I suppose what everyone wants to know is, how I managed to achieve these figures. Well, I asked for a little help from friends, and the indie community responded very generously. I also had insider help. Sean Campbell heard about my promotion, and urged me to read a copy of "Can't Sell, Won't Sell".
This self help manual originally started life as a series of blog entries – Sean and younger brother Dan charted their progress as first time indie authors and self publishers, with an extra challenge; to produce a best seller within ninety days. They succeeded spectacularly: Dead on Demand hit the ground running and has already attracted a slew of four and five star reviews praising the novel's originality and intricate plot. Figuring I'd pick up one or two helpful hints and had nothing to lose, I did as Sean suggested, there's nothing I enjoy more than picking successful authors' brains. I've seen lots of "You too can be the next John Locke/Amanda Hocking style books around, but never been tempted to buy. One look at the sample chapters was enough. The drum banging trumpet blowing tactics weren't for me. As I began reading "Can't Sell Won't Sell", I relaxed. There are no hard sell tactics. Just good solid advice from authors who have successfully done what they set out to do.
Personally, I would have kept this knowledge to myself. I'm nice, but not that nice. Luckily Sean and Dan are much better people than I, and they want to share with the indie community. Since without reading about their experiences, and how they got to the top A Ripple in Time would now be back amongst the 250,000 ranked ebooks where it usually languishes, I do owe the brothers an awfully big debt, hence I'm helping spread the word. So now you know how I did it. With a lot of help from my friends, and simple down to earth advice, not on how to sell, but how to make potential readers aware that A Ripple in Time existed. Now almost 17,000 readers have A Ripple in Time on their kindle.
Sean and Dan are offering a valuable service to the indie community, and because I took their advice, my promo succeeded beyond most indie authors' wildest dreams. I've been lucky enough to make some really good friends in the indie community, they know me well enough to know I'm not prone to exaggerating, or boasting for that matter. But for those who don't know me that well, here's a screen shot of this month's reports from Amazon for the USA. (I'm not panicking about the returns, presumably these are from folk who thought the promotion was still running.)
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
90 Days Novel Blog