Testing the Series Marketing Theory

I don't consider my two-book anthology a series, per se, but that's not technically true. Here is an article from Publish Drive that explain series and serials in detail. 

"Interlinking series (serial book series) refer to a type of book series where the individual books are connected through recurring characters, overarching themes, or a continuous storyline. Still, each book focuses on a different plot, set of characters, and sometimes even a different protagonist."

"A book series is a sequence of books that are part of the same franchise but can be read in any order because each book is a stand-alone story. The books from the same series have connections with one another through characters or settings."

(emphasis: mine)

So, I did publish a series. I'd always thought of a series as, for example, George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire", which I only know about because of Game of Thrones, since I don't read fantasy. One looong story that goes on forever.

Shoot, an author could slap the word "series" on any book and lure people to buy it. Not really true--a recent survey of readers, conducted by Written Word Media, finds:

"Authors like writing in series. Marketers like marketing series. But how do readers feel? The overwhelming majority of readers are indifferent with 60% of respondents saying that they have no preference between series or standalone books. 14% said they prefer series while 26% said they prefer standalone books." 

Of course, that belies my lack of sales for my standalones. Nevertheless, I'm on board with trying (sort of) to market the first book in my series, to find out if it really does drive sales of the second book. I'm pretty sure it won't, but I look at it this way: of my eight published novellas, I've "sold" a total of 146 copies, of which 94 were free downloads. So, over their lifetime, my novellas have actually sold only 52 copies. (Is there a more pitiful author than me?)

Thus, if I get a bunch of free downloads of Touching Home, it's possible a few people might read those stories.  

So, I purchased both a FreeBooksy and a Hello Books promotion for November 20. I've never used Hello Books before, so that'll be new. While I know that both entities are under the same corporate umbrella, they do each have their own newsletters. While I didn't publish these books for anyone but myself, it's a shame virtually no one has read them. After all, most of the stories are quite good.

I chose November 20 because it's a week before Thanksgiving and people might be looking for something to read over the long holiday weekend. I didn't want to schedule it too close to the holiday, because planning a holiday meal is a shitload of work (trust me), and people will be thinking grocery lists, not book-buying.

To be frank, it's nice to have something to promote other than Running From Herself. That ship has sailed, sadly. The world will never know how good it is. 

People like "the new". I like the new. The New is something to be excited about. Buying promos for Running From Herself would feel like drudgery now. Same drill; same results. "Excited" might be a stretch. I'm not exactly excited about offering Touching Home for free; I'm more curious than anything. Needless to say, these promos aren't a moneymaking venture. 

But hey! If I've sparked your curiosity, mark your calendar for November 20! No risk!