Tuesday, November 17, 2015

A Kindle Scout Winner Promotion

BUY NOW ONLY .99 FOR A LIMITED TIME
I thought of waiting until tomorrow to post this since that's when the promotion starts, but decided to post now in case anyone has any suggestions.
I always love promotion threads, but I’ve never posted one before mostly because I’m not very organized, but also because I’ve felt I nothing to say that hasn’t already been said before. So, here’s a different sort of promotion thread. I booked a small number of relatively inexpensive ads to promote my YA Kindle Scout Winner, Witch Ways. Some of you will probably feel that this isn’t useful, because I’ve the mighty Zon doing my heavy lifting. You are right. But some of you might wonder how the Kindle Scout program helps or hinders, so I’m sharing.
Because WW was published by Amazon, I didn’t write the blurb, set the keywords or the price. It was published in August and in October they notified me that they’d be lowering the price to 0.99 for the month of November.
In the past, I haven’t found 0.99 promotions to be very successful. I have had much more traction with free promotions, so I hesitated to spend any money on it. I reconsidered, and now I’m regretting my hesitation because I wasn’t able to get an ENT ad. (They told me they were full and asked me to reapply at a later time.) I was also turned down by Robin Reads. (Like ENT, they have always performed well.) I ran a KB&T ad earlier in the month. They have also been good to me. I wish I could say I have a Book Bub ad, but I’ve never had the pleasure.
 I don’t have access to the actual sales until the end of the month, so I’ll be posting the book’s ranking. I’ll also be sharing the sales of Witch Winter, the sequel. Comments and criticisms welcome.
Here it is:
11/18     Betty Book Freak              $8.
11/18     Booktastic                        $10.
11/19     Awesome Gang                $10.
11/19     Sweet Free Books              $5
11/20     Booksends                        $20
11/20     BKnights                            $5.
                                                        $58.
Starting rank as of just now:
Witch Ways: Witch Ways
33 reviews                         
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: # #9,618 Paid in Kindle Store
#35 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction > Fantasy
#54 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
                                               
Witch Winter: (Which I self-published, wrote the blurb, set the price, chose the keywords, etc. I should also mention that my amazing daughter designs my covers, and Amazon didn’t ask to change them.)
6 reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,431 Paid in Kindle Store
#13 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mythology & Folk Tales > Folklore
#14 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths > Collections

UPDATE:
Not really near the end of day one, but since I've things to do tonight, I'll update now. Here's the rank info for Witch Ways.

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,866 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#32 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction > Fantasy
#46 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
#91 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age
 Plus 1 5 star review. (Yeah!)

And five sales of Witch Winter. Here's her stats:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #29,012 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#11 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mythology & Folk Tales > Folklore
#13 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths > Collections
#155 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Fairy Tales

It's the morning of the 19th. Today we have Awesome Gang and Sweet Free Books. Here's W. Ways rank: (Which--no pun intended--makes me happy.)

            It's the day after the promotion and my numbers are the best they've been. Go figure. Does that mean my last two ads were the best? Or is Amazon helping me out? Not sure. Witch Ways, November 21

       Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,637 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
                                                 


                                                    
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    1 comment:

    1. ryandaffJuly 24, 2016 at 4:22 AM

      Thanks so much for blogging on this. I feel fairly lost in the process as Amazon are deliberately vague about it all. I also don't really want to beg for votes because it could descend into vanity, and might be confirmation for some that the book isn't worthy if it still fails after a lengthy campaign.

      I wondered what people thought about hot and trending. How important is it to sustain that? Do we think that Amazon will only review those books that are still 'hot' by the end of the month?

      I don't have the best front cover in the world, but it does incorporate the novel's themes and motifs, and so just about succeeds for that reason. Possibly a bit dated-looking. It might not be enough -- but I like to remember that the cover isn't the main event. I understand people saying that the cover SHOULD be perfect... but let's bear in mind that a professional design process at a publishing house is a complicated game, played by marketing experts. I simply didn't have those resources available, and can say in truth that I never place much stock in a book's cover. Still, hopefully mine isn't TERRIBLE and I haven't hobbled my campaign. I accept both sides of the argument.

      I'm going to post the link in case anyone is interested and can offer any guidance (beyond the now-irreparable stuff)! If you enjoy the sample or are intrigued (it won't be everyone's cup of tea), please give it a vote so that I know I haven't worked on this for nothing. It would mean a lot because writing is a lonely business; but I do love it...

      https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/3MQP9LU0F3GGF

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