BOOKBUB EXPERIMENT 4: KINDLE COUNTDOWN DEAL by John A. A. Logan
Having
made several thousand dollars profit last year from a series of Amazon Kindle
Select free promotions, and three Bookbub promotions, I had been waiting for a
chance this year to combine a 99 cent Bookbub promotion with a Kindle Countdown
Deal for my novel, The Survival of Thomas Ford.
On
24th March, Bookbub sent The Survival of Thomas Ford out to their
thriller subscription list.
I
combined this with a Kindle Countdown Deal ad which ran on the Kindle Book
Review site on 25 March; also, a Kindle Nation Daily Special Sponsored Post
Triple Play ad which ran on 26, 27, and 28 March; and a Bargainbooksy ad and
mail-out to their thriller subscription list which ran on 27 March.
This
involved an outlay of $625 for advertising in total, which, although it was a
relatively small percentage of the profit made from last year’s promotions, was
still the most I had spent on advertising for one promo to date, so there was a
degree of nail-biting involved.
Soon,
though, the sales had passed the 1100 mark, and the book was steadily beginning
to work itself into further profit, having paid for the ads in full, as the
Kindle Countdown Deal was letting me keep 70 per cent of royalties, instead of
the usual 30 per cent for a 99 cent book.
At
the end of day one of the promo, The Survival of Thomas Ford had reached number
70 in the Top 100 bestselling paid Amazon USA Mysteries and Thrillers chart, with
Stephen King just above at 67, and Lee Child just below at 73:
Simultaneously,
The Survival of Thomas Ford was the Number 17 bestseller in paid US literary
fiction, just below Isabel Allende at 14, and just above Khaled (The Kite Runner) Hosseini at 23:
The
Survival of Thomas Ford’s peak position during the promo was at number 7 in paid US
psychological literary fiction, while Donna Tartt’s The Secret History was at
number 8, Yann Martel's Life of Pi was at 17, and Julian Barnes’ The Sense
of an Ending was at number 30:
“I
truly enjoyed this book. It becomes almost mesmerizing to watch the ever
widening ripples caused by a bad decision- and there are several bad decisions
made in this story.
This
is not a book for the faint of heart. There is violence and, in my opinion,
true evil here. Some of the characters are both victims and aggressors. That is
part of why I found the story so fascinating- the kindest person may still be
guilty while the most evil person is dead set on protecting the people he
"loves". If you're looking for something with little or no gray areas
it won't be here."
5
out of 5 stars, BirdieTracy
“Intriguing…This book was absolutely
mesmerizing. I couldn't stop reading it. The characters were so well drawn and
I have fantastic visual images of all of them that carried me thru the book. I
felt as tho there were times that I was looking right into the face of evil in
more than one of the characters. The book was fast paced, well thought out, and
moved with a rapid pace right up thru the end. It was not tied up in a neat
little bow and I was left to decide for myself what happened to some of the
characters. Certainly not an uplifting book but some goodness did shine thru. I
would definitely recommend the book.”
4
out of 5 stars, Omoni "koreamom"
“An
engaging and well written book…I couldn't put this book down until I finished
it. I really Loveliked the mystical touches, especially the white butterfly.”
4
out of 5 stars, Kindle Customer
“Very
good, but very different…this was a well written story with interesting and
well developed characters...the characters all were many dimensional, finding
yourself with pity for the characters you hate, some dislike for the characters
that you like...it makes you feel, and it stays
with you after you close the book, which in my opinion are all signs of a
really good book.”
5
out of 5 stars, StaceyN
Thanks
very much to everyone who downloaded and left reviews!
http://www.amazon.com/Survival-Thomas-Ford-John-Logan-ebook/dp/B006Q68W7U/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
www.johnaalogan.com
www.johnaalogan.com
Comments
Dwight
Thanks for sharing.
Yes, I would never suggest that authors spend anything on advertising, personally, unless it was clear profit made from earlier ebook sales.
More data on that was in my earlier Authors Electric posts, Bookbub Experiments 1-3, which are still in the archive here.
In early 2013, for example, I was spending money on advertising, which had come from clear profits in 2012 from ebook sales.
And in 2012, my first year of epublishing, I paid for no advertising at all.
Another important principle (as I see it) is to spend only a relatively small percentage of earlier profit, on future advertising.
So far, that's how I've done it anyway, with $625 being the highest spend for a single promotion to date...and I took 27 months to carefully work up to that.
I don't know if you've seen my new novel, Agency Woman, released on Amazon Kindle in February?
(I have a story collection on Amazon also, called Storm Damage)
Thanks again!
I hope you enjoy Agency Woman, too!