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So, Starship’s Mage: Episode 1 has been out in the wild for a whole week!
It’s done better than I was afraid it would, and not as well as I hoped, but that’s the nature of the experiment. We’ll be testing a few marketing techniques along the way to March 15th and the launch of Episode 2.
A week out though, I figured it was time for a bit of retrospective. First off, that wonderful toy of all accountants: statistics!
The split between the different sales channels was interesting – especially the dominance of Amazon.com, as almost all of my direct marketing was focused on my Canadian friends and colleagues (it seems either some Canadian sales show up as Amazon.com, or my Facebook and Twitter are not as Canuckistan focused as I think!)
I’ve also had enough ‘I’ll buy it once its on Kobo’ comments to be very glad I did not choose to go with KDP Select. While Amazon is my predominant source of sales, I have to wonder if that will hold up once the ebook hits Kobo, iBooks, and Barnes and Noble come January (the ‘Books’ page above will be updated with the relevant links once I see the ebook go up). Smashwords itself has been popular among the people I’ve talked to, as it provides a wider variety of reading options as well – if you buy it on Kindle, its not easy to read it on anything except Kindle.
Overall, it’s been an intimidating experience that we’re learning from, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes in the new year.
Merry Christmas, Blessed Solstice, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays to all.
I’ll see you in the New Year.
Glynn Stewart
I am curious to see how the different marketing techniques turn out!