I am absolutely flabbergasted to make top 20 first day and top 25 with Murder on the Stellar Schooner despite not having a link in the initial email!
Something about that cheesy over-the-top short story seems to really resonate people, moreso than some of my longer works. Now to figure it out and bottle that magic for future stories...
"Finally, Michael Finney’s innovative The Fall of Tartaria is a short 16-page alternate history story depicting the final days of the Tartarian Empire. Finney’s story is further brought to life in a 6-minute AI generated video. This is a remarkable prelude to the coming era of indie-created fantasy film making."
Appreciate the kind words and including both components of The Fall of Tartaria in the Spring Sale
I missed this deadline but looking forward to the next one with my new short-story collection of weird fiction, Lovecraft's Cat. The Based Books Sale is a brilliant idea, congrats on the success so far.
Can I shout out Phoenix Rising Online by Shinichi Haku? It's a fantasy lit-rpg with a bit of commentary on the state of clown world.
It starts off with blokes finaly getting the option to escape the decaying world that is earth to a world where common sense is common unlike earth. There's also quite a bit of character growth from the MC where he learns to shake off old habits of earth and trust those around him in this new world.
There's also some mysteries that get brought up over time and requires readers to pay attention to figure out the mystery which I find to be a nice touch. One such noticable example being a litteral wall of text in a dungeon written in japanese that members of the main character's party can't read because it's a language from earth.
Glad to make it on your personal favorite list once again! And thanks again as well for the opportunity and a big congratulations to all of us who participated in the sale!
I want to give a special shoutout to "United $tates of Death, by Xander Schreiber". I'm about 25% through it and it's been an absolute page turner. The last few days have been really hard for me, and cracking this one open has taken me to a much better place, thanks.
Generally, the stuff that gets turned to 99 cents by a kindle-countdown-deal will be 99 cents only in the USA, whereas the stuff that gets turned to 99 cents by lowering the price will be 99 USD + 3% exchange rate juice everywhere. Unfortunately, lowering the price directly means Amazon takes 65% of the sale price instead of 30%.
So for example, Murder on the Stellar Schooner ( https://amzn.to/40XUDG5https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0DP6B5CL9 ) is $1.02 USD = $1.42 CAD in Canada, since it's not a KU book (illustrated version of a book I give away free, so cannot be KU) and I just lowered the price, which lowers it everywhere. I would get 34 cents US per book sold. Obviously, it's not about the money :)
(KU = Kindle Unlimited, which can only be joined if an eBook is exclusive to Amazon, which allows for a Kindle Countdown Deal to lower the price every 3 months.)
I'm about 95% sure you can use Amazon variants that aren't your home market. At least you can order physical goods and have them shipped halfway around the world, so not sure why it wouldn't work for digital.
Books are geo-locked to regions. One if the reasons I run three Kobo accounts. Can, US, and UK to pick up ebooks that are only available in the other 2 markets.
damnit. that's a good call-out. I'm the author for PNW Affliction, I'll set some of mine down in cana-dough if you want to grab them, it'll take a few hours. i updated story #1 and story #10 of mine for .99c canadough. It occures to me it sort of auto-shifts the prices around....... and who knows how it does the $ conversions. anyway there ya go. hopefully that works..... updated, both are .99c in USD and CA now, hopefully that works.
You know what, I never even really paid close attention to the international rates for the books. I manually change the prices but should look closer when I do it next time
for a long time I used to use what I call "cheeseburger math", and I'd ask someone in CA, UK, AUS the price of a cheeseburger and then scale the price of the book down according to the $-math until it seemed fair and relative, but I haven't done that in a while. idk how much value has changed abroad.
what I do know is that the auto-margins that amazon puts in for currency exchange has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO with what the fking market will bear in UK or AUS vs cana. that shit blows my mind. so I try to be really conscientious.
I am absolutely flabbergasted to make top 20 first day and top 25 with Murder on the Stellar Schooner despite not having a link in the initial email!
Something about that cheesy over-the-top short story seems to really resonate people, moreso than some of my longer works. Now to figure it out and bottle that magic for future stories...
"Finally, Michael Finney’s innovative The Fall of Tartaria is a short 16-page alternate history story depicting the final days of the Tartarian Empire. Finney’s story is further brought to life in a 6-minute AI generated video. This is a remarkable prelude to the coming era of indie-created fantasy film making."
Appreciate the kind words and including both components of The Fall of Tartaria in the Spring Sale
Links for interested folks:
Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCHCJD4M
Video: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0DG8NZ53D
Thanks to Hans Schantz for organizing this and thanks to everyone who bought a copy. This has been a big boost for a first time author. Thank you.
How are you reporting the sales as I've had 25 sales I can link to the promotion for the First Fear.
He’s using the count from the affiliate links on the blog. If that is bypassed (Honey) or purchased direct, it’s not counted. Same situation for me.
He has no way of seeing sales numbers directly, just affiliate link sales.
ah, gotcha
I missed this deadline but looking forward to the next one with my new short-story collection of weird fiction, Lovecraft's Cat. The Based Books Sale is a brilliant idea, congrats on the success so far.
Can I shout out Phoenix Rising Online by Shinichi Haku? It's a fantasy lit-rpg with a bit of commentary on the state of clown world.
It starts off with blokes finaly getting the option to escape the decaying world that is earth to a world where common sense is common unlike earth. There's also quite a bit of character growth from the MC where he learns to shake off old habits of earth and trust those around him in this new world.
There's also some mysteries that get brought up over time and requires readers to pay attention to figure out the mystery which I find to be a nice touch. One such noticable example being a litteral wall of text in a dungeon written in japanese that members of the main character's party can't read because it's a language from earth.
Glad to make it on your personal favorite list once again! And thanks again as well for the opportunity and a big congratulations to all of us who participated in the sale!
I want to give a special shoutout to "United $tates of Death, by Xander Schreiber". I'm about 25% through it and it's been an absolute page turner. The last few days have been really hard for me, and cracking this one open has taken me to a much better place, thanks.
Awww....didn't make the top 50...
*sniff*
Pity every book I would have picked up was not on sale in Canada. I checked at least a dozen before giving up.
Generally, the stuff that gets turned to 99 cents by a kindle-countdown-deal will be 99 cents only in the USA, whereas the stuff that gets turned to 99 cents by lowering the price will be 99 USD + 3% exchange rate juice everywhere. Unfortunately, lowering the price directly means Amazon takes 65% of the sale price instead of 30%.
So for example, Murder on the Stellar Schooner ( https://amzn.to/40XUDG5 https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0DP6B5CL9 ) is $1.02 USD = $1.42 CAD in Canada, since it's not a KU book (illustrated version of a book I give away free, so cannot be KU) and I just lowered the price, which lowers it everywhere. I would get 34 cents US per book sold. Obviously, it's not about the money :)
The Return of Woke-Masmoke ( https://amzn.to/4i9oCTq https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0DM6NVJ9T ) is a KU book. The Kindle Countdown Deal makes it 99 cents in the US, but it's still $4.32 CAD = $3.04 USD in Canada.
(KU = Kindle Unlimited, which can only be joined if an eBook is exclusive to Amazon, which allows for a Kindle Countdown Deal to lower the price every 3 months.)
I’m sorry about this, and I’ve had many requests for a foreign sale. Sadly Amazon only lets us play this game in the US and UK markets. The books in the Everyday Sale may be priced better internationally. https://basedbooksale.substack.com/p/the-everyday-099-or-free-based-book
I'm about 95% sure you can use Amazon variants that aren't your home market. At least you can order physical goods and have them shipped halfway around the world, so not sure why it wouldn't work for digital.
Books are geo-locked to regions. One if the reasons I run three Kobo accounts. Can, US, and UK to pick up ebooks that are only available in the other 2 markets.
damnit. that's a good call-out. I'm the author for PNW Affliction, I'll set some of mine down in cana-dough if you want to grab them, it'll take a few hours. i updated story #1 and story #10 of mine for .99c canadough. It occures to me it sort of auto-shifts the prices around....... and who knows how it does the $ conversions. anyway there ya go. hopefully that works..... updated, both are .99c in USD and CA now, hopefully that works.
You know what, I never even really paid close attention to the international rates for the books. I manually change the prices but should look closer when I do it next time
for a long time I used to use what I call "cheeseburger math", and I'd ask someone in CA, UK, AUS the price of a cheeseburger and then scale the price of the book down according to the $-math until it seemed fair and relative, but I haven't done that in a while. idk how much value has changed abroad.
what I do know is that the auto-margins that amazon puts in for currency exchange has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO with what the fking market will bear in UK or AUS vs cana. that shit blows my mind. so I try to be really conscientious.