Paid Promotions - A Case Study of Experience

[Leonie]

[Nik]

Bravo, Leonie, may this sales spree never end! :)

[Leonie]

I'm bracing myself for a lovely 24 hours, followed by...not so much! I'd assume most so far came from the BookBub email. No idea how long that continues. Probably depends on whether people like it.

[Nik]

Leonie wrote: "I'm bracing myself for a lovely 24 hours, followed by...not so much! I'd assume most so far came from the BookBub email. No idea how long that continues. Probably depends on whether people like it."

That bulk of sales and achieved ranking should have lasting effect. Thanks for sharing and hope you'll update us on how it will have developed

[Leonie]

Will let you know. Don't want to hijack Graeme's thread, though!

[Graeme]

Leonie wrote: "

"

AWESOME!

I'm breaking out the Champagne - I know a Best Selling Author.

[Nik]

The Champagne turn makes further discussion admissible on a plethora of drinking threads too :)

[Graeme]

Indeed (here too...)

[Leonie]

Graeme wrote: "Leonie wrote: "

"

AWESOME!

I'm breaking out the Champagne - I know a Best Selling Author."

We may be contemplating something similar! Not .com, but .com.au, but still...it's a nice label, no matter how fleeting it may be.

[Ian]

Well done, Leonie. A lot better than most of us have done. May it continue for you.

[Leonie]

Thanks, Ian!

[G.R.]

Congratulations, Leonie! That is very exciting.

And Graeme, I will echo what Leonie said in an earlier post that the analytics you provided in this thread on your marketing methods are very insightful. Thank you for that.

[Graeme]

You're welcome G.R.

I'm trying to learn what I can.

[Papaphilly]

Way to go Leonie! May you sell millions.

[J.J.]

Leonie wrote: "

"
Congrats. I have books that occasionally hit #1 in their categories, and Amazon won't give them the #1 banner. While I have gotten the #1 New Release banner, my last few titles, they've even been hesitant to give that.

[Leonie]

Thanks, Papaphilly! I'm happy with the couple of thousands so far :) However, should the millions happen, I shall try to cope.

[Papaphilly]

Out of curiosity, for all of the writers. What is the number that needs to be hit to break even on a book?

[Ian]

Surely it depends on how much you spend on promotion, and I suppose, production. If you pay for editing, an expensive cover, and printing, now it depends on the price of the book. It is possible to break even on an ebook with quite low sales provided you do all the work yourself. Of course, if you paid for your time it would be horrible.

[Graeme]

PROMOTION: 25th - 29th June 2020 (5 days FREE) is now running.

[0] (Cost $60) Bookbub Advert with a $60 USD budget set to run from 25th to 28th June.
[1] (Cost $55) BookBarbarian (Dark Fantasy) FreeBookOfTheDay for ASA-O on the 26th June 2020.
[2] (Cost $40) eReaderNewsToday (Fantasy) for ASA-O on the 26th June 2020.
[3] (Cost $90) FreeBooksy (Thriller) for ASA-O on the 27th June 2020.

The Bookbub advert ran through its budget over night (< 12 hours) with 49 attributable downloads. It had a high showing in the UK market which I attribute to timing. It will be interesting to see if there is a proportionally higher difference on on sales in the UK.

[Graeme]

Papaphilly wrote: "Out of curiosity, for all of the writers. What is the number that needs to be hit to break even on a book?"

Hi Papaphilly, it depends on what is spent.

A key factor driving return on investment (advertising spend) is the 'shelf,' of books the author has. I.e. I might spend $100 advertising my first book, and then from new readers buying the subsequent books I make back $100 in royalties and break even before tax.

To break even after tax I would need to make $1.35 for every $1 spent.

Currently my ROI is about 50 cents in the dollar. So I have plenty of room for improvement.

[Papaphilly]

Graeme wrote: "Papaphilly wrote: "Out of curiosity, for all of the writers. What is the number that needs to be hit to break even on a book?"

Hi Papaphilly, it depends on what is spent.

A key factor driving ret..."

Thanks for that reply. Sometimes I think people forget there is a business behind a book. It must be even harder for you independents since the money is out of your pockets entirely.

Another question, even if your expenses are rough, how many write because you must write?

[Graeme]

I'm obsessed with the story I'm telling, and I love writing. So no real option there.

As far as the finances go, I always say that I could be playing golf instead ... it'd cost about the same in time and money.

[Leonie]

There are always stories to tell.

Halfway through my singing lesson this week I had a thought regarding a secret society of classically trained singers who suck peoples' souls via performance.

And now I really want to write about it. 🤷‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️

[Graeme]

Leonie wrote: "There are always stories to tell.

Halfway through my singing lesson this week I had a thought regarding a secret society of classically trained singers who suck peoples' souls via performance.

..."

Classic.

[G.R.]

I write because I enjoy the challenge of writing and because I think the stories I'm creating in my head would be enjoyed by others. But if it weren't for the ease of being able to self-publish I might have given up by now. There is some pleasure in knowing your work is 'out there' and available should someone come upon it. How long before someone gives up their dream of becoming an actor or musician or professional athlete? With writing, I can just keep going and keep building my little pile of stories.

[Nik]

G.R. wrote: "...There is some pleasure in knowing your work is 'out there' and available should someone come upon it...."

Yeah, as a default it can be viewed as a free cloud storage for literary work :)

[G.R.]

I fear the day that Amazon will decide it's not worth storing all these self-published works that don't make them money.

[Graeme]

G.R. wrote: "I fear the day that Amazon will decide it's not worth storing all these self-published works that don't make them money."

1MB of storage is really cheap and getting cheaper over time.

[Graeme]

Graeme wrote: "PROMOTION: 25th - 29th June 2020 (5 days FREE) is now running.

[0] (Cost $60) Bookbub Advert with a $60 USD budget set to run from 25th to 28th June.
[1] (Cost $55) BookBarbarian (Dark Fantasy) Fr..."

My previous best promo was on November 2018 (here) which had 2875 free downloads.

The 2 promos are quite comparable, as the main variations were with the use of a Bookbub advert (current), vs an AskDavid (Nov 2018) twitter run.

Currently at 3036 free downloads and rising with good momentum. ASA-0 is currently #52 Free in Kindle Store, #1 in Dark Fantasy Horror, #1 in Action Thriller Fiction, #1 in Fantasy Adventure Fiction (All free sections of course).

I attribute the difference to having a new cover and the omnibus version.

Still got 2 and a 1/2 days free to go so hopefully a few more downloads will stack up. ROI for this promo will be based on follow-on reads of TDG and TCW over the next couple of months.

[Leonie]

Great news, Graeme! I hope you get the read throughs!

[Graeme]

Leonie wrote: "Great news, Graeme! I hope you get the read throughs!"

Thanks. I only need 60 (2%) to read the series to break even.

[Papaphilly]

Do the free giveaways lead to the sales of the other works? I understand the thinking, have anyone had someone tell them the free work got them to read the other work?

[Graeme]

Papaphilly wrote: "Do the free giveaways lead to the sales of the other works? I understand the thinking, have anyone had someone tell them the free work got them to read the other work?"

It's a good question. I note a pulse of activity after a free promo that can last up to six weeks. Often I see more subscription Kindle Unlimited reads than I do direct sales.

The bottom line is that a writer needs a shelf of books to provide those on sales. I've read elsewhere that at least 5 books are required to begin to break even. I'm kinda in that zone now. We'll have to see what happens.

[G.R.]

I can't answer directly as I'm working on the sequel now, but that approach worked well for Hugh Howey's "Wool" series.

[Graeme]

Now that I have two avenues into the Metaframe War series. I'm going to take advantage of that to double the advertising tempo.

I have , and , to work with.

All the main sites I work with have a rule not to repeat a book in under 3 months or 90 days. Let's see if I can get past that and run alternating campaigns every 6-7 weeks for ASA, and ASA-O.

I have just requested a FreeBooksy Series promo for the 15th of August 2020 for ASA in the fantasy genre.

Let's see if that get's accepted.

[Jeffrey]

Graeme wrote: "Now that I have two avenues into the Metaframe War series. I'm going to take advantage of that to double the advertising tempo.

I have , and [bookcover:A Subtle..."

Good luck Graeme.

[Graeme]

Thanks Jeffrey.

[Graeme]

ASA-O is currently sitting at 3977 free downloads. Still approx a day to go at Free. I may well tick over 4000+ on momentum alone.

Noice!

[Leonie]

Very nice!

[Marie]

Congrats Graeme! Let me grab some glasses and pour a round of champagne for celebration! :-)

[Graeme]

Currently at 4053 free downloads.

[Marie]

Wow! Cool! That is awesome!! :)

[Graeme]

Thanks Leonie and Marie.

[Leonie]

Going strong, Graeme!

[Graeme]

Next promotion now set up.

ASA will be FREE for 3 days from the 14th to the 16th August inclusive.

[1] (Cost $150) FreeBooksy (Fantasy/Paranormal Series Promotion) for ASA FREE on the 15th August 2020.

ATW, and TDD will be reduced to 0.99 for the three days, and TDG (3.99) and TCW (4.99) will remain at their normal pricing.

ASA Free from 14th to 16th August has been locked in.

Let's see what happens.

[G.R.]

Good luck, Graeme! I think this is a good experiment. I hope you make back your investment and much more.

[Graeme]

G.R. wrote: "Good luck, Graeme! I think this is a good experiment. I hope you make back your investment and much more."

Thanks G.R. The next 6 weeks will be interesting with sales of The Day Guard and The Crane War the key metrics to track.

I expect a lull, as it will take readers a while to digest the Omnibus edition.

[Graeme]

Targeting the next ASA-O 5 day FREE promo from Sat 26th to Wed the 30th of Sept.

All bookings still to be made.

[Graeme]

Early results on the impact of the ASA-O promo late June.

$60USD royalties at this time. 62% of which are for ASA-O sales and KNEP reads...

I wasn't expecting that. I can only imagine that this is a 'word of mouth,' impact from the 4000+ free downloads in late June.

I was expecting a delay in onsales of TDG and TCW, as ASA-O is such a big book to read, however TDG and TCW are starting to pick up sales and reads, but I think the momentum is still flowing rather than ebbing.

[Nik]

Graeme wrote: "...the momentum is still flowing rather than ebbing."

Hope it is! And kinda supports the assumption that more available titles are likely to cause better returns on promos