Results of the Free Download Promotion

In terms of boosting units the free kindle give away on April 24th was a great success without doubt. 66 copies were downloaded boosting the total up to 242! For the first time Amazon.com shifted some units with 50 downloads from non UK people, so it all made for a very interesting day.

One of the main objectives for doing it was to help raise bowel cancer awareness and there is no doubt that with 66 people downloading the book who otherwise might not have means it succeeded on that score. Obviously my main aim with the book is to raise funds for the charity and giving it away doesn't help with that, although I am hoping that the increased downloads and exposure may result in some extra sales? I priced the kindle and paperback versions of the book as cheaply as I could so as to get the charity approx. £1 per sale, so I think £1.65 for a kindle download is a pretty reasonable price. I think I just have to accept that some people will always be on the look out for a freebie, but at least it might make people think about bowel cancer at the very least.

I have also been very mindful that for the people who have bought the book already this promotion might not sit easily with them. It was a difficult decision to take. I am hoping that some of those who downloaded the book yesterday might donate on the justgiving page if the book touches them. I have worked out that allowing for the tax on the overseas sales, the charity would have got about £50 if people had paid for their copies yesterday. Therefore I am donating £50 to the charity today to keep the figures straight, making sure the charity doesn't lose out and of course so that those who have donated already can be rest assured that everything keeps moving forwards on the fundraising front.

And so today the book resumes its normal fundraising life, and it appears to be back to normal with no sales from Amazon.com. However a paperback copy has been sold in the UK so we are now at 243 copies so the book is approaching 250 sales and hitting the quarter mark of its final target of 1000 copies. How nice it would be if I could somehow generate paid sales like I did with free sales yesterday as I would reach that target in no time! :)

World Book Night

I was wondering what I could do with the book to join in with World Book Night on April 23rd. I have to admit that I was unaware of this event until my friend and edit-in-chief Jo let me know about it. The idea is to give out books and encourage reading in those who usually will do anything they can to avoid reading a good book. Not only that it is about people and reaching out to others and touching lives in the simplest of ways, through the sharing of stories. If nothing else with its stories about the photos and in helping to raise bowel cancer awareness the book has certainly succeeded in touching and connecting with people.

The challenge for me is to actually give the book away for free! After all the main purpose of the book is to raise money for the Beating Bowel Cancer charity, and giving it away for free won't do that. But in the bigger picture if in this instance I focus on the raising awareness factor then I believe that it is a good idea. Maybe anyone who does take advantage of the opportunity to get hold of it for nothing may consider making a small donation to the justgiving page?

The free give away of the kindle version of the book will begin at approx. 8:00am UK time on April 24th and will last for just 24 hours so don't miss out... Please share this information with as many people as possible and let's hope for a successful 4 hours in the life of the book. Happy World Book Night!

Book Trip

I am always looking for new ways to generate interest in the book, and to find ways that might increase sales. Recently I came across a blog which I thought was both interesting and very touching. The 60postcards.com blog is telling the story of how a woman called Rachel has left 60 postcards around Paris as a starting point in a creative journey in telling the world about her mother who sadly passed away from cancer. Have a read it's a great blog.

It got me thinking as to whether I could do something similar along those lines with my book. So I decided to buy a copy and send it on a journey. The idea being that I would leave it somewhere for anyone to pick up and they would hopefully read it before leaving it for someone else to do the same and so on... Hopefully people will contact me with their stories of their part in the book trip and I will then document it on a new blog called http://thebooktrip.blogspot.co.uk/

So copy number 173 was left at Henley Railway Station and is now somewhere on its own journey. The booktrip blog contains a much more detailed description of the idea and the story in depth of the starting point at Henley.

Book sales are now at 175, but at the moment I am split between waiting for news of where book 173 will turn up next and when book sale 176 will happen...