World, Writing, Wealth discussion
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Paid Promotions - A Case Study of Experience
Hey Graeme, not sure if I mentioned this before. For the Booksy sites, you might be able to use WWW15 for 15% of your promos :).
Thanks.I'll give it a go.
Where's the code from?
I'm not sure where I saw it from but it worked for me for Freebooksy and Bargain Booksy features.
Like WoW cheat codes, coupon codes often go viral.
First promo for 2018.[1] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ASA at $1.99 on Friday the 26th January (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo).
I've been promoting at the 0.99 price point all of 2017, I'm shifting up to $1.99, so that I can clear 0.99 as an 'exclusive,' price point for a BookBub feature.
https://www.bookbub.com/partners/requ...
I'm also keen to see how ASA will fare at a higher price.
Hi Graeme, would you mind sharing how you are distributing your books now? Do you have individual accounts set up with BN, Apple, Kobo, etc.?
Hi Marie,I've moved from Pronoun to Draft 2 Digital https://www.draft2digital.com/
That covers off the major retailers, except for GooglePlay. Although, when I was at Pronoun I never sold on GooglePlay, so perhaps I'm not losing much and D2D have hinted they are in negotiations with GooglePlay.
I go direct with Amazon. When I went to Pronoun I unpublished my Amazon books (not delete them) and when I moved on to D2D, I simply republished them, which was handy as I go my old ASINs and links back.
I run my source word.docx files through D2D to get ePUB, and a MOBI file. I then load the MOBI file to AMAZON to ensure a similar look and feel for all my eBOOKs, but the MOBI files come up best, but my paparbacks from CreateSpace are the best versions of my books with a true WYSIWYG look and feel to the interior content file.
20% of my sales are through D2D, and 80% through AMAZON.
Thank you. I will be going through the process of wide distribution soon but I'm still deciding whether to publish to each platform or streamline it with a distributor like D2D. Your comments are always helpful.
Graeme wrote: "with a true WYSIWYG look and feel to the interior content file...."WYSIWYG ???
What You See Is What You Get.So, what I have in the interior file is faithfully replicated into the book.
Graeme wrote: "What You See Is What You Get.So, what I have in the interior file is faithfully replicated into the book."
Gotcha :)
WRT Comment #371REF: "Your book cannot have been discounted to your submitted deal price for more than a total of 14 days within the last 90 days (either consecutively or collectively)."
My last $0.99 discount ended on December 29th 2017. I will run all other promos at $1.99 discounted 60% from $4.99.
At the end of March 2018, I will have passed the 90 day limit, and can attempt to place a $0.99 (80% discount) Feature with BookBub in April, and every month after that.
In the mean time, I'll sell approx 60% less books at $1.99 compared to $0.99, so this needs to strongly facilitate winning a BookBub feature position to pay off.
To help derisk that, I'm going to spend more time at BookBub winning friends and getting noticed...
Just dropped the price of ASA to $1.99 (24Jan18) across all platforms for the [1] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ASA at $1.99 on Friday the 26th January (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo), promotion due this Friday.Given the higher price, I would expect 5 (avg) to 10 (good) sales.
[EDIT] Now done. Reverted the price back to $4.99 early on the 29th Jan. RESULTS: 5x sales on Amazon, and 1x sale on Apple. 6 books at $1.99 in alignment with expectations.
Next Promos - March 2018[1] (Cost $100) The Portalist (Fantasy) for ASA at $1.99 on Wednesday the 7th March (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo),
[2] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ASA at $1.99 on Thursday the 8th March (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo),
I will probably line those two up in early March, and ignore February as BookBub will take a chunk of budget. (now partially gone on a GR Kindle Giveaway)
The idea is to keep sales ticking over while I clear the $0.99 price point for a BookBub Feature in April. (90 day gap to last $0.99 pricing on Dec 29th 2017).
I weakened...I've decided to do a Goodreads eBook giveaway for ASA 100x copies.
Booked and approved at https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
Objectives here are as follows.
[1] Find new readers who will go on to buy ATW and TDD.
[2] Get a few new reviews for ASA.
[3] Create buzz for ASA.
US focus only however the vast majority of my market is the US.
Graeme wrote: "I weakened...I've decided to do a Goodreads eBook giveaway for ASA 100x copies.
..."
Good luck with a g/a and have a nice weekend indeed -:)
At this moment (<24hrs in) 159 entrants to the giveaway. The process of entering the giveaway adds ASA to the entrant's TBR.TBR for ASA is up by 142.
This suggest that the demographic for a Kindle eBook giveaway is very different from the Paperback giveaway.
Or alternatively, I'm now sweeping into the TBR people who entered the PB giveaways without adding ASA to their TBRs.
Possibly a combination.
I reading this as new people entering an ASA giveway (any format) for the first time.
MILESTONE MOMENT:Struck 100 Goodread ratings today across all books.
Struck 50 reviews on Amazon today across all books.
Congrats, Graeme, and hope next hundred and half a hundred respectively will come in a much shorter spell!
Updated my Author Profile at Amazon, GR, D2D and Bookbub.I have one rule: Deliver an immersive reading experience that will transport you from the everyday world into a realm of fantastic imagination - and leave you there until you're forced to come up for air...
I'm in love with high-octane, action packed, thrilling stories with epic heroes and mighty villains. I want suspense, I want characters with depth who I really care what happens to them, and who I will both love and hate. I love fantasy and science fiction and I want both in the same story. I want pace, and more pace, and yet time for emotional intimacy and heart-rending scenes.
This is what I dedicate myself to writing - and why - because I love it.
The aim is to make it more punchy and reader relevant.
People respond positively to authoritative evidence. Maybe show that you're a serious author with a omething like "author of three highly acclaimed high-octane, action packed, thrilling books with epic heroes and mighty villains." How about a reviewer quote to promote social evidence? Don't forget a profile pic that exudes confidence but also a little edgy to communicate the thriller vampire aspect.
How about an upturned collar? Add on a sword and you're good to go. (Don't know if amazon allows it.) Or maybe sunglasses would be better.
Cool update, maybe a little egocentric with all the "I"'s and "I want"s, but transpires a good portion of action and memorable heroes.A droplet of blood in the corner of the mouth would be too much though -:)
Nik wrote: "Cool update, maybe a little egocentric with all the "I"'s and "I want"s, but transpires a good portion of action and memorable heroes.A droplet of blood in the corner of the mouth would be too muc..."
Attempting to align readers - there's an audience out there that will resonate with what I feel.
Marie Silk wrote: "Fantastic new bio!"Thanks Marie.
Graeme wrote: "At this moment (<24hrs in) 159 entrants to the giveaway. The process of entering the giveaway adds ASA to the entrant's TBR.TBR for ASA is up by 142.
This suggest that the demographic for a Kind..."
Now complete, total entrants was 443.
So let's see what happens next. Should see a rise in currently reading, ratings, reviews and general buzz - if it was worth the money?
Thinking about the GR giveaway. The paperback giveaways I ran had about a 1 in 8, to 1 in 7 hit rate. I.e. send out 7 to 8 books and get 1x committed reader back.Looking through the profiles of the winners, it looks like that sort of ratio will continue to hold (i.e. there are a lot of winners with, based on their current reading and apparent interests, a poor match to my genre).
At $120 US for 12 readers (if that's how it works out) it's not cost-effective to do again.
Still - we will have to see, and the next 4 to 8 weeks will be the timeframe to check the effectiveness of this giveaway form, but I'm not hopeful.
[ONGOING EDITS] RESULTS:
1st Review: 11 days after completion of the Giveaway: 3 stars, DNF, mismatch of ASA with the reader's expectations.
2nd Review (Rating only): 23 days later: 3 stars, no other comments, based on shelf analysis, and bio, appears to be a mismatch with the reader's preferences for romance novels, and PNR. Possibly a no-read as still in the to-read shelf.
3rd Review: 1 month after completion of the Giveaway: 4 stars, satisfied reader.
4th Review: 3 months after completion of the Giveaway: 3 stars, reader apparently not "wowed."
Yep, sounds like a low return, however hope you'll be surprised for the better
So do I. We'll see what happens. In the meantime my next $1.99 promotion is only 9-10 days away.
I hope you'll at least get a lot more reviews than you saw through your paperback giveaways, due to the number of ebooks given away this time.
That would be a nice return. We'll see.
I'm going to place the results/analysis of the Goodreads Giveaway that was ran in February 2018 directly within msg 490 above.
I suspect that when people pay for a book they check for a good match to their desires. Free promos are always more of a shotgun effect.Where the best value lies remains to be determined. If an increase in ordinary reviews occurs alongside higher sales it would still be worth pursuing.
Final analysis is still pending.
[1] (Cost $100) The Portalist (Fantasy) for ASA at $1.99 on Wednesday the 7th March (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo), Now Run,Results:
1x ASA on Kobo post price reduction prior to the advert.
2x ASA on Apple, 1x ASA on B&N, 15x ASA on Amazon, 2x ATW (full price) on Amazon.
18x ASA, 2x ATW total = 20 books attributed to The Portalist at a gross cost (w/o royalty reduction) of $5USD per book. Potential pick up of 18 new readers. This is a very good result given the discount price was $1.99.
Hi Marie, ATW is $4.99.Currently my base price for all three eBooks is $4.99, and $12.99 in paperback. I expect that pricing will be stable for awhile.
I've submitted ASA 6x to BookBub as a feature at $0.99 and failed six times to be accepted.I'm 'throwing in the $0.99 Bookbub feature towel,' and going to go for a free feature next.
I'm also going to start promoting all my books at $0.99 until I get some sales traction.
Base price will remain at $4.99.
[2] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ASA at $1.99 on Thursday the 8th March (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo), has now run,Results:
7x ASA on Amazon. Quite a reasonable result for a $1.99 promo - but I will be running future promos at $0.99 until further notice.
Also picked up a TDD at full price while the two most recent promos were in effect.
Good luck on your new promos! Hope you get loads of sales :).
World, Writing, Wealth
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Got recommended to go to BargainBooksy.