Saturday, April 6, 2013

April 6, 2013 - Self-Publishing Promotions

I just ran my first free promotion on Kindle Select and had much more exciting results than I expected.  I did some research in this area to see what kind of results others had experienced, but I wasn't able to find many concrete discussions.

I ran my single book for free for two days only, on a Thursday and Friday.  With my romance genre, I have definitely been experiencing more sales on weekends, which I suspect might have something to do with the my audience of modern working women looking to kick back with a good, sexy book over the weekend.  So I wanted to run it just prior to what are typically my busiest days.

On Thursday, sales came in extremely quickly, with nearly forty sales each hour.  The vast majority of those were US sales.  On Friday, my US sales slowed down dramatically while the international sales increased.  I suspect that the international sales didn't pick up until my Amazon rank went through the roof, which took a day longer (not accounting for time difference).  Even in the last two hours of my promotion, I picked up a good number of international sales, leading me to conclude that the next time I run a promotion, I will run it for three days to allow more time to pick up more international sales.  In the end, I ended up giving away 1600 copies of my first book, which is thrilling.  Granted, I wasn't making any money.  I did, however, get to see my book in the Top 20 list for free books in my genre and I get to enjoy the knowledge that 1600 people all over the world are now reading my work.  And approximately 10% of my sales were international.

For anyone else interested in running a promotion, I would recommend a three-day run, at least.  I also would recommend having at least a second book for sale to pick up any readers who enjoy your style.  And in terms of which days I would recommend selecting, I stand by my decision to end the promotion on Friday, the day before my personal busiest sale days.  Give it time.  It's only mid-day Saturday.  My sales have not miraculously gone through the roof...yet.  But hey, it's early, right?

In terms of the role these promotions have in the argument for and against self-publishing, they are huge.  Because of the expense of printing a hardcopy of your book, it simply isn't cost effective to give away 1600 free copies of your book.  With e-publishing, getting your work and your name out there in the world is a huge advantage; and writers absolutely must take advantage of every opportunity offered.




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