One more thunderous Roar

One More Thunderous Roar

10/12/2015

In my previous posts I talked about what I learned and tricks, but I also said I couldn't really tell if the TC campaign got me any sales because I had other release day events going on as well. Since Path of Angels sales and borrows were fading, I decided to put Michael up for free for a day. The only promotion I did for it was a TC campaign and a couple of tweets.

Now, let me first say that I was experimenting with a free book. People always click free over something they have to lay down money for. If I had done a TC for Michael at 99cents, I think my numbers would have been lower. Maybe one day I'll do it and report on it. I'm really enjoying doing these posts.

So, how did Michael's free day fare?

The campaign was 133% met with 603,075 reach. It blasted at 8am Eastern and received 129 clicks. Compared to the other campaigns, Joe still wins, but this one did well. It translated into 89 downloads. After the price went back to 99cents, I got 15 sales and 1084 page reads through KU. I don't know if they changed the amount each page read nets, but the last time it was .0056 or something so $6.07. That plus $4.95 in sales.

As I said at the beginning, I'm a super small fry still trying to find my audience (hey, promo is hard and I'm an introvert. I'm only talking to you here because it's not face to face.) An author with a better following would probably rake it in. I'm happy with the results though. It is about what I expected. Lots of downloads of the freebie, resulting in sales. Thunderclap might be best for this sort of marketing approach. It costs nothing and unlike submitting to sites, you don't have to worry about not being picked up. One of the issues I've had with submitting Michael to sites for free days is it's a novella and some don't allow that. I will definitely continue to use TC in the future.

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This year, books are the candy!

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11 Comments

M.J. Fifield link

10/12/2015 07:29:14 am

Promo is hard. I'm rather introverted as well, so I've struggled with it. Perhaps I should look into Thunderclap. Thanks for sharing your experience!

Alex J. Cavanaugh link

10/12/2015 09:16:25 am

Thunderclap worked well when I announced the release of my book, so I can see how it would be a big benefit for discounted and free books.

Sarah Foster link

10/12/2015 11:22:00 am

Can't wait for the trick-or-treat hop! I snagged a lot of books last year :)
Hopefully all of those free downloads will lead to people buying the rest of the series.

Jay Noel link

10/12/2015 12:07:38 pm

I have yet to use TC, but I've had good success with making the first book in my series permafree.

Nick Wilford link

10/12/2015 01:37:57 pm

Sounds like good results. Hopefully it continues on and has good effects for the whole of your series!

Christine Rains link

10/13/2015 10:22:25 am

That sounds like great results. Marketing is so difficult. I'm always willing to try something once to see if it works.

Crystal Collier link

10/14/2015 10:52:57 am

Great to see the straight numbers. I've been hesitant to jump on Thunderclap. With my last free day, I hunted down a bunch of sites that listed giveaways and posted on them for my promo day. I don't know which of them did much if anything, but on free days, we gave out over 3000 books. That seems like tonz to me.

Cherie Reich link

10/14/2015 01:13:32 pm

I can see how Thunderclap would do well for promoting a free book. I'm sure joining it with purchased ads would help even more, although it can be hard to get some of those ad spots.

Patricia Lynne

10/14/2015 05:27:46 pm

@MJ, Promo is so hard for us introverts. Don't make me talk about myself!

@Alex, yeah, I think it's a good tool to use.

@Sarah, me too!

@Jay, I've heard making a book perma free is helpful too. I have yet to do it because I have the series in Select and KU.

@Nick, I was pleased with the results.

@Christine, I think that's the trick. Give everything at least one shot.

@Crystal, that is a ton of books. WOW!

@Cherie, it was way easier that submitting to sites.

J.H. Moncrieff link

10/14/2015 07:09:45 pm

Congrats on your sales. I'm always interested to read about what other authors are doing or trying to promote their work.

So far, the best thing I did was a press release, which I sent to some local media and to my college, the biggest bookstore in my city, my writers' conference, etc. All have resulted in great things.