A warm welcome to Chicago-based contemporary humor author, Jackie Pilossoph, who has been kind enough to share her experiences before and after adopting KDP Select and utilizing its free promo strategy.
Her outrageous, hilarious, novel Jackpot! has received excellent acclaim from those who have reviewed it - but, as you know, cream doesn't rise on its own, meaning quality does not automatically lead to sales in the huge Amazon arena.
So, Jackie, what prompted you to consider going 'select', thereby marrying your baby to Amazon for 90 days?
Until about 3 weeks ago, my book was pretty much just sitting there doing nothing. There had been so few reads and no one knew about it. It was very frustrating, since as an author, I want people to read what I spent hours, days, months, years producing. I was seriously depressed. Enter: KDP. At first I was skeptical. Why commit to one person? The book available only on Kindle? What about the Nook people? Well, since I was virtually selling nothing, I figured I'd give it a shot. Especially since my Nook sales were close to nothing anyhow. What was I really giving up?
Makes sense. Did Amazon deliver on their reward for your helping them to blow their opposition away?
I noticed a difference right away after going with KDP. Sales started to slowly increase. And then I pulled the stunt that changed everything. I offered a free day. Jackpot! for free for one day. 7400 downloads in a day. Wow. I was also #3 in free downloads on all of Amazon, which I truly believe people take notice of. Then, the next day, virtually no sales. It was so depressing. But then, the day after that, book sales started to pour in and they've been great ever since. Fogot to mention, somewhere in this mix, I lowered the price to $2.99. I think it was the day after the free day.
Indeed, the 24hr lull is invariably followed by a flurry of sales (which is covered in the previous blog post) but sales can diminish in time, due to the 'new kids on the block' arriving after their promos. That your book is enticing is a given, but 7,400 downloads in a day is pretty considerable - as are your follow-on sales after the event. Did you use any other promo strategies?
I also used Book Tweeting Service and I have to believe that helped spread the word immensely. For the price they charge, it's a no-brainer. Such a wise investment, as they sent a series of tweets on my behalf to 60,000+ biblio-related followers for 4 days. (I have three days to go - I signed up for the 7 day package.)
And since the dust has settled?
I have been in the top 100 selling books for kindle on Amazon consistently. I've reached #3 for comics, #7 for humor and #18 for contemporary women's fiction. For almost 10 days, my book has been in the top 100 for one category or another for paid Kindle downloads.
This is such a fun ride!!
Wow! yes; I'd be smiling with those figures under my belt! I'd say a large factor in your ongoing success is your enticing product, Jackpot! but by taking advantage of free promo you have fast-tracked readers to your book. Thank you so much for sharing, Jackie, and all the best with your writing and sales.
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