Following up on the ad I ran on February 18th, I sold 21 copies of A Precarious Magic in March, after 15 in February. So my $15 in advertising might have earned me six sales. (Of the 15 sales in Feb, 9 were pre-ad and 6 were post.) That said, March 2020 was a month when people were distracted by events in the world, including me.
I think if there’s any takeaway for me, it’s that A Lonely Magic is not getting much read through. I’ve given away approximately 800 copies in 2020, and sold 67 copies of APM, so if people are finishing it, most of them are not going on to buy A Precarious Magic. Although that said, Kindlepreneur says that average read through with a free book starter is likely to be 3-6%, and 67 books sold would put me at 8%. Hmm, I guess that’s comforting. Sort of?
Moving on, the sales ranks of both my free books have plummeted. I’m trying not to pay attention, because, hey, worldwide pandemic, people with much greater problems out there, but ALM’s sales rank has dropped below 10,000 consistently and Ghosts is now in the 5000 range more often than not. I could blame lots of things, but I think I’m just going report it for the sake of my future reference and try not to worry about it. But it does say that the old covers are not the miracle workers I’d hoped they were.
I did not revise the blurbs as intended. (I did travel cross-country in the midst of a pandemic, so, yeah, giving myself a break on my lack of productivity.) I also have failed to follow up on my newsletters. (Ditto, pandemic.) For April — well, you know, I think April 2020 is going to be the most carpe diem month for my business that I have ever had. I am going to write words and try not to watch the news obsessively and cook delicious meals and hopefully eat some gluten-free cupcakes and enjoy some sunshine and the company of many dogs and cats. I’ll check in again on May 1 and see how the business of publishing is treating me.
