Results from One on One Free Days

So, last week I ran a special on "One on One" at Amazon.  It was free on Wednesday and Thursday.  I wanted to see what offering free days through KDP Select would do for my sales.  I'd heard some people say that free days are a great way to increase your visibility and get your name out there.

On Wednesday, "One on One" moved a little over 230 copies, which I thought was pretty cool.  But what really blew me away was what happened on Thursday, when over 1300 copies were downloaded.  It was very gratifying to watch "One on One" climbing the charts at Amazon, and it finally made it up to the #2 spot in free Urban Erotica.  Even though I didn't make any money off of those "sales," it was still definitely cool to think about 1500 people having access to my work.

It's a little too early to say what the permanent fallout from this special is, but I did definitely see a spike in sales immediately after listing the story for free.  Most of these were for "One on One," but I have seen sales for other stories as well.  Of course, it's hard to say whether those sales were directly caused by the free listing.

I've scheduled the remainder of my free days, and I'll be very interested to see what happens next time!

Writing Progress

Well, it's been quite a week.  Things have been in major crunch mode at my day job (which I am quitting next month!), my husband is heading right into finals, and it feels like just about every conceivable thing that could go wrong has.

What with all that, I haven't accomplished as many of my writing goals as I would have liked.  I had hoped to get "Sasha's Soldier" edited and uploaded, but that obviously hasn't happened.  My husband often helps me with the editing, and with him so swamped, he just hasn't been able to.  I really like to get a pair of eyes besides my own on my writing.  I find that often it's very hard to tell the difference between your best moments and your worst ones.  And when you're writing, you just have to put them all down, or you might miss out on some of your best work.  Of course, you also need someone you trust who can gently let you know which moments somehow come this close to be amazing, while somehow falling off the gap into horrible.

I have been able to push forward on my first draft writing, though, which means that I've got a little bit of a backlog for when I do have the time to start getting things out again.  I think I've got something like four stories written that just need to be edited, formatted and submitted.

From last Saturday to today, I wrote a new story which has clocked in at a little over 30,000 words.  This is longer than some of the things I've published previously, and I'm excited for that.  This moves out of the realm of short story and into the (occasionally awkward) realm of novella.  But with epublishing, there's more room for novellas than there used to be in the days of print-only publication.  On this one, I've moved at a pretty good pace.  I had a goal of 5,000 words a day, which I didn't quite make, but I did get something over 4,300 words a day.  That's definitely something I can live with.

Both of my currently published works ("In a Stranger's Arms" and "One on One") are contemporary.  This last project of mine has been a definite departure from that.  It takes place in a fantastical setting that's filled with vampires, ghouls, etc.  It also follows a very, very sexy man as our protagonist, which is a departure from my two that are published, which both have female point of view characters.  All in all, it was a ton of fun to write.

My life should start settling down in the next week or two, and I'll get some more pieces published.  Until then, I'll just keep plugging away at the writing.

"One on One" and KDP Select

Hello, everyone.  I have a new story, "One on One," up on Amazon!  I'm still definitely experimenting when it comes to seeing where my stories sell and how, so I've decided to enroll this one in the KDP Select program, at least for the first 90 days.  I'm very interested to see what effect this has on my sales.

For those of you who don't know, KDP Select is an optional program that Amazon offers to authors who sell their ebooks on Kindle.  Books are enrolled for 90 days at a time.  In order for books to be eligible, they must not be available online anywhere else during those 90 days.  In return, the book gets to be part of the KDP Select lending library, which allows some people to read your story for free (while you still get paid), and it also allows you to pick 5 days per 90 day period to run specials where you either discount your book or give it away for free.

To a certain extent, programs like KDP Select make me a little nervous.  I'm never terribly happy about monopolies, and I've heard some very good arguments as to why one should avoid KDP Select.  Notably, Mark Coker, the head of Smashwords, has said "exclusivity is a devil's bargain.  When authors go exclusive with any retailer, they increase their dependence upon that single retailer, limit long-term platform building at other retailers, disappoint fans who shop at other stores, and hobble the development of a thriving and competitive ebook retailing ecosystem."

Yikes.  I totally understand where he's coming from, and I doubt that I will do much with KDP Select throughout my career as an author.  I do support the idea of competition without ebook retailing, and I really like the idea of having my stories out in front of as many people as possible.  However, I have heard some people say that KDP Select has been a huge boost for them, and I mostly just want some more data to help in making final decisions.  Besides, I figure that if Coker's right and I'll "disappoint fans who shop at other stores," I might as well do my experiment now, near the beginning.  I'm planning on just being involved for 90 days, although I might be willing to extend my trial longer if I see huge successes.

Proponents of KDP Select say that Amazon is the biggest seller by far among ebook retailers, and that exclusivity with them really doesn't hurt them as an author.  In my limited experience this has been true: I have yet to make a sale on Smashwords, but I have made about 6 on Amazon so far.  Proponents say that the 5 free days can make a big splash in terms of getting your books more visible.

So I guess we'll see whether KDP Select does a lot for my story, or not really!  I'll keep you posted.  For any other authors out there, what has your experience been?

And for anyone interested, you can buy "One on One" here.

Like any good couple, Bruce and Savannah have a lot in common: they both love sports, both are fitness nuts, and both hate to lose. But there’s one thing makes them a perfect couple: whenever Bruce is beaten on the court, he’s determined to win in bed--by making passionate, enthusiastic love to Savannah until she is dizzy with pleasure. When Savannah wins an especially hotly contested game of one on one basketball, she knows the sex will be hot, physical, aggressive. But what she doesn't know is exactly how it will happen . . .