[Wayne Stinnett]

Congratulations, John. I got my copy! Look forward to reading it.

BookBub wrote a great little blurb there and placement in my email was right at the top. Look forward to hearing how the promo goes.

 

[MyraScott]

Go John!

I'm sure he'd be posting here now if he wasn't so busy watching the sales pour in...

 

[John Ellsworth]

Hi Guys,
Wayne and I talked a couple of weeks ago that it would be cool if I used his "Algorithmic Massage" method for my BB today, since our books were both somewhat similar in genre, daily sales, etc. I'm referring to his BB of two weeks ago and mine today. So, he sent me his advertising selections and i tracked them. Once the promo is over, we're going to post our comparative view of how both of our sales went using his method. Here's what i have so far, and I'll update this stuff for anyone who's interested:

Wayne's method for my book The Defendants: (Book usually ranks between 2500-4500 without promos)
2.18. First day of KCD:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,476 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#8 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Crime > Heist
#11 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Crime > Organized Crime
#21 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Crime > Kidnapping

First day advertising: Fussy Librarian. Added first day because Wayne recommended starting KCD a day earlier than he had before and to add momentum.
First day results: Sales: 44
Rank: 2845 end of day.
Second day advertising: Booksends & BargainBooksy (by blog's mistake, supposed to run next day)
Second day sales: 130
Rank: 1173
Third day advertising: BargainBooksy (run at n/c because ran ad yesterday by mistake), ebookbargains UK, Awesome gang
Third day sales: 110
Rank: 1108 (rank when BB ad came out)
Fourth day advertising: Bookbub, Fussy Lib
Fourth day break-even: 800 books at .70/book (BB ad $560) UPDATE: sold 800+ books just 2.5 hours into BB email coming out.
Fourth day sales (BB day):

I'll update, like I said. But in all honesty, I think Wayne has got this thing down right. It's important to maximize returns on these things because BB itself pays very close attention to sales of our books during promos and the history we establish with them has an impact on whether they're willing to feature us again on  down the road.

Thanks for reading and thanks to Wayne for figuring all this out. As I've said before, Wayne, I really think you could consider doing a book on Amazon's ranking algorithms and how to maximize sales with them. Just saying.

 

[John Ellsworth]

Nine CST Saturday night update: sales 1550
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#1 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Crime > Organized Crime
#1 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Crime > Heist
#2 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Crime > Kidnapping

Question; one of my categories is mystery, thriller & suspense > thrillers > legal

Why aren't I ranking in legal thrillers? That's my key category. In Amazon best sellers, legal thrillers, my book is #5. So why doesn't it show above? And it shows kidnapping #2? There's no kidnapping in the entire book.

 

[Wayne Stinnett]

Nine CST Saturday night update: sales 1550
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#1 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Crime > Organized Crime
#1 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Crime > Heist
#2 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Crime > Kidnapping

Question; one of my categories is mystery, thriller & suspense > thrillers > legal

Why aren't I ranking in legal thrillers? That's my key category. In Amazon best sellers, legal thrillers, my book is #5. So why doesn't it show above? And it shows kidnapping #2? There's no kidnapping in the entire book.

On the product page, your rank will be shown only for the top 3 genres you're in. How you got into Kidnapping is anyone's guess. You're probably on the first page of the main genre Crime and in the top 50 of Thrillers & Suspense category. The three shown are all in the main category "Books". This tells me you might want to look at your key word usage through KDP.

 

[John Ellsworth]

Here are final figures of KCD + Bookbub, using Wayne's front-loading method. I believe these numbers prove his method is transferable and will work for anyone. In the future I definitely plan to use them again. This was my fifth Bookbub and my first paid promo. The other four BB's were freebies. I wasn't accepted for a paying gig at first and had to apply probably a dozen times to even get one. Right now I'm applying for another freebie to BB, this one for Unspeakable Prayers, because it needs more eyes. Bookbub is a great tool. It might not make you rich but it can definitely set you off down that road.
Long story short: total sales during KCD: 2865
Currently still ranked < 500 in paid Amazon. It seems like the ranking is much more sticky than the BB freebies, where I always fall off dramatically after the second day.

Hope you find something you can use here. If you can, great.

Wayne's method
2.18. First day of KCD:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,476 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#8 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Crime > Heist
#11 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Crime > Organized Crime
#21 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Crime > Kidnapping

First day advertising: Fussy Librarian. Added first day because Wayne recommended starting KCD a day earlier than he had before and to add momentum.
First day results: Sales: 44
Rank: 2845 end of day.
Second day advertising: Booksends & BargainBooksy (by mistake, supposed to run next day)
Second day sales: 130
Rank: 1173
Third day advertising: BargainBooksy (run at n/c because ran ad yesterday by mistake), ebookbargains UK, Awesome gang
Third day sales: 110
Rank: 1108 (rank when BB ad came out)
Fourth day advertising: Bookbub, Fussy Lib
Fourth day break-even: $800 (BB ad $560)
Fourth day sales (BB day):1661
Rank:67
Fifth day advertising: none
Fifth day sales:529
Rank:99
Sixth day advertising: none
Sixth day sales:214
Rank:153
Seventh day advertising:
Seventh day dales: 177
Rank: 377
Thanks Wayne for marking the path!

 

[cinisajoy]

John,
Let me know when Prayers is free. 

 

[John Ellsworth]

John,
Let me know when Prayers is free.

Will do. thanks.

 

[John Ellsworth]

John,
Let me know when Prayers is free.

Cin: received twenty minutes ago:

"Good news! Our editorial team selected your title for a BookBub feature on Mar 23, 2015. I'm excited to be working with you on this promotion, and please feel free to reach out with questions any time!"

This is for Unspeakable Prayers, which I specifically wanted to do free, to get eyes on. If you guys have any other ideas about moving this book around the time of BB, I'm all ears.

 

[Lisa Blackwood]

Just want to say-->I LOVE these threads.  So many good marketing ideas. (I'm hopeless without guidance. lol)

 

[Wayne Stinnett]

This is for Unspeakable Prayers, which I specifically wanted to do free, to get eyes on. If you guys have any other ideas about moving this book around the time of BB, I'm all ears.

A BookBub free promo works pretty much the same as discounted, John. Stickiness is dependent on rank achieved in the free store and downloads after the BB ad are dependent on visibility.

A couple of days of promotions before BookBub will get you higher, by kicking in the historical part of the algorithm in the free store.