(Oh My!)

Seems like just yesterday I was agonizing over turning my monstrous doorstop-sized Great American Novel into a series. Now there are four regular-sized novels in the series published out of a probable six.

 

Pardon me while I flex:

Though they haven’t done as well yet as my Retreads Series, the Paradox books have all become bestsellers–and within a month of release, respectively. But wait…there’s more! Book Four: Provoking Fate made bestseller for two weeks without me lowering the price or running a promotion!

I am disappointed that I’m not getting reviews–those mercurial manifestations of “social proof” with an inordinate impact on visibility. But with all the strings Amazon has attached to posting reviews, that’s probably just how the ball bounces. The Paradox Series has been collecting ratings at a…ahem…rate that’s not bad considering how new it is, and that the author is a relatively unknown indie with no Youtube following. Or social media “influencer” status. Or marketing acumen. I dusted off my old Twatter account late last year, but my tweets are de-boosted to the point that out of 700 followers, only two see them on a regular basis.

Whatever. I’ve got plenty to be thankful for.

Pleasant surprises:

I discounted all my novel-length books for the most recent Big Based Book Sale, and scheduled a coincident promotion of Book One: Escaping Fate on Book Barbarian. The Based Book Sale began, and all my titles started selling. But for some reason, Book Two: Rebooting Fate outsold everything else. It had been a #1 Hot New Release back in December, but now shot up into the Bestseller chart again.

What’s more, Book Three: Defying Fate, which made the Bestseller chart back in February, was back on the chart, a few paces behind Book Two. I shared a partial spoiler about Provoking Fate at the top of this post. What I didn’t share was that it hadn’t even been released yet. It wasn’t scheduled to be published until after the Based Book Sale was over, so it climbed up there behind Book Two and Three from pre-orders…and at full price.

Rebooting and Defying remained in Bestseller territory for about a week.

Most authors who manage to crack the Bestseller list see their books remain toward the top for a while afterwards, propped up by their momentum. The visibility that comes with that attracts more readers. Hence more reviews. And reviews lead to better visibility. It’s a sort of feedback loop which wins the author thousands of reviews and gazillions of sales. My books, on the other hand…Amazon normally hides them immediately after the spike, and sales drop off a cliff. Reviews don’t roll in, and I’m left with little but a memory of the book’s 15 minutes of fame. Word of mouth really ain’t a thing anymore, so when Amazon hides it, it is swallowed by obscurity.

That’s why what happened next with Book Four was remarkable: after it went live, I went to the product page to proof-check the sample and saw that it was on the Bestseller list again–still at full price, with no promotion! If only I had checked for that earlier!

OK, I know: rah-rah me.

Your next chance to pick ’em up cheap:

Well, I have finally scheduled a promotion for Provoking Fate, for Friday 4/19/24. Price will drop to $2.99 (not just on Amazon, but everywhere) through the weekend. I’m interested to see how well it does with a little boost.

Also, I have advance notice of when the next BBBS and I’m gonna try to schedule the publication of Book Five: Resisting Fate to coincide with that. So at that time, both books will be discounted to 99 cents and we’ll see what happens.

About the books themselves:

The biggest challenge with Paradox was making it episodic. Taking one story arc, chopping it into six pieces, then tweaking each piece into its own separate arc with beginning, middle and end. I’ve got enough distance from where I sit now, that it appears the individual arcs are getting stronger as the series rolls along. Provoking Fate may just have the strongest opening act yet. Maybe that is evident in the sample Amazon provides, and accounts for it exceeding expectations.

In my opinion, the opening act in Resisting Fate is even stronger. I have no idea if readers will agree with me.

It would be great to get feedback on stuff like that. If not in a review, then even here in the blog comments.