I’ve been looking into advertising my audiobook (soon to be audiobooks!) but I’m struggling to find ways to do it.
Then I realised I haven’t posted about the book for a while, so I’d like to share it with you now and offer my readers the chance to listen for free. All I ask as that you consider leaving a review on Audible, Amazon, Goodreads, wherever you feel comfortable posting.
To tempt you here’s a sample performed by the very talented Guy Barnes.
Blurb
Two wizards, 350 years apart. Can they save the realm of Paltria from Zarua’s dark past?
An ancient darkness haunts the realm of Paltria. Apprentice wizard Paddren is plagued by visions of a city on the brink of annihilation. When his master dies in mysterious circumstances, the Royal Order of Wizards refuses to investigate. Helped by his childhood friend, the skilled tracker Varnia, and her lover Leyoch, Paddren vows to find the killer. The investigation leads Paddren down a sinister path of assassins, secret sects and creatures conjured by blood magic. But he is guided by a connection with a wizard from centuries ago – a wizard whose history holds the key to the horror at the heart of the abandoned city of Zarua. Can Paddren decipher his visions and save the Paltrian people before the dark menace of Zarua’s past is unleashed?
You can also buy the audiobook on itunes or audible where it’s free to listen to with your monthly credit.
If you don’t have a audible account, you can follow these links to set up an account and receive a free months trial
I’ve been lucky enough to feature on Writing and Wellness. I’ve shared my experience publishing a trilogy and how to go about turning them into audiobooks.
Last week I did something I said to myself at the start of my indie career that I would never do, I gave away a book for free.
I’ve done a fair amount of 99p deals and sales drops, but to set it to free and then pay to advertise it didn’t make sense to me.
But being the start of a trilogy it can be good business to give away book 1 for a limited period. If people enjoy book 1, they will hopefully go on to buy and read books 2 and 3. And, all going well I’ve gained a new, avid reader for future books. Still it is a risk and can be an expensive one too.
My Tactic
I set book 1 to free for the full 5 days allowed in my KDP Select 3 month period. Then I set book 2 and 3 to 99p each for the 7 days allowed starting on the same day as the free 5 day promotion.
I stacked ads for each day to maximise the reach of my free book offer. This was great for achieving downloads but it has meant I’ve no idea what ads were any good. (List of ad companies further down in this post).
I did use the tactic of using the biggest hitter for my genre (Book Barbarian) in the middle of the promo period, which helped me reach no.1 in the US. See more on this below.
The Results
Downloads of The Lost Sentinel over the 5 free days 10th to 14th August = 3862
Purchases of books 2 and 3 over the 7 day KDP free days = 143
KENP – pages read through Kindle Unlimited since 10th August to date = Over 5K
Reviews and Ratings. So far I’ve received a 4 and 5 star review, and a 5 star rating. I’m hoping to see more popping over over the coming weeks. I’ve also gained a few new followers on BookBub which is always good.
Amazon 5 Stars. Captivating… ‘I’ve been reading fantasy and SF for over fifty years. I recognize a born story teller when I read one. Suzanne Rogerson held me spellbound. The author is destined to become a legend.’
Goodreads 4 star – ‘Very interesting premise… The world building was amazing. The lands of Kalaya and Tei’s powers of astral projection were so vividly described that it was beautiful to read about it. Tei’s journey and the twist in the end added to the enjoyment of the story. Liked it.’
The Cost
I spend a few hundred pounds setting this up and have so far earnt back nearly half of what I laid out in advertising costs. That’s not bad, especially if it continues to help people discover my books and they keep reading them through Kindle Unlimited. Who knows maybe in time it will have broken even.
This experiment wasn’t so much about the money, but about reaching readers. I’m happy to have been able to reach 3862 new ones across the world!
The BIG BIG Benefit
The Lost Sentinel reached No.1 in three countries and in some cases held the spot for two/three consecutive days.
No. 1 best seller in US – Categories = Romantic fantasy, Woman’s fantasy fiction, Action and Adventure Fantasy, New Adult and college fantasy. At various times The Lost Sentinel held spots 2 and 3 in Epic fantasy, Sword and Sorcery and Coming of Age Fantasy.
The top sales rank it reached across all free kindle books in the US was 83 and it reached no. 4 in the top free fantasy books. That really made my day.
No. 1 best seller in UK – Categories = Low Fantasy, Fantasy Adventure Fiction, Contemporary Fantasy and Action and Adventure Fiction. It also reached no.2 in Coming of Age fantasy and Epic Fantasy, and 3 in Sword and Sorcery.
The Lost Sentinel also reached No. 4 in all free fantasy books and was no 5 in all sci-fi and fantasy free books in the UK.
No. 1 best seller in Canada – Categories = Coming of Age Fantasy. Placed 2nd in Epic and 3rd in Sword and Sorcery.
Top sales rank of all free books 29. No. 4 in top free fantasy books in Canada.
No.2 in Australia for Epic fantasy and 73 across the whole of free books in Australia.
As well as these four countries, The Lost Sentinel was also downloaded in Brazil, Germany, India, Netherlands, France, Spain, Japan, Italy and Mexico. I achieved high rankings in many of these countries too.
I’ve tried to do some research to understand the numbers but all I can find out is that there could be around 6 million ebooks available on kindle. I don’t know how many of those are free at any one time, but those are big numbers and I’m so proud to see my book reaching such heights.
Would I recommend running a free book promotion?
100% yes. But I would only do this for book 1 in a trilogy or the start of a series and I would wait until the rest of the books are available to hopefully encourage follow on sales and read throughs.
A Warning
Watching the downloads come in and getting to No 1 is quite addictive, so don’t plan on doing much else whilst your promotion is running.
It’s a heady experience, which means the come down is hard. When it’s all over you’re left feeling deflated. And it is a shame to see the ranking disappear after the free promo is over. My advice is to take screenshots so you can look back and say it really did happen!
Would I change anything?
I wish I’d booked more ads for the last day of the promo period. After all the excitement midway through, the last day felt like a let down with dwindling sales. It would have been great to go out with a bang.
Ad companies I used in my free promo.
Note – I can’t say for sure where the downloads came from. I’m just providing you with a list of the ad companies I used. There are so many to choose from that you should do your research and learn from trial and error.
Day 1 – Just Kindle Books, Book Reader magazine, Pretty Hot books (119 free downloads, 8 sales)
Day 2 – FKBT, Awesome book promo, James H Mayfield VA services (551 free downloads, 15 sales)
Day 3 – Book Barbarian, BK Nights (1291 free downloads, 57 sales)
Day 4 – Book Runes, Awesome gang, eReader IQ, Book Cave (1426 free downloads, 31 sales)
Day 5 – Book Doggy (475 downloads, 24 sales)
Day 6 and 7 after the free promo ended. 8 sales.
A big thank you to Bklnk.com This is a great resource to check what categories your books are in and their rankings across Amazon in the US, UK and Canada.
***
Suzanne Rogerson – Author of epic and heroic fantasy
This has been a mad week with some strange happenings, not least the heatwave that’s gripped the UK. I’ve reached a huge goal seeing The Lost Sentinel hit best seller status in 3 countries – US, UK and Canada and in a number of categories.
You can grab your own free copy here. Plus the rest of the series is on sale for only 99p each.
I won’t go into more details about it now, I’ll save that for a follow up post next week where I’ll analyse my results, share the data, as well as my formula for reaching No. 1 in various Top 100 free ebook lists.
Right now this is just a quick reminder that the book will go back to full price at midnight tonight and I will lose my no.1 status (sad face!). But I can now call The Lost Sentinel a best seller, and I think that also means I can call myself a best selling author?! BEST SELLING AUTHOR!!! Cue happy dance!
Once this excitement has died down there will be more great things coming up. In September, starting on 6th, there will be a blog tour for Silent Sea Chronicles and for the first time The Lost Sentinel will be featured by bookstagrammers on Instagram.
I’m also hoping the audiobook will go live on Audible, iTunes and Amazon very soon. I can’t wait to see what people think of George Ellington’s brilliant narration of book 1.
This is my last chance to persuade people to pick up The Lost Sentinel for free so here goes…
Tei’s homeland, the magical island of Kalaya, is dying. Without a Sentinel to restore the magic soon all life will perish. Tei must join the exiles in their quest to find the missing Sentinel before mysterious masked riders catch up with them. The price of success threatens to destroy everything Tei loves; is she brave enough to make the sacrifice?
Thanks to everyone for their comments and shares over all social media platforms. I appreciate your help. Best selling author, Suzanne Rogerson, over and out!
I wanted to type that title in full caps to shout about how happy I am this morning. To see my book baby in a no.1 position in the US is amazing.
Finally I’ve worked out a way to share the screenshots.
First the big one – No.4 in the top 100 across all fantasy books in the US!
I’ve also hit No.1 best seller in 3 categories Actions and Adventure Fantasy, Romantic fantasy and New Adult fantasy as per below.
This more than makes up for the fact I only had 3 hours sleep, what with the heatwave, a puppy stealing the bed (she also manged to kick me straight in the eye!) and a cat meowing half the night for god only knows what reason.
I also reached No. 2 in Coming of Age Fantasy and Epic Fantasy, and it’s No. 3 in Sword and Sorcery.
Finally it’s wonderful to see that The Lost Sentinel is currently at position 83 in the Top 100 Free Kindle chart!
I know this is fleeting and within a few hours things will change, but for now I’m going to enjoy it! Hopefully this buzz will get me through the rest of the day on such little sleep.
Don’t forget to pick up your free copy of The Lost Sentinel if you haven’t done so already. It’s only free for 2 more days.
***
Suzanne Rogerson – Author of epic and heroic fantasy
The Lost Sentinel is currently on a 5 day free promo and I have stacked ads to help me reach readers.
This morning I was excited to wake up to see The Lost Sentinel had hit number 1,2 and 3 slots in Canada for Coming of Age fantasy, Epic fantasy and Sword and Sorcery! Here’s the proof.
I have screenshots of the lists but I’m still having trouble downloading them to WordPress. It’s frustrating as I’ve been looking forward to this moment and I want to shout about how happy I am about these results!
I have a big ad hitting soon and and I’m hoping it will help me reach the big spot in more countries. Fingers crossed!
I’ll keep you updated and share my results at the end of the experiment. In the meantime, if you haven’t picked up your free copy of The Lost Sentinel, why not do it now? You can help me achieve my goal of reaching no. 1 in the Amazon top 100 free charts.
I’d like to share the newest review that’s gone up for my Silent Sea Chronicles series – it’s actually the first for the box set on Amazon so I’m extra happy!
(Christopher) 5 STARS – Inspiring. A lovely story that warms the soul. Some action and battle scenes but not overly graphic so will appeal to most. There’s also a good deal of romance which, although not my thing, makes this saga a good read for all. I will deffo keep an eye out for more books to follow this and catch up on the characters and how their journey progresses.
Here’s some others…
(Norris) 5 STARS Loved it. A thoroughly enjoyable fantasy story with characters you can’t help rooting for and intriguing villains. The world building was fantastic and it was easy to lose yourself in. I can’t wait to see where this story goes. – The Lost Sentinel – Book 1.
(Teri) 4 STARS – Action and Chaos. I don’t know how I came about this story but I am glad I did. Prepare yourself for a rip roaring adventure over the seas and by ways as these stories intermix to bring you a rip roaring clean adventure. There is plenty of action and chaos as the standing Sentinel comes to the end of his reign. Finding the new sentinel will come to be emotional as the loss of life touches close to home. Taking daring actions against those that mean to do harm will keep you turning the pages for more. No the story doesn’t end here and that will give you reason to prepare for a long adventure with this new to me author. Her characters have much to lose and the battle wont be easy. New friends and old foes all come together in this wonderful fantasy story. I have not read this author before but I can’t wait to continue the adventure. – The Lost Sentinel Book 1
You can try out the series for yourself as Book 1 The Lost Sentinel is free for the next 4 days, while books 2 and 3 are on sale for only 99p each. The whole series will only set you back £1.98 if you act fast.
The sale is going well and I loved seeing The Lost Sentinel hit no 6 in the top 100 free chart for fantasy adventure. With your help I could hit no 1!
I’m having technical issues trying to share a screenshot of the top 100 list, hopefully that will resolve itself soon.
In the meantime, please share this and help The Lost Sentinel reach the top ranking in as many top 100 free charts as possible.
If you’re looking for a bargain this week, why not check out Silent Sea Chronicles? The Lost Sentinel – Book 1 in the series is free for 5 days and the rest of the trilogy is on sale at only 99p / 99c each.
All my books are enrolled in Kindle Unlimited but this is the first time I’ve ever used the 5 free days advertising option and I’m really excited to see how the experiment plays out.
I’d love to see my books climb up the rankings and you can help by downloading your free copy of The Lost Sentinel and sharing news about the sale.
The Lost Sentinel is free 10th to 14th August, while The Sentinel’s Reign and The Sentinel’s Alliance are 99p / 99c from 10th to 17th August. With the whole trilogy for only £1.98 / $1.98 this is a sizzling summer bargain you won’t want to miss.
‘THE LOST SENTINEL contains plenty of action, intrigue, and challenges throughout, making this a thrilling fantasy adventure… it whisked me away to someplace magical, alluring, and dangerous.’
‘…this story bowled me over, it was an absolutely outstanding epic fantasy and the kind of writing fantasy authors should be aspiring to.’
‘What an epic journey this trilogy has been…There are some terrific battle scenes, with massive shocks, and mouth dropping moments that I just hadn’t seen coming, all delivered with Rogerson perfection.’
Blurb
Tei has magic in a world where people like her are persecuted and forced into exile. Whilst fleeing their home, her father is attacked and his deathbed confession reveals a dangerous secret that will change her life forever.
Tei’s homeland, the magical island of Kalaya, is dying and without a Sentinel to restore the magic, it’s only a matter of time before all life is wiped out.
She must join the exiles in the search for the lost Sentinel, but they are not the only ones after the missing guardian. Sinister Masked Riders are on their trail and time is running out.
Tei must risk everything she loves to save Kalaya, but is she ready to make that sacrifice?
***
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Today I’d like to share my review of Art and Soul by Claire Huston. To briefly explain my feelings for this book – I had to ban myself from reading it at night because I just couldn’t stop reading to go to sleep!
Blurb
There’s no problem Becky Watson can’t fix. Except her own love life…
Struggling single mother Becky Watson longs to revive her career as a life-fixer, working miracles to solve her clients’ problems, no matter how big or small. Since the birth of her two-year-old son she has been stuck preventing wedding fiascos for the richest and rudest residents of the Comptons, a charming, leafy area of southern England known for its artistic heritage.
So when semi-reclusive local artist Charlie Handren reluctantly hires Becky to fix his six-year creative slump, she’s delighted to set him up with a come-back exhibition and Rachel Stone, the woman of his dreams.
Though they get off to a rocky start, Becky and Charlie soon become close. But as the beautiful Rachel becomes Charlie’s muse, Becky is forced to wonder: will giving Charlie everything he wants mean giving up her own happily ever after?
A heart-warming romance about second chances perfect for fans of Jill Mansell, Phillipa Ashley and Cathy Kelly.
My Review
(I’m experimenting and going back to my old review style, so let me know what you think.)
Characters
I felt an immediate connection with the main characters Becky and Charlie. The story is told skilfully from both their viewpoints and has lots of side characters that bring colour and warmth to the story.
Plot
Becky is a life-fixer and is brought in to help reclusive artist Charlie rediscover his muse for painting and set his life back on track whilst trying to deal with her own single parent struggles. She can work miracles with other people, and is almost like a guardian angel working in the background, but has her own difficulties and hang ups from past events that get in the way of her finding her own happiness.
What I like
It was great to read a story about a life fixer. It’s something different and I think we can agree that we all need a bit of Becky’s magical touch in our lives!
I also loved how Becky is a single parent struggling to work and raise her young son. It’s not the usual set up for a romance story and it was refreshing.
What I didn’t like
It’s one of those books where there really isn’t anything that I had an issue with. The ending could have been a tiny bit more dramatic maybe but it was still satisfying, enjoyable and choked me up so you really can’t ask for much more from a story.
Conclusion
I cannot go into details and risk spoilers but I will say I was left with happy feeling at the end of this novel. There were ups and downs throughout that kept you guessing but in the end it was a great conclusion to the story. It left me wanting to keep reading and being in their lives!
This is Claire Huston’s debut novel, though it reads like a book from a well-established author who has honed her craft. She’s an author I look forward to reading more from.
Recommend
I recommend this to anyone who enjoys a feel good romance. Star rating 4.5
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Suzanne Rogerson Fantasy Author 