I feel like it's time to post an update to the new marketing I'm doing. As I've posted before, I decided to go exclusive with Amazons KDP Select and try out their service for 90 days. I 'unpublished' my book from the other platforms and got signed up with KDP Select.
I've been reading about other people's success with this and their use of 'free days' so I decided to start out with 2 free days to really get things going. And boy did they get moving. In the first 2 days of being on KDP Select, and with my book listed at $2.99, but on promotion for free, I moved nearly 2500 digital copies.
On one hand, to see 2500 copies go into the hands of others makes me really excited. Of course, I didn't make a dime on any of that, but I knew that giving things away for free is a good tactic in marketing.
As for Amazon rankings,I found my book as high as 138 on all the top free books. In 'Romance', I climbed to position 38 and in Historical Romance, I hit #9. These high rankings helped tremendously to get seen and known. Of course, when the book converted to paid (but still free to Amazon Prime members), it was no longer free so it dropped immediately from the 'Top Free' list.
In fact, when it dropped off the Free List, I found my book ranked all the way down near the 300,000 range. This didn't make me happy, but my husband encouraged me to be patient and wait to see. My book converted to paid on Sunday night at midnight (02.26.2012). Since that time, I'm seeing a 'better than previously' stream of orders.
Over the past 32 hours, I've seen about 20 US downloads and 2 units borrows. While that doesn't break the bank, it IS better than I've seen before. I'm also seeing downloads from Amazon UK, DE and FR.
Over the past 32 hours, my book has also climbed back up in the rankings. I'm sitting at around 23,000 now (much better than 300,000). The Author Central rank reporting does not provide good data on which to base tracking, but I think I'm bouncing around that 23,000 mark a bit. I'll continue to watch it.
So, in summary, this new marketing campaign seems to be doing better than I've done in the past and I'm happy about that. While I'm not yet a millionair for selling books, I CAN say I'm a success because I've sold some books. :]
Now I'm back off to do some more writing. Must * Write * More!
Have you seen success using the KDP Select system?
Hi, Alex! It's great to meet you! Thank for commenting on my blog and for becoming a Follower!
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy finding out about fellow writers' experiences, and your account here about selling on Amazon is so interesting. I think giving away free material is a great thing for a writer to do, the way you did. And kudos to you for getting yourself noticed - 2500 copies in two days - that in itself is so much to be proud of!
Keep up the good work! I look forward to seeing you again here! And thanks again for connecting!