T.I.E. (Entry 14) - Stability as an Indie Read
By Thio Isobel Moss
During my five free promo days, while running a promotion outside of Amazon, I told my team that it felt like gambling. We’d hit the jackpot. Coins were spitting out of the machine. It was fabulous fun.
I scrambled for a second promo to keep the momentum going, convinced that my transition to paid sales would be smooth as butter. My early fears were gone. What I didn’t realize was that I was enjoying beginner’s luck — at least in part.
Then the coins stopped.
The second promo fell flat. Zero sales. Zero pages read.
That was not fun.
I considered promo stacking. It was tempting, but my budget isn’t bottomless, and at this point I’m scraping at the corners, trying to find a few crumbs. Reality forced me to be patient. I started celebrating every sale instead, and I paid close attention to how each one nudged the rankings.
It’s an odd time of year. Certain days are great for book sales, followed by a slump… then a small rise… then a crash. Learning to live inside that rhythm is part of the process.
I just ran a promo—a good one. Under normal circumstances, it might produce 20–50 sales at the right discount. For me, it produced six. I’m not concerned with revenue right now; I’m focused on visibility and momentum. On learning how things work.
Those six sales moved Blind Spot from #1,680 to #375 in Contemporary Fantasy. I consider the $60 investment well spent.
That was also my last promo before New Year’s Eve. I know I won’t stay at #375. I may not even last the night there. I’ll consider myself in good shape if I stay above #7,668 in Contemporary Fantasy — the rank I held on release day, November 28th — until the next promo arrives.
I know some authors race to hit #1, and I fully expected to do the same. But as I’ve absorbed information, I’ve realized I don’t want a hot, fast spike followed by a hard fall. I want to find my book’s level. Given the occasional marketing nudge, where does Blind Spot naturally maintain itself? Where is its comfort zone?
I want stability.
I have four promos of varying types lined up for the first half of January. I don’t intend to run any in the second half. My goal is to gradually wean off heavy promotion, put Blind Spot on sale for a few days each month with one or two supporting promos, and leave it at full price the rest of the time.
To resist meddling—and freaking out over every twitch in the rankings—I’ll keep my hands busy by working on Bump, reading, reviewing books, building content for my website, and not refreshing the page every five seconds.
This is very much an experiment, but Blind Spot has demonstrated that during this holiday season, at least, when it slips, it does so slowly. When it rises, it rises quickly. I can’t say other books will behave the same way, but I do recommend running small experiments to learn how your book survives in the wild.
It’s scary to voluntarily take off the training wheels. I don’t want to rely solely on readers who only buy books for $1.99 or less—no shade at all; deals and free books are my jam. But I’m looking for my audience: the readers who finish the book and immediately want more.
That takes time.
I need to find that stable place so that when someone is looking for my book—even if they don’t yet know its name or mine—we’ll be there to introduce ourselves.
Just some food for thought.
