BOOK PROMOTION SITES--THE ONES THAT ACTUALLY WORK! > Likes and Comments
Thank-you, Marie Silk. I've made so many good author friends from this thread. I've known you for the longest. I'll miss you. All the best to you.
It has been my honor to have known you all. I wish you all the best:)
Groovy wrote: "It has been my honor to have known you all. I wish you all the best:)"🙋🏻♀️💓
Dropped in to see what's up and nothing new. I am just beginning promotions of July, so far only one ad at Book Spry, a site I've never tried before. They only do limited genre but scifi is one and I ran an ad for book 2 of my Ocean Cowboys series. Sold 21 books plus a couple of book 1 which were full price. I will try them again.I also am trying FB ads again on a limited basis. But, I am disappointed in the way I can target the ad. I am told that I can target audiences by all sorts of metrics and even watched a video showing me how to do it. When I try to set up a new audience nothing even close to the screens shown in the video appear. Anyone have any experience with FB ads that can comment? I am about ready to ditch FB again and go on to something else. Maybe BB ads, though I did run several ads there in the past with little success. Ah, if only there was a silver bullet for promotions.
I haven't had luck with BB ads. Things are stagnant for my books now, so I'm going wide and will do a big sale on all books. Otherwise, I'm at a loss.
J. wrote: "Dropped in to see what's up and nothing new. I am just beginning promotions of July, so far only one ad at Book Spry, a site I've never tried before. They only do limited genre but scifi is one and..."I've been told to limit your targeting on FB ads - just choose a country, age and gender, and it will find people interested in your books. It certainly seemed to work for me - the only thing I'd say is that if you go right up to 65+ in age, you'll waste a lot of clicks as it seems to be that older people click but don't buy (or not via a Fb link, anyway!). So the current thinking goes. And switch off anything Advantage+ or AI generated, as they don't work half as well as FB thinks they do, or not for books, anyway.
I ran Kindle Free Days Deals and Discount Countdown Deals from June 9th until July 4th. I featured a free book and one discounted book a week over this time, and these were my results:Free Books:
The Short Story Emporium: 21
The Macabre Masterpiece: Vile Humanity: 11
Of Gears and Gaslight: 7
The Macabre Masterpiece: Repressed Carnage: 4
Discounted Books:
The Wax Factory: 1
A Bloody Bloody Mess in the Wild Wild West: 0
Brimstone Express: 0
New Release & Permafree Books:
*Nightshade Station: 0
*Blood on the Boardwalk: 4
Final tally: 48 Downloads
I did this as a way to generate more interest, get more sales, and reviews. However, it was basically just people downloading free books that looked somewhat appealing to them. I likely garnered no interest, 1 sale, and 0 reviews, which is disappointing, and I’m used to this, and I shouldn’t be. I should not be used to failure; I want to succeed. This was a fun summer thing to do, and while it didn’t help me, it certainly taught me that you can’t discount all your books and expect massively positive results.
I will look into trying other things to get more sales and reviews going forward.
Justin wrote: " it was basically just people downloading free books that looked somewhat appealing to them. I likely garnered no interest"I stopped giving away free books (not including my newsletter magnets). The lowest I'll go is 99 cents so readers have a little invested in their choice. It results in less downloads but hopefully more reads and series re-throughs.
99 cents is almost always my lower limit too. Except for my collection of short stories which is always 99 cents and I've made it free occasionally. I am trying FB with a feeling of dread because I am not sure that the ad is targeted nearly the best it could be. Only running it for 15 days and then I'll see what I think.At the same time, I have more usual (for me) ads coming out for the book I put on sale this month. I'll post results when the sale concludes but I am not expecting miracle.
All the best to everyone.
I'm submitting my books to BookBub as they go wide. If not accepted, then I'm setting the prices to .99 for about a month. If sales don't make up for page reads on Amazon, which I suspect they won't, then I'll put them back there. My free prequel The Santa Secret gets downloads almost every day but hardly any new reviews.
J. wrote: "Dropped in to see what's up and nothing new. I am just beginning promotions of July, so far only one ad at Book Spry, a site I've never tried before. They only do limited genre but scifi is one and..."I just tried them to and sold 17. I'll use them again for sure.
So, I've reached out to several author friends on Facebook, Instagram to find out what works for them when it comes to promoting and marketing their books. I've got a lot of interesting responses and all vary. Someone said Bookbub campaigns, another had a good ARC and pre-release run and some don't even promote yet they get sales...if all of us could be so lucky. I've hit a brick wall when it comes to promoting but so far these last two weeks I've been researching and buckling down and I'm hoping something sticks and works for me.
Justin wrote: "So, I've reached out to several author friends on Facebook, Instagram to find out what works for them when it comes to promoting and marketing their books. I've got a lot of interesting responses a..."Thanks for the info. So far my FB ad has not resulted in a single sale although it has brought a number of comments from various people so at least I know it is being seen.
Results from my July ads for scifi book 2 in Ocean Cowboys series:
bookspry 21 sales
bookends 11
ENT 11
It's Write Now 0 but then again I never saw the ad so likely they didn't post it despite confirming it ahead of time. Email query as to what happened has gone unanswered
ebooksoda 3
fussy librarian 3 (disappointing as they usually do better
I am only reporting sales for the book advertised. I did also get some sales for the other book in this series but to keep my accounting the same I always only track sales of the book discounted.
At the same time, through D2D I was participating in the Smashwords July sale and for a short time both Apple and Kobo sales and managed to sell a few books through each without cost to me.
So, going forward, not sure what I'll do. I have lined up a few ads for August for a different book using some of the same sites, some different. I am thinking of taking September off and see what happens.
All the best.
BookBub always works if you can get a featured deal in their daily email. But that's near impossible. I wrote a full-length standalone prequel that's free as an entry to my holiday series. Lots of downloads but not many reviews or buy-throughs. I even went wide with the series and a few other books and made them .99. Still not many sales. Frustrating!
Yes D,Frustrating for sure. I'm thinking of stopping on line ads and trying to hit more book fairs in person, especially the free ones. Not sure that will work any better but might help ROI.
Groovy wrote: "Thank-you, David, for reaching out to me with such friendly words and encouragement at such a young age of 16. Now you're a grown family man. Wow! Thanks for inviting me into your circle. Keep up..."
I'm soooo late on this. To Groovy
I can't thank you enough for everything you've done with this thread and Goodreads group. I hope all is well! You'll be missed. It's been a wonderful almost-decade since we started this.
I'm learning from this thread every week, even if I can't post all the time. Mostly thanks to you, Groovy.
Best of wishes!
Sincerely, David
Book Promo Update:I noticed some people mentioning in-person markets and fairs, and I think that's the way to go. With some business cards, good covers, and a decent setup, it's a great way to build word-of-mouth locally. Especially if your books have any local ties.
I'm running some promos for Book 3 in my trilogy, last book of the series. It's tricky because I'd assume promos for the third book won't be as effective. I'll also run some for Book 1, but does anyone have experience with this? Is it even worth it to run ads for Book 3 to new readers?
Groovy wrote: "Hello, everyone. it's been a long while since I've been on this thread. I don't think anyone even noticed though--LOL! It's good to see all of your hard work paying off. Good for you!This will be..."
I know this is probably too late to reach you Groovy, but my notifications through Goodreads has been all messed up for the last several weeks. Thank you very much for the help and support and I wish you all the best.
David wrote: "Book Promo Update:I noticed some people mentioning in-person markets and fairs, and I think that's the way to go. With some business cards, good covers, and a decent setup, it's a great way to bu..."
I haven't done any in-person events in a few years myself. I'm hoping to reach out to one of the smaller bookstores around here or the library to set something up in the fall or winter.
I have done some promos for the later books in my series. I've learned promoting them whimsically doesn't do much, but if I'm targeted in timing with my promo for the later books and/or I put one of the others on sale at the same time, they do a little better.
I sometimes try to do a promo of one of the books around the time of a book tour. I have also found as an author of a vampire series that October into black Friday tends to be a big sale time for me.
I'm also planning on taking the first book wide(r) and see what happens. My KENP reads have dropped since the boycotts happened earlier this year. I had no KENP reads at all in June or sales for that matter.
David wrote: "Book Promo Update:I noticed some people mentioning in-person markets and fairs, and I think that's the way to go. With some business cards, good covers, and a decent setup, it's a great way to bu..."
Can't say about a book 3. Last month I ran a promo for book 2 in a series and ended up selling a book 1 for almost every other book 2 that was purchased. Can it work? I guess it can, sometimes.
I think running a promo for a later book in a series works better if it's a standalone. We're in the summer slump. Peak book sales are usually in November, and December is always my best month due to my Christmas series. Sure would be nice to break to the next level, but I have no idea how to do that.
David wrote: "It's tricky because I'd assume promos for the third book won't be as effective. I'll also run some for Book 1, but does anyone have experience with this? Is it even worth it to run ads for Book 3 to new readers?"I have run some book 3 promos but you do have to mention the previous books. I try to include a review that mentions the series, like "A great end to the trilogy" or "Great series!"
J. let me know that my paperbacks are on Bookshop. I recently published all my eBooks on D2D, but not paperbacks. D2D uses IngramSpark for paperbacks which provides them to Bookshop. How did my paperbacks end up on Bookshop? And will I be compensated for sales? I contacted D2D, Bookshop, and IngramSpark. One of my books got onto Google books without my knowledge as well. Does anyone know how all this works?
I can't get people to get into book 1 doing a promo never mind a book 2 or 3. It's good to run a promo on book 3 when you know you're already getting traction and sales from the first two because you'll appeal to those same readers. I can't really do in person fairs because there's never any in my area and I'd feel a bit shy and awkward going to one.
D. wrote: "J. let me know that my paperbacks are on Bookshop. I recently published all my eBooks on D2D, but not paperbacks. D2D uses IngramSpark for paperbacks which provides them to Bookshop. How did my pap..."D, I think Bookshop.org uses Ingram to add books to their catalog whenever new books come out. I have a friend who runs a small publishing company, uses IngramSpark directly and Bookshop picks up there books automatically as well. I am not sure how ebooks get on Bookshop. My print books are all there but none of the ebooks. I never thought much about that aspect. No idea about Google books. Maybe someone else here has an idea.
Justin wrote: "I can't get people to get into book 1 doing a promo never mind a book 2 or 3. It's good to run a promo on book 3 when you know you're already getting traction and sales from the first two because y..."Join the crowd when it comes to feeling awkward at in-person events. I try to think of it as meeting people interested in reading and not about selling, selling, selling.
D2D got back to me and said that my print books could be picked up by other booksellers if they're in expanded distribution on Amazon. I didn't know that. All my eBooks will soon be on D2D and available almost everywhere for .99. As usual, my Christmas books are selling more than anything else, but it could also be because of the free prequel.
J. wrote: "Justin wrote: "I can't get people to get into book 1 doing a promo never mind a book 2 or 3. It's good to run a promo on book 3 when you know you're already getting traction and sales from the firs..."I mean I did fair well at my last in person book event but I only have them on rare occasions so unless other authors are presenting I'm likely gonna be shy as hell lol
Has Goodreads stopped notifying us when a thread we follow is active?My book tour with Bewitching Books did not go well. I got two reviews and no sales increase that i noticed. Maybe they like cozies better but doubt I'll use them again.
Sorry, G.G. I've only used Love Books for a tour and got good results.
G.G. wrote: "Has Goodreads stopped notifying us when a thread we follow is active?..."Notifications seem to be very unreliable now. Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don't. I haven't been able to determine any pattern to it, and it doesn't really seem to matter whether you've got the "Notify me when people comment" box checked, or not. Very frustrating.
D. wrote: "Sorry, G.G. I've only used Love Books for a tour and got good results."I received good results from Love Books too. But tried a new one and missed.
Lynn wrote: "G.G. wrote: "Has Goodreads stopped notifying us when a thread we follow is active?..."Notifications seem to be very unreliable now. Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don't. I haven't been abl..."
Lynn wrote: "G.G. wrote: "Has Goodreads stopped notifying us when a thread we follow is active?..."
Notifications seem to be very unreliable now. Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don't. I haven't been abl..."
Me either. 🤷
Hey D, one thing you might check into is if you have print books at Amazon on Expanded Distribution and have that same print book available through D2D, then out in the market place there will be two different ISBNs for the same book. As best I can tell then Bookshop will not carry either one. For a while I wondered why a couple of my books didn't show up at Bookshop until I found this out. Once I took the Amazon version off expanded distribution, the books showed up. Not sure if that's of interest but thought I'd throw it out there.
Thanks for the info, J. It seems Amazon's expanded distribution gets the paperback to other sellers. I only used D2D for eBooks. Now I'm glad I did. Maybe that's why Bookshop doesn't sell my eBooks. Two different ID numbers. Interesting.
Justin wrote: "J. wrote: "Justin wrote: "I can't get people to get into book 1 doing a promo never mind a book 2 or 3. It's good to run a promo on book 3 when you know you're already getting traction and sales fr..."I hide behind my pen name - I may be shy, but Lexie's quite confident!
Lynn wrote: "G.G. wrote: "Has Goodreads stopped notifying us when a thread we follow is active?..."Notifications seem to be very unreliable now. Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don't. I haven't been abl..."
I haven't had a notification for months.
Lexie wrote: "Justin wrote: "J. wrote: "Justin wrote: "I can't get people to get into book 1 doing a promo never mind a book 2 or 3. It's good to run a promo on book 3 when you know you're already getting tracti..."Good for Lexie. I do the same.
Good news. My 3-day event with My Book Cave has been very successful. Currently and for most of the weekend my Rachel Blackstone Paranormal Mysteries have all been in the top 100 of Indigenous Fiction and Native American Literature! Mixed in with the Hillermans, Craig Johnson and the Navajo Nation Mysteries. I'm delighted. I'm going to do.more full series promos. Sales have been wonderful.
G.G. wrote: "Good news. My 3-day event with My Book Cave has been very successful. Currently and for most of the weekend my Rachel Blackstone Paranormal Mysteries have all been in the top 100 of Indigenous Fict..."That's fantastic! Congratulations!
Lynn wrote: "G.G. wrote: "Good news. My 3-day event with My Book Cave has been very successful. Currently and for most of the weekend my Rachel Blackstone Paranormal Mysteries have all been in the top 100 of In..."Thank you. I just followed you.
Hello again, I haven't been on this thread (or many others on Goodreads) for ages. I'm blaming Goodreads for not keeping us in touch like they used to do. I wish they'd change their minds and keep us all up-to-date again. I'm sorry to notice that Groovy isn't around at the moment. D - I loved your prequel and have another of your books (I think!).
I thought I'd let you know how I did with my last KCD which is what we used to do a lot - before Goodreads stopped... oh well.
I always thought I'd never put a book on free again. I'd done it once or twice and it didn't feed through very well to books #2 and #3 in the trilogy. However, I thought I had very little time to fiddle around booking ads so I put One Dark Night on for 5 days free. I paid for a Book Raid cost per click ad which cost $47. I also tried to advertise on my blog on Goodreads.
I also put books 2 and 3 in the trilogy on for a KCD at 0.99.
420 free books were downloaded and this fed through to 14 sales at 0.99 of the other 2 books. So I didn't make any money - I hope the tax man realizes this.
Earlier this year (June) I advertised a Time Travel Romance in a KCD and paid for 2 ads - $55 and sold 29 books at 0.99.
10 years ago, we used to make money from the adverts - anyone remember that?
I think social media has stolen the customers.
Congrats G.G.! I miss Groovy, too!
Anna, I'm so glad you enjoyed The Santa Secret (which is free)! I hope you enjoy the next book just as much. I think you will! All of my books are wide and are .99 for the rest of this month. That's getting a few sales. I'm hoping for more reviews too.
Yes, Anna, I remember when ads used to lead to sales. Not so much anymore. It's very disheartening. I don't do social media. Too much work for not enough benefit.
If any of you write fan fiction or YA, check out Wattpad. I'm not quite sure how it works, but Hulu checks there for content. If anyone has tried it or knows more, let us know!
I actually did make money on my recent Book Cave series ad. Sold about 130 books. Also several new reviews and ratings. And was in the top 100 Indigenous Fiction list for 4 days. But i know how capricious this book business can be.
G.G. wrote: "Good news. My 3-day event with My Book Cave has been very successful. Currently and for most of the weekend my Rachel Blackstone Paranormal Mysteries have all been in the top 100 of Indigenous Fict..."Wow, excellent to hear.
G.G. wrote: "I actually did make money on my recent Book Cave series ad. Sold about 130 books. Also several new reviews and ratings. And was in the top 100 Indigenous Fiction list for 4 days. But i know how cap..."Hurrah! It can be done!
G.G. wrote: "I actually did make money on my recent Book Cave series ad. Sold about 130 books. Also several new reviews and ratings. And was in the top 100 Indigenous Fiction list for 4 days. But i know how cap..."Wow, that's good to hear!
Hi all,Just had to report on karma. All these years I've tried to get a BookBub ad or new release ad and zero. My wife has her first book coming out September 3 after ten years working on it. We decided to see if BookBub would take it for the New Releases for Less. Three hours after she submitted she got in. Whoa. So happy for her and now I'll get to find out what that actually does to sales figures. Hoping for good things for her, of course.
Hope it goes well! Hope you get one too. It's so hard to compete for a slot now that BookBub takes highly successful, trad published authors Though, to be fair to them, they still continue to help out the independently published and other new authors.
https://damonza.com/tiny-books/