Overture to Disaster Goes Free

By Chester Campbell

I haven't commented on the final book in my Post Cold War Political Thriller Trilogy since a post back in September shortly after it came out in ebook format for the Kindle. I haven't done much in the way of promotion except an occasional tweet, and the results are obvious. It has registered few sales and has received no reviews on Amazon. I suspect one problem is that my loyal readers are all fans of PI whodunit mysteries. The political thrillers are a different breed, the action sweeping across continents, the characters dealing with complex motivations.

My friend Tim Hallinan began his review of the first book (Beware the Jabberwock) with the observation: "This is a change of pace for Chester Campbell, best known (to me, at least) for his Sid Chance PI novels." Happily he added: "Here he's working in the global intelligence thriller territory of Ludlum and Trevanian, but (I'm happy to say) with more character development."

Hallinan (author of the popular Poke Rafferty Bangkok thrillers and the Junior Bender humorous mysteries) concluded his review with: "Short chapters, great pacing, good characters, and high stakes. I really enjoyed this book." As busy as he is I've been reluctant to ask him for a review of the final book in the series.

So I've decided put my money where my mouth is and do a freebie promotion on BookBub for Overture to Disaster. Previous BookBub promos have resulted in lots of new reviews. I have my fingers crossed on this one.

If you'd like a free copy for the Kindle, check here March 10-12 to get yours.

Visit me at Mystery Mania

Freebie Book Promotion Followup

By Chester Campbell

It has been two weeks since my second Greg McKenzie mystery, Designed to Kill, had a three-day freebie book promotion with BookBub. The results are a mixed bag. There were 49,287 free downloads on Amazon. Bill Kirton said he didn't have such large numbers but sold 9,000 books. He's obviously in a different league from me. I've never sold 9,000 books under any circumstance.

I was disappointed with the sales of Designed to Kill, which have only numbered 35, plus six borrows, which pay about the same. But on the whole my books have sold much better than normally. The first and third books have each reached 111sales or borrows, while the fourth and fifth books in the series registered 47 and 30. In all, my ten books totaled 366 sales and 20 borrows. For a relatively unknown micropress author, that's not bad for a month.

Of course, the total result was no bonanza. I paid BookBub $240 for the promotion, which should leave a net return of about $435. If I did that every month for a year, it would be more than $5,000. Not a bad sum for somebody who doesn't depend on book revenue for his bread and butter. As I become better known with the publicity brought by the freebie promotions, hopefully sales will pick up for all my books.

One benefit of the recent BookBub coverage was a noticeable pickup in reviews on Amazon. Designed to Kill had 23 reviews before the promotion. Now it has 43 reviews, including 22 five stars and 12 four stars.

If I keep at it and learn more about the ways of ebook promotion, maybe I'll achieve the success of writers like Jinx Schwartz, author of the Hetta Coffey series. She knows how to do it right. Check out her article on the subject at the Blood Red Pencil blog at this link: http://bit.ly/18Ig8L4.

Visit  my website ChesterDCampbell.com