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(Notice the topic title doesn't include The How. I share - a LOT - but there are still one or two trade secrets (quite ethical!) I won't divulge, so if I don't answer certain questions, it's not because I didn't see them, but because I'm studiously ignoring them 
)
Yes, we're a little jazzed
. For a romance writer, what could be a better day for it?
Jennifer is in the Top 100 Kindle Authors (at #94 overall):
Amazon Author Rank
#5 in Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Romance > Historical Romance
#5 in Books > Romance > Historical
#37 in Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Romance
#43 in Books > Romance
#79 in Kindle eBooks > Fiction
She has a box set that's been in and out of the Top 100 for the past 53 days, spending 39 of those days in. It released late November, and to date has sold over 43,000 units. Fingers crossed, it *should* cross 50,000 sold by the end of the month.
Now, I could simply squee and claim cluelessness about why it happened. But the truth is, while there's always some element of magical unicorn dust around why books gain traction, a lot has to do with timing, visibility, price, genre, and author.
First, to be clear, these are backlist books that were national bestsellers in their days by an author with multiple lifetime achievement awards in romance. Hers is a recognizable name to readers of a certain generation. They are historical romances, which are seeing a bit of a revival right now. But that is no guarantee that books will sell. See below.
The box set is loss-leader priced at 99 cents, where it helps cross-promote the other 9 box sets of hers we have out now, plus the rest of the inventory that we have. It's in Select, where it's high on the KOLL lists with over 1600 borrows.
We ran a concentrated ad promotion for this set along with a number of other books Dec 17-19, timing the promo to capitalize on the Christmas buying season. The authors in the promo shared around a few Facebook posts, but Twitter and FB efforts were very minimal (I don't Tweet at all - not since last June or so, and I don't go anywhere near Goodreads).
Still, we've done similar with other titles, and while we've put 11 Steel Magnolia titles into the Top 100 over the past year (and another 5 into the Top 500, a couple of them twice), this one has stuck high in the ranks the longest. The title that comes in second sold 25,000 copies in 6 weeks. Each of those 11 books had the same opportunity to stick, but didn't. While promotions can push you into the Top 100, unicorn dust is needed, it seems, to hold you there for the first few days.
If you can get past those initial days ON YOUR OWN, then the Amazon algorithms kick in to help hold you there. Pass that sustainability test for a couple of weeks, and the Amazon recommendation engines turn on full blast. (Amazon helps those who help themselves. Remember that.)
This set started to cliff on Feb 1, falling to #175 by Feb 5. Without further promotion on our part, Amazon recommendations lifted this set back into the Top 100 in the US, followed by a spike to #135 in the UK and #4 in Canada. Today, it's clear Amazon is pushing the set again.
It's easy to dismiss Amazon and the true ingeniousness of its recommendation engine if you've never benefited from more than just alsobots and a short ride on the Hot New Release list or on the pop lists after a free run. It's easy to claim a book just catches a lucky break time after time. The truth is, the right book in the right genre with the right cover and the right price given the right promotion can hit in the Top 100 with little effort. The next few days are the crucial ones, where luck probably factors in the most (always assuming, of course, a reasonably well-formatted, well-written book). After that, it's pretty much down to science and Amazon's internal marketing -- except for those few outliers that everyone talks about, making it seem they're a bigger group than they really are.
Beyond luck, then, how do you sustain for those first few days once you've hit in the Top 100? It's no secret that's something I'm still trying to figure out myself.
So, thank you, Amazon, for the promoting you're doing on our behalf this Valentine's Day and helping us to spread the love! (Now, can we talk about a Kindle Daily Deal at some point?
)
)Yes, we're a little jazzed
. For a romance writer, what could be a better day for it?Jennifer is in the Top 100 Kindle Authors (at #94 overall):
Amazon Author Rank
#5 in Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Romance > Historical Romance
#5 in Books > Romance > Historical
#37 in Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Romance
#43 in Books > Romance
#79 in Kindle eBooks > Fiction
She has a box set that's been in and out of the Top 100 for the past 53 days, spending 39 of those days in. It released late November, and to date has sold over 43,000 units. Fingers crossed, it *should* cross 50,000 sold by the end of the month.
Now, I could simply squee and claim cluelessness about why it happened. But the truth is, while there's always some element of magical unicorn dust around why books gain traction, a lot has to do with timing, visibility, price, genre, and author.
First, to be clear, these are backlist books that were national bestsellers in their days by an author with multiple lifetime achievement awards in romance. Hers is a recognizable name to readers of a certain generation. They are historical romances, which are seeing a bit of a revival right now. But that is no guarantee that books will sell. See below.
The box set is loss-leader priced at 99 cents, where it helps cross-promote the other 9 box sets of hers we have out now, plus the rest of the inventory that we have. It's in Select, where it's high on the KOLL lists with over 1600 borrows.
We ran a concentrated ad promotion for this set along with a number of other books Dec 17-19, timing the promo to capitalize on the Christmas buying season. The authors in the promo shared around a few Facebook posts, but Twitter and FB efforts were very minimal (I don't Tweet at all - not since last June or so, and I don't go anywhere near Goodreads).
Still, we've done similar with other titles, and while we've put 11 Steel Magnolia titles into the Top 100 over the past year (and another 5 into the Top 500, a couple of them twice), this one has stuck high in the ranks the longest. The title that comes in second sold 25,000 copies in 6 weeks. Each of those 11 books had the same opportunity to stick, but didn't. While promotions can push you into the Top 100, unicorn dust is needed, it seems, to hold you there for the first few days.
If you can get past those initial days ON YOUR OWN, then the Amazon algorithms kick in to help hold you there. Pass that sustainability test for a couple of weeks, and the Amazon recommendation engines turn on full blast. (Amazon helps those who help themselves. Remember that.)
This set started to cliff on Feb 1, falling to #175 by Feb 5. Without further promotion on our part, Amazon recommendations lifted this set back into the Top 100 in the US, followed by a spike to #135 in the UK and #4 in Canada. Today, it's clear Amazon is pushing the set again.
It's easy to dismiss Amazon and the true ingeniousness of its recommendation engine if you've never benefited from more than just alsobots and a short ride on the Hot New Release list or on the pop lists after a free run. It's easy to claim a book just catches a lucky break time after time. The truth is, the right book in the right genre with the right cover and the right price given the right promotion can hit in the Top 100 with little effort. The next few days are the crucial ones, where luck probably factors in the most (always assuming, of course, a reasonably well-formatted, well-written book). After that, it's pretty much down to science and Amazon's internal marketing -- except for those few outliers that everyone talks about, making it seem they're a bigger group than they really are
.Beyond luck, then, how do you sustain for those first few days once you've hit in the Top 100? It's no secret that's something I'm still trying to figure out myself
.So, thank you, Amazon, for the promoting you're doing on our behalf this Valentine's Day and helping us to spread the love! (Now, can we talk about a Kindle Daily Deal at some point?
)
