On August 19, 2012, Baby Grand was Kindle Nation Daily’s eBook of the Day.
My goal for the sponsorship was to introduce Baby Grand to readers who have never heard of the book or of me or my blog — to connect with complete strangers who might enjoy a good thriller. And, hey, if I could make a little money too, even better.
Kindle Nation Daily is a popular promotional choice for Kindle authors (when I purchased the sponsorship back in June there were only two dates left for August). KND offers all kinds of sponsorships, including daily and weekly options, as well as packages, that run from about $30 and up, and their newsletters and websites connect with tens of thousands of readers.
The sponsorship I purchased, eBook of the Day, is priced at $159.99. A bit steep. So right off the bat, I knew there was a good chance that I might not recoup my investment since I had planned on selling Baby Grand at the promotional price of $1.99 that day, which meant that I’d need to sell about 270 books (since Amazon offers 35 percent royalties for books priced under $2.99) to break even.
August 19 came and I shared, tweeted, and blogged my little heart out. And friends and colleagues were kind enough to do the same, and my sales jumped over 1,300 percent! When the day began, Baby Grand was ranked 39, 516 on Amazon and reached a high of 2,736 (I had hoped to crack the 1,000 mark… oh well), which is the highest it’s been so far on Amazon since it was first published on May 23, 2012.
But did I sell 270 books that day? No, I did not. Frankly, though, Baby Grand sustained a pretty decent sales rank for the rest of the week — something I attributed to the sponsorship (stragglers or vacationers who might not have been able to read their emails until days later), so it may be unfair to judge the promotion based on solely that 24-hour period. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I would have left my price point at $2.99 rather than move it to the promotional $1.99. I certainly would have made a lot more money (70 percent royalties kicking in) if I would have sold the same number of books, but who knows if I would have sold fewer books at the higher price point?
One of the high points of the day was when a reader exuberantly commented on Kindle Nation Daily’s FB page, on which ran a post about Baby Grand: “Getting this!” My book had made its way to at least one perfect stranger. :)
Other things to note: I do love the transparency of Kindle Nation Daily, how their sponsorship results are available for all to see and how their pricing is readily available. I also loved working with Stephen Windwalker. He and his team are uber-responsive to all inquiries.
So the big question… Would I do it again? (The lovely Robyn Bradley asked me this after reading my recent post about KDP Select.) The answer is yes. I think it was a worthwhile promotion, if not all that profitable, but might try leaving the price point at $2.99 next time, just to see. Trial and error, right?
Have you run a Kindle Nation Daily sponsorship? Would love to hear about your experience!
Making 'Baby Grand' (& Other Literary Rugrats) 
I love KND and have had good results there overall (although I felt it worked better when I first used it back in mid 2011 than in my most recent sponsorships; that said, I was selling my books at a lower price in 2011 ). And yes, the team there is awesome. Another place I’ve had good luck is Kindle Fire Department: http://fireapps.blogspot.com/. The folks there are great as well.
Yes, Robyn, that was my thought too — keep the book priced at $2.99, which, after all, is nothing to sneeze at, next time. And thanks for the Kindle Fire Department info. I’ll check them out!
Thanks for reporting on your experience, Dina. Definitely something I’ll consider!
As always, thanks for stopping by, Olivia!
Thanks for this, I’ve been trying to decide whether to go with a KND sponsorship or not. Have been hearing that it’s just not as good as it apparently used to be.