that my book is going to earn A LOT from KU. My first promotional campaign generated plenty. Why not now? But it's mere hope. For all I know, it could just be people accidentally downloading the book, or they just didn't know that they can obtain a free sample.

Moving on to the campaign results so far...

Grand-Total:

Total Sales: 32 Units

Total KENP: 12 Pages

Total Revenue: $10.97

'Expenditure to Date': $105

Note: I'm not sure about the accuracy of the Total Revenue. After all, it's been telling me that I got more than a dollar from one copy of my book at $0.99. But if everything holds true, I've hit the 10% mark again (which is really 7% after the US of A goes Negan on me).

Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now. I can't believe how much my mood swings with the graph hah! Let's see how things go tomorrow.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Okay, I'm just going to put the results of 27 December 2016 down to eBook Discovery's doing. Speaking of that, sales have been going strong so far:

28 December 2016: 1st Day After Promo

Sales: 1 Unit

KENP: 97 Pages

Note: You know those guys who checked to see if their download is fine? The KENP must have come from them. Either that, or a big crowd is starting to look at my book in Kindle Unlimited.

29 December 2016: 2nd Day After Promo

Sales: 5 Units

KENP: 56 Pages

Note: Good stuff. Probably trickle-down effect from eBook Discovery.

Grand-Total:

Total Sales: 38 Units

Total KENP: 165 Pages

Total Revenue: $12.44

'Expenditure to Date': $117

Notes: Well, looks like I've surpassed the 10% mark, and this is almost true even if 30% is spirited away - Just a little more.

Things have been going fine so far. I've received my first payment for the month of October. Nearly 10 USD. Payoneer's working. Gonna try transferring funds to my real bank account soon.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Ever since the last day of my Christmas promotion, my ranking on the horror list had shot upwards to 500+. I had thought that that would mean a sustainable income every month, heck, maybe every week or even every day.

Sales dried off within weeks, and even then, post-promo sales were far and few in between. It makes me think that free promotions work better, because that's actually the case...

Today, I have decided to try another strategy: A slow-cooking type of promotional campaign that scales with the income I'm deriving from elsewhere, as if I'm subscribing to the success of my book (lol ). As I'm only drawing an allowance as a tutor from a couple of families, I will keep it down for now.

So, I basically drop my book's price down to $0.99 indefinitely, and sign up for Genre Pulse every week. It has proven itself to be one of the more successful models during the Christmas promotions. Next promo's set on Monday, but it's flexible - I doubt I'll get Monday, but neither is it vital that I do so.

I will update you guys, though there's probably going to be little to no news. For now though, here's my future plans until I release my second book somewhere in June:

Once I got a job, or if the worst hits me, more tuition assignments, I'll scale up the budget of my weekly expenditure on advertisement. For now, subscribing weekly to Genre Pulse will set me back by $48 a month, assuming I manage to get a discount coupon every time. If I got a new job, even a low-paying one, I will triple my monthly advertisement budget to $150.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

xbriannova said:


> Ever since the last day of my Christmas promotion, my ranking on the horror list had shot upwards to 500+. I had thought that that would mean a sustainable income every month, heck, maybe every week or even every day.
> 
> Sales dried off within weeks, and even then, post-promo sales were far and few in between. It makes me think that free promotions work better, because that's actually the case...
> 
> ...


Why would you sign up for Genre Pulse every week? Wouldn't you be going after the same readers who'd seen your books already. They either decided to buy or not buy? Why not rotate your promoters?


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## Guest (Mar 11, 2017)

Instead of CreateSpace, surely a major city like Singapore would have a POD or book printer.
That would solve the time and distance problem for your local readers.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

AlexaKang said:


> Why would you sign up for Genre Pulse every week? Wouldn't you be going after the same readers who'd seen your books already. They either decided to buy or not buy? Why not rotate your promoters?


I think you're completely right. I could have sworn I read somewhere on the site that it used a very different method of attracting readers but it turns out that I was mistaken!

Thanks for pointing this out to me. Rotating promoters it is. Might consider getting one of the bigger services but we'll see.



Okey Dokey said:


> Instead of CreateSpace, surely a major city like Singapore would have a POD or book printer.
> That would solve the time and distance problem for your local readers.


And I've heard this before. This has got to be a bug, I assume? &#128512;


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Darn... I'm starting to worry that Genre Pulse is going the way of Book Butterfly. Just as I heard that the guy who runs Book Butterfly is letting his business fall apart, I'm worried that something's happening to Genre Pulse.

I paid for a Monday promotion on Saturday. $12 after discount, but nothing has happened. I would understand that Monday isn't possible, but I haven't received any email from them/him/her so far. My emails from 10 hours ago and 1 hour ago remains unanswered.

Today, I've paid for I Like Books instead to market my book. His style is different though. I was thinking of starting a promotion using his service for next Monday, but his promotion works indefinitely. I hope it's effective. It's $9.99... If it's really effective, then it'd put a lot of services to shame


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## Guest (Mar 14, 2017)

If you think locating a POD or book printer in your home city, instead of paying delivery costs from across the ocean, is a "bug", then good luck to you.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

xbriannova said:


> Darn... I'm starting to worry that Genre Pulse is going the way of Book Butterfly. Just as I heard that the guy who runs Book Butterfly is letting his business fall apart, I'm worried that something's happening to Genre Pulse.
> 
> I paid for a Monday promotion on Saturday. $12 after discount, but nothing has happened. I would understand that Monday isn't possible, but I haven't received any email from them/him/her so far. My emails from 10 hours ago and 1 hour ago remains unanswered.
> 
> Today, I've paid for I Like Books instead to market my book. His style is different though. I was thinking of starting a promotion using his service for next Monday, but his promotion works indefinitely. I hope it's effective. It's $9.99... If it's really effective, then it'd put a lot of services to shame


Can't help you with GenrePulse but how exactly did you determine which promoter to use?

The way I see it based on your book, you should really consider using Rebecca Hamilton's GenreCrave services. Her email blast can probably net you a good day or two and help launch your book.

Not sure if your book fits the genre exactly by BookBarbarian is another one you should look at. You need to target the promoters with your kind of audience.

Robin Reads might do well for you too.

Other than that, you can try AMS ads, but that may not be profitable so your best bet is to get Books 2 and 3 out there and continue from there.


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## ConnieBW (Feb 23, 2017)

Just popping in to say thank you for keeping such a detailed record of your promotion efforts. I've yet to publish my first book (hopefully in a month or two) and your posts made for some very interesting reading on promotion.

How is your second book coming along now?

Wishing you lots success in the future


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Okey Dokey said:


> If you think locating a POD or book printer in your home city, instead of paying delivery costs from across the ocean, is a "bug", then good luck to you.


You sound like you're having a bad day.

By 'bug', I meant that I seriously thought your message was somehow copied and pasted by some coding bug, because your post gave me a case of deja vu. Furthermore, it didn't seem related to what I was talking about originally, so it didn't seem intended by you.



AlexaKang said:


> Can't help you with GenrePulse but how exactly did you determine which promoter to use?


I base my decision on past results and the data I gathered. Genre Pulse seemed to do fine. It's not a 100% accurate method, as even my data is shaky, but there you go. Genre Pulse seems to be proving me wrong.



AlexaKang said:


> The way I see it based on your book, you should really consider using Rebecca Hamilton's GenreCrave services. Her email blast can probably net you a good day or two and help launch your book.
> 
> Not sure if your book fits the genre exactly by BookBarbarian is another one you should look at. You need to target the promoters with your kind of audience.
> 
> ...


Actually, I'm starting to regret my decision to advertise right now. If Genre Pulse doesn't get its act together, I'll stop this advertising campaign, if you can call it that, altogether and wait for a more opportune time. I want to promote my first and second book together. I think that might achieve a greater effect.

Thanks for the suggestions though, I'll look into them. I believe I've gone through all those options unsuccessfully, but things might change in the future. AMS, for one, wouldn't take my book because of the skull motif 



ConnieBW said:


> Just popping in to say thank you for keeping such a detailed record of your promotion efforts. I've yet to publish my first book (hopefully in a month or two) and your posts made for some very interesting reading on promotion.


As is my intention. In addition to being my log, this thread is meant to serve as educational material.



ConnieBW said:


> How is your second book coming along now?


Second draft is coming along just fine. I might finish by the middle of April, or the end of it. After that, I might just go on ahead and hire an editor to create draft 3 - after throwing in his/her input and my own final edits, it should be ready for publication. I'm aiming at a June release.



ConnieBW said:


> Wishing you lots success in the future


Thank you!

---

Anyway, an update: I've decided to try to wake up Genre Pulse through Paypal's dispute system. If all else fails, Paypal has a generous policy to force the dispute and either give me what I want or my money back.


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## RightHoJeeves (Jun 30, 2016)

xbriannova said:


> Actually, I'm starting to regret my decision to advertise right now. If Genre Pulse doesn't get its act together, I'll stop this advertising campaign, if you can call it that, altogether and wait for a more opportune time. I want to promote my first and second book together. I think that might achieve a greater effect.


IMO, promo sites obviously have value, but they're more like a cherry on top. At this point, it makes more sense (although I don't really know if I'm right, so take my words with a grain of salt) putting money behind efforts that will allow you to acquire data on which to build an email list, and a good idea of the actual demographic who is into the book.

Also makes a lot of sense to hold off until the second book is available, at least for preorder. If you're advertising the first book with a link in the back to preorder the second, you're actually advertising both for the price of one. Gives the readers somewhere to go, so its more bang for your buck.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

RightHoJeeves said:


> IMO, promo sites obviously have value, but they're more like a cherry on top. At this point, it makes more sense (although I don't really know if I'm right, so take my words with a grain of salt) putting money behind efforts that will allow you to acquire data on which to build an email list, and a good idea of the actual demographic who is into the book.
> 
> Also makes a lot of sense to hold off until the second book is available, at least for preorder. If you're advertising the first book with a link in the back to preorder the second, you're actually advertising both for the price of one. Gives the readers somewhere to go, so its more bang for your buck.


Haven't thought about the link bit. Thanks for the advice! What you said makes sense. I guess I'll have to discontinue my low-yield campaign then, since it's tantamount to flushing money down the drain.

I don't regret using I Like Books though, the listing there is permanent.


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## RightHoJeeves (Jun 30, 2016)

xbriannova said:


> Haven't thought about the link bit. Thanks for the advice! What you said makes sense. I guess I'll have to discontinue my low-yield campaign then, since it's tantamount to flushing money down the drain.


Well I don't know about flushing money down the drain necessarily. Maybe just not optimizing the bang for your buck.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

RightHoJeeves said:


> Well I don't know about flushing money down the drain necessarily. Maybe just not optimizing the bang for your buck.


Yep, when I fire a gun, a flag with the word 'Bang!' isn't what I have in mind either.


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## lincolnjcole (Mar 15, 2016)

xbriannova said:


> Haven't thought about the link bit. Thanks for the advice! What you said makes sense. I guess I'll have to discontinue my low-yield campaign then, since it's tantamount to flushing money down the drain.
> 
> I don't regret using I Like Books though, the listing there is permanent.


I didn't know it was permanent. That is cool!


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

lincolnjcole said:


> I didn't know it was permanent. That is cool!


The site offers three plans, all of them are stated to be lifetime submissions with no monthly fees. However, how able it is to generate sales is something I've yet to evaluate.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

2 months later...

A lot of things have happened. Life has changed a lot, I have changed.

I've managed to receive my refund from GenrePulse because of sheer negligence months ago. Paypal's my pal  

I've been revving up to a second release. A horror short story collection.

Expenses have been low so far, surprisingly.

The editor I engage is editing my second book for $110.

The cover artist I've engaged is doing it for $50.

This year is going to be full of fireworks... Other than this second book, I have a short story (or novelette) coming right up in an anthology.

That means my advertising campaign is going to be a lot more complex. More so, way more so, considering that this time, I'm going to try to aim for sending my books into orbit at the upper stratosphere of the ranking list.

Based on even my limited experience, it's not hard to send my book spiralling up to the top. $100 of advertising can easily do that... Five days before Christmas for crying out loud! The difficulty is getting it to stick on the ceiling like a gum...

Which is why I'm going to put more effort and money into my next marketing campaign, spanning months:

1st Phase: Revive debut novel sales. I'm going to do a free promotion to accrue more reviews and long-term sales.
Budget: $100 + AMS + Facebook?
Rough Date: Early June

2nd Phase: Pre-Order. Getting readers and possibly reviews in before I officially launch. Hopefully readers from debut will come here.
Budget: $50? + AMS? + Facebook?
Roug Date Late June

3rd Phase: Launch. The usual stuff: Free promotion to get first batch of reviews. Hopefully more readers from debut will come here.
Budget: $100 + AMS + Facebook?
Rough Date: Mid July

4th Phase: Maintenance of debut novel. Promotion for book at $0.99 to combat orbit decay. I hope readers from second book will come here.
Budget: $100 + AMS + Facebook?
Rough Date: Early - Mid August

5th Phase: Halloween Promotion. Promotion of one or both books to line up with promotion of anthology. I hope readers from all books would migrate here and there.
Budget: $100 - $200 + AMS + Facebook?
Rough Date: Mid October - Late October

Grand Total for Budget: $450 - $550 + AMS + Facebook?
Timespan: Early June - Late October (5 months)


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

It's time to rise from the grave again! This post will be my command/control centre for the Early June promotional campaign for The Keeper of Pulau Purba, which will lead up to a promotion for my second book.

The purpose of this promotion is to build up an audience for my second book, and hopefully launch the both of them to orbit in the higher ranks.

The current game plan is this:

The Keeper of Pulau Purba free promotion will be from 1 June to 5 June.

It's good timing, as 1 June will be a Thursday while 5 June will be a Monday. The first and last days are like a buffer zone for me, as my advertising agents may activate their service earlier or later than Amazon bringing down the price of my book to zero. Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be shielded from such unpredictable things, and those days will be reserved for the best promotional services available.

That said, here are the services I have subscribed for:
4 June: Discount Book Man (Free!), Booktastik ($10), ENT ($30), BookHippo (Free!)
5 June: Freebooksy ($40), Robin Reads ($40)
6 June: Bookbub ($155)
7 June: Awesomegang (Free!), MyBookPlace (Free!)
8 June: Pretty Hot (Free!), Mega Book Deals ($2.50)
All Days: The eReader Cafe (Free!)
Unconfirmed: Choosy bookworm (Free!)
^Bookbub, US & International: I know I've said that my budget for advertising outside of AMS & Facebook is $100, but Bookbub is said to be able to pay for itself.

31 May - 30 June: AMS (Varied)

Total Expenses: $277.50


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

On the road to my biggest promotion to date, a lot of things have happened. AMS kicked in at the twilight of May 2017, and somehow, I don't know how, it resulted in the sale of a single book - without discount. That basically meant that whatever cost I incurred for AMS has effectively paid for itself - at least for the most part. Still, it's far better than what some third party services could say for themselves.

My Pre-Order went live a couple days ago, and already, one jovial fellow had bought it, despite all I have to show for it is a book cover, a blurb, and my humble author profile. I hope that increases with time, especially after through my Early June Promotional Campaign. Phase 2 will see a few services put to work marketing my Pre-Order.

Then there's one other thing... Something which really surprised me and will no doubt surprise some of you...










Apparently, all it takes for you to rise above 450,000 other authors is a single book sold. I went from an author rank of #550,000 something to a peak of maybe #125,000 with just a single book. Basically, what happened in late May is that some guy bought my book - no AMS, no promos whatsoever, and then refunded it. I'm not going to speculate about what happened, but it was counted. A legitimate purchase helped to maintain the orbit for another few more days.










And it's even better for my book. A single bugger sold, and I went from something like #1,025,000 to a peak of maybe #75,000. Makes me wonder what all those books are doing. What's even more amazing is how my sales rating for The Keeper of Pulau Purba will rise on its own accord after selling a single book. Something tells me it's actually not very hard to maintain an orbit.

So there's been a lot of talk about how competition is becoming stiff with so many authors and books joining the pitched battle. Looking at this, it's not so bad. If I take my charts as a measure of how many authors and books are actually 'competition', I'd say that the majority of them are just 'sleeping' for whatever reason. Maybe 90% of authors are just people trying their luck, people who fancied publishing for once before giving up? It's not that hard to imagine, considering that this is all in the internet, where any fantasy can easily be fulfilled - but reality is just as painful all the same.

Anyway, free book promotion is launching in a few hours. We'll see how high this rocket will fly...


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

LilyBLily said:


> Yes, it absolutely doesn't take many sales to jump your rank from the millions to the hundreds of thousands and then to the tens of thousands. I think the real competition happens in the under 10,000s. It's the doubling a penny phenomenon. Under 10k, you have to sell dozens of books per day and to go lower you have to keep doubling, but between 50k and 10k, two to five books a day might do it. That's hardly bestseller status.


Indeed. I've gone to #500 before. It's no easy feat, and it certainly isn't going to be easily maintaining that ranking... Well, we'll know after my free promotion. It has just been activated. Won't be long now before I know how effective the first wave of my promoters actually are. Don't know what the after-effects would be like. I'm only hoping to recoup a larger percentage of my expenses than before. I'm aiming for at least 50% excluding Bookbub cost. Bookbub's gonna be the main player here, and people say they can easily cover their own cost, so...

My worry is that my plans for for post-free promotion is limited - I have no plans beyond AMS and hoping that it will translate sales of my book and the pre-order of my second book.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Good news and bad news...

Let's start with the bad: Just now, I decided to check out my pre-order page for Through the Abyssal Gates (for the umpteenth time), and I happened to scroll down. I noticed that the number of pages is listed as 50+ and therefore Amazon had shoved my book into the shorts category. Basically, what happened was that I decided that, since there's not going to be a preview since it's a pre-order, I'm not going to upload a complete manuscript. Back then, to have a full manuscript would take time, and I didn't have time as I was rushing to put up a pre-order before my promotion begins.

That's all fixed up now. But the damage has been done. It'll take some time before the page is updated, knowing Amazon. It's only a matter of when. The longer it takes to update, the greater the chance I have of losing interested readers as at least some of them might scroll down and think that my book is just one short story.

But then there's the good news. It hasn't even been 8 hours, and already, there's been 96 (and counting) downloads for The Keeper of Pulau Purba. That has propelled me upwards to the #6000+ rank. My author rank is similarly up there in the stratosphere, and it's only 1/3rd of the first day. The big boys aren't even playing yet, and one of them happens to be Bookbub. I can't wait to see what's going to happen when Bookbub comes in.

EDIT: Didn't think it would be the case, but 96 downloads was just the tip of the iceberg even for today. In just one hour, that has risen to 182, nearly twice. I don't feel like sleeping anymore. For a little perspective, that's nearly 1/5 of the downloads during my debut novel's book launch free promotion.

And another thing. It's the first time my book has gotten into the #4,000s in rank. The highest previously was in the #11,000s... It's not so much for my author rank. Haven't broken any records there.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Day 1 of my free book promotion was over hours ago, and I believe I've reached a final number. What I've quoted was nothing compared to this. Basically, the forlorn squad had managed to get 650+ of my books downloaded. It's not what I expected from a bunch of services I've never used before. I believe ENT accounted for most of it, but since 125 of them are in the UK, bookhippo might be another good service to retain. I believe booktastik and discount bookman might have contributed, but I doubt they contributed the majority.

My book's free ranking has jumped up to the #250+ ranges OVERALL.

Next stop, day 2, and then we'll see if Freebooksy and Robin Reads could beat them.

EDIT: Oh, and I just found out it's now #7 on the top 100 free horror books list.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Looks to me like, by their powers combined, Freebooksy and Robin Reads might actually outperform ENT, Booktastik and the others on Day 1. It's only been about 8 hours, and those two bigshot advertising services have racked up 347 downloads... For a little comparison, the ENT forlorn squad gathered about 182 downloads at the 8 hours mark.

Waking up tomorrow in the morning has never gotten more exciting. Makes me wonder how Bookbub will do.

In fact, it makes me wonder what kind of results will I get after the promotion. In my previous two promotions for this book, it resulted in about 25% capital return after taxes. I'm hoping this will bring me more, and result in pre-orders as well as a stable orbit to maintain everything.

EDIT: As it is, TKOPP is now ranked at #220. It's still #7 on the free horror list and #2 on the free war list. So it's basically a better 'war' novel than it is a 'horror' novel. Disconcerting considering that it is only from the military genre secondarily, and horror first of all. But I'll take whatever I can get.

Strangely, TKOPP's ranking for horror isn't listed. Says on the page that it is only in the war category. That sucks. But when I scroll to the bottom, it says that TKOPP is in the horror category as it should be. Strange.


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

OP, word of advice: don't sneeze at ENT. Freebooksy is definitely the best if you're running a free promo and it always yields the highest results (excluding Bookbub). But if you ever run a 99c promo, ENT is the only reliable promoter that can give you a ROI and more. Nicholas Erik has said that and my own results prooved it. BargainBooksy (Freebooksy's sister site) cannot do the same. I have yet to find a promoter other than ENT and Bookbub that doesn't yield a loss on 99c promos (or free) without sell-throughs of a backlog.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

AlexaKang said:


> OP, word of advice: don't sneeze at ENT. Freebooksy is definitely the best if you're running a free promo and it always yields the highest results (excluding Bookbub). But if you ever run a 99c promo, ENT is the only reliable promoter that can give you a ROI and more. Nicholas Erik has said that and my own results prooved it. BargainBooksy (Freebooksy's sister site) cannot do the same. I have yet to find a promoter other than ENT and Bookbub that doesn't yield a loss on 99c promos (or free) without sell-throughs of a backlog.


I agree. After looking at the results, ENT certainly isn't something to sneeze at even when it comes to free promotions. Not a lot of promotional services could match ENT even if it's performance is weaker than Freebooksy and Robin Reads.

But what you say about its performance when it comes to paid promotions... Now that I gotta try. Maybe ENT could promote my pre-order 

And speaking of performance, the 2nd day has come to a close and I believe I have a final number. It is simply astonishing.

Day 1 (4 June 2017)- ENT ($30), Booktastik ($10), BookHippo (Free!), Discount Book Man (Free!)
Free Downloads: 687
Overall Rank: #220+
Horror Rank: #7
War Rank: #2

Day 2 (5 June 2017)- Freebooksy ($40), Robin Reads ($40)
Free Downloads: 1377
Overall Rank: #91
Horror Rank: #9
War Rank #1

As you can see, Freebooksy and Robin Reads have both outperformed ENT and the Forlorn Hope Squad  Assuming that Freebooksy and Robin Reads are both equal, each of them would have pulled 688 downloads, which is equal to what the entire Forlorn Hope Squad managed to scrape together. Considering that ENT and Booktastik aren't free and needed help from BookHippo and Discount Book Man to perform similarly to either Freebooksy or Robin Reads, I'd say that the latter services are more cost-effective in the free category. Still, I think everyone's a winner here. Without ENT, I'm still gonna be in trouble 

What's most important is progress. Apparently, I've gotten out more copies of the book on Day 2 (a single day!) as I did for my entire debut novel book launch. I think a combination of the 'veteran' status of the book with its reviews, my informed choice of advertisers and possibly the presence of a second book has improved my campaign performance this time.

The question remains... How big of an atom blast will Bookbub make?

And what kind of results will it yield? The next few days will be very interesting indeed.

The initial results will probably appear in a few hours.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Bookbub outperformed everything else COMBINED in the couple hours it came online...


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Looks to me like Bookbub lived up to its reputation:








And in a way, I guess so did my book. I've nearly reached the average number of downloads for a horror book on Bookbub, just 456 downloads shy of 14,500 (if I'm not wrong).

The result, is frankly, awe-inspiring...

Day 1 (4 June 2017)- ENT ($30), Booktastik ($10), BookHippo (Free!), Discount Book Man (Free!)
Free Downloads: 687
Overall Rank: #220+
Horror Rank: #7
War Rank: #2

Day 2 (5 June 2017)- Freebooksy ($40), Robin Reads ($40)
Free Downloads: 1,377 Units
Overall Rank: #91
Horror Rank: #9
War Rank: #1

Day 3 (6 June 2017)- Bookbub ($155)
Free Downloads: 14,044 Units
KENP: 951 Pages
Overall Rank: #9
Horror Rank: #1
War Rank: #1

Yep, Bookbub has made me a winner in every category my book represents. It's only a shame that I can't put my book in any other categories as it wouldn't fit and would benefit no one if I did. What is most interesting is that I'm already starting to see some returns from Bookbub. On Kindle Unlimited, more than 2 book's worth of pages have been read by either 2 persons or a group of interested horror fans. The number of pre-orders I got jumped from 4 to 9.

Then there's another thing. Even before Day 4's promotions have started their thing, I'm already seeing huge downloads, no doubt from stragglers in Bookbub and probably browsers who happened to see my book on the top 100 lists. It's probably wasted effort to estimate how many downloads Awesomegang (Free!) and MyBookPlace (Free!) could bring in. What really wowed me too is this:








Yes, the Bookbub stragglers and top 100 list browsers outnumber the readers brought in by ENT and the Forlorn Hope Squad, and it looks like it might outnumber Freebooksy and Robin Reads' customers when Day 4 is done. It's no wonder people say that you won't need anything else after you've claimed a Bookbub slot!

EDIT: I've also set a new record for author rank: #4,170. Previously, it'd been #24,771... Though I'm not sure what the benefits of author rank is.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Hey guys, it's that time of the day again!

Looks to me like my hunch was right. Even after my Bookbub day is officially over, its effect is still being felt...

Day 1 (4 June 2017)- ENT ($30), Booktastik ($10), BookHippo (Free!), Discount Book Man (Free!)
Free Downloads: 687
Overall Rank: #220+
Horror Rank: #7
War Rank: #2

Day 2 (5 June 2017)- Freebooksy ($40), Robin Reads ($40)
Free Downloads: 1,377 Units
Overall Rank: #91
Horror Rank: #9
War Rank: #1

Day 3 (6 June 2017)- Bookbub ($155)
Free Downloads: 14,044 Units
KENP: 951 Pages
Overall Rank: #9
Horror Rank: #1
War Rank: #1

Day 4 (7 June 2017)- Awesomegang (Free!), MyBookPlace (Free!)
Free Downloads: 2,263 Units
KENP: 702 Pages
Overall Rank: #24
Horror Rank: #2
War Rank: #2

On Day 4, the visibility of my book remains high, with it still being in the top 100s of every list it is in. My book is still being read in Kindle Unlimited, and I really hope this continues for the rest of the month... And next month... Then the next. I guess, in a way, my book is still getting promoted by Bookbub. My book is still up there, just that it isn't at the top of the list anymore. In fact, it's going to be on the page for a long while before disappearing. I guess that's where all the sales are coming from.

Here's a preview of Day 5:

Day 5 (8 June 2017)- Pretty Hot (Free!), Mega Book Deals ($2.50)
Free Downloads: 191 Units
KENP: 310 Pages

Yep, the free downloads are finally slowing down. I guess Bookbub readers are now checking out the books above mine, and I believe they're under the impression that it's no longer free - many of them won't even try clicking on my book cover, I suppose. I'm still hoping that Day 5's free downloads will still outnumber Day 1's. What I really hope though, is for the KENP reads to be maintained at a certain level.

Post-Promotion is where it gets interesting, and I'm honestly nervous about it. It's where the real test of my book starts. How many people are willing to pay $3.99 for my debut novel? Part of me is afraid, really afraid, that I'm going to turn out to be that Bookbub exception who makes a loss. Crossing my fingers...

Can't help but to start making calculations. How many books do I have to sell to earn back my advertising costs?

Total Expenses: $277.50
Book Price: $3.99
Royalty Before Tax (70%): $2.79
Royalty After Tax(-30%): $1.96
Books to Break Even: $277.50 / $1.96 = 141.58 rounded up to 142.

Yeah, to tell you the truth, I'm a little afraid. All sorts of numbers running in my head, all in the name of calculating if I can make back my money. Excluding KENP reads and Pre-Orders, it will take me 7 days to break even, assuming that sales would equal 10% of my current figures for Day 5's free downloads and daily sales won't decrease.

But in a way, I'm already expecting to lose money out of this. All I have is a debut novel, and a pre-order. Optimism to me is to lose as little as possible. I'm aiming at... at least a 50% retention of capital, and at most 75% - Yeah, that's me being optimistic. I'm not a very happy-go-lucky kind of guy when I'm professional.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Day 1 (4 June 2017)- ENT ($30), Booktastik ($10), BookHippo (Free!), Discount Book Man (Free!)
Free Downloads: 687
Overall Rank: #220+
Horror Rank: #7
War Rank: #2

Day 2 (5 June 2017)- Freebooksy ($40), Robin Reads ($40)
Free Downloads: 1,377 Units
Overall Rank: #91
Horror Rank: #9
War Rank: #1

Day 3 (6 June 2017)- Bookbub ($155)
Free Downloads: 14,044 Units
KENP: 951 Pages
Overall Rank: #9
Horror Rank: #1
War Rank: #1

Day 4 (7 June 2017)- Awesomegang (Free!), MyBookPlace (Free!)
Free Downloads: 2,263 Units
KENP: 702 Pages
Overall Rank: #24
Horror Rank: #2
War Rank: #2

Day 5 (8 June 2017)- Pretty Hot (Free!), Mega Book Deals ($2.50)
Free Downloads: 885 Units
KENP: 935 Pages
Ranking: No data, didn't check.

It seems that Bookbub was still attracting readers on Day 5. My book is also maintaining its hold on the Kindle Unlimited crowd. It seems that a lot of my income's going to come from there...

It's been 7 hours since my free promotion is over. Day 1 of sales started with crickets conventionally, but it seems that I might be set up for a huge burst of KENP reads... Because it's morning in the Pacific timezone, yet nearly 700 KENP reads have registered so far. My guess is that some real hard-core horror readers wanted to challenge themselves to a good scare from midnight till dawn. 

I've been really nervous about the transition to the paid category. The fear of huge losses is really killing me, and it doesn't help that I read that a small percentage of authors did suffer losses or shortfall in benefits... And it wasn't some random blog I got that from too. I read it on Bookbub's partner blog. I'm not sure if I'll be able to sleep at night.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

Sales Day 1 (09 June 2017)
Book Sales: 4 Copies
KENP: 2,242 Pages
Overall Rank: #17,763
Horror Rank: #604
War Rank: #178

First day of sales can be considered a success, partly due to the spike in KENP reads. I haven't seen 4 copies bought without discount for like, ever!

However, this day is also a dark day, because I've been receiving some negative reviews. It'd sent me running to my manuscript to make the corrections - I believe they've made a fair point. Somehow, my performance in writing spiked just as much as my sales. I was able to edit the first 9 chapters, which amounted to about 23,000 words, in one day, and I removed about 1,000 words that I deemed to have caused the negative reviews. Basically, what was said was that my book had slowed down too much.

I'm hoping to make more changes tomorrow, but I don't have much time. I'll try to remove another 1,000 words. 1,000 words is the equivalent of 4 novel pages, so that's quite a weight loss, right? I myself can read about 10 pages in 45 minutes, so 4 pages is about 20 minutes of content trimmed off. It should be worth something.


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## RightHoJeeves (Jun 30, 2016)

xbriannova said:


> However, this day is also a dark day, because I've been receiving some negative reviews. It'd sent me running to my manuscript to make the corrections - I believe they've made a fair point. Somehow, my performance in writing spiked just as much as my sales. I was able to edit the first 9 chapters, which amounted to about 23,000 words, in one day, and I removed about 1,000 words that I deemed to have caused the negative reviews. Basically, what was said was that my book had slowed down too much.
> 
> I'm hoping to make more changes tomorrow, but I don't have much time. I'll try to remove another 1,000 words. 1,000 words is the equivalent of 4 novel pages, so that's quite a weight loss, right? I myself can read about 10 pages in 45 minutes, so 4 pages is about 20 minutes of content trimmed off. It should be worth something.


Don't sweat the negative reviews too much. If you agree with them, well, sure. Take it on board. But don't start chopping up the book because a few people said so. From the reviews it sounds like you have a pretty distinct style, which some people will really dig and some people won't.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

RightHoJeeves said:


> Don't sweat the negative reviews too much. If you agree with them, well, sure. Take it on board. But don't start chopping up the book because a few people said so. From the reviews it sounds like you have a pretty distinct style, which some people will really dig and some people won't.


Thanks...

Apparently, I do have a distinct style... But my experience tells me that I tend to go overboard at times. It wasn't just the reviewers who said so. My creative writing professor and mentor said that it's my biggest problem. He'd likened me to a sculptor who's trying to build a temple.  My FYP was a short story that's supposed to have a 10,000 word limit... And I broke 13,000. Apparently, I haven't been able to kick it completely even though I've graduated for 2 years. But believe me... I've tried. Heh, the novel used to be muuuuuuuuuuuch longer and over-descriptive. 

Anyway, it's been almost a week, so I've decided to show some post-Bookbub data. The results are both inspiring and disappointing at the same time. I honestly don't know how that works. My brain can be so messed up sometimes:

Sales Day 1 (09 June 2017)
Book Sales: 4 Copies
KENP: 2,242 Pages
Pre-Order: 0 Copy

Sales Day 2 (10 June 2017)
Book Sales: 1 Copies
KENP: 2,005 Pages
Pre-Order: 0 Copy

Sales Day 3 (11 June 2017)
Book Sales: 2 Copies
KENP: 931 Pages
Pre-Order: 1 Copy

Sales Day 4 (12 June 2017)
Book Sales: 2 Copies
KENP: 825 Pages
Pre-Order: 1 Copy

Sales Day 5 (13 June 2017)
Book Sales: 1 Copies
KENP: 2,053 Pages
Pre-Order: 0 Copy

Sales Day 6 (14 June 2017) (NOTE: THIS DAY IS NOT OVER. IT IS ONLY ABOUT 6:50AM IN PACIFIC TIME AS OF THE TIME OF THIS WRITING)
Book Sales: 0 Copies
KENP: 886 Pages
Pre-Order: 0 Copy

GRAND-TOTAL
Book Sales: 10 Copies
KENP: 11,531 Pages
Pre-Order: 12 Copies (Most from promotion)

The reason why I omitted the ranking is because I've recently put the book into a whole bunch of categories that I believe the novel fits in. World Literature > Asian, for instance. Somehow, I'm placed at #7 - #9 there because of the tiny competition  And I believe that might have caused the spike in KENP reads on Day 5.

My book is maintaining a better orbit than before in terms of ranking. It's still a decaying orbit, but it's decaying much slower. I'm hoping that it will continue to sell to some capacity for the next month, survive somewhat for the launch of my second book.


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## xbriannova (Sep 23, 2016)

It's been a long while, but as it is, life basically sucks at the moment. Gee, I can't friggin' wait for the next nail in the coffin to finally KO me. It's basically a deluge of bad reviews over here, with precious few good ones for me to take shelter behind. Now I know how Adam Sandler or Jack Neo, or any other struggling artists feel. That's me, minus a positive income. I don't think anyone wants to be hated, unless they're Uwe Boll.

Anyway, I've since responded promptly to reviews (by editing my book based on their observations) that I've deemed to have made fair points, and I think my book has come out all the better for it. For those of you who've advised me on what to do in a situation like this, thanks. I guess it'll all rest on my next book now.

Anyway, here's the obligatory sales results for those of you who still wants to follow this:

Sales Day 1 (09 June 2017)
Book Sales: 4 Copies
KENP: 2,242 Pages
Pre-Order: 0 Copy

Sales Day 2 (10 June 2017)
Book Sales: 1 Copies
KENP: 2,005 Pages
Pre-Order: 0 Copy

Sales Day 3 (11 June 2017)
Book Sales: 2 Copies
KENP: 931 Pages
Pre-Order: 1 Copy

Sales Day 4 (12 June 2017)
Book Sales: 2 Copies
KENP: 825 Pages
Pre-Order: 1 Copy

Sales Day 5 (13 June 2017)
Book Sales: 1 Copies
KENP: 2,053 Pages
Pre-Order: 0 Copy

Sales Day 6 (14 June 2017)
Book Sales: 0 Copies
KENP: 1,193 Pages
Pre-Order: 1 Copy

Sales Day 7 (15 June 2017)
Book Sales: 2 Copies
KENP: 389 Pages
Pre-Order: 1 Copy

Sales Day 8 (16 June 2017)
Book Sales: 2 Copies
KENP: 339 Pages
Pre-Order: 1 Copy (And 1 Cancellation)

Sales Day 9 (17 June 2017)
Book Sales: 1 Copies
KENP: 437 Pages
Pre-Order: - Copy

Sales Day 10 (18 June 2017)
Book Sales: 0 Copies
KENP: 537 Pages
Pre-Order: 0 Copy

Sales Day 11 (19 June 2017)
Book Sales: 0 Copies
KENP: 513 Pages
Pre-Order: 1 Copy

Sales Day 12 (20 June 2017)
Book Sales: 1 Copies
KENP: 912 Pages
Pre-Order: 0 Copy

GRAND-TOTAL
Book Sales: 14 Copies (2 refunds)
KENP: 15,133 Pages
Pre-Order: 15 Copies (I'd say that half are from promotions and the other half afterwards)


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