Friday 23 December 2016

Behind the Curtain with Gayboy

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1179950968
I'm bringing you behind the scenes with this post. Strap in, tie those shoelaces (made ya look!) and grab a warm mug of cocoa. Here we go!

In August I published a sweet, lovely bisexual teen novelette called And Plaid All Over. More recently I published a gritty, honest bisexual teen chapbook called Gayboy.

And, actually, they're both the same book. Different name, different cover, different branding, but the story inside is exactly the same.

The plan from the very beginning was to a/b test this story. What's a/b testing? It's when you present different versions of something to see what will have better results. In the case of Plaid/Gayboy I wanted to see whether a softer or harder title and cover design would sell more copies.

Of course, I'm being totally unscientific about this by actually telling you what I'm up to. I published the Plaid version first and kept it exclusive to Amazon for 90 days, then I unpublished it. My plan was to do the same with Gayboy, but I gave up pretty fast because Kindle Unlimited never works out for me. The bulk of my sales come from other ebook stores, so I've uploaded Gayboy pretty much everywhere.

The only thing I didn't change was print version. Chalk that up to laziness. But that also meant I was able to include in the Gayboy blurb: Paperback version available as "And Plaid All Over." Because, of course, I changed the title and cover art to test design concepts, not to trick anyone into buying the same book twice--yet another reason I'm letting you in my evil plan to take over the world. I mean to a/b test this book. Sorry, I glanced at the wrong notebook for a sec.

Now I know what you're thinking: which one's the winner--a or b? Plaid or Gayboy?

Well, the wheels fell off when I changed so many testing parameters, so I can't really say. What I can say is that you are more than welcome to scoop up a copy of Gayboy anywhere you like. 

Oh, and if you want to know what the actual story is about... well, you could read it. Or you could check out this post I wrote: http://foxglovelee.blogspot.ca/2016/08/new-teen-fiction-bi-guy-his-best-friend.html

There are plenty of places to find Gayboy, including:
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/gayboy-foxglove-lee/1125245376
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1179950968
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/gayboy

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N1I8V9V?tag=foxglovelee-20
Amazon Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01N1I8V9V
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01N1I8V9V
Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/book/332231797/Gayboy
24Symbols: https://www.24symbols.com/book/x/x/x?id=1808057