# BookBub Promo for my Latest Release (ten days later)



## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Fallen King was released on 2/14 and has had phenomenal sales from day one. Actually, day one was its best sales day, with over 250 sales. In the ten weeks since it was released, I've had nearly 3000 sales. I applied to BookBub on 3/21, five weeks after its release and was accepted on 4/1, with a promo date of 4/26. On the day I got the email from BookBub, sales ticked up a LOT, averaging 54.1 sakes per day.

This is exactly the time to promote it with BookBub. A nice long history of really good sales and a tiered promo.

The Kindle Countdown Deal (US and UK starts at 9pm Eastern tonight and runs until 9pm Monday night, with BookBub on Sunday. I'll manually reduce the price of the first book in the series Saturday and the second book will begin its own Countdown Deal Saturday night, as well. I have to do the first one manually, because it's already had a CD this period. I added a line to King's blurb, saying that the first two are reduced as well.

I lined up the ads I wanted early this month and everything's a go. Here's what I have lined up.









I think this lineup, plus the consistent good sales over the past four weeks, will put the historic part of Amazon's algorithm into overdrive. King is currently ranked #1965 and has been no worse than #2100 since the first of the month. I'm expecting upwards of 100 sales tomorrow, over 400 on Saturday, and over 1500 on Sunday, with a total of 2000 for the promo and a peak rank inside Amazon's Top 20 Paid. I'm really hoping for a Top 10 this time, but I'm not holding my breath.

*ETA before and after ranking:
At the time of the BB email Peak rank 14-16 hours later
Fallen Out: #7,018 #941
Fallen Palm: #10,249 #1,266
Fallen Hunter: #10,982 #4,211
Fallen Pride: #11,928 #4,405
Fallen Mangrove: #7,493 #3,050
Fallen King: #1,836 #16*


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## Liz French (Apr 13, 2014)

I LOVE your promos, Wayne. Pulling up a seat to watch this one out....

Good luck and fingers crossed.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Oh phooey.  I wanted a NEW book.


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## Gone Girl (Mar 7, 2015)

We miss you, Harvey Chute.


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## daveconifer (Oct 20, 2009)

Good job, Mr. Stinnett.  And good luck...


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## Allyson J. (Nov 26, 2014)

Wayne, I followed your advice about stacking promos and which sites to use (my lineup is almost identical to yours) and last time I checked today, I'd made it to #5 in the Free Kindle store and #1 in both my categories. I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to post your results and all the helpful advice you've given. 

Best of luck with your upcoming promo. I know you'll crush it!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Thanks for the well-wishes, y'all.

The Countdown Deal started right on time in the US. Not sure about the UK, though. Can anyone still awake over there let me know if the price has dropped to £.99?

Fallen King is currently ranked #1836 in the US and #34,938 in the UK. Of course, these ranks reflect sales from about 4pm Eastern, five hours ago. It'll likely drop a few places during the overnight hours.

The first five books in the series are ranked in the US:
Fallen Out: #7,018
Fallen Palm: #10,249
Fallen Hunter: #10,982
Fallen Pride: #11,928
Fallen Mangrove: #7,493


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## G. (Aug 21, 2014)

As of 03:32 UK time, I don't see a drop in price. Not actually in the UK, but logged into a VPN server there.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

G. said:


> As of 03:32 UK time, I don't see a drop in price. Not actually in the UK, but logged into a VPN server there.


Dang, I always screw up the time difference. It'll probably drop at 0400 GMT.


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## G. (Aug 21, 2014)

Fallen King now at £0.99.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

G. said:


> Fallen King now at £0.99.


Are y'all not on Summer Time yet?


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## G. (Aug 21, 2014)

As of this post it's 3:32 am in London. I must have looked at a different time earlier. Talk about confusion.


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Go Wayne! Can't wait to see you hit the Top 10.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Good luck! Fingers crossed.


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## ThePete (Oct 10, 2013)

Valuable info, as always Wayne! These rolling campaigns are always great.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Sales overnight were pretty good. Since the price dropped at 9pm Eastern, King has sold 37, with no advertising in the US yet. It normally has 10-15 overnight sales. The first ad was in the UK with eBookBargainsUK. The ad was emailed at 1030 GMT (0530 Eastern) and King has two sales in the UK already. I can't say much for their blurb, though. It's simply the last line in the book's blurb, "It's just another day in paradise in this sixth installment of the Jesse McDermitt Caribbean Adventure Series."


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> I can't say much for their blurb, though. It's simply the last line in the book's blurb, "It's just another day in paradise in this sixth installment of the Jesse McDermitt Caribbean Adventure Series."


Actually, that's not too bad if you think about it. It gives a lot of relevant information.


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## cblewgolf (Jan 3, 2011)

Get your popcorn ready!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Lydniz said:


> Actually, that's not too bad if you think about it. It gives a lot of relevant information.


It would be if it weren't said facetiously in the book's blurb. In the book, there's murder, grenades being dropped on innocent underwater fashion models, boats being shot up by Uzis, dangerous gases being released and knocking out the inhabitants of an island, throat slashing, beheadings, heads mounted on pikes, it's anything BUT another day in paradise.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> It would be if it weren't said facetiously in the book's blurb. In the book, there's murder, grenades being dropped on innocent underwater fashion models, boats being shot up by Uzis, dangerous gases being released and knocking out the inhabitants of an island, throat slashing, beheadings, heads mounted on pikes, it's anything BUT another day in paradise.


Here you have to account for the British sense of humour.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Twenty hours in, all three of today's ads are doing well, creating a moderate boost over yesterday's sales. Right now I've had 80 sales since 9pm yesterday in the US store and 3 in the UK store. Fallen King is at #1,461 right now in the US store, up from last night's #1,836. In the UK, it's at #29,871, up from #34,938.

Sales should start picking up now that folks on the east coast are getting home from work and checking their email. My expected 100 sales should happen within the next two or three hours. Tomorrow's goal is 400 sales. These numbers are sales only. 

Borrows won't start showing up from the promo until tomorrow, most likely. My average ratio of borrows to total downloads this month has been 40.2%, only slightly below the average for the quarter. Today's borrows are about normal, but the ratio is only 25%. I'll be reporting sales only, unless I see something really unusual during the promo.


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## Liz French (Apr 13, 2014)

Lydniz said:


> Here you have to account for the British sense of humour.


Yeah I have to agree - if I read that as a one line blurb I would assume that it as anything BUT just another day in paradise. Otherwise the book (and blurb) would be really pointless and boring. I wouldn't worry about it, Wayne!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

First goal in the promo attained. Fallen King sold 105 copies in the first 24 hours of the promo. I go by the MTD totals and update my spreadsheet every night at 9pm.

Current rank is #1,088 and so far, everything is going great. Tomorrow is a second eBookBargainsUK ad, I bought the weekend package. After that, it's eBookSoda and AwesomeGang in the morning, with GoodKindles, BookSends, and OHFB in the afternoon. The goal for tomorrow is 400 books and a ranking of #750 or better by 9pm Eastern.

I'm going to bed now. I've been working in the garden all day and my back is sore.


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## lilywhite (Sep 25, 2010)

.


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## David Rachford (Apr 21, 2015)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> I'm going to bed now. I've been working in the garden all day and my back is sore.


Perhaps the best part of being an author: You reap what you sow.

I'm eagerly awaiting the next few follow up posts to see the harvest.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Thirty-six hours into the promo and the first hiccup. The first ad for today, eBookSoda, didn't have my book in it. It is on their website, so I don't know why it wasn't in the email. Maybe I screwed up and got a website only ad. AwesomeGang is next up. I know I messed that one up. Vinny emailed me at zero-dark-thirty, asking if I intentionally put the .uk link in the submission. Thanks for catching that, Vinny. The remainder of the ads today are AwesomeGang just before noon Eastern time, followed about an hour later by GoodKindles, then BookSends about 1pm and OHFB at 7pm.

Sales in the last twelve hours are really good, with 111 sales overnight. Fallen King is now ranked at #822 and even with the hiccup, I think reaching my goal of 400 sales today, should be easily attainable now.

Sell through to the first two books in the series, is already up, both are at their average daily numbers already for today.

I was asked in an email why I use some of the smaller advertisers that sometimes don't sell enough to cover the cost of their ads. The reason is simple. At certain times of the day, I don't want huge sales. Throughout the promo, I'm looking for a slow and steady climb in sales per hour, which is why I pay close attention to the advertiser's email times and where they place my book in the email. Though some advertisers may not produce big numbers, they produce what I need for the particular time slot for that day. The overall cost of this promotion is $780.89. Factoring in my usual sales numbers for the day and the reduced revenue of the book or books in the promo, I can estimate fairly close when the break even will occur. For this promo, it will happen Sunday, between noon and 2pm. But, the real profit, will be after that and in the coming days, when all six books rise in rank and get more visibility.


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## Sha (Oct 19, 2013)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Thirty-six hours into the promo and the first hiccup. The first ad for today, eBookSoda, didn't have my book in it. It is on their website, so I don't know why it wasn't in the email. Maybe I screwed up and got a website only ad.


Hey Wayne,

You didn't screw up  You requested for it to go in the Thrillers and Suspense category this time around. I checked, and you're not subscribed to that category which is why it didn't appear in your email. You can update your subscription by clicking on the link at the bottom of your newsletter. I've forwarded you a copy of the mail. Any problems, just shout!


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Sha said:


> Hey Wayne,
> 
> You didn't screw up  You requested for it to go in the Thrillers and Suspense category this time around. I checked, and you're not subscribed to that category which is why it didn't appear in your email. You can update your subscription by clicking on the link at the bottom of your newsletter. I've forwarded you a copy of the mail. Any problems, just shout!


Yes, it was in my email. You're OK, Wayne.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Wayne,
On OHFB, you were in this morning's picks.


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## Paul Deaver (Apr 7, 2015)

We're all rooting for you Wayne.  I hope you break the top 20.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Sha said:


> Hey Wayne,
> 
> You didn't screw up  You requested for it to go in the Thrillers and Suspense category this time around. I checked, and you're not subscribed to that category which is why it didn't appear in your email. You can update your subscription by clicking on the link at the bottom of your newsletter. I've forwarded you a copy of the mail. Any problems, just shout!


Thanks, Sha, and thanks for checking. I've yet to do a promo where I didn't mess something up. 



cinisajoy said:


> Wayne,
> On OHFB, you were in this morning's picks.


Was that the blog, or Facebook post, Cindy? I know they email twice a day now and thought I'd chosen the evening email.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

That was the blog.  I don't look at the emails.


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

Zero-Dark-Thirty is when I get all my work done.  Just wish we caught it earlier.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

The OHFB email just came out. It should do quite well. Current sales are at 214 since last night, with 1-1/2 hours left in my day.

Last month, I submitted to GoodKindles for the Fallen Out promo and they failed to run it. They gave me a free spot in my next promo. I submitted the details for King three weeks ago, reminding them of the missed promo last month. Once more, it wasn't in the email. So there have been a few hiccups. Currently, Fallen King is ranked #835 in the US and #11,540 in the UK.



Vinny OHare said:


> Zero-Dark-Thirty is when I get all my work done.  Just wish we caught it earlier.


That's when I get my best work done, too.


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## 72117 (Sep 1, 2013)

Love these promo posts of yours, Wayne. Always learn so much. Sorry about the hiccups so far, but you're doing great!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Melissa McClone said:


> Love these promo posts of yours, Wayne. Always learn so much. Sorry about the hiccups so far, but you're doing great!


Until I can turn part of this over to my wife, there will be hiccups. So many plates spinning at one time. She has 29 more days at her current job and then she'll come home and start as my assistant.


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## marla_m (Jul 6, 2011)

When you run a book on Book Bub, do you do it free or at a reduced price?


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## andrewwatts (Dec 28, 2014)

Just bought one. Good luck, and thanks for posting!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

marla_m said:


> When you run a book on Book Bub, do you do it free or at a reduced price?


This is a discounted promo, Marla. I did a free promo at the end of December with BookBub and though the numbers were high, over 53K downloads, the revenue generated over the following month was barely more than my months with no promo at all and of all the discounted promos, the free one didn't top any of them for revenue.



andrewwatts said:


> Just bought one. Good luck, and thanks for posting!


Thanks, Andrew!

I came up short in the prediction for the second full day of sales. Since 9pm last night, Fallen King has had 319 sales. Current rank is #776 in the US and #10,823 in the UK with four sales there. Could it have reached 400, had I not messed up the link with Vinny and GoodKindles not dropping the ad? I'd think very close. Both have always been pretty good producers.

Sell through to the first two books in the series continues to do well. Fallen Out is currently ranked #5,648 in the US, up from #7,018 before the promo started. Fallen Palm is currently at #7,011, up from #10,249. Fallen Palm's Countdown Deal just started and I manually lowered Fallen Out a couple of hours ago, so both are at $.99 now, as well.

Sales should continue to be strong through the night with the OHFB ad out now. I expect no decrease in rank, maybe even a slight uptick, since rank lags behind sales by about five hours. By morning, I expect Fallen King to be ranked in the 600s, with another hundred sales between now and then. The first ad in the morning, will again be the eBookBargainsUK weekend ad at about 5am Eastern, followed by FussyLibrarian about 7am and then BookBub just before noon.

In comparing today's numbers to my last two promos, sales are up considerably. The February promo had only 57 sales the day before BookBub and the March promo had 110. The March promo had Fallen Out ranked at #702 and the February promo had Fallen Hunter ranked at #2,014 the day before BookBub.

I feel good about a top 20 tomorrow night, possibly even a top 10. My best promo yet was last August with a peak rank of #14. With this book's long history of higher sales numbers, it's highly possible that this one could even top that.


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## Keith Soares (Jan 9, 2014)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Until I can turn part of this over to my wife, there will be hiccups. So many plates spinning at one time. She has 29 more days at her current job and then she'll come home and start as my assistant.


THAT'S pretty exciting - congrats to both of you!
K.


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## KReadnour (Jul 8, 2014)

Good luck tomorrow, Wayne. I love watching your threads, they're so informative. Thanks so much for sharing.

I bet your wife's excited to stay home!! Happy for both of you!!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

KReadnour said:


> Good luck tomorrow, Wayne. I love watching your threads, they're so informative. Thanks so much for sharing.
> 
> I bet your wife's excited to stay home!! Happy for both of you!!


Actually, she's very nervous. She's worked in the same occupation since she was 18. I try to reassure her, but I guess she'll just have to go through the same thing I did when I quit. I felt like a ship without a rudder for a couple of weeks. But, when the fog lifted, I realized I was the rudder. In a couple of weeks, it'll be a year for me.

I got an email from Adam with GoodKindles, this morning. Apparently, my book was in their email yesterday, but they use Feedburner, through Google, something to do with time zones and such, but he assures me that 90% of subscribers did see it and clicks were good. He also explained that those who didn't see it yesterday will see it in today's email. So the only hiccup so far has been my fault, in giving Vinny the wrong link.

Sales overnight have been good, a little better than expected. Fallen King sold 131 copies since 9pm. The last two ads before BookBub, eBookBargainsUK and FussyLibrarian, came out on time this morning and everything's a go for launch. I got the confirmation email from BookBub a couple of days ago and all the details were correct.

Now, here's what will happen today. With Fallen King's long history of 50+ sales per day and it's recent history of climbing sales over the last three days, the historic part of the algorithm has been stimulated. Consider a BookBub ad with no ads posted before it. Sales bounce up and down by the hour and day, while the algorithm gives a decreasing weight to each of those hours and days, by multiplying the sales by a smaller and smaller percentage until it drops off the calculation. By stimulating sales in the hours and days leading up, offsetting the decreasing percentage of weight, fewer sales in subsequent hours are needed to maintain or raise the rank.

Fallen King is currently ranked #513 in the US, a good hundred spots higher than I'd hoped for and the highest of any pre-BookBub ranking I've ever had. In the UK, it's ranked #14,287. With it's low number of reviews in the UK, eBookBargainsUK was the only advertiser that would touch it, except BookBubUK, so it is what it is there. The US rank will probably drop a few spots to near 600 before BookBub comes out, just before noon and then slowly climb or at least hold steady through the afternoon, based on sales from FussyLibrarian. The 5pm update should show a spike up into the 100s, with following updates climbing higher. The peak rank will occur late tonight or early tomorrow morning, usually between midnight and 3am. It will peak inside the top 20, I feel confident about that.

Fingers crossed for a top 10.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

The BookBub email is early. It just hit my in box. Dang BB! I love your blurb writers!

Current sales for today are at 150, as of 10:30 Eastern. Fallen Out is ranked at #508 in the US and #15,252 in the UK.

Fallen Out, which is about to be sucked up in the whirlwind, has 26 sales for today and is ranked #4,382 in the US and #24,579 in the UK.

Fallen Palm should match Fallen Out in sales for the rest of the day, it's currently sold 22 copies and is ranked #5,344 in the US and #58,720 in the UK.

The other books, Hunter, Pride, and Mangrove, are at full price. They will get higher than normal sales today as well, but not by a whole lot. Maybe 5-10 above average.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Two-hundred sales in the first twenty minutes!


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## Cheryl Douglas (Dec 7, 2011)

This is great info., Wayne. My release stats are similar to yours, but I am so lazy when it comes to promo. It's nice to see what's possible when you focus on consistent promotion. This is the kick in the butt I needed today, since I have a new book coming out tomorrow. Thank you! 

Congrats on your success with the current promo. Love to re-visit these posts to see how well you're doing!


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## Kevin Lee Swaim (May 30, 2014)

I snagged a copy!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Kevin Lee Swaim said:


> I snagged a copy!


Thanks, Kevin! The first two of the series are $.99 also.

When I speak of escalating sales, this is what I mean. At 4/22, sales were just about the average of the whole month. By starting the Countdown Deal six hours before the end of the day on the 23rd, I got slightly higher sales than average. The handful of ads on the 24th boosted sales higher and all the ads on the 25th boosted sales higher still. Although the older sales on the graph count less and less toward ranking, they're higher volume offsets the reduction in weight.


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## Robert Bidinotto (Mar 3, 2011)

You were at the top of my Bookbub email this a.m., Wayne. I grabbed a copy and also am pimping your three 99-centers on my Facebook page today. Good luck, and I'll check back here later to see how things went for you. Maybe pick up more pointers for my next BB campaign.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Robert Bidinotto said:


> You were at the top of my Bookbub email this a.m., Wayne. I grabbed a copy and also am pimping your three 99-centers on my Facebook page today. Good luck, and I'll check back here later to see how things went for you. Maybe pick up more pointers for my next BB campaign.


Thanks, Robert! Hope you're using affiliate links. 

Sales of King are nearing the 1000 mark, already. Fallen Out and Fallen Palm are at 100 and 60, respectively. The big swing in rank should happen with the 4pm Eastern Time update, possibly at 3pm. That's when sales will start coming in from the exposure and those will build through the evening, pushing it higher in rank and giving it more exposure.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

The rank update into the 100s that I expected just happened. Fallen King is currently ranked #151, with just over 1500 sales. In the UK, it's had 145 sales and is now ranked at #19,225, so it's yet to update from the sales just after the BookBub ad. The next update there, should bring it into the top 2000 in the UK. The next update will put it into the top 100, maybe around #80. 

Sell through has brought all six books up into the top 8 in Sea Adventures and should capture 6 of the top 7 spots later today or tomorrow. Fallen Out is up to 130 sales for the day and is ranked #2,406. Fallen Palm has sold 86 copies and is ranked #3,526. 

I'll update all six book's change in rank tonight at 9pm and again with the peaks of all six tomorrow morning.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

#89, with 1,753 sales. I'm headed out to see Bob Dylan in concert and will update again about 11pm.


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## Kevin Lee Swaim (May 30, 2014)

I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier, but I just thew up a Facebook post and a Twitter post!


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Thanks, Kevin! The first two of the series are $.99 also.
> 
> When I speak of escalating sales, this is what I mean. At 4/22, sales were just about the average of the whole month. By starting the Countdown Deal six hours before the end of the day on the 23rd, I got slightly higher sales than average. The handful of ads on the 24th boosted sales higher and all the ads on the 25th boosted sales higher still. Although the older sales on the graph count less and less toward ranking, they're higher volume offsets the reduction in weight.


Wow! Our graphs look exactly the same... well, with one small, teensy weensy difference... take a couple of zeros off the number graphs and bingo, we are brothers from another mother hehe.

Holy graph Batman! Looks good. Should be another fun ride via the Bookbub express. Again, thanks for sharing.

Regards,
SM


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## Robert Bidinotto (Mar 3, 2011)

9 pm in the East, and you are down to #23!!!


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## Vinny OHare (May 3, 2013)

What is cool is Fallen King is #1 for his categories but the first book Fallen out is #2. Readers are going and buying the first book in the series also.


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## Robert Bidinotto (Mar 3, 2011)

11:48 pm in the East, and _FALLEN KING_ is now officially in the Top 20, at #19. Congrats, Wayne!

Also #2 in "Action and Adventure," right behind the formidable Robert Crais and his great thriller, _The Watchman_.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

The Dylan concert was cool. And no, I didn't get stoned first. He played mostly new stuff and only played a couple of the old tunes. My thirteen year old thought it was pretty cool, too. His intermission coincided with the time I usually record sales for the day, so I used my phone and took screen caps to update my spreadsheet later. I love technology.

As of right now, Fallen King has sold 2,265 copies, of which 170 were in the UK. This number is still 441 shy of the March promo with Fallen Out. With only 3-1/2 hours left, it's doubtful it will top that.

Current rank in the US is #22 and #1 in several sub-cats. More importantly, it's #2 in the main category of Action & Adventure. In the UK, it's ranked #479 and #22 in Action & Adventure. I anticipate a top 20 with the next update.

Now for sell through. 
Fallen Out sold 123 and is ranked #1,251, #2 in Sea Adventures.
Fallen Palm sold 105 and is ranked #1,623, #3 in Sea Adventures.
Those two were also discounted to $.99 and a mention of that was the first line int Fallen King's blurb.

Fallen Hunter sold 24 at $3.99 and is ranked #4,368, #6 in Sea Adventures.
Fallen Pride sold 20 at $3.99 and is ranked #4,821, #7 in Sea Adventures.
Fallen Mangrove sold 38 at $3.99 and is ranked #3,510, #5 in Sea Adventures.

Total revenue for the day, according to Book Report, currently stands at $1665.62. But, since I record sales from 9pm to 9pm, I'm showing a total of $1854.40 ending at 9pm. The total cost of all the ads, was $780.89. I reached that (subtracting average revenue for the length of the promo) at a few minutes after noon today, for a net profit of about $700 so far. The real gains will come in the following days and weeks as all six books will benefit from today's ads. I anticipate a $15K month and good numbers going into May. So, it's not a matter of not being able to afford BookBub. You can't afford not to. This was my ninth dance with BookBub, the first being on 4/23/14, just a year ago. Every one has had positive results. The first one had no ads before or after BB and still produced a healthy profit.

Peak rank hasn't occurred yet. That won't be for another couple of hours. The current rank is based on sales up to about 6:30 Eastern. I'm sure the peak will be in the top 20, but it doesn't look like there will be a top 10 as I'd hoped.

When will I apply for BookBub again? First thing tomorrow morning with Fallen Pride, for any date after 5/26.

The almost flat line at the bottom, actually represents an average 50 sales and 27 borrows per day.










ETA: Thanks Robert. The update happened as I was typing this. Currently #19!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Final sales numbers from yesterday and peak rank. These are taken from the dashboard graph and Kindle Nation Daily's ebook tracker.

Fallen Out: 212 priced at $.99, peaking at #941
Fallen Palm: 155 priced at $.99, peaking at, #1,266
Fallen Hunter: 29 priced at $3.99, peaking at, #4,211
Fallen Pride: 32 priced at $3.99, peaking at, #4,405
Fallen Mangrove: 46 priced at $3.99, peaking at, #3,050
Fallen King: 2,340 priced at $.99, peaking at, #16

Although I didn't make the top ten as I'd hoped, I did make the top 20 as I'd planned. 

When doing a BookBub promo with any but the first book in a series, the tail has a much shorter life, so sales will likely return to normal within a week to ten days for Fallen King. However, promoting a later book in the series creates a huge tail in sell through. My other books will ride this wave for several weeks.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Great stuff! I've been idly wondering if perhaps your genre works against you in terms of getting into the top ten, as it's slightly niche. What do you think?


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Lydniz said:


> Great stuff! I've been idly wondering if perhaps your genre works against you in terms of getting into the top ten, as it's slightly niche. What do you think?


Absolutely it does. As Nick pointed out with his free promo, the top of both the paid and free stores are the domain of romance writers. Not all, of course, there are other genres represented. But at any given time and day, more of the top ten Kindle books are in the main category of Romance, than any other.


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## Robert Bidinotto (Mar 3, 2011)

Another soaring ride, Wayne. Congrats.

It seems that you must get north of 3,000 sales per day to enter the Top 10. That hasn't changed much for years. Back in November 2011, 1900 sales in a day were enough for my first novel to hit #24. 3084 sales the following day got it down to #11. On the next day, 3,332 sales pushed it to #9. It took over 3,500 sales the following two consecutive days to get down to #5, and over 4900 to reach #4.

If anything, with a much more crowded book markeplace now (over 3 million ebooks instead of 1 million then), it probably takes even more sales per day to reach the nosebleed heights of the Top 10.  

Bookbub seems to be able to generate in the range of 1,500 - 2,500 sales per day. On the high end, enough to get into the Top 20, but not much higher -- not without other external factors contributing to big sales on the same day.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Robert Bidinotto said:


> Another soaring ride, Wayne. Congrats.
> 
> It seems that you must get north of 3,000 sales per day to enter the Top 10. That hasn't changed much for years. Back in November 2011, 1900 sales in a day were enough for my first novel to hit #24. 3084 sales the following day got it down to #11. On the next day, 3,332 sales pushed it to #9. It took over 3,500 sales the following two consecutive days to get down to #5, and over 4900 to reach #4.
> 
> ...


Whoa! Those are some hefty numbers, Robert. What did you do in November, 2011 to get over 3K sales a day for four days?


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## Robert Bidinotto (Mar 3, 2011)

I had little to do with it, Wayne, as many here know. Based on prior sales and stellar customer ratings, Amazon invited me to put _HUNTER_ into a week-long promotion, and they named it a Kindle "Editors' Pick," to boot. All 200 of the books in the promo got spotlight attention for a solid week, on multiple Amazon pages. For some reason, mine caught fire. With over 4,900 sales on the final day of the promo, it went to #1 in all its categories ("Mysteries & Thrillers," "Romantic Suspense"; and even #2 in "Romance"). It topped out at #4 overall, and might have gone all the way to the top...

...except it was caught in the exhaust fumes of two "Hunger Games" books (holding down slots #1 and #3) and a Catherine Bybee romance (#2). I just can't imagine what sales numbers those books were pulling down to be ahead of mine.

But for one glorious day, I was the Alpha Male on the Kindle bestseller list. Yeah, I can die happy, now.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Invited? Yeah, a lot of people would ignore _that _invitation. Musta been hella fun.


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

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Absolutely it does. As Nick pointed out with his free promo, the top of both the paid and free stores are the domain of romance writers. Not all, of course, there are other genres represented. But at any given time and day, more of the top ten Kindle books are in the main category of Romance, than any other.


7 out of 10 right now _aren't_ Romance. 

Anyway, congratulations! Those are some awesome numbers.


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## Eskimo (Dec 31, 2013)

Wayne,

Great job. Just curious -- did you put any promotional $$ towards the 99 cent deals for Fallen Out or Fallen Palm? Or was everything aimed at Fallen King?

David


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

David Chill said:


> Wayne,
> 
> Great job. Just curious -- did you put any promotional $$ towards the 99 cent deals for Fallen Out or Fallen Palm? Or was everything aimed at Fallen King?
> 
> David


I lowered them as an afterthought, actually. Fallen Palm was about to renew in Select and I hadn't done either a Countdown Deal or Free Promo with it this Select period. I had with Fallen Out though, so I reduced it manually the day before BookBub and created the CD for Palm a week ago. I didn't have any ads on either, just a mention in King's blurb, which I just removed. Fallen Out is back to regular price and both King and Palm will be tonight


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## Guest (Apr 27, 2015)

1) Congrats on the great promo Wayne. #19 is great.

2) This is interesting. I wasn't aware of this

a) 3,000+ sales to get into Top 10.
b) This: Bookbub seems to be able to generate in the range of 1,500 - 2,500 sales per day. On the high end, enough to get into the Top 20, but not much higher -- not without other external factors contributing to big sales on the same day.

3) That brings me tot he natural question.

Is there any other site, any other combination of sites that can generate 1,500 to 2,500 sales in a day?

To use with Bookbub?

Which sites can generate 500+ sales in a day? Any?

3b) I'm aware of a few sites that can generate sales in 100-300 range. ENT, The MidList sometimes, My Romance Reads in Romance, etc. Anyone else have verified experience of this? What other sites can generate 100-300 sales in a day?

4) Does anyone have experience with Bookbub of generating 1,500+ sales 2 days in a row?
Of generating 3,000+ sales in 1 day.

5) Repeated Q: Why doesn't more visibility lead to more sales? Shouldn't getting to #19 have resulted in a few thousand sales from visibility? I just wored with two different authors in the last few weeks and saw the same thing.

Becoming a bestseller does not seem to generate bestseller sales because of sales charts. Why not? If you get 2,000 sales in a day and get to Top 20, shouldn't the resultant visibility add another few thousand sales each day for a few days?

6) Asking all this because it seems to be becoming impossible to stay in Top 20 or even Top 100 for a long time.

In 2011 and 2012 indie authors would stay in Top charts for months. Even in Top 10. What has changed since then?
at that time you jhust had to get into the Top 100 and then it would carry you for a while (not just a day or two).

Why are the bestseller lists not as powerful now?

7) Now, let's talk about all the books that are staying int he Top 100. How are they staying there? If being in the Top 100 isn't sustaining Top 100 rank, then what is?

advertising at Google? Fb? word of mouth> amazon cpc? something else?


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Very good questions.  I wonder who would have the answers LOL.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

King's sold over 150 today, still hanging in there at #36 and #3 in Action/Adventure. It'll remain #1 in a number of genres for quite a while. It was #1 in Sea Adventures for most of the time since it was released.

Fallen Out has sold over 60 today, half of those after returning to full price, $2.99. It's ranked just inside the top 1000 at #953.

Palm has sold almost 50, still discounted for another half hour. Both it and King will return to full price at 9pm Eastern. Palm is currently ranked #1,468.


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## KReadnour (Jul 8, 2014)

Have to say it does my heart good knowing you took your 13yr old to the concert. Love it when the younger generation appreciates the more seasoned musicians. I took my daughter to see Bon Jovi at Soldier Fields five years ago, and she still talks about it today! You made some good memories.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

KReadnour said:


> Have to say it does my heart good knowing you took your 13yr old to the concert. Love it when the younger generation appreciates the more seasoned musicians. I took my daughter to see Bon Jovi at Soldier Fields five years ago, and she still talks about it today! You made some good memories.


We took her to see Government Mule a couple of weeks ago. They played three hours of some really good southern rock and blues. She has a very eclectic taste in music. Her favorite bands are the Beatles, the Ramones and Arctic Monkey. I want to take her to a Jimmy Buffett show this year.


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## KReadnour (Jul 8, 2014)

Awesome!! Totally made my night!


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## lilywhite (Sep 25, 2010)

.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

KayBee123 said:


> Thank-you for posting this information - it's so generous of you.
> 
> A non-technical friend asked me to help her with some online advertising for her new mystery. Could I just take this series of adverts and place the same for her, after I reduce the price of her book? It's her first book so I'd only be able to do it for a single title.
> 
> ...


There are two reasons to promote a book. The first being to gain readership and sell other books in the series, the second being just to make some extra money to put toward the business.

With no second book to direct readers to, she'll fall into the second classification. In that case, maybe the same tactic, but using ENT, OHFB, or FKB&T as the anchor, instead of BookBub. The results will be lower, but so will the cost. More than half the total ad cost in this promo was BookBub. Very few books are accepted by BookBub and even fewer single book authors. There are lots of advertisers that do free listings. A dozen of those the day before, along with a handful of the smaller paid ad spots with the OHFB email ad in the evening, could produce hundreds of sales, enough to reach the 400s in ranking, maybe even better than that.


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## jackconnerbooks (Nov 18, 2014)

Way to go! My first BB promo was yesterday, and I'm still reeling. The promo was for "The Atomic Sea: Volume One" ( http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QH3SE0C ) and it reached #7 in the Kindle Free Store. Right now, the day after, it's still free and at #11.

BookBub rocks!


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## marla_m (Jul 6, 2011)

Good luck with the promo! Thanks for sharing you list of advertisers. Do you ever use eBook booster? I have, and not sure it's as helpful as it used to be. My last BB promo I used them and also a few others. What I've never tried is the pre-ads you do. Will have to try it next time
I get lucky enough to land a BB ad. Any hints on how to get accepted??
Marla


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## AA.A (Sep 6, 2012)

Great numbers! I kind of used your method, the only change was Bookbub and ENT were the same day. I reached #13 paid. Bookbub ad was literary promo.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

marla_m said:


> Good luck with the promo! Thanks for sharing you list of advertisers. Do you ever use eBook booster? I have, and not sure it's as helpful as it used to be. My last BB promo I used them and also a few others. What I've never tried is the pre-ads you do. Will have to try it next time
> I get lucky enough to land a BB ad. Any hints on how to get accepted??
> Marla


I've heard of others using it, with varying degrees of success, but to be honest, I really like setting it all up myself.

Be as flexible as possible with BookBub and if you're turned down, don't take it personal or as a reflection on your work. Just submit again as soon as they say you can. It's not always a week. One time, they told me to reapply in five days and when I did, I was accepted in just a few hours.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Will Bookbub do a new release or only established books?


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Salvador Mercer said:


> Will Bookbub do a new release or only established books?


They consider a lot of things and won't discount a new book, if it's good and has good reviews. They accepted Fallen Out the first time, only a month after it was released and it only had eight reviews.


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## AYClaudy (Oct 2, 2014)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> They consider a lot of things and won't discount a new book, if it's good and has good reviews. They accepted Fallen Out the first time, only a month after it was released and it only had eight reviews.


Wow! And fallen out was your first book with them too? That's amazing that they took your first right off the bat! You must have magic-- and a good business sense to go along with good writing!

Thank you for taking the time to pass on some of your knowledge!!


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

AYClaudy said:


> Wow! And fallen out was your first book with them too? That's amazing that they took your first right off the bat! You must have magic-- and a good business sense to go along with good writing!
> 
> Thank you for taking the time to pass on some of your knowledge!!


Actually, Fallen Out was the fourth book, written as a prequel to the other three and BookBub had already run Fallen Palm and Fallen Hunter in early April and late May.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Still great info to know.  Thanks for sharing and congrats on another good promo run!


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## AYClaudy (Oct 2, 2014)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Actually, Fallen Out was the fourth book, written as a prequel to the other three and BookBub had already run Fallen Palm and Fallen Hunter in early April and late May.


Ah that makes more sense! Still awesome that they took it, but a little more understandable since they know you have an audience!


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## The Deposed King (Mar 18, 2014)

I'm running my first bookbub in may.  This is great info.  I can only hope to do something half a good.

Amazing.



The Deposed King


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Good luck with it, TDK.

It's now been over a week since the BookBub ad and sales returned to pre-promo numbers pretty quickly. Later books in a series just aren't real sticky in the ranks. Fallen King is currently ranked in the 1700s, pretty much where it was for the ten days prior to the promo.

Sell through has been great, especially for Fallen Out, the first in the series. Currently ranked in the mid-4000s, it had been averaging in the 6K to 7K range for months. The other books are doing equally well. I can actually watch a surge in sales for the first, travel through the others. Pretty cool.

As I mentioned earlier, I applied to BookBub the day after the promo and was accepted yesterday. Fallen Pride will be in BookBub on 5/28, just thirty-two days after the last BB.


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