The PARALLAX Contest: Results Thus Far
It’s been a few weeks (uh, a month already?) since I announced the PARALLAX contest and the deadline was supposed to be the end of April. You’ll recall there were 3 levels of giveaways associated with the contest – at 100 copies sold, 1000 copies sold, and then the big prize at 2,000 copies sold.
Well, sales haven’t exactly worked out. I’ve sold a few hundred copies of PARALLAX (which for an experiment with an ebook is pretty decent) and while the feedback has been utterly amazing-including all the 5-star reviews on Amazon-sales simply haven’t reached the levels I was hoping for.
So, I have a decision to make: I can either extend the contest for another month and implore all of you to get your friends and family to buy a copy of PARALLAX or I can simply end the contest and do the giveaways for the Rogue Angel: Sacrifice book and forget the 1,000-level and 2,000-level prizes since we didn’t get enough sales. The problem is, I really really want to give away that trip to the set of THE FIXER. It will be a ton of fun and I think you’re all very awesome and someone deserves that kind of excitement in their life.
The question is-if I extend the contest deadline another month, will it be enough to get more people into buying PARALLAX or is it going to be just me pimping the book endlessly. I guess I’m asking for your help here. If enough of you can get more people excited about the book and can send more customers to me whether directly or through Amazon, then we’ll have something great happening. But if I’m the only one pushing the book, it’s probably not going to lead to an overwhelming number of sales.
As I said at the start: this is an experiment with ebooks. I’ve been curious about them for a while and I’ve met a great number of new readers as a result of this, for which I am truly thankful and humbled. But I need your excitement about PARALLAX to go viral now and infect hundreds of new readers. If each of you who has bought a copy can get 5 new readers to buy PARALLAX, then I’ll drop the 2,000-level and make the trip to the set of THE FIXER TV series at the 1,000-level instead.
So if you can take a few minutes and give it some thought, I’d appreciate it. Drop me a line on Twitter or Facebook or email or comment below what you think we should do. I say we, because it’s a decision we make together. No author is an author unless he/she has readers. So we do this together. If you think it’ll be better to simply end the contest now, give away the Rogue Angel books and be done with it, that’s fine. But I’d personally rather stay in the ring and go another round.
If you’re of the same opinion and want to know how you can help, the best thing to do is talk to friends and family about buying copies. Post reviews on Amazon.com or any other book reading sites you can think of. Blog about PARALLAX. Interview me for your blog (doesn’t matter that it’s not the Huffington Post, I’m always happy to answer questions and talk with you). Direct people to this blog so they can order.
1,000 copies isn’t much-I think we can do it. And I really want one of you to come visit us on the set of THE FIXER!
Let me know. Thanks!
And once again, if you’re reading this and want to get PARALLAX…you can order a copy in the following formats: .pdf, .rtf, .epub, .mobi, and as zipped HTML files. You order that direct from me by clicking the button here (please specify the format you want):
You can also get it for your Kindle right out on Amazon. Click Here to Buy PARALLAX at Amazon.com
Dude, think it’s the price that’s holding you back. Make it a fiver and see what happens, I’m willing to bet your sales will more than double
I am with you, I think you should extend it! Your book is awesome & I have no issues with telling more people about it because I loved it that much! Good luck to you & to us because frankly I would LOVE to be a winner!
Dave-that wouldn’t be fair to the several hundred people who have already paid for the book priced at the current level. I can’t simply drop the price, although I don’t disagree that a price point shift would probably lead to new sales. (How have you been, btw? Haven’t seen you in a dog’s age, man!)
Charity-thanks for your support! It’s very much appreciated! 🙂
$5 seems to be the magic number in today’s economy, but I agree that a drop in price would be unfair to those who’ve bought and paid for the book at it’s current price.
I say extend the contest. Why not? Who’s it gonna hurt? No one. Could be a big boon to one lucky fan, though, so I say keep it going.
On a side note, I’d be willing to interview you for my new blog. Not sure how to go about that, though…would I just email you some questions?
Jon,
I think part of the problem is that many people don’t like to read on the computer so if they don’t have a Kindle or some other kind of e-reader, they may not want to buy it. Just the impressions I’ve been getting from people. For myself, I went ahead and purchased the Kindle version and all I can say is the book is awesome.
Hi Dave, thanks for the input! And yes, just email me over some questions whenever you want to and I’ll get them answered and right back to you.
An excellent point, Shirley. I don’t have a Kindle yet myself so reading on something like that is alien to me as well. I agree there’s definitely a hurdle for more traditional readers and purveyors of books to get over, but I expect something will happen fairly soon that might change that.
As a subset of an industry that has pretty much ignored the inevitable assault of technology, ebooks are still finding their way with price points and e-readers. Even a standard format would be a welcome thing at this point. Very reminiscent of the whole Betamax/VCR thing or the HD DVD/Blu Ray – but with far more formats. All these things combined can make people shy away from even testing the waters.
On another note, I’m thrilled you loved PARALLAX! Thanks for the great words!
Got an easy way around the unfairness issue (did occur to me, though I could hardly bitch!). Fire a free copy of something else in the ebook format of their choice to the people who have already paid. That way they get 2 books for the tenner and everyone is happy 🙂
I’ll fire you a catch up mail or message in a whiley 😉