[PROGRESS THREAD] ChickenHawk's Self-Published Fiction EBooks

[ChickenHawk]

@ChickenHawk Any plans to try a BookBub promo? You'd be perfect for it.

Wow, I almost can't believe it...Bookbub accepted my promo!!! I know that others here were confident, but I've got to tell you, I still thought it was a longshot. Anyway, the promo isn't for another month, but I'll share the results with everyone when it's done.

The BookBub promo is for Book#1. During the promotional period, I'm discounting it from $2.99 to 99 cents in hopes of increasing readership and generating crossover sales onto Book#2.

As far as Book #3, it's still doing well, but not nearly as well as the first two books were doing at this point. Still, I'm beyond thankful for the sales so far. And, if nothing else, it's just one more way to help build a readership.

Dang, I wish I were a faster writer. I swear, I'd turn out SOMETHING new in three weeks. But I fear my family would mutiny!

 

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[Magik]

Wow, I almost can't believe it...Bookbub accepted my promo!!!

Not shocked at all. I knew they would. When someone has sold as many books as you have in such a short time period, they don't have much of a choice.

Dang, I wish I were a faster writer. I swear, I'd turn out SOMETHING new in three weeks.

Most fast writing is not great writing. Quality over quantity, ALWAYS.

 

[Rawr]

Dang, I wish I were a faster writer. I swear, I'd turn out SOMETHING new in three weeks. But I fear my family would mutiny!

http://www.typematrix.com/

I got one of these babies in the mail today to learn Dvorak,. Other writers say 2x the speed, and the wrist pain goes away and doesn't come back. My next book is going to be written on it. Can you imagine it? Double the time!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Wow, I almost can't believe it...Bookbub accepted my promo!!

How on earth wouldn't they? Can't wait to hear your evaluation once it runs! You can expect #1 rankings that week!

I got one of these babies in the mail today to learn Dvorak,.

Holy crap, talk about getting mind f*cked -- trying to type on a new keyboard.

 

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[csalvato]

Hate to break it to you, but you're an author.

A real one, too.

 

[ChickenHawk]

How on earth wouldn't they? Can't wait to hear your evaluation once it runs! You can expect #1 rankings that week!

Thanks!!! About the rankings, I think somewhere in the top 200-500-range is probably more likely. (I'd LOVE for it to be higher though!) Here's some interesting stats about BookBub's categories (see www.bookbub.com/partners/pricing), along with some stats from my books in particular.

About BookBub: The huge categories are mysteries, contemporary romance, and thrillers. I submitted for contemporary romance. Bookbub approved me, but for a smaller category, new adult/college romance. According to the above chart, promotional sales figures for the new adult/college category run somewhere between 110 to 1,440, compared to 430-5,360 sales for contemporary romance.

About My Previous Results: On my most successful day for Book#2, I sold 1,200 in the U.S. alone. My rank for that day was #44 in the Amazon Kindle store. Later, the book climbed to #28 because the sales self-perpetuated, probably partially driven by the fact it was a new release. So while I'd LOVE, LOVE, LOVE a super-high ranking, I'm not sure the numbers will cooperate this time around.

Of course, I'm going to do whatever I can to help make sure that sales self-perpetuate again, so anything's possible. I'm going to look at other advertising opportunities and see if I can't get momentum going beyond the BookBub push. Whatever happens, it will be interesting to see!

 

[Magik]

Here's another one to consider. Apparently they are big in the UK: bookgorilla.com

 

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[Lex DeVille]

http://www.typematrix.com/

I got one of these babies in the mail today to learn Dvorak,. Other writers say 2x the speed, and the wrist pain goes away and doesn't come back. My next book is going to be written on it. Can you imagine it? Double the time!

2x what speed? It's easy to double from 30 WPM

I don't have wrist pain but the idea is pretty cool. I may have to get one of the Qwerty keyboards.

Speed comes with practice whether its Qwerty or Dvorak.

 

[ChickenHawk]

A quick update...Book#3 continues to do respectable, although not nearly as well as Book#1 or Book#2. Talking baseball terms, I think it's a solid single or double, but definitely not a home run. Right now, it's ranked around #2,500 and sinking pretty fast. Still, I'm thankful for every sale and for the additional title, which might help with cross promotion later on down the road. Also, to put it in perspective, i'd have been giddy over these results a year ago, so hey, I'm definitely not complaining!

It does pose the question though...Why do some books do so much better than others? As I said earlier in this thread, I wish I knew! But as far as this latest book, it was probably too long, too complicated, and badly timed, coming out so close to the launch of Kindle Unlimited.*

(*I don't think Kindle Unlimited is the reason this book is doing worse, but I do think it's probably not helping. I've heard on Podcasts, etc., that it's been a difficult few weeks for non-KDP select authors to gain traction, rank-wise, because they're competing with all those "free" borrows. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out as we move forward. I've subscribed to BookBub's emails and have been kind of surprised, too, to see that their promoted books aren't ranking as high as I'd expect. It seems that a lot of them are hitting the top 500, but just barely. I'll continue to watch with interest, but it does make me wonder if the free borrows might be impacting that too. Hmmmm...)

I've spent the last week catching up on Admin stuff and getting ready for the BookBub promo. I've submitted ads for a few other places, and was already turned down by one. Isn't that funny? I was accepted by the one everyone wants, and rejected by one I'd never heard of before. Goes to show!

Sometime within the next week, I'll be starting the next book. Must write faster!!!

 

[Lex DeVille]

I think the long-term outlook for your pen-name is very bright. Right now you have a book that became a huge success and demanded a lot of attention so obviously you've captured what the market wanted in the past. Chances are it's going to happen again even if it's not the third book. I think when it happens next time you'll see a much larger spike in income than before since you'll have a funnel set up and customers who will purchase your other books.

You've only breached the surface at this point. When your real success comes KDP Unlimited isn't going to make a bit of difference. I can only imagine what your sales will be like when you have 10 or 20 books out and another one takes off!

 

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[Selfy]

At least you have a real home run.

To put in perspective, you would be happy getting a single when you first started. I remember seeing your first post on HFR (before I read your thread) it was like something like

"what an intriguing idea.. writing with wordcounts"

At that point in time all this was just non-reality. Look how far you've come. And you're just getting started swinging the bat.

 

[ChickenHawk]

I think the long-term outlook for your pen-name is very bright. Right now you have a book that became a huge success and demanded a lot of attention so obviously you've captured what the market wanted in the past. Chances are it's going to happen again even if it's not the third book.

Thanks so much for that!!!

At least you have a real home run...To put in perspective, you would be happy getting a single when you first started.

So true!!! And in truth, I'd have been thrilled simply to not strike out. I remember when I published my first kids' book, and no one bought it at all until I made it available for free. That was pretty darn discouraging. Even with my "underperforming" Book#3, I'm still beyond thankful that my results are so good, relatively speaking.

Here's more food for thought... If I were a traditionally published author, I'd probably have published these as part of a three-book deal. (A lot of traditionally published books were set up this way. Publishers often signed authors for three-book deals just in case the author had a breakout success. This kept authors from jumping ship or asking for better terms right away.) Based on my first two books, I'd have been the darling of my editor and publisher. Then, book#3 would've gotten me on the hot seat for underperforming compared to the other two. Then, I'd have to worry. "What if my publisher drops me? What if I can't get another book deal? What if I can't publish again, because no publisher will back me?"

Happily, those days are over. Now, as an indie, it's totally up to me when I publish again and what strategy I pursue. So even if one book underforms relative to the others, it doesn't torpedo any publishing plans. It's a lot easier to get back on that horse and try again. Under the traditional paradigm, authors didn't have that luxury.

 

[COSenior]

I was accepted by the one everyone wants, and rejected by one I'd never heard of before. Goes to show!

No doubt the genre slot for the date you wanted was already filled. They couldn't have taken an analytical look at your books and rejected you. I'm discovering that you have to plan far, far ahead to time a coordinated campaign with more than one ad venue.

 

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[Lauryn]

Loving the success of what I'm reading here.

Being honest, as an author, I don't feel the amazement of KU. As a reader I do, but I've only read urban fiction (which is 99 cents and mostly a "one time" read for me anyway), and books on writing, characterization, etc. My book is one of a trilogy or quartet (haven't decided). All I know is this first book is on KU, the rest probably won't be. If I create a good enough cliffhanger, we'll see.

 

[COSenior]

Give it some time before you decide. The KU borrows are doubling my royalties for the first book in my new pen name. I didn't have the amazing success of @ChickenHawk with her new pen name, but already this book is doing better than any previous ones in similar genres without a coordinated marketing plan. I attribute that to the fact that the borrows are keeping it from hitting ranks below 200k. It doesn't hurt that whenever I search my title, CH's come up in the results, too. Can't quite account for that as the titles aren't similar.

Anyway, just a suggestion, give it enough time to settle out, then decide.

 

[Lauryn]

Thanks! Maybe I will.

 

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[Rawr]

KU borrows are doubling my rates too, and more since one of my most popular books is @.99 cents. I have been very happy I've put my books in KU.

 

[Lauryn]

Okay... I think I will go ahead and try KU on all the books. It's a trilogy. The final book will be a box set with a special bonus.
I think I just got discouraged because I kicked out this sampler, got 3 presales and 3 sales and felt like "Why bother?"

I'm sure as I keep writing everything will pick up further.

Thanks guys. I feel so much more encouraged.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Anyway, the promo isn't for another month

Has this gone live yet?

 

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[ChickenHawk]

Has this gone live yet?

Yup! The BookBub promo has officially occurred, and had some nice results. I sold about 1,000 of my promoted title within a couple of days, and have had a noticeable (although not overly dramatic) sales bump on my other titles during the promotion and afterwards. During the promotion, my rank for that particular book topped out around [HASHTAG]#170[/HASHTAG] in the Amazon kindle store, which was better than I expected. My BookBub promotion paid for itself and then some, so I'm definitely happy!

To help anyone else who might do this in the future, here are my lessons learned.

• PRICING/TIMING: For fear of not having my price reduced in time, I lowered the price on Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Smashwords/ITunes about 3-4 days before the BookBub ad. I planned to adjust Amazon's pricing about 1.5 days before (because generally, Amazon will do a price-change within 12 hours of submitting it). However, Amazon price-matched immediately, which in cheery news, resulted in a nice rank bump before the BookBub ad even ran. However, by the time the BookBub ad ran, that bump was already fizzing, so I didn't get the boost I might have, if only I had dropped the price later in the promotional cycle.
• DURATION OF SALE: For the BookBub thingy, I committed to a sale price for five days. IMO, that was too long. Between Amazon dropping the price sooner than I wanted, and the fact that I'd already committed to a five-day sale, my results were diluted rather than concentrated in a short enough timeframe to maximize the bump in rank.
• MORE PRICE MATCHING LESSONS: By the time my five BookBub days were done, the rank had dropped lower than the high-visibility point, so I couldn't fully capitalize on the momentum to (1) make more full-price sales and (2) get a rank boost. (It's commonly believed that lower-priced books have to sell more to rank higher, meaning that a book priced at $3.99 has to sell fewer to get the same rank as a 99-cent book). And then, when I finally COULD raise the price again, Amazon priced-matched it back down almost immediately, and didn't raise it back for a couple of days.

Nice Surprises from the Promo:

• Barnes & Noble Bump: Sometimes, I almost forget my books are on Barnes & Noble. But during the BookBub promo, I saw a dramatic increase in sales there, and it has seemed to last longer than at Amazon. This month is not quite half over, and I've already made double the income that I did at Barnes & Noble last month.
• Also Bought Shakeups: On Amazon, my "also boughts" for my promo-book were getting kind of stale. The BookBub ad shook that up. My "also boughts" are not only different, but I find myself on the "also boughts" of books where I didn't appear before. This opens up the possibility of getting new readers, which might go on to read other titles.

In non-BookBub news, I'm crazy-busy at home with some house-stuff and trying like heck to release a new title within a month or so, so I might be scarce for the next few weeks. My goal is to release two more books this year, but I've got to seriously bust my hump if that has a snowball's chance of happening. My last title didn't live up to my hopes, so it will be very important to regain some of that momentum.

Must Write Faster!!!

 

[britnidanielle]

Go @ChickenHawk!!

And thank you

 

[Karla]

How is it going ChickenHawk? Are you doing well with book number 4 ??

 

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[ChickenHawk]

As always, thanks everyone for the interest and encouragement!

Here's a quickie update...

• Sales of Previous Books: They've dropped off considerably, but are still nothing to complain about. With all three books combined, I'm still selling over 30/books a day on Amazon, and another 30/day on Barnes&Noble/Kobo/Smashwords combined. This equates to an approximate income of 50K/year, which is really cool, considering I haven't published a new book in almost three months.
• Current Project: I'm about 40K words into my next book and still looking to hit "publish" within the next month.
• Mailing List: I'm still getting a couple of signups every day, and my list has nearly 2,000 people.

Some Thoughts on Marketing...
As part of the BookBub promo, I did some marketing. This included another advertisement, a raffle giveaway and some Facebook/twitter postings. Honestly, I'm not sure the time was well spent. I'm not saying I didn't get any results, but to me, it seemed that my time would have been much better spent writing. This only reinforced my belief that the best thing you can do to promote Book1 is write Book 2 and so on. Once again, I'm not saying there's no value in marketing. I'm just saying that for me, I'm still getting the most bang for my buck by producing more stories, not marketing the stories I already have.

 

[Jam Wheel]

I love this thread and was so glad to check in tonight and see that you had updated! Yay!

Ugh.. had a point... lets see if I can remember it...

Oh yes, I am really curious to see the conversion on your mailing list when your new book comes out. I wonder if you will gain a great head of steam from immediate conversion of X% of those readers to really pop your next book to the top of the lists and gain more eyeballs for your catalogue which, in effect, proves your theory on the best bang is to add a follow-up book.

 

[EricZ]

Hi @ChickenHawk ,
thanks so much for this gold information!
Can you summarize for the latecomers (like me)?
What is your launch process? Did you do any of this "beta-reader" stuff or giveaways like here -

http://okdork.com/2014/02/17/hit-1-amazons-bestseller-list/
and here:
http://ittybiz.com/shhh-how-to-launch/

Did you use KDP select first? How did that jibe with bookbub and B&N etc.?

There are so many different strategies! -- but it looks like you got it right the first time, that's some valuable info!

 

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[ChickenHawk]

thanks so much for this gold information!
Can you summarize for the latecomers (like me)? What is your launch process?

You're so welcome! For my breakout book, I did nothing launch-wise, other than simply publish the book to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and Kobo. I was not in KDP select, and did zero advertising. Now that I have a mailing list, though, I send out an email to my subscribers announcing the new release and do a few Facebook/Twitter postings. That's pretty much it.

Did you do any of this "beta-reader" stuff or giveaways like here -

Nope. No beta-readers, no giveaways. I did, however, do a gift card giveaway to promote a recent BookBub deal. Eh, it was probably a waste of time, but it did offer something nice to my list-members, so I can't quite regret it. I've run one BookBub ad, and I'd do it again, assuming they'd have me. But I wouldn't put a whole lot of effort promoting it again.

Did you use KDP select first? How did that jibe with bookbub and B&N etc.?

I didn't use KDP select when I launched my breakout book, but it does seem that KDP Select may once again be a good choice, so I wouldn't rule that out.

A final thought: In my own experience, especially if you're writing fiction, advertising doesn't do much to move the needle long-term. IMO, the best thing you can do to promote book#1 is write book#2. Good luck!

 

[Karla]

A final thought: In my own experience, especially if you're writing fiction, advertising doesn't do much to move the needle long-term. IMO, the best thing you can do to promote book#1 is write book#2. Good luck![/B]

I agree. Best advice. Just focus on the 80/20 rule!

 

[EricZ]

@ChickenHawk
That is so awesome! Launch strategy = NO LAUNCH! hahaha. Perfect.
We have a saying in German "Warum einfach wenn du es kompliziert haben kannst!?"
English: "Why have it simple when you can have it complicated?"

I think we should benchmark that/you, simplest techniques and maximum rewards way to go,
so I'm going to start a new category and give you executioner points, here you go:

 

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[Polarbeans]

Super awesome thread CH! Thanks a lot!

Is is worth (or even allowed) to sell my ebook through more than one sale channel? i.e. If I got my blog to promote and sell the book, then I want to upload it to amazon and maybe Ejunkie and clickbank as well, is it possible or not?

I'm thinking that some marketplaces might ban for such behavior.

 

[Digamma]

Super awesome thread CH! Thanks a lot!

Is is worth (or even allowed) to sell my ebook through more than one sale channel? i.e. If I got my blog to promote and sell the book, then I want to upload it to amazon and maybe Ejunkie and clickbank as well, is it possible or not?

I'm thinking that some marketplaces might ban for such behavior.

You have to be exclusive to Amazon only if you are in Select. E-Junkie provides a distribution platform, and could not care less. I don't know about Clickbank, but I suspect you don't have to be exclusive there either.