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For some time I’ve been sitting on a six novel romance series, linked by the theme of a magical ring. By today’s standards they’re short, in the 65-75k word range. Added to that, while they have a single element of what appears to be magic, they’re not what most people might expect from fantasy. A benign were-mermaid, for example, is hard to classify.
Given that (and rejection slips, of course) I’ve decided to try an experiment. As an audition, I’m giving away volume one on SmashWords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/354103).
I’ll charge for the other five, and see how it goes. I realize that bad sales could be the fault of my writing, of course, but I’ll judge success based on the sales of book two and so on.
So far, in the day since I published it there have been 128 downloads, and I’ve done no real promotion, so the blurb, at least, seems to work. I’ll let you know how it goes--edited by Jay Greenstein on 9/5/2013, 10:38 PM--
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Joined: 6/18/2012
Posts: 228
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Jay, congratulations on your book launch! Do you have a link to it? I searched their site under your name, but the search showed no results. Does it have an adult filter on it? --edited by Brandi Larsen on 9/5/2013, 12:13 PM--
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Joined: 6/7/2013
Posts: 1356
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Hi Jay--
Congrats on the release of the first book of the series! I want to go check it out--what's the title?
Lucy
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I've fixed the post to show the view. For unknown reasons the site didn't paste it properly and I didn't notice.
The series is called, Sisterhood of the Ring, and the first title is Water Dance. The next two release two weeks apart, beginning two weeks from now. So far downloads are at 160. --edited by Jay Greenstein on 9/5/2013, 10:42 PM--
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In the thirteen days since release 320 copies were downloaded and two reviews were posted. Not world shaking, but good. The next part of the experiment comes on the 22nd when the second in the series releases. That one isn't free. We shall see if the free audition helps.
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Joined: 6/18/2012
Posts: 228
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Congrats on the download numbers, Jay! Here's to a successful series!
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An update:
The end of year figures are in, and though I'm not getting rich, I'm pretty damn happy.
Total downloads for 2013 = 6787 The vast majority are the free download of Water Dance.
That breaks down to
Amazon 2500
Smashwords 630
Barnes and Noble 3237
Apple 225
Deisel 10
Page Foundry 12
Sony 173
While sales of the others in the series only amount to a few hundred dollars, this does show some interesting patterns.
First, the number of downloads from B&N are significantly greater then Amazon. And while the number of customer reviews on Amazon for Water Dance is four, B&N resulted in eleven. Are they kinder there? Seems so. 
But what matters is that everything but Kindle came through the Smashwords release. So while many may look down on Smashwords, the package they offer is actually more effective in reaching readers than Kindle.
So far only four of the six novels are released, and with each release there's another surge of downloads for Water Dance.
And that's something else worth noting/ When you release a series, each new release results in very few sales for that title, because readers, if that storty sounds interesting, will, rather than buying, head for the first in the series. Will those thousands of downloads result in sales of the other novels down the line?
One certainly hopes so.
I'l let you know. But one way or the other, tonight, I'm pretty happy.
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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Thanks for the info, Jay. This is similar to what I'm planning to try. Keep us posted.
.
How did I miss this? I jump on any discussion with your name on it. I will download your first book and start reading.
--edited by Mimi Speike on 1/12/2014, 12:08 PM--
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Joined: 9/17/2013
Posts: 104
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I too thank you for posting an update on your experiment. I've heard of others who have given away books as a marketing tool, but never saw their results.
I've had two short story collections published by a small traditional publisher. I have an appreciative though small audience, and I look for ways to find readers.
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Joined: 6/7/2013
Posts: 1356
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Hi Jay--this is really great info, thank you so much for being generous and sharing the specifics.
And congrats--this looks like it's been a true success!
Lucy
Book Country Community and Engagement Manager
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Joined: 2/9/2012
Posts: 427
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Yes, thank you! It's always great to see real-life examples.
And well done!
Nevena
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