Writer Sanctum
Writer's Haven => Marketing Loft [Public] => Topic started by: DmGuay on March 30, 2019, 05:12:06 AM
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UPDATE: RESULTS (LIVE UPDATES EVERY A.M.)
Free run on Jess, Rising, Book 1 of YA urban fantasy trilogy. Zon results posted every a.m., wide sales tallied at the end of each week.
May 13: sent newsletter announcing sale to mailing list of 518 people, posted notice on my blog.
Free downloads: 59
Sales of books 2/3: 2
May 14: Discount Book Man ($0), BookRaid (pay per click, $20 max)/ReadingDeals (free)
Free downloads: 649
Sales of books 2/3: 0
(honestly, this number blew my mind considering these weren't what I'd consider my strongest promo outlets.)
May 15: Fussy Librarian ($28)/ ManyBooks ($29)
Found out Zon didn't price match to free in Canada or Australia. Trying now to fix that. (Book IS free on all other retailers.)
Free downloads: 809
Sales of books 2/3: 5
*Best day on Kobo: 68 downloads*
May 16: GenrePulse ($17), fantasy category/ Ereader News Today ($40) paranormal cat/ BookDoggy ($18)
(Price now free in Canada and Australia!)
Free downloads: 1,078
Sales of books 2/3: 3
*Kobo: 55 downloads*
May 17: BookCave ($29)/ BookRebel ($31)
Free downloads: 1,093
Sales of books 2/3: 4
*Kobo: 53 downloads*
*Best smashwords day: 10 downloads *
*Nook/Barnes and Noble 44 downloads*
May 18, 19: no promos
Free downloads: Saturday 312, Sunday 121
Sales of books 2/3: 3
*** Week 1 results all retailers***
Amazon
Free downloads: 4,121
Paid sales book 2/3: 17
Kobo
Free downloads: 253
Paid sales book 2/3: 0
iTunes
Free downloads: 155
Paid sales book 2/3: 1
Nook
Free downloads:148
Paid sales book 2/3: 4
GooglePlay
Free downloads: 127
Paid sales book 2/3: 0
Smashwords
Free downloads: 40
Paid sales book 2/3: 0
Total free downloads: 4,844 Grin
Total paid sales: 22 :icon_sad:
Plus, 1 new review on Zon and 3 new ratings on Goodreads.
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Week 2 Promo Results
May 20: no promos booked
Free downloads: 95
Sales:1
May 21: Freebooksy ($100)
Free downloads: 1,516
Sales: 1
*Best Nook/ Barnes and Noble day with 65 downloads*
May 22: Robin Reads, ($65)
Free downloads: 1,076
Sales: 2 ebook, 1 paperback
May 23: no promo: Downloads: 241, Sales: 0 (AMS ad started, 2 downloads.) 2 new Amazon reviews, 1 new Goodreads review.
May 24: no promo: Downloads: 92, Sales: 3 , 2 new Goodreads ratings.
May 25: no promo: Downloads: 81, Sales: 0
May 26: no promo: Downloads: 73, Sales: 3 ebooks, 2 paperbacks
*********Week 2 Results, All retailers*************
Amazon
Free downloads: 3,174
Paid sales book 2/3: 10 ebook, 3 paperback
Kobo
Free downloads:67
Paid sales book 2/3: 0
iTunes
Free downloads: 101
Paid sales book 2/3: 2
Nook
Free downloads:132
Paid sales book 2/3: 0
GooglePlay
Free downloads: 53
Paid sales book 2/3: 3
Smashwords
Free downloads: 5
Paid sales book 2/3: 0
Total free downloads: 3,532
Total paid sales: 15 ebook, 3 paperback
***************Total Promo Results, all retailers****************
Total free downloads: 8,876
Total paid sales: 37 ebook, 3 paperback
New Zon reviews: 3, New Goodreads Ratings: 6
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I hope all this information has been useful for you!
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Total spend: $377
Sales as of 5/26: $78.83 (approx.)
"Loss"= $298.17
Price per download: Paid .033 cents for each free copy I gave away.
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The thread is still available at archive.org.
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Perhaps this will help:
https://nicholaserik.com/promo-sites/
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The thread is still available at archive.org.
Totally did that and it worked. Genius idea! grint
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Take a look at the list of promotion sites Reedsy show as well to add to what Nicholas had in that great post.
https://blog.reedsy.com/book-promotion-services (https://blog.reedsy.com/book-promotion-services)
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I did something very similar a while ago, and posted results in the other place. Hopefully this will help! https://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,255089.msg3553843.html#msg3553843
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I "Built my own Bookbub" based on all the resources above ^^^
Free run on Jess, Rising, Book 1 of trilogy. I will post results.
Sites booked, plus the fees paid. This is my first free run on this book. Goal: To introduce the series to new readers now that it's complete.
May 14: Discount Book Man ($0), BookRaid (pay per click, $20 max)
May 15: Fussy Librarian ($28)/ ManyBooks ($29)
May 16: GenrePulse ($17), fantasy category/ Ereader News Today ($40) paranormal cat/ BookDoggy ($18)
May 17: BookCave ($29)/ BookRebel ($31)
May 20: none
May 21: Freebooksy ($100)
May 22: Robin Reads, ($65)
May 29: newsletter swaps (2, free)
Total spend: $377
book 1 downloads: TBD
book 2 sales: TBD
book 3 sales: TBD
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I "Built my own Bookbub" based on all the resources above ^^^
Good luck!
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What Jeff said!
Edit: I don't know if you maxed your budget out yet but Kobo has some promos that might fit you too.
Double edit: When are you planning on making it free? You'll have to get it free everywhere else and then possibly plead your case to Amazon. Don't rely on the "report a lower price" button. So give yourself some extra time on that.
Sorry for the edits, my brain, it's around here somewhere.
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What Jeff said!
Edit: I don't know if you maxed your budget out yet but Kobo has some promos that might fit you too.
Double edit: When are you planning on making it free? You'll have to get it free everywhere else and then possibly plead your case to Amazon. Don't rely on the "report a lower price" button. So give yourself some extra time on that.
Sorry for the edits, my brain, it's around here somewhere.
I haven't gotten the promo tab for Kobo yet. It's on this week's to-do list. I figured I'll reset the prices wide at the end of this week, then send an email to Zon asking them to lower it to zero, on the promise that it isn't forever. Fingers crossed.
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I haven't gotten the promo tab for Kobo yet. It's on this week's to-do list. I figured I'll reset the prices wide at the end of this week, then send an email to Zon asking them to lower it to zero, on the promise that it isn't forever. Fingers crossed.
I'm not sure you have to promise that, I just said I had promos coming up and they sent me the standard, okay we'll lower it but we'll raise it back up when we want. Best of luck to you. :banana-riding-llama-smiley-em Kid wants a llama.
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Can I have a llama, too?
Thank for the tips on email the Zon.
I hail mary applied for a bookbub today, too. We'll see.
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:banana-riding-llama-smiley-em :banana-riding-llama-smiley-em :banana-riding-llama-smiley-em
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Looks like a solid plan to me.
I haven't done a huge amount of promo, but I did find Freebooksy was awesome the first time I made book 1 free - I'm in KU, so this was a 5 day free run. From memory well over 2,000 downloads (I want to say about 2,500, but can't be sure) on the Freebooksy day, which too me into the top 20 free on Amazon. This was great for me as a shiny new author with three books out and almost no reviews.
I did a second Freebooksy run about 6 months later when the whole series was done, and that was still good, although perhaps half the first run.
Suspect it depends on the time of year, etc, etc.
Having just been rejected for Bookbub again, I'm considering building a promo stack a bit like yours, although probably less organised as I'm fairly lazy ...
Very best of luck with it, and look forward to seeing the results.
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Good luck with it. That's a really great lineup. I applaud your organisational skillz :clap:
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Good luck! :banana-riding-llama-smiley-em
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Well, Bookbub rejected me so I gotta make lemonade!
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Thanks for this list - there are several there I've never heard of.
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The thread is still available at archive.org.
Any chance you could link it? That's literally exactly what I plan on doing soon if Bookbub rejects one of my books again (400+ reviews, 4 1/2 average rating, submitted 3 times all rejected...)
Meanwhile they accepted one with 40 reviews and a hard 4.... :help
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My most recent acceptance was for a book with 10 reviews on amazon.com and a 4.0 average.
I don't think reviews are relevant to BB, unless they're ALL ones and twos. Professionalism of cover & interior, maybe how many other books the author has (since they make a cut from all sales generated by their links), how the author's previous BBs fared (if any). Tons of variables, in other words. They obviously look at Goodreads ratings/reviews as well.
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I think personally that they give a hard no to those with many ARC reviews visible, which is odd as they are pretty standard. This is just a suspicion based on personal accepts and rejects.
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Of course now I'm having trouble getting Zon to price match to zero. Yay. I thought I had plenty of time, but go time is next week!
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Okay, good luck. If you want let us know exactly what you have done so far, maybe we can make suggestions. A lot of us have been there. It's super stressful, hang in there.
Edit: This is what I sent them when I had to do it. It took a couple of days, but I can't remember how many. Used the contact support button.
Incidentally when pulling this up I realized I misspelled my own last name. Must not have had a lot of sleep that week.
Hello Amanda,
I've now price matched your Kindle eBook, "*" to 'Free' ($0.00) on 'All' Amazon Kindle Store marketplaces.
You can expect the updated price ($0.00) to reflect within 72 hours on Amazon.
Thank you so much for sharing the pricing information of your book.
Regards,
Siyam
Kindle Direct Publishing
http://kdp.amazon.com
=============================
Connect with KDP and other Authors and Publishers:
Like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/KindleDirectPublishing
Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/AmazonKDP
Community: https://kdp.amazon.com/community/forum.jspa?forumID=9
Resources: https://kdp.amazon.com/help
Visit Amazon Author Insights for guidance from other authors and experts on writing, publishing and marketing: http://amazonauthorinsights.com/?ref=aai_kdp_help
Hi,
I have a free promo coming up, can you price match this book to zero? I tried reporting it but it hasn't worked yet. Thank you for your help.
ASIN: *
Sincerely Amanda *
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Okay, good luck. If you want let us know exactly what you have done so far, maybe we can make suggestions. A lot of us have been there. It's super stressful, hang in there.
The first time I asked, I made the mistake of saying I had scheduled a promotion and that's why I needed it lowered, and I got the canned response that only KU books can be promo priced to Zero. My bad.
Yesterday, I sent a second message with the specific wording "price match to free" complete with links to free on other retailers, and was told 'we'll look into it.' I've heard this is the canned response. It's been about 24 hours and the price hasn't gone down yet. I just hope I get get sorted by MOnday!
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My example is from a year ago, so I don't know. So sorry.
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Did you use the 'price match' link on the KDP page?
Click Contact Us at the bottom of the dashboard, then tick 'Amazon Product Page' and then tick 'Price Match'.
Then click 'Send us an email' and the contents are prefilled with the stuff they want.
That's how I request a price match. It should go straight to the right person that way.
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Did you use the 'price match' link on the KDP page?
Click Contact Us at the bottom of the dashboard, then tick 'Amazon Product Page' and then tick 'Price Match'.
Then click 'Send us an email' and the contents are prefilled with the stuff they want.
That's how I request a price match. It should go straight to the right person that way.
I did. They said they wouldn't 'decide' until tomorrow and it still shows as full price. Ugh.
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Fingers crossed for you.
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Yep, good luck. Hope it's sorted quickly.
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It took 3 emails to Zon and finally a phone call to tech support but book 1 is finally set to FREE!
I was handwringing for a while there. Phew!
I will update later this week as the results come in.
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:clap:
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Looking forward to see how this goes. Hope it brings good sales and email subs.
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Hi all. The free run plus promo has begun, and I will be posting results every a.m. in the original post at the start of the thread. Let's see how this goes.
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Best of luck.
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It all looks very organised. Congrats for setting it all up, and here's hoping the results really pay off.
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Hi all. The free run plus promo has begun, and I will be posting results every a.m. in the original post at the start of the thread. Let's see how this goes.
This is for Jess, Rising? I took a look on Amazon, and for me it is showing as $2.92 in the US store and $4.21 in the AU store. Is it just me?
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Yes it is. And thanks for the heads up.
It's showing free in the US and UK for me, but not free in Canada and Australia??
Gah! I've had nothing but trouble price matching to free from Zon!! I will call them in the A.m. and see if I can get them to match the other countries to free.
If there is a bright side, it is free internationally on the wide sites like Kobo.
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Sorry to add more stress :icon_sad: I did notice it was free on Kobo though, and grabbed it.
I do hope the price matching gets sorted for you soon :-)
ETA: decided to remove boring sh*t I mentioned about my book. It has nothing to do with anything :n2Str17:
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As a side note regarding your March 14 results, I've never used Discount Book Man, but I DID have outstanding results with BookRaid--way more than I thought I'd ever get.
:catrun
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Sorry to add more stress :icon_sad: I did notice it was free on Kobo though, and grabbed it.
I do hope the price matching gets sorted for you soon :-)
ETA: decided to remove boring sh*t I mentioned about my book. It has nothing to do with anything :n2Str17:
No added stress. I'm glad you told me! Canada has been resolved, set to zero and I got the email that they are working on Australia. I'd rather know than not, so thank you!
I think I did Bookraid two years ago, when the book came out, but didn't have great results. I gave the cover on Book 1 a facelift since then, and finished the trilogy, so maybe that can account for the difference.
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I'm still seeing Amazon US with a price too, which makes me wonder if that's because they can detect I'm in Australia? If the Aussie store hasn't been set to free yet is it possible I'll keep seeing a price in the US store until it's done? Just curious..
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I'm still seeing Amazon US with a price too, which makes me wonder if that's because they can detect I'm in Australia? If the Aussie store hasn't been set to free yet is it possible I'll keep seeing a price in the US store until it's done? Just curious..
Yes, they can detect we're in Australia. If you visit any US kindle page with a browser that is not logged in to amazon, you get a popup offering to jump to the AU store instead.
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I'm working on the Australia price. They price-matched Canada right away but not Australia. Gah!
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I'm still seeing Amazon US with a price too, which makes me wonder if that's because they can detect I'm in Australia? If the Aussie store hasn't been set to free yet is it possible I'll keep seeing a price in the US store until it's done? Just curious..
Yes, they can detect we're in Australia. If you visit any US kindle page with a browser that is not logged in to amazon, you get a popup offering to jump to the AU store instead.
Yeah sorry, I should have been clearer. I'm aware they can detect my location, I meant if the US price is free, but the AU one is still paid, when I go to the US site will it show as paid rather than free...because it was showing as free in the US store for others but not me. That was still the case a couple of hours ago, but I've just checked and the US store is now showing the book as free, and AU is still paid. I was just wondering why some were seeing a US store price of free and I wasn't...not sure if I'm explaining myself very well lol
ETA: is it plausible that when Amazon make a price change in the US store, it's not system-wide straight away, that maybe there are multiple servers that have to individually update with the new info? Is that a thing? Is it possible I was routed to a server that didn't have the price updated quite yet?
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UPDATE: RESULTS (LIVE UPDATES EVERY A.M.)
May 14: Discount Book Man ($0), BookRaid (pay per click, $20 max)/ReadingDeals (free)
Free downloads: 649
Sales of books 2/3: 0
(honestly, this number blew my mind considering these weren't what I'd consider my strongest promo outlets.)
That number is incredible. Congratulations! It'll just keep going up with the better promotion services. Thanks so much for your generosity posting this.
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UPDATE: RESULTS (LIVE UPDATES EVERY A.M.)
May 14: Discount Book Man ($0), BookRaid (pay per click, $20 max)/ReadingDeals (free)
Free downloads: 649
Sales of books 2/3: 0
(honestly, this number blew my mind considering these weren't what I'd consider my strongest promo outlets.)
That number is incredible. Congratulations! It'll just keep going up with the better promotion services. Thanks so much for your generosity posting this.
I'm happy to post this. Someone did the same on the other board and it helped me tremendously. Maybe someone can glean something from my free run, too.
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Looks like it's going really well so far, even with the price issues, and I suspect will only get better!
Congratulations.
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Okay. Bumps have been ironed out. The book is now free on Zon in US UK AU and Canada. Phew.
Today is the last day of paid promo for the week. I've got nothing booked on the weekend, but will report the week's total downloads on wide sites like Kobo/iTunes/Googleplay etc. (I peeked, there are some.) as well as any Zon "tail' over the weekend.
Thanks for following along! I'm happy with the free downloads. Of course I wish for more sales of books 2 and 3, but oh well. My goal here was to relaunch the trilogy now that it was complete and give it one last big visibility bump before focusing my efforts on my new WIP. As far as visibility goes, I'm close to breaking the top 100 in the Zon free store, so if I can do that, who knows?
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Hope everything is still going well!
I know there were issues with price matching, and I had to go through the process myself today. Figured I'd share exactly what I did in case it helps anyone:
I've pasted a copy of my message to KDP below, with all formatting intact, as well as their reply. It was very fast, and there were absolutely no quibbles or maybes or delays.
What I sent them (each numbered line matches their requirements):
Subject: Please can you price match these two titles.
Submit one request for all of your price match for one or multiple titles here. For us to consider matching prices, the website selling your book at a lower price must be based in the same country or region as the Kindle Store selling your book. Follow the example below.
Example: ASIN, Amazon.com, competitor link, [correct price]
Select type of request: Add Price Match
1. B003NSBPJQ, amazon.com, https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/loss-leader-short-story, 0.00
2. B003NSBPJQ, amazon.co.uk, https://www.kobo.com/uk/en/ebook/loss-leader-short-story, 0.00
3. B003NSBPJQ, amazon.ca, https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/loss-leader-short-story, 0.00
4. B003NSBPJQ, amazon.com.au, https://www.kobo.com/au/en/ebook/loss-leader-short-story, 0.00
5. B004QS93I2, amazon.com.au, https://www.kobo.com/au/en/ebook/the-desolator-short-story, 0.00
6. B004QS93I2, amazon.ca, https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/the-desolator-short-story, 0.00
What they replied with:
Hello,
Thanks for sending us the links to the other sites and we've price matched it from our end. The updated price should show up on Amazon within 48 hours time.
Thanks for using Amazon KDP.
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Oh, and when they resolve anything I always hit the YES it was helpful, give them 5/5 for everything and leave a personalised comment. I'm sure it goes into the record of whoever was assisting, which might eventually get them a pay bump or a promotion or something. Maybe.
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Well, Kobo is certainly doing a good job getting the book out there internationally! It's always super cool to see people getting your book all over the world!!
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Well, Kobo is certainly doing a good job getting the book out there internationally! It's always super cool to see people getting your book all over the world!!
I agree. I love Kobo's map. I had a free download of Clouds of Venus in Diego Garcia once. It was pretty cool seeing that blue dot right in the middle of the Indian Ocean. :icon_mrgreen:
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I'm up to 122 countries on Kobo (free and paid). Paid only, uh, less.
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Well, Kobo is certainly doing a good job getting the book out there internationally! It's always super cool to see people getting your book all over the world!!
I agree. I love Kobo's map. I had a free download of Clouds of Venus in Diego Garcia once. It was pretty cool seeing that blue dot right in the middle of the Indian Ocean. :icon_mrgreen:
I like it a lot. Visual. Simple. And, it matches up more with the people who visit my author site. Maybe those international site surfers are finally giving the book a go now that it's free and wide?
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I just wish Kobo offered daily reports like, well, everyone else.
The CEO used to post on The Other Place, and said better reports were coming later in 2018. Don't know what happened to those.
Because I'm wide, I aggregate sales data from all over the place into my reporting software, and Kobo leaves a painful gap.
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I just wish Kobo offered daily reports like, well, everyone else.
The CEO used to post on The Other Place, and said better reports were coming later in 2018. Don't know what happened to those.
Because I'm wide, I aggregate sales data from all over the place into my reporting software, and Kobo leaves a painful gap.
I definitely see that. I find GooglePlay the most frustrating...
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Google is easy to import and view in my reporting software. I just download the Sales Transaction Report (all time) every day.
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Google is easy to import and view in my reporting software. I just download the Sales Transaction Report (all time) every day.
What software do you use?
I think the problem is I use an opensource office suite and the excel spreadsheet comes out a bit garbled, so the Google report takes some time to decipher. Plus, you don't get that instant gratification of seeing the numbers in the dashboard!
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My own SalesScanner (free, Windows only although it should work on Mac with the Mono libraries installed)
It self-refreshes about once every 5 mins, or you can click the Refresh button. It works using spreadsheets manually downloaded from KDP/smashwords/kobo/Google so there's no providing login details or relying on APIs which might stop working.
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Received this breakdown for BookRaid.
They said my book exceeded the average download. So that's good.
Amazon 683
iBooks 36
Kobo 70
Google Play 39
B&N 46
Total Clicks 874
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Google is easy to import and view in my reporting software. I just download the Sales Transaction Report (all time) every day.
What software do you use?
I think the problem is I use an opensource office suite and the excel spreadsheet comes out a bit garbled, so the Google report takes some time to decipher. Plus, you don't get that instant gratification of seeing the numbers in the dashboard!
You know you can see your $ made at Google Play? Go to payment center and hit edit. I sold something there today, when it shows up in the report and I can see what and where is anyone's guess.
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It can take three days to show up in their report.
My problem is that I have 39 titles on Google Books (and everywhere else, of course), and I really like to know what people are buying or downloading.
It's not the $, it's the individual sales broken down by title. If I'm paying for ads on FB which are sending people to one of my books on Google Play, I need to know if any of the clicks are converting.
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It can take three days to show up in their report.
My problem is that I have 39 titles on Google Books (and everywhere else, of course), and I really like to know what people are buying or downloading.
It's not the $, it's the individual sales broken down by title. If I'm paying for ads on FB which are sending people to one of my books on Google Play, I need to know if any of the clicks are converting.
Yes I can see where that would be even more annoying. I wonder what kind of information you get if you run google ads. I looked into google ads, but you need to have a website. Working on it.
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Week one promo results are in.
This coming week, I only have two promos scheduled. Robin Reads tomorrow then Freebooksy on Wednesday. Then, two free newsletter swaps at the end of the month. I will keep you posted and thanks for following along!
*** Week 1 results all retailers***
Amazon
Free downloads: 4,121
Paid sales book 2/3: 17
Also boughts repopulated with more relevant titles, so that's a bonus.
Kobo
Free downloads: 253
Paid sales book 2/3: 0
iTunes
Free downloads: 155
Paid sales book 2/3: 1
Nook
Free downloads:148
Paid sales book 2/3: 4
GooglePlay
Free downloads: 127
Paid sales book 2/3: 0
Smashwords
Free downloads: 40
Paid sales book 2/3: 0
Total free downloads: 4,844 Grin
Total paid sales: 22 :icon_sad:
New twitter followers: 4
New Bookbub followers: 4
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Total free downloads: 4,844 Grin
Total paid sales: 22 :icon_sad:
The newsletter promos generate a lot of free book grabs, but a certain percentage of people do get around to reading them, eventually, and do buy the rest of the books if they like them. This can generate a trickle of sales for the rest of the summer, if not longer. Good luck.
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Total free downloads: 4,844 Grin
Total paid sales: 22 :icon_sad:
The newsletter promos generate a lot of free book grabs, but a certain percentage of people do get around to reading them, eventually, and do buy the rest of the books if they like them. This can generate a trickle of sales for the rest of the summer, if not longer. Good luck.
That's the hope. My goal is to give this trilogy one last push now that it's finished and to gain some traction on wide retailers. And, get myself in front of new readers while I work on my next series. (Audience building, basically) I feel like I'm doing that. I'm satisfied. I didn't really think I would earn my money back with this promo, at least not right away. I'm playing a long game.
This was my beginner trilogy, and while I'm happy with the writing and the craft, I made a lot of mistakes. But, I learned A LOT writing and publishing it. About covers and marketing and how to write better and faster. Health willing, it'll only get better from here. I'm writing in a new universe that I'm super excited about, and it's all about building backlist and new releases from here on out!
I'm really excited for the next chapter, so to speak.
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I'm on my last day of paid promos. Today is a RobinReads promo. Yesterday's Freebooksy did well.
May 20: no promos booked
Free downloads: 95
Sales:1
May 21: Freebooksy ($100)
Free downloads: 1,516
Sales: 1
The plan? Let any sort of tail from this free run fizzle out, then test a new AMS ad. Try a Bookbub ad pointing at Kobo. Raise price of book 1, and make my newsletter sign up the only place to get it for free. (Haven't decided on 99 c or back to 2.99).
Thanks for following along.
Caveat: As much as I love this trilogy, it's one I know will never be sticky and sell well without constant (expensive) boosting. So, on to the next series. I'm 9k words into my new WIP, book 1 in a new universe.
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You may not want to wait until the book promo fizzles to start your AMS ad. AMS works better on books that already look successful. One of my best three-month stretches using AMS to promote novels came on the back of a free run.
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You may not want to wait until the book promo fizzles to start your AMS ad. AMS works better on books that already look successful. One of my best three-month stretches using AMS to promote novels came on the back of a free run.
I thought about that after I posted, and got a couple new ads designed (and one started) last night just to keep the momentum going!
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All right. My Build-your-own Bookbub promo has officially ended. Here are the results for week 2 and for overall. (more details, particularly about wide sales/downloads are in the original post). I hope this information is helpful for you.
Let me also add that I am still getting free downloads on all sites, (nearly 100 today on Amazon), even though the last promo ran on Wednesday and it's a US holiday weekend. I'm optimistic that a free run has given this book a boost that it needed. This is my last push on this series, as I am moving on. Soon it will be backlist!
I will post an update again if and when the tail dies down. I've started an AMS campaign, and am keeping the price free for as long as the tail lasts. Thanks for following along!
Week 2 totals
Total free downloads:3,532
Total paid sales: 15 ebook, 3 paperback
***************Total Promo Results, all retailers****************
Total free downloads: 8,876 (500 wide, rest Zon)
Total paid sales: 37 ebook, 3 paperback
New Zon reviews: 5 on book 1, 1 on book 2, New Goodreads Ratings: 6
Total spend: $377
Sales as of 5/26: $78.83 (approx.)
"Loss"= $298.17
Price per download: Paid .033 cents for each free copy I gave away. (way cheaper than AMS!)
I had sales on Nook, Googleplay and iTunes. None on Kobo or Smashwords. But, downloads on all wide sites. I had zero action on any of those sites before that, so at least I've got a start wide.
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I'm happy to report that I'm still getting free downloads and actually getting more PAID SALES (and reviews and ratings on Zon and Goodreads) each day!
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Oh that's awesome. As long as you are in the top 100 of your categories you have all that extra free visibility. I hope it continues.
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Oh that's awesome. As long as you are in the top 100 of your categories you have all that extra free visibility. I hope it continues.
I'm gonna try to stay there. Brainstorming new-- inexpensive or free-- to help keep me there as we speak.
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And.... 'Zon suddenly raised my price to $2.99 last night and my sales and rank immediately tanked.
Set it to 99 cents for now and am assessing options.
I had been getting steady downloads and sales of books 2/3 since the promo ended, sometimes up to 5 paid sales a day.
So... free might actually work for this title.
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I see you are still ranked at 21 for Teen and Young Adult Country Life ebooks category.
I can't remember anyone else ever reporting their price was raised from free by Amazon, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen before. I do wonder why they decided to do that.
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I see you are still ranked at 21 for Teen and Young Adult Country Life ebooks category.
I can't remember anyone else ever reporting their price was raised from free by Amazon, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen before. I do wonder why they decided to do that.
I figured out that I had set my Kobo price to go back up on June 1. And it did, and Zon immediately matched it up. Actually, I'm impressed they figured it out and responded that fast. But, instead of waiting to see how it goes, I now have to make decisions!!
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Oh that makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.
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The book seems to still be free in international markets, and I'm getting a trickle of downloads from there. I set the US price to 99 cents for now, and I'm getting a few sales each day.
Also, let's talk reviews. They're trickling in, which is an unexpected bonus.
Jess, Rising had 16 Zon reviews and 18 Goodreads reviews when this promo began.
Now: 22 Zon (+6), 25 on Goodreads (+7)
1 review on GooglePlay, 1 review on iTunes, 2 new reviews on Bookbub.
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Let me document some hiccups, for all those who are planning to do something similar to this.
1. Zon set the price back up to $2.99 automatically. Reason: I'd used the "promotional price" tool on wide sites like itunes, google, and Nook. I set the price to end on June 1, so the price went back to $2.99 on those retailers (except Google. See No. 2.) And 'Zon immediately priced it back up. I admit I was impressed by their speed. I've decided to keep the book free for the summer, since it actually is drumming up sales of the other books. So, I reset the price to zero on itunes and Nook, and 'Zon IMMEDIATELY (as in within a day) set my book price back to free in the U.S. without me asking. International prices didn't go down though, but I lowered them to the equivalent of 99 cents US.
2. Googleplay. My promo price ended, and instead of raising it back to regular list, they delisted the book and it was no longer available. Eek, I didn't realize this until I checked for new downloads last night and there weren't any. They took it off sale on May 31. Ugh. Anyway, I had to go in and redo all the book details, and once I'd done that, the book is now available and free in the store. Didn't see that coming!
Also, the promo has been successful in that it is moving books 2/3. Basically from nothing before the promo to one, two, sometimes three every day. I've earned back about $120 of the $377 I spent so far. I will update with the sales numbers later. Hopefully I will at least break even on this!
Reviews are also a nice surprise. I wasn't expecting them, but they're trickling in, and not just on Amazon. On wide as well.
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If Google deactivates a book, click the dropdown on the Book Catalog page, then select Status: Deactivated
From there you can view and reactivate existing titles.
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It was in the "Needs Action" section. It was easy to fix. I just kinda wish they'd sent an email or something tell me I needed to fix it!
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Yeah, that's annoying. I just thought you meant you had to re-enter all the details for the book.
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Yeah, that's annoying. I just thought you meant you had to re-enter all the details for the book.
Thankfully, no! Just reenter a price, and click save.
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Just an update! I am getting a tail, with no further paid promotion. Bumping along with steady free downloads of Book 1 and paid sales of books 2 and 3. Not gangbusters, but steady, and way steadier than before the promo!
Also, reviews keep trickling in, particularly on Goodreads. I'm up 12 reviews on Book 1, 5 on book 2, and 1 on Book 3.
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Just an update! I am getting a tail, with no further paid promotion. Bumping along with steady free downloads of Book 1 and paid sales of books 2 and 3. Not gangbusters, but steady, and way steadier than before the promo!
Also, reviews keep trickling in, particularly on Goodreads. I'm up 12 reviews on Book 1, 5 on book 2, and 1 on Book 3.
Congratulations. Jes Rising is still top 10 in the subcategories that I can see. Those are fantastic results.
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Today, my free summer promo of book 1 officially ends. Here are the results.
Total free downloads (all sites): 10,870
total sales (all sites): $297.87 (spent $377, ROI: -$79.13)
Total new reviews (all sites): 47 ( including Goodreads and Bookbub)
Good: Met my goal to boost reviews (most of them pretty good, woot!) and give away 10,000 free copies.
Bad: Didn't break even.
Takeaway: Some series just don't take off, despite good reviews, no matter how much you promote them. And that's okay. I learned a lot writing and promoting this series. It was my first. I made a lot of mistakes, but all of it was worthwhile.
Moving on: This trilogy is now backlist. I have a new series coming out in October, and I'm releasing a complete box set of this trilogy in September. I'm applying what I've learned with this series in launching the next. No more paid promotion of this series in the near future, but I will be making 'free' changes i.e. rewriting the blurbs with targeted keywords and changing Zon categories.
If you want details on how the summer played out on wide retailers, here are the details
Total Promo results. End of August, 2019
Amazon
Free downloads: 8,747 / 17 paid sales
Sales of books 2/3: 90
Total $: $195.80
New reviews: Book 1 (10), Book 2 (2) Book 3 (1)
Nook
Free downloads: 504
total sales: $34.92
New reviews: 1 on book 1
Google
Free downloads: 862
total sales: $30.34
New reviews: 6 on book 1, 1 on book 2.
itunes
Free downloads: 362
total sales: $21
Reviews: 6 on book 1
Kobo
Free downloads: 347
Total sales $: $8.37
Reviews (book 1-3): 3, 1 for each book
Smashwords
Free downloads: 48
total sales: $7.44