BOOK PROMOTION SITES--THE ONES THAT ACTUALLY WORK! > Likes and Comments
Black Friday sale results:I put all my books on sale last Friday for $0.99. I had a StoryOrigin promo with 4 other authors, emailed my subscribers that day (included in my newsletter was a couple other authors, Thanks JDrew), and posted on my social media.
And? [drumroll]
1 sale.
Sigh. I gotta get new subscribers...
I've missed a ton of notices and have had other issues with goodreads for months. Example, can't get my new book cover loaded on to my site. Vexxing to the max. I almost deleted my account. Glad to see this group hasn't gone away!
Leon wrote: "Black Friday sale results:I put all my books on sale last Friday for $0.99. I had a StoryOrigin promo with 4 other authors, emailed my subscribers that day (included in my newsletter was a couple..."
Hi Leon,
I too was hoping with us group posting we'd have better results especially since I would think there would be a significant number of people who had never seen some of the books posted. Even so, if anyone wants to try this again, maybe with a few more of us involved, I'd be up for it.
And on another note, Robin Reads promo yesterday, 12 sales plus 1 other book in the series at full price. Not a money maker, but sales are sales.Next up, unless I happen to get a free ad at Reading Deals in the meantime, will be on 12/11 when I'm trying a "stacker" ad set with Bargain Booksy, ENT and Book Barbarian. Something I have never tried before. Don't know what to expect.
J. wrote: "I too was hoping with us group posting ...if anyone wants to try this again, maybe with a few more of us involved, I'd be up for it."For IndieApril I set up a page on my blog to feature 12 authors, so that might be something to plan for.
Leon, I didn't have much luck for my Story Origin promos either. I did a few review promos, KU, and sales. You'd think results would be better with so many authors participating. When are you planning your feature on your blog? I may be interested.
D. wrote: "Leon, I didn't have much luck for my Story Origin promos either. I did a few review promos, KU, and sales. You'd think results would be better with so many authors participating. When are you pla..."
For Indie April I usually try to keep the genre to sci-fi, but I'm always up to feature you on a Friday with a written interview. They are a bit unconventional but take a look, there are a few names you'll recognize:
http://linesbyleon.com/leon-interview...
I think the trouble with StoryOrigin and BookFunnel is that you can get a lot of the same authors over and over which decreases the effectiveness. I try to have one free, one Kindle Unlimited and one sale promo/newsletter. I have seen some authors with 10+ but as a reader, I'd get washed out.
Leon wrote: "J. wrote: "I too was hoping with us group posting ...if anyone wants to try this again, maybe with a few more of us involved, I'd be up for it."For IndieApril I set up a page on my blog to featur..."
Leon,
I'll be interested and maybe we can pull in enough authors to broaden the contacts enough to generate something bigger.
I don't know if my books would be a good fit, but it's up to you!
Sheila wrote: "I've missed a ton of notices and have had other issues with goodreads for months. Example, can't get my new book cover loaded on to my site. Vexxing to the max. I almost deleted my account. Glad to..."Many people are having problems at the moment, Sheila. We're all missing the email alerts which saved us time searching for possible responses! Ah well...
Sheila, I don't know if you've heard, but Goodreads isn't sending out email notifications anymore. You have to check in to see if you have any alerts. Hope you'll successfully get your cover up.I agree, J. A sale is a sale.
I don't know how authors have time to write when they're too busy promoting all the time...
D. wrote: "I don't know if my books would be a good fit, but it's up to you!"DM me with your email and we'll get it set up.
Leon, I sent you a friend request so we can message each other.My promo was finished on Dec. 8th and there's always a bit of overflow onto the next day due to time differences in other countries. The prequel (book 0) is perma-free, the other 4 books in the series were .99 (usually $3.99). Here are the results:
Mon. 12/2 - Book Raid
Book 0 (free downloads) = 514, Books 1-4 = 39
Tues. 12/3 - eReader IQ & Book Basset
Book 0 = 1212, Books 1-4 = 49
Wed. 12/4 - ENT (eReader News Today)
Book 0 = 1216, Books 1-4 = 76
Thurs. 12/5 - Fussy Librarian
Book 0 = 1568, Books 1-4 = 75
Fri. 12/6 - My Book Cave
Book 0 = 1452, Books 1-4 = 78
Sat. 12/7 - Robin Reads
Book 0 = 1894, Books 1-4 = 61
Sun. 12/8 - FreeBooksy
Book 0 = 3449, Books 1-4 = 207
Mon. 12/9 - no ad
Book 0 = 275, Books 1-4 = 17
Total downloads of the free book = 11,580, Books 1-4 = 701 sales
The clear winner is FreeBooksy. The free prequel is downloading every day and got to #1 in all 3 categories on Amazon. It started out with 4 reviews on Amazon and now has 38, but I also did a book tour. The other 4 books are still selling (now at full price) and have gotten some reviews. I also sold a few other books. Only the prequel is wide (on other booksellers like Nook, Apple, Google, Kobo) and has downloaded over 900x.
These are Christmas books and it's December. But the best news is that I'm making more than I spent (for a change). Yay!
Yes! Pat yourself on the back for that, D.
For the price, FreeBooksy got the best results, followed by ENT, Book Cave, and eReader IQ. And the books are still downloading and selling and getting more reviews. I'm sure the book tour helped, too.
D. wrote: "For the price, FreeBooksy got the best results, followed by ENT, Book Cave, and eReader IQ. And the books are still downloading and selling and getting more reviews. I'm sure the book tour helped..."
Amazing results!!!! Congrats! All those sites do well for my books but they have slowly trailed off the more I use them. I haven't ever tried reducing the rest of the series to 99c, but I might do that next time :)
D. wrote: "Leon, I sent you a friend request so we can message each other.My promo was finished on Dec. 8th and there's always a bit of overflow onto the next day due to time differences in other countries...."
Excellent results. Gives us hope that we can sell more books.
My other books don't do as well even when I try to sell them in Dec. There seems to be a huge market for Christmas books. This series sells all year without advertising, but especially at this time of year. That's when I advertise. This year is different because I published the prequel a few months ago at $2.99 but it's now free. I think it pays to note the time of year. Romance probably sells around Valentine's Day and horror around Halloween.
Ironically, I ordered a paperback of the prequel for my daughter-in-law who loves the series in Nov. for Christmas. I just got a message from Amazon that it won't arrive until January! There are only a few other paperback orders for it, so I don't know what the problem is.
Hi all,Well stacker deal finished. Combined Bargain Booksy, ENT and Book Barbarian, all the same day. 26 sales plus a couple of other books in the series at full price. But no idea where sales were made so don't know if it was mostly one of the sites. Also, not really much better than I've had at each of these sites individually. So, not likely I'll do it again.
Next was a free ad at ebookstage - zero sales
Then Just Kindle Books (which I haven't used much) and zero as well.
Meanwhile, Smashwords end of year sale began and sold 2 books without an ad.
Next was a Book Barbarian solo ad, netted 12 sales.
And today Fussy Librarian is underway.
Not making money, for sure but hoping a few people will read a book and later buy one of the other books in series.
Happy Holidays to all.
Keep writing.
Fussy Librarian netted 2 sales. Down from what I usually see there.A couple of thoughts that I can't quantify with data but just something I think I'm seeing. On ad sites where each day there are a number of books listed, it seems like the closer to the top your book is, the better it does. Also, I'm beginning to think there is a point at which more ads don't help because the same people are signed up to look at deals at a number of sites and you now are just showing your book to mostly the same people again.
Today it's Book Gorilla. Not one I use often so curious what it will bring.
I agree, J. Sometimes you're showing your book to the same subscribers.My top 4 sites are: FreeBooksy, ENT, Book Cave, eReader IQ. Other than BookBub, which is the best of all.
Theresa wrote: "Welcome to the group Mia and Zeek. It is very annoying not getting notifications. Sigh. I missed a lot of posts.Mia, I've had pretty good luck with ereaderiq and Free/Bargainbooksy. Book Cave ha..."
Hi Theresa.....glad to have found this group
D. wrote: "Leon, I sent you a friend request so we can message each other.My promo was finished on Dec. 8th and there's always a bit of overflow onto the next day due to time differences in other countries...."
Congratulations D......such a wonderful result and thanks for sharing it with us. This gives me hope and motivation that I can also learn the ropes....especially now that I have you guys to talk to. Really happy for you.
Thanks, Zeec!I've been submitting my newly released free Christmas-themed book to BookBub for the last few months & weeks, even saying it's ok to promote it in Jan. It's available everywhere, has a really good ranking (in the top 50), has 70 reviews, has a professional cover, and is a Christmas book in December. Turned down again! Ugh! What do they want????
D. wrote: "Thanks, Zeec!I've been submitting my newly released free Christmas-themed book to BookBub for the last few months & weeks, even saying it's ok to promote it in Jan. It's available everywhere, has..."
Wow...that's frustrating.... I recently did a promotion on booksprout and it was depressing....just had 1 single person read on kindle (not even sure if that was because of the promotion) and no sales at all....
I had another doubt guys.... Is it advisable to opt for the free ASIN KDP provides for our ebook or is it better to get our own ISBN.... which is better in terms of the freedom to promote..
As far as ebooks go, whatever I publish on Amazon, I always use their ASIN. However, any book I take wide I go through D2D and they provide ISBNs.
This is a test. I haven't seen a notification from this group since June. My goodreads account was way messed up. Please reply even briefly. Thanks.
D. wrote: "Thanks, Zeec!I've been submitting my newly released free Christmas-themed book to BookBub for the last few months & weeks, even saying it's ok to promote it in Jan. It's available everywhere, has..."
I'm not sure how they decide. Mine keeps getting rejected yet I've had one accepted that had fewer reviews / ratings and a much lower average.
Interesting what you said about paperbacks. I've had people order them and then cancel which makes me wonder whether they are delivering after Christmas too. Nov / Dec is paperback season so it's odd (and annoying.)
Glad you got some sales, J.
Zeec, I've only ever had a handful of reviews via Booksprout but it usually helps if you keep posting your book so it's on the first page. I think it's best for romance so I've stopped using it. I know nothing about ASINs.
I'm running a Boxing Day and weekend sale but in a different category to normal so curious how that will work. I'm also going to put a random book in my series (book 4) as free and see if that generates sales, as last time it oddly did.
Happy Holidays!
(Sheila, you can use this as your test :) )
Sheila wrote: "This is a test. I haven't seen a notification from this group since June. My goodreads account was way messed up. Please reply even briefly. Thanks."Goodreads stopped sending out notification emails a while ago, much to everyone's dismay. I now go to my Home page and scroll through until something catches my eye. I know I am missing loads of posts though.
Anna, thanks for the explanation. I am near the point of no return. I feel like a Vulcan trying to understand goodreads (aka Amazon) any more. What other author sites do people use these days? As for me, I've had 16 sales thus far in December for my Christmas novel. A combo of Fussy Librarian and word of mouth, and probably response to some recent publication which mentioned my novel account for the business. Choosy Books and a Good Kindles promo in November netted another 19 sales. My personal life has been dealt some hard hits, so to have even this much going on lifts my spirits. Thanks, all. Merry Christmas!
Good day-after Christmas to everyone.Things here at GR keep changing in not ways that I like much. But so far this remains by far the best author group for me.
I did run an ad at Book Lemur, a site I'd never used before. 4 sales which is all that good since there are sites that cost less and yield that sort of results. Today, trying eBookSoda. Haven't used them in a while, and today it's for a different book.
Happy New Year to everyone. Here's hoping sales go up in 2025.
Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Solstice!J, let us know how eBook Soda goes. I haven't used them in a long time either.
The bad news is that I'm dealing with overwhelming family issues. My son's roof collapsed last month due to a storm. They're still dealing with the aftermath. In addition, my partner just had surgery and has a long recovery ahead. Hopefully, everyone can get on their feet soon.
The good news is that I've made a profit from my recent promo and the permafree book continues to get reviews almost daily. It started out with 4 and now has over 70 on Amazon. I know there's been a debate about making books free. Our labor shouldn't be free. But it's hard for indie authors to compete against the big publishing houses. Frustrating.
Hope everyone is doing well.
Shannon wrote: "I agree, Effie. It literally costs $5.00 for a piece of pizza but if your book is priced higher than .99 no one wants to buy it."I wouldn't say that is accurate I've sold a fair amount at prices up to 2.49 most at 1.99 (I only have 2 that are permanently free
Hi again,EBookSoda netted 2 sales. Not good for the price. So far I'd have to say the best sites remain the best sites and the others are not nearly as good.
Meanwhile, over at Smashwords, thanks to D2D, their year-end sale is getting me more sales, some free due to their discount coupons, but also $ sales and I haven't paid a cent for any ad there. Might need to rethink some of my promotional strategy. I will actually make a profit there for the month. Imagine that.
Only one last ad coming out today. Fussy Librarian for a different book. Hoping it does well to end the year for me.
Anybody have any good website recommendations? I use BookBub and their price is about to go up. What do you guys use, and do you like it? I want something simple and inexpensive. (Don't we all?)
Last ad for 2024, Fussy Librarian netted 7 sales. Would have liked more, obviously, but still.At the same time I've had steady sales (some freebies) at Smashwords while their year-end sale is going on. Actually will end up net positive there. First time I've ever had much going on there.
Happy New Year to everyone. Now back to writing. I'd like to get another book out in 2025 and it won't write itself.
I'm another one losing track of GoodReads, but I really don't want to. This is the best group of its kind (having just taken a look at some allegedly supportive groups on Fb which are nothing but snarling, sniping and nastiness).Still trying to get my Bookbub deal - I'm concentrating on two box sets and now have a third to try as well, so we'll see how that goes. Apart from that I've just been trying hard to finish the current book, which should have been finished at the end of September but life just got in the way!
Happy New Year to all on here, and many happy book sales!
The Fussy Librarian has been very good for my new release. I've been thinking it's not so good but I also suspected it was because I've advertised with them frequently. A new book seems to have done the trick. I'll let you know numbers when the run has finished. I haven't had time to keep up with Goodreads etc - Christmas duties etc, of course. I wish I could rely on GR having emailed me what's been going on - but no chance!Happy, healthy and successful new year to you all. It's so very, very good of you all to support each other - including me! :o)
Heeeeee's baaaaaack.......Sorry I've been away for so long. I've had too many things on my mind for far too long to get out here regularly. My latest "adventure" is that I've spent the past 6 months looking for a new job after my previous contract ended, my company lost the rebid, and the contractor that won offered us generous pay cuts to onboard with them.
However, I did release Penitence over the summer (can't remember if I mentioned that here already), and my next release, Rooftop Sonata (Bernard and Melody Caper #2) is in editing. I hope to release that in February 2025.
I also did a test of a marketing technique that I picked up from a freebie course offered by author and marketing professional David Gaughran (https://davidgaughran.com/). The technique is for setting up promo stacks. I've been hearing about these for years and even used them a couple of times without much obvious success. Gaughran views them as a method for getting Amazon's marketing algorithms to kick in and work for you.
The basic idea is to set up a 5-day promo, using various sites (such as BargainBooksy, etc.) on each day, intermixed with newsletter and social media announcements. The goal is to get a more or less even "reach" on each day if possible, with the largest on the final day. You discount the prices through this 5-day period, then raise them back to normal at the end.
If it works, what supposedly happens is, Amazon notices a sustained uptick in sales and starts pushing your book for you. It will keep doing this for a time after the promo ends and your prices are back to normal. The idea here is that you make a lot of sales but not much money during the promo period, then you make sales at a lower level but at full price for some time after. The "after" time is what he calls the "tail," and the goal would be to get a "long tail" so your Amazon ranking remains fairly high and drives sales. According to Gaughran, when it works, it can generate a fair bit of income.
I tried this with my Howard County Mystery series, discounting all 4 books and pushing book 1 in all of the promos. I also did a series promo for all 4 books through AuthorsXP on day 1 and a 2-book promo through BookAdrenaline on day 2. The results somewhat bear out Gaughran's ideas, although I didn't make any sales in the days after the price returned to normal. Here are my stats (if you can wade through them):
DATE: TOTAL SALES - SALES RANKS
-------------------------------------------------------------------
12/13: 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 - 902,258 / 1,180,593 / 1,085,781 / 1,108,938
12/14: 1 / 0 / 0 / 0 - 296,170 / 1,186,719 / 1,088,966 / 1,112,362
12/15: 2 / 0 / 0 / 0 - 121,237 / 1,190,418 / 1,089,281 / 1,112,659
12/16: 36 / 2 / 0 / 0 - 13,293 / 126,457 / 1,090,783 / 1,114,013
12/17: 29 / 1 / 0 / 0 - 11,855 / 184,191 / 1,091,584 / 1,114,942
12/18: 39 / 3 / 2 / 2 - 7,734 / 95,393 / 175,978 / 176,084
12/19: 17 / 0 / 0 / 0 - 12,568 / 233,017 / 339,303 / 339,689
12/20: 4 / 0 / 0 / 0 - 26,697 / 348,697 / 477,016 / 477,777
12/21: 2 / 2 / 1 / 1 - 50,106 / 147,875 / 158,444 / 158,530
12/22: 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 - 81,658 / 275,770 / 367,029 / 367,501
12/23: 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 - 116,025 / 376,455 / 491,924 / 492,764
12/24: 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 - 156,072 / 465,812 / 589,071 / 590,757
12/25: 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 - 214,096 / 553,876 / 677,518 / 680,462
12/26: 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 - 253,121 / 626,840 / 748,105 / 752,005
12/27: 0 / 1 / 0 / 0 - 295,589 / 696,645 / 812,617 / 817,946
12/28: 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 - 341,566 / 414,035 / 869,100 / 875,268
12/29: 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 - 354,786 / 552,566 / 909,751 / 916,336
12/30: 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 - 358,159 / 643,374 / 936,493 / 943,818
I did achieve a "long tail" on book 1. It still ranks at not quite a third as high as it started out.
I also wanted to ask opinions on something. I've been toying with the idea of offering coaching services of some sort. Although I've never hit bestseller status, I have 11 books out, with a 12th on the way, I've won a few awards, I've run a local writing workshop for several years, and I have been a presenter at Maryland Writers' Association chapters and at this year's MWA conference. I think I have the background now to help up-and-coming writers.What I might do is start out with some freebie or very low cost offers to get some customers and some practice. But how to reach potential clients? That's always where I fall down. I've never gotten the hang of marketing.
Any thoughts on any of that? Thanks!
Dale, looks like 12/18 got the best results. Did you advertise on that day? I've fantasized about teaching an adult ed class about self-publishing. I have 11 books out and meet so many people who say, "I always wanted to write a book."
It takes a lot of work and persistence. We should pat ourselves on the back for achieving this! And, as we all know, that's only the beginning. Then you have to sell it!
Hope 2025 is a great year!
D. wrote: "Dale, looks like 12/18 got the best results. Did you advertise on that day?Yes. My promo schedule was as follows:
12/15 - Sunday: AuthorsXP Series Spotlight (all books); newsletter announcement of price drops
12/16 - Monday: BookAdrenaline (Books 1 & 2); FussyLibrarian
12/17 - Tuesday: RobinReads; FB post of price drops; newsletter swap
12/18 - Wednesday: EreaderNewsToday
12/19 - Thursday: BargainBooksy; FB reminder post
Interestingly, although BB has the biggest reach, which is why I put it last, it didn't seem to get as much traction as ENT or RobinReads. When I do it again, I'll probably reorganize to put BB in the middle and see what happens.
All the marketers I've read say you have to keep experimenting all the time to see if you can make things work out better.
A quick follow-up on the coaching services I'm now offering. I put together a page on my website for that. If you'd care to look and offer any suggestions for improvement, it's here: https://www.daleelehman.com/let-me-help/I sent an announcement to an email list I maintain for the writing workshop I run at my local library, and it looks like I already have a client from that. He gets to be my guinea pig, poor fellow. 😜
This time I actually had to dig quite hard to remind GoodReads I belonged to this group, never mind getting reminders!Good luck with the coaching, Dale. There's a lot of interest out there - nearly every time I run a book stall I get people coming up looking for help. I just hope they're prepared to pay you!
I've tried book stacking, too - I did a week in the autumn using Fussy Librarian, Bargain / Freebooksy, Book angel and I think one other one, making first in series free and reducing books 2-4 to 99p. It went quite well and almost paid for itself but I'm not sure there was much of a long tail. A marketing person I'm following at the moment, though, does the standard plug the first in series once every ninety days because he says it keeps your profile higher in Amazon's eyes and therefore they're more likely to show it to matching readers. New Year's Resolution? Be more disciplined in marketing! (well, while I can afford it, anyway). Happy New Year, everyone!
I think you might know this person I interviewed for my blog on Friday: http://linesbyleon.com/2025/01/10/fre...
Thanks D. Thrush for the chat. The post received 30 views which is double the average for most days.
Wow! Thanks Leon. It's always fun talking about writing and my books.
D. wrote: "Wow! Thanks Leon. It's always fun talking about writing and my books."It is!
All the best on your coaching classes, Dale. I hope you get a lot of interest. Coaching, writing, and promoting is a LOT of work. And a full-time job? Wow.D., really liked your interview.
Hope everyone else's promotions are going well.
Very good results! :o)