Friday, June 19, 2015

Harvest of War, A Little Experiment

Sales of all my own Amazon titles had been decidedly low and flat for some time so I thought I'd try to shake things up with a free promotion. I made my fantasy story, "Harvest of War," free for three days, July 15-17. It's still too early to tell much probably but here's a quick synopsis of the results so far.

I gave away 87 free copies. I also gave away one PDF copy that someone on Goodreads requested from me. I had made this story free back when it was first published in 2012 and it moved a 'lot' more copies, but 87 is respectable I suppose. And maybe quite a few folks already had it. I promoted it on facebook and Goodreads. It reached its highest ranking at about 11 hours in on the giveaway, but about four hours after I started promoting it. Here are the numbers:

At 11:45: #2,745 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#4 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 45 minutes (22-32 pages) > Science Fiction & Fantasy
#13 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Anthologies & Short Stories

As of today, June 19, I've gotten one additional sale on the title, but it came at the end of the free promotion period and, quite likely, the person thought it was still free and clicked buy before seeing the .99 cent price had returned. Sorry about that. There have been no additional sales on any of my other titles so far, but many who downloaded "Harvest" have probably not read it yet. It did look like the numbers on Swords of Talera dipped so someone may have picked that up, though whether it had anything to do with the promotion I don't know. 

I was/am also hoping for some reviews on the story and the first one came in this morning from Prashant over at Chess, Comics, Crosswords. It's a very good one and I'm really happy Prashant enjoyed the tale. At the heart of why I write is to tell stories that I love and that others love too. It's gratifying when you hear that it has worked, and particularly gratifying to make that connection with someone in another part of the world. Thanks very much to Prashant for his great review!

At some point in a couple of weeks, I'll have another post on this to see if any new developments have occurred. In the meantime, happy reading. 

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18 comments:

  1. Charles, you are welcome. I'm hoping you come back with a sequel to the Orc story.

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  2. Prashant, I have thought of some ideas

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  3. Thanks for the post, Charles. I wondered how someone else made out on a give-away. Eighty-seven looks pretty good to me and shows some interest.

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  4. Oscar, a friend of mine is going to run a give away soon and we'll make some comparisons.

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  5. I know that I am traveling, but I normally see your facebook posts and don't remember seeing this one. I don't have a kindle, anyway (and am not even traveling with my nook, just ipad, which I probably should put the kindle app on).

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  6. Sage, I have the kindle app on my computers but I don't use it often. I read quite a bit on my actual kindle. I like it. Good for being able to alter the font size.

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  7. Hope you do get some reviews out of that. Maybe that final sale was on purpose?

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  8. Alex, maybe. I'd like to think so. :)

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  9. A person investing the time and desire to read my work is always appreciated! Keep pleasing yourself, Charles









    ALOHA
    ComfortSpiral
    =^..^=

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  10. I wish I had control over my work and could do that. Good idea.

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  11. Cloudia, not much else to do.

    Patti, I wish I could see the numbers on the books from Borgo. That would help me see if things work.

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  12. Marketing and promotion remain the most difficult ingredients to decipher in this business, my friend.

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  13. That's 87 more people who have a chance to love your work. :)

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  14. Cherie, I sure hope so. Thanks for visiting.

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  15. Good for you! I wish you luck and future sales.

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  16. Anonymous6:28 PM

    May success be your constant companion in all your writing efforts. I admire your tenacity and creativity. Well, envy is the word that I must add to admire. I wish I could put words on paper with your kind of skill and enthusiasm.

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  17. Riot Kitty, me too

    R. T. very kind of you to say.

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