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

I bid 1.25 on the bookbub ads. Expensive, but I wanted to outbid. It was expensive and I spent a little more money than I made back.

Marie Silk wrote: "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..."

I know we're headed into the 4th of July. A lot of big fests were going on in my area throughout the (very very hot) weekend with others starting on the 4th. It could be a lot of people in the U.S. at least is busy with celebration plans. Maybe that had lowered sales/downloads.

Effie, are you saying that you actually did a FREE giveaway? Was it Marie Silk who won you over? Your results are amazing, too.

Marie Silk, that's still some good numbers. Good for you.

Theresa, that's also a good point. I forgot all about people getting busy celebrating.

I also want to add a link to a forum I joined. It is specifically set up to have authors' books reviewed by its members. If you're not already a member, and if you are looking for some reviews, just first go to rules and regulations of signing up, then if you're interested, sign up. You can also be a reviewer. I hope this helps:

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

Groovy wrote: ",...Theresa, that's also a good point. I forgot all about people getting busy celebrating."

We were watching fireworks last night during the final night of one of those fests. The grocery store was packed with people loading up grilling foods and water so that's what made me think of it. lol.

No, Groovy, I didn't do a free promotion. I set up a CPC bookbub ad during my countdown.

The holiday can go either way. Either readers are busy with plans and preparing for parties, or they are loading up on books to read during their extra days off.

I think that sounds likely - though I've noticed a little halo effect recently with free promotions. UK and US have gone down when it's the third or fourth time on the book, but other countries are now going up - I have no idea why this should be!

That’s good! And true maybe. I had a lot of sales from Canada.

Theresa wrote: "I know we're headed into the 4th of July. A lot of big fests were going on in my area throughout the (very very hot) weekend with others starting on the 4th. It could be a lot of people in the U.S. at least is busy with celebration plans. Maybe that had lowered sales/downloads.

"

Thank you Theresa, that's a good point. Usually a book has to get at least a thousand downloads to rank in the top 100 of the Free Kindle Store. Since mine was ranked at #65 pretty much the whole day but only topped out at 795 downloads at the end of it, I think there just weren't a lot of free book downloads that day. You never know how holidays and events will affect a promo.

Marie Silk wrote: "Thank you Theresa, that's a good point. Usually a book has to get at least a thousand downloads to rank in the top 100 of the Free Kindle Store. Since mine was ranked at #65 pretty much the whole day but only topped out at 795 downloads at the end of it, I think there just weren't a lot of free book downloads that day.You never know how holidays ..."

Very true! Sometimes I think weather has more to do with it. If it's terrible weather (too hot, too cold, etc) people are more likely to be browsing for indoor things to do. If it's nice, then not so much!

Well, I offered one of my books for free for five days starting yesterday so we’ll see how that goes. I had 385 downloads yesterday with no advertising at all. I didn’t even post anything on social media. Not quite sure what drove that but I think that’s a good sign. Today so far I have 369 downloads running a Freebooksy ad.

Well done. I have a free book promotion going on at the moment and in 4 days I've had 2 downloads!
Hey Ho. That's the way it goes, I suppose.

Did you take out an ad? Freebooksy works great. Last time I had two thousand downloads from that one $55 ad.

I promoted it on my 2 blogs, Facebook, Twitter and various other places, but no paid ads.

The last time, I did that the first couple Of days and got maybe 15 downloads total. The Freebooksy ad got me almost 2000 downloads. It really makes a difference. I know, it’s sad to have to advertise to give away your stuff, but if your goal is to get your name out there, it’s worth it.

My free promos without advertising are lucky to get a few dozen downloads, but I know an author whose book had almost 700 downloads without any advertising on its first free promotion! I don't think that's typical at all.

Good luck with your promos, ladies!

Shannon,

I just boosted a post. I'm not sure what happened to you but I had n problem doing it. I will say that something odd did happen last night, though. I went to send out a newsletter and you can share the newsletter non twitter and facebook by clicking an on button. The facebook button said that this function was not currently available.

Hmm. Maybe they changed it back because usually when I boost posts it harasses me nonstop to boost and it hasn’t at all this week. That’s good news.

Yes, that's true they do constantly ask to boost!

Well folks, three days into my Giveaway, with two days to go, I'm at 2138 downloads.

Someone on the SPF forum was saying he uses his free downloads to get people to sign up for his mailing list. I need to do that. It's one of the aspects of marketing that I've been overlooking, mainly because I just don't know how.

Wow, Shannon, congratulations on your downloads! And you still have two days to go.

What do you mean giveaway?Free promotion? What is the SPF forum? I sent out a newsletter for an authorsXP multi author giveaway I'm included in. I added that In addition, I'm running my own giveaway. If they follow me on Bookbub they will be entered for a $10 Amazon Gift card. I've gained 50 new followers in two days. I'm hoping that the more followers I have the better chance I'll have of being accepted for another featured deal. right now I have 615 followers on bookbub.

Yup, free promotion. The SPF forum is a Facebook page run by Mark Dawson, he mostly focuses on Facebook ads and runs a course on how to market your book on FB which is about $500,00. People ask all sorts of questions. https://www.facebook.com/groups/SPFse...

That Bookbub idea is a great strategy. I have to say it's quite the addictive high to have so many downloads. Too bad I'm not making any money. I need to focus more on how to use this as a marketing tool.

Shannon,

You will make money eventually. Right now you are building yourself as a brand. It's a big investment of time and money.

Very true !

Final tally for my five day Giveaway...2,277 books downloaded. I took out just one ad, for Freebooksky, and the majority of my downloads came on the day it ran, about 1500. Other than that, I promoted on social media and Instagram for free.

I'm pretty pleased. No, I won't be buying that Mercedes any time soon, quitting my day job, or even paying off the car I currently drive. But, my book is about my own experiences bullying, and I hope it helps other people who experienced something similar and that they don't feel all alone. That was my purpose in writing it.

I'm also pricing one of my books for free on Thursday, because it's my birthday, and it's a birthday gift from me to readers everywhere.

Congratulations, Shannon and Happy Birthday!

Well done, Shannon! That's brilliant.

I'm plotting my launch for October. I wish I could book the promo dates ahead of time as it would put my mind at rest, but I'll have to wait until the book's at least on preorder. Of course it makes sense - there would be hundreds of people, probably, booking dates and never running promos, but I like to be organised!

Thanks Effie!

I understand, Lexie. I've never achieved that level of organization. I'm still stuck about how to make a sign up list and get a newsletter going. I usually just throw my book up when I feel it's ready and let the chips fall rather than doing anything organized. How I wish I could just write and not have to worry about anything else, but don't we all wish that?

That is a great number, Shannon! Congrats and happy birthday.

Lexie, I understand that feeling. I'm also not ready to book promos for book three or the earlier books in the series because I don't have anything close to an exact date yet. I want to time my next promos for the earlier books closer to the release. The manuscript is still with the editor, but I am also looking at late Sept/Oct for a launch.

Thanks Theresa!

Theresa wrote: "That is a great number, Shannon! Congrats and happy birthday.

Lexie, I understand that feeling. I'm also not ready to book promos for book three or the earlier books in the series because I don't ..."

Let's hope autumn's good for book sales this year, then! Good luck with yours.

I just found out last night that this is where everyone went.

I finally broke the code on how to get access to Amazon headline search ads. I'm told these work better than sponsored products or product display ads.

I've been running headline search ads for all four books since early June and got 37 sales for the month with a good ACoS. Since my normal sales had been around 10% of that, it looks like a winner to me.

Lexie,

I just did a pre-order for the first time with the last book in my series. You have to be pretty much done with the MS. You can load one that is not final and then you have the ability to upload a new and final one three days before your launch date. If you are sure everything will be ready with your editor, formatter and cover designer, then come up with a launch date and set up the preorder to get some buzz going. I suggest you hire tour hosts to handle a release promotion for you. This will cost less than 100$. I have some very reliable ones to suggest, if you like. You also need to use your own social media and newsletters to get the word out. Also, offer some of your loyal readers an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Ask that the minute the book goes live, they post for you. That way you have reviews from day one.

Lance,

What are headline ads and how do they work? I have amazon ads too, but I don't think they bring me too many sales.

Yes Lance, Please tell us more. I do AMS ads and I do generate some business from it, but not anywhere as much as I’d like.

Well done, Shannon. It's easy to set up a free sign up link at Mail Chimp and you can customize your sign up form. It must be, if I managed it. The instructions are all on the website. You can then copy the link into the back of all your books.

I've got a new 99p promo starting tomorrow. I've managed to get onto Book Barbarian for the first time and also ENT (third time lucky), so it'll be interesting to see if it makes a difference.

Lexie wrote: "Let's hope autumn's good for book sales this year, then! Good luck with yours. ..."

Thank you and same to you!

Thanks DJ! I actually have a mail chimp account I never use. I’ll have to see if I remember the password...

Luis that list Shannon and use your mail chimp. I’m doing an author’s Xperia cross promotion now. I sent out the newsletter to let readers know how they can enter. As an extra incentive I do my own give away. Last time I gave away a couple of books. All they had to do was respond to the email and say I’m entering. I got hundreds of entries. This time I’m giving a $10 Amazon gift card. To enter they have to follow me on bookbub. So far I’ve gained over 74 new followers

That’s great ! Thanks for the ideas!

Whoa, Congratulations, Shannon, and Happy Birthday!

Lance wrote: "I just found out last night that this is where everyone went.

I finally broke the code on how to get access to Amazon headline search ads. I'm told these work better than sponsored products or pro..."


Sorry, Lance. But so glad you found us:)

Thank you, Michele!

Effie wrote: "Lexie,

I just did a pre-order for the first time with the last book in my series. You have to be pretty much done with the MS. You can load one that is not final and then you have the ability to u..."

Oh, thanks for all that! I've done a preorder a couple of times but noticed that one or two promotion sites don't take preorders, which is fair enough. I've just sent out to readers today, hoping that indeed I'll get some early reviews. You sent me the address for itsy bitsy book tours a while ago so I might try them but I do have a limited budget - that's why I'd like to book some dates now so I can keep costs under control! My launch date is 18th October, and I'm already working on the buzz!

Itsy bitsy is the best. A launch release won't cost much at all. She works hard for you. But I would recomment a release and book tour package to get some exposure and you will sure to get reviews from the bloggers who feature you

Effie wrote: "Lance, What are headline ads and how do they work? I have amazon ads too, but I don't think they bring me too many sales."

AMS has three types of ads. The two you can get to through KDP are sponsored products (the ads that show up in-line with search results) and display ads (the kind that appear on detail pages).

The third kind, headline search ads, appear at the top of the results page for a search. You won't see them if you use an ad blocker on your browser. You can set them up to bid for the headline position for certain search terms. You pay if someone sees one and clicks on it. Each headline search ad has its own target page, so if (like me) you have books in two different genres, you can route readers to the appropriate genre depending on which search term they use.

To get this third option, you need to have an Amazon Advantage account, and you need to apply for an AMS account through the AA account. It's best if you use a different email address from the one tied to your KDP account so you don't end up stuck with just the AMS account you got through KDP. It takes a few weeks for the 'Zon to approve your AA account and then your associated AMS account.

It's fiddly, but the cost for experimentation is fairly low if you're careful.

Thanks Lance!

I never heard of amazon advantage. I’ll have to look it up. Thanks, Lance.

I've never heard of it either. Thanks for the info, Lance!