Number Crunching the KDP Promotion Results

Okay, so I did a 2-day promotion of my erotic short story on May 2-3 via KDP Select.  I don't think I did an excessive amount of marketing (I mentioned it on Goodreads, maybe one or two other places, and tweeted about it), but I ultimately ended up with about 200 downloads.  That was enough to get me up to about #1700 in the overall rankings in the free Kindle store.  (Actually, I believe the highest I saw was #1671.)  However - as I bemoaned in this prior post - it wasn't high enough to get me ranked in any particular category; per Amazon, the only category my story qualified for was "Erotica."  Not "Romance," not "Love," not "Mate-Seeking" or anything like that - just "Erotica."

That said, I'm still pleased about the number of downloads (not to mention the fact that I also got a couple of sales).  I'm new to the genre so I don't know if an average of 100 downloads per day is anything noteworthy, but I'm excited.  I feel like this gives me a fair level of exposure and provides potential fans with an opportunity to become familiar with me.

Clearly though, more impressive numbers are needed to break into the Erotica Top 100, which is the goal of my second KDP Select Promotion.

My Second Review!

First of all, I wish to make it clear that not every review I receive will be getting it's own post.  (That would probably wear me out, as well as bore any readers out of their skulls.)  However, I felt the need to mention the second one because the reviewer - in addition to giving me 4 stars - said that that they got totally immersed in the story and essentially stated they wanted it continue.

To me, that's about the highest compliment that a writer can get: the reader enjoyed your story so much that they want it to go on beyond the last page.  If your reader feels that way (and assuming you haven't ended on a cliffhanger of some sort), you've done your job as the author.  As the old saying goes, "Always leave 'em wanting more."

Sadly, I had only intended Taboo: Erotic Tales of Interracial Romance to be a series of short stories, of which Diamonds in a Gold Mine was the first.  I'm glad the reader enjoyed it, but I hadn't really given any thought to going further with these characters.  However, it is an idea that certainly has its merits.  If I develop a fan base in this genre and the story proves popular, it only makes sense to continue it.  

But that is clearly a question for another day.  For now, I'm happy with the compliment I received and hope it proves prophetic.

My Indie Author Advertising Efforts - Goodkindles and Erotica Every Day

Being an indie author, I don't have the power of a traditional publisher's PR machine behind me.  No book tours, no review in the New York Times, no nothing.  That being the case, marketing and promotion is of singular importance with respect to my writing.  Thus, I've put a little effort (and money) into promoting my work, as noted below.

Goodkindles
First, I turned to Goodkindles.  This is a site whereby - for a minimum of $7 - you can submit your Kindle ebook and have it promoted on their webpage.  Goodkindles bills itself as a place "[w]here writers meet readers" and states that they have "large and rapidly growing traffic."  From what my research reveals, the site gets about 1000 - 2000 visitors per day.

The Pros:  Submission is easy and your ad can get aproved in just a few hours.  In addition, it gets listed at the top of the Goodkindles homepage (and apparently stays there until the next ad gets approved and knocks you down into the second slot).  They also promote your book via their Facebook page, Twitter account, and daily newsletter.  Finally, your ad stays on the site permanently, remaining searchable by category and appearing in widgets.

The cons:  I'm not sure how much value the ad retains after you get knocked out of the top slot on the homepage (and there's no guarantee of how long your book will sit there).  Moreover, I'm concerned that the number of visitors isn't high enough to translate into noticeable sales.  By way of example, if the site gets 1500 visitors per day, that translates into roughly 63 per hour (just slightly more than 1 per minute).  Of those, how many will be interested in books in my genre?  And how many will actually see my ad - especially if it slips out of the top spot or off the homepage?

In short, I think Goodkindles has a few positives, but it's difficult to determine whether they really merit your time and money since you don't receive any metrics.  (It would be great if the site sent you a report that maybe stated how many visitors the homepage got while your ad was in the top slot, while your ad was on the homepage, etc.) I can't say that they didn't deliver what they promised, but until they can offer some quantifiable results I probably won't use them again.  Still, for anyone interested, you can check out the site here. 

Erotica Every Day
Erotica Every Day is a site that focuses on free and bargain erotica/romance books on Kindle.  This one was simple and straightforward:  it's free to advertise there - whether your ebook is being offered for free or not.  (And it's hard to argue with free.)  You just fill out a form and you're done.  For those interested, you can check out the site here.  And did I mention that it's free?

(Whew!  Writing this took a lot longer than I thought.  I had also planned to discuss my ads on Goodreads, but that one will probably get its own post.)

My First Review!

To be frank, I hadn't intended to write anything today - probably not for a couple of days.  I actually wanted to have an opportunity to let the free Kindle promotion wind down, then take some time to digest the numbers a little bit - maybe see if any sales resulted from my efforts and try to figure out where to go from there.  However, I felt the need to take pen in hand (so to speak) after noticing that someone had written a review of my story! (You can see the review here.)

The review was short and to the point.  They gave me three stars, saying it was a good story but mentioning the presence of some typos (which I will double-check after the free promotion ends).  They also left a comment regarding "Moreover," which I take to mean that the reviewer feels the word appears too often in my story.

"Moreover," is a transitional device that I make use of, along with many others: "Also," "In addition," "Furthermore," etc.  I don't think I'm abusive in my utilization of the word, but I will certainly take a look and see if the verbiage needs to be tweaked in that regard.

All in all, I interpret this review as saying that the story was enjoyable and the author has potential. While I was hoping that my first review would be either 4 or 5 stars, someone took time out of their day to provide me with the benefit of their thoughts, and for that I'm grateful.  I had posted in a couple of places on Goodreads that I was looking to get reviews, and some people have been kind enough to offer so I need to make sure I get my story into the hands of any who can't take advantage of the free promotion.

On a side note, my story is now ranked as #1671 overall in the Free Kindle Store.  I was a little surprised that I didn't rank at all for any specific category (e.g., in the Top 100 Free of "Romance>Multicultural" or the like), so I emailed Amazon.  Apparently the only category my story qualifies for is "Erotica," and the book currently sitting in the 100th spot of the Top 100 Free in that category is ranked #1284 overall.  So basically, I need to climb another 400 spots overall in order to get into the top 100 here.  (Keep downloading people!)  :>)

It's a little frustrating when you consider the fact that "50 Shades of Gray" is ranked in both "Erotica" and "Romance > Contemporary".  (I'm not begrudging the novel its rank, only that it's considered to be in more than one category.)  Likewise, I notice that if my story were in the "Romance > African American" category if would be #12 on the list!  (The current #12 is ranked #1704 overall in the Free Kindle Store.) 

Obviously, I need to tweak my categories a little bit to better reflect the nature of my writing.  That said,  it is what it is, and this is just another part of the process that I'm learning.


Update (5/5/2013) 
Regarding the review: I read the story again and found a few minor typos that I corrected.  I also did a word search for "Moreover" and found that I only used it 3 times in the story.  I don't consider that abusive, so I can only assume that the reviewer was complaining not about the number of times the word appeared, but rather about the use of the word itself.

That's something I've encountered before:  I once worked for a guy who hated the word "Ergo."  You could use lots of other similar words - thus, therefore, hence, etc. - but if he saw "ergo" anywhere in a draft document he'd scratch it out.  Clearly, some people just hate certain words, but as a writer I'm not sure how you could appease them.  Hopefully, dislike of a single word won't affect the appeal of your writing on the whole.

KDP Select Free Promotion

Well, today is the first day of a Kindle promotion whereby my erotic short story will be available for free. (You can check it out here.)  The offer runs through tomorrow, so I'm hoping to have a good turnout in terms of downloads, although I really haven't done any other promoting.  (I mentioned it in a few places on Goodreads and on my newly-established Twitter account.)

I just did a quick check and its been downloaded 16 times.  Hopefully that number will increase substantially, but at the moment there's no such thing as bad publicity - any level of exposure is good.  Anyway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the number of downloads will increase as the day progresses.

Update: I checked shortly after midnight on May 3 and saw that I had just over 100 downloads.  Not bad (in my own opinion) for a short story that had very little promotion.  (Or it's a testament to sites such as Goodreads, where I posted my free offer.  I also paid $7 to submit it to Goodkindles.)

And now it's official!

My short story just went live on Kindle!  You can find it under the "Books" tab above or here.  It's to be the first in a series called "Taboo:  Erotic Tales of Interracial Romance."

Now all I need to do is start promoting it!

My Chosen Genre: Erotica

As I've already stated elsewhere on this blog, it was never my intent to write erotica.  I've sort of drifted into it.  (You can read about how that came about here.)

That said, it's probably a stretch to call myself a writer of erotica at this point, seeing as how I only have one rinky-dink short story to my name in that genre.  Moreover, I only just published it for the Kindle yesterday.  (And on top of that, the story isn't even "live" yet.)

Nevertheless, I think it's a great area to write in.  It takes a certain amount of creativity to describe in a fresh and exciting way an act that has been committed billions of times by billions of people for millions of years (and is still committed billions of times each day).  With that in mind, I don't think writers of erotica get enough credit for their talent.  Personally, I salute you, because I know how hard it is (no pun intended) to write in any genre.  (And with any luck, the writers in this field will welcome me into their ranks.)