Monday, July 2, 2012

Blog 17 is book purchasing seasonal - like fruit?

Milkshake  has ticked along quietly since mid-October 2011.


In recent months it has sold, on average, one copy each day. This makes it feel like prospective buyers are patiently queuing to log on to Amazon, one-by -one to make their purchase.


Now, as the northern hemisphere summer finally kicks in, it's interesting to see how sales, even of my obscure, low-charting debut novel , have started to pick up.


Helped, no doubt by my publisher; Taylor Street Publishing who have signed 'Milkshake' up for Amazon's Kindle Select program. In return for giving Amazon exclusive ebook rights, they allow a number of promos which see 'Milkshake' offered for free, for a limited time only. This not only allows the opportunity for a free copy (and hundreds have taken up the offer), but also pushes the book up the Amazon chart and closer to the more popular titles. This in turn appears to attract actual sales, once the promo period ends.


So, coming out of a 2-day promo at towards the end of June, the notoriously unreliable, but nevertheless compelling sales estimate website Novelrank, began suggesting sales of more than 1 per day!


In fact, in the last 7 days, Novelrank has estimated sales of 20 copies on Kindle.


So I'm hoping I've caught a wave of people stocking up their e-readers ready for their summer holiday. I've also tweeted and face-booked the fact 'Milkshake' is primarily set in July 2002 -  exactly 10 years ago this month. Readers may enjoy the heightened sense of timeliness by reading it in the next few weeks.


Although I don't yet have the figures for this most recent promo offer, combined with the last, and judging by how 'Milkshake' leaped fairly rapidly up both Amazon.com and Amazon UK, I'm estimating there to be around 2,500 copies out there. This bodes well for people wanting to find out what happens next in the story.


The sequel The Destiny Stone is currently with the publisher, awaiting editing. I'll keep you posted on its progress towards publication.


Finally, two more generous readers have taken the trouble to leave reviews on Amazon. This is, as always, great feedback as well as valuable unsolicited publicity for potential buyers looking for a great summer read!

2 comments:

  1. Hi Matt, can't believe I wasn't already following you???
    Whatever, interesting theory about seasonal book buying, it may be true?
    Feedback rules, unless it's angry or disappointed, lol. Take it easy mate and once again, I apologise for not following you earlier.

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  2. Well done, Matt! Just keep on pushing Milkshake and it'll get there.

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