I ran my first ever 3-day stacked promotion on the first three ebooks in my Adventure Caravanning With Dogs series and thought I’d share the results with you. (Please not the promotion has now finished. The promotional graphics are for information only.)
How it went should be interesting for authors and readers – many of whom might think we Amazon No. 1 Bestsellers are all sitting on piles of gold, counting our royalties!
The Promotion
Normal list price is £2.99/$3.99, but for the stacked promotion:
- Book 1, Fur Babies in France, was free
- Book 2, Dog on the Rhine, was 99p/99c
- Book 3, the award-winning Dogs ‘n’ Dracula was £1.99/$1.99
The promotion didn’t go wholly to plan, because Amazon accepted the price drops but for some reason, didn’t reduce the price of Book 3, so I had to do that manually on Day 1 of the promotion, and therefore couldn’t include it until the price actually did drop.
The price of Book 3 didn’t drop until half way through day 3, and was obviously not promoted by Amazon as a price drop, since I was forced to change the list price rather than it being an official Amazon price drop promotion.
Created on Canva
Day 1:
An admins shared the promotion of books 1 & 2 on the Facebook group, We Love Memoirs, which has around 7,300 members, all of whom are memoir readers or authors.
- I had 13 free downloads of the free book. (6 UK 8 USA)
- No downloads of the discounted 99p/99c book.
- Estimated Royalties = £1.00
Day 2:
I bought a Freebooksy promotion in their Travel section for the free book, Fur Babies in France, which cost $30.
- I had 1,441 free downloads of Book 1, Fur Babies in France (305 UK, 1,139 USA)
- 2 x 99p downloads of Book 2, Dog on the Rhine (UK)
- Estimated Royalties = £1.76
- The free book, Fur Babies in France, hit No 1 on Amazon in the Travel Writing, French Travel & Off the Beaten Path categories.
Day 3:
I promoted the deal myself in various RV travel groups on Facebook, and some of my very kind author friends spread the word on their author platforms.
Of course, book 3 dropped in price after I shared the promotion!
- Nevertheless, I had 409 free downloads of Fur Babies in France
- 177 UK
- 131 USA
- 117 other markets including 116 Canada, 8 each Italy, Japan, France & 9 Germany
- 3 x 99p downloads of Book 2, Dog on the Rhine (UK)
- 2 x £1.99 (UK) plus 2 x $1.99 (USA) downloads on the award-winning Book 3, Dogs ‘n’ Dracula
- One FB user commented to say they would have bought my book, but when they clicked the link, it took them to purchasing. I replied to say yes, they could purchase the book from Amazon for the princely sum of £0.00, but I’m not sure they ever got around this complexity. Another tried to buy it after the promotion ended and said the price wasn’t reduced. I emailed them a free copy and followed up on FB to make sure they got it okay and could download it. They haven’t yet either confirmed they got it, or said ‘Thank you’!
- Estimated Royalties = £5.26
Book 1 Fur Babies in France hit No 1 in Comedy, Adventurer & Explorer Biographies, and Hiking & Camping.
Book 2, Dog on the Rhine was No 1 Bestseller in German Travel & Austrian Travel.
Summary
- In total, I had 1,863 downloads worldwide through the promotion period, which shows:
- The Freebooksy promotion worked
- People are happy to grab a freebie, but less likely to take a chance on a discounted book
- Whether it results in new fans/customers or future sales remains to be seen, but it’s been successful in getting my name and first book out there
- Fur Babies in France was No 1 on Amazon in 6 categories, which helps the algorithms.
- Dog on the Rhine was No 1 bestseller in German and Austrian Travel, which is a bit of kudos and also helps the algorithms.
- I made £8.02 in Royalties, but since I spent $30 (about £25) on the Freebooksy promotion, I’m about £17 down on the deal!
Was The Promotion A Success?
In financial terms, clearly not! But promotion is a long game.
I have often said that success can be more than just financial.
I consider the promotion a success in terms of getting my first book out there, particularly in non-UK markets.
I am disappointed to have sold so few of the discounted books, but hope to pick up some read through, if anyone ever gets around to reading the free book they downloaded! I am as guilty as the next person of downloading free or discounted books for a rainy day that never seems to come…
But then as fellow author, Cristina Breshears, commented, “My gosh! Think of all those people about to read your books! Your words are in all those countries and in the hands of all those readers, inspiring, making them laugh, allowing them vicarious adventures. Wow! That feeling may be better than royalties!”
Now, all I need to do is the same thing again.
And again.
And again…
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World Wide Walkies 
Thanks for showing us the break-down of your latest promo, Jackie. It proves to me again that the effort is not worth the (financial) game anymore. But, it is awesome that so many new readers will be able to enjoy your books and, hopefully, get hooked enough to buy the rest in the series.
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As Thomas says, book sales are rarely a financial success.
Especially when, for example, I got paid $200 for writing 800 words for an online magazine!
That is where the money is, not witing and refining 70,000 words, then shelling out for ISBNs, cover design, editing, proof reading, formatting and marketing…
But hey – it’s a buzz and I enjoy it!
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Congratulations! That sounds like success to me. It is very rare that book sales are financially successful. It’s not why we do it.
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Tee heee – you’re not wrong there, Thomas. I wouldn’t dare work out my hourly rate for writing! I certainly do it because I love it and find it very satisfying when other read my ramblings and say they enjoyed it, or were inspired.
Thanks for the encouragement!
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Thanks for sharing your results. Your approach makes sense to think of the end game rather than the immediate results. One never knows how many returning readers you’ll get.
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Thank you, Pete.
I thought it was worth sharing, not least because it’s funny, but authors can be cagey about the realities. I hear from many new authors who think everyone else is a runaway success and don’t realise how many others are in the same struggling boat!
Marketing is all about raising awareness and keeping yourself up there. It’s flippin’ hard work and quite disheartening at times, but it’s got to be done.
Thanks again for reading and for your kind words! xx
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Interesting post, thanks for sharing! Certainly eye opening.
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I like to speak the truth! 🙂
Thank you for reading and commenting.
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