Last week, I talked about how I’d checked a box that I ought not to have. The net effect was that my books did not show up in Amazon searches from the main page. Did fixing that have any measurable impact on sales? It’s close to the holidays, so I should expect more Real Life Family Events (RLFEs). Did they block my writing? Let’s take a look at the key performance indicators first.
Last Week’s Progress By the Numbers
I’m happy with another week where my output exceeded 10,000 words!
This week, I had to write four “helper” chapters. They move the action forward outside of the view of the main characters. They’re fun to write, and there are only a handful in Dreams of Deucalion Book 3: Bait and Bleed. But the come with a cost I hadn’t really thought about until I had so many this close together: since they’re not told from the perspective of the POV characters, they typically need a set of secondary characters and sets.
I really enjoy casting new positions and building new sets. But it takes time away from writing! I had to build sets for the European Union’s spaceship Monte Cusna, as well as some sets and additional characters for the Investment Houses’ Sixth Enforcement Fleet vessel Huang’s Foundry. I think the mini-dramas in those scenes worked. I hope the readers agree!
The Power of a Checkbox
Remember last week when I talked about the box I checked — but should not have? I wondered if that mistake cost me sales. It’s hard to be sure, but looking at my sales since December 11, 2024 (when the change when into effect), it looks like it might well have made a difference:
Did the change make a difference? Yes — I think!
It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, because who knows if the first two weeks of December were otherwise identical from a sales perspective? The only difference I know is that I paused my Amazon ad on December 16 — after which, sales seemed to increase! It’s impossible that stopping the Amazon ad increased sales, but it’s clear my sales were consistently higher after I corrected the checkbox.
I’ll continue to monitor the numbers, but my impression is that the incorrectly set checkbox might have cost me 10%-15% of sales. That’s measurable! But I’ll keep monitoring performance and see if the answer becomes more clear over time.
Amazon Ads: A New Plan
Publisher Rocket recently added a feature that allows customers to mine the keywords for a given Amazon Kindle book (up to fifty times a month). That feature greatly improved my ability to find useful keywords for other books in my genre. So much so, in fact, that my recent Amazon ads have sold more books than my previous ads.
There’s just one problem: the best keywords require the highest bid. For example, the highest-producing keyword might require a bid of $1.80; a lower volume keyword might cost $0.40. When the first book in a series is $0.99, that’s a huge difference, because not every click I pay for converts to a sale.
So, I’m going to change tactics. I’m going to try to find the keywords that are the best balance of click-inducing and affordable. I think it’s possible, but without trying, I won’t know for sure. Wish me luck!
Progress against Last Week’s Goals
Here’s how I performed against last week’s goals:
- Write Jadwiga Janczak’s Plot Turn 1: Done!
- Write the helper plot for Hans Alder’s tantrum: Done!
- Writer Atticus Porter’s Pinch 1: Done!
- Write the helper plot for a chance in direction at the Investment Houses: Done! It turned into 2 chapters.
- Write the back cover blurb for Dreams of Deucalion Book 1: Special Recon: Done! I’ve also awarded the bid to create the cover to Miblart again.
- Rewrite the Amazon blurb for The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning to invigorate Amazon Ads: Still on hold while I give some more thought to Amazon ads in general.
Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2024 Week 52
Here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:
- Complete the first draft of Trent Raven’s Pinch 1
- Complete the first draft of Jadwiga Janczak’s Pinch 1
- Complete another helper chapter with Hans Alder and Luisa Brunner
- Complete Janczak’s Midpoint
- Evaluate the first draft of the Miblart cover
- Rewrite the Amazon blurb for The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning to invigorate Amazon Ads (stretch objective)
What Do You Think?
Do you use Amazon ads? How do you balance desirable keywords the minimum bids that perform? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!
