Great Middle Grade Reads discussion
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Goodreads self serve ad campaign
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Greenhorn.
I'm not sure I clicked all the right buttons in setting up the ad, but it's done. Has anyo..."
Hi Anna, I haven't used it, but I'll be keeping an eye on your topic to see what I can learn. :)
Hi, Anna. I am using a self serve ad campaign right now for one of my adult novels and have not seen much benefit from it. That said, the giveaways have been awesome and generated a lot of interest. In the future I will most likely use giveaways exclusively and dispense with the ad campaigns.
Where do you find it? I'd like to give it a try, perhaps.Thanks,
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I looked into it when I had a Giveaway on, and thought I might do one when the Giveaway needed a push, but it actually went so much better than I'd expected I havent tried an ad campaign.
I might try one sometime though. I'll be interested to see what you thought of it.
Will wrote: "Hi, Anna. I am using a self serve ad campaign right now for one of my adult novels and have not seen much benefit from it. That said, the giveaways have been awesome and generated a lot of intere..."Thanks for the real experience info! It's so hard to decide what kind of marketing to do. I haven't done any yet but am starting to gather information so this is very helpful.
Will and Jemima,So far, no one has clicked through on my ad (about 1,500 views), which means that at this rate, my paid upfront money will last the rest of my life.
I agree that a Giveaway generates interest and introduces a book to people who wouldn't have known about it otherwise.
Will, other than the ad, did you do anything to try to promote your Giveaway? Jemima, did you do anything to promote yours?
Thanks.
Anna
Anna,This group has a thread where you can promote your giveaway, so I used that, as well as putting a link to the entry on my own webpage. That's about all I did. I gave away 5 paperback copies of my MG book, but I think it generated several sales of the ebook version. Good luck!
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So it didnt 'feel' like I'd had to push it much.
Someone said that you get more entries if you offer an autographed copy,and more than one, so I offered two autographed copies. The downside of that is, if you are in the UK like me and are selling through Createspace, you have to send a copy which you have already spent extortionate postage on to send back to the US/Can (in my case) at extortionate cost! Unautographed I could have sent them straight from the printer at low cost :sigh:
But hey, it's a legitimate business expense ;)
I'd do another giveaway with another paperback copy.
Anna wrote: "Will and Jemima,So far, no one has clicked through on my ad (about 1,500 views), which means that at this rate, my paid upfront money will last the rest of my life.
I agree that a Giveaway gener..."
I wonder if the 1500 views helped any?
Jemima wrote: "I invited all my friends to the giveaway, and did my blog posts, FBs and tweets. I think I may have mentioned it here but late in the day since I only found the group recently.So it didnt 'feel'..."
So when I get my second book up I'm planning on giving away some free copies of my book. I have heard that without some advertising of some sort even a free book will just sit there. So I'm really interested in this!
How far in advance did you set up tweeting etc.?
What kind of response did you get?
If you don't mind me asking, how many twitter followers did you have or blog readers? Since I'm asking you, I'll go first and say have around 70 followers now on twitter. I'm not on facebook yet. So many things to do! I don't know that I really have much of a following on either of my blogs yet. Kind of hard to tell.
I think I only tweeted a time or two. I've got just under 200 followers, but most of them are other writers - not really the target audience for my MG book. I didn't really push the giveaway all that much, but I ended up with over 700 entrants. But the book is on the "to read" shelves of over 250 members. Although I'd love to have had higher numbers, I know MG audiences build slowly, so I'm not too down about it. The important thing is to just get some exposure.
Will wrote: "I think I only tweeted a time or two. I've got just under 200 followers, but most of them are other writers - not really the target audience for my MG book. I didn't really push the giveaway all ..."Thanks for the info! You're right, I think MG readers may be the hardest to try to target. I think if you are talking about a Goodreads giveaway you have to have a paper book available to give - planning on working on that after book 3. One step at a time.
Exactly! I've got three books that are in e-format only right now, but when they come out in print in the next few months, I will be hosting a giveaway for them. Despite the e-book revolution, my experience is that MG readers still love paper.
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I took all the free advice available from World Literary Cafe, Duolit, Tonya Kappes,Aimee Salter, and Smashwords. I'm sure there are other good people about, but these ones seemed to make sense to me and I tend to test other suggestions against what I learned from them.
I also joined the Independent Author Network, despairing at first of the idea that I would ever get 100 followers, which is their minimum requirement to apply. I think this network works for me, although it doesnt necessarily point me at MG readers. My books are also popular with animal lovers and fantasy lovers... people like me in fact! IAN authors do tend to be supportive.
I tweet, I have pages on facebook, I try to interact with people, I try not to just do me, me, me the whole time, but of course what you want to do is get people to at least look at your books! Have a look at the 'pay it forward' idea from WLC and you'll see what I mean, I think.
I am astounded to find I'm just about to go through the 1000 followers barrier. But that is probably more about people clicking on my name than actually following me. One of these days I'll do one of those clear up programmes and stop following all those that never tweet etc.
I also use Kindleboards - another place to chat about doing things and find people check out your books without you pushing them on them.
And here, of course! (sorry for the essay)
Jemima, I know what you mean about postage rates. I am limiting my Giveaway of
Greenhorn
to U.S. residents because of the high cost of mailing to Europe and the hassle of filling out a customs form. I wonder if I might attract more people to the Giveaway if I had opened it up to Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. When two people noted that they couldn't participate because of their location, I offered to send them an electronic galley at their email addresses.E.S., I also wonder if the "views" help the book. Even if people don't click on the link to either the book's page or the Giveaway page, maybe they at least become aware of the book and might act on their awareness at a later date? At any rate, I think that Goodreads' policy of letting an ad stay up until the click-throughs add up to the amount the author paid is generous. In the "real" world, people pay for an ad, and it doesn't matter whether buyers act on it. The ad is there and you pay for it. So, maybe for that alone, I would recommend taking out a Goodreads ad. I didn't entirely know what I was doing when I created my ad for Greenhorn. I had the option of "bidding" on the cost of the click, which is set at .50 by default, and I didn't have a clue what that meant. So I just left it. Maybe someone else knows what that means? What would be the disadvantage (presumably) of changing the clicks to cost a lower amount?
I'm not on Facebook (there's a limit to how much time I can spend on social media), but I do Tweet. I will say that participating in this group on Goodreads feels like one of the most productive things I've done in social media.
Jemima wrote: "I've been on twitter a year and just learn as I go along. I was lucky enough to be on the front of the big boom in self-pub I think, as these days there are hundreds of people blogging tips - and ..."Thanks for the essay! There's a lot of good information in there. I hadn't heard of the Independent Author Network yet, I'll add that to my list!
Anna wrote: "Jemima, I know what you mean about postage rates. I am limiting my Giveaway of Greenhorn
to U.S. residents because of the high cost of mailing to Europe and the hassle of filling out a customs ..."
Yes, that does sound good that your Goodreads ad stays up until you get the number of clicks. Something to keep in mind! I would guess that "bidding" on clicks means that you can propose a price, then if their schedule isn't full they may take a lower price.
Anna wrote: "I had the option of "bidding" on the cost of the click, which is set at .50 by default, and I didn't have a clue what that meant. So I just left it. Maybe someone else knows what that means? What would be the disadvantage (presumably) of changing the clicks to cost a lower amount?"Anna, the lower a bidding amount, the less likely it is to be shown. You can definitely leave it at the lowest price per click if you don't mind it taking a long time to get clicked on, but if you want the most exposure you can get, then putting in a higher number would be better. I also found that Goodreads will show the ad more often if someone clicks on it early in the day; less often if no one clicked on it at the beginning of the day. They have handy graphs you can look at to chart your clicks and views.
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Rebecca wrote: "I just feel bad because I sometimes accidentally click on ads, especially when using my iPad (put my big thumb in the wrong place) and end up costing someone money!"I'm glad I'm not the only who does that! I try to keep my big-thumb-clicking to the morning, though, so at least that helps the authors a little bit. ;-)
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Of course, I try to keep mornings for writing, not goofing off on line, but shoot, when it's afternoon here, it's morning somewhere else. . .
V.K. wrote: I try to keep my big-thumb-clicking to the morning"Does it cost less in the morning?
Hey guys,I did the giveaway on both of my paperbacks through Goodreads. You don't really need to promo it much (although it sure helps)... It will get you a lot of interested readers to "add" your book on goodreads. That's good for "appearances" and to get exposed to people you would not have reached otherwise. There are tons of goodreads users prowling for the paperback giveaways. I usually get around 500 people entering, and about 250 people add it to their "to read" shelf. that number dwindles down after the contest is over. My second book dropped from about 250 "to reads" to about 160... most from the giveaway. I'm sure that only translated into a few sales... Giveaways on goodreads are the best bang for the buck that I have found.
I've also used the self serve adds. My first book seemed to be doing really well with the adds. I would get tons of views (keep in mind, views means the add was displayed, not actually viewed). The number of clicks (1 or 2 every couple of days) was pretty close to the number of ebooks bought, until one day they changed their program. Then I was getting like 100 clicks a day, and no one bought the book. Like 3 days in a row... Even at 10 cents a click, it adds up quick. I got in touch with them and they said that was correct and now the more clicks you get, the more they display your add, resulting in high number of views. They congratulated me for the reach of campaign.
A few things I learned. Don't try adds like "Check out this book trailer and you'll want to buy this book" You will get lots of clicks on your book trailer, but no corresponding sales. Try to tailor your add to the person who is dying to stumble on your add because your book is exactly what they were looking for. I don't know if it's better to link to the books goodreads page (which is what the self serve adds suggests) or link to your amazon page. I currently have a mix of both. A couple of adds simply mention the paperback and ebook price and link to amazon. I have a "free with amazon prime" add linking direct to amazon. And I have a couple with short book descriptions linking back to the goodreads page.
I get about 4 or 5 clicks a week... I haven't seen any connection to books added or sales...
Lastly, I tried a rafflecopter giveaway of a $100 amazon gift card. It got me some new followers on facebook and twitter, but I don't really think that was worth much either... For me, followers are not necessarily fans, and they will NEVER see my tweets and posts in their MASSIVE feed of posts... I do have a few fans, and they are interested in everything I do, and those are the people you really want to reach...
That has been my experience.
E.S., no clicks don't cost more in the morning, but when I got a click early on Goodreads showed the ad more frequently for the rest of the day than if the ad wasn't clicked on.Scott, right on. I agree about the ad-tailoring. You don't want people who aren't really interested in your book to click on your ad because the ad made them think your book was something it wasn't. That's just a waste of click-money! Use correctly aimed buzz words and genre lingo that are directed to the people who will be interested in the book.
V.K. wrote: "E.S., no clicks don't cost more in the morning, but when I got a click early on Goodreads showed the ad more frequently for the rest of the day than if the ad wasn't clicked on.Scott, right on. I..."
Ah, I see that earlier in the post now. That makes sense.
Scott wrote: "Hey guys,I did the giveaway on both of my paperbacks through Goodreads. You don't really need to promo it much (although it sure helps)... It will get you a lot of interested readers to "add" yo..."
Thanks for the specific info. It really helps!
Scott, thanks for your comments. I am changing my ad based on something you wrote, and as soon as it's approved again, I'll ask this group to take a look. I've gotten 6 clicks since the ad started 13 days ago (February 4). I agree with everyone else that the Giveaway is the best way to let people know about a book, but I'm saying that because I don't really understand Goodreads ads and how they work.I'm also wondering why, when I click on the name or image of people who post messages to this group, I often get a message that the person can't be found. How is that possible? Aren't we all members of Goodreads?
Scott, because of what you wrote, I added an Amazon link to my ad. I have now gotten 16 clicks since the ad went up on February 4. If I understand your posting correctly, you set your ad at .10 per click. Is that right? I've left mine at .50 per click. Am I being stupid? Should I change that to a lower amount? I'm still not clear how the higher amount (presumably) gets more people to click on the ad.I'd like to show you all the ad for your comments, but I don't know how to direct you to my campaign page, since you have to log in with a password.
At any rate, thanks to everyone for all the advice offered.
Anna,At .50 per click, Goodreads will show your add more. You are essentially "bidding" against other adds to have your add shown. If your bid is only .10, and someone has a bid of .15, their add might run before yours (I don't fully understand it, but that's the basic idea.)
It is not stupid at all! Especially if those clicks are converted to sales! At .10 per click, you will not get seen as much, and therefore will likely have less clicks... and that's bad...
but for me, I just can't spend the money at .50 per click... 16 clicks times 16 clicks = $8.00... Not good if those clicks aren't buying.
I hope to get those same 16 clicks at .10 per click = $1.60. I can handle that, even if they don't buy (but I probably won't get the same 16 clicks)...
It's all so confusing, and it's tough being an indie :-/
Scott, I think I get it now. I didn't understand that I was bidding against other books. I'm going to try a lower amount and see what happens. Thanks.
I wish someone would write The Dummies Guide to Goodreads.
Thanks.