Eight Days in, and I've Already Sold More Books This Month than in All of April.

...and that's without and KDP Select Promotions, or really...any promotion.

Maybe I just got lucky? Go figure.

So far, though, March is my best month, at twenty-two books sold.

And, if I remember correctly, I haven't sold a single copy of The Dowry since February. But, that's okay - nobody was supposed to buy that one anyways.

My Personal KDP Select Experiment, Part 2

First off, to anybody paying attention, I'm sorry I haven't posted anything since March 4th. All things considered, it's been something of a hectic week, and I just haven't made time for other things. For those interested, tl;dr: Applying for badass smart-person job in research for the summer, application requires a lot of work, oh, and I got a new iPod. (Not that the latter has anything to do with anything.) Don't worry - I've made hardly any time for Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and even The Night Life.

Anyways, on Sunday, I made a post about how I put everything (excluding Chapter 1 of The Night Life)up for free just to see what happened. I managed to post some preliminary free download numbers, but, because of a glitch in the system, they weren't the final numbers.

If I remember correctly, the glitch was fixed at about 5:00 MST.

Anyways, numbers:

US Downloads

• Family History Part 1: 425
• Family History Part 2: 361
• The Dowry: 95

UK Downloads

• Family History Part 1: 26
• Family History Part 2: 28
• The Dowry: 23

Germany Downloads

• Family History Part 1: 4
• Family History Part 2: 5
• The Dowry: 1

If I recall, Family History Part 1 made it into about ~#33 in Contemporary Romance, while Part 2 was ranked at about ~50-60 in the same category.

If you read Sunday's post, you'll notice that nothing changed dramatically from expected. However, the part that was unexpected were the sales that followed.

You see, I'd gotten so used to nothing in a day, that what happened immediately after the free downloads stopped was somewhat shocking.

12 people bought Family History Part 1 and Part 2 on Sunday.

Squeee.

I thought that the downloads would continue, but alas, that wasn't meant to be.

On Monday, one copy of Family Hisotry Part 1 and Part 2 was sold.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, one copy of Part 1 each day.

And now? Nothing.

So it goes.

My Personal KDP Select Promotion Experiment.

First off, I would like to thank everybody who commented/gave me feedback on the KDP Select Promotion Survey results. The post caught fire, and even after it left the front pages of Reddit and Kindle Boards, it still continues to get views pretty frequently, which is amazing.

Also, considering it was so popular, I'll probably look into doing another poll sometime later this month. Obviously, people enjoy numbers and pretty graphs.

Just to get an idea: this weekend, I got three new followers on my blog, 3 comments on the blog (very rare for me), a few more on Reddit and Kindleboards, and ~500 views on the survey post on Friday (and many more yesterday). Also, the link was retweeted about four or five times on Twitter (also rare for me), and I received another like or two on Facebook.

Again, I can't thank everybody enough, especially those who spread the link around.

Anyways, yesterday, I did my own personal KDP Select Experiment, one that probably won't interest everybody as much, but is nevertheless interesting (at least to me). I put everything - meaning The Dowry, Family History Part 1 and Family History Part 2 up for free. Of course, there were some qualifications, to make sure that one didn't get more exposure than the other.

• I told nobody - this was completely unadvertised.
• All books were free on March 3rd, 2012.

Also, here's what I expected to happen.

• The Dowry, of course, would kill in the free downloads (just like in the past).
• Family History: Part 1 would get about a third of the downloads of The Dowry.
• Family History: Part 2 would get hardly any downloads.

The results were not what I expected. Not at all.

The reason I assumed that The Dowry would do so well is because it's always done the best during free promotions. Of course, maybe I just happened to put it up during all the right time frames; however, you can't argue with facts. The first free promotion I ever did, I did with The Dowry, and it got over 800 downloads between the US, UK, Germany, and France. The very next day, I put Family History: Part 1 up for free, and it received a measly ~250 downloads. When I put Family History: Part 2 up for free a few weeks later, it received even fewer downloads.

(An aside: if I learned anything from my KDP Select poll, it's that I suck at giving away books, at least compared to others.)

What actually happened (and note, apparently, Amazon is a little slow on the uptake today, so I'm actually STILL having people download things for free! Tsk tsk, Amazon!)

In the US:

• Family History: Part 1: 332 Downloads (as of 10:55 am MST)
• Family History: Part 2: 287 Downloads (as of 10:55 am MST)
• The Dowry: 85 Downloads (as of 10:55 am MST)

In the UK:

• Family History: Part 1: 25 Downloads (as of 10:58 am MST)
• Family History: Part 2: 27 Downloads (as of 10:58 am MST)
• The Dowry: 19 Downloads (as of 10:58 am MST)

Germany:

• Family History: Part 1: 4 Downloads (as of 11:00 am MST)
• Family History: Part 2: 5 Downloads (as of 11:00 am MST)
• The Dowry: 1 Download (as of 11:00 am MST)

Those results are very different from what I expected. My only real hypothesis for why this might have happened this way is because people were excited to see they could get an entire series free, and not just one or the other. Plus, I actually only just put The Dowry up for free last Saturday (in the US, it received about 219 downloads), and maybe most people who were going to get it had downloaded it already. It's tough to say.

Either way, I'm pretty happy with the results. I'm even okay with the fact that people are still downloading the stories for free (but seriously, tsk tsk, Amazon). More exposure for me!

January Sales Reports

Today is February 15th, which means that I was granted the privileged of seeing my first monthly sales report. Hooray! And...tl;dr: I'm not a millionaire. But that's okay, because Family History: Part 1 was only published on January 4th, 2012. It would actually be pretty silly to expect to make that much money off a single $2.99 title in less than a month.

Now, for some actual statistics...

Total Amount Earned in Amazon US: $29.30
Total Amount Earned in Amazon UK: £9.94 (~ $15.58)
Total Earned in January 2012: ~$44.88

Many of you are probably thinking, "That's not very much at all!" But again, keep in mind that these numbers represent totals from less than a month of publication. Additionally, it is worth noting that, at the moment, I am exclusively published on Amazon. I'm not planning on continuing this exclusivity deal, though that is another post for another time.

Now, allow me to do a quick-and-dirty breakdown by title.

Family History: Part 1; US

• 5 Units Sold at 70% Royalty: $13.00
• 1 Unit Borrowed: $1.60
• 331 Units Downloaded Free

Family History: Part 1; UK

• 4 Units Sold at 70% Royalty:  £7.04 (~$11.04)
• 88 Units Downloaded Free

The Dowry; US

• 11 Units Sold at 70% Royalty; 4 Units Returned: $14.35
• 867 Units Downloaded Free

The Dowry; UK

• 2 Units Sold at 70% Royalty:  £2.64 (~$4.14)
• 111 Units Downloaded Free

Family History: Part 2; US

• 188 Units Downloaded Free

Family History: Part 2; UK

• 47 Units Downloaded Free

The Night Life: Chapter 1; US

• 1 Unit Sold at 35% Royalty: $0.35
• 138 Units Downloaded Free

The Night Life: Chapter 1; UK

• 2 Units Sold at 35% Royalty; 1 Unit Returned:  £0.26 (~$0.40)
• 33 Units Downloaded Free

Granted, it must be noted that KDP sent out a mass email tonight about sales reports not all being correct. From what I understand, the amount of money I earned this month should be correct, though I do believe there might be a few free downloads missing. However, for those who are in the loop who are thinking, "So why is it that YOUR sales reports are correct?", I figured I might as well throw in this little addendum to calm your nerves.

What I'm Expecting

• I honestly think the fact that I got any sales at all this month was somewhat of a fluke. I'm not expecting these numbers again, at least not for awhile. 
• However, since I have recently received two reviews for Family History: Part 1, I am hoping that I somehow see a jump in sales because of this.
• In terms of sales, I'm expecting to maybe average around $20 total, between the US and UK, per month. Maybe. (Like I said, I strongly believe that this prior month was merely a fluke.)

What I'm Hoping For...

• Most Importantly: I'm hoping to have The Night Life up for sale sometime around August. 
• I would be tickled if it became my best-selling novel. Of all of them, I believe this one deserves it the most.
• Money-Wise: I want to earn enough money from my writing that I can order a load of $100 bills, just so that I can fill a large room with said money and throw money all over myself while screaming, "I'm rich! I'm riiiich!" Realistically of course, I don't ever see this happening. :)

Feeling Uncreative Tonight, Though I Still Feel Obligated to Post.

Actually, though, today's been a good day. This is despite Santorum winning in Colorado. WTF, Colorado? (I blame Colorado Springs.)


Also, I would by lying if I said I was really following the republican primaries too closely. I just find it very strange that anybody would vote for Santorum. Honestly, though, I'm not sure why anybody would vote for any of the republican candidates. I really don't care for many of Ron Paul's views, though I still feel as though he's the lesser of all evils in this case.

Also, I find Santorum's name bothersome. I just hear "Sanatorium".

That said, I didn't come here tonight to start any flame wars. Like I had started to say, today has been a pretty damn good day, all things considered. Not only did I sell a few copies of Family History: Part 1 and The Dowry, but it turns out that there might be a "job" in my future. I'm going to go with a 25% here, even though I think the chance is a bit higher than that, just so that I don't get my hopes up.

Shit...I already have.


Anyways, I'll post some actual "content" now. How about a piece or two of old photography?

Just a sunflower - nothing really spectacular here. Though
if you care - taken in San Isabel National Forest, CO.

Actually my desktop background. Also taken in Wyoming.

This is all I hear when I see this picture. I promise - I really did take this one.
A Windmill; Thunder Basin, WY. (P.S. Never go there. You'll probably never
need to.)

Obscurity at Best

I started this post at about 9:00 am this morning, because after checking out my data for my free promo of Family History: Part 2 and seeing that I couldn't even give it away, I fell into some kind of depression. The kind where you realize you mean pretty much nothing to this world, especially as an author, and wonder if you'll ever gain any kind of traction in this competitive world.

However, I seem to have sold 3 copies of The Dowry today; 2 in the UK and 1 in the US, though I'm not really sure why. It's honestly not that good of a story.

I think, though, that the only real reason that The Dowry is doing so well, is because it's a standalone book, and it is not obviously labeled CHAPTER ONE (like my preview of The Night Life). People see "Part 2" on Family History and think, "Oh dear good golly gosh, I would have no idea what goes on!" But, the thing is, you would. The ending would make more sense if you read Part 1, but other than that, you would be perfectly in the clear. Read the descriptions, people.

This does make me wonder how "The Night Life" will do, since it is it's own standalone story. I hope it does rather well when it comes out, actually, because it really is a beautiful story. I'm so confident, in fact, that I'm going to blackmail my graphic artist friend into making me a real cover, because he owes me money anyways. It seems there's a reason I never bugged him too much about it, even though it was a somewhat substantial amount (for me).

That's all I have tonight, folks, unless you're interested in more drawings of Twitter using MS Paint. I haven't actually done any of those, though, so even that would be problematic at best for tonight.

The End of a Dry Spell?

It seems that, after a dry spell since Saturday/Sunday, I have finally sold a copy of The Dowry in the UK.
In other news, a year from today, the US might be inaugerating a new president.

Speaking on inaugerations, here's a fun fact about myself (because you all care so much!): I missed Obama's inaugeration because I had to take a Chemistry test. Go figure.

But anyways, to whoever in the UK purchased that book, thank you for ending my dry spell.

Bring it On: Why Isn't My Book Selling?

I suppose I'm in desperate need of some advertising.

That, or I just need a little more gumption. However, I am proud to announce that I did do a fair number of Organic Chemistry problems this afternoon. We're going over reactions of alkenes.

So, perhaps it's not gumption I'm lacking. After all, I did just agree to a trade: a review for a review. Also, I think I'll be nice and post that Redditor's book here. Not that it will benefit him any.

Speaking of which, would anybody be so kind of to review a book of mine?

I digress. Despite the start, this actually isn't a "I'm a new writer and I'm not a best seller!" rant. (However, how fantastic would it be to be a best seller two weeks in? I would be jumping for joy!). No. Actually, I'm writing this because I am confused. Why? First off, let me note: I haven't sold a book since Saturday, and Chapter 1 of The Night Life, though free, has had only about 120 downloads in 4 days in Amazon's US store. For comparison, The Dowry had about 750 downloads on the day I made it free.

If you're reading this, you're either thinking, "But KT, what's up? You've only been published for three weeks! Why so impatient?" or "Who are you? I just stumbled on this by Googling SOPA!" (Alas, that ship seems to have sailed with Blackout Day.)

Really, though, I'm confused because other people say it's good.

From Kindle Boards:

KT:
Your blurbs and samples are too good not to draw heat.
They are tight. They pop.
(Are you having us on?)
Give it another day or two.

Also:

I took a look over your books; they both appear to have great covers, and the sample chapters were well written and interesting. 

And from Reddit:

...this book looks interesting. I loved the sample. I think I'm going to buy it.

Okay, that all seems well and good, right? Sure, it's only three people (I actually had one or two more buried in Reddit comments), but still, if three people are personally messaging me to tell me that the book seems interesting and they loved the sample, what about the people who see it and say nothing about it?

Oh, look, a suggestion appears!

I did notice that you haven't got any reviews up however. I was selling one book week basically until I got three or four reviews up; you really want to reach that 'five' number. Ideally they should be four or five star reviews... and I honestly prefer a scattering of fours (which is all I've gotten), since I think that means they're being critical.

So, is that what it's going to take, eReaders? You want me to solicit people for reviews? Well, if that what it's going to take, then bring it on.

 

I'm Still a Noob at "Working" Amazon; however, I'm Pretty Sure "The Dowry" Actually Sold copies.

That's right! Three people, technically four, actually bought "The Dowry". You crazy bastards, you realize I wrote that when I was fifteen, right?
To the fourth person who returned my book: You realize I wrote that when I was fifteen, right? You're a smart man.

That said, offering a free download of "The Dowry" was a relative success. So far, there have been a total of 744 copies sold and downloaded. When I checked this morning, the number was at 741. So, at least three people actually decided that, for whatever reason, the book was worth buying. Probably that kick ass cover I created in about half an hour (re: I need to develop my 1337 Photoshop skills). So, between selling at least three copies, and the awesome thing a professor of mine said to me today, it's been a pretty good day.

By the way, for the one person who might read this between now and 1 a.m. Mountain Standard Time, "Family History: Part 1" is still free until, well, 1 a.m. Mountain Standard Time. That's 12 a.m. Pacific Time, 2 a.m. Central Time, and 3 a.m. for you Easterners. (See side bar.)

The Dowry: Free Download, 1/8/2012

The Dowry, by KT Hall

I was going to wait until 1 a.m., Mountain Standard Time, to make the official announce it and have it be true; however, I just got back from picking my roommate up from DIA (about a 2-2.5 hour drive from here), and even though all I did was sit in a car (okay, so really, I was just the GPS), I'm tired and do not want to wait another 40 minutes to "officially" announce it like I had planned.

That being said, I have had one or two well wishers, as well as one or two Redditors who have said, "Oh! Family History! That looks like an awesome book! I want!" - I have had no bites yet. That's right, donut holes.

So, I hope this works.

Hooray!

Seriously, though. This time zone thing is working against me right now, because even though it's already January 8th for me, it's not January 8th for those folks out in California.

However, if all goes as planned, California will be in the ocean soon anyways.

Speaking of which, this reminds me of this video, which I remember watching for the first time in something like 2003-2004:

Good night, everybody!

P.S. Google searches continue to yield increasing numbers of visitors searching for slutty outfits. The only appropriate response so far: LOL.

The Dowry: Now Available on Kindle (And Kindle Select!)

Click to Start Reading

Following the murder of Alexandre Thalo, the most powerful and prominent man in a small English village, Edward Thalo finds himself suddenly desperate to find himself a wife to produce heirs for his large family fortune. When a poor village farmer offers his pretty young daughter, Edward seizes the opportunity for marriage, fearing that he may otherwise leave the Thalo family fortune unclaimed.

Elizabeth Savage is reluctant to marry Edward Thalo, especially after she happens upon a gorgeous young servant by the name of Joel Barrett, who cannot resist the urge to court her, even after her marriage to Edward Thalo.

A romance filled with suspense, secrets, and treachery; The Dowry details the lives of Edward Thalo, Elizabeth Savage and her two sisters, and the servants of Edward Thalo, William and Joel. Each one of them holds a deep secret that threatens to destroy the lives of their makeshift family in a time where they are controlled by the mentally unstable, money hungry mongrel, Edward Thalo.

A lot of people seem to have luck with Kindle Select, so I have added The Dowry onto Amazon and am currently just hoping for the best. That's all I can do at this point, right? That is, that's all I can do when I'm still at the stage of getting excited by a few more page views. Just so you know, two people viewed this page last night.

How do I get an audience without much advertising? So far, all I've done is post links in forums and whatnot. They say blog tours help, but who in the world would "host" me? I'm an amateur, a kid, basically. I mean, I would let somebody guest post in a heartbeat, but that's just because I think that would definitely be pretty sweet. That, or maybe I'm just desperate.

Anyways, I hope you all find The Dowry an enjoyable read.