Self-Publishing Process & Tools

SPA Girls Podcast – EP275 – Read Through on a Series

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Are your readers staying for the next book?

This week’s podcast is all about read-through – ie what percentage of readers read from the first book in your series to the next, and onwards. Learn all about what it means, why it matters and how to increase your read through in this information-packed episode!

We cover:

* how to calculate read-through and why its important that you do!

* What is the ideal percentage you should be aiming for

* Red flags to look for if you DON’T get great read-through

* How it affects advertising

* How to deal with a “weak” book in the series

* The difference between calculating wide read-through vs kindle unlimited

* Tools for calculating read through including Readerlinks (https://readerlinks.com/) 

Great resource on Kindlepreneur from Malorie Cooper: https://kindlepreneur.com/calculate-series-read-through/

Malorie says :

Your series sell-through is pretty easy to calculate. Take the sales of the last book in your series and divide that number by the sales of Book 1.

Let’s say you sold 428 copies of Book 1, and 247 copies of Book 2. That gives us:

247 ÷ 428 = 57.7%

That’s your total series read-through.

“Many authors see something in the neighborhood of 50-60% from books 1 to 2. Unless you’re writing a more loosely connected series, the read-through from the first to the second book is very important.”

Knowing if a series is doing well or where it’s falling down can help to make it easier to fix going forward. 

Book 1 should be your best book but sometimes it’s not. What should you do if that’s the case?

Listen to the episode for some great tips!

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The SPA Girls Podcast (SPA = Self Publishing Authors) stands as a trailblazing force in the publishing industry, captivating audiences worldwide since its inception in 2015. Crafted by four dedicated full-time New Zealand authors, the free weekly podcast delivers honest advice, expert interviews and actionable strategies for indie authors at all stages of their career.

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