Final Results of the Trial

Kindleboards is down due to service provider issues, so I'll post the almost-final verdict on the free trial of The Hen Party here before sharing it there.

The Hen Party is my first published work, a 5,500 word story about Jen, a Christian wife who attends a bachelorette party with the girls from her Bible study group, and gets a little wild.  The story debuted in the Kindle Store on December 27th, but netted only a single sale prior to the free trial.

I ran a two-day free trial last Friday and Satuday.  The final figures are now in: 606 free downloads, 481 in the US, 102 in the UK, 10 in Germany and 3 in France.  I reached as high as #82 in the free Fiction>Erotica category, and around #784 in the overall Kindle Free store, getting into the top 30 in the free UK Fiction>Erotica category, and top 25 in both Germany and France for the free store.

Later on Sunday, "The Hen Party" had earned some linkages in the "Also Bought..." recommendations for other stories that had been offered for free, which produced some benefit in sales as the story returned to its $0.99 price.

My expectations from having read about the effect of other free trials is that my total sales would equate to around 2% of the free copies given away.  Based on the free numbers, I estimated I would have around 12 sales.  As it turned out, "The Hen Party" sold 17 copies this week, and had two borrows.  Of these sales, two-thirds of the sales came on the first two days after the trial.  By the end of the 5th day, additional sales had returned to the earlier rate.  But the two day boost put the story at around #22,000 in the paid store for a couple of days.

There was a small halo effect for the other works.  During the trial, I sold another copy of Remote Control: What You Want When You Say What You Want and one copy of March Madness: The Secret Sex Life of a Sideline Reporter.  That's close to what the baseline rate is for those stories, so I would say there's little effect, particularly since those stories have little in common with "The Hen Party".

The free downloads progressed at a rate of about 16 an hour on the first day, dropping to around 10 an hour by the end of the second day.  Most of the sales activity appeared to be between 6PM PST and 6AM PST.  Historically, I tend to see more sales on Sunday through Tuesday.

The free trial period produced no additional sales of anything in Europe, which is easy to explain.  First, the volume of free European downloads was very small (<20% of the total free sales), and while it produced reciprocal also bought recommendations, I'd maybe expect 20% of 2%, or perhaps one sale every two weeks.  Second, the subject matter (Christian wives gone wild) may be more popular in the US based on differences in religion in the culture.  Finally, I'm unclear as to who the 13 readers were in the foreign language stores who bought the book.  Bots?  Expats?  Students seeking to learn English?

No one has reviewed any of my stories yet.  Reviews offer social proof and create a visual enticement to purchase, and I suspect that a story or book that has favorable reviews that then goes on trial will see both more downloads as well as more sales following the end of the promotion.  Some authors appear to have learned this and are creating bogus reviews of their works (note when an author has single reviews on all of their works, each with five stars and the same reader reporting).  I refuse to do that, and would prefer to exist without reviews or accept my lumps rather than create a misrepresentation.

Overall, my expectations for the promotion weren't high, yet the KDP Select free promotion still performed better than I expected as an unknown author writing short stories.  Over 600 people have a copy of my story! Maybe some will read it!  Maybe one will review!

Stats update

Look for an update on the "week after" statistics and lessons learned on Sunday.  Until then, a few anecdotal data points to tide you over.

• A KDP Select free couple of days produces downloads in Europe, but apparently has little residual follow on.  The cause of this may simply be not enough free downloads to get onto the "also bought" lists, although Europe combined accounted for about 19% of my total free downloads.
• It appears to take about 48 hours to show up on the also bought lists in the US, although I didn't time it exactly.

A rough rule of thumb for translating Kindle Store rank into sales:

• Top 1000 free threshold seems to be about a sustained 15 downloads per hour.
• A 20,000-25,000 paid store ranking seems to correspond to around 5 purchases per day.
• Anything around 80,000 is probably doing about 1 purchase a day.
• Beyond 80,000, a book/story hasn't sold anything within the last 24 hours.  The farther down you go, the more days since the last sale.  No sales rank: no sales ever.

Early Report

Early report on the two-day free trial of The Hen Party.

Had a little over 600 free "sales". Sold a couple of copies of my other stories, although based on their normal rate of sales, I think this was in line with what would normally be expected.

I sold copies in the US, UK, DE and FR stores. The numbers from Germany were surprising to me. I actually reached a pretty high category-specific ranking in both the French and German stores.

I was briefly in the top 100 for Fiction-->Erotica, topping out at around #82.

After the sale ended, I had several more sales, enough to take an unranked story and move it to around #30,000 in the paid store.

What I've learned about the distribution of sales and titles:

• A single short story sale is usually enough to get you into the high five-figures in rank.  If there are no new sales, this ranking drops about 40K spots per day.
• A sustained rate of around 15 to 16 sales per hour is enough to get you into the top 1,000 in Kindle-->Free, and into the 80s in Fiction-->Erotica.
• For the erotic story, the US is anywhere from 80% to 85% of total sales. I was surprised, thinking that the rate would be higher for an English language title.
• The first day of the free trial produced the highest rate of sales.  Performance tapers off after day 1.
• There may be a residual effect for purchases of other works in your catalogue, but I didn't see a strong correlation.
• Most of the benefit appears to accrue to the story given away, after it comes off free.
• All of this is subject to change--I have to wait a week to get the actual post-free sales figures.

Overall, I'm happy.  Coming from nowhere, this managed to take a title that hadn't sold anything and turned it into a profitable title.

Stay tuned for more details as the aftermath becomes clearer.

Stats, After 22 Hours

Yesterday The Hen Party went freebie for two days. One more day to go. In case you're wondering, after 22 hours of the KDP Select Promo, here's where I stand in the rankings:

In the US:
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #957 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#100 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Erotica

In the UK:
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #481 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#29 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Erotica

In Germany:
Amazon Bestseller-Rang:
Nr. 67 in Kindle-Shop > eBooks > Fremdsprachige eBooks > Englisch > Belletristik > Erotik

Incredible to me for my first story, and I hope it attracts readers beyond the free samples. You can't imagine how wet I get thinking about all those people around the world reading about the nice Christian wife Jen and her experiences and exploration at the bachelorette party for a fellow Bible study member. Hot times.

I'm considering posting more details about the trial over on the Kindleboards. If you're a reader and happen to stumble along here and don't want to comment, feel free to drop me a line on Twitter (@heathervivant) or via email (heather dot vivant dot gmail yet-another-dot com).

Peace.

"March Madness: The Secret Sex Life of a Sideline Reporter" Now Available

My latest story, March Madness: The Secret Sex Life of a Sideline Reporter, is now available in the Kindle store.

Follow the locker room adventure of Chloe Severeid, a fallen-from-grace sideline reporter just trying to scrape by while she learns the meaning of being double-teamed at the hands of a college basketball coach and the team trainer.

The Hen Party: Free For Two Days beginning Friday

Tonight I just submitted my third story for publishing, "March Madness: The Secret Sex Life of a Sideline Reporter". This is an early release of the first chapter of a novella I'm currently writing. It hasn't yet worked its way through the system, but should be available by the weekend. Check back for availability.

The big news, though, is that The Hen Party will be free on Friday and Saturday as I test out the KDP Select waters. I can't wait to see how that test goes. From what I've seen, this works very well for established writers, and writers with a huge inventory of books. I'm curious about whether this effect carries over to short stories (and erotica) and small but growing catalogues such as mine.

A Profile Emerges

More sales. Interestingly, Sunday night through Monday seems to be the peak time for my sales. As I mentioned earlier, I love to speculate about my readers. Amid the sea of choices out there, what brings them to my work? The Hen Party finally racked up a sale.

With the beginning of the week being a new prime sales time, I picture someone about to travel on business, loading up her Kindle for the long flight, picking a few quick reads she can enjoy curled up in some isolated corner of the terminal, or on the red eye when she's stuck between a doddering septuagenarian and a drowsy co-worker who accidentally nods off against her shoulder. Skating the thin ice of someone asking "What are you reading?" or worse, getting a glimpse of the cover art over her shoulder, she wishes she would have asked for a blanket so she could take care of business surreptitiously, but settles for prolonging the tension, until she finds herself in her hotel room, naked beneath the covers in a strange city, enjoying her read and a quick one before catching a few hours sleep.

She has to be up in the morning, working, and her portable library, a cache of erotica in the cloud, gets her through the week until she can return home, reload, and begin the cycle again next week...

New One on the Way

Flash of inspiration this week--my sports-themed series met one major milestone, with a teaser short story to be published this week. This will end up being the first chapter in my first published novella. I still have to put together a cover, test out a few titles and get the killer blurb written, but I expect that it will be up in the Kindle store by mid-week.

Meanwhile, check out my home page for my current stories at my Amazon author page.

Remote Control Now Available, and My First Sale

This weekend I published my latest story "Remote Control: What You Want When You Say What You Want" and managed to make my first sale. And there was much rejoicing!

Going about my day today, I found myself pondering about the day I might secretly bump into a reader and never even know it. Which Kindle owners do I encounter during the day who have a secret stash of erotica, furtively reading during their lunch break, the sordid covers of tattered paperback smut replaced with the anonymous drab black cover of their e-reader, the 2012 counterpart to the plain brown wrapper of yore? Could I spot a consumer of e-book erotica from a mile away, or are they the sneaky ones who blend in with their surroundings?

Regardless of who you are, dear reader, thanks for letting me share.

Suddenly Inspired by Raymond Carver

Today, Raymond Carver suddenly inspired me.  My next story is almost ready, with a subtitle echoing Carver: What You Want When You Say What You Want.  The sports-themed story has to wait, although it is near.  All of which pave the way for my first anthology and a new price-point.

I'm learning quite a bit with this foray into e-book publishing, although I still wait for my first sale. I'm going to try a promotion soon. With just a handful of followers and no army of readers, the long, slow march begins.  With plenty of experimentation.  (Just not the experimentation I'm more fond of writing about.)