# BookBub Year End Promo (Update on Reviews and Signups)



## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

I have a BookBub Free Promo on Fallen Palm on 12/31. At the same time, Fallen Hunter will be in a Countdown Deal and promoted on several sites, with cross promotion statements at the top of each book description.

The Countdown Deal on Hunter starts at 9pm Eastern tonight and runs through 9pm on 1/3. The KDP Select Free Promo starts at 3am Eastern tonight and runs through 3am on 1/4.

At the same time, I'm also promoting the Seven Seas Mysteries box set that Fallen Out is in on Facebook, Twitter, my website, and blog, with a cross promotion mention of the box set in Palm's book description. Another writer in the set gets the reports and I'll share any successes she tells me about, along with what happens with my books on here.

Currently the box set is ranked #1,904 and has been around the 1600 to 2000 rankings for ten days.
Fallen Out is ranked #16,445.
Fallen Palm is ranked #10,909.
Fallen Hunter is ranked #13,704.
Fallen Pride is ranked #9,072.
Fallen Mangrove is ranked #8,468.

As always, it's a stacked promo. For Fallen Palm, I have a KBoards ad tomorrow, along with FussyLibrarian, AwesomeGang, FreeBooksy, and ENT. Plus an eBookBargainsUK ad for across the pond. All scheduled for Tuesday, with BookBub on Wednesday.

For Fallen Hunter, I have nothing scheduled for tomorrow, but the Countdown Deal itself, then BKnights, GoodKindle, and ReadCheaply on Wednesday.

I'm hoping for a Top 20 in the Free Kindle Store for Palm and a Top 1,000 ranking for Hunter in the Paid Store. I expect to see a good bit of movement in the box set, too. Maybe a Top 1000, as well.

I'll post an update morning, noon, and night, as this promo continues to show how it goes.

T-30 minutes and counting.


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## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

Good luck, Wayne!


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Wayne dear,
I need new book not a rerun.  Keep this up and I will have to find someone else to support.    Idea... every time you want to check your data, write me a paragraph or two.


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## Lucian (Jun 8, 2014)

Thank you for sharing your info and inspiring so many of us.

Best of luck!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

cinisajoy said:


> Wayne dear,
> I need new book not a rerun. Keep this up and I will have to find someone else to support. Idea... every time you want to check your data, write me a paragraph or two.


Hey, I've been pretty productive the last few days. Over 6000 words and a fun twist in the plot. Somebody is retiring and somebody else is getting promoted.

Fallen Hunter's price dropped at 9:01.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Good luck, Wayne. Following your promo threads has been seriously motivating and educational for me the last several months. Unfortunately, you didn't learn me anything that stuck - I totally farked my own first promo run that starts tomorrow. 

I'll be following this closely, as always.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

DawnLee said:


> I totally farked my own first promo run that starts tomorrow.


What happened?


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Bah, I'll natter about it on my promo thread tomorrow. This is your thread. I just accidentally scheduled almost everything for the 30th. I meant to spread them out so I could track the effectiveness. I need to spend about three days in Cocoa Beach before I make another decision more important than which coffee mug to use.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Cocoa Beach is fun, but the surf is better just a few miles south in Melbourne Beach.  

Just checking on things this morning. The first two ads came out, eBookBargainsUK and FussyLibrarian. The UK ad had the wrong book description, nothing to do with Fallen Palm, at all. The price dropped to free just a few minutes after midnight Pacific time, so everything's a go. Ranking lags behind sales by about five hours, so there's no significant rank movement yet. 

Fallen Palm has 112 downloads so far, 4 of those in the UK.
Fallen Hunter has 12 sales and 3 borrows.

Can anyone in the UK confirm the price on Fallen Hunter has dropped to 99 pence there?


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Cocoa Beach is fun, but the surf is better just a few miles south in Melbourne Beach.


I don't mess with Spanish Houses. Too many sharks and I just bodysurf anyway. 

Good luck today, Wayne. I hope you kill it. I have all of your books in my cart; I'm just waiting on a small windfall and a good stretch of time. I'm looking forward to a literary stomp through the old stomping grounds.


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## Scottish Lass (Oct 10, 2013)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Can anyone in the UK confirm the price on Fallen Hunter has dropped to 99 pence there?


Yep, 99p


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## AA.A (Sep 6, 2012)

Good Luck Wayne!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

DawnLee said:


> I don't mess with Spanish Houses. Too many sharks and I just bodysurf anyway.


Other side of the bridge.  Monster Hole. I used to live on the corner of 2nd Ave and A1A. Nice break.

Okay, the first round of ads started coming out for Fallen Palm's free promo early this morning. One had the wrong blurb, but the others look good so far. They came out at 0730 (FussyLibrarian), 0800 (eBookBargainsUK, wrong blurb), 1000 (AwesomeGang), and 1045 (FreeBooksy). The KBoards post should be any minute now, then nothing until ENT this evening.

Here's the current and midnight rankings. Keep in mind that rank reflects sales from five hours earlier.
Title: Current Rank, (Starting Rank)
Seven Seas Mysteries: #2,339 (2,06
Fallen Out: #17,225 (17,864)
Fallen Palm: #3,202 Free (12,769 Paid/34,289 Free)
Fallen Hunter: #9,147 (12,370)
Fallen Pride: #10,416 (9,567)
Fallen Mangrove: #8,356 (9,357)


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Ereaderiq picked you up too.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Other side of the bridge.  Monster Hole. I used to live on the corner of 2nd Ave and A1A. Nice break.


Ha! 4th and A1A in CB.



Wayne Stinnett said:


> Keep in mind that rank reflects sales from five hours earlier.


I just learned something. Thanks. 



Wayne Stinnett said:


> Title: Current Rank, (Starting Rank)
> Seven Seas Mysteries: #2,339 (2,06
> Fallen Out: #17,225 (17,864)
> Fallen Palm: #3,202 Free (12,769 Paid/34,289 Free)
> ...


Six shades of coolness.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

cinisajoy said:


> Ereaderiq picked you up too.


Love when that happens. Hoping Pixel of Ink picks it up, too. They come out at 3:00 and would fill the gap nicely.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

The KBoards post just came out. Fallen Palm placed right at the top. Thanks, Harvey.


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## Eskimo (Dec 31, 2013)

Thanks Wayne, I've been waiting to see your strategy for these!

Good luck with the BB freebie, I think you'll go Top 5 and maybe even better with how you've set it up. Have had very good results with combining ENT and Awesome Gang, both create some nice spikes.

My BB freebie for Safety Valve runs on Jan. 16. Am thinking about how best to cross-promote with another title.I'm also curious how BKnights will work out, I've heard they are very good for promoting free, not as good with 99 cent deals. Hope you prove that tidbit wrong.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

My wife has a book club dinner meeting this evening, so rather than force our daughter to suffer through my cooking, I'm taking her out to eat in a little bit. I'll update again before I go to bed. But, so far everything is going quite well. Today's downloads of Fallen Palm are on pace to eclipse the daily numbers from the promo I did on the first of the month and it's already nearing the top 100 in the free store. 

Here's where the rankings stand as of 1630 Eastern time:
Title: Current Rank, (Starting Rank)
Seven Seas Mysteries: #2,258 (2,06
Fallen Out: #16,097 (17,864)
Fallen Palm: #156 Free (12,769 Paid/34,289 Free)
Fallen Hunter: #7,005 (12,370)
Fallen Pride: #11,077 (9,567)
Fallen Mangrove: #8,939 (9,357)


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Ohfb has you as an evening pick.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

cinisajoy said:


> Ohfb has you as an evening pick.


Cool! Another bump to carry over through the night.

Even though one book is free today and another discounted, my revenue for the day has been about the average over the last week. Downloads of Fallen Palm have surpassed the best day of the free promo for Fallen Out, 12/1-12/5, with 5,408 downloads so far. Sales of Fallen Hunter, which is in a Countdown Deal, has passed the 100 mark.

Here's where the rankings stand as of 9 pm Eastern time:
Title: Current Rank, (Starting Rank)
Seven Seas Mysteries: #2,043 (2,06
Fallen Out: #13,619 (17,864)
Fallen Palm: #50 Free (12,769 Paid/34,289 Free)
Fallen Hunter: #3,475 (12,370)
Fallen Pride: #10,266 (9,567)
Fallen Mangrove: #10,393 (9,357)

Fallen Palm will likely slip some through the night, but should still be in the top 100 when the BookBub ad comes out in the morning. I checked both it and Fallen Hunter's product page this morning and both blurbs have a first line, bold-face cross promo to the other. I expect it to be around #4000 in the morning and it should pick up a number of sales from the BookBub cross promo.

I feel confident of a top 20 for Palm and a top 1000 for Hunter by this time tomorrow, with sell through kicking in by Thursday. What a great way to end the year.

To think, at this time last year it was on a Friday and I was sitting in a truckstop in Wyoming, having just delivered a load of over sized tires to a mine and would be there until Monday. I wrote chapter three and four of Fallen Pride while waiting there. This year, I'm a full time writer, earning more than I ever dreamed possible. I owe a lot of this year's success to everyone on here.

Thank you, KBoard Authors and Admin.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> To think, at this time last year it was on a Friday and I was sitting in a truckstop in Wyoming, having just delivered a load of over sized tires to a mine and would be there until Monday. I wrote chapter three and four of Fallen Pride while waiting there. This year, I'm a full time writer, earning more than I ever dreamed possible. I owe a lot of this year's success to everyone on here.
> 
> Thank you, KBoard Authors and Admin.


This made me exceptionally smiley. I felt like that when I left my job and started freelancing. Your posts give me hope that I'll feel like that again, when I leave freelancing for full-time fiction writing. Keep posting, keep sharing.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

You are a very good writer.  That helps.  I remember you posting a picture of those tires.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

cinisajoy said:


> I remember you posting a picture of those tires.


Note the guy standing next to the rear tire, inflating it.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Good luck to you Wayne!


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Note the guy standing next to the rear tire, inflating it.


I want to drive this. I may need a few phone books.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

DawnLee said:


> I want to drive this. I may need a few phone books.


The seat and peddles are fully adjustable for any height driver. Met a woman driver at one of the mines who couldn't have been more than 4'-10".

Last update for the night, then I'm going to bed. I'm certain of a top 20 now. Fallen Palm has continued to rise, being picked up by a few more advertisers. Currently, it's been downloaded 6,626 times and Fallen Hunter now has 151 sales. The ReadCheaply ad I thought I'd scheduled for Hunter for tomorrow, ran today instead.

Here's where the rankings stand as of midnight Eastern time:
Title Current Rank (Starting Rank) +/- change in rank since midnight 12/29
Seven Seas Mysteries: #1,876 (2,06 +192
Fallen Out: #10,724 (17,864) +7,140
Fallen Palm: #29 Free (12,769 Paid/34,289 Free) +34,260
Fallen Hunter: #1,806 (12,370) +10,564
Fallen Pride: #6,803 (9,567) +2,764
Fallen Mangrove: #8,253 (9,357) +1,104

The surprise is the big move with Fallen Out, the first book in the series. I really hadn't expected that big a move for a day or two. I guess a lot of people got Palm for free and Hunter for $.99 and decided to take a chance and buy Fallen Out at full price.

Less than 12 hours until Fallen Palm is featured in BookBub. That's when things are really going to get exciting. It's late and I'm spent. Headed to the room with no computer until dawn. I'll post the final download numbers for today in the morning and update again before BookBub comes out just before noon.


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

Just noticed Fallen Palm at #22 free. Looks like you should be in great shape when your BookBub hits.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Vinny OHare said:


> Just noticed Fallen Palm at #22 free. Looks like you should be in great shape when your BookBub hits.


An hour later, it peaked at #21 for two hours. Thanks for the exposure, Vinny. I really thought it would fall off some through the night, but it's still holding at #24 this morning. I had another gall bladder episode last night, so only woke up a few minutes ago. The BookBub ad will be out in less than an hour and the first four moved up slightly overnight, while Pride and Mangrove slipped a little.

Here's where the rankings stand as of 11am Eastern time:
Title Current Rank (Starting Rank) +/- since midnight 12/29
Seven Seas Mysteries: #1,822 (2,06 +246
Fallen Out: #9,446 (17,864) +8,418
Fallen Palm: #24 Free (34,289 Free) +34,265
Fallen Hunter: #1,559 (12,370) +10,811
Fallen Pride: #8,961 (9,567) +606
Fallen Mangrove: #8,839 (9,357) +518

I don't expect to see much movement in rank when the ad comes out. Rank lags behind sales by about five hours. The first big jump in ranking will happen with the 4pm update. Everything will likely slip downward a little over the next five hours.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> I don't expect to see much movement in rank when the ad comes out. Rank lags behind sales by about five hours. The first big jump in ranking will happen with the 4pm update. Everything will likely slip downward a little over the next five hours.


Hey Wayne,

I think those numbers rock. What are your ultimate goal numbers from the promos?

On the above: So AwsomeGang comes out about noon our time? I ask because I have an AwesomeGang today as well. Good to know that rank has a five hour lag, too. I think you just helped me cut back on all the stat checking that sucked up my entire day yesterday. 

Thanks so much for sharing all of your promo results and strategies over the last several months. I've learned a great deal from you and I still have a boatload to learn.


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## Keith Strohm (Mar 5, 2012)

Wayne,

  I always love your promo threads! Can I ask what your strategy was in choosing the books that you did for the year end promo?

  Keith


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

DawnLee said:


> Hey Wayne,
> 
> I think those numbers rock. What are your ultimate goal numbers from the promos?
> 
> ...


The AwesomeGang ad (and several others) was yesterday. Those are what got it up to #24. By placing smaller ads ahead of a big one, it kicks in the historical side of the Zon algorithm, giving slightly more weight to each sale/download for ranking. The BookBub ad is the only thing scheduled for Fallen Palm today and it just came out. I also have a couple of ads on Fallen Hunter for today.

BookBub had me in the top slot, with a really good blurb, saying it was "Perfect for fans of Carl Hiaasen."   Hiaasen is one of my all time favorite writers and one of South Florida's best. In the twenty minutes since the email came out, I've had an additional 2148 downloads.

To answer your question, I was hoping for a top 20, but it's already there, so now I'm hoping for #1. I'm also hoping for a top 1000 with Fallen Hunter, which is in the promo as well.



Keith Strohm said:


> Wayne,
> 
> I always love your promo threads! Can I ask what your strategy was in choosing the books that you did for the year end promo?
> 
> Keith


Earlier in the month, I experimented with Fallen Out, the prequel to the series and learned a few things. Fallen Palm and Fallen Hunter were the first two books I wrote and were next up in the rotation for doing either a Countdown Deal or a Free Promo through KDP Select. So, I decided to run them together in a promo, offering Fallen Out as part of the boxed set. Readers can get all three for only $1.98, plus six other authors' works. Both Palm and Hunter renew their Select enrollment in February, while Pride and Mangrove renewed yesterday and today.

Going forward, I don't think I'll do two at the same time. Especially near the launch of another. It's a lot of plates to spin. My 6th book comes out in late January or early February and I plan to run Fallen Out in a BookBub ad shortly after that.

Fallen Palm is titled "Volume 1" and Fallen Hunter is titled "Volume 2", which sometimes confuses readers, since "Fallen Out, The Beginning" is actually the first book in the series. But any can be read as a stand alone and I've had no complaints.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

"In the twenty minutes since the email came out, I've had an additional 2148 downloads."

I think "Holy crap!" suffices as a comment.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Oh and Wayne's milestone was at the top of my Facebook newsfeed.


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## Ethan Jones (Jan 20, 2012)

Congratulations, Wayne.
Ethan


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## Eskimo (Dec 31, 2013)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> To answer your question, I was hoping for a top 20, but it's already there, so now I'm hoping for #1. I'm also hoping for a top 1000 with Fallen Hunter, which is in the promo as well.
> 
> Going forward, I don't think I'll do two at the same time. Especially near the launch of another. It's a lot of plates to spin. My 6th book comes out in late January or early February and I plan to run Fallen Out in a BookBub ad shortly after that.


Wayne, I think you have a very real shot at # 1, it all depends on your competition today. Last year I ran a BB freebie for Post Pattern and got almost 55,000 downloads. In most instances that's good enough to reach # 1, but it peaked at # 2. The # 1 slot went to a book that had 77,000 downloads. The author promoted it into every single site you have ever heard of, I think he spent over $600 and wound up getting into ENT, Pixel of Ink, FKB&T, KND and others that helped rocket him ahead of me. Hopefully you won't be up against someone like that today!

I am very curious about your note about not doing two promos at the same time again -- is that because of the sales results you're seeing so far?


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

David Chill said:


> Wayne, I think you have a very real shot at # 1, it all depends on your competition today. Last year I ran a BB freebie for Post Pattern and got almost 55,000 downloads. In most instances that's good enough to reach # 1, but it peaked at # 2. The # 1 slot went to a book that had 77,000 downloads. The author promoted it into every single site you have ever heard of, I think he spent over $600 and wound up getting into ENT, Pixel of Ink, FKB&T, KND and others that helped rocket him ahead of me. Hopefully you won't be up against someone like that today!
> 
> I am very curious about your note about not doing two promos at the same time again -- is that because of the sales results you're seeing so far?


No, sales are great. It's just a lot of work and diminishes how often I can do a promo. With five books and a sixth on the way, I could conceivably run a different book in a BookBub ad every month. But, if I run two promos at the same time, one in BB and the other not, that eliminates a spot further on. I only did it this once, because my next promo will be for the boxed set.

Downloads of Fallen Palm are really taking off now and the expected leap in rank occurred with the 4 pm update, to #5 in the Free Store. The next update will probably be better, but I'm through the roof already. The peak ranking should occur about 9 or 10 tonight, reflecting downloads right now, as people are getting home from work and opening their email.

Current downloads of Fallen Palm are at 21,466 for today, plus the 7,090 from yesterday, puts it at 28,556. I was hoping for 40K, but it seems 50K might not be out of reach.

Sales of Fallen Hunter (in a Countdown Deal with multiple advertisements) has topped 200.

Here's where the rankings stand as of 4pm Eastern time:
Title Current Rank (Starting Rank) +/- since midnight 12/29
Seven Seas Mysteries: #1,930 (2,06 +138
Fallen Out: #8,577 (17,864) +9,287
Fallen Palm: #5 Free (34,289 Free) +34,284
Fallen Hunter: #1,694 (12,370) +10,676
Fallen Pride: #9,059 (9,567) +508
Fallen Mangrove: #8,839 (9,357) +518

Author ranking usually lags almost 24 hours after sales. This morning I went from #85 to #48 for Action/Adventure authors. Tomorrow's author ranking will reflect today and should be higher still.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Hey Wayne, not to detract from your awesomeness, which is the point, but how do you look up author ranking by cat? 

ETA: Never mind, I found it. But thanks for alerting me to the fact that it's there.


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

#3 Now


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Less than two hours left in the year and today has been the best sales day in six weeks, since a Countdown Deal with BookBub in mid-November. What a great way to end a year and start a new one. 

My wife, our youngest daughter and myself started a new tradition. We have a 6' tall Norfolk Island Pine that's been in my office and we moved it to the living room replacing the Christmas tree and decorated it with white lights. Henceforth, it's known as the New Year tree during this time of year. We had a little champagne and made a toast then each brought up something that we'd like to do, and can do, in the next year together. 

I've never been one to make resolutions, so we're just calling it our 2015 plan. Jordy and I both wrote down the same thing. For years, I've wanted to take them to the Keys and Cape Sable to show them the real Florida. My wife Greta wrote that she wanted a home in the Beaufort, SC area that we could be comfortable in. 

This past year has been a dream come true. Way beyond anything I ever imagined, so I can't really think of what the next year might bring. But, this summer, we're flying to Miami, driving the entire length of the Keys from Alabama Jack's to Hog's Breath with a return flight to Beaufort, where we'll live.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Now, on to the matter at hand. Like I said, it's been the best day in six weeks and there's still more than four hours left. Total downloads of Fallen Palm for today has passed the 28K mark, making 35K total. It's been the #2 ranked book in the Free Store for over three hours.

Fallen Hunter has sold over 270 copies and best of all, sell through to Fallen Out, which was languishing in the 18K ranking, has sold more than 50 copies at full price. Pride and Mangrove are way up as well.

Here's where the rankings stand as of 10pm Eastern time:
Title                              Current Rank    (Starting Rank)      +/-  since midnight 12/29
Seven Seas Mysteries:  #1,708            (2,06                  +360
Fallen Out:                    #4,435            (17,864)                +13,429
Fallen Palm:                  #2 Free            (34,289 Free)        +32,287
Fallen Hunter:                #865                (12,370)                +11,505
Fallen Pride:                  #4,533            (9,567)                  +5,034
Fallen Mangrove:          #5,059              (9,357)                  +4,298


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Great going Wayne.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Welcome to 2015, y'all. What a great ride 2014 was. I'm looking forward to a great year this year and wish all of you the best for a healthy and prosperous 2015.

Fallen Palm never made #1, but I'd never expected it to. I'd hoped and worked to make a top 20 spot. It did hit #2 last night at 7pm Eastern and it's still #2 this morning. That's over 14 hours at that spot, so I'm way more than satisfied. BookBub has done it again. This being my first free run with them, I can only guess what the sell through going into 2015 will produce, but I feel confident that my numbers will stay up at least until Fallen King comes out later this month.

Downloads yesterday totaled 30,499 and today has brought in an additional 1,794, for a three day total of 39,383 so far.

Sales of Fallen Hunter continued strong through the night, with a total of 484 since the promo started 2-1/2 days ago, peaking at #552, but falling a bit this morning. 

Sell through to Fallen Out resulted in 53 full price sales yesterday, about 40 above the previous ten day's average. It peaked last night at #3,283, but has slipped a bit this morning, also.

Pride and Mangrove are still up, as well.

From this free promotion and the one earlier in December, I find that stacking smaller ads the day before a bigger one like BookBub, has the same affect as it does in a discounted ad. The higher sales over the 48 hours leading up to it kick in the historical side of the algorithm, giving slightly more weight to each subsequent sale or download. Not much, just a very small fraction of a percentage, but enough to gain higher rank and therefore visibility.

Here's where the rankings stand as of midnight Eastern time:
Title                              Current Rank    (Starting Rank)      +/-  since midnight 12/29
Seven Seas Mysteries:  #1,543            (2,06                  +525
Fallen Out:                    #3,976            (17,864)                +13,888
Fallen Palm:                  #2 Free            (34,289 Free)          +32,287
Fallen Hunter:                #561                (12,370)                +11,809
Fallen Pride:                  #5,906            (9,567)                  +3,661
Fallen Mangrove:          #6,028            (9,357)                  +3,329


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## A past poster (Oct 23, 2013)

Congratulations, Wayne!  Best wishes for a healthy, happy, successful New Year!!!


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

That's really impressive. Conch for everybody!


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## KGGiarratano (Aug 14, 2013)

My 5-year-old just flipped seeing that quarry dump truck. He's obsessed with quarry dump trucks.

Also, best of luck with your promo!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

KGGiarratano said:


> My 5-year-old just flipped seeing that quarry dump truck. He's obsessed with quarry dump trucks.
> 
> Also, best of luck with your promo!


That's actually one of the smaller ones. Its tires are 11'-10" tall. The ones at another mine I used to deliver to had tires 13'-6" tall and there's a new model being produced that will dwarf that. The biggest ones currently are 360-400 ton capacity. This new one coming out is a 500 ton rig.

I had a pleasant surprise this morning. The first ad on Tuesday morning, eBookBargainsUK, that had the wrong blurb, emailed me apologizing for the error. This was my first time using a UK promo site and Mark was more than gracious. He offered to run three future ads at no cost, for any book in any promo. He went on to say that he saw Fallen Palm in BookBub and offered to run it for two days for free. So it was in this mornings newsletter and will be again tomorrow, plus I have three spots in the future.

I like the way they do business and will certainly be using them again.


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## SkyScribe (Aug 18, 2014)

Those are some very strong numbers, almost romance book strong. Congratulations!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Sell through has begun in earnest, now. Fallen Out, Fallen Hunter (still in a Countdown Deal until tonight), and Fallen Pride have all made significant gains. Fallen Mangrove is up a little as well. 

Yesterday, Fallen Palm was downloaded 7,345 times bringing the total to 45,109, with today and tomorrow left. My 50K goal will likely happen today. It's been in the top 10 in the free store for over 36 hours, hanging tough at #9 for the last eight hours.

Fallen Hunter had 121 sales yesterday, staying inside the top 1000 for the same 36 hours. 

Here's where the rankings stand as of 5am Eastern time:
Title                              Current Rank    (Starting Rank)      +/-  since midnight 12/29
Seven Seas Mysteries:  #1,680            (2,06                  +388
Fallen Out:                    #5,388            (17,864)                +12,476
Fallen Palm:                  #9 Free            (34,289 Free)        +34,280
Fallen Hunter:                #813                (12,370)                +11,557
Fallen Pride:                  #4,884            (9,567)                  +4,683
Fallen Mangrove:          #5,754              (9,357)                  +3,603


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## timstevens (Jul 4, 2012)

Terrific results, Wayne. Thanks for sharing them. 

I'm definitely going to follow your lead and try a stacked promo in February when I'm next eligible for BookBub (assuming I get accepted). Last time I did BB for this particular book, Omega Dog, I managed 46,000 free downloads, but didn't have any follow-up books in the series. A wasted opportunity in many ways. This time there'll be four follow-on books.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

timstevens said:


> Terrific results, Wayne. Thanks for sharing them.
> 
> I'm definitely going to follow your lead and try a stacked promo in February when I'm next eligible for BookBub (assuming I get accepted). Last time I did BB for this particular book, Omega Dog, I managed 46,000 free downloads, but didn't have any follow-up books in the series. A wasted opportunity in many ways. This time there'll be four follow-on books.


Here's another idea for stacking ads the day before. If you're not already, subscribe to every newsletter you're thinking about using and keep track of the time of day when you get the emails for the genre you're in. The algorithm for ranking uses a rolling 48 hour block, with the most recent 24 hour block as the primary variable for calculating rank. If you have a bunch of ads that all come out about the same time, you'll have spikes, instead of a steady climb. Any kind of algorithm that uses a time based scale will give greater weight to a steady climb than a bunch of peaks and valleys, because each hour would carry a gradually increasing variable with the most recent hour/day/week carrying the most weight. There are literally thousands of posts on here about how each advertiser performs individually. You can't really tell when they're stacked, unless you're clicking the refresh button and tracking sales by the minute. If set up in just the right order, you can create a steady climb throughout the day resulting in a much smoother baseline for the algorithm to work off of.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Any kind of algorithm that uses a time based scale will give greater weight to a steady climb than a bunch of peaks and valleys, because each hour would carry a gradually increasing variable with the most recent hour/day/week carrying the most weight. [...] If set up in just the right order, you can create a steady climb throughout the day resulting in a much smoother baseline for the algorithm to work off of.


Wayne, this is just amazing attention to detail. I am in awe of what you do.

But you are also finding time to write that next book, aren't you??


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Wayne, this is just amazing attention to detail. I am in awe of what you do.
> 
> But you are also finding time to write that next book, aren't you??


A thousand words a day, but now it's only five days a week. My next one will be out in four or five weeks. Well, that's my self imposed deadline anyway. My boss is pretty easy to work with, so if I write 2000 words one day, I reward myself with a morning at the range and an afternoon, playing with numbers.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> A thousand words a day, but now it's only five days a week. My next one will be out in four or five weeks. Well, that's my self imposed deadline anyway. My boss is pretty easy to work with, so if I write 2000 words one day, I reward myself with a morning at the range and an afternoon, playing with numbers.


I am gonna have to have a talk with your boss. Now quit reading Russell's book and get back to work. Or shouldn't you be getting dressed or something?


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

cinisajoy said:


> I am gonna have to have a talk with your boss. Now quit reading Russell's book and get back to work. Or shouldn't you be getting dressed or something?


What you see is what you get. At least I closed the door to the office so the dogs wouldn't be distracting me.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> What you see is what you get. At least I closed the door to the office so the dogs wouldn't be distracting me.


All I saw was an older bald guy in a blue shirt. 
For the record, sweats and a pink t-shirt here and was working on a two tone purple afghan.


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## timstevens (Jul 4, 2012)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Wayne, this is just amazing attention to detail. I am in awe of what you do.


May I second this. Awesome information, Wayne. Am paying close attention. Thanks again.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

The price on Hunter went back to $3.99 last night and Fallen Palm will revert back tonight then the promo will be over. Palm is still on page one of the Free Store at #18, for the third day. Fallen Hunter has slipped to #1,384, but Pride is now climbing the ranks, now at 3,554.

Total downloads of Fallen Palm is now at 48,351, with 17 hours left. I only need 1,649 downloads during that time to reach my goal of 50K.

My free promo on 12/1-12/5 using several advertisers, but not BookBub produced 17K downloads, but only enough sell through to barely pay for the ad and sales were back to average just a couple of days after it ended. I feel that sell through from this promo will extend for quite a while and I don't think it's just the volume of downloads. Could it be that BookBub subscribers are more discerning and more apt to actually read the free books?


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Here's another idea for stacking ads the day before. If you're not already, subscribe to every newsletter you're thinking about using and keep track of the time of day when you get the emails for the genre you're in. The algorithm for ranking uses a rolling 48 hour block, with the most recent 24 hour block as the primary variable for calculating rank. If you have a bunch of ads that all come out about the same time, you'll have spikes, instead of a steady climb. Any kind of algorithm that uses a time based scale will give greater weight to a steady climb than a bunch of peaks and valleys, because each hour would carry a gradually increasing variable with the most recent hour/day/week carrying the most weight. There are literally thousands of posts on here about how each advertiser performs individually. You can't really tell when they're stacked, unless you're clicking the refresh button and tracking sales by the minute. If set up in just the right order, you can create a steady climb throughout the day resulting in a much smoother baseline for the algorithm to work off of.


I've learned an awful lot from watching your promo threads over the last several months and this bit right here is getting downloaded and printed. This is one thing I really messed up with my first promo and I'm going to aim for this type of growth with the next one. Thanks so much for the transparency. If we pay attention, we new authors can skip a bunch of mistakes.


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## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Total downloads of Fallen Palm is now at 48,351, with 17 hours left. I only need 1,649 downloads during that time to reach my goal of 50K.


1,648  Looking forward to the read.


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## JR. (Dec 10, 2014)

1,647!

Hopefully it will be as gripping as this thread, which has been an awesome read. Your 'most helpful reviews' are the harshest I've ever seen, though.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

I didn't download this round but I can assure the readers that Wayne is worth the read.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

JR. said:


> 1,647!
> Your 'most helpful reviews' are the harshest I've ever seen, though.


Very true. The main genre of all my books is Action/Adventure. A few readers expect tons of action and are disappointed when my books don't deliver it cover to cover. If the category is ever broken in two, my books would fall into the adventure category and they have their best ranking in Sea Adventures. I sometimes try to describe from memory the many places where my books take place and think I do a fair job of it. However, the action junkies get bored with that.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Funny, it's the sense of place that I enjoyed most. I don;t think that's due entirely to my having lived there. 

But you must include geneps in at least one book. Just one. Someone has to eat a genep.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

DawnLee said:


> But you must include geneps in at least one book. Just one. Someone has to eat a genep.


Google is failing me here. What is a genep, pretty please? And how would you eat it?


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Google is failing me here. What is a genep, pretty please? And how would you eat it?


I hope you don't mind, Wayne. http://www.alwaysorderdessert.com/2009/07/quenepas.html

It's been almost forty years since I've had one and I can still taste them on my tongue. You can still find them growing in the Keys and the Caribbean. I lived on them both in the Keys and in St. Thomas, back in the seventies. Unimaginably good. Now, I need to either drive back down to Fl or order them a year in advance from Puerto Rico (for about the cost of driving down to FL).


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Oh God, I'd forgotten the taste. You could find them growing wild just about anywhere south of Miami in the seventies. Dad called them mamoncilloes (Sp). I think that's what the Cubans in Miami called them. Kids in the Keys called them Spanish limes, or genips. Nature's candy! Most of the trees were killed in the early eighties by frosty temperatures. About the only place they still grow is Key Weird. Hmmm, I just might have an idea. Thanks for the taste bud memory jog.  

I have a friend who lives in Marathon playing guitar for tips in bars. I'll have to give him a call and have him ship me some now.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Hey Wayne,

The season for geneps is generally August-Octoberish. There's a market in Orlando called Freshfields that sometimes gets them. There are also a couple of farmers in Puerto Rico who sell them on their websites and on Ebay, but they have a huge waiting list . However, I found one seller on Ebay that actually sells the trees. They'd be okay where you are. Sadly, not here in TN.

I have vivid memories of hanging out at Southernmost Beach on Sunday mornings and eating every genep on the trees they used to have there. In those days, the restaurant there was more of a dive. I used to body surf with Jimmy Buffet's dog while he and my parents drank beer and had brunch....all day. It's funny, I always remember hating growing up in the Keys, but reading your book reminded me that it wasn't really all bad. I stole a horse once when we lived on Big Coppitt and that was kind of fun.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

They wouldn't survive here. I'm just a little more than a hundred miles south of you, at the bottom of the Blue Ridge Mountains.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Ah well. I thought you were in FL. I guess we're both out of luck with the trees.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

DawnLee said:


> Ah well. I thought you were in FL. I guess we're both out of luck with the trees.


I moved here 14 years ago, this month. But, we're moving down to Beaufort this summer. I wonder if they'd survive there.

Well, there's less than six hours left in this promo and just a couple hours ago, I met the third of the three goals I wanted to do.

I wanted Fallen Palm to hit the top 20 and it was #2 for more than a day. It's slipped out of the top 20 this afternoon, after a 70 hour run, almost three days.

I wanted Fallen Hunter to make the top 1000 and it reached #552, staying in the top 1000 for 30 hours, a day and a half.

I wanted to reach the 50K download number and passed that about 6 pm, with nine hours to go. Currently it's at 50,509 downloads and nearing the same number today that it reached yesterday.

Sell through has been nothing short of phenomenal already. Compared to the previous ten days average royalty earnings, the total cost of all the ads, $275.45, was paid for in above average earnings before the first day was even over. In fact, $100 over. Currently, this promo has produced over $1000 in above average earnings in the five days it's run.

To those who say they can't afford the cost of a BookBub ad, I say this. You can't afford not to. Never mind the huge spike in revenue. I now have more than 50,000 new readers. That's double the population of Key West. Will I be running another BookBub ad in conjunction with a KDP Select Free Promo? Absolutely! It's on my calendar for March.


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## nico (Jan 17, 2013)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> To those who say they can't afford the cost of a BookBub ad, I say this. You can't afford not to. Never mind the huge spike in revenue. I now have more than 50,000 new readers. That's double the population of Key West. Will I be running another BookBub ad in conjunction with a KDP Select Free Promo? Absolutely! It's on my calendar for March.


Wayne, thanks for all the great info. I love following your journey! We have our very first ever BB ad on Monday and though I'm not as organized as you are, I've taken at least some inspiration in planning for it. Very excited to see the results, but also very nervous about pricing the other books in the series.

Thanks again!!!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

First, thanks for all the well wishes, back slaps, and congratulations. Well, it's over and what a ride. All five books are already way up in rank and I anticipate higher than usual sales going forward for some time to come. This will be my last post here for a few days, but I'll update how sell through is going next weekend.

Here's where the rankings stand at the end of the promo:
Title Current Rank (Starting Rank) +/- since midnight 12/29
Seven Seas Mysteries: #1,910 (2,06 +158
Fallen Out: #4,494 (17,864) +13,370
Fallen Palm: #26 free/3,497 paid (34,289 free/12,769 paid) +34,263 free/*+9,272 paid*
Fallen Hunter: #1,577 (12,370) +10,793
Fallen Pride: #3,476 (9,567) +6,091
Fallen Mangrove: #3,738 (9,357) +5,619

Note the increase in paid rank of over 9,000 spots immediately after the free promo. I started another thread to discuss the possibility of a free download counting as a small percentage of an actual sale.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Really motivating and a lot of great info. Thanks, Wayne and I'm happy for you that it worked so well.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Ten days since Fallen Palm was in the BookBub ad and sales across all titles is strong, very strong. About 80% above the previous two week's average.

Fallen Palm has received 46 new reviews since 12/31, mostly five star, and averaging slightly higher than its lifetime average of 4.3, at 4.4.

Since the BookBub ad, I've had 58 new subscribers to my newsletter, which is about 40 more than average for ten days.

How long the sell through will continue, I don't know. But right now, I'm very happy with the results. If sell through continues at the present pace, January will rival my best month ever with the exception of the discounted BookBub promo in August. But, that one was exceptional in a lot of ways.


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## nico (Jan 17, 2013)

That's great, Wayne. Do you intend to use BookBub freebie promos again in the future or just stick with paid?


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## 72117 (Sep 1, 2013)

Wonderful promo and results, Wayne! Congrats and thanks for sharing everything with us!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

nico said:


> That's great, Wayne. Do you intend to use BookBub freebie promos again in the future or just stick with paid?


I mix of both. Fallen Out will be BookBub eligible at the end of February, so I have a free promo scheduled for March if they accept it again. Then again in September. I'll probably do discounted promos on all the others, though. Fallen Out was the one I was referring to in my last post. It had only been published two months and was at the time, the prequel to three others. The BookBub ad for it was at the top of the email and the blurb they wrote, made ME want to buy it. It was on 8/1, so KOLL borrows helped. It reached #14 in the paid store and stayed in the top 20 for almost two full days. It sold over 5K that month and sell through was high, netting over 9K books sold and over 2K borrowed across all titles. That would be hard to duplicate.


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