Time for the monthly report. My year of experimenting with different promotional channels every month continued with a promo using
BooksButterfly. I am deeply disappointed.
I went with their $90 promo package, which comes with a "guarantee" of at least 50 sales (or KU equivalents - no matter for me, as I'm out of KU at the moment). Fine print on the website says that the guarantee results in a prorated refund based on how far you short of the goal you fall. However, the refund is only in store credit, so the compensation for a poor promo result is . . . further promo. Anyway, I knew that going in.
The fine print that comes via Email once you actually sign up dramatically restricts the scope of the guarantee, however. I'll quote here, so people can see it going in:
5) There is NO Prorated Refund if your book has been run with Bookbub
* * *
7) No guarantee if book has ever been free, even if it was free just one day, even if it was free in 23 BC
So no guarantee for me, as
The Water Road has been available for free before.
Which wouldn't be so bad if I'd had a better result. The promo ran from July 25-28 and in those days I only had 8 sales (4 via Amazon, 4 via D2D). I've had much better results with other, lower cost, options. So, anyway -
caveat emptor.
For comparison, over the rest of the month with no promo I had 7 sales of
The Water Road from Amazon, 1 from D2D, and 3 each of
The Endless Hills and
The Bay of Sins via Amazon. I'm pleased, at least, with some more non-promo sales, particularly of the
So the monthly total is 16 eBooks of
The Water Road and 3 each of
The Endless Hills and
The Bay of Sins.
Total sales to date:
- The Last Ereph: 12 eBooks + 25 paperbacks + 152 KU pages + 493 freebies
- Moore Hollow: 22 eBooks + 51 paperbacks + 1081 KU pages + 352 freebies
- The Water Road: 83 eBooks + 10 paperbacks + 2041 KU pages + 427 freebies
- The Endless Hills: 19 eBooks + 5 paperbacks + 249 KU pages
- The Bay of Sins: 15 eBooks + 4 paperbacks
- Total: 147 eBooks + 95 paperbacks + 3543 KU pages + 985 freebies
I'll be at the
Lewisburg Literary Festival this weekend. If you're near the Greenbrier Valley stop by and say hi - and bring money!