Very small promo by marketing newbie for info

[cecilia_writer]

I've hardly ever used paid advertising during my umpteen years of publishing on Amazon, and in fact I hardly need to for my long-running mystery series as the readers just seem to go on to the next one as it comes out (though only in the UK on Amazon and sometimes in Canada on Kobo). So I released the 18th in the mystery series towards the end of May and it has probably sold at least 1,000 or so copies without any advertising except a post on my Facebook page, not boosted or anything, which is fine.

For various reasons I had the second in a historical series ready a couple of weeks later, decided to do what I did with the first in that series this time last year, which was to put it in KU so that I could enter it for the Storyteller contest, and it sold about 5 copies and got a few hundred page reads. I realised it was quickly sinking without trace so I thought I had better do something to increase its visibility for the contest and in the hope of some reviews.
I rashly used my KU free days for both the books in the series all at once and did the following miniscule promotions:
Boosted Facebook post announcing the freebies, starting on the first free day, max cost GBP35.
Result so far (this is still going on) - noticeable immediate boost on Amazon Uk and quite a lot of engagement on FB.
Fussy Librarian ad on 2nd free day - cost USD35
And
Awesome Gang on same day for USD10

(I think I should probably have separated these out but never mind)
Thanks to Denise for her recent post mentioning Fussy Librarian as I wouldn't have thought of trying it. I was favourably impressed with some features of Awesome Gang , i.e. author interviews.
Result so far - noticeable boost in USA, about 1,000 downloads of the two books of which only the second was actually advertised.

Oddly enough both in the USA and UK the books have both risen from almost nowhere to the top 300 in the free store and to 4 or 5 in their 'historical Regency' sub-category, although the number of downloads isn't nearly as large in the UK.

I'm pleased with these results so far, not expecting much more for this free run but I will leave the FB boost going to try and get more UK readers.
I know this is very small compared with some of the promos other people have reported on but I thought it might encourage some others who don't really do marketing to give it a try.

[Bill Hiatt]

Sometimes even a little push can make a relatively big difference.

[cecilia_writer]

  we

Sometimes even a little push can make a relatively big difference.

Yes, I think this is a useful truth.
It is almost finished now and has been fun, because I've actually had downloads in every single Amazon store, with quite surprising numbers in india, and a no. 1 in free 'regency historical' in Canada. The book I mostly advertised has stuck around at 4-7 ish in its (free) category for most of the promotion in the US and UK stores.
I've also at last noticed some activity for both books on Goodreads.
All in all I am very happy with this little foray into advertising!

[cecilia_writer]

A quick update to say that in the weeks since the mini-promotion I've had some sales of both books and also around 11,000 page reads for the two combined. This is a big improvement on the almost zero reads I was getting for both just beforehand!

[Maggie Ann]

Congrats on your success.

I advertise a different freebie on Fussy every month. Because I book in advance, it $30 and change. I get the best results with my mystery series.