I'm Preparing For Disappointment

I hate being cynical, but after a year and a half of meager book sales, failure is my default mindset. Could I be proven wrong? Nothing is impossible.

This year I've been very stingy in my marketing expenditures. The time for a big push is when a book is first released, and Running From Herself was published on March 1, 2025. Yes, mistakes were made in my initial efforts--lots of 'em. But what's done is done.

I'm inexplicably looking forward to my ENT book of the day feature next Monday. Is Monday a good day for book selling?

"Monday can be a surprisingly good day to sell or market books. Many online sellers and authors note that workplace browsing drives traffic on Mondays as people return to their desks and look for distractions, though traditional book publishers usually prefer launching on Tuesdays."  

It is true that workplace browsing is a thing. Some people may have the impression that work time is for work. A little secret: I did a lot of browsing on the job. My position was either feast or famine. Sometimes I was overwhelmed with work; other times I had to "look busy". I wasn't technically a supervisor, unless one counts actual reality, but I visited employees' cubicles frequently to answer questions or to help with a technical issue. Rarely, unless they were expecting me to show up, was anyone not browsing. I didn't care, even though they all thought I would. 

AI tells me a lot of things, but only some of them are believable. For example:

"An Ereader News Today (ENT) Book of the Day feature generally sells a solid number of discounted or free books compared to standard newsletter listings, often moving anywhere from several dozen to several hundred copies (and sometimes over a thousand for popular genres) in a single day, though results vary heavily by genre and book appeal. 

What Kind of Results to Expect

• Volume: Authors frequently report selling hundreds of copies of a 99-cent or discounted book during an ENT Book of the Day push.
• Audience Reach: ENT reaches hundreds of thousands of daily newsletter subscribers and social media followers, and the Book of the Day is uniquely blasted to their entire subscriber base as the top featured spot.
• Genre Differences: Fiction genres like mystery, thriller, and romance tend to perform the best. Young adult, non-fiction, or niche children’s books often see much lower and more disappointing returns. 

Women's fiction is a top performer for Ereader News Today (ENT). 

Because ENT’s subscriber base consists primarily of women between the ages of 35 and 55, the audience alignment for this specific genre is exceptionally high. 

The Realistic Sales Numbers

• Discounted Book ($0.99): For a paid women’s fiction book discounted to 99 cents, you can typically expect anywhere from 50 to 150+ direct sales on the day of the feature. Experienced indie authors often report ENT bringing in a solid baseline (e.g., 60+ immediate sales) that beats out smaller tiered list sites

Realistic Sales Ranges

• The Baseline (60–80 sales): This is what you should expect if your book has a professional cover and a few solid reviews, but you do not have a massive backlog of titles or organic momentum. 
• The High End (120–200+ sales): This occurs if your book has a highly captivating hook, 50+ glowing Amazon reviews, or features a trope that is exceptionally popular right now (like small-town family secrets or mid-life resets). 
• The Floor (20–40 sales): If your cover looks self-made* (no), your blurb is confusing (?), or your book reads more like a slow-paced literary drama (hardly literary) rather than an accessible women's fiction narrative, conversions will drop significantly."

 

*If my cover looked homemade, I never would have gotten a slot to begin with.

 

I'm banking on 20 sales.  

 

Because I'd already lowered my book's price to 99 cents, I took advantage of an AuthorsXP "99 Cents on the Ninth" promotion. I only sold two copies, with zero KU pages read. I know it's not a top-tier promo site, but the owner tries hard. (Hey, I try hard, too! Nobody cuts me any slack!)

 

"A standard $0.99 listing usually yields fewer than 20–30 direct sales." 

 

I'll say!

 

Against my better judgment, I also booked Fussy Librarian, BookRaid, and Bargain Booksy promos either on or adjacent to my ENT feature day. Past promotions on those sites yielded 0, 3, and 3 sales. Why do I insist on throwing money away?

 

As for organic sales, what are those? Do they ever happen? Not for me. Lowing my price on KDP didn't catch anyone's attention. Philosophically, I'm opposed to a 99-cent price, because it makes a book look like a throwaway. Frankly, my normal $2.99 price point already conveys that even I don't think my book is worth buying. But one has to face reality, and self-published books in my genre are really tough to sell, despite what AI says.

 

Obviously, I would love to be proven wrong about my marketing push, just for bragging rights, if nothing else. 

 

But I'm fully prepared for failure.