Queen Michal's Big Day - Kindle Select Blowout

Or how Queen Michal Made it to the Amazon Top 30.

What are the odds that two novels written about the same Bible character would go FREE on the same day on Amazon?

Here's what happened from my side. I uploaded Michal's Window last Thursday and elected to be in the Kindle Select program. Initially, I wanted to go out free the same day I uploaded. However due to system latency, I was unable to set my Promo day immediately. Of course I asked my friends at CritiqueCircle.com for advice and they told me to give a few days lead time for EReader News Today and other Kindle content newsletters to gather data.

I thought about going out on Leap Day Feb 29th, but decided it would be easier to read the Amazon reports at the monthly cut-off, so I selected March 1-3 for my free days. Then I went and advertised it to all my friends and on my blog. After all, I didn't want my friends to pay 99c for my book. My friends on CritiqueCircle.com posted this great link http://www.squidoo.com/going-free-kindle-ebook-promotional-campaigns-for-authors on websites I can add my promo to. Immediately I noticed the advice not to go out on the first of the month and not to go out without any reviews.

Too late to change plans. I had already told people. Well, they were my friends, but still, I figured they would have set alarms on their cell phone to download at midnight March 1. Fortunately, I had enough lead time for two of my leading critters to write a review. After all, they knew the story inside out and left and right and had pulled up my training pants and wiped up all my boo-boos. Whew!

The big day arrived. I stayed up past midnight, but Amazon still showed 99c. My friend in Australia was getting impatient. I mean, it was already March 1 for her, and had been for some time. I could not stay up longer so I went to sleep.

Going into my big day I had exactly 14 sold in the US and 1 sold in the UK for a whopping total of 15. All friends, no doubt. Imagine my surprise when I woke up in the morning and saw 328 downloads! Yay!  Meanwhile, the friendly folks at WorldLiteraryCafe.com have been diligently tweeting this promotion all week and I had high hopes.

March 1st got better and better. At noon I was at 650 and happy. At 1:00 pm I was at 1256 and someone mentioned I got mentioned in Ereader News. At that point I hadn't even gone to look at the other free books. I was just so happy that more than 1000 people downloaded.

Then I noticed another book named "Michal" on the top of the Historical Romance list. Jill Eileen Smith is a writer with over twenty years experience and she was leading me to the top. At 5:00 pm she was #1 and I was #4. At 7:00 pm, she was #1 and I was #3. Finally at 10:00 pm, she was #1 and I was #2.

Meanwhile I snuck to the top of Family Saga category where I would stay for the rest of the three days.

I ended March 1st at over 6500 downloads and ranked #55 overall. Michal was #1 and Michal's Window was #2 in Historical Romance and we would stay there until March 3rd.

Things got really exciting on the second day, March 2. Jill Eileen Smith went to #7 or so, and my highest ranking overall was #26. We stayed at #1 and #2 in Historical Romance the entire day and night. I ended the day with over 10,000 downloads and ranked #28. The entire WorldLiteraryCafe tweet team tweeted for both books with this tweet: RT @AyalaRachelle MICHAL, KING DAVID'S WIFE: both books #FREE http://amzn.to/zhK30L AND http://amzn.to/AjRCLG #WLCAuthor #amazon PLS RT!

The third day, we started to slip. #2 and #3, and then #3 and #4 before we parted ways. Newer books intervened and we ended March 3, #5 and #10, respectively in Historical Romance. Jill retained the #1 spot in Religious Historical Fiction, and I retained #1 spot in Family Saga.

At 10:30 pm with an hour and half left, 12,953 downloads from US, 342 from UK, and 17 from the rest. My overall ranking slipped to #55.

I don't know how many Jill Smith gave away, but it must be a lot more than I did. She was mentioned in Pixel of Ink whereas I was not. But honestly, having her running with me helped bring my book to more people's attention. And being on the same page with her most of the time was invaluable exposure. All I can say is I had no idea she'd go free the exact same day. I give all the glory to God who orchestrated this cross-promotion and am glad that Queen Michal's story will continue to educate and entertain more readers in the upcoming months.

List of websites that listed Michal's Window:

http://www.frugal-freebies.com/2012/03/free-kindle-books-daily-deals-3112.html

http://www.freebookshub.com/2012/03/01/michals-window-kindle-edition/

http://ereadernewstoday.com/free-kindle-books-7-more-free-books-for-3-1-12/6711420/

Thanks to everyone who downloaded, my friends at CritiqueCircle.com for supporting me, the three blogs I was featured on [Jennifer Comeaux, Cherie Reich and Melisa Hamling] and all my friends at WorldLiteraryCafe.com for the tweets.

I will post final results tomorrow morning and the winner of my $50 Amazon Giftcard Drawing.

Update (3/4/2012): Winner is Entry #15.


Results of the three day promo period (March 1-3) (# of downloads):

Amazon.com 14185
UK 438
DE 17
FR 5
ES 1
IT 0
Total: 14646