In January, I launched my third novel, What She Inherits. Unlike my first two books, I actually had a real plan for sending this one into the world. My plan had two parts: First, generate excitement, rally book reviewers, and spread the word about my book before its release through the following methods:
- I made the book available as a preorder on Amazon, Smashwords, and all the retailers to which Smashwords distributes.
- I invited friends and family to buy the paperback via Createspace in advance of the official release date.
- I listed the book on NetGalley the month before launch. (Want to find out about a way to get a discounted NetGalley listing? Email me.)
- I used BookRazor to target Amazon reviewers and offered free ebooks to those reviewers.
- I talked it up on my social media pages (while trying not to be annoying about it my followers).
Second, once the audiobook was up on Amazon and Whispersync was functioning to allow readers to switch back and forth between the ebook and audiobook, I made the book part of Kindle Select. Then, only when it had 20 good reviews on Amazon, I held my first Kindle Select Promotion and ran the book for free for 5 days. Using some strategic advertising (more on this later), I made the most of those free days and saw a long sales boost after the book when back to full price, so much so that I earned back everything I spent on advertising with some leftover.
The only other promotion I've ever done that had anything close to the impact on sales as this Kindle Select Promotion was a Bookbub listing I ran for Watch Me Disappear a few years ago. That time around, I discounted the book to $0.99, and I definitely had my single best week of paid sales, with over 300 ebooks sold, but there was no lingering boost from that promotion and Bookbub is so expensive, that I only netted about $10.
Let's talk numbers for a minute.
