Author Topic: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo  (Read 5343 times)

Marti Talbott

Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« on: October 13, 2019, 12:01:48 AM »
Just in case anyone is keeping track of such things.

This promo ran on October 10th for Marblestone Mansion, book 1 (Scandalous Duchess Series). Free first in a 10 book series. Paid $95.00. Not a lot of sell-through yet. but it's early.
 
D2D   150 day 1
   37 day 2
zon   916 day 1
   150 day 2
kobo   51 day 1 & 2
play   34 day 1 & 2

   1338 total
Read The Swindler, a historical romance available at:
Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo & Nook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QG5K23
 
The following users thanked this post: Simon Haynes, Denise, idontknowyet, VanessaC, Lu Kudzoza, Kristen.s.walker

Paul Gr

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2019, 07:57:09 PM »
Keep posting, please, as a newbie marketeer I would be interested in your results.

Marti Talbott

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #2 on: October 14, 2019, 02:41:04 AM »
Keep posting, please, as a newbie marketeer I would be interested in your results.

Might be important to note that this book has 236 reviews. Marblestone Mansion book 1 (Scandalous Duchess Series)

D2D - Apple/Nook
   150 day 1
   37 day 2
   21 day 3
   follow through sales of books in the series - 8
Amazon
   916 day 1
   150 day 2
   50 day 3
   follow through sales of books in the series - 4
Kobo   
    51 day 1 & 2 on holiday day 3-5, no new stats yet
 
Google play
    34 day 1 & 2
    15 day 3
   follow through sales of books in the series - 2

Total free books downloaded - 1424
follow through sales in series - 14
14 x 2.79 (approx) = $39.06  Paid $95.00  (A ways to go before I break even, but it's early)

Hope this helps. :dog1:
Read The Swindler, a historical romance available at:
Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo & Nook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QG5K23
 
The following users thanked this post: idontknowyet, VanessaC, Kristen.s.walker

Paul Gr

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #3 on: October 14, 2019, 08:57:52 PM »
Respected reviews, too, Sunday Times etc.
Interesting, in two days approximately you have covered half your costs.
The weekly figure will be even more interesting.
Keep posting, pls!
I notice that on one book promotion site, it costs more to promote historical fiction than for example books in the horror genre.
Wonder why this is.

Marti Talbott

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #4 on: October 15, 2019, 12:40:33 AM »
Changing to a summary style. Yesterday, 46 new downloads on the free book bringing the total to 1470. Only 4 more sales, bringing the total sell through to 16.
16 x 2.79 = $44.65  cost $95.00

People download free books and then read them later. After this, I won't add any more downloads because this book is permafree and the downloads probably can't be contributed to the ad. The sales will be a result of the ad for a while. It'a a Canadian and US holiday, so readers have an extra day off to read.

To answer your question, the price I think has to do with the number of readers that have asked to be notified per genre. Other than that, I don't know. Romance is normally more popular.
Read The Swindler, a historical romance available at:
Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo & Nook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QG5K23
 
The following users thanked this post: LR, Kristen.s.walker

Marti Talbott

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #5 on: October 15, 2019, 11:38:57 PM »

added sales
Amazon - 1
D2D - 5 (Apple/Nook)
Kobo - 0
Google play - 2

Bringing the total sell through to 26.
26 x 2.79 = $72.54  cost $95.00
Getting close. Maybe when Kobo finally reports, it will push me over. Disappointing sales in Amazon. Usually my best seller.

(wrong total in previous post. 14 plus 4 is 18, not 16)
 

Read The Swindler, a historical romance available at:
Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo & Nook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QG5K23
 

Maggie Ann

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #6 on: October 16, 2019, 12:26:49 AM »
Looking good, Marti. Much better than I do on Freebooksy.
           
 
The following users thanked this post: Marti Talbott, idontknowyet

LilyBLily

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #7 on: October 16, 2019, 04:55:58 AM »
I'm glad you feel it was worth it. I have trouble separating out the publicity value from the sales value of these newsletters. I suppose I should simply assign a two-value structure, such as 50% for PR and 50% for sales. Then maybe I'd be able to claim a newsletter ad was profitable.
 

Marti Talbott

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #8 on: October 16, 2019, 05:10:29 AM »
I'm glad you feel it was worth it. I have trouble separating out the publicity value from the sales value of these newsletters. I suppose I should simply assign a two-value structure, such as 50% for PR and 50% for sales. Then maybe I'd be able to claim a newsletter ad was profitable.

It's never a sure thing. Like I said, this is a permafree, so it's hard to claim all the downloads were from the ad. The day of the ad is pretty reliable, I think. After that, it's iffy. Fortunately, this series is 10 books, so that makes it easier to track the sell-through. Sales were pretty much stale for that series before the ad.
Read The Swindler, a historical romance available at:
Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo & Nook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QG5K23
 
The following users thanked this post: idontknowyet

Marti Talbott

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #9 on: October 17, 2019, 01:37:57 AM »
added sales
Amazon - 14
D2D - 3 (Apple/Nook)
Kobo - 0
Google play - 1

Bringing the total sell through to 26.
34 x 2.79 = $94.86  cost $95.00
Still nothing on Kobo except the free books. Their reports are awful.

So five days after the ad, coasting into making money from this point on. Anyone want me to keep posting?
Read The Swindler, a historical romance available at:
Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo & Nook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QG5K23
 

notthatamanda

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #10 on: October 17, 2019, 02:03:57 AM »
Well congratulations on the success of the promo.

What do you mean by the reports are awful at Kobo?  When I run a promo I just use the Kobo dashboard to see what's selling.  Kobo seems to report in real time (ish) or at least better than D2D, who I'm convinced only updates the reports once a day.  If you need any help navigating the Kobo dashboard I can try to help.
 

Marti Talbott

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #11 on: October 17, 2019, 02:12:37 AM »
Well congratulations on the success of the promo.

What do you mean by the reports are awful at Kobo?  When I run a promo I just use the Kobo dashboard to see what's selling.  Kobo seems to report in real time (ish) or at least better than D2D, who I'm convinced only updates the reports once a day.  If you need any help navigating the Kobo dashboard I can try to help.

I can't prove the Kobo reports on the dashboard are not accurate. My problem is, they asked me to take the book number off the titles so they could index the series together somehow. So now, all ten of them except the omnibus simply says "Marblestone Mansion on the report. Even if I use the search feature, all ten come up and there is no distinction between them. Frankly, I don't spend a lot of time trying to figure it out.
Read The Swindler, a historical romance available at:
Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo & Nook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QG5K23
 

Paul Gr

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #12 on: October 17, 2019, 02:47:47 AM »
I would like to hear how it goes, finally, and surely you would like to report your success story, if that's how it turns out.
One thing, well several things, puzzle me about marketing.
Let's say that I'm an average book buyer, and I'm looking for an historical novel, like yours.
I visit Amazon UK (in my case,) but .com will suffice.
How can I find your novel, and thereby help you to justify your advertising costs?
This applies to any novel, of course, not just your's.
I haven't done any marketing yet, so am a complete newbie.


 


Marti Talbott

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #13 on: October 17, 2019, 02:59:04 AM »
I would like to hear how it goes, finally, and surely you would like to report your success story, if that's how it turns out.
One thing, well several things, puzzle me about marketing.
Let's say that I'm an average book buyer, and I'm looking for an historical novel, like yours.
I visit Amazon UK (in my case,) but .com will suffice.
How can I find your novel, and thereby help you to justify your advertising costs?
This applies to any novel, of course, not just your's.
I haven't done any marketing yet, so am a complete newbie.


 

If you know my name, then you would probably find all my books by searching for that. As far as a genre search, you would probably find the first one under "free historical romance." Of course, that depends on how high that specific book ranks on that specific day. The more specific your search terms, the closer you would get to finding what you're looking for. For example, if you entered "horror" you'd get all the best sellers followed by hundreds more. But if you narrowed it to "supernatural horror," then your list of possibles would be closer to what you're looking for. Hope this helps.

As an author, then the keywords need to be the search terms you think readers would use to find your book.
Read The Swindler, a historical romance available at:
Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo & Nook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QG5K23
 

Maggie Ann

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #14 on: October 17, 2019, 03:12:27 AM »
Looks like it's all gravy from here. Congrats on the good results. Please do continue reporting. I like to hear success stories.
           
 
The following users thanked this post: Marti Talbott

Paul Gr

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #15 on: October 17, 2019, 06:25:57 PM »
Quote
If you know my name, then you would probably find all my books by searching for that. As far as a genre search, you would probably find the first one under "free historical romance." Of course, that depends on how high that specific book ranks on that specific day. The more specific your search terms, the closer you would get to finding what you're looking for. For example, if you entered "horror" you'd get all the best sellers followed by hundreds more. But if you narrowed it to "supernatural horror," then your list of possibles would be closer to what you're looking for. Hope this helps.

As an author, then the keywords need to be the search terms you think readers would use to find your book.

Well I've just searched for your title using the search term 'free historical romance' in Amazon com and can't find it on the first three pages, and it's the same with the UK site.
I'm not criticising you or your marketing strategy, you've done much more writing and more marketing than I've done, I'm just trying to analyse the results of your marketing campaign, with a view to finding out if it's worth it.
Maybe I'm being too intrusive.
I'm not trying to score any points here, but one of my novels is ranked fourth in Amazon com for its search term, and that's without any marketing whatsoever.
Oops, no, it's on my website, forgot about that.
Good luck, anyway.



Simon Haynes

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #16 on: October 17, 2019, 07:14:38 PM »
I would like to hear how it goes, finally, and surely you would like to report your success story, if that's how it turns out.
One thing, well several things, puzzle me about marketing.
Let's say that I'm an average book buyer, and I'm looking for an historical novel, like yours.
I visit Amazon UK (in my case,) but .com will suffice.
How can I find your novel, and thereby help you to justify your advertising costs?
This applies to any novel, of course, not just your's.
I haven't done any marketing yet, so am a complete newbie.


(I believe 'free historical romance' was just an example.)


When you search on Amazon, they'll tend to show the bestselling titles first (plus sponsored entries scattered amongst them.)

The last book on page one of 'Free Historical Romance' has a free sales rank of 1711

So, if your book was #1712 you'd be on page 2. If it was 400,000 or so you'd be invisible.


Therefore, it's a two-stage process. One, get the keywords right, and two, advertise/promote to get your ranking up.

Without both, visibility will be limited and random book browsers won't find you.

That's why, if you're advertising on AMS for example, you can assume that pretty much all sales are due to the ads unless your Amazon ranking is already pretty high.

 

Simon Haynes

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #17 on: October 17, 2019, 07:21:29 PM »
Example: if you search for humorous fantasy I have three on the first page of results (none of them sponsored, they're organic.)

To counteract what I said in my previous post, the highest of mine on the search results has a rank of 200,000 at the moment, whereas the last non-sponsored has a rank of 2885.

However, mine are in KU (and have an audiobook and paperback, and are part of a series), so Amazon might be showing them higher up the rankings because they can potentially make more money off selling my stuff* than they can from the higher-ranked book. Also, that #2885 might be enjoying a brief spike.

This is what we call the Mystery of Amazon. It really is impossible to calculate all the variables.


* By this I mean that IF amazon's internal figures show that people generally read one of my books then work their way through the other 20+, which seems to be the case, then Amazon might promote mine more often because it's like selling 20 books in one go.
« Last Edit: October 17, 2019, 07:23:42 PM by Simon Haynes »
 

notthatamanda

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #18 on: October 17, 2019, 08:26:51 PM »
Paul, one of the things that promos help with is getting you into the top 100 of your subcategories list.  Once you make those you get organic exposure to anyone browsing those lists.  I think being in the top 200 for the subcategories helps with getting you placed in also boughts (when Amazon is running also boughts, which is inconsistent) and better ad placement, but that's just a gut feeling from what I've seen.

In addition, for a first in series free, though it might be hard, depending on the genre, subcategory, to make the top 100 for the first free book, if the read through is good, subsequent books can make it onto the paid top 100 lists, more exposure, driving people back to the first in series.  It's a nice feedback loop.
« Last Edit: October 17, 2019, 08:42:06 PM by notthatamanda »
 

Simon Haynes

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #19 on: October 17, 2019, 09:30:45 PM »
Paul, one of the things that promos help with is getting you into the top 100 of your subcategories list.


Absolutely. There are certain categories on Amazon UK and US where I have 10-15 slots out of the top 100 from time to time.  If people keep seeing my covers there, plus in also-boughts, and in sponsored carousels and spot ads and search results, they can't really avoid my stuff.

 

Marti Talbott

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #20 on: October 17, 2019, 11:05:24 PM »
Quote
If you know my name, then you would probably find all my books by searching for that. As far as a genre search, you would probably find the first one under "free historical romance." Of course, that depends on how high that specific book ranks on that specific day. The more specific your search terms, the closer you would get to finding what you're looking for. For example, if you entered "horror" you'd get all the best sellers followed by hundreds more. But if you narrowed it to "supernatural horror," then your list of possibles would be closer to what you're looking for. Hope this helps.

As an author, then the keywords need to be the search terms you think readers would use to find your book.

Well I've just searched for your title using the search term 'free historical romance' in Amazon com and can't find it on the first three pages, and it's the same with the UK site.
I'm not criticising you or your marketing strategy, you've done much more writing and more marketing than I've done, I'm just trying to analyse the results of your marketing campaign, with a view to finding out if it's worth it.
Maybe I'm being too intrusive.
I'm not trying to score any points here, but one of my novels is ranked fourth in Amazon com for its search term, and that's without any marketing whatsoever.
Oops, no, it's on my website, forgot about that.
Good luck, anyway.

Ah, someone as literal as I am. If you had searched on the day I had 900 downloads on Amazon, you probably would have found that book on the first three pages. However, after five days, it slipped back down.

It's a competition. The rank is determined by where a book is compared to all the other books in that category. Today, if you were to search free books under the search term "Best Sellers in Teen & Young Adult Medieval Fiction eBooks" you would find "The Viking," my bestselling historical book, in the number 4 slot. It stays pretty high because it is not a crowded category.

I believe, but I can't prove, that the number of copies sold over all time counts. When I run an ad on that book, it jump to the top. Of course, free books don't count as bestsellers. I just happen to know I've given away over 200k copies of that book in the last 10 years. Hope this helps you understand.
Read The Swindler, a historical romance available at:
Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo & Nook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QG5K23
 

Simon Haynes

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #21 on: October 18, 2019, 12:29:57 AM »
All time sales definitely count. I was just reading something about KDP free promos today, and it states that after your free run is over, the "paid Paid ranking" (their typo) uses your previous historical ranking to calculate the new one.

 
The following users thanked this post: Marti Talbott

Marti Talbott

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #22 on: October 18, 2019, 02:18:40 AM »
Update: Interesting that the Google Play download only shows sales through the 15th. Today adds 14 sales in that series on their site alone. Amazon 4, D2D 1 (sometimes they get data late from either Apple or Nook) and Kobo 0 still. I looked for a download for Kobo but all they have are the ones for the past pay period, not anything current. I normally don't expect much from Kobo, but every sale counts.

Bringing the total sell through to 53.
53 x 2.79 = $147.87  cost $95.00
 
Since this is the third series that follows the same Scottish MacGreagor Clan, then some readers will go back to read the first 22 books, and then The Lost MacGreagor books which has four more books. All together, there are 36.

When they say more is better, then it's a true statement when it comes to a series. And still, I'm not rich. I wonder why not too. :o)
Read The Swindler, a historical romance available at:
Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo & Nook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QG5K23
 

Simon Haynes

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #23 on: October 18, 2019, 02:40:39 AM »
Google play sometimes fails to update their spreadsheet for 3-4 days on end. Used to drive me nuts.
 

notthatamanda

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #24 on: October 18, 2019, 03:23:10 AM »
Marti on Google Play you can look at payment center, then edit, to see if your total is going up.
 

Marti Talbott

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #25 on: October 18, 2019, 03:33:46 AM »
Marti on Google Play you can look at payment center, then edit, to see if your total is going up.

Right, but I needed to see which books sold and I can only do that by downloading the report.
Read The Swindler, a historical romance available at:
Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo & Nook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QG5K23
 

notthatamanda

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #26 on: October 18, 2019, 04:02:35 AM »
Yes that's true.  Well google fixed the pricing page, maybe they'll fix reports next.  Fingers crossed.
 

Marti Talbott

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #27 on: October 18, 2019, 04:13:21 AM »
Yes that's true.  Well google fixed the pricing page, maybe they'll fix reports next.  Fingers crossed.

True, and you always give me good advice, which I appreciate very much. Maybe because Google gathers sales from so many countries, it's hard to impossible to be current. We used to think Amazon was current (hourly), but these days I've begun to doubt that. I have a couple of good days, then a bad one with no apparent rhyme or reason - which day of the week, holidays, school shopping, etc. Just nothing I can pin down.

Considering the low Amazon sales after this 900 + download on their site, it makes me wonder if something is wrong. Google outselling Amazon? That's not right.
Read The Swindler, a historical romance available at:
Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo & Nook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QG5K23
 

notthatamanda

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #28 on: October 18, 2019, 04:34:12 AM »
It might be.  I always moved a lot of free books on google, it seemed pretty steady, and it seemed like a lot of google readers weren't going to ever buy anything.  On Amazon, the book will drop in rank quickly, especially free, bye bye organic visibility.  On google who knows?
 

Marti Talbott

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #29 on: October 18, 2019, 04:45:01 AM »
It might be.  I always moved a lot of free books on google, it seemed pretty steady, and it seemed like a lot of google readers weren't going to ever buy anything.  On Amazon, the book will drop in rank quickly, especially free, bye bye organic visibility.  On google who knows?

True. I just haven't spent enough time there to get a grip on Google's keywords, etc. I don't even know how my books are ranking. I sometimes look to see if I have any reviews on the product page, and that's about all. Something seems to be working, but I used the same keywords on Amazon, and... Amazing what I don't know and even if I did, they would change everything and make me start over.  :HB
Read The Swindler, a historical romance available at:
Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo & Nook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QG5K23
 

notthatamanda

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #30 on: October 18, 2019, 04:47:32 AM »
Well if you figure it out, I'd love to know.
One time I opened up google play books and it took me to a "First in Series Free" Feature page.
I immediately got on chat and asked them how to get on that page. They said everything every user sees is algorithm driven.
But enjoy the occasional sale from the country you may or may not have heard of.
 

Marti Talbott

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #31 on: October 18, 2019, 05:02:40 AM »
Well if you figure it out, I'd love to know.
One time I opened up google play books and it took me to a "First in Series Free" Feature page.
I immediately got on chat and asked them how to get on that page. They said everything every user sees is algorithm driven.
But enjoy the occasional sale from the country you may or may not have heard of.
  grint
Read The Swindler, a historical romance available at:
Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo & Nook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QG5K23
 

Marti Talbott

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #32 on: October 18, 2019, 06:38:35 AM »
So Amazon just credited me with 10 more sales. I don't understand everything I know about all that. Ten people bought a book on Thursday? I only had one new sale yesterday and suddenly 10 more? I'm not complaining, I just think it a good example of not to panic when sales are low. Amazon apparently needs time to catch up.
Read The Swindler, a historical romance available at:
Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Kobo & Nook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QG5K23
 

idontknowyet

Re: Stats for latest Freebooksy promo
« Reply #33 on: October 18, 2019, 10:56:23 AM »
Sounds like they are starting to read through the freebees. Hopefully you will keep getting bursts like that.
 
The following users thanked this post: Marti Talbott