Your methods of a book launch

[alhawke]

I'm publishing another new release (this marks 17th) and I realized that I don't have a single set plan for every book release. I mean, I do similar things each time. I usually run a promotion, get ARCs, do some advertising and enter the book in a few blogs. But I don't do the same thing every time. I'm still coming up with new ways. So... I thought it'd be a fun thread to see what all you do. The following are some questions. I think we all get tidbits and ideas by seeing what everyone else is doing.
Do you run price drops?
Do you only advertise via BookBub, Amazon, or Facebook ads? Google ads? If so, how aggressive?
Do you run a press release?
Do you run a blog tour? (I still don't know what "tour" involves, by the way. I've entered my books in blogs as new releases, but I've never "toured" a thing)
Do you run a Facebook takeover?
Do you pair the new book with another book in series and price drop that instead?
Do you run the book via KU for three months, then move it over to wide (that's what I'm trying this month, btw)?
Do you have a book signing?
Do you do ARCs?
Do you do absolutely nothing?

[PaulineMRoss]

I do ARCs and I tell my mailing list. Those are the main things. Bookbub does a new release sendout, but I don't have vast numbers of followers there. Someone does my Amazon ads for me, and he always knows when I have a new release so he may (or may not) target the new book, I don't really know. That's it. Nothing clever with pricing or promotions, and definitely no book signings or blog tours (did one blog tour once, it was a complete waste of my time and energy).

[idontknowyet]

i'm bad in general with advertising new releases. i only advertise the first in series which is probably the wrong choice

[TimothyEllis]

No to all of that.

I post to Facebook feed, group, and page when the book goes into final editing, when I know the firm release date, and on release date.

I mail out to my list when it's live in the US store.

I advise Bookbub of the amended release date, and they send out a followers alert whenever.

That's it.

[alhawke]

Thanks for all those comments! Do you guys drop the price? If so, by how much? I've launched many books at $0.99 with subsequent promotions. I've been disappointed with full price releases in the past.

My new release is planned for KU. This will be a bit of an experiment. I've only done this once before, but it turned out to be my most successful book. So I'm giving it a try again. For those of you in KU who marketed your release, did achieving a higher rank launch amount to much of a KENP read tail?

Logically, I think one has to look at cost of marketing versus revenue from sales (same goes for ads). Plugging a book in new release announcements in BookBub and the like won't cost anything, so that's a go for me for sure. However running NewinBook promos, BookBub New Release for less promos, or even smaller (but great) promos like BookDoggy is a consideration. But to run these and get sales, you have to have a handful of reviews and, usually, release it discounted.

I have sent the book out for ARCs to my readers, Booksprout and Hidden Gems. So the book will be primed with reviews (hopefully good ones). I just have to decide how much money to market this book and whether it's worth it. This book will be a standalone and, at the moment, is not a series book.

[TimothyEllis]

Thanks for all those comments! Do you guys drop the price?

Michael Anderle used to do this. Not sure if he still does. But he was releasing at 99c.

The only thing I could see for doing it was he got higher up the chart. But he said it was for the money.

But as far as I can see, you have a certain number of guaranteed sales in release week from fans, and those buyers are your bread and butter.

So why would you discount? That's just shooting yourself in the foot, imo.

When you put the book out at 99c, you get 30c for it, instead of $3.30 on $4.99. How is that a good thing? Makes no sense to me.

In theory, if you do well enough, that 99c might return the same amount of money, but you've have to sell 10 times the number of books to break even on it.

It obviously worked for Anderle, but his launches got the book into the top 200 in the paid US store, and that sells a lot of books. Plus he writes long series, so the new readers make rain for him at normal prices.

But most people never get anywhere near that level.

I launch at full price. I don't actually discount at all these days.

And when I'm looking at the new releases lists, 99c on a new release tells me the author doesn't value the book at all.

[alhawke]

In theory, if you do well enough, that 99c might return the same amount of money, but you've have to sell 10 times the number of books to break even on it.

I've done it as a "new author" for a long time now to get new readers. I can rank high, but it costs money and doesn't necessarily land more sales in the long run. The ROI is a loss. And I'm talking the range of <6000, not 200. To get to <200 I'd have to land a BookBub, which is very difficult for any new book (I'm talking a Featured Release promo is needed, not New Release for Less).

I'm beginning to veer more towards releasing at full price. One book I sold at full price, I discounted a few weeks later. This method can work too. The only problem is it's harder to rank high if it's not sold the first week of launch.

And when I'm looking at the new releases lists, 99c on a new release tells me the author doesn't value the book at all.

That's interesting. That's something to consider.

Another consideration is whether we should be chasing "new release" at all. For trad publishers, I can see it making sense, particularly for Nora Roberts and such. The marketing can push their future sales. But how many future sales is it pushing for us? Where's the threshold where the money and time and work is worth it? It's the same question I wonder about with advertising $. I have a feeling the big publishers have data on this stuff and know far more than we do. But you can never predict exactly how an individual book will fare, of course.

[TimothyEllis]

Another consideration is whether we should be chasing "new release" at all. For trad publishers, I can see it making sense, particularly for Nora Roberts and such. The marketing can push their future sales. But how many future sales is it pushing for us? Where's the threshold where the money and time and work is worth it? It's the same question I wonder about with advertising $. I have a feeling the big publishers have data on this stuff and know far more than we do. But you can never predict exactly how an individual book will fare, of course.

I'm not sure what you're getting at there.

I have a core set of fans who I know if they don't buy on day 1, will in the first week. Plus a core of KU fans who will read in the first week.

That's my bread and butter.

From that, each book finds new readers, or reconnects old readers who stopped, and the back catalogue sells.

So my monthly sales, with a monthly release, is about 1/3 the new release, and 2/3 everything else.

But my visibility is nearly 100% new release based.

The 30/60/90 cliffs are now 10/30 cliffs, and you can vanish off all the category lists now in less than 2 weeks. As soon as you do, your income tanks.

But the spike, tail, tank cycle does work over the longer term. As long as you keep releasing.

[alhawke]

But my visibility is nearly 100% new release based.

I don't have the same situation. My visibility is primarily from one successful book series. It's mainly a back catalogue trilogy and its buttressed by ads and it sells. I also garner visibility by cross promoting monthly with other authors via Bookfunnel. I'd be very happy if all my books were as successful-they're not. My new releases, by & large, operate at a loss (definitely at a loss if you count editing/cover costs).

I'm trying to change this and find a balance where I can make money or at least break even with launches. I'm mulling over your suggestion regarding full price launch. Obviously, that would garner more revenue. And the benefit of this KU launch is I can still gain readers "for free" via KU. I will lose wide sales, but launch is even less effective for me wide than it is with Amazon. I've found that I usually sell more wide after launch, I think cause other retailers aren't as sensitive to new books ?? (I'd be curious from others who are wide if they see the same).

[Bill Hiatt]

I certainly have people who have bought multiple books of mine, and I have mailing list subscribers, but I'm not sure how many of them are dedicated fans. In any case, my experience is a little bit different from Timothy's. I do discount at new release, because the books that take off then tend to keep selling.

I have traditionally done a month-long burst of advertising, using Promo Stacker to help with booking (though I do it in spread mode, not stacked, because Amazon seems to have sustained sales over sudden spikes.) I do have to say that the newsletter promos are not producing as well as they used to, so I may rethink. In any case, I only use this approach for first-in-series or standalones. Advertising a mid-series book doesn't get the same return because a lot of eyes seeing it haven't read the earlier books.

I start Amazon ad as soon as I can after release, but again, mostly for first-in-series or standalones. For later series books, though, I'll launch a new series ad with the new book included. Same thing with those new sponsored brand ads. Generally, both of those sell more of the first book, anyway, but at least the latter allows people to click and see all your books rather than just one. That could be useful for reminding people that you have a new book out at the end of an existing series.

Naturally, I also notify my newsletter subscribers.

A word about KU. I don't know why, but it seems to take KU subscribers longer to find a new release. Pages seem to pick up after the initial month. So don't be discouraged if pages read don't start flowing instantly.

[idontknowyet]

I only make first in series 99cents. The rest of the books are full price.

[alhawke]

I have traditionally done a month-long burst of advertising, using Promo Stacker to help with booking (though I do it in spread mode, not stacked, because Amazon seems to have sustained sales over sudden spikes.)

Yeah, it might help to spread out a sale in one to two weeks or more?? I've done this and I've done the full day multi-stacker method. The problem is just like you said. The promos are yielding a 1/3 to a 1/4 of what they once were but are costing the same. It costs you. So, is it worth it to push a new book? That's what I was saying ^^. Particularly is it worth pushing a new release when you can still push a book at any time with $ ads and, imo, ads push a book whatever the rank. So... I haven't decided if I will drop the price. One way is to compromise and sell at a reduced price at $2.99 instead of $3.99 or $4.99. Some promos will still run with that. But there's more of a thud with end results there.

Newsletters. Everyone talks about building newsletters. Well, okay, I've worked on mine for three years aggressively. I have 2500 readers with my newsletter. About 800 open emails every 2 wks to a month (such an open rate has taken a long time to cultivate). About 125 will take a freebie (from recent stats). I'm guessing 20 will buy (I don't have accurate new data because I'm always doing different stuff, but guessing). 20 is awesome but it's not going to push a new release up the charts without promoting.

KU folks, do you recall when you can use the 5 day Amazon sale or free days? I can't recall if you can schedule it right off the bat or if you have to wait a week??

I only make first in series 99cents. The rest of the books are full price.

All your books are in series, right? Mid books can be promoted in series but don't sell as well, as you've said (I've done some mid-book promos. They sell but never as well as 1st books, even when you advertise them as ok to read as standalones).

[idontknowyet]

Yes, I've broken my books into 2 series 1 with 10 books the other with 11. Then i have 2 series of boxed sets one with 3 and the other with 4. That gives me four beginning books to advertise. I do promote middle books occasionally. they do sell but the ranks dont go as high since they split sales between book 1 and the book i advertised. sales arent as high but the tail is much longer on those promotions.

[PaulineMRoss]

I release all my books at $2.99. First in series stay at that price permanently, everything else goes to $4.99 after a month or so. Early series are $3.99 now. But I get two thirds of my revenue from KU, so the price isn't much of an issue.

[alhawke]

I release all my books at $2.99. First in series stay at that price permanently, everything else goes to $4.99 after a month or so. Early series are $3.99 now. But I get two thirds of my revenue from KU, so the price isn't much of an issue.

Hopefully I don't shoot myself in the foot but, between Timothy's comments ^^, my own thoughts of losing so much $ on launches, and wanting to try something new, I'm doing exactly what you do, Pauline, for my launch this month. I'm planning a launch at $2.99 in two weeks on KU. I will try some promos for extra visibility--that will cost me again, but the book will be at $2.99. I'm trying to balance between getting the book seen and making more profit.

My KU experiment should be okay because this book is a completely new book out of series. I'm trying KU because I was disappointed in my last new release with sales from retailers outside of Amazon. Launch sales for me wide are pretty measly (the book does better with plain advertising outside Amazon later). And, who knows, if the book takes off with reads, I could keep this one in KU.

[Writer]

Over the years, I've narrowed my launch strategy down to things that provide measurable results in real time or very close to it. Everything else, I've thrown out the window as a time suck. But keep in mind, genre and audience played a part in that decision.

I send out ARCs a week before release. I launch the book at full price in KU, where it stays permanently, while I rapid release sequels. I send an announcement to my newsletter on launch week, and turn on FB, BB, AMZ ads. Watch the reviews trickle in. Focus on pushing out the rest of the series. In 6-12 months, I raise the price from $3.99 to $4.99, because the series has become backlist and hanging onto rank is no longer crucial. Around a year after release, I begin applying for BB features and never discount until I get a feature. I continue advertising until the book is 2-3 years old. By that point, it's no longer one of my stronger sellers, so I divert its ad budget to newer releases, but continue applying for BB features and/or accepting Prime invitations for as long as the book can get them.

No social media, blog tours, cross promos, in-person events, press releases, etc. I had fun with some of those things in the past but they never moved the sales needle, so I dropped them to focus all my energy on the books themselves. I have a good advertising budget, so leaving all the heavy lifting to ads suits me well. I publish the books, my newsletter provides reliable early traffic and recovers some of my expenses, ARC reviews make the books appealing, ads sell them. That's the entirety of my launch plan.

[alhawke]

I send out ARCs a week before release. I launch the book at full price in KU, where it stays permanently, while I rapid release sequels.

I'm going full price, sort of, for my KU launch ($2.99 instead of $3.99 or $4.99). But I wonder in the future if I'll do it for books I'm launching wide?? There you don't have that KU reads cushion for driving the book up the rank if your sales are less with full price.

[APP]

I just ran across this article this morning, so I thought I'd pass it on to you. I don't know if it contains any new information, but just in case, here it is.

5 Strategies I Use to Launch New Books in Kindle Unlimited
https://insights.bookbub.com/strategies-i-use-launch-new-books-kindle-unlimited/

[alhawke]

I just ran across this article this morning, so I thought I'd pass it on to you. I don't know if it contains any new information, but just in case, here it is.
5 Strategies I Use to Launch New Books in Kindle Unlimited
https://insights.bookbub.com/strategies-i-use-launch-new-books-kindle-unlimited/

Thanks so much for this! The author talks about using BookBub New Release for Less with KU. I've never done that. The problem with BookBub's new release promo is that it's super expensive. It's probably the most effective new release promo there is out there, but that has to be balanced by its cost.

It could be more worth it for KU'ers though?? That's the point of the article. Well, I've run two wide. My most recent was with a release at $2.99. The other was a release at $0.99. The total sales was around 50--for 99c AND 2.99. This is real measly for a BookBub (BB feature can give you up to 1k sales). What it's told me in the future is to run the book at full price if wide. Perhaps as the author claimed, and you can land one, these work very well for garnering KU reads afterwards?

I've also been mulling over some KU pricing logic. If I release a KU book at $2.99 I still am releasing it "free", sort of, because I get reads from KU. But if it's released at $0.99 it can hit higher ranks. That will draw more eyeballs to the book and drive up the KU reads even higher (presumably KU readers browsing Amazon will look to the charts and pick books in the #1 category to read for free). So... which is better? I don't know. It's all giving me a bit of headache. I'm sticking with $2.99 KU for this launch.

[littleauthor]

I'm going full price, sort of, for my KU launch ($2.99 instead of $3.99 or $4.99). But I wonder in the future if I'll do it for books I'm launching wide?? There you don't have that KU reads cushion for driving the book up the rank if your sales are less with full price.

If it helps, I've tried preorders at 2.99 and sending to my sub list that it's time-limited, etc. I would get a meh response, much as you described in your NL stats. This time around I set pre-order at full price and got one fewer order than the last time but was ahead dollar-wise. Bank not rank is what I'm after. I want to find readers who want what I write so going forward, a new launch is full price with back catalogue going on sale to find readers.

In my current series (7 books in KU), first book is always at full price unless I do a Kindle Count Down. I want readers who are invested enough to plunk down .99. In my experience, they want free or they want the book no matter what I charge. I used Amazon Ads to promote my free first in series at my last launch and it was massively successful ROI-wise and sales-wise. Bit of a nail-biter because you're paying for clicks to a free book but I got 1270 downloads for $27 USD. So very good ROI in my opinion.

But you're doing a stand alone, right? The best ROI is to drive readers to your back catalogue. I would seriously control the spend. Launch at full price with no reduction ever. Tell NL subs. Run ads when you have some stars. Keep your costs low. Just go for visibilty.

I keep an eye on my profit margin and I have been getting 300% until I decided to expand into the UK who are killing me with their pound. But I'm still in the black.

[TimothyEllis]

A couple of general comments.

My fans want to support me so I can keep writing. So they will buy a full priced new release. That's how they support me.

KU readers often judge a book by its price. So anything under 4.99 is often deemed sub standard because it's cheap.

If you;re seeing the same number of sales regardless of price on a new release, then price it high. Not doing so is shooting yourself in the foot, financially. And giving the wrong message to the KU readers.

[writeway]

Do you run price drops?
Yes, for standalone books and first-in-series launches.

Do you only advertise via BookBub, Amazon, or Facebook ads? Google ads? If so, how aggressive?

No, I use none of those. I stopped Amazon ads back in 2020. I never used Google ads and FB ads never worked for me. I stopped submitting to Bookbub when I went back into KU and plus, I found my last 4 Bookbubs weren't nearly as good as they were a few years ago. I also unsubscribed to their mailing because I no longer liked the books they sent and they seem to focus on Bookbub ads more than their Bookbub Featured Deals. They push those ads like their crack dealers. Every time I open my email they are begging me to run a Bookbub ad and they were useless too. I wasted a lot of money trying to make BB ads work. As for the featured deals, I don't like depending on something I have no control over. I don't know why some authors plan their marketing around Bookbub Featured Deals as if they just know they are going to get one.

Do you run a press release?

No way. When I was trade-published my publisher didn't even do press releases. Press releases are useless this day and age and can't help indies one bit.

Do you run a blog tour? (I still don't know what "tour" involves, by the way. I've entered my books in blogs as new releases, but I've never "toured" a thing)

Sometimes, if I wanna do a bigger launch than usual. A blog tour is when you pay a promotional company to have the blogs they partner with promote your book during a certain period of time. The places also run blitzes, cover reveals, and also have partners on social media networks who promote for you. It's just another way to get the word out. People expect blog tours to give them fast sales. That's not what they are for. They are for exposure. In fact, ALL promotion is about exposure. No matter what you do, nothing guarantees a sale. It's on us and our books to do that.

Do you run a Facebook takeover?

No way. Useless. I used to do these back in the day. Not enough people in the groups to make it worth it. You end up just talking to yourself.

Do you pair the new book with another book in series and price drop that instead?

No. I only promote my loss leaders in my series. For my current series, I am at 14 books. Just put the 14th up today. I made it a loss leader too. So now I have books 1 and 14 as loss leaders at 99 cents. The books are also in KU. I think when you have a longer series it's good to have more than one loss leader and also you wanna be able to rotate the marketing and not promote just one book all the time. My series are standalone books connected by setting, niche, etc. Readers don't have to read in order. I like standalone series much better than continuing one with the same characters. My older series all continue. For me, it's easier to hook people with a standalone series because readers don't feel bogged down like they have to read some big long series and they can pick and choose what to read. So even if they don't read all the books, you still get sales. With a continuing series, you gotta read the whole thing in order and if the reader ends up tiring of your plot or characters then they'll stop reading. With books 1 and 14 as loss leaders, I now have two entry points to my series to focus on.

Do you run the book via KU for three months, then move it over to wide (that's what I'm trying this month, btw)?

No, I keep the books in KU. I stopped publishing wide because books weren't selling so definitely not yanking them out of KU. I still have some books wide though but will probably put more of them into KU when I get around to it. If I took books out of KU and put them wide it would kill my income. Probably 99% of my category's readers are in KU.

Do you have a book signing?

No way. I hated doing this when I was in trade. The reason I am glad to be indie is because a pub can't make me do things I don't wanna do anymore. Booksignings don't sell books so you should only do it if you enjoy them. Nothing wrong with doing them but have clear goals. Most do them just to meet up with readers (hopefully they show up) and because they are social people. I'm not social outside of the Internet so I don't wanna do signings, etc.

Do you do ARCs?

Yes. Not hundreds like some do.

Do you do absolutely nothing?

Again, when I release a follow-up series installment, I don't promote those but on the release day of the book I will promote the loss leader in the series a little bit.

Oh, and what a coincidence. I just bought this book yesterday. I've gotten her other book and really liked it. She gives great tips for launches and explains how you can launch on different levels meaning soft launches, medium, and hard. If you haven't checked the book out, I highly recommend it. I'm also in her FB group.

https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Launching-Bestseller-Elana-Johnson/dp/1638760306

I also find that if you are a fast writer (like me) you do have an advantage and don't have to promote as much because you can get work out regularly. Some authors are not able to get work out that fast so they might have to promote a little more to stay fresh. Especially those who can only release twice or once a year. So releasing regularly helps to cut down on advertising because you're building up readers faster.

[alhawke]

Thanks littleauthor, TimothyEllis, and Writeway. You're all convincing me to keep on my path with a regular priced release.

You know, the problem I see with book launches, and book marketing for that matter, is a lot still depends on the individual book itself. Many of the books in my catalog act very differently when looking at stats from promos, ads, and releases. So it's hard to say if one way works the same for all books. This is why, I think, there's not only one way to do this.

Anyway, the plan for my standalone remains with a $2.99 launch (which will still be slightly discounted from $3.99 or $4.99), KU for the first 3mos, with a few promos on release date. I might bolster it with BookBub ads if I see a significant enough response with sales from my ads.

[writeway]

Thanks littleauthor, TimothyEllis, and Writeway. You're all convincing me to keep on my path with a regular priced release.

You know, the problem I see with book launches, and book marketing for that matter, is a lot still depends on the individual book itself. Many of the books in my catalog act very differently when looking at stats from promos, ads, and releases. So it's hard to say if one way works the same for all books. This is why, I think, there's not only one way to do this.

Anyway, the plan for my standalone remains with a $2.99 launch (which will still be slightly discounted from $3.99 or $4.99), KU for the first 3mos, with a few promos on release date. I might bolster it with BookBub ads if I see a significant enough response with sales from my ads.

Glad I helped. You gotta do what's best for you and your books at the end of the day. Everyone is different. The key is having a strategy. My strategy is I use paid newsletters a lot for my promos so I price new releases at 0.99 (unless again they are follow ups to a series). I do the 99 cent thing for advertisement. For me, when I first release, I am more concerned with moving copies. Some are more concerned with the amount of income out of the gate, but I look more for exposure because I have found (for me) that even though you have to sell a little more at 99 cents, if your book is hitting the right marks, you'll sell regardless. Also my books are in KU. So for my standalones, I price at 99 cents for release and leave it there for maybe a month and push it on the paid newsletters sites, BookFunnel, etc., and then I up the price. But I keep my loss leaders low always because I believe in the loss leader strategy. For my wide series, I have all the first books free and for my KU series, I have all my first books 0.99. The loss leader strategy works for many, which is why it's so popular.

So whatever you do have a strategy. If you run click ads, then you can price new releases higher. But I don't run ads. I work the paid newsletters and you won't move much if you price higher than 0.99. Many of my books have shot up into bestsellers when I released at the discount, then stayed there for months after raising the price. I have many books in the Top 100 that are YEARS old. I also make sure to keep promoting my backlist. Also, I have a MASSIVE catalog so pricing a few books low doesn't affect my income. Now, if you have one or a few books then you definitely don't want all of them 0.99 and definitely without a strategy. But for someone with a big backlist like me, I have too many books priced higher for it to have a negative effect. It has a positive one because as I said, I move more books quickly and out the gate and for my series, loss leaders have made a world of difference. When I had my first books regular priced when I was wide, they rarely moved. I started doing permafree and they took off. And in KU, 0.99 books hook those non-KU people.

The goal when releasing a book for me is to catch NEW readers. Those who don't know me or my work. See, your fans will pay higher prices, but if you wanna catch new readers continuously, well some won't read a new-to-them author without unless you erase the barrier. And you do that by using free or 99 cents. Some say, "Well, if they don't want to pay full-price the I don't want the reader." That's fine but businesswise, you wanna keep expanding. I know as a reader, I don't buy books over a certain price for NOBODY. But for some I already know, I will spend more. For authors I haven't read before, if they got a free or cheap book, I will check it out and if I like their writing, I will go on to read the rest of their work. But if it's a new author (to me) pricing high, I will skip it. For many readers (authors don't wanna hear this), you gotta get their trust before they wanna spend a lot of money on you. This is also why KU is so successful. It allows authors of all levels to obtain readers who probably won't pay them any attention if their books were a certain price. I have e-books that range from free to 9.99. My 9.99 ones are box sets on Amazon. And you know I price my print high enough to where I get $4 royalty at least so I make at least mid-high 3 figures in print every month as well.

I don't want anyone to think I am pricing the way I am just to do it. No, I'm a veteran and I am using the strategy that works for me. We all gotta do that. Not everything will work for everyone else. Some do better wide for example while others do better in KU.

Me, what works best for me is getting books out on the regular, promoting my backlist, and writing to market (not to trend). 

I never tried the put it in KU and take it wide because as I said, most of the folks who read my category are in KU. I was wide for years and didn't make any money hardly except on Amazon, even after Bookbubs. So the going wide after 3 months is something I'd be afraid to do. I do know some authors go wide 3 months then into KU too. I guess it works for them.

Good luck on the new book and I definitely recommend you check out Elana's book I recommended in the link. She makes you think about writing and marketing in a completely different way.

[Bill Hiatt]

I think writers need to test both in and out of KU to see which works best for them.

But once you figure out where your books do best, there may be advantages to keeping them there. I have heard that KU readers are more easily drawn to an author who seems committed to KU. (That is, if they see that there is a series, but not all the titles are in KU, they are less interested in trying the ones that are.)

I decided to have one series wide to have a foot in both camps. That didn't work out well. That series is now back in KU, and when the next book in it comes out, I'll do some advertising to perk it up.

[alhawke]

I think writers need to test both in and out of KU to see which works best for them.

My most successful book was launched for three months on KU. My recent book launches have shown very poor sales outside of Amazon--again on initial launch; they've picked up later for some reason. So... KU is worth another try.

My books do sell wide though. So, after this KU experiment, it's doubtful I'll leave the book in KU. But we'll see.

Good luck on the new book and I definitely recommend you check out Elana's book I recommended in the link. She makes you think about writing and marketing in a completely different way.

Thanks for answering everything and providing so much info, writeway. I'll take a look at Elana's book.