Free promo results for Book 2

[Denise]

Ok, so since I like this kind of post, since I wanted to track results anyway, I'm going to share the results of a free promo for a book in KU.

The book could have below-average results because it's a sequel to a MG/lower YA, even though it's more YA. It's book 2 even though many readers read it without book 1. See, it's kind of wonky... Not the most for-market thing in the world, but I'll do better next time. It doesn't usually sell much.

My goal with this promo was to give this series a last breath and a second chance, increase preorder/sales of book 3 coming out next month, and get some reviews. Another goal now is to get some audiobook sales (let's see).

Since I booked most of these sites a long time ago (BookBarbarian and Robin Reads require quite early bookings), and went on adding more and more slowly, I don't know how much I spent, and it didn't feel that much. It was supposed to coincide with book 3 launch, but I'm getting it all wrong and delayed. It's money that I should have saved and spent smarter. Oh, well. I'll do better next time.

I'll post the results here

Main sites booked:

(Note that I also booked a bunch of free sites and got newsletter swaps)

June 19th
My own newsletter
My Book Cave
Bknights (I know it messes also boughts, but it's a cheap way to boost ranking)
Reign of Reads (I regret it, the sign-up form isn't even working on the site. Not sure if it's working)
Ereader IQ (booked at the last minute cause they list audiobooks)

1731 free downloads -17 sales of book 1 Finished at 83 in the Free Kindle store. The audiobook improved ranking, but the reporting is late and I have no idea what happened there. Better than I thought.
More than 100 international downloads. I think Book Cave must be excellent for wide books, since they have so many non-US readers.

June 20th
GenrePulse (I regret it, I booked because of a 50% discount, but I heard it sucks and I'll have no way to know, together with other promos)
FussyLibrarian (booked at the last minute, unfortunately in Epic Fantasy, because they list audiobooks)
Fantasy Book Deals

1095 downloads. 11 sales of book 1. 99 in the Free Kindle store.
Many people added the book to their Goodreads library.

June 21st
Robin Reads
ENT
Ebook Betty (I also regret it and it was an impulse booking because of a discount code)

1490 downloads of book 2 - 16 sales of book 1 - 80 free in the Kindle store.
Funny that ENT and Robin Reads didn't perform better than Book Cave and Fussy Library.


June 22nd
Freebooksy
FKBD

1040 downloads - 14 sales of book 1.   Relatively speaking, this is not a great result for Freebooksy. It could be because I listed it in YA, and it could also be that readers subscribe to more than one list so at the end of the promo they've already seen the book.

June 23rd
Book Barbarian (Double promo with book 1 at 99c. Not sure it will be worth it because it cost more)
Book Doggy (Last minute booking because they list audiobooks)

728 downloads  - 22 sales of book 1
  The double-feature deal is not very good for selling book 2. I wouldn't book Book Barbarian again if my goal were to promote book 2.

The book is this https://www.amazon.com/Kissing-Magic-Portals-Whyland-Leitao-ebook/dp/B07NTNZGPM

[Denise]

This morning the book was 600k free on Amazon.

So far the book got 296 free downloads, 5 sales of book 1 at 99c, and one preorder of book 3 (but the preorder might have come from my list).

It's 14k free in the Kindle store.

I really enjoyed My Book Cave because they have a Teen/YA speculative (fantasy and sci-fi) category, which is perfect for this type of book. I was lucky because my book was featured first. I had heard that it reaches an international market, and I think it's true, I got downloads (not a lot) from the UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, and India.

[Denise]

Nothing much today other than realizing that sales of book 1 were eerily steady at 1%.

Let's say it's the middle of the day and there were 600 downloads. There were 6 sales!  And so on, without exception.

This is also a terrible time for this promo because I had to delay my preorder for next book and because of that, I think it's going to be a money sink. Oh, well, maybe I'll get reviews and learn something.

By the way, on the first day a review already showed up on Goodreads. Some fast reading! People are also adding the book to their Goodreads shelf.

[VanessaC]

Congrats - sounds like it's going / gone well for you.  Just checked the link - lovely cover, and you've got some great reviews, too.

[Denise]

Congrats - sounds like it's going / gone well for you.  Just checked the link - lovely cover, and you've got some great reviews, too.

Thanks. Yeah, it's a book that doesn't sell, but surprisingly, people will take it if it's free.

I'll take this as a learning experience, including the fact that I listed it in non-YA categories too, and I want to see how that turns out.

[DmGuay]

Thanks for posting this.
I did a free run on my first in series in May. I haven't made my money back, but it is having a tail of sales and downloads every day, and my category rankings have stayed high. So... take the long view and see how it adds up at the end of summer?

[Denise]

Thanks for posting this.
I did a free run on my first in series in May. I haven't made my money back, but it is having a tail of sales and downloads every day, and my category rankings have stayed high. So... take the long view and see how it adds up at the end of summer?

Yeah, it looks like your free run helped get the series some traction, didn't it? I hope the same happens to me.

I'm taking it as a learning experience, and sharing because it could help other people.

[DmGuay]

Thanks for posting this.
I did a free run on my first in series in May. I haven't made my money back, but it is having a tail of sales and downloads every day, and my category rankings have stayed high. So... take the long view and see how it adds up at the end of summer?

Yeah, it looks like your free run helped get the series some traction, didn't it? I hope the same happens to me.

I'm taking it as a learning experience, and sharing because it could help other people.

Yes. It's moving copies. I have accepted that this trilogy ill never be a gangbusters seller. it was my first, it's well written (I think) and I learned a lot pubbing it. Now, to write more books!

[Denise]

Same here.

Those books just don't sell. It's very hard to write the third knowing nobody is going to read it, but I feel I owe it to the couple dozen readers who want to read it! I also think it's important to finish what I started. I want to learn with it and do better next time.

Good luck. I'll think you'll be a lot smarter for your next series and it will do well. Hopefully it will be the same with me.

[Denise]

Ok, so I learned certain things with this promo:

1 - Promoting book 2 is feasible, if it stands on its own. I thought downloads would be way below average, but they weren't. I thought some sites would refuse it, but they didn't. The only exception is Book Barbarian, that insists that book 2 must be part of a double deal, but it's not very good for driving downloads to book 2.

2. Free promos result in audiobook sales. Yay, congrats, captain obvious! I don't have numbers, but I see that it moved some copies.

3. Non-BookBub free promos can result in a significant amount of downloads. I got about 6000. I know BB sometimes results in 20k or something, but 6k is not negligible either.

I'll report back in some 45 days to tell what happened to reviews.

Also, I'm getting some page reads, so the promotion might not be a money sink.