The Secrets Sale – Thoughts and Results

Completed

Thank you everyone who helped spread the word of my five-day free sale and welcome to all you new readers who learned about my work through that process.

Because I have a lot of writers among my blog readers, and because readers are a curious bunch in my experience, I thought I’d talk a little about the sale, its results, and why I ran it. (Note: I give a quick update on other titles at the end.)

This was a bit of an experiment for me. It was the first time I’d put a title into Kindle Select because that program requires the title is exclusive on Amazon during the three-month renewable period. Since most of my readers come through Amazon, I thought it might offer more visibility to the group of people most interested in my writing.

Being a successful author is all about visibility. You can write the best story in the world, but if only one person ever reads it, that’s not enough to generate the word of mouth to bring you to the attention of other readers. Between reviews my readers have written and comments sent to me directly, I am confident my stories offer something worth reading. Another sign is the consistent requests for additional stories with the same characters or set in the same time frame. That said, I’m still seeking the tipping point where my readership grows organically.

While the Select program did not seem to offer any increased visibility on its own, it does allow five free days during the Select period.

Free seems an odd price for someone trying to make a living as an author, and it can be hard to wrap your brain around, or at least it was for me. However, it is the perfect way to find voracious readers who will take the chance on a free title and come back for more should the story intrigue them. While ideally I would have had Threats out before running this sale, new readers can still try Safe Haven for the steampunk world and Shafter for a science fiction adventure so they don’t have to sit and wait until December if they don’t want to. I am not, however, going to keep Secrets in the Select program so I can run another free day sale in December. I do have readers on other platforms and making them wait any longer does not seem fair.

So, that’s the logic of what I was doing. What are the results?

Secrets performed admirably while free. I gained a place on two of the Amazon Free Bestseller lists, both of which indicated I have the correct tags to find my readership as they were the Science Fiction Steampunk category and Action & Adventure Science Fiction.

Though I did not get a snapshot of the highest positions I attained on the second list, Secrets rose to #2 in Steampunk and #9 in Action & Adventure Science Fiction. Here’s the closest snapshot. It also rose above 1000 in the general free books, but since I did not record the number or snap an image displaying that, I can’t tell you how high it went.
Amazon Rank #2-#12Secrets spent most of the time in the top 5 on the Steampunk list, something I find wonderful and amazing. As far as visibility to the steampunk crowd, I can’t do much better than that. It never made it to #1 in the category, but it looked beautiful up there on the top line.
#2 inSteampunk SF Best Sellers
When the sale ended, 835 people had been willing to give Secrets a try. It’s now up to the story whether they’ll check out my other titles or just delete this one off their systems and forget about it. I’d like to think Sam and Nat have what it takes to draw them in.

Amazon no longer carries over the free list position when a title returns to its normal price which means it’s not a long-term benefit. So what do I hope to achieve from this sale? Well, two things really:

The first is finding more readers. I love having readers, I love hearing from my readers, and I hope my stories are enchanting enough that readers feel inclined to promote them to their friends and family as something worth checking out (maybe even literally if they request them from the library).

The second is that of all those new readers, I hope at least some will be moved to review my title. Reviews both help those considering the story and bump the title higher in Amazon’s algorithms. That translates into greater chances of showing up in the promotion emails, on the promotion pages, and in the “related titles” sections, all of which mean a greater chance of attracting new readers.

So yes, free is an odd price for someone trying to make a living, but it’s all about reaching that tipping point where readers spread the word faster than anything I can do on my own. I couldn’t have done that without each one of you who helped by sharing my graphics or announcements, or told people about it on your own. Because of your help, Secrets rose in the ranks to the point that people looking for free titles to test out new writers could find it.

It was a wild ride, and I learned a lot. Now I just have to sit back and wait to see if anything comes of the experiment.

However, waiting doesn’t come easily, so instead I’m putting the finishing touches on the sequel to Beneath the Mask called A Country Masquerade, writing the last few chapters of the sequel to Shafter called Trainee, preparing for NaNo, and getting Secrets ready for its debut onto the broader eBook arena. I hope you’ll keep your eyes peeled for these changes, or subscribe to my newsletter to receive notices in your email.

Thanks again for being my readers and enjoying this journey with me. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them as a reply to this post.

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One Response to The Secrets Sale – Thoughts and Results

  1. Pingback: The Secrets Sale – Thoughts and Results | Tales to Tide You Over | Darswords

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