J.’s Comments (group member since Sep 09, 2014)

J.’s comments from the THE Group for Authors! group.

Here are the results of my latest promo campaign. The promotion was for book 1 in my fantasy series, “Fall of the Western Kings.” Sale price was set at 99 cents and it was in Kindle Unlimited so free to Prime members. Usual price is $3.99. It did not make money as net ROI though it did come close and there were enough sales of book 2 at full price to narrow the gap. As always I tried a few marginal sites and even a couple that I wasn’t going to use again and then did anyway. I keep telling myself not to use sites that don’t get sales, and then I talk myself into quantity instead of quality. It is disappointing to note that I got no cross over sales of any of my non-fantasy books. Usually I do get a couple.
I tried one more of the “ad an extra site” offer and again as far as I can tell the “extra” ad never happened. Finally, based on info from others on GR I tried to add on an ad with Book Raid which they said was accepted but I never saw it and so far an email asking whither it ran or not has gone unanswered. I will be looking into this site more and seeing what others have experienced with them before I use them again.
I’ve noticed that more and more of the sites I like are carrying ads for the major publishers, some raising rates, and it seems to me that perhaps the true Indie Author is being squeezed out. Anyone else feel that way?
So enough, here are the results. I’ve listed the date, ad sales and pages read.

11/13 FKBT & AskDavid 511 pr, 6 sales
11/14 Authorsxp, Booksends, AskDavid 840 pr, 24 sales
11/15 EBookHounds, AskDavid, 1224 pr, 1 sale
11/16 BargainBooksy, AskDavid, 488 pr, 22 sales
11/17 FussyLibrarian, AskDavid, 20 pr, 9 sales
11/18 AskDavid, 5 pr, 0 sales
11/19 AskDavid, 15 pr, 2 sales
11/20 KB Bazaar, AskDavid, 147 pr, 0 sales
11/21 AskDavid, 0 pr, 1 sale
11/22 no ads, 56 pr, 2 sales
11/23 no ads, 178 pr, 0 sales
11/24 ENT, 128 pr, 11 sales
11/25 no ads, 539 pr, 3 sales
11/26 no ads, 241 pr, 3 sales
11/27 no ads 1114 pr, 0 sales
11/28 AskDavid, 394 pr, 0 sales
11/29 Book Raid (did not see this ad), 362 pr, 0 sales

For what it’s worth, that’s it. Not sure when I’ll try another campaign. I’d like to wait until I have a new book coming out but that will likely be a long time yet.

I did take it. I thought it was worthwhile even though for the moment I am not running any AMS ads. There are things for sale that are highlighted during the courses but I didn't buy anything mostly because the way tech changes I think buying something before you're ready to put in the time to use it probably will lead to it being out of date when you do. Just my 2 cents.

Melva wrote: "I have never been a self-promoter, so my books sit there on Amazon stagnating! LOL! I love to write, so that's what I'll do. If I don't sell anything at least I'm doing what I enjoy, right?"

Me too though selling books and knowing that someone is reading them feels pretty good. Certainly I'd keep (and do keep) writing even when there's zero traffic.

Jack wrote: "Lately I've been assembling a file of pre-written ads for my books and particularly the Boxed Sets. Here's a sample, without the link (and of course, the price was only during the Countdown Deal):
..."
Hi Jack,
Glad to see you continue to write. Me too. Trying to get first draft done on fantasy 3 and finish a sequel to another book.
I've done much as you suggest having a pre-written sets of ads that I use on FB, twitter, and other social media sites. I have had some of them of a while and really think I need to write up new ones on a regular basis.
I too have seen the ENT ads producing fewer sales than previously. Other sites too. Not sure if readers are just moving elsewhere to find "deals" or what. Or maybe I just need a new novel to hit the market.
Anyway, I have a promo campaign set to start next week and will report what happens when it finishes.

Keith wrote: "If anyone needs the list of 85 submission sites, please email me at;
thegurns2005@yahoo.com"

email sent looking forward to your list
And Toni, there are sites with free ads, you might want to check them out.

D and Marie,
Thanks for the thoughts.
I think my next promo campaign will indeed focus on book 1, which I republished before book 2 release with links and blurbs for book 2. Before book 3 I will revise books 1 & 2 to include info for book 3.
And perhaps time of year doesn't really make that much difference. I have not had enough books out there to know.

Hi all,
I thought I should post a report on my latest release campaign which I must say was a disappointing flop. The book was number 2 in a fantasy series that started with a rousing successful launch of book 1 last year. And because of that success I expected that there would be a surge of people who'd be looking for book 2. Didn't happen. One reason I found out during the early run was that people who bought book 1 didn't know book 2 was out. I need to figure out a way to let former readers know when a new book in a series comes out (anyone here got suggestions on that?)
I tried to set up ads with the same sites that did the promotion for book 1. Some of the better sites from the first campaign refused the ads, which hurt. Part of that might have been that for book 1 I had a number of reviews early on whereas book 2 still has only 2. And there may be other reasons a site refused book 2.
Of the ads I did manage to line up only eReaderIQ, Bargain Booksy, Bookends and Book Barbarian resulted in sales. None of them made money but they did at least get sales and I did see a slight rise in sales of some of my other books.
One other thing I wondered about was that book 1 launched in late August while book 2 launched in early June. I think June is not the best time for a launch and plan to adjust my next book release accordingly.
Any thoughts from the group would be appreciated.

This has been an interesting and energetic discussion. I think any suggestions from this group are worth thinking about. We each have our own level of skill in any of the various areas that are required to write, edit, print and publish a book. I do not have any skills at cover design so I pay for that. As to formatting, I've found that I can do what I want without getting others involved or paying for additional services. Mostly I up load a file, do a thorough e-review, revise accordingly until I think I have things the way I want them and then, for the print book, get a printed review copy. So far that's worked for me but it does take some time and effort. Others may want to spend that time on writing the next book instead of messing around with the publishing details and that's fine.

I just want to add my agreement with Anne about FB ads. I've tried them several times, targeted a couple of different ways and never saw anything from it. I am taking FB ads off my list. For me, they don't work.

Jack wrote: "I tried that; I went 'wide' for a while but BB wasn't interested and I was losing money. So I went back to KU.
If/when I have a hundred or so good reviews, I might try going with other outlets agai..."
Hi Jack,
I get what you say about going wide. It hasn't worked well for me either. I still have a few books out there everywhere but they sell very seldom while everything does better for Kindle. My 2 fantasy novels I've kept on KU as that's where I sell. I am thinking about brining one other book back there and giving up on "wide."
And all the best with Baen, they publish some good scifi.
J

Hey Jack,
Just a thought, I read a blurb from BookBub that they prefer books with wide availability. I think most of your are in KU and that might also be a negative factor when you try to get an as accepted at BB.

Suzette wrote: "J. wrote: "Quick update on my Amazon ad. So far nothing. I adjusted the key words once after seeing no click throughs and that hasn't helped. Lots of impressions but no follow up. I adjusted the pr..."
Hi Suzette, thanks for the info and advice. My one Amazon ad ends tomorrow. So far 12000+ impressions and 1 click through. Cover may not be so enticing and the blurb might be putting people off. Not sure but something is off. In any case I'm going to drop that book for now and go back to the first book in my fantasy trilogy. It has done very well (still is selling as good as any other book for me) and so I think the cover will be just fine. I'll see how it does using the same strategy.

J.M. wrote: "Hi Sorry I wasn't back sooner, but I wanted to have something to come back with. Twitter was a bomb for me, I could not get approval for my ad with my book cover. I was irritated after waiting over..."
J.M. looking forward to hearing how the $10 service with books and the bear did. I have heard of them but don't know anyone who has tried them. Keep us posted.

Larry,
I have not tried Bublish (actually can't remember hearing of it before this) so will look into it. As for AMS I'm going to revamp and try again.

Hi all,
Quick up date on my Amazon ad. So far nothing. I adjusted the key words once after seeing no click throughs and that hasn't helped. Lots of impressions but no follow up. I adjusted the price per click also and that didn't help. I think the text blurb I put in isn't working and will probably try again with a different pitch. Perhaps I shortchanged that portion of the process thinking that because book 1 had been so successful that book 2 would take off on its own. The good side of it is so far it hasn't cost me anything either.

J.M. wrote: "My knowledge of FB Ads comes from losing money via mistakes LOL. However, I've been doing page(s) a few years. Keywords and targeting are important. I use the genres to target and then I target Kin..."

Jill, I'll let you know how the Amazon ads go after they've been running for a while. The first couple of days they haven't done much but also have not cost much either.
And thanks for the FB info. Looking forward to hearing what you find with Twitter ads.
J

I too appreciate the info on FB ads since what I've experienced is that they are not worth the trouble. However it is possible that I do not have them optimized and maybe they would work better if I knew a better way to set them up. I just ended a lengthy FB campaign and as far as I can tell it netted zero. Now I've gone to an Amazon ad campaign trying to duplicate what I've learned here. So far it hasn't done much either but it's early.
All the best to everyone. Keep at it.

Chrys, thanks for sharing. Every bit of info is useful.

If you go with Select and get any kind of pages read, I'd say it pays to go that way. I am doing that with my newest release and even with a slow start the pages read pay better than most other selling places. This may depend on the book, the genre, and other things but so far that's what I've experienced.

Hi all,
Glad to see this list remains active. I am in the midst of a new release and tried using the "get exposure at additional sites" deal that some sites advertise as a good way to get lots more exposure for a "low" price. So not knowing better, I bought a couple of these and at this point I'd have to say I'm disappointed. Most of the supposedly additional sites have not, as best I can tell, posted anything for my new book. Have any of you tried this? Did it work for you? Unless this group thinks differently, I will not sign up for the "extra" sites again and will only deal directly with individual sites. Curious to hear what this group thinks.