More Marketing Mishaps

When You Don't Screw Anything Up but Fail Anyway Part II

In my previous marketing effort, I organized a promotional stack designed to push the last novel in my Paradox Series to #1 in the Football category at Amazon. The first novel in the series had reached #2 in Time-Travel Science Fiction but just couldn’t make that last step—though it was the #1 Hot New Release. The second book also become the #1 Hot new Release. Every book in the series has made the bestseller list at least once, either in the Top 10 or Top 20—some of them with no extra promotional effort from me. That made me believe that with a well-planned, well-executed promo stack, I could get Book Six to hit #1.

More on my obsession with hitting #1 later.

My promotion was well-planned. And so far as what I could control, it was well-executed. But Bookbub really screwed the pooch, and the Based Book Sale failed to list the book on the big money day—which would have been even bigger since Vox Day gave the sale a plug. I think the plan would have succeeded if either of those elements had played out as expected. But I’ll never know, now.

I thought I was done, then.

It bothered me increasingly that a reader who wanted to couldn’t just buy the complete story arc in one volume as I originally wrote it. So, even though I was now waste-deep in my graphic novel project, I compiled all the novels in a digital “box set.” It was priced at less than $10, which was already a big savings. But I decided to do this one 99 cent promotion for it, meaning readers could get the whole series for almost nothing (and I would make almost nothing). It could possibly be worth it if I got some reviews out of it. Or if I got another #1 bestseller out of it.

Why was I so obsessed with the book hitting #1? It was a goal I set, for one thing. Seeing how well some of the novels did in the series, with little or no promotion, it was a realistic goal. Plus, I had achieved it before, so it should be achievable again. Right?

In my Retreads Series, all three military thrillers were #1 Amazon bestsellers in multiple categories. That didn’t net me as many reviews as would normally happen, and the algorithm clamped down immediately to hide those books from anybody who didn’t look specifically for them, quashing my sales spike. But still, having all those #1s are nice bragging rights, when neither the author nor his work can check enough boxes to ever win an award in Clown World. I wanted to see if I could get at least one more #1.

I timed this one to coincide with the Based Book Sale again, and also paid for promotions with Book Barbarian and Written Word Media. I’m pretty sure this plan would have worked, too.

This was the “Black Friday” Based Book Sale, so I scheduled the price drop according to the length of the sale: November 27 through December 4. Thanksgiving Week. I double-checked everything to ensure I had lined up all the dominoes. I had.

As fate would have it, though, I would be on the road on the day the sale started, and would not have time to constantly check every aspect of every part of the promotion stack. My big concern was that my book would be listed on the BBS from the beginning this time, so that I wouldn’t miss the biggest day-and-a-half of sales. I was able to confirm that on my phone when I had cell signal and stopped for gas. But that was cut short when my new puppy took a big wet dump on the back seat of my truck despite having plenty of time to relieve herself outside.

Long depressing story shorter, Written Word Media did not run my promotion. But I did not see the email until the next day. Thanksgiving Day. When I saw it, I immediately responded, and got a form letter back saying nobody would be checking email until the 29^th.

In summary, somebody at Written Word Media claimed that the price had not dropped, then took off. It had dropped. I double and triple-checked that the price had dropped to 99 cents at the online bookstores.

Turns out, I should have been checking Written Word Media to see if they had done what I paid them for.

Paradox had a five-digit ranking to start out with.

The book climbed to #14 on the first day, then again on Thanksgiving Day when the Book Barbarian promo landed. If Written Word Media had done their job, I would have made it to #1 this time. It moved up tens of thousands of rankings just with the Based Book Sale and Book Barbarian. Another 13 rankings would have been cake. But that opportunity was pissed away from beyond my reach.

Silver lining: my book came in third in that Based Book Sale, behind only two authors with name recognition, whose books got plugged.

What happens now? I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Written Word Media points to something in some fine print somewhere to prove they’re not really responsible. But even if they apologize and give me a refund, or promise to let me use it in the future, the opportunity has been squandered. It’s doubtful lightning will strike in the same place twice and I doubt I’ll be willing to give away my entire series like this again, even assuming that all the crucial moving parts would align and everybody I’m depending on would do what they’re supposed to do.

Looks like it’s not in the cards for me to get another #1. This is tiresome. Back to the graphic novel.

UPDATE: I shelved this article for months, because I just got too pissed off anytime I thought about it. The failure would have been easy to take if everybody did their job but it flopped anyway. It’s much, much worse knowing that it could have topped the bestseller list, absent the incompetence (or malice?) from one of the moving parts.

My obsession with making #1 bestseller in at least one category also made it worse.

“Really, Hank—Malice? Methinks thou be paranoid.”

That doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me.

We know the book biz is slopping over with leftist cat lady karens who loathe white heterosexual men—especially if guilty of the additional sin of rejecting The Narrative. Their self-righteous attitude and excuses about screwing me (yup, my speculation was prophetic) could have been defensiveness over their own incompetence, or their own Gaystapo tactics to torpedo my promotion.

Any way you shake it, their actions were inexcusable. The very best possible case is that whoever was running the store that day checked the price at some point before Amazon dropped it for the Kindle Countdown Deal, then took off for a couple days, leaving me unable to even communicate with a human being.

Eventually a supervisor or manager contacted me, apologized and gave me a refund. Better than nothing. I guess it’s like I never booked the promotion with WWM in the first place.

If I had dropped the ball somehow, I would probably use Written Word Media again in the future. Never say never, but I’m pretty sure I won’t ever again. They and Bookbub have proven they can’t be trusted.

I shudder to imagine everything that can go wrong before and during the campaign for Threat Quotient.

Nevertheless, I drive on.