The Experiment Continues

Publishing is a business; writing is an art.

Last Wednesday, I offered Death Benefits free on Kindle, and despite the fact that the giveaway actually began five hours late, it turned into my largest yet. Because it was book 2 in my series, I expected a slight improvement in the sales of Absolute Liability, but I didn’t anticipate the jump it took, going into the top 1000 in the Kindle store.

Two days after the free promotion, sales of Death Benefits began to increase, and it eventually peaked at rank 193 in the Kindle store, and 6 in women sleuths, a fact of which I’m very proud considering that category is dominated by about 20 books by Janet Evanovich. My price at the time was $3.99.

Now, from my previous experiences and based on what I’ve seen of other authors’ free promotions, the spike in sales is temporary. I haven’t seen any author whose sales have risen and then gained momentum. All of them have dwindled. Why? Is this built into Amazon’s mysterious algorithm? Is there anything that can be done to help the book’s momentum continue to grow? Authors, if you’ve had any experience with this, please share!

So my newest experiment was to lower the price of the book when I saw my sales begin to slow at the initial post-promo price. In theory, that will maximize the income from the first few days after the promo, and it is my hope that a lower price will keep its visibility high and attract even more readers instead of dwindling. We shall see how that works.

12 thoughts on “The Experiment Continues

  1. Interesting point about the dwindling. You would think momentum would build instead of slowly decreasing… but decreases it does. I am wondering if pairing it with other promotional things would help?

  2. That’s probably a good idea! Scheduling a promo or ad for the approximate time you expect the dwindling to occur. That’ll be next on my list if this price adjustment doesn’t pan out.

  3. My first free day is tomorrow, and I have a sponsorship in the 27th with the Frugal eReader. I’m guessing that’s a bit too far removed for your experiment, but hopefully it’ll help out.

    My second sponsorship is May… 2nd or 3rd. I’ll do another free day in the last week of April to maximize the benefit of each.

  4. I bought Jennifer Becton’s new Southern Fraud book for $3.99not knowing it was a promotion, read it and found such good writing that I went back the next day and bought the first one. The way to keep the purchases increasing is to have such good writing! I will pass Becton’s name on to my mystery reading friends and I will watch for her next one.

    1. Wow! Thank you so much, Nancy! I am thrilled and grateful to hear that you liked Death Benefits enough to get Absolute Liability too! Thank you again and again.

  5. Jennifer,
    I missed the promotion but liked the price of the second book. Also that you started your own independent publishing house. That definitely calls for support.
    Since I like series from the beginning I read your first book and really enjoyed your writing, characters, and an interesting new type job for your sleuth. Bravo.
    Just bought Death Benefits and plan to tell my reading friends.
    Oh, and thanks for the reasonable price.

    1. Thank you so much, Sue! I can’t tell you how much it means that you liked my books enough to recommend them to your friends. I love delving into the fraud world, especially since insurance fraud investigators are often portrayed in a negative light. It’s been fun to reveal them as potential heroes and heroines. I hope you enjoy At Fault when it comes out later this year!

  6. I just wanted to tell you that I have read and paid for both of your books in this series. I don’t know how I learned of the first one, but I was happy when the second one showed up in my Amazon recommendations. I also love to read a series of books, we become invested in the characters. I hope you will continue with the series and I will be happy to pay for them. I have also told my friends who are looking for fun books to read.

    1. Christine, thank you so much for buying both books in the Southern Fraud Thriller series. I am truly grateful. I’m also excited about writing a series because I can do so much more with the characters and not rush things. And thank you for recommending my books to your friends!

  7. I found Absolute Liability for free on Amazon. Im always looking for books by a new author to read. I love your writing style. I bought Death Benefits a few days ago and enjoyed it so much. I cannot wait until the next book is out. It’s nice that you are writing books in a series. I like to get to know the characters.

    1. Thank you, Angela! I’m so glad you enjoyed both books and I’m already halfway through the first draft of book 3, At Fault, which will be out later this year. 🙂

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