[A. N. Other Author]

(now updated the March 1st - apologies for the poor formatting; I hope you can read it okay)

I launched my second novel this week, and while I have absolutely researched the market and I know with 100% certainty I don't have enough of a list to be thinking about pushing myself as a full time author, I still have an ego to consider. I spent a day a couple of weeks ago putting a small, fairly cheap, cabal of promotional sites for both titles, hoping one will feed the other. Even though it is, strictly-speaking, meaningless, seeing rankings creep up is always a boost.

My first novel, His First His Second did better than I expected, and while my second, Three Years Dead, is set in the same story-world it isn't a direct sequel. Maybe a mistake, but I'm playing the long game. Within 5 years I aim to have two continuing series with a smattering of stand-alones.

His First His Second has a handful of reviews, so I can only get that one in the big places (not enough for Bookbub of course) then hope those who buy it spot that my second novel is also on offer. Three Years Dead has made it into some of the more affordable sites, plus a couple of new release categories.

Both are £1GBP or $0.99US until March 15.

His First His Second: Opening Rank (UK); 166,852 (US) 367,486
Three Years Dead: Opening Rank (UK); 538,359 (US) 1,525,009

Notes: currently HFHS is selling very low numbers but has occasional zeros days I have done zero promos since December, concentrating on my writing instead, so I can only assume it is coming in through also-boughts.

Sales are for Amazon unless otherwise noted.

Feb 26th HFHS - Choosy Bookworm premium listing

His First His Second: UK sales 2 Ranking #159,679 / US sales 43 Ranking 5,975

Three Years Dead: UK sales 1 (plus several pre-orders) / US sales 2 -- not worth talking about ranking

+ 2 Kobo sales

Feb 27th TYD Booktastick
Feb 27th TYD EbookbargainsUk for one day listing
Feb 27th HFHS Bknights
Feb 27th HFHS FKBT - regular listing

His First His Second: UK sales 2; rank #47,642 / US sales 97; rank #2,673

Three Years Dead: UK sales 1; rank #26,270 (weirdly) / US sales 2; rank #245,401

+ 2 on Kobo + 1 Amazon Italy + 2 Amazon Australia

US: #3 in pulp, #7 vigilante justice, #13 International Crime & Mystery

UK #57 in Kidnapping

Feb 28th HFHS ENT
Feb 28th TYD Bknights
Feb 28th HFHS Fussy Librarian

His First His Second: UK sales 1 again; rank #94,316 / US sales 317; rank #589 overall (nice)

Three Years Dead: UK sales 2; rank #31,458 / US sales 16; rank #15,585

+ 1 TYD on Kobo, 1 on Nook and 1 on Apple.

Sub-Categories
Three Years Dead UK: #32 in pulp, #66 noir

His First His Second US: #1 in pulp, #3 vigilante justice, #3 International Crime & Mystery
(my first #1 in a category -- okay, it's an obscure one, but don't I get a badge or something?)

Note: So my U.S. sales are not translating to British ones; wonder if also-boughts cross the Pond. Maybe there's a market for these newsletters/email blasts. We don't have many Brit-specific ones. EbookBargainsUK is okay, but I'm not sure how wide they go, and of course BookBub do UK-only but the don't like me :-(

March 1st TYD Ebookhounds
March 1st HFHS Genrepulse
March 1st TYD Booksends.com - new release

His First His Second: UK sales 1 (same as when it's full price); rank #104,550 / US sales 154; rank #740

Three Years Dead: UK sales 3; rank #21619 / US sales 21; rank #14764

NOW nothing for a week - I didn't want to spend too much more and I'm hoping for some favourable reviews, and perhaps also-boughts to boost sales slightly - also the visibility of ranking in some of the categories might help a little. I'll be concentrating on my writing, though. Maybe the odd sneaky peak at the sales graph. I'll summarise later rather than updating daily.

March 9 - March 15 TYD EbookbargainsUk for one week featured book (I'll only update when anything significant pops up)

His First His Second: UK sales ; rank # / US sales ; rank #

Three Years Dead: UK sales ; rank # / US sales ; rank #

March 15th TYD FKBT - new release listing (I had hoped to get this in the first weekend but this was the first slot he had).

His First His Second: UK sales ; rank # / US sales ; rank #

Three Years Dead: UK sales ; rank # / US sales ; rank #

After March 16th, both books go back up in price.

So it's a minor push but still a push. Perhaps I'll get reviews, perhaps they'll be great. Hopefully people won't be too put off by the British setting or spelling, but it's always a risk.

I'm targeting novel #3 for April 30th but might be later.

 

[A Woman's Place Is In The Rebellion]

Looks like a good list.  Best of luck!

 

[Guest]

Thanks for sharing. This is very interesting.

I have a question - why not try something like Wayne Stinnett?

I.e.

Day 1 - some sites.
Day 2 - more sites.
Day 3 - a big site like ENT and everything else.

 

[Philip Gibson]

Heading in the right direction. It will be fascinating to see how high you get with this comprehensive promo. Please keep us updated.

Philip

 

[A. N. Other Author]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. If you don't mind me asking, how much did this promo run cost you altogether?

Hi,

By close of play Sunday it'll be $100, the week-long promo is £15GBP, so around $25, then another $25 down on my final FKBT weekend, so it'll be $150 in total by the end, which even at my low, low price point I'm already in profit. But the real profit is in the future -- if people like it enough to review well. And it keeps selling when outside of promotion.

Updating the 28th now.

 

[A. N. Other Author]

Thanks for sharing. This is very interesting.

I have a question - why not try something like Wayne Stinnett?

I.e.

Day 1 - some sites.
Day 2 - more sites.
Day 3 - a big site like ENT and everything else.

I was going to do absolutely nothing and wait until I had 5 or so books in my backlist, but my ego trampled all over that, so it was fairly last minute.
I was limited to the dates, especially with ENT.

Next time I'll aim to plan ahead with exactly this tactic, but you need 6 weeks or so to be sure of getting the dates you really want. That's IF you are accepted of course.

 

[Antara Mann]

I was going to do absolutely nothing and wait until I had 5 or so books in my backlist, but my ego trampled all over that, so it was fairly last minute.
I was limited to the dates, especially with ENT.

Next time I'll aim to plan ahead with exactly this tactic, but you need 6 weeks or so to be sure of getting the dates you really want. That's IF you are accepted of course.

It's not only ego but losing momentum and gnawing awareness that you are neglecting your current books/sales/ranks.

 

[Guest]

OK, interesting.

It's a very interesting problem. The time period between launch (when the book is newest) and having enough reviews and time to be able to do a proper promotion (when the book is no longer new).

I can't really think of a good way to solve it or even partially solve it.

 

[A. N. Other Author]

It's not only ego but losing momentum and gnawing awareness that you are neglecting your current books/sales/ranks.

I just need to be more disciplined and force myself to not get too carried away. I need to get 5-6 books up before doing another manic weekend like this, and make sure a few of them are in some sort of a series. Then, maybe, my sales will start to grow toward quit-the-day job numbers.

 

[A. N. Other Author]

OK, interesting.

It's a very interesting problem. The time period between launch (when the book is newest) and having enough reviews and time to be able to do a proper promotion (when the book is no longer new).

I can't really think of a good way to solve it or even partially solve it.

I don't think there will ever be one foolproof way of launching a book. Each is different, and every reader is different. I'm just hoping my early forays into this side of it will teach me a few lessons. I have a thick project notebook where I keep a record of my digital adventures. As well as spreadsheets. Lots of spreadsheets.