Stats

My February newsletter went out yesterday, and out of 170 sent, 38 were opened (22.4%). That's not great. Four people unsubscribed (I guess they didn't like the recipe) and apparently a bunch of people dumped my email in the trash, unopened. I only got one click, but that didn't result in a request for an ARC (the only link I'd included). I'm pretty sure this list of "subscribers" is not my target audience. It would have been nice to accumulate subscribers organically, rather than through a 20-book giveaway (which wasn't even in the women's fiction genre), but nobody ever subscribes on their own. Believe me, I've begged asked. My stats are actually getting worse, while the newsletter itself has gotten better. 

On the LibraryThing giveaway front, eight people have entered. That's on the lower end and far from impressive. A quick scroll through the offerings tells me that LibaryThing's audience is a big fan of non-fiction, as well as the usual mystery and fantasy genres. I also noticed that my book cover stands out ~ as in, clearly not professionally designed. Maybe it's just me, but I find all those graphic artist designs very same-y and far too busy. I like mine, but I'm not a good representation of audience consensus. The giveaway runs for three weeks, so it's possible I could get a few more entries. At this point I don't think I need concern myself with having to send out too many copies.

I received another ARC request from Goodreads, which was a surprise. That makes four. I'm grateful for four. 

I'm bored with all this busywork at this point, except for the ARC requests, which at least provides a bit of engagement. All four people seem nice. I like nice.