Stats and Marketing Results

[Ginger]

Marie, that's impressive. Thanks for sharing your results.

[Nik]

Excellent results, Marie, thanks for sharing!

[Graeme]

I've just listed my first Goodreads Giveaway (for 2 copies) - pending GR approval - to start on the 5th October and run to the 5th of November (1 month) based on advice from this group.

I'll report back on results.

[Graeme]

Marie wrote,

I decided to put the sequels of my book on a countdown deal for 99 cents to coincide with the free promotion of my first title....

Thanks Marie, excellent info to file away until I have sequels...

[Nik]

Good luck with the g/a, Graeme!

[Graeme]

Thanks Nik,

We'll see how it goes, my expectations are increased TBRs and visibility.

[Nik]

Sounds achievable and hope it works out well!

[Graeme]

The last book I reviewed got 10x TBR directly after my review.

[Marie Silk]

Hi everyone :) it's been a while since I posted my promo results, so I thought I would share my recent promo which has me a little baffled haha.

First I will say that this is was one of my more expensive promotions, and it was on a Saturday, which has proven to not be my best day. I used a site that is new to me (Choosy Bookworm), paid for extra boosts with other sites, and coordinated my free promotion to start on the same day as my goodreads giveaway. In the end, my book came out with 711 downloads...not as high a number as my usual results.

Here is the part that baffles me, which could be coincidence, but I think it has something to do with the sites I chose.

I got 7 Amazon reviews over the next few days. I was stunned! I never get this many customer reviews so fast, especially with a promo that only has hundreds of downloads. I know that Choosy and KBR have review programs, so I wonder if their subscribers are perhaps more likely to read and review the promoted books.

I had 10 paperback sales. On a normal month, I get zero print sales :D. I haven't done anything to promote my paperbacks yet so they just kind of sit there. I couldn't believe when I looked today and saw 10 sales from this week. Was this from the promo? I have no idea.

Other than the two major happenings above, my ebook sales and KU pages have been pretty average.

Promotion summary:

711 downloads
One-day Free promotion on a Saturday

Bookzio $39
Kindle Book Review $40
Digital Book Today $30
Ebook Hounds $10
Choosy Bookworm $25

[Nik]

Useful info, thanks!
Well done on paperbacks and reviews.
So which campaign do you find most effective so far?

[Marie Silk]

For me, it is a one-day promotion on a Sunday.

I don't have much luck with ENT, possibly because they feature my book in the young adult category, which I think has few subscribers. Usually I use the "mystery" or "historical fiction" category, but the mystery genre reaches more readers who sign up for the marketing sites.

Freebooksy and Robin Reads seem to have the most readers who are interested in downloading my book. They have been worth the price tag for me.

I don't spend much time submitting to the free sites for chance slots anymore, and I am seeing more value in the "guaranteed" features with some sites.

I think the trick is to plan the promotions in advance and not wait til the last minute to submit to the sites. I am already booked for my next two promotions with some new sites to experiment with. I suppose it is mostly trial and error depending on genre, timing, and audience :).

[Nik]

Gotcha, thanks -:)

[Yelena]

Hey everyone, I have a question!

Have any writers on here ever used a site you pay for like Readingalley to get more reviews and did it work?

Or I guess have readers on here used such sites/ liked them?

[Ginger]

Hi Yelena, I used Netgalley through a Co-op called Patchwork Press. http://www.authorservices.patchwork-p... where you can purchase the Netgalley service on a month by month basis which makes it much more affordable than going directly through Netgalley where you have to subscribe for a prescribed period of time. I was very pleased with my results. I wrote about getting reviews and what's worked for me on my website http://gingerbensman.com/category/i-w... There's also a new Goodreads Group https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/... that I co-moderate that helps writers get reviews and follows all Amazon requirements. I hope that helps. Good luck.

[Yelena]

Ginger wrote: "Hi Yelena, I used Netgalley through a Co-op called Patchwork Press Patchwork Press’s Netgalley Co-op. http://www.authorservices.patchwork-p... where you can purchase the Netga..."

Awesome! Thank you Ginger!

[Quantum]

cool. i'm going to add these sites to our author resources spreadsheet this weekend.

[Shoshanah]

Graeme wrote: "I've just listed my first Goodreads Giveaway (for 2 copies) - pending GR approval - to start on the 5th October and run to the 5th of November (1 month) based on advice from this group.

I'll repor..."

How did the give away go?
Did you just give away 2 copies? If so, that is more doable. I thought one has to give more copies?

[Graeme]

Hi Shoshanah.

I got 1065 entries in the giveaway and a TBR increase of about 420 plus about 20 extra followers.

I have another giveaway in play now.

[Graeme]

I'm actively preparing for a promotion on the 25th-29th January 2017 based on Marie's techniques.

So a massive paid and free blitz across multiple forums. I'll use the time between now and then to establish all contacts and begin using the sites.

[Nik]

Hope it goes excellent, Graeme. We owe the book at least some try -:)

[Graeme]

I'm lining it up with MysteryThrillerWeek.

I'll also be doing marketing stuff before hand as well.

[Shoshanah]

Graeme Rodaughan wrote: "Hi Shoshanah.

I got 1065 entries in the giveaway and a TBR increase of about 420 plus about 20 extra followers.

I have another giveaway in play now."

Sounds good. I'm gearing up to do a giveaway, there seems to be a lot to learn first.

Where do you promote it?

[Graeme]

For me mostly I did Goodreads on various groups - but there seem to be a lot of people who go for the giveaways just as they are.

Marie Silk has indicated, and it has also been my experience so far, that 1 or 2 books works as well as more, and the giveaways are most active at the start and finish.

I'm only in my second one now and not very experienced.

[Marie Silk]

Paid Advertising Ask David

I've been buying the pack of 30 tweets from Ask David ($10) and using 2 every morning. Since I began doing this (along with posts to Facebook groups), all with the #KindleUnlimited hashtag, I started getting an average of 2K page reads per day on Kindle Unlimited.

This is for my 6 books that are in a series. Before this, I was getting maybe one or two hundred page reads per day. I lately tried sending out 3-4 Ask David tweets per day to see what would happen, and my page reads went up to 3K to 4K per day. Then I tried 5 tweets in one day and my page reads went up past 5K page reads. This is the highest my page reads have been without a recent promotion, and since I slowed down Facebook group promotion, I think it can almost all be attributed to the Ask David tweets. They only let you tweet the same book cover, link, and message once every 12 hours, so I've had to get creative and use all of my book covers with varying links.

Overall, I see this a very good use of $10 especially since I can do it in between promotions :).

[Ginger]

Marie, that's ingenious! Thanks for the tip.

[Joanna]

Marie Silk wrote: "Wonderful find! So, it is units sold :) and yes that looks accurate. Makes me miss the few short days that I was selling over 20/day :p. Fortunately there were only 2 days this month that I had zer..."

Marie, can you tell from any of your stats, who are returning downloaders? Can you tell how many readers have downloaded all of your ebooks in the Davenport House series?

[Nik]

Marie Silk wrote: "Paid Advertising Ask David

I've been buying the pack of 30 tweets from Ask David ($10) and using 2 every morning. Since I began doing this (along with posts to Facebook groups), all with the #Kind..."

Wow, very well done, excellent results and thanks for the heads-up!

[Marie Silk]

Joanna wrote: "Marie, can you tell from any of your stats, who are returning downloaders? Can you tell how many readers have downloaded all of your ebooks in the Davenport House series?"

Book 1 and Book 2 released at the same time, and their unit sales are about the same. So unit sales from readers who have returned after the first book to finish the series look something like this:

Book 2 = 100%
Book 3 = 80%
Book 4 = 60%
Book 5 = 60%

Book 6 just released so it is a bit early to say :).

The releases of the books were staggered and I'm pretty sure I lost readers by not having the next book available. It was a struggle to eventually get a website and pre-orders set up so that readers would know what to expect next.

Kindle Unlimited page reads are pretty consistent across all books. There are probably twice as many KU borrows as unit sales.

[Shoshanah]

Marie Silk wrote: "Paid Advertising Ask David

I've been buying the pack of 30 tweets from Ask David ($10) and using 2 every morning. Since I began doing this (along with posts to Facebook groups), all with the #Kind..."

I have my mother's book on Ask David and nothing comes of it. What kind of tweets do you post?

[Shoshanah]

Nik wrote: "Excellent results, Marie, thanks for sharing!"

Hi Nik

I'm just noticing this thread. What is the best way to use it? Does it help to go to the start and work through or will those earlier posts be outdated?

Thanks

Shoshanah

[Nik]

Hi Shoshanah,
We are a pretty(ugly-:)) young group, active less than year, so I doubt anything would be outdated. I'm sure if you skim through, you'll find useful stuff-:)

[Shoshanah]

Nik wrote: "Hi Shoshanah,
We are a pretty(ugly-:)) young group, active less than year, so I doubt anything would be outdated. I'm sure if you skim through, you'll find useful stuff-:)"

Thanks
You never know, the internet changes constantly.

[Marie Silk]

Shoshanah wrote: "I have my mother's book on Ask David and nothing comes of it. What kind of tweets do you post?
"

If you paid for membership to list the book then you should have gotten 25 tweets sent to your email that you can use from their account. I have a few of my books on the site but I don't think it really does anything.

My typical tweet has the book cover image, link to the book's Amazon page, and here are some samples of the message. You can only fit so many characters into each tweet when you include a book link, so I think it is important to highlight genre and anything else that could be said briefly yet convey to the reader what they are getting themselves into :)

Example 1:
Read the Davenport House series for free with #KindleUnlimited U.S. Historical Fiction, #Suspense Family Saga

Example 2:
Historical Suspense #WWI Best Selling Davenport House Books 1-6 on #KindleUnlimited The family saga continues...

[Nik]

For those interested in marketing, some of close to 200 posts above, will certainly constitute heads-up -:)

[Nik]

Hey Marie,
Your thread hasn't been updated for some time. I'm confident that by now you must've found a definitive success formula -:)
If you care to share some fresher input on what works best for you now and other valuable marketing tips, I'm sure many would appreciate.

[Marie Silk]

Hi Nik, thank you for the comment :).

I am still using the free promotions for 5 days every Select enrollment period. I've found it's the best way to see sales across my entire series (while only offering the first book for free).

A lot has changed in the ebook marketing sites in the past year that I've been recording these results. Many sites have changed their prices and many have gone defunct. So there has been a lot to keep up on. I'm trying to narrow down which promotion sites are best for my books while also trying not to exhaust the same subscribers over and over.

[Nik]

Marie Silk wrote: "I'm trying to narrow down which promotion sites are best for my books while also trying not to exhaust the same subscribers over and over...."

Thanks, Marie. Which promo venues do you consider the best at the moment for your genre, if you don't mind sharing with us?

[Jennifer]

Hi all, longtime stalker but first time poster ;)
After 15 months of using free promotion sites and social media to sell books, I finally paid for a few promos these past three months. I should have tried it earlier! I did not discount my books, which limited my options.

In June I tried Fussy Librarian and promoted my art mystery (The Lover's Portrait) in the historical fiction and mystery categories at 3.99. I ended up earning back my costs plus 4 books sold within 7 days. Not great but I lost nothing and the book received a fabulous 5 star review the next week from an unknown reader.

In July I ran promos on BookPebble for my other two books - priced at 99 cents and 2.99. The travelogue sold 2 copies that day meaning I lost money on the 5 dollar promo. Down and Out in Kathmandu was priced at 2.99 and sold 1 copy 5 days after the promo. It usually sells a few copies a week on its own so I'm calling BookPebble a bust.

Last week I ran a BarginBooksy promo on The Lover's Portrait (at 3.99) and earned back the 50 dollars within 24 hours. Yes! My other two books sold at their regular price of 2.99 as well. I haven't checked back since so don't know if I've sold more since.

It's because of Marie Silk and others advice that I finally gave paid promos a go, I still have much to learn and appreciate everyone's generosity in sharing their marketing stories!

[Quantum]

Yay! Why do you think that The Lover's Portrait sold better than your other two? Maybe the mystery genre of The Lover's Portrait is more popular than your other 2 books? Maybe better packaging?

[Jennifer]

Alex wrote: "Yay! Why do you think that The Lover's Portrait sold better than your other two? Maybe the mystery genre of The Lover's Portrait is more popular than your other 2 books? Maybe better packaging?"

HI Alex! Lover's Portrait has indeed gained more traction on its own than my other two. I think art and World War Two are topics that interest a wide range of mystery readers. And it's won some important prizes and been in best of 2016 lists, which helped increase exposure.

My first mystery is about a volunteer in Nepal and that throws off readers, based on the reviews it's received. There is also a lot of swearing and drug use. Not the same reader base as The Lover's Portrait. That's been a learning experience! My next book is another art mystery which should appeal to fans of The Lover's Portrait.

My third, a travelogue, is only out 3 months, but it's not moving as fast as the other two. I think non-fiction travel memoirs are harder to push - smaller fan base. Though I do see new reviews of Down and Out mentioning they want to read Notes of a Naive Traveler to get a better sense of Nepal. I'm hoping to get some sales that way!

[Quantum]

Jennifer wrote: "My next book is another art mystery which should appeal to fans of The Lover's Portrait."

great! ganbatte!

[Jennifer]

Alex wrote: great! ganbatte!"

Thanks!

[Andrea]

Marie Silk, I like what you said about not exhausting the same resources. The biggest thing in marketing, from what I've seen, is in getting your book out there to where readers know it exists. Once you achieve that, it might be time to move on to other options.

One resource (which has just added a new option in the form of a book quote feature, which introduces potential readers directly to your writing) is https://ryanlanz.com/advertise-your-b... The advertisement options are quite affordable and I've personally found a number of authors through this popular blog.

[Marie Silk]

Andrea wrote: "Marie Silk, I like what you said about not exhausting the same resources. The biggest thing in marketing, from what I've seen, is in getting your book out there to where readers know it exists. Onc..."

Unfortunately I have never seen these Ryan Lanz services recommended by any reputable goodreads author. And by reputable, I mean authors who actively contribute to the goodreads forum and discuss a range of marketing strategies. The only time I see this site/name mentioned is when my newsfeed is suddenly cluttered with 10-15 notifications from the same goodreads member (who doesn't actively contribute) yet is recommending this site, leading me to conclude it is spam.

[Marie Silk]

Here are some recent-ish results (from my August 27th promo) for y'all to ponder :)

I have a 7-book series + 1 novella that is a prequel to the series (historical fiction). I only discounted 3 of the books for this promo. Even though my book will still be on countdown for the next few days, I am only including the first two days of the promotion where I arranged the lion's share of the advertisement.

Time passed since last promotion: 4 weeks
Baseline: average book sales for this series in week prior to promotion: 8 units/day.

DAY ONE: Book 1 of series FREE (one day only), prequel novella manually discounted to .99, Book 2 on countdown for .99 (set to run five days in U.S. And UK). Books 3-7 remain at regular price of 2.99.

Advertising:

Freebooksy (book 1 “mystery”) $85
Read Freely (paid features on all three books) $22
Book Adrenaline (books 1 and 2 “double feature”) $28
Free99books (book 1) free
Reading Deals (book 2 paid feature) $29
Bargain Booksy (book 2 “mystery”) $50
Digital Book Today (book 2 “deal of the day”) $30
Bargain Booksy (prequel novella “YA”) $25
Book Angel UK (book 2) free

Result:

Book 1: 1145 free downloads, #105 in Free Kindle Store
Book 2: 149 unit sales, #1,613 in Paid Kindle Store
Prequel: 15 unit sales, #15,000 in Paid Kindle Store
Total sales across series: 230 units

DAY TWO: Book 1 no longer free (back to regular price 2.99), prequel and book 2 still on sale for .99

Advertising:

Choosy Bookworm (book 2 “guaranteed”) $20
My Book Cave (book 2, paid feature) $10
Read Cheaply (book 2, paid feature) $35

Result:

Book 1: 36 unit sales at full price, #6,331 in Paid Kindle Store
Book 2: 56 unit sales, #2,454 in Paid Kindle Store
Prequel: 7 unit sales, #24,004 in Paid Kindle Store
Total sales across series: 109 units

Only one total sale from UK market. 92% of sales from Amazon US, 7% from Amazon CA. KENP up on all books. The promotion paid for itself within 48 hours.

[Graeme]

Great results Marie.

[Marie Silk]

Thank you, Graeme. I'll post more below from my promo that ran last Sunday.

[Jennifer]

Marie Silk wrote: "Here are some recent-ish results (from my August 27th promo) for y'all to ponder :)

I have a 7-book series + 1 novella that is a prequel to the series (historical fiction). I only discounted 3 of..."

Wow! That is impressive! Stacking the promos really does seem to help. Thanks for sharing, Marie!

[Marie Silk]

Results from stacked promo October 1st. I had the first book in my historical fiction series on free promotion for one day. I'm including results from the next day as well because that's where the promotion really pays off:

Robin Reads $65
My Book Cave $10
Book Runes $25
Ereader IQ (Free Book of the Day + audio link) $30
Booksends (Book of the Day + affiliate link= 1850 clicks) $125
BKnights $11
Book Raid (300 total clicks) $15.00
Just Kindle Books $13
Book of the Day "Special Offer" listing FREE

Also:
Scheduled Ask David tweets throughout the day
Posted to about 25 Facebook groups


Result of 1-day free promotion with only advertising on book 1:

Total for Book 1: 2044 free downloads, 7 audio sales, rank #56 in Free Kindle Store
Sales of sequels (full price 2.99): 25 units

Next day sales (no advertising on any books):

Book 1: 60 ebook unit sales (full price 2.99), rank #2919 in the Paid Kindle Store
Sequels: 9 unit sales (full price 2.99)
Overall KENP up +2500 pages.

Notes: Affiliate earnings from the Booksends ad covered roughly 1/3 of the Booksends ad cost. I can see from my affiliate tracking that the ad itself brought in about 1850 clicks. I don't tend to get much ROI when I put my book on a regular Booksends feature (as opposed to Book of the Day).

I usually have the worst time selling audiobooks so I tried to emphasize Whispersync in my social media posts. I wish I would have remembered to do so when writing my ads for the various newsletters (some of them let you write your own ad). Free promotions can be great for gaining audio customers because Whispersync allows people who download the Kindle version to get the audio version at a substantial discount. Book Raid only charges based on how many clicks your book gets (5 cents per click on free promo) and clicks from Sunday's newsletter are still coming in today apparently.

[Nik]

Marie Silk wrote: "Results from stacked promo October 1st. I had the first book in my historical fiction series on free promotion for one day. I'm including results from the next day as well because that's where the ..."

Rocking as ever, Marie!