Comments on: How to Calculate Series Read-Through (And Why It’s Important to Know)

By: Jen Peters

Jen Peters — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 16:16:57 +0000

I downloaded the spreadsheet a while ago, entered numbers, and realized I didn’t have enough data. So now I’m entering data again, and got stumped. What is “BoB Reads RT” as compared to “Cum Reads RT”? “Cum” must mean cumulative, but I can’t figure out BoB. Help please?

By: Jemima Pett

Jemima Pett — Mon, 11 May 2020 12:01:35 +0000

Yes, it makes me feel good seeing all those free downloads of the first book in the series, but I bet most of them are just collecting reading material. I know… I’m still working through free copies I downloaded in 2014, and that’s because I feel endebted to fellow authors!
Maybe I should cut the freebie and do some proper marketing.

By: Loretta Tollefson

Loretta Tollefson — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 21:56:57 +0000

In reply to Dave Chesson. So then the question becomes: what`s a reasonable test period? One month? Two? Six?

By: Dave Chesson

Dave Chesson — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 15:27:30 +0000

In reply to Neil Plakcy. That can complicate things a bit. The key to this is over time, you'll generate a good understanding of how much a purchase of your book 1 is actually worth in the end.

By: Dave Chesson

Dave Chesson — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 15:26:50 +0000

In reply to Loretta Tollefson. I would agree to that approach. Talking with serial series sellers, they do that.

By: Dave Chesson

Dave Chesson — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 15:25:39 +0000

In reply to Keith Robinson. Yup!

By: Keith Robinson

Keith Robinson — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 18:19:10 +0000

In reply to Jake Needham. Make a copy of it to your own Google Drive. (File > Make a copy)

By: Jake Needham

Jake Needham — Sat, 07 Mar 2020 06:46:49 +0000

I downloaded the spreadsheet as suggested, which looks very helpful if I could only use it. It is set up as Read Only, however. When I clicked the menu item for ‘Ask permission to edit,’ it told me that permission to edit was ‘unavailable.’ Am I missing something, or are we not supposed to be able to actually use the spreadsheet ourselves?

By: Loretta Tollefson

Loretta Tollefson — Sat, 07 Mar 2020 00:39:01 +0000

This is great information, but I’m still feeling lost. I advertise all my books. It seems to be that the only way I can figure out sell-through (I’m wide) would be to stop advertising everything except the first in the series and then look at the sales for the follow-on books. Would this be a reasonable approach?

By: keith

keith — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 22:41:54 +0000

first of all, thank you for all that information. i can 't imagine how long it took to complete.
now for a question: my book series is 6 books long. they all have been written and only book one has gone through an editor and i 'm still working on rewrites. i have been told that readers expect the next book out in 30 days or less. which means i pretty well have to have all six in publishing shape to release book one. is this correct?
also. my initial plan was to give away book one and charge 2.99 for 2-6. you seemed to hint that serious readers are turned off by the first book being released for 0.00. did i get that right? is there a problem with a free book one?
thank you again, keith

By: Neil Plakcy

Neil Plakcy — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 19:34:53 +0000

How do you calculate when you have a price promotion for only a few days during a month? I ran a 99 cent promotion last August and am trying to see the read-through based on that promo. Should I run these numbers for three days in August (in my case the 14-17) with the 99 cent price, and then the next month (August 18-September 18) at full price?