Nine Days in February (An alternative approach to marketing)

On January 17 the Kindle version of Chasing Innocence became available on Amazon. 21 days later it had sold 21 copies and I knew each and every one of the people that had bought it. I was one of them. My search for an audience led me to Twitter, where I found a lot of indie authors. None of course were particularly interested in my book, because like me, they were looking for an audience for theirs. One author did lead me to the Kindle Book Review, resulting in my first 5 star review and my first interview. This same author was marketing the hell out of her book with great success. The author was also a successful businesswoman. In describing her book's success she detailed the need to create a platform. Hers was the Twitter community.

As much as I admired her drive and was a little envious of her success, I knew pretty quickly her platform wasn't mine. For a start, I just don't have the time between a wife, full-time job and writing the next book, to build a second career in marketing. The reality, even if I did have time, is I don't have the marketing brass balls, or desire, to do it. Commercial marketing is part of a world I'm trying to escape from. It probably sounds awfully naive to ignore the power of digital marketing, especially from someone that has spent their entire career neck deep in the digital industry. But it's my experiences over the last two decades especially, that drives me to sidestep viral marketing campaigns, and to offer instead a friendly smile and a great book.

Of course, I still need a platform to get going. In this case I need people to start reading my book and talking about it. To this end I signed up to the Amazon Select program. Among many other things Select will offer your book for free. Amazon will then tell Kindle owners who like your kind of book, that it's there to be downloaded. I set my promotion to start 8 Feb and to run for two days. I had no idea what to expect at all. Having sold 21 copies of Chasing Innocence to friends and family, I hoped some people would download it and eventually read it.

36 hours into the promotion Chasing Innocence had gone from unranked to #2 in the overall free UK Kindle charts, and #30 in the US. A position it maintained right to the end of the promotion. Over 48 hours Chasing Innocence averaged a download every 45 seconds. It's success within a crowded marketplace of free books, was testament to the quality of the cover art, product description and Sarah Burns' excellent 5 star review, given on behalf of the Kindle Book Review.

There was more to come. Chasing Innocence hit the paid charts. By Sunday the 12 Feb it had reached #71 in the UK Kindle store and was #21 in thriller fiction. Nine days after offering Chasing Innocence for free it had been downloaded 4,400 times. And I can't say I wasn't caught up in the whole chart thing. The reality was, apart from a great cover and a handful of 5-Star reviews on Amazon, there was nothing to keep it in the charts. It had built momentum though. Word of mouth, some dedicated friends, the increasing number of Amazon reviews and the mechanics of Amazon's website, mean Chasing Innocence continues to sell at a steady volume. Something I could only have dreamed of nine days ago. That volume wasn't enough to keep it in the charts though. I could have dropped the price and started marketing. It was real tempting. I didn't for all the reasons I have explained.

My hope is that a portion of the people that download Chasing Innocence, will read it. I know it won't be for everyone because twelve people have gone to the trouble of returning it. It is after-all everything it says on the cover. The chances are, if the reader is gripped by the prologue, they'll turn the last page of the Epilogue about two days later. They might then tell someone just how good it was. And maybe even write an Amazon review. Then, in a year or so, I might be able to tell you how great books and a smile did make for good marketing after all.