ROBUST discussion

I had two days left of free promotion on Mark of the Dragon Queen and The Dragon Box, so they're up free for the next two days. After only two hours, MotDQ is already at around 8000 in Britain, thanks to a lovely lady promoting it on the KindleUsers Forum I think. Strangely, with the category I have it in, it comes up as 'Dragons' in the US, but 'Animals' in Britain, which is very misleading. Dragon Box has already 'sold' 9 copies in Britain, too.

I've just taken a screen shot of the Amazon UK page for Children's Science Fiction and Fantasy Free. One of my books is at #11 and one is at #12. (They're at between #300 and 400 overall.) I've never had a response like that from the UK before.

Much slower in the US. The Dragon Box has only just broken into double figures.

All you need is one fan at the right time.

Yep! It seems to have made all the difference.

Katie,

Here are a list of places you can contact about listing free book giveaways:

Pixel of Ink: http://www.pixelofink.com/authors-cor...
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http://bargainebookhunter.com/

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Digital Book Today www.digitalbooktoday.com
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WoMen’s Literary Café www.womensliterarycafe.com – does monthly lists of Kindle freebies
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https://www.facebook.com/groups/freet...

Facebook Group "Free Tody on Kindle & Beyond"

EreaderNews Today - use the admin addie on their Contact page

http://ereadernewstoday.com/

Thanks JA. It's probably a bit late now. I did contact Pixel of Ink, but it's a lottery as to whether you get picked. I contacted them last time, but had no luck. I was picked up by ERN without asking them.

Good for you! The UK market seems to be heating up. I sell more books there than the US.

I have a friend who's selling a ton of books in the UK and almost none in the US. He has no idea why or how it got going in the UK beyond its being free for a while via KDP Select.

Thanks, JA, that's what I've been looking for. There is also KND. I could not figure out how to add there, so have just shot an email to Windwalker. From my previous dealings with him, I'm not holding my breath, but it's worth a try, his subscriber list is long...

Edited to include the link to KND: http://kindlenationdaily.com/knd-free...

Katie, I am so glad I posted my review of DB last week, hope it helps a little.

Just got an email from Windwalker. He uses a tool called ebook tracker, http://tracker.kindlenationdaily.com/... I opened it up and 'joined' and added as many books as I could remember from my friends. I would imagine it would be in everyone's best interests to list their books there, special promotions or no.

Thanks, Sharon. I've added a few of my own and my friends, too.

I'll take a look at that, too.

I can't get on it - guess not having Kindle is the reason. Thanks, everyone!

It didn't ask me if I had a Kindle, Kat. I just had to put in an email and a password.

Sharon's link has a fullstop (period)at the end that makes it not work. Just cut and paste it into your browser then get rid of it

Yeehah! Pixel of Ink DID pick up Mark of the Dragon Queen or at least, the Junior version of PoI did. I wondered why my figures suddenly picked up.

#850 Rank for Mark! Hot DAMN girl!

Thanks Katie, link fixed.

Yeah! on the downloads!

Just checked and Mark is listed on KND too!

Wowsers! I must have found a four-leaf clover or something! Poor old Dragon Box is just sitting there, but sales are rolling over on Mark. It's a bit addictive watching it!

Enjoy it while you can! I'm sure you will get some mileage out of it!

I see it's still climbing - good for you!

I'm approaching four figures on Mark of the Dragon Queen overall (even 'sold' 7 copies in Germany). My supporter on KUF is still plugging it for me on the AmazonUK forums, which I think is really helping UK sales. I hope Cloud 9 doesn't crash land!

How are you going?

Katie, you are at #226 free in Kindle (Dragon Queen), #1 in Kindle store in non-fiction - interpersonal relations, here at 6:44 am PST, 1:44 am Vic time.

Awesome about the 'sales' in Germany.

Don't come down from that cloud, use it to see the bigger picture and give you inspiration!

Thanks, Sharon. I'm still trying to get that category changed. I don't know how it got there!

Something strange - I just found Treespeaker in the lending library, but it's not enrolled in KDP Select. I hope Amazon haven't decided it's linked to my other books and therefore has to be exclusive. They haven't notified me if that's the case.

Very early on when we could list in more categories (five I think), I asked KDP support to clarify and subsequently change something for me, and they were very good.

Several months ago I realized authors were listing some of their fiction in non-fiction to get to the final category that best suited their story. I would have loved to do the same, but when I contacted KDP was advised if I changed any categories I would lose my 'grandfather' status and only be allowed the two they now offer. I decided to keep the categories as-is. It was a lesson for me to be very careful when selecting categories. I'd been on some Amazon forums and the advice was to list in as many categories as possible, even if they were only marginal. (I don't frequent those boards anymore, I find many who love to give advice have no clue what they are talking about). Only one that I listed is marginal, but I don't want to lose the other 'extras', so I'm stuck with what I had.

I'm not altogether certain how much the category listings affect things anyway, but I'm annoyed at myself for not being more savvy...

My categories finally seem to have worked themselves out and I'm back in 'Coming of Age' which, so far, I've never managed to get a ranking in. Ah, well.

With my promotion only 30 mins off finishing, I have to say I'm well pleased with the results. After a slow start in the US, I've given away over 1300 copies of Mark of the Dragon Queen there. Add that to the 350 in the UK and that's not bad! Not as many as at the beginning of February (in one day!), but satisfying nonetheless. The Dragon Box went out just over 300 times altogether.

A lot of people have been saying that the free giveaway idea is not really helping, but for me it's made a big difference. After all those freebies last month, I sold over 80 copies of MotDQ and 22 copies of Treespeaker, which was about four normal months worth for that one. So I think I'll stay with it for at least another contract. I'm still not tempted to take Treespeaker out of Smashwords.

Which reminds me...Treespeaker is Free on Smashwords this week...must go and post about it!

That's very good. Better than I did last time out.

I watched your rankings rise. That was impressive.

I'm in a 'wait and see' mode with the Smashwords giveaway. All the short stories are free.

Smashwords sales never seem to go as well as Amazon sales, so I'm not holding my breath.

I just wrote to Amazon to ask why my books are still free 6 1/2 hrs after they should have come off. Still waiting. I guess it makes up for the time I tried to turn off the last day and lost half of day 2 as well.

I guess they gave you the time they took off me, Katie. In fact, 8+ hours after midnight PST, Storyteller is still not listed as free. I have written support and told them to fix and compensate accordingly. But I'm also open to the possibility of it being a seredipitous thing so I'm not fussing. I'll be out for a few hours and that's good too, won't be tempted to micro-manage it...

Those are GREAT numbers you posted. With the quality of your works and the popularity of your genres, I'd say Select should be the perfect platform for you. We'll get to say we knew you when and boast that you're truly a very nice person...

Oh, Sharon, how aggravating! I see it's 'Free' now, but I still don't see any rankings. I hope when 'sales' do come, they come in a huge flood. I'd certainly be asking for an extra day to compensate (I'm not *that* nice!).

They lost a day and a half of time on Andrew's book and gave back half a day. They lost about half a day on Dakota's book and gave back nothing. It does say somewhere in the terms that the timekeeping isn't precise, but this is ridiculous.

Katie wrote: "...I'd certainly be asking for an extra day to compensate (I'm not *that* nice!).
.."

I certainly hope not, Katie! Nice is one thing, being a pushover is another.

:)

So are you getting some numbers now? I'm still waiting for the rankings to come back on some of my pages.

No rankings last time I looked, but getting sales on the report.

You'll have to use your imagination to guess where your rankings should be!

Yeah, LOL. I always dream big, how about #1 in Fiction - Visionary and Metaphysical...

Sales still only trickling in, but it's 5 pm PST, 9 pm in NY, 1 am in London, noon tomorrow in Vic Au, what are the chances?

Hey, think big while you can! You're number one in the overall Best Sellers! :)

Where? Give us a link!

It's in my head, Andre. Believe me, you don't want to go there!

Why I gave up the psychiatry of individuals for the motivation of masses, not only better paid but definite safer for one's sanity.

I BELIEVE YOU, KATIE!