eBook Marketing: Bringing the Dead Back to Life

One of my old novels is breaking out this month. Alright, when I say ‘breaking out’ I mean it’s selling really well, becoming my second-best selling title this month across numerous Amazon sites.

So what is this wonderful novel that everyone’s suddenly buying?

It’s called Trouble in Jonguria and it’s the second volume of my epic fantasy series, The Jongurian Trilogy. I originally wrote the novel between May and August, 2010. I published it on Amazon on January 1, 2013.

And after a ‘stellar’ first month with 9 sales, and then a second with 3, it languished in obscurity for the next 5 months, getting 0 sales until August when it got 2 and picked up again.

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Here’s the complete breakdown of the sales for Trouble in Jonguria in 2013:

Jan - 9
Feb - 3
Mar - 0
Apr - 0
May - 0
Jun - 0
Jul - 0
Aug - 2
Sep - 6
Oct - 13
Nov - 30

So what accounts for this sudden and drastic jump in sales? After all, my other bestselling book is Sell Your Book, a marketing book directed at Amazon authors. Here’s what I think happened:

• Perma-free of Book 1 helped a lot;
  
• Promos I ran for the book;
  
• Chart visibility;
  
• Re-editing;
  
• Good story;
  
• Decently written;
  
• Word of mouth.
  

Alright, those are the 7 things that I think contributed the most to my recent run of sales for this epic fantasy eBook. Let’s go over those one by one and see if we can learn some things about selling eBooks on Amazon.

Perma-Free of Book 1

I made the first book of my Jongurian Trilogy, The Jongurian Mission, free many months ago, and Amazon kicked-in with perma-free shortly after that. Making a book perma-free on Amazon is a great way to get visibility. Lots of people have downloaded that first book and I’m sure many of them are going on to buy book 2. Duh!

What really got those perma-free numbers up this past month were the promos I ran for it on BookBlast, Kindle Fire Department, FreeBooksy, among others. You can read all about those individual eBook advertising campaigns if you’d like, but suffice it to say they worked and Book 2 sales are doing better than they have in months.

Promos in November

I did several promos in November that targeted Trouble in Jonguria specifically and probably got the book more visibility. These sites were Book Basset and Kboards, and all write about those advertising campaigns soon.

I’d like to think I got some good visibility on those, and it’s easy to think that when you see these additional sales. But you just really can’t tell. People who downloaded the first book months ago could finally be getting around to Book 2 now. It’s hard to say and I’d love to meet someone with a magic wand or crystal ball that knows what’s up. Or maybe Tarot cards?

Chart Visibility

Those promo campaigns surely helped sales and those sales got me up on the charts for three different categories for weeks at a time. In fact, Trouble in Jonguria now almost has a permanent place on some of those charts. Anything could happen, so I don’t want to speak too soon, but it does feel good.

Trouble in Jonguria's rank on Nov. 30

What’s more, besides those 3 categories I’m ranking in I’m also getting some increased visibility on the main epic fantasy chart. And I’m on the paid side, which is 10 times better than seeing my book on the free side all the time.

I’ve also got a whole new reel of ‘also boughts’ that will increase my visibility further. On the top 5 pages are a lot of Morgan Rice, and that’s a big name with lots of readers, so hopefully I’m pulling some of them away while they wait for the next book.

I now have 20 pages of 'also boughts' which is almost like free advertising.

Re-Edits

After The Jongurian Mission went perma-free I did a complete line-edit of it once again to just make sure there weren’t a lot of glaring mistakes. Unfortunately there were quite a few, more than I’d care to admit. But the point is I fixed those and the continued sales of Book 3 attest to the fact that people liked Book 2 enough to continue with the series.

Now, have I caught every single little mistake in the book? I highly doubt it, but I have made it better. Who knows? Maybe in another six months or a year I’ll go over it again. After all, if sales pick up and get into the triple digits each month I’d have to seriously consider writing a prequel to this series.

Good Story

When I went back and re-edited Book 2 I realized how good the story was. The pace was much faster than Book 1 and there was less back-story. Whole chapters were taken up by intricate battle scenes and political intrigue jumped off the page. I was really quite impressed that I’d written something so good so many years ago!

Even the books with huge holes and massive amounts of mistakes can be hits if they have a good story. Readers are willing to let a lot slide if you can really keep them on the edge of their seats. Trouble in Jonguria has its moments, but it’s not the cream of the crop. It is a good read that will entertain, and one with few mistakes.

The majority of the novel takes place on the Asian-like continent of Jonguria. It's a real bloodbath.

Decently Written

That’s the thing with this book. It didn’t just have a good story that was creative and original, it was also written well. Things were described in detail without being long-winded. Characters speak in complex dialogue, but in easy exchanges that won’t bog the reader down. And transitions happen naturally and with ease, not in lurches that leave the reader suddenly wondering what the hell’s going on.

Word of Mouth

I’d like to think that people buying my book are loving it so much that they’re telling their friends about it. While I’m not sure this is true, or even likely at this point, it is what you want to shoot for eventually if you’re an author. I don’t think getting a few dozen sales each month is going to accomplish that, but it is a starting point.

Hopefully Trouble in Jonguria continues to sell. If it doesn’t it certainly won’t be the end of the world. After all, if I can go 5 months without a sale I can do it again.