Yesterday was supposed to be the first day of my launch. Due to REASONS I pushed back the book by a couple of weeks. However, I did not push back the promotions.
I wanted to see the results of the book promotions on a preorder.
My goal for Day 1 of my launch was to sell 200 copies of my 99c book.
As of 31 December 2019 the book had 135 pre-orders.
As a result of the promotion I now have 232 pre-orders.
I managed to gain 97 pre-orders across 7 promotion sites. I’m happy with those results. I imagine they would have been better if the book had been live because of borrows in Kindle Unlimited but 97 pre-orders are still 97 new readers.
In absolute terms, the promotions cost me $232. For a 99c book, that comes out to $2.05 cost per book (adding in the $0.34 I make per sale). As a new author, I’m fine with having a loss leader for a first book if it means readers will pick up the second book (priced at $4.99). Assuming they do, I’d make $0.94 profit (after deducting for Book 1 costs). That’s not much but again, the books are part of a series and if they like my style they may choose to stick around with me.
It’s always important for you to highlight what your goal is when launching a book. Right now my goal is not to recoup the costs of the book but to find readers and get them to pick up a copy.
I’m happy that 97 new readers took a chance on me.
I’m going to use the same promotion sites in my next launch but I’ll be using them when the book is live to compare the results.
What are your goals for your next book launch?