Last month was a big month for my book 35 Miles From Shore. The book was featured in a Bookbub promotion. Bookbub is a discounted eBook site that has hundreds of thousands of users. I am a Bookbub subscriber. Each day I receive an email from Bookbub with a list of between five to eight titles. All of the eBooks are priced between $.99 and $2.99. Books are selected based on my preferences. As a result, I am constantly discovering new books. I just purchased a Pulitzer prize winning title called Tom River that is about toxic dumping. The book was published in 2001. Had it not been for Bookbub, I’m sure I would not have come across this book.
Before Amazon, the Internet, and the invention of the eBook, books had a life span of between six months to two years. The only place to purchase a book was in a bookstore. And since bookstores had limited shelf space, most books were gone in months. Additionally, only books from major publishers were given shelf space.
Today, books have an unlimited life span. Once a book is published in digital form, both eBook and audio download, the book remains available forever. That is the long tail.
The secret to selling any book is exposure. Just because a book is available doesn’t mean that it will sell. I bought Tom River because I was made aware of the book. It was also priced at just $1.99. I bought both the eBook and the audiobook.
My book 35 Mile From Shore was promoted for just one day – Sep 23. I did some additional promoting and kept the price down for a total of fifteen days. The promotional price was $.99. The chart below shows the number of clicks I had over that fifteen day period for each device..
The next chart shows how many of those people actually purchased the eBook.
What this chart doesn’t show are the hundreds of additional sales I had as a result of the exposure. I had increased sales for both of my books in all formats: eBook, print, and audio download. On September 23, 35 Miles From Shore was a top 100 title on Amazon.
The exposure I received from that single Bookbub promotion will generate sales the rest of this year. Many of the people who clicked on the initial promotion but did not purchase have instead added the book to their wish list. People who have purchased and read 35 Miles From Shore may end up purchasing Scapegoat.
I hope to repeat this experience next year with Scapegoat. Stay tuned.
