Creative Conflict

As promised, I’m posting today about the after-results of the KDP Select campaign (22nd-24th March) mentioned in my last post (where I reported the download results). Again, if you want to know how I got a good number of downloads for a book not in the mainstream, then please go to my page:
How I Got 10,896 Downloads on the First Day of my KDP Select Promo with a Non-mainstream eBook

Starting paid rank before campaign: about 35,000

Highest free rank recorded during campaign: 7

Paid rank after campaign: 105,000 (ranks always drop severely after a campaign due to no sales or borrows during the campaign)

Now, with that in mind, let’s look at the data for the end of each of the listed days (rank, sales, borrows) below:

DAY 1 (MON): 13957, 17, 13

DAY 2 (TUE): 5461, 14, 11

DAY 3 (WED): 5713, 15, 18

DAY 4 (THU): 3482, 17, 37 (gets into top 100 for children’s books)

DAY 5 (GOOD FRI): 3395, 18, 18

DAY 6 (SAT): 3182, 25, 22

DAY 7 (EASTER SUN): 4141, 16, 5 (drops out of top 100 for children’s books)

DAY 8 (BANK HOLIDAY): 4730, 12, 23

Total sales/total borrows: 134 / 147

Best rank recorded: 3040

Best “best seller” ranking (allowing for only one subcategory level) recorded: #77 in children’s ebooks

(Note that ranking reports are delayed, so lag behind sales/borrows. These stats are for Amazon.com only, other stores had little traction, totalling perhaps 15 sales combined, with no borrows).

I’ve just finished a KDP Select campaign for my debut novel, The Serpent in the Glass. One of the reasons for running the campaign was to see the effect compared to past promo campaigns. In short, could KDP still deliver a solid punch if done properly?

1. Preparation

Firstly I should say that my book, The Serpent in the Glass, had 48 reviews with a 4.2 average rating as of campaign start. The cover appeals to both young and old, probably around age 9+. Campaign ran from Fri 22 – Sun 24 March 2013.

I contacted (mainly by filling out forms) over 30 sites that you can notify, for free, about your free promotions on Amazon Kindle. This doesn’t mean they will list your promotions, but some will. You need to start doing this about 3 weeks before your campaign runs.

I spent somewhere in the region of about $200 on various services, including a book-tweeting service and two modest adverts in a couple of the high-profile sites.

2. The Campaign

I tweeted, retweeted and replied to personal tweeters as they appeared. I tried to use some @ and # on twitter to help visibility, though I’m not very good at that. I posted on a dozen or more facebook groups.

3. The Results

12 hours into the first day: 4117 downloads and ranked at #111
16 hours into the first day: 7675 downloads and ranked at #30
Start of second day: 10,896 downloads and ranked at #10
4 hours into second day: ranking at #7 (PEAK)
6 hours into second day: ranking drops to #9
12 hours into second day: 13,469 downloads and ranked at #9
16 hours into second day: 14,382 downloads and ranked at #14
Start of third day: 15,392 downloads and ranked at #16
8 hours into third day: 15,882 downloads and ranked at #16
14 hours into third day: 16,680 downloads and ranked at #16
End of third day and campaign: 17,561 downloads and ranked at #37 (first-page position lost )

Breakdown of downloads per Amazon store:

Brazil: 2
Italy: 2
Spain: 6
France: 12
Japan: 19
Canada: 60
Germany: 152
UK: 464
US/India: 16,844

I shall report any sales/ranking changes in the next post, probably in early April.

Would you like to know exactly how I got so many downloads on day 1? Then go to this link.

Please feel free to review my book,The Serpent in the Glass (The Tale of Thomas Farrell) on Askdavid.com

Now displaying site previews. Neat.

Authors, why not get listed too?

March Magic Book Giveaway!

Enter to win three paperbacks–The Pet Washer, Beswitched, and The Serpent in the Glass.

The Giveaway ends March 31, 2013

It’s free!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

About the Books  

Molly Snow

Surla and Cathy have a HUGE secret!

After spending hundreds of years as a ‘familiar’ to an abusive witch, Surla runs away to find freedom. But there’s one catch! The Black Cats’ Curse states she will have to switch bodies with the first lonesome soul to cross her path.

Painfully shy Cathy Phillips can’t muster the courage to ask hot water polo player, Craig Nelson, on a date. Neither can she stand up to the three biggest snobs at Washington High. What’s a girl to do? Could switching lives with a sassy, magical cat be the answer to her wishes?

The “curse” of being “BeSwitched” may just be the most purr-fect secret these new best friends could ever have!

D.M. Andrews

On his eleventh birthday Thomas Farrell is informed that the deceased father he never knew has provided for his education at Darkledun Manor, a school for gifted children. Thomas, however, feels he’s just an ordinary boy, but Darkledun Manor proves to be anything but an ordinary school…

In this work of fiction the reader is transported into a world of myth as the young protagonist, Thomas Farrell, seeks to understand who his mysterious father was, and why he left him a strange glass orb containing a serpent. As the story progresses, Thomas and his friends become increasingly caught up in a world they never knew existed – a world beyond the standing stones.

Jennifer Lynn Alvarez

What happens when a vacationing princess befriends a hard-working pet washer?

Meet the pet washer! Cianna works overtime at The Royal Pet Palace and Day Spa. Here, animals are cleaned, massaged, bedazzled, and dyed to match the outfits of their masters. Cianna is popular because she invents special shampoos, flea treatments, pet foods, and toothpastes to keep the pets as healthy as they are clean.

Meet the princess! Polly owns the finest dresses, the fastest horses, lives in the largest castle, and has the prettiest friends in the seven kingdoms. She befriends Cianna to replace an ill dancer in her annual Spring Festival performance.

When Cianna is thrown into the glamorous lifestyle of the royals it seems all her dreams are coming true, but when Polly has a change of heart, both of their lives are changed forever.  

I’ve been interviewed on the Wizard’s Cauldron (or should that be “in”?)…

CLICK HERE TO READ THE INTERVIEW (contains pics and videos!)

A magazine to which I contribute had just launched its pilot issue!

Indie Scene is for readers of British indie fiction…

Read more at http://www.indie-book-bargains.co.uk/indie-scene-magazine

I’ve been interviewed by author Jennifer Lynn Alvarez, author of the Winged Herd series and the Pet Washer series, about my latest book, Dreamwalkers (Part One)…

Read the interview here.

The first installment of my new young-adult fantasy, Dreamwalkers (Part One), has been released! CLICK HERE TO SEE IT ON AMAZON.

Well, Stuart Ayris has bravely made his sales for Tollesbury Time Forever available on his blog at http://tollesburytimeforever.blogspot.co.uk, so I’d thought I’d do the same for my debut novel…

My first ideas for The Serpent in the Glass began right back in 1997. Around 2003-2006 I received a number of rejection slips (including one for the agency that had signed up J.K. Rowling) from publishers/agencies. Then, in 2010, a friend showed me an ereader, but I didn’t think much of self-publishing back then, though it did stick in the back of my mind. Then, fed up with postage and rejection slips, I reworked my children’s novel for the Kindle and published it at the end of 2011. I only made about 10 sales per month (and a few of those were to people I personally knew) in November and December, but it was thrilling to see it on Amazon.

Since then I’ve released a second and a (final) third edition of the book, as well as a paperback version. Below I chart how my book fared in 2012 on the Kindle. The Serpent in the Glass isn’t currently available on other digital platforms because it is enrolled in the Amazon KDP Select program. Although I have made some paperback sales, they are small and thus not included here (and, to be honest, I’m not quite sure how to get at all that data anyway!).

Kindle ebook sales (and borrows) of The Serpent in the Glass during 2012

• Jan: 70 (11)
• Feb: 65 (33)
• Mar: 1217 (288)
• Apr: 219 (48)
• May: 56 (22)
• Jun: 42 (12)
• Jul: 47 (16)
• Aug: 39 (9)
• Sep: 30 (5)
• Oct: 21 (10)
• Nov: 20 (8)
• Dec: 169 (380)

Total: 1995 sales (842 borrows) with a breakdown split of US 1584 (833) & UK 411 (9)
(sales through other sites, chiefly Germany, have been negligible and perhaps add 10 or so to the total, so I got a little over 2000 Kindle sales in 2012)

As for ratings:

You can read the actual reviews here:

• Amazon US
• Amazon UK
• GoodReads

A big “thank you” to all who’ve supported me in my first year! I hope to have 2-3 new releases out in the first quarter of 2013 — and I may yet start that sequel to The Serpent in the Glass!!!