BOOK PROMOTION SITES--THE ONES THAT ACTUALLY WORK! > Likes and Comments


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'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.

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.

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.

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 just tried them to and sold 17. I'll use them again for sure.

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.

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.


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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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 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!"


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, 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

I received good results from Love Books too. But tried a new one and missed.

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. 🤷



I hide behind my pen name - I may be shy, but Lexie's quite confident!

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.

Good for Lexie. I do the same.


That's fantastic! Congratulations!

Thank you. I just followed you.

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.

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!


Wow, excellent to hear.

Hurrah! It can be done!

Wow, that's good to hear!

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.
https://damonza.com/tiny-books/