Last weekend I ran a free promotion on my novel, The Family Trap, hoping to entice new readers into signing up to my mailing list ready for my the release next weekend of Cupid’s Way. To give the free promo a bit of a boost, I tried once again to get into Bookbub. This was the third time I’d applied, and the second with this particular title. I was prepared for rejection – I know, from my Alliance of Independent Authors forum, that the Bub is difficult to get into and that many great titles get turned away all the time.
When I got the email to say that The Family Trap had been accepted I was really chuffed, and I duly went along to PayPal and coughed up the £117 to be listed in the Women’s Fiction category for a free promotion on Sunday 15th June. On the Bookbub website it states that this category is expected to achieve a range of 10,400 to 29,500 downloads, with an average of 20,200. (Spoiler alert: TFT smashed this range.) I thought that was pretty cool, and as TFT has some great reviews in the US, as well as in the UK, I was hoping for a good uptake generally.
A week before the free promotion I did all my usual hard work listing the title on all the main sites that push and promote freebies. I paid another £15 or so for some of the listing sites, and put in the hours filling in forms etc. I blogged about it on the first day, popped it on Facebook and Twitter, then went away for the weekend with my family.
Amazing Results
On Saturday night I logged in to see what was happening. I was gobsmacked to see almost 7,000 downloads in the US already (this was before the Bookbub promo had started), and surprised that it was only 1,500 in the UK. This is ever the way – it’s a fact that most of the free listings go out to readers in the US and have yet to break into the UK market. I logged out and wondered what would happen the following day when the Bookbub email went out to subscribers. Little did I know that I’d spend the rest of the weekend with my jaw on the floor.
This graph shows the free promotion downloads over the five day period (Friday 13th to Tuesday 17th June). The numbers are staggering. On the first day it hit 5,000 downloads, which was fantastic in itself. But look at what happened when the Bookbub email went out to subscribers – on June 15th The Family Trap was downloaded 38,223 times! In one day! Hey, I know there are bestselling authors out there who get this many paid downloads every day, and that these were books going out for free, but for little old me – sitting in a log cabin in the Derbyshire Dales, watching the figures on a borrowed iPad – it was astonishing.
The Family Trap got to #2 in the Amazon US free bestseller chart overall, and was #1 in the romantic comedy category. None of my books have ever got this high on the US Amazon site, not even back in 2012 when free was still new and exciting. In the UK, where downloads were lower, it crept up over the 5 days and peaked on the last day at number 7 overall. Which was still pretty amazing! Here are the figures for anyone who’s interested:
UK | 6829 |
US | 57135 |
Germany | 110 |
France | 3 |
Spain | 7 |
Canada | 342 |
Italy | 13 |
Japan | 7 |
Brazil | 7 |
India | 95 |
Australia | 141 |
Total: 64689 |
So, that’s 64,689 downloads overall. I have to write that in words: sixty-four thousand, six hundred and eighty-nine people downloaded my book in five days. Some of them might even read it 😉
So, What Was The Point?
Which brings me to the point of doing this, because I know there are authors out there right now wanting to throw things at the computer at the thought of giving all these books away for free.
First of all, let’s remind ourselves that not all the people who download free books would have paid actual money for it, even if they had it shoved in front of their noses. Even paying 99p for a book by a new and unknown author is a risk – there’s this question all the time of whether your 99p could be better spent elsewhere. And remember, when it comes to books it’s not just about money, it’s about time. As Hugh Howey said at LBF, we are asking potential readers to give up something very precious when we ask them to read our books – we are asking them to give us their time. Time is so valuable, perhaps the most valuable resource many readers have.
You have to view the free promotion as a way of reaching readers you would never have reached otherwise, a way of getting onto their Kindles and into their consciousness, and perhaps onto their list of favourite authors if you are very, very lucky. The Family Trap is over a year old now, it sells reasonably well without any advertising, but let’s face it – over the 5 day promotion I missed out on maybe £20 of actual paid-for sales. And I got into the hands of thousands of new readers. Even with the extra cost of the Bookbub listing, getting me into the hands of tens of thousands of new readers, I’ll take that as a cost-effective marketing exercise all day long!
But of course, there are other benefits to a successful free promotion, and one of them is the boost it gives to other titles, in this case my debut novel – and the book that comes before The Family Trap – Can’t Live Without. The graph above shows the number of paid units downloaded over the same period. Yes, that’s actual sales where money exchanged hands 🙂 It’s interesting how it follows the same pattern as the free promotion, almost exactly. And even though Can’t Live Without retails at only 99p, the 970 (to date) extra sales this gained me is still a welcome boost to royalties, easily covering the cost of the Bookbub listing.
Can’t Live Without has shot up the bestseller charts again, hitting #11 in the Romantic Comedy chart in the UK yesterday, and #1 in Parenting and Family Humour. Not bad for a book that’s been out for over 2 years and has already had almost 100,000 downloads itself!
And of course, the post-free boost, while not what it used to be, still has an effect on the free title when it comes back to paid-for. The Family Trap is currently at #429 in the UK Amazon chart overall, and is climbing high in its categories. I’ve had an additional 90 sales so far (these are at the regular price of £1.99), on top of what I would usually expect, and it’s only the second day after the promotion finished. I’ve also had loads of new reviews, both in the UK and the US, and so far about 20 new sign-ups to my mailing list.
What About Cupid’s Way?
The idea of the free promotion was to use what I consider to be my best book to gain new readers in the run up to the launch of Cupid’s Way. There is a link in the back of TFT, taking interested readers to a landing page on my website, which will be populated with buy links once the book is live. There is, of course, a link to sign up to the mailing list, and links to all my other books. I’m not kidding myself that each and every one of the 64,689 people who downloaded TFT will read it, or even that all those who do will love it – but some will. 1% alone is still over 600 people; 0.1% is 64 people that I would never have reached otherwise. I’ve already had an email from a lovely reader in Philadelphia who said she really enjoyed The Family Trap, and building your readership one reader at a time is, after all, what it’s all about 🙂
Cupid’s Way will be released next Friday 27th June – sign up to the Facebook Event now to make sure you don’t miss out on all the fun!
June 19, 2014 at 10:49 am
Amazing stats! As usual, kudos to you for sharing so openly – this will certainly be very useful to all authors considering these options. Wishing you the very best of luck with Cupid’s Way!
June 19, 2014 at 7:40 pm
Thanks Marina, I love sharing all this information. I just keep thinking back to how I felt starting off, and wishing I’d had access to this stuff then 🙂 x
June 19, 2014 at 10:58 am
That’s amazing, Joanne. I’ve been listening to others talking about Bookbub and the wonders of it all, but those numbers are staggering. You must be chuffed right now. Back of the net.
June 19, 2014 at 7:41 pm
Thanks Michael – and fab football terminology there 😉 I think if I did Bookbub again I’d like to try a 99p/99c offer, but I would have to make sure I had the right book. There is loads of info on the Bookbub Unbound blog about their readership and which categories/types of books do best. Worth reading that I think to make sure your advertising money is well spent.
June 19, 2014 at 11:00 am
Well done, Jo! Bookbub has done you proud and I wish you many more paid sales as a result. 🙂
June 19, 2014 at 7:42 pm
Thanks Anne 🙂 Bookbub is my new favourite tool, but it’s very carefully set up so authors can’t abuse it. Which is great, actually x
June 19, 2014 at 11:46 am
Thanks for sharing your results, Joanne. I saw the book on the Bookbub email feed and was wondering how it was working out. It seems you have a good outlook on the practice of doing giveaways – it is a form of marketing yourself as an author and getting your product in front of potential future readers. Even if many of the people that downloaded the book that day don’t actually read it, some will and become new Joanne Phillps fans. The others will have the cover floating around in their Kindle, so when they see another book written by you, they will think ‘Joanne Phillips? I think I read something by her.”
June 19, 2014 at 7:43 pm
Exactly, Elizabeth 🙂 And fab that you noticed it in your feed! x
June 19, 2014 at 12:16 pm
And there are the rest of us, thinking we’re doing quite well with our pathetic little 150 sales a month….!!! Seriously, well done. 🙂
June 19, 2014 at 4:27 pm
Terry, FYI, I was at a writing conference earlier this year and all speakers agreed that if you’re selling 100+ a month as an indie author, you’re doing exceptionally well.
June 20, 2014 at 9:09 am
Pauline, thank you for your kind comment – that’s made me feel about 100 times better than I did yesterday! xx
June 19, 2014 at 7:44 pm
OMG, Terry – 150 sales a month is not feeble! The past few months I’ve have loved to have that many! You are doing amazingly well – Alli don’t have just anyone on their ‘How I Did It’ successful author spot, you know. (I’ve never been asked to do it!) 😉 x
June 20, 2014 at 9:08 am
First of all, another big congratulations, honestly! Seriously, it couldn’t happen to a nicer person – you give such a lot of help to other people, too, not least of all me!
After I’d read this, I turned of the computer, and watched telly in bed all afternoon. Actually, thanks, it was great, I watched 10 episodes of ‘In Treatment’ and loved every minute!!!!
Your article made me think ‘why do I bother’ with all this stuff I do, for so little. I’m not talking about money, not for a moment, I’m talking about recognition. Perhaps I should have put this in an email, I don’t know; but I just wanted to thank Pauline for her kind comment, too! I’m currently doing a Kindle Countdown for Dream On, which has always been my worst seller (best reviews, worst sales – I won’t go into my theories here!). Usually I get sales of 50 upwards with a Kindle Countdown – this time it’s been…. 2, in the first 4 days. Hey, it doesn’t matter. I and the people who’ve read it know it’s a great book…. 😦
Truly, I am VERY pleased for you, and your articles are always most inspirational and provide loads of really great information; it’s why I subscribed to your blog! What this experience actually did, though, was make me aware of how I can affect others, too, when I do my ‘didn’t I do well’ posts, even though I, like you, make sure they contain useful info, too, and try to make them as little ‘hurray for ME!!! as possible 😀 😀 😀
I know this is my problem and not yours, by the way! It’s actually been a good lesson for me – in ways too many to write in a blog comment! xxx
June 19, 2014 at 3:50 pm
Fantastic, Jo! A triumph once again. So pleased for you.
June 19, 2014 at 7:45 pm
Thanks Lindsay 🙂 It’s so nice when something works out above and beyond your expectations. x
June 19, 2014 at 4:31 pm
Joanne, once again, your generosity in sharing specific information is wonderful. I also had phenomenal results with BookBub (a 99c promotion) but it’s clear that for authors with more than one book, the cross benefits of ‘free’ can be super-powerful.
Incidentally, I have no idea what that one reviewer meant by ‘spelling mistakes’ in TFT. I know you invest heavily and carefully in proof reading. I can only assume she didn’t realise (realize!) there is a difference between British and American English. Sigh.
I’d love to know, when you release Cupid’s Way, whether Amazon will notify the free downloaders of another book by an author they’ve ‘purchased’. That would be fantastic if they do, but the infamous algorithm may not work that way.
June 19, 2014 at 7:49 pm
Hi Pauline,
That’s great that you did well with 99c – I think your book is perfect for the Bookbub demographic, and deservedly does well because it is a fantastic read! I don’t think Amazon do notify readers of another book, but I’ve got a plan in place, which is encouraging readers to sign up to my mailing list. Then I can email them to tell them about new releases etc, job done.
Jo xxx
PS: Spelling – I know! There are no spelling errors in that book that I know of, but you’re right that it must be the American/British differences that confuse. It’s funny because you never get British readers saying the same thing about American books. Weird.
PPS: Email me and let me know how your new book is coming on.
June 20, 2014 at 12:04 pm
What a great post, Joanna – congratulations on the figures and thank you for sharing the figures. And your point that if only 1% of the 64,000 read and enjoy your book makes it worth the giveaway is so very true! All the very best for the new book launch – you’ve done so well to tie it all in!
June 20, 2014 at 12:05 pm
Sorry – that should have said ‘Joanne’!
June 20, 2014 at 9:42 pm
Hi Karen,
Thank you – it was fairly good timing, but would probably have been better timed if my new book was already out and ready to download! But there you go, it’s all one great experiment at the end of the day 🙂 How do children’s books do on free promotion? Is that a category that takes off with free?