Friday 28 June 2013

Does the title and length of a book influence sales?.


Last week I published the first of two Regency box sets. I already have two Duke Boxsets up on Amazon and these sold amazingly well -especially in the first few weeks. I was hoping for a similar result with my latest box set. Unfortunately this has not been the case - The Regency Boxset has not sold anyway near as well.
It has the same wonderful cover -is filled with three titles as good as the others -but has mad no impact at all. My conclusion -and I would be interested to hear your view on this -is that the title is the problem. A Regency without a duke in the title is never as popular.
I must elevate my lords to dukes for the fifth and sixth boxes - I was intending to call them 'Lords & Ladies Boxset One & Two -but maybe not.
As there were only around a dozen dukes around in the Regency it's amazing how many there are in fiction! In order to be a duke the family had to have been related to a King/Queen at some point in history.
Another strange thing that has happened is this. My sales in the US have fallen recently - used to be 60% US -and is now 30% - but my latest release, A Most Unusual Governess, has taken off in the US and not in the UK. The only difference I can see is that this book is a novella and nine of the others are full length books. My other 'best seller'  in the US was also a shorter book.  I'm hoping this is the case as my next few books will all be novella length.
Next week Anna Jacobs will be guesting here - can't wait!

1 comment:

  1. Fenella, I'm just not fond of those with titles in this era. Let's face it. There were not THAT many dukes, earls and marquises around! I'm fond of the emerging upper middle class of that era, the scientists and the businessmen, and although having a duke as a sponsor for someone is useful within the story, I just think "not ANOTHER duke" when I read about more dukes and earls!

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