BOOK PROMOTION SITES--THE ONES THAT ACTUALLY WORK! > Likes and Comments
Thanks for the good wishes. I will report back on results.
I've heard that the New Releases ads don't do as well (depending on the price of the book). Hope she sells lots of books! Let us know!
Groovy wrote: "It has been my honor to have known you all. I wish you all the best:)"The honor is ours Groovy.... I am fairly new to this wonderful thread but still I have found it such a positive and supportive place to be. I wish you all the very best and may good things come your way.
Well, my big plan to set all my books at .99 cents didn't sell as many books as I'd hoped. One more day and I'll put them all back into Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. Except for the prequel to my Christmas series which will remain free and my one outlier which is a different genre. Guardian of the Light (my first book) will stay at .99 cents for another month as I advertise it on Story Origin.
I just had a friend request from "Kristin Hannah" who just joined this month. Beware friend requests from well-known authors as many of these are fake accounts. Look up one of their books to find the real accounts of these authors. The real Kristin Hannah joined in 2008.
D. wrote: "I just had a friend request from "Kristin Hannah" who just joined this month. Beware friend requests from well-known authors as many of these are fake accounts. Look up one of their books to find the real accounts of these authors. The real Kristin Hannah joined in 2008."Yeah, I've been seeing a lot more of that recently.
J. wrote: "I am thinking about giving FB ads a try this month along with a smattering of my usual sites. Need to think it through and limit my potential cost, but I think it's time to try something new.Happy..."
If your target audience is older women in particular, it may help your sales. Francine Falk-Allen
Lynn wrote: "D. wrote: "I just had a friend request from "Kristin Hannah" who just joined this month. Beware friend requests from well-known authors as many of these are fake accounts. Look up one of their book..."Me too. Especially on Twitter. Imposters and porn seem to prevail.
D. wrote: "Let us know the name of her book, J!"Her book is titled "Birch Cathedral" and I have to say she's had enough troubles getting it published for both of us. I think finally it's hit the market and she has ordered copies to give away and for whatever in-person events we go to.
I have just put my first book on Kobo after it's latest round on KDP. I'll have to see if it does anything for sales, but I'm hoping to reach new readers, especially those in Canada and Australia. It just went live a couple of days ago, so there's nothing concrete yet.I'll try for a few months and see what happens. If I have to, I'll pull it and put it back on Kindle unlimited.
J, congrats to your wife! I hope she sells many books!
Anyone heard of or know anything about a promo site called "Red Herring Reads" supposed to do only mystery, thriller books.
I haven't used them but its only $19. Not out much if you take a chance. The problem might be only 8000 subscribers. My Book Cave has about 350,000. But its about $60 on average. Good to know there is another for mysteries. Maybe they will grow.
For those with newsletters - Mailerlite has been free for up to 1,000 subscribers. They're changing that to free for up to 500 later this month. But the next level charges about $126 per year for up to 1,000. I don't see any plan for over 1,000 other than the one for organizations with over 100,000. What service do you use and is the price reasonable? Do you think it's worth it to have an email list?
I'll be interested in answers to this. I started a list some years ago but, despite only having a few names on it, I couldn't keep up with all-things-marketing and it lapsed. I feel guilty...
D. wrote: "For those with newsletters - Mailerlite has been free for up to 1,000 subscribers. They're changing that to free for up to 500 later this month. But the next level charges about $126 per year for u..."I have mail chimp tied to my website but haven't used it. I hear all the time about how important a mailing list is but like Anna, I don't ever seem to have time to actually send out info. What do others here think?
I've been sending out a newsletter every month for a long time. I don't think it does much though I do hear from readers sometimes. I have over 500 subscribers, so I'll have to either pay or give it up. Sometimes I use Story Origin for group promos which requires an email list. It's only $10 a month for unlimited promos but it's only been worth it once for page reads for my Christmas books in December.
I think a lot of successful marketing ideas have fallen by the wayside, very little seems to provide the success that was available to newish authors ten years ago.
D. wrote: "I've been sending out a newsletter every month for a long time. I don't think it does much though I do hear from readers sometimes. I have over 500 subscribers, so I'll have to either pay or give i..."I once had 400 email subscribers but I was so new at it that I didn't know how to go about using it. 6 years later it has dwindled down to 53 people and only 21 open my emails. If that doesn't sound pathetic on my part I don't know what is. The good news is I have hired a book marketing strategist to help me and one of the things is getting more email subscribers.
Now that my wife's book had its New Releases for Less promotion, I've learned quite a lot about that particular BookBub ad. When the post came out I scrolled through it and found out that there were over 100 books on the post and because it is an email it becomes page after page that any potential reader has to click through just to see the books. Birch Cathedral ended up on page 3. Not ideal but maybe better than page 13. So far she's sold 44 books which isn't bad except at the price they charged for the ad, not conducive to doing this ever again. I was so happy for her when she got in and now that I know almost everyone gets in the NRfL, it pretty much takes the joy out of it. And that's only a part of the snafu that has been her launch but that's another story for later.
Everyone have a good day.
I've heard that BookBub New Release ads aren't as effective. I've gotten accepted 3x for their regular email deals and those can propel a book, but they're harder to get than ever. I think for a new book, you have to focus on building reviews by doing sales, using some of our trusted sites like Fussy Library, My Book Cave, eReader IQ, eReader News Today, BargainBooksy or FreeBooksy, BookRaid. Even though we don't seem to make our $ back anymore, it will help get reviews. (Hopefully.) Without many reviews, readers won't want to spend $ on an unknown author.
Another way to build validation is by entering contests or submitting for a B.R.A.G. Medallion or Kirkus or Publisher's Weekly review.
On another note, I decided to stop my email list after this month. I don't know that it's gotten many sales, and it will save me $. That means I can also stop paying Book Funnel to carry my book magnets. Now I'll only have a website. Then when that comes up for renewal, I'll let that go too. Think about it - how many author email lists do you join as a reader and how many times do you go to an author's website?
I wish I could master Amazon ads. BookBub ads haven't been worth it for me.
D. wrote: "For those with newsletters - Mailerlite has been free for up to 1,000 subscribers. They're changing that to free for up to 500 later this month. But the next level charges about $126 per year for u..."I am in the process of moving to EmailOctopus. The free plan has 2500 subscribers.
Are newsletters worth it? I'm still not convinced but I am keeping it going. I think that most subscribers are in it for the free stuff, I have got some of my reviewers and beta readers from my list.
D. wrote: "I wish I could master Amazon ads. BookBub ads haven't been worth it for me.."In my experience, Amazon ads are good for relieving authors from their money.
Leon wrote: "D. wrote: "I wish I could master Amazon ads. BookBub ads haven't been worth it for me.."In my experience, Amazon ads are good for relieving authors from their money."
I agree and they are much more difficult to set up than a few years ago.
Leon, let us know how Email Octopus works out. And I agree about Amazon ads!I'll probably do more with my GR blog.
D. wrote: "Leon, let us know how Email Octopus works out.."Just started the automation test and received my welcome letter!
Another scheduled for tomorrow.
Georgios Zoumplias — New Release (Epic Fantasy)My debut, Whispers of Silver and Shadow (Book One of the Uthellien Saga), just launched. Coming-of-age, guild intrigue, D&D vibes.
👉 https://books2read.com/u/m2AK7d
For those who’ve promoted epic fantasy recently: which promo sites gave you real sales/reads (Freebooksy, ENT, Fussy Librarian, BargainBooksy, Book Barbarian, etc.)? Any to avoid? Happy to share my results after launch too. Thanks!
Just completed another promo on Book Cave. I ran another series (the cozy) deal and happily it was successful. One book in top 100 Folklore. Still seeing sales.
EmailOctopus Update:So far so good. My automation is working now that I unpaused it.
Moving my subscribers over was a bit of a pain, though. The exported list from MailerLite didn't include the first names no matter what I tried so I had to manually add that in.
Thankfully, I sent out an email to my list asking them if they wanted to continue receiving emails and about 50% said yes, so it feels good to purge my list of readers who were just in it for the freebie.
Next up, the first newsletter on the new platform.
Hi everyone. good to see that this discussion still going. I am back and just a couple of weeks ago, I published my first non-fiction historical book. So, I am quite happy about it. I will be advertising it on Amazon. I have been out of action for a couple of years, but now everything is back on track. I will welcome your advice on how to promote non-fiction historical book. If you need any information regarding the book, just drop a line to me. Thank you. And wish you all a lovely day/night.
Lost track of this forum again - partly just too much life going on. I still have a mailing list, in fact set it up properly last year for the first time. I'm with Mailerlite and I think I might just be over the edge for paying, but the trauma of setting up again with someone else means I'll probably pay. It goes up and down by a few subscribers each month, and is linked to a Bookfunnel reader magnet. Everyone says the best reason for a mailing list is to have a way to talk to your fans when Facebook collapses, for example, or Amazon closes your account. I'm not wholly sure that the people who follow me on Facebook are the same ones who are on my mailing list, but anyway.I'm running a 99p/c bargain this week on the first in one of my series, starting with Book Cave yesterday. I'll report results when they're in, but mean time I've noticed that I've had an increase on spam emails regarding that book, and from the way they're phrased I can tell they're basing their information on the Book Cave ad! These emails don't bother me particularly - read, laugh and delete is my policy - but some of these ones in particular have included a few ideas for marketing that I might do for myself.
I've had a good month. Series ad on My Book Cave was very successful. Still getting sales and thousands of page reads.Lexie, I too have been receiving those emails and finding some to be helpful. Not likely the impact they are looking for. 😁
Share the ideas you're getting. We all could use new ideas.And congrats on good sales.
Good luck with your sale, Lexie!I've found Book Cave to be a good advertising site. Glad you're still getting results, G.G.!
I've gotten friend requests from numerous well-known authors that are fake accounts. They all joined in Sept. 2025, and I reported all of them.
On another note, I'm still looking into Wattpad. Has anybody published on that site?
D. wrote: "...I've gotten friend requests from numerous well-known authors that are fake accounts. They all joined in Sept. 2025, and I reported all of them...."I've been seeing a lot of these, too. And have reported them.
J. wrote: "Anyone heard of or know anything about a promo site called "Red Herring Reads" supposed to do only mystery, thriller books."They contacted me during a promo I was running this week, but I think they're legit ...
I've had a remarkable promotion week - and not in a good way!Started on Amazon with a bestseller rating of around 440,000.
Day One, Book Cave - 9 sales, 0 KENP, BSR 460,000
Day Two, Bargain Booksy, 4 sales, 0 KENP, BSR 466,000
Day Three, Book Lending, 1 sale, 0 KENP, BSR 460,000
Day Four, social media, 2 sales, 0 KENP, BSR 480,000.
Not even within shouting distance of making my money back on that one!
Just realised, though, that I was looking at my paperback BSR. Ebook one is much better, though now of course I don't know what was happening during the promotion. Numpty.
Blue wrote: "Hi everyone. good to see that this discussion still going. I am back and just a couple of weeks ago, I published my first non-fiction historical book. So, I am quite happy about it. I will be adver..."Welcome back, Blue! Good to see you.
Frustrating, Lexie!I don't know why because I didn't advertise anywhere, but so far today, I've had 136 downloads of my free book (The Santa Secret). A reader must've posted somewhere about it. I hope it leads to reviews and sales of the other books in the series.
Update - My free book The Santa Secret had 261 downloads yesterday and already 26 today. I don't know why this is suddenly happening, but I'm not complaining!Also, ratings on GR seem to add and subtract from my books for some reason. More one day, a few days later gone.
D. wrote: "Update - My free book The Santa Secret had 261 downloads yesterday and already 26 today. I don't know why this is suddenly happening, but I'm not complaining!Also, ratings on GR seem to add and s..."
Hey D. Great to see whether you know why it's happening or not. Ride the wave!
Thanks, J! The book is in the top 50 of its 3 categories, so I applied to BookBub. Ha! Let's see if that does it.
Hey D. Good luck with BB. Still trying to get one in there.
I know this is off topic since it's not about promotional info but I really could use any suggestions and this group is about the most knowledgeable bunch of authors I know. I have been trying to help my wife get her first book off the ground. It has been anything but fun. And sadly most of my recommendations have not brought good outcomes. Anyway, her print book was supposed to come out on Sept 3 along with the ebook through D2D. Ebook is just fine. But the print book is not to be found anywhere. Amazon has stopped showing the print book period instead of saying it's temporary out of stock. B&N says out of stock. And a bookstore who looked up the title for me said it shows as out of stock at the warehouse. WTH - it's POD so there is no warehouse. Numerous attempts to get D2D help have gone nowhere. They say the file went to the printer just fine and from the printer it is supposed to get out to retailers. I think we are going to have to do something ourselves but hardly have any ideas what that might be. We will drop Amazon at D2D and get her own author account there but I'd rather have another source for print books for various reasons. Any suggestions? Even off-the-wall things because I want the book she spent 10 years writing to at least be available in print.Trying to stay up beat here. Good vibes to all of you.
J. wrote: "I know this is off topic since it's not about promotional info but I really could use any suggestions and this group is about the most knowledgeable bunch of authors I know. I have been trying to h..."That sounds awful, J. I've never used D2D for print - only have an account because they took over Smashwords - so I'm not sure I have any answers for you, except to drop them and start again elsewhere? Amazon's printing is higher quality than it used to be.
D. wrote: "Update - My free book The Santa Secret had 261 downloads yesterday and already 26 today. I don't know why this is suddenly happening, but I'm not complaining!Also, ratings on GR seem to add and s..."
Love it when that happens!
Lexie wrote: "J. wrote: "I know this is off topic since it's not about promotional info but I really could use any suggestions and this group is about the most knowledgeable bunch of authors I know. I have been ..."Lexie, thanks for the input. Does anyone have a suggestion as to alternate sites for print publishing? I can only think of IngramSpark and my experience there was terrible. Maybe they are better now since it's been probably 6 or 8 years since I've tried them.
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 d..."
Wow...that's big...so happy for you... Congratulations to your wife. Do let us know if it really makes a big difference. All the best to both of you.