Writer’s diary: 20.11.2016
Last Monday (14.11.2016) Dirty Business (The First Acer Sansom Novel) was included in a Bookbub promotion. The emailshot let subscribers to Bookbub know that the book was free to download everywhere. Would my decision to splash out $109 with Bookbub repay my investment?
On the Monday DB was downloaded 9293 times. That sent it to #1 in the Amazon free charts. Since then to now, Sunday morning, it’s been downloaded a further 6000 times. It’s currently occupying the #13 slot in the free charts. I expect it will continue to be downloaded all the time it has that kind of visibility.
Regarding getting DB downloaded onto readers’ kindles I call that job done. Of course, the reason behind advertising the book was to get it read and then to get some of those readers interested enough to go on and try the next and the next and the next in the series. Early days for a comprehensive view of all that, I think, but each of the subsequent titles in the series has leapt thousands of places in the Amazon chart. Loose Ends (Acer #2) was languishing in the 20,000s before the promotion. This morning it’s at #1665 in the overall Amazon charts. Smoke and Mirrors (Acer#3) and Deep State (Acer#4) are, at the time of writing, both in the top 5000 for all books. That’s good.
In actual sales terms there’s nothing that leads me to believe I might be able to visit the Range Rover showroom anytime soon with a view to making THAT purchase. LE has been downloaded (and paid for) 160 times since Monday. To offer some insight into the potential for knock-on sales from a promotion, in the three weeks prior to Bookbub’s mailshot LE was downloaded 110 times. There are similar increases in sales for the other two books in the series. Good again.
Naturally, I hope that more of those 15000 readers who have so far downloaded DB for free will actually get around to reading it and then go on to download others in the series.
Bottom line, then. Does the $109 Bookbub invesment seem worth it. Absolutely, if you have other books in the same series available for readers to go on to.
Oliver Tidy 
Good, I am pleased for you, also in our current poll of 2016 favourite authors you are above Peter James..
Thanks, David. Good to know. 🙂
Well done. Thanks for sharing these figures. Looks like Book Bub is a useful investment – if ,as you say, you have several books in a series.
Hi Sarah,
Thanks and my pleasure. I like to record and share the important parts of my writer’s life.
Bookbub is well worth the investment if there are other books available for readers to go on to. The other three books in the Acer series are still doing much better than they were. It’s probably paid for itself already.
Best wishes.
i must have paid for your Range Rover Logo by now……as i have bought all the books in Acer Sansom, Romney Marsh and Booker Cash series. They are very good
Hi Hans,
Haha… the logo is about all I can afford. One day I’ll have the rest of it.
Thank you very much for your ongoing support and downloads of my books. It’s all sincerely appreciated. And be assured that if I ever get that RR and I see you standing by the side of the road in the rain hoping for a lift… I will wave as I speed by 🙂
Best wishes.
Well I am blowed…I didn’t know that there was an Acer 4 book…how did I miss this? Am off to purchase it now…help you towards your Range Rover 🙂
Hi Coralyn, Yes, it’s been out for a few months. Sorry about the price – Amazon took it on and they set it. Still, Range Rovers don’t come cheap. 🙂
Thanks and best wishes.