Marketing efforts: First feedback

We had a long thread here some time ago with people giving me advice on
how to help market my book. I now have at least a little relevant data.

I've been watching the Amazon ratings for _Harald_ fairly closely of
late, in part because they provide the nearest thing available to
sensitive, day by day feedback on the effect of my efforts. I now have
evidence on two attempts:

1. I was asked to write a column for Forbes.com, and got them to include
a link to my book's web page. Prior to that, my Amazon rating was
running mostly in the 100,000-200,000 range, with occasional drops into
five digits--not encouraging.

The column ran on the afternoon of the 23rd. On the 24th my rating got
down to 68,823. On the 25th it reached 20,234. The 26th it was 71,004,
and early morning of the 27th 120,511.

Baycon was May 26-29. The day before, Betty and Becca and I helped stuff
envelopes, and contributed Harald bookmarks--the only thing in the
envelope other than the program booklet, as it happened. On the 26th I
put up quite a lot of 8 1/2x11 cardstock signs for _Harald_ and put out
flyers. I was then on various panels, mostly remembering to stand the
book up on the table in front of me, did one reading and one stint
signing, neither with very many people coming, and provided the one book
dealer who had copies with copies of the book map to give away.

Through the 27th and 28th the rating fluctuated a good deal, as seems
unfortunately typical of Amazon ratings, with a high of 120,100 and a
low of 33,808. Today it got down to eleven thousand something, and was
15,271 last time I checked. I'm guessing that's people coming home from
Baycon and ordering the book on Amazon. The one dealer at the con who
had (three) copies sold out on the final day.

I think it's clear that the Forbes.com column link got me some sales for
a couple of days--supported by a two to three fold increase in pageviews
of the book page. More surprising is that my activities at Baycon seem
to have produced a still larger effect. Given that there were fewer than
ten people at my reading, which was the one thing directly relevant, I
doubt it was responsible for much--my guess is that it was general
visibility due to signs, bookmarks, and presence on panels. But it was
definitely encouraging.

How many books that represents I don't know--probaby not very, since
Amazon is clearly basing their ratings on sales over a very short time
period. But at least it's something. And it suggests that, in addition
to sending bookmarks to Baen to send to conventions, I should try to
arrange to get signs posted.

--
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/ http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
Author of _Harald_, a fantasy without magic.
Published by Baen, in bookstores now
.