Previous outing for this sale: July 2025
(why not another Fire Emblem header? Just for funsies)
What I ran: Therapist Omnibus 1, at 99c down from $4.99 (or…free at one store, story below)
Sale date: Dec. 12, 2025 (I dropped my prices for the 11th-14th to be sure)
Results, including those 4 days:
Amazon 44 (0, 37 on the main sale day, 6, 1)
D2D 50 (13, 20 on the main sale day, 11, 6)
Itch 5 (all on the main sale day)
Ko-fi 6 (0, 4, 2, 0)
D2D breakdown: 30 Smashwords (see note below for more on that), 13 Kobo, 3 Barnes & Noble, 3 Apple, 1 Tolino
Grand total: 105
Which is about what I usually sell in a few months!
This was overall a similar experience to last time: the sale was smoothly run, I had no issues, and it was generally a positive experience. There were three new factors this time, two of which were tangential to the sale.
First, I ran a promotion with Fussy Librarian on the same day as the sale, in the Fantasy and LGBT+ categories. I have no way of knowing which sales came from which direction, FL or Cozy Up, but it was not an expensive promo (about $35) and it seemed worth trying. Overall, I barely broke even, at best — royalties on a 99c book are about a quarter most places — but I was prepared to take that chance. I don’t think I’d do it again, but I honestly have never had great results from any paid promo.
I lay that at the feet of my own product; people pour tons of money into paid promo every day, so it must be working for them. But the takeaway for me is that paid promo isn’t going to work for my situation. I’ve tried at least three times with similar crickety results.
Second, like last time, this sale happened to correspond with an overall sale on Smashwords. Unlike last time, however, I decided to participate in Smashwords’ sale: I put all of my books for sale at half off there. This was generally a fine idea; I’ve had some sales there (that sale is still ongoing). However, because of the way Smash calculates sales, it took my 99c sale and my 50% off sale and set my book to free for the duration of Cozy Up.
That was not my intention, but I decided I’d ride it out and see how it went. The answer is “well.” Especially because the book got a very kind recommendation from a reader on Bluesky the day before the sale officially started, kicking off the sale with a nice boost on Smashwords especially. I don’t intend to make free days a common practice right now, at least not for a full novel-length offering. That’s a strategy that works for a lot of people, but I don’t think it fits my situation. I’ll skip the entire sidebar about that! But for a short promotion, I don’t mind it. I hope those folks read the book, and I hope at least some of them enjoy it. Do I also hope some of them go on to buy the second+ books? Sure, of course. But overall, I don’t feel like it was “lost revenue” in any concerning way.
Third, this time I joined the planning Discord for this sale. Seeing some of the backstage chitchat of the cozy world convinced me once and for all that I am out of my league. That’s nothing against anyone in the sale or the cozy fantasy scene! They seem perfectly lovely. It’s a matter of scale and context: an indie author can be a full-time professional with a team of assistants, tens of thousands of social media followers, and millions in sales, or they can be a solo moonlighter who rejoices over each and every sale, can just about buy a coffee with their royalties, and is yelling into the void (hi). Or anything in between, for that matter!
Ever find yourself at a party where everything is fine and no one is mean or anything, but you feel wildly underdressed and just kind of want to melt into the floor and disappear? It felt exactly like that.
It was the organizers’ decision to allow me into the sale, though I would not take it personally if I were screened out next time. It’s likely I won’t even apply. There are hundreds of wildly successful, cozier authors who can have that spot. Again: everyone is great! I just felt like I was in the wrong place.
So, takeaways this time:
- Cozy fantasy has fully taken off as a thriving genre, and even the newest authors are operating on a scale I will likely never see in my lifetime. Kudos to them, I wish them the absolute best.
- Paid promotion isn’t an effective strategy for me. For whatever combination of reasons, I just don’t get a return on it.
- This sale was effective for me (relative to my baseline, especially), but given point 1, I don’t think I’ll join again. It’s likely my spouse will try to talk me back into it — he’s my biggest cheerleader and impervious to “I’m out of my league” arguments 😉 — so we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
I really am grateful to the sale organizer and to all the authors who promoted the sale. It’s charitable of the bigger authors to allow the rising tide to lift all boats, and I truly appreciate it.