Mid-life Crisis

I could go back the way I've come.
To the life I know.
To choices made so long ago,
But right now my limbs feel numb.

I could stand tall and march on
To who I used to be.
Seek out the spirit that dwells in me.
Buried deep but not yet gone.

I could venture to just anywhere,
To a place I do not know.
Risk it all to go with the flow
But really, do I dare?

I could descend the slippery slope
To a dark place that I know.
It's a place I do not want to go
But I am near to losing hope.
 
The place to go?
I think I know.
I could.
I should.

I mentioned in a previous blog post  about my disappointment at my recent eBook promotion of ‘My Crazy Purple Pen’ not leading to any reviews on the US Amazon site (Amazon.com), despite a high number of downloads.

Well, a little good news....

A 5 star review has appeared. Thank you Mr James N Simpson, whoever you are!

As I write this post I notice too that another 5 star review has been posted on the UK site – 20 reviews now for my first book!

If you’ve been following my blog then you’ll already be familiar with the first two pirate characters from my forthcoming series of books about Captain Sillyvoice and his crew, drawn brilliantly by artist Emma K L Hunt. These were Lyrical Len and Bob Bob. Check out my previous blog entries if you want to take a look.

Next up is the cook, known to his crew-mates as Big-bellied Ben.

Big-bellied Ben loves his food, and all the crew love the food he cooks. What he can do with a couple of large fish and a bucket of seaweed is almost legendary. When he isn’t cooking, he enjoys tapping out a beat on his bongos.

The eBook version of ‘My Crazy Purple Pen’ became available to download for free for 5 days. The freebie days were a Thursday to Monday during the UK school holiday period.

What happened?

• Customers did downloaded the book across all 5 days but the busiest days were Thursday and Friday.

• The majority of customers were from the US and the UK but there were small numbers from Germany, France, Italy, India, Japan and Canada too. Indeed, Spain and Brazil were the only countries with Amazon sites from which there were no downloads. 

• 1 UK customer also rented ‘The Day My Teacher Came to Tea’ during the same period and therefore I presume had enjoyed ‘My Crazy Purple Pen’.

• 3 reviews to the Amazon UK site were received during this period. All very positive and were customers unknown to me (click to enlarge):

• No negative reviews on any of the sites

• No promotional or other costs incurred during promotion
  

Were there any disappointments?

More reviews would have been good but generally people just don’t bother, even when the book is a freebie. I could really do with some reviews on the Amazon.com site (US) and given the number of customers who downloaded the book from there, I think I was unlucky not to receive any.

It is a bit early to assess whether or not the promotion will lead to any new sales but the early signs are disappointing. I do think a lot of customers download freebies and don’t ever buy and that’s the difficulty.

Would I do it again and would I do anything differently?

I will probably try the promotion again, perhaps with one of my other books. I would do things a little differently though.

• Plan ahead, say a month in advance. This way I could notify all the relevant promotional sites in good time. I was too late with my submission to be featured in quite a number of them on this occasion. 
  
• Consider paying the small fees on some of the main websites to ensure a guaranteed listing. 
  
• Look at ‘Bookbub’ and other similar newsletters which would target interested customers directly.
  

What now?

Keep writing, pursue other marketing avenues and hope for a lucky break somewhere down the line.

Someone once said something similar if not exactly this; “The harder I try, the luckier I become.” I think I’ll give that a go.