Anti-procrastination sale

Or… how to not procrastinate on selling your books – by creating a discount.

I’m experimenting with the promotions feature on Google Play books today. I don’t like advertising, so I was searching for different ways to promote From do it Later to Do it Now in Ten Days – my anti-procrastination workbook that a friend described as “too short and practical to procrastinate on”.

Takes you to the book

Day 1 – 0,99
Day 2 – 1,99
Day 3 – 2,99
Day 4 – 3,99
Day 5 – 4,99
Day 6 – 5,99
Day 7 – 6,99
Day 8 – 7,99
Day 9 – 8,99

From hurdle to anti-procrastination tip

My book has been in the Google Play Store for a while now, and I never figured out how I could promote it. Not because I didn’t have the time, just because I didn’t feel like it.I realised today that I’ve simply been procrastinating on it, for reasons that are quite common. I’ve listed the main ones here, and added a tip:

As long as it’s unknown, I won’t use it -> Plan a test/an experiment sooner rather than later.
Limiting thoughts: “It’s probably difficult“-> You won’t know until you try (and in this case it wasn’t)
“I don’t know the right price” -> That can be part of the experiment. I decided to create 9 different days of discount, with an increasing price level. Day 1 = 0,99, day 2 = 1,99, etc. Bonus: it saves people from thinking too much. Today is cheaper than tomorrow.

Things I learned about Google Play while I was figuring this out

I always forget where I can log in as an author on Google Play. It’s here.
In the analytics and reports page, you can’t see your analytics unless you download them. Unlike Amazon, that shows you graphs etc. of your sales almost live.
The promotions page is easy to figure out, even when it says you need a to upload a CVS file. They provide a template and a filled out sample, so it doesn’t need much thinking.
When you click through the pages you may find new options you’ve never noticed before. I don’t have a clue where I found that QR-code I’ve just cut and pasted, but it’s a nice feature 🙂

The sale starts on July 13th, and ends on July 22nd. It’s only on Google Play, because that’s where I’m experimenting today. If you prefer paper over digital books, you can buy the paperback on Amazon.com (or UK, DE, NL, CA, JP, IT, ES, FR).

Thank you J