In part one of Launching The Girl on the Kerb, I talked about my decision to launch this title as a thriller-espionage/thriller-adventure novel and why it was released in a somewhat staggered schedule So how did it fare?
The Amazon paperback version was released on 11 March and sold as expected – none, except for the author copies I ordered for myself and my other beta readers. On that same day I also set up the ebook release date for 6 April on Amazon.
On 30 March the ebook version was released on both Smashwords and Google, and the audiobook version on Google. Between its release and 5 April it sold 57 copies on Smashwords plus 2 ebooks and 7 audiobooks on Google. Though a pale shadow of what sales used to be like upon release on Smashwords, it was neither unexpected or discouraging. Selling books for me is a marathon, not a sprint.
Things shook out differently on Amazon, as you can see from a glance at the chart below. Amazon decided to match the free price on other stores after only five days, on 11 April. I had no input into that decision, though, of course, I welcomed it, readership being my reward for writing. Indeed, until three or four years ago I used to email Amazon and point out to them that my books were free on the other sites and ask that they reduce their price to match those prices. I stopped doing this since most of my books were free, and I didn’t want to rock the boat. Now I let Amazon do as it pleases.
So how exactly did it all shake out? A glance at the chart at the bottom will tell the tale. So what are my takeaways from the experience?
1. First is a given. It is much easier to sell a book for free than at any price, which is why I sell my books for free when and where I can. I value readership over revenue.
2. Concerning the first bump in sales after Amazon dropped the price; I think those 274 copies through 17 April were more or less organic. Organic in the sense that Amazon wasn’t pushing them, though my wife said that she received an email announcing my book. I didn’t. I have something like 215 followers on Amazon, who get notices of a new release. Perhaps many of them picked it up when it was free. That said, I still have no explanation for why my sales took off as fast as they did – no other book I have ever released ever sold that many in so short of time, at lease in the last several years. The only difference I can point to is the speed at which Amazon dropped the price and the fact that I released the book in a category other than SF. I have to believe the category is significant.
3. The first 274 sales were strong enough by 14 April to land my book in the top slot 5 on the 100 Best Sellers (Free) list for Thriller-espionage, and number 7 in the Thriller-adventure list. Genres seems to matter. I’ve had SF books on the free 100 bestseller list and never seen sales like this.
4. On April 15 it seems clear that these sales were strong enough to kick in the legendary Amazon algorithms, the only explanation for the explosion of sales on 15, 16, and 17 April. We’ve often read that you should kick start your sales upon release to catch the attention of Amazon’s algorithms which then will pile on and promote sales all on their own – for free. This appears to be the case with The Girl on the Kerb.
5. I don’t know if my cover helped or hindered sales. It was certainly different from all the rest of the books on the list – see the screen shot above. However, since all a potential reader sees is the cover before they decide to click and read the blurb, it certainly played a role, one way or another.
6. I think this is an exceptional event, and I doubt that it will significantly alter my sales on Amazon going forward, though ideally it will give me some new readers who will go on and read some of my other books. However, since none of my other books are thrillers, I don’t expect that number to be very large. Time will tell.
7. Even as a one time event, it’s still three years worth of sales within a month. It’s a gift horse whose teeth I'm not inspecting.
8. My bottom line: it pays, as both a writer and a publisher, to experiment, as I did in this case with genre category.
As I posted yesterday, Thursday, 27 April, marked the eighth anniversary of the release of A Summer in Amber, my first published novel. Next week I will break out my sales numbers for my eight year in publishing, as I have done every year. It was a good year. In fact, the surprising success of The Girl on the Kerb was just the icing on the cake. Stay tuned.
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