31 Jan 2012, Posted by caburkes in Amazon, Butta, eBooks, Emotionry, Scratch, 1 Comments Tagged CONVERSION, PLOT, VOLUMES, Young Adult

Let’s Talk Conversion: Moving Free to Paid Fan Bases

Okay…1/30/2011 was an exciting day. It marked, without a shadow of a doubt, that I can move a book in my category at least for free. Something I already established on Smashwords, but it’s a different ballpark on Amazon. So, a few ground rules of clarity that must be used in order to be on the same page:

1) I utilized Amaon’s Kindle Direct Publishing promotional for one single day to release Butta‘ for free.

2) Not all books promoted for free are received by the public. Or another way to put it, there are MANY things you just can’t GIVE away for free no matter how hard you try.

From 9am Monday morning, Butta‘ started with a ranking of 1200 out of 750,000 books in the Kindle store. I was happy with that alone and then it just got better all day.

Ranking 900, then 800, then 500, fluxed to 650 and then went hard to ranking at 400. 400 out of 750,000.

Okay, so you say “Well, it was free.” I say, “Yes, it was free out of 750,000 other books and the high majority of them also had the same free promotion.” Both indie and big players gave their books away for free and there I Butta‘ chill-laxing between the high rollers.

To paint a better picture of ‘why’ this is important:

Amanda Hocking, the Young Adult writer who achieved the million dollar deal last year was in my same category at #4 for the same free promotion. James Paterson was #6 for paid ebooks. Come on now … JAMES PATERSON! The point is, for much of the day, my book stood ground next to the literary elite and that speaks VOLUMES. Especially when you consider it’s a re-issue from 2007.

So, the party is over and Butta‘ is back at it’s regular ranking at #275,361 of paid. Still fairly high from 750,000 … but she has a ways to go. This is where we talk about CONVERSION.

Conversion- meaning the act or an instance of converting or the process of being converted. Changing ones point of view to another.

It’s literally like letting your child off to school and hoping for the best. Butta‘ is in the hands of enough people within a 24 hour hour period and all I’m doing right now is waiting for them to read it. If they read just a taste of Butta‘ (pun intended), I can have them hooked to want other things NOT free.

Ahhh, but here’s where the PLOT thickens. I have nothing else out there to pay for. The majority of my stuff are free short stories and the only book(s) of novel length on the horizon are in April and May (40 To Go and Butta‘ Worldwide). I cannot lose the momentum of readership to convert them into buying anything else so what to do?

I’ll tell you what I’m going to do … put something out sooner than later.

I’m working on this short story that will have a 1.99  price tag on it called Scratch. A short horror/scary story that fits the Young Adult category though the protagonist is VERY young (like age four). The upside is it’s integrated with video and audio setting this ebook scales ahead of others. Yeah, it’s a gimmick, but a well played out gimmick that should turn heads. It’s designed to scare the reader and what other entertainment can you get at two bucks that you can read and watch at the same time?

Scratch will be given away free for twelve hours only when I’m done so I can incorporate that kind of buzz into the book, then let it work itself there after. It’s an ambitious project but since I already have the audio recorded and the story is done, as part of my ‘put it all out there’ plan for 2012 … stuff I never finished … the eBook/audio/visual concept is an easy production. Relatively.

What I really should do is start pushing the CommonSense novel forward since it’s a popular download. The problem is the story arch needs one more Fan Fiction before I can start and, I don’t know, I want to make sure people are liking the characters. As always … no reviews good or bad and that’s likely to be the thorn in my side for the rest of my life. With Butta‘ I have to wait for people to read the book  before I can get some reviews in. But the free short stories … I don’t get it. Their SHORT… leave some feedback! I just have download numbers to go on.

Finally came up with a name for the motion graphics part of DesktopEpics that fits perfectly: Emotionry – Motion Storytellers (“Did you feel that?”)

Oh, and Butta‘ Worldwide’s cover has been changed for the final time, removing all the characters and staying consistent with the new first book. The promotional shoot a few years back will not go to waste. Using all the characters for various promotional banners and posters and things. But if I ever need a model for a cover I’m creating it myself. The days of hiring live people and photography for me are OVER.

NOT! Had an idea the other day that Emotionry would need photographs for so NIX that previous angst. LOL

 

Corey A. Burkes Author/CEO
DesktopEpics Entertainment
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