Imagine That! Studios

A Perspective on Success

A lot of things were happening on the eighth of August. The Summer Olympics launched in Beijing, China. World Hula Hoop Day was being celebrated (well, in Washington D.C. at least) with quite the fanfare. A mixed media magazine, Verge of LA, was also launched. As 08.08.08 (on account of the natural repetition of the number) was considered a good omen of prosperity in Asian cultures, many things were happening on this date.

For those of you who listen to my podcasts, you all knew that last Friday marked the simultaneous launch of two new fiction titles from Dragon Moon Press, The Case of The Pitcher’s Pendant: A Billibub Baddings Mystery and Digital Magic. In a nutshell, author Philippa Ballantine and I decided instead of competing for readers and listeners on Amazon, we would pool our resources and host a “shared run” up the book vendor’s charts. This was a different kind of promotion — the first of its kind — as we were going to see how far we could make it up the charts together. To promote what we called “Double Trouble”, Pip and I appeared on many, many podcasts. A few of our hosts asked about the competition for numbers and whether or not we were worried about diluting sales by splitting support across two books. We both responded with “So long as people are buying our books, we’ll worry about the numbers later.” At the end of 08.08.08, Pip’s Digital Magic made it as high as #57 in the overall rankings while The Case of The Pitcher’s Pendant reached #48.

Did we crack the Top Five (or Top Ten) of Amazon’s overall ratings? No. Did we sell enough books to go full time in our writing? No. Was Double Trouble a success? Absolutely.

Competition can drive you to perform at your optimum best. Competition can also bring out the worst in people. Just look at the 2008 Democratic Primaries to see how nasty competition (a kissing cousin to ambition, if you think about it…) can get. Pip and I, however, took a different road, collaborating with one another to score success. We proved without question that a promotional collaboration was not only possible, but profitable. Pip and I had marketed this day as a shared event between two authors, made evident in our promotional avatars, the sidebar graphics, and our numerous interviews. By adopting this strategy, we focused our respective fan bases on each other’s works. In working together, both titles enjoyed a strong showing on Amazon’s individual charts:

• The Case of The Pitcher’s Pendant, #2, Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy
• Digital Magic, #3, Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy
• Digital Magic, #1, Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Magic & Wizards
• Digital Magic, #1, Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Contemporary
• The Case of The Pitcher’s Pendant, #2, Movers & Shakers on Amazon
• Digital Magic, #1, Movers & Shakers on Amazon

While our new titles remained at the top of these charts (The Case of The Pitcher’s Pendant topped only by the recent release in the Twilight series.), Double Trouble also enjoyed another accomplishment (predicted by J.C Hutchins in our interview on the Ultra-Creatives podcast): An unexpected rally of two other titles, Billibub Baddings and The Case of The Singing Sword (written by me, released in 2004) and Chasing the Bard (written by Pip, released in 2005). Seemingly from nowhere, these two books appeared in Amazon’s Fantasy Top 20 and stayed there for the day.

Many measure success by #1’s, gold medals, and sales profits. Success, however, is a matter of perspective. What did your promotion accomplish? Was your goal achieved? Were there any unexpected windfalls or setbacks? More importantly, what did you learn? Your answers to these questions will provide a brutally honest assessment of your business strategy, and give a perspective on your overall efforts. For Pip and myself, here is what we took from this joint promotion:

• The Case of The Pitcher’s Pendant and Digital Magic remained at the top of Amazon’s Fantasy charts for the day of 08.08.08, topped only by the new powerhouse of our genre, Stephanie Meyer.
• Digital Magic hit #1 across three charts on Amazon.com.
• The Case of The Singing Sword and Chasing the Bard joined Pitcher’s Pendant and Digital Magic in the day’s rally, bringing four of our books into Amazon’s Top 20 Fantasy.

For Pip, myself, and Dragon Moon Press, we were (and still are) the happiest #48 and #57 authors on Amazon.com, and are still enjoying places on Fantasy’s Top 100 at the writing of this post. I’ve been asked again and again “Are you happy with your performance on 08.08.08?”

Thrilled would be more accurate. Positively and utterly thrilled.