9:00 am – I woke up this morning to find Reckless Rescue at #354 on the Amazon Free list! (And #1 on Romance->Sci-Fi/Futuristic and Sci-Fi->Space Opera!)

That’s huge. I didn’t expect to reach that point until late this afternoon. And for that, I have to thank so many people who have helped me to get the news out, commented, tweeted my links, and posted them on Facebook. I want to publicly thank you all!

But – I still have two and a half days of the promotion to go! So I’m aiming for the top 100 list, and then after that, seeing how high I can make it! I thought I’d juse my little temperature graph here to update this thread with progress updates throughout the promotion, so check back on this post to see how we’re doing!

10:30 am – Amazon’s list updated as I was writing this (unlike downloads, the lists only update every hour or so), and now Reckless Rescue is at 281!

Can’t believe how quickly it is climbing! I’m sure it will slow down as I get closer to the top though, as there are more books there, and higher numbers of downloads between them.

1:20 pm – At #275! (Not enough difference to make a new image). Moving slowly now.

3:40 pm – Another list update. At #242 now. Agonisingly slow, after how fast I was jumping earlier.

7:00 pm – #236. Slow but steady. Think everyone in the US is asleep, so downloads are slow too.

10:00 pm – #222. That’s probably it for  me tonight. Will see where we are in the morning!

12:30 am – #199. WooHoo, broke 200.

9:45 am – And… back down again. #210. Probably because downloads had slowed down.

10:30 am – Back up in the next update. #191 Beginning to wonder if I will make the Top 100 this time. Must be a lot more good books out there this time than last time I ran a free promotion. (Had broken the 100 in the first day then, on far less downloads.)

11:20 am – #189

1:45 pm – #185

3:20 pm – #184, climbing very very slowly…

4:45 pm – Aaaand, sliding back. #199

5:00 pm – #186

7:45 pm – #185 – I was also overtaken for #1 spot in the Romance/sci-fi category as well! I’m really surprised at all this sliding up and back, although perhaps it’s because my downloads are pretty steady, meaning I’m going to sit at around the same place?

8:45 pm – Just jumped 20 places to #165. Absolutely no idea why. Giving up trying to make sense of these numbers… At least it warranted making a new image.

10:00 pm – Still moving up. #151. And getting downloads at a time when it was quiet the last two days. I wonder if it’s because it’s Friday, or because a competing book has finished it’s promotion?

10:30 pm – #147. Loving the fact that I’m moving again, but I somehow have this feeling that I’m going to hit the top 100 just as the promotion’s ending. And I wanted to know if it had any effect on the rate of downloads!

Midnight – #151. Feeling a little like a yo-yo

1:00 am – #154

5:00 am – #153

8:00 am – #143 – however, it was at this point that I realised my downloads had increased exponentially! No idea what sparked this? Possibly a tweet from one of the larger free book accounts? But I’m not complaining. Waiting for the ranking to follow (seems to be an update or two behind the downloads).

8:10 am – #150 What? Going backwards again? WHY?

11:00 am – #62! Broken the Top 100 with style!

1:30 pm – #57 – back to a crawl, but I’m not complaining. Only have to go to the third page of Amazon’s free lists to find my book now!

2:15 pm – #53 – still slowly but surely climbing!

4:30pm – #46. I’m so close I decided to run the promotion for one more day. Not doing much promoting of this, as I want to see how many downloads I can get just because of being high in the Amazon lists!

(In case anyone is curious how you extend a promotion, you just add it in for another day, and they seem to continue it seamlessly.)

5:20 pm – #44

8:20 pm – #33

11:00 pm – #31 – Getting close now. I’m wondering how high I can go?

You know the other thing I’ve noticed? Most of the books in the top 20 are listed on Bookbub. Does that surprise anyone? I wonder if it’s possible to make it into the top 20 without paid advertising?