Which Book Promotions Work Best?

Last week I said I would report on the results of the free-book campaign I did for my mystery, Boxes For Beds, offering it free for 5 days via the Amazon KDP program. As Nick Stephenson  mentioned on his blog and I quoted last Monday, the jury is still out on what kind of positive long-term effect this approach has, but during the 5 days my book was free it had 39,312 downloads. Here are some stats for those who like numbers: 

The free days started on a Saturday, and Monday morning, before a BookBub feature went live, I had just under 1,000 downloads of the book. By noon on Monday the downloads had jumped to 4,975, with an uptick in downloads in the UK, DE, IN, and CA.

I purposely did not obsess all day with checking numbers, although it was a thrill now and then to pop in and see huge jumps. At 5:30 on Monday there had been  19,497 downloads with small jumps in the UK and CA. Still no downloads in France or India or Mexico or Spain.

Again I ignored numbers after that and didn't check in until 10 Monday night. Downloads had jumped to 26,904, and I picked up a new 5-star review. That was sweet. The book also reached #4 in over all free books on Kindle, #1 in suspense and #1 in historical mystery.

Tuesday morning the downloads for the US reached 30,256, with big jumps for the UK and CA and IN. There were also downloads in all the other foreign markets except Mexico.

By the end of the free days on Wednesday last week, I had reached that 39,312 mark in the US, but downloads in other markets were not even in two-digits except for the UK and CA.

The main reasons authors do these free promos is to gain new readers and review, and hopefully spur sales of that book, and others, after the sale. I have read on author loops that some writers have seen sales of hundreds of books a week after a free event, and I think that works the best with a series. I have sold copies of this book, and two others steadily since last week, but only a handful of sales a day. There has been a huge jump in reviews, and most of them are 4 and 5 star reviews, so that has been beneficial.

Will I do it again? I don't know. Some writers are having better luck with straight ad campaigns for their books. Stacy Juba had a special running for her books the same week I did my special. Here is what she reported:

I advertised the 99 cent sale for my Young Ladies of Mystery Boxed Set on E-Reader News Today, Kindle Books and Tips, Kindle Fire Department and Book Bub all within about 7 days of each other. I also supplemented the paid ads with a blogging campaign, Twitter campaign, posting on various Facebook pages, and highlighting it in my newsletter. I was very pleased with the results. The boxed set reached #11 in the Nook Store and #60 on the Paid Kindle List. Breaking the Kindle Top 100 Paid List and the Nook Top 100 were two of my goals. I also sold several books in the iBookstore. This was my second most successful ad campaign to date. My most successful campaign was for my book Twenty-Five Years Ago Today in March - that led to the book being ranked #5 on Nook and #30 on Kindle and resulted in over 100 new Amazon reviews since then. But the Young Ladies of Mystery campaign was very close.

I didn't see much effect on sales of my other books, but my other books not included in the bundle are for children and teens. I made a nice profit on the ad and reached a lot of new readers, so it was a successful campaign and all of the advertisers were wonderful to work with.

The Young Ladies of Mystery Boxed Set is still only 99 cents and includes her adult mystery/romantic suspense novels Twenty-Five Years Ago Today and Sink or Swim, and her young adult psychic thriller Dark Before Dawn.  

Last spring, Terry Odell, romantic suspense author, tried even a different approach. She went with Nook First, and you can read her full report on her blog, Terry's Place. Briefly, she was accepted into the Nook First program at Barnes and Nobel with a new book, Saving Scott, and it was exclusive for Nook for 30 days. (In the KDP program, the books have to be exclusive to Kindle for 90 days.) The book was not free and Barnes and Nobel did quite a bit of promoting. Following that, Terry reported that her book sold steadily at Barnes and Nobel and sales of all of her books increased at Amazon and Barnes and Nobel.

Terry writes several mystery series, and I think one key to her success - in addition to writing good books - is that she has series and offering a special on one book does spur sales in other books in that series. Her advice to other authors:

Things go up and down, and we can't know why, and probably can't do anything about it. It's a marathon.  

Terry writes the Pine Hills Police Series, the Blackthorne, Inc. Series. and the Mapleton Mystery Series. She has a brand new book out in the Blackthorne series - my favorite of her series. Dangerous Connections was released October 21, and it is on my wish list.

Now, after all of this has been said, I found out my publisher put my short story collection, The Wisdom of Ages, free for Kindle today for three days. Since that book is with a publisher, I won't have access to download numbers, but I do see it is already #85 on the list for anthologies.

As a reader, do you take advantage of free books? If so, do you buy others from that author if you like the freebie?

Authors, what promotions are working best for you? Do you do the KDP program or the Nook First?

Friday's Odds and Ends

Another week has flown by, and I keep wondering where the time went. I remember when my grandmother told me how the days and weeks and months seem to shrink as you get older, I didn't believe her. But then, I was just a 12-year-old girl. Days were endless to me then, and I was sure they would always be.

Now I have to often remind myself to stop. Enjoy this moment. Make this moment count. This morning there was another spectacular sunrise. As I was walking with my dog, I stopped and admired the cloud formations, some looking like wisps of cotton pulled so thin the color of the sky could be seen through the threads. Colors that ranged from a deep orange to a light yellow, blending into a pale blue.

Beautiful.

Of course, I did not have my camera. But I do have a picture I took last year that I can share. We do have beautiful sunrises and sunsets here in Texas.

How many of you cheered when news of the settlement between Congress and President Obama was announced? I didn't cheer. I just said, "It's about damn time." Throughout this prolonged mess, all I could think of was two junkyard dogs facing off to protect their part of the domain.

Sad, and enough said.

On Monday I said I would report today on how the book promotion went, offering Boxes For Beds free for a few days. I'm going to put that off until next Friday so I can include some information from a couple of other authors on how their promotional events have worked. I found out that Stacy Juba had a special this past week also, and she has agreed to share some of her results with us.  I first met Stacy when she invited me to write an essay for her book, 25 Years in the Rearview Mirror, a collection of stories from a number of authors looking back to 1985. Stacy is a terrific writer and a great supporter of other authors, and I am looking forward to hearing how her promotional efforts went. She is so good at marketing, too.

 It's been a while since I shared a Literary Lesson, and I thought this one appropriate considering the mess our government is in. This is the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder's play "Our Town" speaking. The play was written in 1938, but not much has changed.

"Whenever you come near the human race, there's layers and layers of nonsense."

And lets finish with a joke. Can't end on a downer:

What did the math book say to the other math book? 
Boy do I have problems.

Be My Guest - Tracy Krauss

Please welcome my Wednesday's Guest, Tracy Krauss. She is one of the authors who contributed to 25 Years in the Rearview Mirror, a collection of essays from 52 authors who look back and remember what they were doing 25 years ago. Some of the stories are humorous, others are more serious, but they are all fun to read. As part of the blog tour that started in September, Tracy is visiting me here today. For a complete blog tour list and information on how to win prizes, visit Stacy Juba's blog. She came up with the idea for the 25 Years in the Rearview Mirror project as a companion to her novel Twenty Five Years Ago Today.

Welcome to It's Not All Gravy, Tracy. First off, give the readers a short intro to who you are and what you write.

I am a high school teacher by profession, and an author, artist and playwright in my ‘spare’ time. I teach Art, Drama, and English – all things I love – so my day job actually meshes well with my other pursuits. I live in British Columbia, Canada in a small town called Tumbler Ridge, known for its many waterfalls and hiking trails. I’m a fairly new transplant here, though, having lived in many other places in the far north such as the Yukon, North West Territories, and the ‘polar bear capital of the world’, Churchill, Manitoba. I have four grown children, so I have more time for writing now than I once did. My novels are romantic suspense and my plays are comedy parodies.

-         Have you always wanted to be a writer, or have you come to writing after another career? What was that career?

I’ve always been making up stories, although at times these have been ‘realized’ through my art instead of the written word. My earliest ‘real’ play was written when I was in Grade Four at school. I read a book called Ghosts Don’t Eat Sausages and I was so enthralled that I wrote a play and convinced my friends to rehearse with me at recess. When our teacher saw what was going on, she arranged for us to present it to the whole school. It even made it into the yearbook! That was early validation, for sure.

I decided to go into teaching because I was looking for a way to make a living while still working as an artist. However, when I was home pregnant with my first child, I started writing in the afternoons while she napped and I guess the rest is history. My creative outlet changed and I haven’t stopped writing since.

-         What is a typical writing day like for you?

During the summer months I try to do my online promotional stuff in the morning before lunch and then after lunch I write for at least three or four hours. I often do one or the other in the evenings as well, but not always. Once school is back in session, I have to squeeze my emails etc. in after school and then hopefully still have the energy to write for an hour or so in the evening.

-         What is the most unusual or interesting research you have done for your books?

Probably the research into ‘intelligent design’ for my book And The Beat Goes On Even among non-religious researchers there is growing interest in natural phenomenon that is difficult to explain using typical evolutionary theory. I also came across some very interesting cultural information from an indigenous tribe in Zimbabwe which found its way into the book.

-         What is the hardest thing about writing?

The promoting. If I had the luxury of just writing and letting someone else handle that end of things, I would be happy, indeed!

-         If you weren't a writer, what would you be doing?

This is tough because I actually do other things that I love already – direct, teach, and do art. At one point I thought about becoming an interior designer and this thought still appeals to me. I pretty much need to be doing something creative. That’s what gives me energy. I absolutely abhor numbers and paperwork, so anything clerical or numerical is out of the question!

-         What other creative things do you do?

I am a visual artist working mostly in acrylics at present, but I actually majored in Intaglio printmaking in University. At one point in my life I was very focused on pursuing my career as an artist, and I did a fair bit of commission work, entered as many exhibitions as possible, and just generally tried to sell my art. Somewhere during ‘children’ that changed and I switched to writing. I also write plays and I direct an amateur theater group. We put on two major productions a year, so that keeps me very busy with rehearsals etc. 

-         Where do your stories begin? With character or plot?

I think my stories begin with the characters. I love characterization and I tend to develop pretty elaborate profiles for each one. Perhaps this comes from my work in theater. I love to delve deep into what motivates people, which then comes out in how they behave. Most of this back story never makes it into a novel, but it helps me to understand them and makes the subsequent writing easier. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tracy Krauss is a high school teacher by profession, and a prolific author, artist, playwright and director by choice. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Saskatchewan and has gone on to teach Art, Drama and English – all things she is passionate about. After raising four children, she and her husband now reside in beautiful Tumbler Ridge, BC where she pursues all of her creative interests.

About her book:

Marshdale. Just a small farming community where nothing special happens.  A perfect place to start over… or get lost. There is definitely more to this prairie town than meets the eye. Once the meeting place of aboriginal tribes for miles around, some say the land itself was cursed because of the people’s sin. But its history goes farther back than even indigenous oral history can trace and there is still a direct descendant who has been handed the truth, like it or not. Exactly what ties does the land have to the medicine of the ancients? Is it cursed, or is it all superstition? Wind Over Marshdale is the story of the struggles within a small prairie town when hidden evil and ancient medicine resurface. 

Visit Tracy:

 

Website ** Blog **  Facebook ** Twitter 

Looking Back and Forward, Did I notice Your Book Blogfest

Please welcome my Wednesday Guest, Mary Deal, who is an award-winning author of six thrillers, a short story collection and a writers’ reference. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, Associate and Contributing Editor of a magazine and a newspaper columnist. She is from California’s Sacramento River Delta, has lived abroad and now resides in Hawaii.Her latest book is Down to the Needle, 

a suspensful story of a mother's search for her abducted child and the hope that the child did not grow up to be the woman on death row. It was a good read.

Mary Deal

To commemorate Stacy Juba’s book, 25 Years in the Rear View Mirror, my thoughts go back to about 1987. Then, I decided I had to stop traveling if I was to create anything with lasting value. But let me digress further.

In 1949 I was eight years old and studying geography and history. A light went on in my mind. I wanted to know about the world and knew that I would travel during my lifetime.

In 1959 I moved to my favorite city, San Francisco. After some time living there, I moved to Puerto Rico. By then, traveling was in my blood.

In 1969 it was back to San Francisco. Yet, meeting new people and cultures and having exception experiences was educational. I didn’t know how I’d use all this knowledge but I breathed it in on every breath. I moved to England for a year, then moved to Phoenix. I vacationed in Hawaii.

In 1979, I moved back to San Francisco. Yet, in the ensuing years, I remembered Puerto Rico and island living. I didn’t want to go back there. I wanted to see another part of the world.

So, about twenty-five years ago, judging from my major moves in every year ending in a 9, I wondered where I’d end up next. All the while, I’m telling myself that I have so much knowledge and experience that I should write books. I wanted to stay put and not go gallivanting off to some foreign land. I got my wish but still had to move.

In 1989, I moved in with my brother in Petaluma to help care for our aging, ailing mother. Once she stabilized, I moved back to San Francisco, then on to Sacramento where I found contractual work that paid enough to allow me to begin to pour out all this knowledge and experience into books and stories. I wrote every spare moment, sometimes sleeping only two to three hours per night. I finally found something I loved to do that seemed to overpower my desire to travel . Or so I thought – and I moved yet again!

In 1999, I was already living in Hawaii and, judging from my much traveled past, wondered what big move would spring itself on me since it was already a year ending with a 9. My strongest desire was to settle and write. I got my wish. My boss and I had moved to Kauai to flip houses damaged by Hurricane Iniki.  Although we didn’t move far, we bought a house and moved in as roommates. It was a 9 year. I had still moved.

Now, in 2012, after visiting all of the Hawaii Islands through the years, I feel Honolulu calling to me. I’ll probably move again and live there for a time. The next 9 year, 2019, is seven years away. Maybe I’ll stay here on Kauai till then. I could get much writing done. Plus I’ve started oil painting and photography with online galleries. I’m entrenched in my life here on Kauai. Maybe I won’t move again till 2019.  I’ve found I can write from any place or circumstance I encounter, and everything is fodder for my stories.

Presently, I push 2019 out of my mind. My books and stories have garnered some awards. I want more. I keep writing, no matter where I find myself.

Thank you, Mary, and now the other special for the day: Did I Notice Your Book Blogfest hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh and  Ciara Knight. 

What I'm supposed to do is mention a book I recently read or heard about, then promote this on Twitter and Facebook and see how long it takes for the author to find the mention and come over to leave a comment. There are a lot of other bloggers participating, so this could get interesting as we all discover new books to read. Visit Alex's blog or Ciara's for a full list of participating bloggers.

The book I'm mentioning is  The Road to Chigger Flats (Baby Shark) [Kindle Edition] by: Robert Fate. I have this in my Kindle and plan to read it as soon as I can. I love the Baby Shark series, which features a most unusual female PI. Fate is a master at dialogue and creating unusual characters, and his books are good, quick reads. This is a short one, sort of a teaser for Baby Shark's Showdown at Chigger Flats, and is a good introduction to this terrific series that is set in 1960s Texas.   

A New Book

If you enjoy reading books such as the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, then you'll love this new release, 25 Years in The Rearview Mirror: 52 Authors Look Back. It is now available as a bargain e-book for Kindle, Nook, Smashwords, Kobo, and more. This collection of poignant and uplifting essays is the perfect book to enjoy over your morning coffee. The stories will warm your heart, raise your spirits and compel you to examine your own life.

My essay "Family Fun at the Dinner Table"  is one of the stories included in the collection and tells about those special moments of family dinners that sometimes get a little crazy. Above all, we had fun.

I was honored when Stacy Juba invited me to join the 52 other authors to answer the question “What were you doing 25 years ago?” She came up with the idea as a tie-in to her mystery book Twenty-Five Years Ago Today.

In this collection you can read about school days, quirky jobs, romance, raising a family, hard times, the writing journey, and find out what makes your favorite characters tick. This book will help readers to discover new authors for their to-read list, and inspire them to reflect upon the small defining moments that have shaped their own lives.

The book includes a foreword by Elaine Raco Chase, award-winning author of seventeen paperback novels with over 3 million books in print. The contributing writers are New York Times bestselling, USA Today bestselling, and Amazon bestselling authors. They also include recipients of the Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award, Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award, Mississippi Author Award, Benjamin Franklin Award and Eppie Award, as well as nominees of the Pushcart Prize, Agatha and Shamus Awards, to name a few of the many honors.

To purchase the book, visit one of these online retailers: Amazon:    Barnes & Noble:  Smashwords:     Kobo:     

To see a full list of authors and essay titles visit Stacy's Blog  

If you would like, you can follow the authors on the Rearview Mirror Blog and Radio Tour, with over 60 tour stops scheduled from September through December. Three "My Memories Suite Scrapbook Software" downloads will be given away via the Rafflecopter form you can find HERE. 

 

Finally, we invite you to join the 25 Years in the Rearview Mirror Yahoo Group. Readers are invited to stop by and answer regular memory sparker questions, discuss which essays resonated with them the most, meet many of the authors, and get the inside scoop on their latest book releases, special offers and news. Download tons of freebies in the Authors' Corner! Here is the link to join.