A year ago, when I first released Into the Deep, my debut YA Paranormal Romance, I immediately signed up for Amazon's KDP Free day promotion, and was very happy with the results. Now, a year later I signed up with Into the Deep again and did more than twice the "sales" of my first run. So, here's a look at what's changed and what I did the same.
The Numbers:
2012 Promotion: Gave away 3,000+ copies of Into the Deep
2013 Promotion: Gave away 6,000+ copies of Into the Deep
2012 Promotion: Rose into the top 200 Free in Kindle Store
2013 Promotion: Broke into the top 100 Free in Kindle Store rising to #78 and #2 under Teen and Young Adult
Subsequent paid sales, after my free promotion ended, in 2013 were also more than double what they were in 2012
Things I did the same this year as last year:
- I ran my promotion for the same book, Into the Deep.
- I broke my promotion up using three of my free days, saving two for later.
- I ran my promotion in the same month, September.
- I ran my promotion on the same days of the week: Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
Things I did differently:
- This year I ran my promotion at the end of the month into the first of October, whereas last year I ran my promotion at the beginning of September. (Possibly, the end of the month may be a better time for doing a promotion.)
- This year I had two books out, Into the Deep and it's sequel Hidden Beneath. When I put Into the Deep up for free, paid sales on Hidden Beneath went up as well.
- Into the Deep only had a handful of reviews last year whereas this year it had nearly two dozen before the start of the promotion.
- I created a new cover for Into the Deep before my 2013 promotion, one that I feel looked a little more professional than my 2012 cover.
Overall I think the things that added most to this promotion being a bigger success than the last one are first that I've been around a little longer. I had a bigger platform to tap into this time to get word out about my promotion. Second, having more reviews on my book helped give it credibility and finally having two books out not only gave me credibility as an author, but since the books were in a series the promotion of one fueled the promotion of the other.
Hopefully you all found this helpful.
For more information on Amazon's KDP program read about my first experience with Amazon in The Pros and Cons of Amazon and KDP
This is very helpful, but I still have one question: did any of this increase your actual book sales?
ReplyDeleteI realize that this may not have been your goal; perhaps your goal was to increase reader awareness of you so that folks will buy your future books later on. But I still wonder.
Yes it did. I thought I said that in there somewhere, but maybe it wasn't clear. Both last year, and this year my paid sales went up after my promotion ended, this year far more than last year.
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