The day before Thanksgiving, I decided to play around with pricing on Amazon in order to see if I could put the eBook on sale for Black Friday. I wanted to understand how long it would take for changes in price to “go live”. I marked it down from $7.49 to $1.49. The change happened within a couple hours. So, since I didn’t have a huge demand for the book, I just left it on sale, and I announced it on Facebook. The next day, while we were at our family’s on Thanksgiving, I was showing Michelle’s grandfather my book on Amazon, and I noticed that the eBook had made it into the Top 100 on Amazon’s Best Seller List in the Christian Families genre (#69). That was exciting. Then I wondered what it would take to make the Top 10?
I took a quick photo of his screen and put it on Facebook:
That night, I ran a contest to give away a free hardcover book for anyone who would share the sale. I also ran two Facebook ads that boosted the giveaway to friends and friends of friends. The ad also targeted a list that I previously spent quite a bit of time developing (Facebook lets you target certain demographics and interests). I also sent an email to the list of folks I developed for the KickStarter campaign. By that night, we had made it into the Top 50. I went to bed.
The next morning, I got up very early to stand in line for one Black Friday sale. When I checked the stats, I had entered the Top 25. So I posted on Facebook that this was a great Black Friday deal.
Throughout Friday I posted updates, and I also decided to try to change the “Dating & Relationships” category to “Marriage”. By 2:30 PM, I peaked at #11 on Christian Families and #13 in the Marriage category. I asked people on Facebook to “Buy Now” in order to help get me in the Top 10. To no avail. After 2:30 PM, I started slipping. By the time I went to bed at 11:15 PM, I had mixed emotions. I was back in the 20’s, and I didn’t think I had any more goodwill left with my supporters to launch another bid for the Top 10. I was excited, because even breaking the Top 50 was a big deal to me, but to make it to number 11 and not cross the threshold was a bit discouraging.
Regardless, on Friday night, I sent out an email specifically asking people to help me get into the Top 10 Best Seller List for eBooks in the Christian Families genre by purchasing the eBook (the last email I sent only advertised the contest I was running). I figured that maybe some folks would buy-in to the vision and forward the request along to friends and family. The next morning I was still in the 20’s, but I remembered a whole group of people I had forgotten. My neighbors. We moved in July, and our area came with it’s own social media platform. So I sent out a plea to my neighbors that I was a local author trying to make it onto the Top 10 list.
By noon, we were climbing the list again, and by 3 PM I had cracked the Top 10! That was very exciting. I was at number 8 in Christian Families and number 9 in Christian Marriages. I was humbled to be listed among the likes of Gary Chapman, Emerson Eggerichs, Ann Voskamp, Foster Cline, Paul David Tripp, Stormie Omartian, and even C.S. Lewis (even if it was just for a couple days):
That was the win! We made it into the Top 10 List. I posted about this twice on Facebook (and one of the posts was even sports related . . . I’m not an avid sports fan by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a big rivalry game day, so I figured why not). By the end of Saturday, here is where we stood:
- #3 – Christian Marriage eBook best seller
- #4 – Christian Families eBook best seller
- #1 – Christian Marriage eBook new release
- #1 – Christian Families eBook new release
- #3 – Christian Families new release (print and eBook combined)
After making these lists, my sales began tapering off, but I spent most of Sunday in the Top 10 as well. To say thank you, I put both the eBook and the paperback on sale for cyber Monday (I think I only made $0.04 per paperback).
As the subject line of this post indicates, all good stories must have an ending. I have accomplished what I set out to do. There are a few loose ends to wrap up, which will probably take close to a year to complete, but I intend to work on them slowly. If you were part of the KickStarter, one of those loose ends is the audio book which is still tracking for January completion. I have also begun writing a workbook and a leader’s guide for those who want to teach the content.
From a genuine marketing perspective, the book is out there and it has made the waves it needs to make in order to get noticed. Many established authors suggest just skipping marketing altogether in favor of beginning work on the next thing. I have a few ideas about “what’s next,” but “what’s next” in the immediate future is a short reprieve. I’ll probably do some blogging, so, in the meantime, be sure to follow my blog (https://www.stevenhalbert.com/). That’s where you’ll probably see a lot of the “what’s next” ideas start to flesh out.
I have seen God’s hand in so much of this book. I have tried to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit in both the writing and marketing. Admittedly, I have often tried to take control, but, in the end, this book is His, and He can do with it what He wants. I am truly grateful to everyone who has had a hand in making this book happen. And I genuinely hope you enjoy The Relational God.
As I say in the Introduction, this book has been a long time coming. And as I say at the end of the book in my Acknowledgments:
Soli Deo Gloria
(you’ll have to read all the stuff in the middle)