Do I focus advertising on first (free) book in series? Thoughts, pretty please.

[fleurina]

Hello!
I'm a tad (a lot) confused about advertising, pricing etc. and I hope one of you smart marketers can shed some light in my rubbish-at-promotions direction.  I've recently gone wide and the first of my Izzie Firecracker series - in signature - is now free, and I am about to run some promotions.

To get to the point - is it worth advertising subsequent books or is it best to focus most attention on the first regarding AMS, FB ads, Fussy Librarian and their ilk. I also post quite regularly on Twitter, Instagram and FB - but wondering about the paid stuff - not exactly earning a fortune at the mo - haha!
Although they are in a series, they are individual stories, and only the main characters and a small thread of the previous book meanders into the others.

Also, is £1.49 ($1.99) a little low for the two subsequent books seeing as the first is free - the 4th, the Christmas castle Ghost is priced even lower as it's just 20K words.

Cheers!

[Arches]

Right, the generally accepted approach is to try and get readers hooked on a series with book one then they'll read through the rest. My approach is that if the first book doesn't sell or doesn't get good follow through, it's time to start a new series.

That said, I have rarely advertised later books in a series, usually at a launch, but my series all need to be read in order.

As for the pricing, I do discount the first book all the time, $.99 because I'm in KU. For the rest of that series, I price them at $2.99. I don't know about the UK, but in the land of the free and the home of the brave, $1.99 is kind of a no-man's land because you don't get the 70% royalty, and the book isn't cheap either. Best of luck.

[fleurina]

Thanks for that, Arches. Hmm, I was thinking of upping the price to the minimum 70% as it's enough to give the first book free - and maybe it looks too cheap (and desperate) otherwise - a bit too Dickensian - spare a shilling, governer?  I've had the poor prices up and down like yo-yos.  I should decide the amount and stick to it - for a wee while. 

[Arches]

We're all trying things to see what works best. I did take a quick glance at your Izzy book's product page that you linked. It's for the UK site and shows the paperback but no ebook for some reason. I used your ASIN to bring up the US page, and it shows both the paperback and the ebook.

[Jeff Tanyard]

If it was me, I'd go ahead and schedule a Freebooksy for your permafree as soon as possible.  Once that's scheduled, purchase a bknights promo for the day before the Freebooksy.  (bknights only books up to two weeks out, so you might have to wait a few days before booking that one.)  That way, you'll have a little momentum going into the Freebooksy ad.

Having said that, I'm just a prawn, so take my advice with a huge grain of salt.

[fleurina]

Thanks, Jeff,
That's very helpful.
Cheers!

[Crystal]

Promote the free book and raise the rest of the prices to 2.99+.

If you're not seeing enough sellthrough to justify your promotions after a few weeks/months, then take a harder look at the books to see what your can improve.

[LilyBLily]

I hope you're planning to do some Amazon Sponsored Product ads, too, and maybe some Facebook ads. Since you've gone free, you can also apply for a BookBub featured ad (in case you haven't already). First in series is best to advertise on a regular basis but you can also do a pop on Amazon ads for the latest book in the series. See how it goes; don't spend a lot of money on it. These ads will give you some daily visibility.

I'll be launching the fourth book in a series shortly and I'm not discounting anything at all, and not doing any ad newsletters. I'm just going to do more Amazon ads, alert my mailing list that the book is out there, and see what happens. (This is probably why I'm still a prawn. But do the CPC ads. They work.)   

[fleurina]

Thanks to all for your replies. Much appreciated and very helpful.