I did a Kindle Fire Department (KFD) paid eBook promotion on November 7 for my perma-free fantasy novel, The Jongurian Mission.
The day before this KFD ad I’d done a BookBlast promo as well, so I was already ranking pretty high in my categories. I’d scheduled these 2 ads back to back to see what would happen, and if the effect would be worth it. Here are my results.
I noticed the first change at 1 PM when I had a rank of #570 in Free and 789 ‘sales’ for the month. I was #4 in Epic Fantasy and #50 in Fantasy.
The Amazon ranking algorithms were slow all day, but at 7 PM I was up to 850 sales for the month, although my ranking had slipped to #751 overall, to #9 in Epic Fantasy, and #65 in Fantasy.
The last time I checked for the day was at 2 AM when I was up to 897 sales. About 24 hours after that I was up to 977 sales.
The day before this KFD ad I’d done a BookBlast promo as well, so I was already ranking pretty high in my categories. I’d scheduled these 2 ads back to back to see what would happen, and if the effect would be worth it. Here are my results.
I noticed the first change at 1 PM when I had a rank of #570 in Free and 789 ‘sales’ for the month. I was #4 in Epic Fantasy and #50 in Fantasy.
The Amazon ranking algorithms were slow all day, but at 7 PM I was up to 850 sales for the month, although my ranking had slipped to #751 overall, to #9 in Epic Fantasy, and #65 in Fantasy.
The last time I checked for the day was at 2 AM when I was up to 897 sales. About 24 hours after that I was up to 977 sales.
Kindle Fire Department Home Page
So What Happened?
I’ve never been that good at math, but those numbers seem low to me. On the day of the KFD promo I didn’t even get 200 ‘sales.’ Each day around 5 AM I check my perma-free stats and record the results. Between November 7 and 8 I had made an extra 177 sales. Why so few?
Here’s what I think happened:
All of those are plausible. But considering I had 393 sales, more than double what I got from KFD, I think BookBlast is more effective.
Here’s what I think happened:
- I did a BookBlast ad the day before;
- Amazon’s ranking algorithms were sketchy;
- KFD isn’t as effective as some other eBook promo sites;
- My book sucks.
All of those are plausible. But considering I had 393 sales, more than double what I got from KFD, I think BookBlast is more effective.
My KFD ad on the site
Should You Do A KFD eBook Promo?
Yes, I think you should, if you do it correctly. Don’t run the same book with BookBlast the day before, after, or maybe even the same week. If you do you run the risk of saturating the market, and those on their mailing list.
I think it may have been better if I hadn’t done the BookBlast ad the day before. Both companies are connected, and I think waiting a few weeks would have helped. I think a lot of people are on both mailing lists, so using different books is also a good option if you can. Perhaps putting the second book at a discount with KFD would have been a better idea.
Overall I thought it was a good use of $50 and I hope to see some additional sales roll in over the coming months. As of today, November 12, my ‘sales’ for the month have increased to 1,205 in the US, which is 416 more than I had before the KFD ad ran – just 4 days ago. Did the ad help? I’d like to think so.
I’ll write an update in about 3 months, or sooner if things really take off, to discuss how my sales of Books 2 and 3 in the series have improved.
I think it may have been better if I hadn’t done the BookBlast ad the day before. Both companies are connected, and I think waiting a few weeks would have helped. I think a lot of people are on both mailing lists, so using different books is also a good option if you can. Perhaps putting the second book at a discount with KFD would have been a better idea.
Overall I thought it was a good use of $50 and I hope to see some additional sales roll in over the coming months. As of today, November 12, my ‘sales’ for the month have increased to 1,205 in the US, which is 416 more than I had before the KFD ad ran – just 4 days ago. Did the ad help? I’d like to think so.
I’ll write an update in about 3 months, or sooner if things really take off, to discuss how my sales of Books 2 and 3 in the series have improved.
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