On March 8-12th I ran a book promotion for two of my books about life purpose. Here’s the jest of the promo that I shared:

My book Spiral of Fulfillment: Living an Inspired Life of Service, Simplicity & Spiritual Serenity is now FREE on Amazon.com Mar. 8-12! Grab your copy here:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005G0JKBE If you live in the UK you can download it for free on the UK website here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005G0JKBE You do NOT need a Kindle to read these books! You can still read them on ANY computer, smartphone or tablet using Amazon’s free software available here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=sv_kstore_3?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771 While you’re at it, pick up a copy of Life On Purpose: Six Passages to an Inspired Life for a deep discount during its Kindle Countdown special days (Regularly $9.99 Countdown starts today at only 99 cents & increases by a dollar each day.) Grab your copy here:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009ABMG9I If you live in the UK go here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009ABMG9I Win one of 100 Life On Purpose Courses — a $149 value: These special editions have full instructions on how to win one of 100 Life On Purpose Courses, so be sure to open the book and register early.

I shared this information (or parts of it) in the following ways:

  • The info about the free book I shared on about twenty web sites that promote such Amazon KDP giveaways.
  • I shared the full info on most of the 12 Facebook groups that permit such promotions. A few of them requested only the free book be posted which I complied with.
  • I also wrote and posted three press releases to PRLog. The press releases were viewed a total of 317 times.
  • I also created a short YouTube video trailer which has been viewed 83 times.
  • The promotion was also shared with the Life On Purpose Institute list as well as here on www.wbradfordswift.com.
  • I shared the promo info on my visionary author Facebook page and paid $30 for a Facebook ad which resulted in 17,405 people reached with 60 ‘engagements’ which broke down to 47 Photo Clicks, 6 Link Clicks, and 1 Page Likes.

The Results From these efforts my book, Spiral of Fulfillment climbed to the #1 spot in both its categories on Amazon’s free book lists. (See image). Since this was one of our primary intentions, Ann and I have declared the promotion a success. Also, we gave away 616 copies of Spiral of Fulfillment and sold eleven copies of Life On Purpose. 

Amz.Bestseller.spirt.SelfHelp

Okay, those are the facts of the promotion. Now, let’s look at what was learned from the experience. The Debrief Here are the main points Ann and I gleaned from debriefing this first promotion. (Well, we promoted the Life On Purpose book in 2007 when it was first published but this is the first we did on our own with me as an ‘indie/hybrid author.’ 1. 616 people now have a copy of a W. Bradford Swift book related to purpose in their Kindle. I suspect this also means that they will get notices when/if a new WBS book comes out, maybe also the next time a WBS book is promoted. (I’m thinking Purposeful Prosperity might be the next book to promote either as giveaway or countdown.) 2. Promoting two books at same time didn’t work as well as I’d anticipated. My thinking was that we’d leverage the promotional effort, but it appears now that we simply diluted the effort especially of the second book. We sold 11 LOP books during countdown. I believe if the countdown had been done by itself might have been much better. The problem is that since KDP countdowns are so new there are the same kind of  ‘system’ available yet — web sites and Facebook pages where a countdown can be promoted. 3. Wondering if the time involved for writing 3 press releases and posting them online was really worth the effort. Seems like posting to Facebook and web sites might be a better use of the time. The exceptional could be for a book countdown promotion where those other options are far less. 4. LOP Course Contest — This also didn’t seem to get the attention it deserved. About 10 ‘winners’ thus far. Have one more week for people to learn of it and take action. Not sure at this point whether to extend it or let it end on March 19 — a week from yesterday. 5. And the biggest question of all: How to build on this successful first promo? How to build momentum? Answer – A next book promotion as a giveaway or countdown — not both. Consider a giveaway of related book — one related to life purpose like Purposeful Prosperity. It might make sense to run a second Life On Purpose Course contest. One note: Much of the promotional ideas came from Tom Corson-Knowles Udemy online course, How To Become a Bestselling Author on Amazon Kindle. More on that in another blog or vlog post. Your Turn What did you glean from this blog article? What other promotional ideas have you tried and found successful or tried and learned they didn’t work for you? Leave a comment below. We visionary authors and readers need to stick together.