Sales & Marketing

After a full week now with the increased budget things are going well so far and my plans are getting more ambitious. Next month if I make a profit this month I intend on doubling the budget again. I’m going to see where this takes me!

As expected June’s sales have surpassed all records, accounting for 25% of my entire sales units to date. The profit is similar to last month, maybe a little down (but this is the first time I’m not counting audiobook promo code income in my figures), however with read-through when people finish the first in the series I expect the profit to be greater, although this is difficult to measure.

Yesterday I wondered why I had a dramatic drop off in sales and then realised I’d let my ads expire, so at first I was disappointed with the sales on 1st July then I realised I hadn’t paid for advertising that day so the sales were all profit. I quickly put the ad back on and kicked myself, hoping I hadn’t missed any payday boost.

As promised last week, here’s my latest life time sales chart, month by month since I released IN THE END.

I mentioned last week I was putting OPERATION DAWN WOLF on Amazon for free with a cost of Facebook advertising of £5 per day. I’m happy to report I’ve been shifting an average of 60 books a day. I’ve worked out that I need follow up sales of 75 units of LESSON LEARNED a month to break even, so that’s my first target. So far I’ve sold none, but it’s very early days. I will give it three months before I close the experiment if I’m not getting the sales.

I’ve also paid £3.50 for ODW to be included in the Kind of Book mailing list for one day and due to a technical issue their side the offer appeared in the US on Wednesday and the UK yesterday, rather than on the same day. Over the two days I had what I estimate to be an additional 120 downloads, so it seems like it was worth the very small fee.

Since the start of advertising, the book has been rising in the free best seller charts on Amazon and as of last night, it’s the second most downloaded book in three UK categories and 6th in one chart in the US. Let’s hope that bodes well for follow on sales! When I last checked it was placed 181 over all in the entire of the free kindle store for amazon.co.uk!

Maybe one day I will get to see the same for a book people have to pay for.

If you want to grab a copy of OPERATION DAWN WOLF then you can get it free here.

Work in Progress

The first third of beta reading edits have been completed and the novella, BEGINNING OF THE END, is progressing well against my target. I’ve now completed the first draft and I’m around a fifth of the way through the next edit. My thoughts are turning to how I will use it in my sales strategy and I thought I might release a chapter a day on my blog, however I don’t think my blog drives sales, so showing it here will get me few results. Feel free to let me know if you disagree. I have however decided to include the first ten chapters of IN THE END in the back of the book. Thoughts will soon need to turn to the cover.

My head is already turning to the next project which will be finished writing, then editing the Carrie Harris novella. I’m very much looking forward to getting back to my favourite character.

I’ve also agreed a deal with an audiobook producer / narrator for OPERATION DAWN WOLF. I’ve been very impressed with her preparation and the information she requests prior to recording so she can get the right voice for the characters. I now have to wait for the first 15 minutes to be produced to make sure she’s right for the job. That should be completed by the middle of next month.

That’s it for me this week. Comments and suggestions welcomed as always.