KDP Select Update...

Posting later than usual this morning due to an unexpected emergency last night. Everything is fine, but I'd love to take a poll of how many times per year parents end up at ER with their kids because I must be above average. I think the doctors and nurses are beginning to recognize me and I'm becoming familiar with their schedules. There's a pattern for the ER of the best hours to visit (ideally it'd be never) and avoid line ups (although with emergencies don't count on hitting the slower times).

Enough of that, just glad all is ok.

Now, as promised just over a month ago, an update on my experiment. To give you some background, before KDP sales these were the sales for Two Halves. And I'm only including US and UK as the rest are either minimal or non-existent. And, I'm only including Amazon.

And, I'm sorry if this is boring, feel free to drop down to Conclusions.

December 2011:  20 US   (including friends and family)
January 2012:       8 US + 1 UK
February 2012:     5 US + 1 UK (up until Feb 20th)

First KDP Select 2 Day Free Promotion for Marked on Feb 21 & Feb 22.

Sales of Two Halves (the one that's not on promo) o
Feb 21:  6 US
Feb 22: 11 US + 1 UK
Considering my numbers, that's a lot for 2 days.

Total free downloads for Marked:
6038 US
123 UK

I was lucky enough to be picked up by ENT (E-Reader News) which boost the downloads by a ton. At one point I saw 200 in 15 minutes and 600 in 1 hour. Every time the screen refreshed, the number changed. I'm over the obsessiveness with numbers now, I promise. Learned a good lesson from it all: Turn internet off and keep writing.

By end of Feb 22nd I ended up on #1 in my category and #58 in overall Free Kindle. Now what happened next?

Rest of February Sold (stopped tracking UK):
Marked:  45 US
Two Halves: 29 US

March Sold (until March 11 & 12th)
Marked: 29 US
Two Halves:  15 US

Next Free Prmo for Marked: March 11 & 12
Total free downloads 441.
Despite my hours of work to notify all sites possible of the free promotion, that's all there was. Conclusion, unless you get picked up by one of the major sites like ENT or POI, downloads will most likely be in the hundreds instead of thousands, not giving you enough boost in the numbers.

Sales up to date for March:
Marked: 41 US
Two Halves:  78 US (due to a nice boost I received on a promo from Kindle Fire Department)

Do not waste your money on Kindle Nation Daily. It did not work for me and I tried three different options they had. Saw no results other than perhaps a total of 5 sales.

Conclusions:
* Not as good as others who ran their promos, but for my numbers, it was not bad.
* Would I do it again? I don't know. I don't think so because I'm exploring other options to release a book, and they may be better. It can perhaps be used to launch a book, but unlike some say don't worry about the reviews, I would get some in during a soft-release (about 1 week before the announcement is made)
* Will I stay in KDP for Marked?  Probably no. The sales for my other distributors are picking up, so I don't want readers with other reading devices to be deprived of my work.
* Stop being a full-time promoter and make sure your writing doesn't suffer. (Unless you only wrote to have a one hit wonder)
* Next step: finish current WIP (almost done)

Now, for the important question: How many times in the past year have you visited the ER with your kids?

p.s. rushing the post a little, no proofreading (sorry for any errors), got to drop off the kids to school