When you put your Kindle titles on a brief free promotion, your “sales” always go up. Not your receipts, but there are new readers willing to take a chance for free for someone they’ve never heard of. Rational, human, inarguable.
What’s kind of fun is watching the returns. I’ve got just one long day to go (long because I’m EST and the Kindle day is PST). So the current score may be close to the final store. Got hits in US, naturally, but also in Great Britain and Germany and France. Nothing (yet) in Spain or Italy or Japan. But some in India and Canada. None for Brazil or Mexico, but yes for Australia (the new store, this cycle, along with Mexico).
Have had “sales” previously in Spain and Japan and Brazil, never yet in Italy or Mexico. But I should go check. It’s been half an hour. Maybe some new ones.
In the end it’s not how much you win or lose but how the game has played you.