So, Sunday was Easter, a great day to spend time with family and relax. No one buys books on holidays, right? Or do they... Enter the Twilight Zone where WILDE THING started selling like crazy and was ranked in the 6,000 range by late afternoon when people should have been carving their dinner ham. I was stumped.
Let's back up a bit. WILDE THING released in late February. It's been on sale for .99 cents for a couple of weeks now. Sales have been slow but steady on Amazon at one or two per day. Almost no action on Barnes & Noble, but suddenly WT is ranked at #292 overall? So why in the world would it suddenly go on a terrific sales streak? No reason I could imagine. Of course I checked BookBub just in case my pub forgot to tell me it was up there. It wasn't. I did a google search and came up with nothing new that I could find. Mind you, my other books in the series also were doing pretty well, but WT seemed to be the leader of the pack. And the books in my older series were also selling better than normal. Go figure.
Monday morning rolled around, and the ranking had gone up some but was still under 10,000. I immediately emailed my editor's assistant to ask what fabulous promo they used over the weekend to get these terrific results. My plan was to share it with you. What a great, helpful post as a side note to all Alison's wonderful info on Amazon ads, right?
His answer...nothing. Are you kidding me? There went the post I'd planned... But I decided to write about my experience anyway. I have no idea what prompted this boost in sales. According to Kensington, it just happened. I'll take it. Maybe some old promo got it moving, and a domino effect occurred. I guess the moral here is to keep trying to get the word out. Sometimes when you least expect it, something works. Oh, and if I hear back that they actually did DO something, I'll let you know. In the meantime, nearly all my books are on sale right now for either .99 cents or $1.99. Who knows for how long. I'm obviously out of the info loop! LOL Here's the link to my page at Amazon if you're interested in a rocking deal.
Happy reading!
16 comments:
Well...uh...all I can say is congratulations! Those readers have good taste! :-)
Who knows? it's all a mystery to me. I rarely promote the Wild Heat series with my firemen, but they've been out for like 3 years or more. Priced at .99 to 1.99, they sell a couple copies a day. Nothing great, but consistent. My books are now selling in the UK and Germany. Again, not great, but one or two a day...and I certainly do no promo over there. Just enjoy your awesome rankings and smile. Those readers will come back for more...I have no doubt.
Wonderful. The planets aligned for you!
Thanks, Leah and Brenda. The party seems to be over, though. Rankings are pushing back up to the realm of reality again, more's the pity!
My books are exactly like yours when they are discounted, Vonnie. One or two sales a day with no promo. Which is why this makes no sense. I still think Kensington did something, maybe a group ad they forgot went up this weekend. I sure wish I knew since the spike was great while it lasted.
Way to go, Jannine, even if you aren't the orchestrator. Since one of my books is on Amazon Encore (and they don't tell me when they promote), I know all about mystery bumps, little gifts that show up from time to time. Always fun to see! But I'm like you...I really want to know what I can do to promote sales so it isn't so much of a pig-in-the-poke thing.
I think it's best to take Brenda's explanation. The planets aligned for you. Accept that. (Aside from the fact these are darned good books!) At any rate, congrats.
I agree, Rolynn. If we knew what worked, we could duplicate it!
Thanks, Margo. If that's the case, the planets should align more often!
Wow, that's puzzling, but fantastic! I guess rather than question why, you just enjoy. Although, the 'why' would be important in learning what to do in the future, right? Here's hoping the sales keep climbing. Maybe word of mouth is getting around about how great your books are. Or, hey, I'll take credit since I listed Wild One as a recommended read in our March newsletter. Maybe people are just now following my rec. :D
I like the idea of giving you credit, Ally. LOL Since my sales numbers don't seem to be holding, I have a feeling SOMETHING caused the spike, not just word of mouth. My pub put up a sponsored ad on FB AFTER the big spike, and it doesn't seem to be contributing to holding those sales. That's about all I've learned so far.
My guess would have been Amazon did something like advertise it on kindles but they don't generally do that unless you have 50 or more reviews, so no idea. My advice is take it and run!
I wish "nothing" worked that well for me!
I thought it was an Amazon thing, too, Andrea, but my B&N numbers were way up, too, so it affected them both.
Alison, I know, right? The world doesn't work that way, so SOMETHING happened. I just wish I knew what!
That is great, even if you don't know why. The stars aligning is as good an explanation as any.
I guess so, Diane. Unfortunately those stars didn't stay that way for long...
Sounds puzzling. I try all year to do promo with inconsistent results. Wish I knew...
It is puzzling, Barb, but I think my publisher definitely did something (even if they can't remember what) because my ranking has steadily climbed back to the usual 50,000 to 100,000 range ever since Easter. Depressing.
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