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

Whoa, Effie! Congratulations--what great exposure in Buzzfeed. What did you do to achieve this? I'm IMPRESSED.

Another author with connections compiled the list and wrote the article. Not that impressive! But I'm hoping for some exposure.

Hi Michele,

Here is the breakdown of the bookbub ad.

Evanthia's Gift - $75.00 budget - $1.25 CPC - 16,035 impressions - 186 clicks (Budget used)

Waiting For Aegina - $75.00 budget - $1.25 CPC - 12,681 impressions - 21 clicks - ($43.83 still left in budget.)

Spent 106.17 for 76 sales. Lost money in sales but hopefully gained exposure Andy KNEP during the ad run was 3,471 KNEP.

My three book series is now live as a box set! Individually the kindle books are 3.99 each or 11.97 for all three. I priced the box set at 7.99 I want to submit for a bookbub deal and I'm vacillating between pricing it for a few days as a countdown at 1.99 or .99. think .99 is too little even for a temporary deal for a box set. But I want my chance to get accepted to be greater. I'm not sure what strategy I should use. Any thoughts? Marie Silk usually has the most experience with this.

You'd think Amazon would welcome those reviews when they compare them to the number of sales. I'll look at mine later. But I probably have no reviews left.

I feel sorry for the person that has to deal with A.W. and her trolls, now. I really hope the people on that thread will just ignore her and not engage. The fact that she has the power to hijack a thread and ruin it for everyone else is infuriating.

Congratulations, Effie. You came in at #2! Anything written where others will certainly read it is great exposure!

Thanks, Groovy. I think the order was random.

I think A.W. lives to call people out and bully. This poor guy who started this new group mailing list! A.W. is badgering him.

My first 7 attempts to get a Bookbub deal were unsuccessful. On the 8th submission, they approved my book for a deal. They have a 6 month waiting period once a book has been featured, so I submitted my book for another deal after 6 months. It was accepted the first try. Then I submitted for a deal again 6 months later and it was accepted. Each time was for a free promotion in the historical fiction category for the same book. My book was in Kindle Select each time. I think free promotions have a better chance of getting approved because they are more in demand than deals for 99 cents and up.

For people wondering what to put in the comment box, I'm not sure it really matters. I think I just left the box blank. As I understand it, Bookbub editors actually read each book before they feature it. They write their own synopsis to accompany the feature. So it's not like some of the other promotion sites where you write your own ad.

Effie, I would check the Bookbub newsletter and see what price the box sets are featured at. 1.99 seems low to me for 3 books. I'm not really sure. I would be hesitant to list a box set if those were the only books I had since readers would not be able to return and buy more books. I find that sequel sales are where most of the ROI comes from with BB featured deals.

Marie Silk,

I didn't know they had a 6 month waiting list in between deals.

I was actually accepted the very first time I submitted, but that was the only time. I was never able to get in again. I believe I went in under women's fiction. I go back and forth between that and contemporary romance. Often the romance books offered in many of these sites are nothing like mine

I already had a look at the newsletter last night. some were actually being offered for free. I won't do that with an entire set. Upon what you played out, I may give that a go with the first book only. Only Traditionally published books had sets for more than 2.99 on sale with bookbub. The others were free, .99 or 1.99. I feel that giving the whole set for .99 might be selling it short and would be perceived of little value. But I just don't know. If I did this, I would only do it for a day or two, not a full countdown week.

Hm, yeah I cringe a little bit as an author about free or 99 cent box sets, unless maybe they are short stories. A BB deal would certainly bring attention to the series at any price point so it's worth a shot, but if it were me, I would prefer to get a feature with the first book free rather than offering the entire box set. For my genre, the BB price goes up for paid features. A free feature is $457, a 99 cent feature is $914, and a 1.99 feature is a whopping $1587.

Yesterday was my Bookbub featured deal for Book 1 in my series, and I have Book 2 on countdown through Sunday. It went pretty well. The free downloads have decreased with each deal though. The first time, my book ranked #1 in the Free Kindle Store the whole day. The second time, my book had about half as many downloads and made it to #5. Yesterday, it made it to #7. It's still a lot of downloads and the ad will pay for itself + more, but I thought people would be interested to hear that the result has been less with each consecutive feature.

Book 2 of my series (on 99 cent countdown) made it to #569 in the Paid Kindle Store yesterday. The only ad I had going for it was on Bargain Booksy. So I'm sure most of the sales are a result of the exposure from the BB deal of the first book. I have another free promo day scheduled for Sunday. I'll put up results after my lineup runs its course :).

Oh my,

Thank you, Effie, congratulations on your excellent accomplishment (#2), sharing your stats, and congratulations to Marie Silk for being featured in BookBub and your successful sales! I also appreciate the guidance on the comments section.

FYI...I took Groovy's advice and emailed OnLineBookClub.org asking for a partial refund. They offered me a deal: spend $349 more on a special Book of the Day feature, scheduled for the end of September. I declined. They've lost credibility with me. Just wanted to caution authors to beware of their advertising options.

In terms of the online bullies, I agree with Groovy. Everything I've read about negative comments, reviews, harassment, has advised not to engage. Do not reply/respond to any bullying or mean comments.

Everyone on this thread has the nicest, most helpful attitudes.

Congratulations, Marie, those are good sales and lots of exposure!

Michele, I'm so sorry they tried to scamboodle you into buying another package. I hope you told them what a load of crap they are. The nerve! Reputable sites would promptly issue a refund, or credit.

I hope those who read through this thread will know to stay away from them!

Effie, is the guy engaging with them? Can you tell me what thread they're on and maybe I can contact him and warn him against it before his entire thread is ruined!

I would say that at least those trolls have forgotten about us and moved on. But I wouldn't wish this on anybody.

D. wrote: "Jaci wrote: "Effie wrote: "So my countdown is over. It's not the most successful one I've had but it wasn't bad either. I think next time I am going to cut way back on the ads and only go for a few..."

Amazon has been purging reviews lately, not for the author but for a specific reviewer and know one seems to know why. I have seen it mentioned here and it happened to another author, she had all her reviews removed from amazon for some unknown reason - one of which was a review of my book. No idea if they deemed her as breaking the TOS.

I buy a lot from Amazon and review almost everything ( not just books) so I have not had any of my posted reviews removed but have lost 2 (that I know of) as an author.

We will probably never know why Amazon does what it does.

Effie wrote: "Michele, I can break it down when I get home from work tonight. I can tell you that most of the impressions and clicks came from the UK which surprised me.

Jaci, that’s really reaching on a perso..."

Effie, I looked into a Bookbub ad to run during my Countdown in August - did you run it for the entire week of your countdown or just a specific day.

So I, like so many others, did not get chosen for a Bookbub featured deal BUT like Marie Silk I will keep trying.

For my upcoming countdown in August, here is my promo lineup so far.

Just Kindle Books - approved $33
ENT - waiting for response
Book Barbarian - approved $30
Robins Reads - approved $60
Bargain Booksy - approved - $80 (I went with the deal of the day for more money this time.)
Book Gorilla - approved $50

I wanted to try a new promo site this countdown and am deciding between Free Kindle Books and Tips OR Riffle Select. Anyone have any experience with either?

That's a great looking countdown, Jaci :) Riffle brings in more downloads for me than FKBT, but not as well as Robin Reads or Freebooksy. If you go with Riffle, try this coupon code PA50 for 50% off. If I recall correctly, they only run newsletters on Mon Wed and Fri.

Also to those booking ads with Bargain Booksy and Freebooksy, try the code PAIDAUTHOR-5 for a 5% discount.

I’m leaving work soon and will respond to all these posts when I get home.

Marie Silk,

Yes, it's very expensive to do a bookbub ad. My genre was around $700 for the 99Cent deal. I never looked at the price for 1.99.

Jaci, I read an article stating that you should put your best performing ads on the last day or two of your countdown. The theory is that it will leave you with the highest ranking for the week, which will give you more exposure. The book will go back to regular price and still be at its best ranking and regular priced sales will follow. I only ran the bookbub ad for 24 hours. It was too expensive otherwise. I could have lowered my bid and stretch out my budget, but then I wonder if my ad will get enough exposure. I'm assuming a Higher bids would get the placement.

I've used FKBT several times. They are supposed to be one of the better sites. I haven't found it to be one that brings me decent sales. I haven't used them in almost a year. I feel like I was wasting my money.
I just spent 100$ on a riffle ad. It brought me around 43 sales. So, I didn't make my money back. I won't waste my money on an expensive ad like that again without proven results.

Honestly, none of my ads produced the sales they had in the past. We were contemplating if this had anything to do with the GDPR.

Jaci, I think the sites you listed will be great for your countdown.

Michele,
That's disgusting! You complain and instead of offering you a refund or a replacement ad they tried to get you to spend more money? Well their integrity is in question. I never heard of them but I will steer clear.

Groovy,

I did actually message the person to warn him about the trolls. He appreciated it. He said he purposely answered him with a one word answer but then A.W. challenged that answer and went into one of his holier than thou rants. I suggested he not engage whatsoever.

I was just looking at my royalties over the last several months. I have to point out that I've made more money in KNEP than is actual sales almost every month. In many cases, more than double! I'm saying this because we need to figure out how to promote to those unlimited subscribers in more ways. Any suggestions?

Effie, AMS ad is my answer. Mine went up from almost zero after I started using AMS ads. They’re deceptive though because the KU “sales” don’t show up as such on our report. They come up as clicks. I actually read a book on this topic where the author explained that we often think an ad is ineffective because we don’t see traditional sales but we’re getting clicks which ends up paying more in pages read.

Impressive countdown, Jaci. We're rooting for you.

Sorry, I'm no help in the area of promoting to unlimited subscribers. I hope to be able to contribute to the subject of promoting in the future, but for now I'm just soaking all this experience in.

Effie, I hope to goodness he listened.

That's a good tip to remember, Shannon.

I forgot to add: Wimbledon starts tomorrow **high-pitched scream of joy**

Yay! and my daughter is already signed up with her working schedule for the US Open!

I never knew that about the clicks. That makes me feel better. There are so many more clicks in a day than sales. But my average KNEP is anywhere from 1,500 - 3,000. That's lower than it was a while back. I used to average 3,000 - 5,000. I want those numbers back. I am doing AMS ads but I'm not sure I have a handle on a successful promotion.

So, about those kindle unlimited subscribers...

I completely forgot that about a month ago I did an authorsXP cross promotion directed at kindle unlimited readers only. The host suggested that the authors not bombard the entrants all at once with newsletters. I forgot about the list until tonight when we started talking about reaching unlimited readers. I just sent out a newsletter to the unlimited subscribers with a little blurb on each book and a giveaway contest of my own.
Let's see if this spikes my KNEP

Effie wrote: "Marie Silk,

Yes, it's very expensive to do a bookbub ad. My genre was around $700 for the 99Cent deal. I never looked at the price for 1.99.

Jaci, I read an article stating that you should put yo..."

Regarding putting your ads in order, I read something similar: if you grade them (as far as you can anticipate) from fewest sales to most sales, Amazon thinks your book is gaining in popularity, so those little bots get interested. So I've read!

Effie wrote: "Marie Silk,

Yes, it's very expensive to do a bookbub ad. My genre was around $700 for the 99Cent deal. I never looked at the price for 1.99.

Jaci, I read an article stating that you should put yo..."

Thanks Effie, that’s good advice. I have yet to fill my final countdown day so maybe I will try a 24 hr Bookbub ad instead of a promo site - mix it up a bit!

Marie Silk wrote: "That's a great looking countdown, Jaci :) Riffle brings in more downloads for me than FKBT, but not as well as Robin Reads or Freebooksy. If you go with Riffle, try this coupon code PA50 for 50% of..."

Thanks Marie Silk,

I pushed it out further than I need to do that I could get in with all the best promo sites. I am hoping to get some decent sales. Thanks for the promo code - I was on the Riffle site yesterday and they are noting a $150 for an ad although they do say they will give you pricing after you submit - not sure I like not knowing what I have to pay upfront :(

After trashing OnLineBookClub.org, I have to eat my words. The owner/facilitator and I continued emailing and he agreed to honor a Book of the Day promotion. I'm pleasantly surprised and wanted to share the good news. Since reputations are based on word of mouth, I felt he deserved a positive comment. And, thanks, Groovy, for your suggestion!

Effie, I've been wondering if the timing was just bad for your countdown. A lot of people are on vacation this week and next and although people usually look for cheap books to read on the beach, they might select them BEFORE vacation. So it may not be anything you've done or not done. I was noticing a drop in my pages read too from the beginning of the month, until my free promotion showed a spike. It may just be the time of year.

Michele, I'm so glad it worked!!! I hope the Book of the Day promotion goes very well.

Have a safe and fun weekend, everyone!

Shannon,
I'm not sure. I could be. It was the end of school and graduations. a lot to distract people. It wasn't a bad promotion. I sold a total of almost 300 books. I'm just used to a lot more during a countdown.

Jaci,
I hope you have a successful promotion. I love your ad with the the two books.

Michele,
I'm happy you were able to get some restitution.

I just checked my sales dashboard. Remember I wondered if my KNEP would go up after the newsletter targeted to unlimited subscribers? Well, I had the best KNEP day in a long time. A little over 4,000!

Oh my, Effie, 4,000 KNEP and selling almost 300 books—fantastic!

I second that, Effie--Good for you!

I can't wait until I'm done with my WIP so I can concentrate on nothing but promoting. Everyone's results are so inspiring!

Countdown--two more days until Wimbledon! (don't mind me:)

I'm running another one-day free promotion tomorrow with Robin Reads (for Book 1), and Book 2 has features with Reading Deals and Book Cave for the last day of its countdown. My intention is to go out with a bang on the last day of this promo. So far it has gone really well and my audio books sales have been higher than ever. My books also sold some paperback units. I rarely see audio and paperback sales so these were a welcome sight :).

Marie Silk,
Your features with Reading Deals & bookcave for book 2 is being featured for how much? Book one is free, what about book 2? Also, what do you think drove sales to the audiobook? I've been having a hard time finding exposure for them. I'd like them to eventually break even at the very least. My paperback sales are up also.

Thanks everyone. I only mentioned the KNEP to maybe give you inspiration to try a newsletter aimed at kindle unlimited readers.

Book 1 will be free and Book 2 will be 99 cents tomorrow. After tomorrow, all of my books will be their regular price of 2.99.

Usually the only time I see audio sales is after a free promotion, probably because listeners can get the Whispersync discount once they download the ebook. The discount makes the audiobook only cost about a third of its usual price.

I ran a one-day free promotion on Wednesday for Book 1 with Bookbub. My ACX dashboard shows 104 audio sales since then. Since it took me over a year to get a total of 267 audio sales, the additional 104 audio sales from this week came as quite a shock. I hope it means that my audiobooks will have more exposure for a while.

I wish I could share tips on getting more audiobook exposure, but I haven't had much success except for running promotions for the ebook and including "Whispersync" in my ad copy. I think the audiobooks are way too expensive. Since mine were produced through ACX on royalty share, I don't have any control over the price.

I have another question about your Bookbub cpc ad, Effie...did you go with "refine by author" or "refine by category"? I have only tried to refine by author in my ads, but they don't get many impressions so I think I need to go more broad.

Originally, I refined by category only. But this time around I did both at the same time. I'm not sure which way was more successful. I'm still experimenting.

So, Facebook is no longer allowing users to boost posts which contain links. That's something new. Just a few weeks ago I boosted a blog post I'd written about my new book, to drum up interest.

It's not SUCH a tragedy, because I'm not sure how many sales it generated, but it was a nice way to get traffic to my blog.

Are you sure, Shannon? I just did one. Also my blog tour host did as well. I’ll have to try to boost another post to see what happens.

Well I tried to boost yesterday and the button said “boost not available.” When I clicked around to find out why, it said they were no longer allowing boosts of links. I feel like I just did one recently too.

WOW! Well that's going to hurt their revenue from boosted posts. That's stupid.

Lol I was hoping you were going to tell me I was wrong. They’re probably trying to make us take out Facebook ads.

Oh, this is distressing information. I blog weekly, and boost them on FB. Since the Cambridge Analytica situation, some of my posts have been rejected when FB perceived them to be political. My last post, (Wednesday, June 27th) had links and was boosted. To add credibility, I always include outbound links to my sources. I've found boosting my blogs has given me more exposure, and I'm sad to lose this avenue.

I also wanted to boost my blog on Facebook. Im hoping I misinterpreted it, but I doubt it.

Effie wrote: "Thanks, Groovy. I think the order was random.

I think A.W. lives to call people out and bully. This poor guy who started this new group mailing list! A.W. is badgering him."

Just so you know, I've reported the posts that are personal attacks against another GR member. You all should be aware that is a violation of GR TOS.

Regardless of what you think of other GR users, and what they say, these groups are available to everyone, and everyone has the same right to post in them as you do.

If you don't like that you should form your own private group.

Hi Everyone,

I mentioned that I had done an unlimited mailing list through authorsXP and that I saw a spike in unlimited reads. So, about a month or so ago was when the unlimited promotion went out. When the site manager sent our mailing list names out she suggested we not all bombard the entrants with newsletters at once. I waited until last week. Even though they had to agree to be on our mailing lists to enter the contest giveaway, I still did a double opt-in. This way anyone who does not want to receive any more newsletters from me wouldn't. I ran my own giveaway in my newsletter and asked that they simply respond,saying, 'I'm entering.' I got an amazing amount of entrants! And very few unsubscribes. I also noticed that since the newsletter went out, my KNEP has been between 2,900 - 4,000 each day. So, I would highly recommend this avenue of promotion. I do very well with the royalties from the KNEP. I hope all of you had a nice weekend and a great upcoming 4th of July!

Results from yesterday's promo: downloads from the Robin Reads ad ended up a little on the low side. Usually my book gets well over a thousand downloads on a free promotion with them, but yesterday it had 795. Somehow my book still ranked #65 in the whole free store. I guess that means other books that were free yesterday didn't get many downloads either. To compare, my last promo on Robin Reads had over 1300 downloads and put my book at #80 in the free store. Maybe yesterday was a slow day for free books.

Or, Marie Silk, is it possible that many of the readers were the same and they had already downloaded your book? I find that the second or third time around on a site I don't do quite as well.

It could be. Robin Reads has a 90 day wait and I haven't noticed too much of a diminishing response with them over the past couple years, but it's possible that's what I'm seeing now.

I tried to run a Bookbub cpc ad during my promo over the weekend but I'm starting to think they're too expensive. I used a broad genre category that promised impressions in the hundred thousands. I bid 0.66 per click which was 1 cent more than their "other advertisers are bidding this much" number. I still couldn't get more than 2K impressions and the clicks were all costing 66 cents. So I'm not sure how much one has to bid in order to get results. My AMS clicks are averaging 0.17 on one successful ad, and 0.47 on another.