It is now official, book 2 in The Guardian series, Cursed has been released on ebook. It is currently available on amazon here. Once you read the book if you want to leave a review that would be greatly appreciated not only by me but possible future readers. I know I tend to read books based on the feedback others leave.
Also Book 1, Sacred Bloodlines is now available in paperback here. Happy reading and I hope you enjoy. Book 3 is under way!
I am thrilled about the success of my book over the months of January and February. I had about 2000 free downloads which got reviews coming in and it seemed to spur future sales. In one day I sold another 200 book after it was no longer free. In total I have sold between 400 - 500 copies of Sacred Bloodlines and distributed a total of around 2500 copies. Considering I am an unknown author, this is my first book, and I am self published I am thrilled with the results after three months.
Now while the KDP program from Amazon has been a treasure for me I have a word of caution for everyone. First off, I had the commission set to 70%. It dropped to 35% during the free promo but 35% of nothing is… well you get the picture. I set my book rate back to $2.99 when the promo ended since that is the level where the 70% starts at. Two weeks later I look at my sales and see I am getting paid 35%. Even though you put your book rate at the minimum to get the 70% royalty Amazon does not assume this and you have to tell them to change the rate from 35% to 70%. I think this is just wrong. I contacted them and got some hollow and unhelpful answer, meanwhile I am out several hundred dollars in royalty. Why would anyone want less money? I am not happy about this at all!
The second problem I am having is that Amazon is reporting on the day that I sold 200 copies the price was free. This was three days after the promo so I am positive the book was not free. They say the actual report will reflect the correct number so I suppose I will see in March when the February report comes out. A word to the wise, track your numbers closely and do not rely on Amazon’s reporting.
In the end I am thankful to the program Amazon has offered because it has gotten me a reader base I would have never had. I view the payment and royalty issues just a bump in the road.
Alright, so I just finished my experiment with Amazon’s KDP Promo option. I am pretty excited about the results. During the 5 days I offered the book for free as part of the promo I received a couple thousand downloads. I managed to reach #311 in the Kindle store, #8 in juvenile fantasy, and #14 in adult fantasy. I also picked up three new book reviews. I hope this will multiply as more time passes and people have time to read the book.
You might be asking what I wondered myself, you’re giving the book away for free, how does this translate to selling books. Today I got an answer for you and myself. Sunday was the last day of the promo and my book returned to full price on Monday.
Prior to the promo sales were slow to say the least. In the first 3 weeks of January I had sold only six copies. A number that makes you think, how will this ever happen for me. Since I ran the promo (yes, one day) I have sold 30 copies of my book at full price. I hope to see the number continue in the same way today. I have read that three days after the promo is the “sweet spot” but I think where I am right now is pretty “sweet”.
I think timing is important as well. My 2nd book comes out at the end of the month and thanks to this promo I will have thousands of folks looking to read the 2nd installment (at least thats what I hope). I will post a follow-up to this in a weeks time roughly to give you all an idea if the success continued.
