# 6-month perma-free sales results on YA Urban Fantasy series for those interested



## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

My husband tracks my sales numbers, and he sent this to me this morning for fun.  I thought I'd share, since I get questions a lot about whether perma-free works.

I have a series called War of the Fae (WOTF) which is 4 books, and then an add-on series called Clash of the Otherworlds (COTO), which is 3 books.  They have all been out about a year now, some of them more than a year.  My first book in the series was published in February 2012.

I would say *most* readers realize there are 7 books in the series, but not all of them do because the series names are different (as a result of me extending the story due to reader requests).  I get emails all the time from people who finish book 4 of WOTF and then ask if there's anything else of mine they can read.  I'm still a little confused about people who skip front and back matter and don't bother to read websites before emailing, but whatever.  The point in me giving this detail is I think a very small percentage of people never see COTO, so that makes the numbers even more compelling.

Here are my perma-free results for WOTF and COTO over the past 6 months (which includes those slow summer months):

25% who download WOTF Book 1 free read WOTF Book 2
86% of those who read WOTF Book 2 finish the WOTF series
79% of those who finish WOTF go on to COTO
53% of those who read  WOTF Book 2 read all 7 (both series)

Total earnings for 6 months:  $47,271
Free downloads: 11,421
Earnings per FREE download $4.14

Before we went perma-free with book 1, sales were okay but had started to languish.  KDP Select wasn't working for Book 1 anymore because 5 free days over that 90-day period just weren't enough.  Sales increased almost immediately after the book went perma-free, within a couple weeks we really saw a difference.

I have a post-apocalyptic series with 4 books that I'm probably going to do the same thing with.  Perma-free is working for me and I'm glad I did it.


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## dianasg (Jan 8, 2010)

This is so interesting! Thanks for sharing! I think it really speaks to the fact that you've crafted a compelling story that readers remember - and come back for more of.  Which seems key in making permafree work. It's not enough just to have the book be free, it's got to be great to do its job as a loss leader. All the parts have to be there, and (subjectively) that's not always the case. A lot of times, permafree titles I've downloaded are OK or good, but not quite compelling enough for me to go back for more. 

The earnings per free download is fascinating! Again, thanks for sharing, Elle!


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## Guest (Oct 5, 2013)

Perma-free is an option that seems to have worked for you.  It doesn't work for everyone and many argue vociferously against it, but when I see something like $47,000 I take notice.


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

DianaGabriel said:


> This is so interesting! Thanks for sharing! I think it really speaks to the fact that you've crafted a compelling story that readers remember - and come back for more of.  Which seems key in making permafree work. It's not enough just to have the book be free, it's got to be great to do its job as a loss leader. All the parts have to be there, and (subjectively) that's not always the case. A lot of times, permafree titles I've downloaded are OK or good, but not quite compelling enough for me to go back for more.
> 
> The earnings per free download is fascinating! Again, thanks for sharing, Elle!


Glad you found it worthwhile. I really should be writing a book right now.


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## Anna K (Jul 2, 2011)

Thank you for posting your results! I just released the second book in my YA Fae series and have been trying to decide whether to go perma-free before Christmas or wait until my trilogy is complete (probably next summer.)
Posting such specific sales info really helps sway me in the perma-free direction. If my follow-through sales were even half of yours on the second book, I would still be doing exponentially better than I am now. Your posts are always so helpful, Elle.


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

Anna K said:


> Thank you for posting your results! I just released the second book in my YA Fae series and have been trying to decide whether to go perma-free before Christmas or wait until my trilogy is complete (probably next summer.)
> Posting such specific sales info really helps sway me in the perma-free direction. If my follow-through sales were even half of yours on the second book, I would still be doing exponentially better than I am now. Your posts are always so helpful, Elle.


Glad you enjoyed the post. I don't know if it should have any bearing on your decision, but I didn't go perma free until March of this year, so I let the series ride for almost a year before doing this, and it wasn't until the series was done. I didn't see the value in doing it while I had decent sales. It's only when they dropped off and KDP wasn't working anymore that I considered it


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## Tabitha Levin (Nov 1, 2011)

Excellent info! Thanks very much Elle


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## thesmallprint (May 25, 2012)

Thanks Elle. That's an astounding conversion rate from book 2. If only you had a way of contacting the 75% of readers who deserted after book 1 to see if you could get some idea why they didn't continue. There just might be something you could change there that would keep your current and fans and hold considerably more from the deserters. If you could even double that book 1 conversion rate, you know that once you get them to book 2 it's job done with a big impact on your bottom line.

Good luck with it all

Joe


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## David J Normoyle (Jun 22, 2012)

Steeplechasing said:


> Thanks Elle. That's an astounding conversion rate from book 2. If only you had a way of contacting the 75% of readers who deserted after book 1 to see if you could get some idea why they didn't continue.


A great many of the free books that are downloaded are never read. So it's not correct to assume that those who download a free book are a reader of that book.


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## Michael Buckley (Jun 24, 2013)

David J Normoyle said:


> A great many of the free books that are downloaded are never read. So it's not correct to assume that those who download a free book are a reader of that book.


I would love to know what the percent is. Many will never read the book I realize that and some might not read it for six months.


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## Justawriter (Jul 24, 2012)

Elle,

Thanks so much for this!  I think it's especially interesting the value you can put on each permafree.


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## Nikki Pink (Jan 23, 2013)

Greg Strandberg said:


> ... doesn't work for everyone and many argue vociferously against it...


Who argues vociferously against it and for what reasons?

Great stats Elle!


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## RBC (Feb 24, 2013)

Awesome stats. Especially the conversion stats into next series. How did you come up with those? 

Dropping link to this thread in FB/Google+, hope more people see this.


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## GWakeling (Mar 23, 2012)

'Oh, an Elle thread; MUST READ'.

Thanks for the numbers, Elle. Thanks an amazing conversion rate from your perma - 25%! Though, having read them, I know why. It's cliff-hanger central, but not in an annoying or frustrating way.

I get a MUCH higher conversion rate from book 2 and onwards, so it's good to see your results are similar. Way to go!

Geoff


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

So cool to see this in real dollars numbers . Thanks for sharing.

I've been thinking about going Permafree for Book 1 of my SEAL series because Select's payoff has been so horrible. You might have pushed me in that direction a little more!


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## Ardin (Nov 1, 2012)

Great information, Elle. Thank you.


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## Austin_Briggs (Aug 21, 2011)

Nikki Pink said:


> Who argues vociferously against it and for what reasons?
> 
> Great stats Elle!


Yep, I'd also love to learn the vociferous arguments against, since I just went perma-free last night.

And Elle, you're my hero.


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## Nikki Pink (Jan 23, 2013)

Gennita Low said:


> So cool to see this in real dollars numbers . Thanks for sharing.
> 
> I've been thinking about going Permafree for Book 1 of my SEAL series because Select's payoff has been so horrible. You might have pushed me in that direction a little more!


Do it! Put your books up everywhere and go perma-free on Book 1 (SEALs). And remember, permanent isn't permanent. If it doesn't work out, perma-free can become tempa-free and you can go back to selling at regular prices! I suspect if you're actually selling copies of Book 2, 3, etc. then it shows that readers like your writing, and if you can massively increase the number of people reading book 1 then going perma-free and selling on a bunch of platforms will massively boost sales on the other books in the series and be the best thing you ever did! I'm currently thinking that Select can be okay for getting some kind of initial audience, but once you've got an audience, and fans etc. get on as many platforms as possible. Those readers talk, and a lot of their Goodreads friends or other online friends are buying only on iPad or Kobo or iPhone or something. You're on their radar but they're waiting for you to show up in their 'regular' stores...

I'd like to hear whether platforms other than Amazon are big sellers for the further books in the series(e)s Elle has the perma-free anchoring =)


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## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

Perma free is working for my books too. I still have two books to release and will be doing an off shoot sometime in the future. I think I'll keep it under the same series name learnign from your example.


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## RockyGrede (Apr 19, 2013)

Thanks for sharing your results. Made me rethink my own situation.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

I'm horrible at figuring this kind of thing out. Can I borrow your husband for a day?

Anyway, I suspect my figures run about the same, only smaller and for less money. In the three years I've been doing this, If they like the free one, they buy all 25-26. I've given 126,000 away and sold 64,000 - at all kinds of different prices. It was only after I moved to the $4.99 slot that I started making good money.


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## Matt Ryan (Nov 16, 2012)

Thanks Elle!

This is great information as I'm finishing up my series and struggle with what the price should be, perma-free or not. When you are releasing a series, when would you set the first one free? When the third book is out is what I was thinking.


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## SBJones (Jun 13, 2011)

I have a 92% conversion rate from book two to book three.  But so far I only make fourteen cents per free download of book one across the series.  Book one went perma-free in April.  I need to get that book one to book two conversion rate up somehow.


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## LG Castillo (Jun 28, 2012)

Thanks for the information Elle! I was wondering about perma-free when I finish up my Broken Angel series.

I have a question about your add-on series called Clash of the Otherworlds. When I complete the the Broken Angel series, I had planned to do a spin off series based on a secondary character that is very popular with readers. Based on your experience, should I continue Broken Angel series or do a new series?

Example: Broken Angel Series features Lash and Naomi. Books are title: Lash (Broken Angel #1), After the Fall (Broken Angel #2), Before the Fall (Broken Angel #3).

The new books will feature Jeremy and a newly added female character that was not in the original Broken Angel Series. Could the book be Broken Angel #4 if there is a new MC pair? Or should I create a new series?


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## 56139 (Jan 21, 2012)

Great info Elle - this was just what I needed to hear. My last Junco book releases in December and I'm doing the first omnibus in November and a permafree for book one to go with the release of book 6.  I consider this series extra - it's not my major money maker, but it's got a solid fan base and sells consistently - like never wavers, ever.  So I'm hoping a perma-free will be a nice little kick start now that the series will be complete.


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## blakebooks (Mar 10, 2012)

That's interesting. The conversion rate on your perma-free to book two is higher than mine. I seem to be averaging more like 12-13%, and I see a 10% or so drop-off from book two to three, with literally no drop off from there to the rest of the series.

That could be reader patterns - that your target audience tends to read your free book sooner/more often. Alternatively, it could be that my first book sucks a bag of d#cks. Or some combination of the two. Or, it could be that those downloading your first book did so more because they had heard of you, seen another of your books on the charts, and wanted to dip their toe in the water with your freebie, meaning that they didn't come into the book cold - which I suspect might be the case.

The good news is that for whatever reason, you're seeing great conversion. I'm jealous. Congrats!


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## kwest (Mar 16, 2013)

WOW. 25 percent conversion sounds mighty amazing! Mine falls embarrassingly short of that. It is my first attempt at a novel, so maybe that's the reason?

Still, very interesting information. Thanks for sharing!


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## Nikki Pink (Jan 23, 2013)

blakebooks said:


> That's interesting. The conversion rate on your perma-free to book two is higher than mine. I seem to be averaging more like 12-13%, and I see a 10% or so drop-off from book two to three, with literally no drop off from there to the rest of the series.
> 
> That could be reader patterns - that your target audience tends to read your free book sooner/more often. Alternatively, it could be that my first book sucks a bag of d#cks. Or some combination of the two. Or, it could be that those downloading your first book did so more because they had heard of you, seen another of your books on the charts, and wanted to dip their toe in the water with your freebie, meaning that they didn't come into the book cold - which I suspect might be the case.
> 
> The good news is that for whatever reason, you're seeing great conversion. I'm jealous. Congrats!


Are you tracking yours over time?

It'll be interesting to see if your sell-through rate goes up as you become more and more known. People may indeed be more likely to read their free download and go on to buy the sequels if it's from an author they are already aware of instead of some random dude.

I'd like to bet 1 bottle of (cheap) tequila that your sell-through rate is better in month 13 than it was in month 2 of having a perma-free at the beginning of a series.


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## blakebooks (Mar 10, 2012)

Nikki: What's interesting is that my sell-through rate is virtually identical on my other series, also with a perma-free. So it's probably a function of genre. My JET perma-free usually ranks in the #300-#500 free, as it has for the last year. 

Although I certainly hope you're right. I need reasons to get out of bed in the morning. An even better 2014 would certainly be one of them!


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## Sebastiene (Dec 15, 2011)

Honestly, I'm glad to hear that anything is working. We've all tried so many different strategies, only to find that six months or one year later, they don't really work, anymore.

But I like this strategy you are using. Write a series that is between four and seven books long, make the first one perma-free. Why, I think I'll go work on that right now.


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## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

More permafree numbers (or guess who just got Trackerbox and feels like playing around??)

Yeah, so my conversion rates from permafree to buy are like dismal compared to y'all's. I don't know if that's because I'm quirky and not for everyone, or if it's because I suck. But--even if I do suck--I'm not going to stop writing, so I don't care. 

Okay...
*Jason and Azazel (8 book series, soon to be 9 books)*
1st book permafree since 10/2011, which is what, two years?

2.6%-People who download Book One and go on to buy Book Two. 
81%- People who buy Book Two who read Book Three
50%- People who read the next "trilogy" after finishing the first one, Book Three to Book Four conversion
96%- People who read the third "trilogy" after finishing the first two.
16%- Percentage of people who bought Book Two, who went on to read all eight books

Money made on this series since going permafree: (two years) $11,960.75
Money made before going permafree: (two years) ~$12,000 (it had dropped off a good bit when I decided to go permafree)
*
Helicon Muses (currently 3 books. New series. NOT POPULAR AT ALL.)*

Okay...
2.1%-People who download Book One and go on to buy Book Two
83%-People who buy Book Two and go on to buy Book Three

Money made on this series since going permafree: (3 mo.) $386.15
Money made before going permafree: (8 mo.) $415

*Toil and Trouble Trilogy (Three Book Series. Not very popular either.)*

3.6%-People who download Book One and go on to buy Book Two
63%-People who buy Book Two and go on to buy Book Three

Money made while this series was permafree: (~10 mo.) $1587.39

T&T, Book One went back to paid for a few months. It tanked. I've put it back to free.

Thing about permafree is that it doesn't always work well, but it almost always works better than nothing. 

Anyway, hope these numbers are helpful for someone. I had fun playing with Trackerbox.


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

My sell-through rates range depending on how people find my freebie. When I do an ad supported promotion for my freebie, the conversion rate is low. Somewhere in the 3 to 5% range. If they are organic, meaning no promotion sites have featured it and people are just finding it organically it's as high as 25%. Lifetime conversion since going permafree 16 months ago, I'm at a 10% conversion rate. 

So quality of download matters a lot when talking about sell-through. Of course if you can give away 80K books in a month and you sell 4K books off it, it's better than if you only gave away 4K books and sold 1K.


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## MindyWilde (Oct 2, 2013)

As always thank you so much for your willingness to share.  Everyday that I check in to the writers cafe I get a new wrinkle in my brain!


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## 54706 (Dec 19, 2011)

Linda Castillo said:


> Thanks for the information Elle! I was wondering about perma-free when I finish up my Broken Angel series.
> 
> I have a question about your add-on series called Clash of the Otherworlds. When I complete the the Broken Angel series, I had planned to do a spin off series based on a secondary character that is very popular with readers. Based on your experience, should I continue Broken Angel series or do a new series?
> 
> ...


Hey, Linda! I'm not sure. Both of my series features the same MC and a small group of buddies with new characters added in each book as side characters. In addition, each book has a pretty steep cliffhanger, so I do believe that helps push readers into the next book. I swear to all that is holy, I never considered them cliffhangers at the time I did them and I didn't mean to do it. But since receiving about 600 reviews saying they are cliffhangers, I guess I just have to go with that and say they are.

Whether you should continue the series or do an add-on, hmmmm. An excellent question! If it were me, and I'm well aware it's not, I would do an add-on BUT I would put big fat messages right after "The End" of the last book in the first series with live buy-links to the next series. If readers liked those characters and your storytelling, I'm guessing they'll go for your second series, but a lot of the time they don't realize it's there if the title is different. Make it really, really easy for them to find it.

OR

Use the same series title and put a really bold beginning to that book 1 that shifts the whole focus over to the new characters. You're an indie. You can do all kinds of crazy shit like that. 



valeriec80 said:


> More permafree numbers (or guess who just got Trackerbox and feels like playing around??)
> 
> Yeah, so my conversion rates from permafree to buy are like dismal compared to y'all's. I don't know if that's because I'm quirky and not for everyone, or if it's because I suck. But--even if I do suck--I'm not going to stop writing, so I don't care.
> 
> ...


I am one of the people who downloaded book 1 and didn't buy through. It was over a year ago. Not because the book wasn't good! It was! I still remember the story and the twist at the end. Loved the MC. I think I didn't buy through because the whole story was pretty much wrapped up for me and I was busy writing at the time so my reading time was limited. I guess this is the argument for cliffhangers. Readers claim to hate them, but it does keep them with a series.



blakebooks said:


> That's interesting. The conversion rate on your perma-free to book two is higher than mine. I seem to be averaging more like 12-13%, and I see a 10% or so drop-off from book two to three, with literally no drop off from there to the rest of the series.
> 
> That could be reader patterns - that your target audience tends to read your free book sooner/more often. Alternatively, it could be that my first book sucks a bag of d#cks. Or some combination of the two. Or, it could be that those downloading your first book did so more because they had heard of you, seen another of your books on the charts, and wanted to dip their toe in the water with your freebie, meaning that they didn't come into the book cold - which I suspect might be the case.
> 
> The good news is that for whatever reason, you're seeing great conversion. I'm jealous. Congrats!


I am still getting reviews and messages where readers say they downloaded the book over a year ago and just got to reading it because they had nothing else to read. And then they were shocked at how good it was and went on to buy the whole 2 series after. I think that's telling me to change my covers but I don't have the time/energy/drive to do that right now.

With regard to pricing, book 1 is free and all the rest are $4.99.

I did try to make the book $2.99 and .99 to move sales and those worked temporarily, but didn't move nearly the volume that perma free did.



RBC said:


> Awesome stats. Especially the conversion stats into next series. How did you come up with those?
> 
> Dropping link to this thread in FB/Google+, hope more people see this.


I'm not exactly sure how my husband did the crunching, and of course nothing is exact, but I believe he took the data over 6 months and just did the math. Every morning when the numbers change over for the day, he's there plugging them into a spreadsheet and tracking how many of each book sold over each vendor account and each country. I used to look at that stuff every day, now I never do.



Steeplechasing said:


> Thanks Elle. That's an astounding conversion rate from book 2. If only you had a way of contacting the 75% of readers who deserted after book 1 to see if you could get some idea why they didn't continue. There just might be something you could change there that would keep your current and fans and hold considerably more from the deserters. If you could even double that book 1 conversion rate, you know that once you get them to book 2 it's job done with a big impact on your bottom line.
> 
> Good luck with it all
> 
> Joe


I don't think most are deserting it. I think my book is lost in a sea of free books. My review average is quite high, so I like to believe that a good portion of those who read actually do continue on, and this lower number is due to many not actually reading after downloading. See my comment up higher on this particular post about reader messages confirming that suspicion.



Austin_Briggs said:


> Yep, I'd also love to learn the vociferous arguments against, since I just went perma-free last night.
> 
> And Elle, you're my hero.


Hero? Wow. And I don't even wear tights. 

to everyone who has thanked me, you are very welcome!! All for one and one for all.


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## katherinef (Dec 13, 2012)

ellecasey said:


> I am one of the people who downloaded book 1 and didn't buy through. It was over a year ago. Not because the book wasn't good! It was! I still remember the story and the twist at the end. Loved the MC. I think I didn't buy through because the whole story was pretty much wrapped up for me and I was busy writing at the time so my reading time was limited. I guess this is the argument for cliffhangers. Readers claim to hate them, but it does keep them with a series.


This so much. My conversion rates are not spectacular either because I decided not to have a cliffhanger. Silly me. Thought I was doing people a favor.  They do point out they love my endings, but they don't come for more. Or better said, they think they have time to come back, so they wait until they finish reading books with cliffhangers. My books with cliffhangers have much better rates, so I don't think I'll ever write another book in a series without a cliffhanger.


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## CJArcher (Jan 22, 2011)

Wow, I'm impressed that your hubby keeps stats for the perma-free! I have no idea how many of my perma-free have been downloaded. I couldn't even give ball-park figures. Dang, now I wish I had, but not enough to go back through all the reports from various venues.


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## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

katherinef said:


> This so much. My conversion rates are not spectacular either because I decided not to have a cliffhanger. Silly me. Thought I was doing people a favor.  They do point out they love my endings, but they don't come for more. Or better said, they think they have time to come back, so they wait until they finish reading books with cliffhangers. My books with cliffhangers have much better rates, so I don't think I'll ever write another book in a series without a cliffhanger.


Lol. Yeah, there's about as much of a cliffhanger as there is at the end of Star Wars, I guess. Like, won the battle, but the war's still to come, I guess?

Did want to do a quick plug here for those of us who don't have a husband as awesome with numbers as Elle's.


[URL=http://www.storyboxsoftware.com/tdownload]http://www.storyboxsoftware.com/tdownload.htm[/url]

I saw this mentioned on the boards a few months ago and had some time today to download ALL of my reports since 2009 into this $60 piece of software. It took hours, but it was so worth it. Because trackerbox can now tell me anything I want to know about my book sales just a few mouse clicks.

How many books have I sold for all time? How many copies of a specific title did I sell in September 2010? Across all platforms? Just through Smashwords distributed B&N? Through Apple and Amazon? All there.

This thing is AWESOME.

And it adds up all your money too!

Trackerbox. If you can't have a husband that tallies your numbers, this is the next best thing.


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## Cheryl Douglas (Dec 7, 2011)

Great info., Elle. Thanks for sharing these hard numbers. I went perma-free last year as well, and it was the best decision I've made so far.


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## blakebooks (Mar 10, 2012)

Katherine: What's funny about cliffhangers is I invariably get the complaint from some readers that they don't like cliffhangers, and it usually, either reading between the lines, or overtly, is because they then feel like they need to actually buy something to find out more about the story, and being cheap pr#cks, they're annoyed at the idea that everything for them isn't free all the time.

I think that's a tiny, vocal minority. I went with my instinct on this and did a cliffhanger at the end of JET, and it obviously works. I mean, the story resolves, and it's 80K+ words, so it's a complete novel for FREE, but if you want to know more about what happens next, then, yes, you need to shell out some cash. Or do as some apparently do, and read book two and return it. Which I know someone's doing, because I see a return on Book 2, then a few days later on Book 3, and then again on Book 4 and Book 5. It sucks, but some people suck, so there it is.

My advice, for what it's worth, is that cliffhangers do work if you do them artfully, but be prepared for an occasional disgruntled review from someone angry you don't write high quality work and give it all away for free so they don't have to pay for it.


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## LG Castillo (Jun 28, 2012)

ellecasey said:


> a lot of the time they don't realize it's there if the title is different. Make it really, really easy for them to find it.
> 
> OR
> 
> Use the same series title and put a really bold beginning to that book 1 that shifts the whole focus over to the new characters. You're an indie. You can do all kinds of crazy [crap] like that.


Thanks Elle! I plan on doing the spin off series. I just need to figure out what would be easier for fans of the series to find it.


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Interesting thought about cliffhanger. I have about 7% conversion rate from 1->2, and NO cliff-hanger. Maybe I should go back and add just enough of book two as a preview to create one?


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## Michael_J_Sullivan (Aug 3, 2011)

Thanks Elle - for sharing your information.  I think my takeaway though is that perma free is getting a good number of downloads - but all the other data about moving on to #2 and #3, is all based on the fact that you've written a good story with characters that people want to be with further on.  If you didn't have perma free - I don't think the movement %'s would go down ... in fact they may go up as I think there are a number of downloads that are just that...downloads where people don't read.  

In any case it's getting you a bigger funnel of people to move through the series - and that is a good thing.


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## adanlerma (Jan 16, 2012)

there's so many variables to all this, cliffhanger or not, how many already in the series, the quality of the first book that's free - but in the end, it's working for you, and i think that's great  

if & when that changes, let us know, and why

all the best wishes  

adan


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