Some of the benefits of being part of the Veil Knights collective is that I get to see how they approach not only the writing of their novels, but how they market themselves and their works. (I also have a whole host of new authors to sample in my “spare” time.) When Rowan Casey, our pen name, launched The Circle Gathers last week, there suddenly were a dozen nervous mothers hoping their newborn was thriving. Over the course of the first dozen hours our private list was constantly reporting downloads, sales, click throughs, and comments in a frenzy.As an Amazon Kindle exclusive, we could pretty easily judge our success and we were trending on most of the categories we were tagged in. And as the days passed, we saw how steadily we were holding and the ales velocity across Amazon in the USA, UK, and Canada. Within two days we were suddenly profitable, that is, our production and cover art expenses were paid for and we were now in the black. That certainly boded well.
I realized what a novice about this side of the business I have been. My new peers were comparing this launch with all of their own efforts and made suggestions from experience. Me, I just marveled at how quickly we sold, and how fast the reviews started coming in, all of them positive. If only ReDeus or Latchkeys launched so well.Most of my team have robust newsletter lists and can apparently track how many linked to the Kindle site and how many of those actually ponied up a few sheckles. Some even have advance reader teams, agreeing to quickly read and post reviews on Amazon and GoodReads in exchange for a freebie Advanced Reader Copy (ARC). If I get nothing more out of this experience, I see what I need to do for my next solo effort.Hound of Night was uploaded early and when it officially launched on Tuesday, it too sold fast and yet, the reviews have been slow to show up. Go figure.We’re about to raise the price on Circle from its introductory 99 cents, so if you’re curious, now’s a good time to try it.Our third offering is due out mid-month and then we switch to a monthly release schedule.
#Tags: Amazon, Goodreads, Kindle, Rowan Casey, slider