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Paid Promotions - A Case Study of Experience
On the question of genre, GR has come to the rescue.https://www.goodreads.com/genres/thri... provides an excellent description of a thriller.
Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more-powerful and better-equipped villains. Literary devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers are used extensively.
Thrillers often overlap with mystery stories, but are distinguished by the structure of their plots. In a thriller, the hero must thwart the plans of an enemy, rather than uncover a crime that has already happened. Thrillers also occur on a much grander scale: the crimes that must be prevented are serial or mass murder, terrorism, assassination, or the overthrow of governments. Jeopardy and violent confrontations are standard plot elements. While a mystery climaxes when the mystery is solved, a thriller climaxes when the hero finally defeats the villain, saving his own life and often the lives of others.
great find! it has lots of other (sub)genre descriptions.
Promotion for August starts on the 10th as follows.[1] (Cost $50) Bargainbooksy (Thriller) for ASA at $0.99 on Thursday 10th of August.
[2] (Cost $30) eReaderNewsToday (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Friday 11th of August.
Following the advice here to position a BB feature before an ENT feature to better fit a ramp model aligned with Amazon algorithms.
New sub 350 character thriller blurb for the Bargainbooksy advert.
Action-packed, fantasy thriller. Got a silver flechette grenade launcher? Got a meteoric iron katana? Got mad combat skills? Got a rogue vampire general on your six? Got a weapons master as a coach and his beautiful daughter as your instructor? Got a para-military force hunting you? Got Triad gangsters wanting you dead? Time to meet Anton Slayne.
I will be running the promo with links for Amazon, B&N, Apple, & Kobo.
So I will see if I can pick up sales by going wide, as opposed to being exclusive with Amazon.
Hi Nik,Had a good start so far, running with a thriller advert blurb (above) under a thriller banner. 12 quick sales on Amazon.
Pronoun will take longer to report as the sales info passes from Apple, Kobo, and B&N back to Pronoun (I think on a 24 hour cycle).
12 sales is an excellent starter! Wish you many more!
Now at 14, including an ATW sale at full price.The BB email would have started hitting inboxes about 5 hours ago, suitable for morning readers in the USA.
The ENT email went out about 6 hours ago.Results so far.
Attributable to BB.
20x ASA on Amazon. 1x ATW on Amazon.
5x ASA on iBooks
3x ASA on B&N.
Attributable to ENT
13x ASA on Amazon, 1x ATW on Amazon.
Totals are 41x ASA and 2x ATW.
so, that means that if ASA does its job well and speaks to the intended reader, then you should see some uptake in ATW. Correct?
That's correct.I'm primarily only promoting ASA to win new readers to the series.
Although, I do have a book barbarian double feature (ASA + ATW) on the 16th September coming up.
With previous promotions the best I would do with KU is get about 3 KU reads.Getting 8 total sales through the Pronoun pathway is a win so far. But I will need to see some organic sales as KU also provided organic reads outside of promotions.
oh, that would be interesting to see how that works. the double feature is meant to promote TDD, correct? that's a good idea.I have no idea, but would a promo on ATW next propel readers who just bought ASA to that one? Would it be worth the discount at this point in the marketing cycle?
I wasn't thinking about TDD with the BBar double feature as it wont be released until late January 2018.But a future double feature could be done that way.
Submitted my 4th attempt with BookBub for an ASA feature promotion - this time under a 'Thriller' banner and with all distribution channels open.
BTW: $0.99 sales through Pronoun are at 70% royalty as opposed to 35% through Amazon.For a Bookbub promo with approx 1000 downloads on Amazon that starts to matter.
Noting that a book sold on Amazon at $0.99 via Pronoun earns the 70% royalty.
I'll revert my prices back to standard across all channels on Sunday. ASA at $3.99 (ATW remained on $5.99 for this promotion).
Dropping all my facebook 'book promotion' groups that are not genre specific.Reasons.
[1] Don't work, waste my time, simply attract people who want to sell me something.
[2] Pollute the "Customers who viewed this item also viewed" list for your book with books that are wildly different from your book. This is an issue with ATW, I will not repeat going forward.
great idea! become a lean, mean, Graeme machine with a maniacal focus.
I'm also seriously into the idea of a "Subtle Agency Omnibus" edition with a serious new cover.The first three books in one complete volume with a new and snazzy 'Thriller/Fantasy' genre cover.
Relaunch the series with such a book and US focused cover and associated branding in Q2 2018.
Hi Alex, I shamelessly borrowed the style of your ASA review for my Thriller blurb.New sub 350 character thriller blurb for the Bargainbooksy advert.
Action-packed, fantasy thriller. Got a silver flechette grenade launcher? Got a meteoric iron katana? Got mad combat skills? Got a rogue vampire general on your six? Got a weapons master as a coach and his beautiful daughter as your instructor? Got a para-military force hunting you? Got Triad gangsters wanting you dead? Time to meet Anton Slayne.
Did you notice?
BTW: Thanks - looks like it's working.
i noticed. imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. ^_^great that it's working! the blurb has many of the hallmarks of action thriller, which is what ASA focuses on. (i read somewhere that the rhetorical question in a blurb doesn't work all the time, but it's another effective style to add to your utility belt. ^_^)
My blurb on the sites (Amazon, B&N, etc) is essentially the blurb on the back of the book. I could easily add something like this advert blurb in their right at the top to improve the effect and clarity of what is being offered.
End of Day two, let's call the results.Attributable to BB.
20x ASA on Amazon. 1x ATW on Amazon.
5x ASA on iBooks
3x ASA on B&N.
Attributable to ENT
13x ASA on Amazon, 2x ATW on Amazon.
3x ASA on B&N.
Totals are 44x ASA (at $0.99) and 3x ATW (at full price).
After the impact of royalties, slightly less than $1 USD for each sale - and potentially finding a new committed reader.
From my POV, that's a great result.
Fantastic results! It's good to see the wide distribution proportions as well :)
Agree, very good results, Graeme!With this one you may come close to break-even and that without taking into account the long-term effect
Interesting to note that BargainBooksy Thriller out-performed ENT Fantasy.My shift to targeting the thriller genre (no pun intended...) seems like a good move.
Also BB achieved a better reach, especially with Apple (5 vs 0). for Nook (B&N) about the same.
It might be worth noting that Thriller is more specific--and, therefore, more targeted--than Fantasy. Did ENT have a UF category?
Hi Alex, just 'fantasy,' they have a 'thriller & suspense,' which I will try next time.
4th attempt at a BookBub feature has been knocked back - will try again in a months time.
AMAZON KDP____________________
That's me drawing a line under Amazon and KDP.
Today, I've unpublished ASA and ATW on Amazon, conducted a minor cosmetic edit to align texts across Createspace (paperbacks) and Pronoun (eBooks) and published on Pronoun to Amazon (+ all other channels).
The changes should be complete at Amazon at the end of this week with the new eBooks available with new ASINs (some updates for me to chase down....)
The key benefits are as follows.
[1] Better publishing platform, Pronoun is better in multiple ways to help the Author.
[2] Better royalties, especially for $0.99 (70% vs 35%) and since many of the books I sell are during promos - the difference matters.
[3] Total reach across the marketplace, and this also leverages my promos (BookBarbarian, RobinReads, ENT, BargainBooksy) which support multiple channels.
The key negative - a slight nark on formatting epistolary text and 1st paragraph indention for each chapter - I've decided to live with this - the bottom line is that the paperbacks remain the reference version of my intent for any of the books with regard for look and feel.
I'll align Creatspace next week once Amazon has settled.
Just for the record the key format change was with the date stamps I put at the beginning of all my chapters, aka
Location
Date
Time
Has become
Location, Date, Time.
A single line just works better with Pronoun and is a simple concession.
I've had 5x ASA and 1x ATW sales at full price on B&N (Nook) in the last four days.Hence organic sales outside promotions. This is why I've gone wide to access a better market than Amazon can deliver by itself.
great job!(otoh, I've heard that KU is very lucrative for some genres like romance.)
Upcoming September promos.[BLOCK 1]
[1] (Cost $50) RobinReads (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Friday 8th of September (Amazon, B&N)
[2] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Saturday 9th September (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo).
[BLOCK 2]
[3] (Cost $50) BargainBooksy (Thriller) for ASA at $0.99 on Friday 15th of September (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)
[4] (Cost $70) BookBarbarian Double Feature (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 and ATW at $2.99 on Saturday 16th September (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo).
All promos have been established with the updated Pronoun links (70% royalties). ASA and ATW on Kindle are newly minted ASINs (arrived today). Ratings and such like are still to move over.
Notice that all 4 adverts will hit Amazon & B&N customers. The BargainBooksy adverts will also hit Apple and Kobo users.
Should be an interesting couple of weeks.
Alex wrote: "great job!(otoh, I've heard that KU is very lucrative for some genres like romance.)"
On the other hand - I don't write romance (thankfully - best leave that for the experts, while I stick to shoot'em ups).
i like shoot'em ups too (and girls with guns and sisters with swords) more than romance.
Interestingly enough Amazon are pitching my books at a discount, and because they have new ISBNs (ePUB) and ASINs they are "re-published" but retain all their reviews. They have been reset for category too. This could be quite interesting.
Bargain Booksy just pinged me for running two promos too close together (as is their right) and I will be moving the promo on the right to October.Leaving
[1] (Cost $50) RobinReads (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Friday 8th of September (Amazon, B&N)
[2] (Cost $50) BargainBooksy (Thriller) for ASA at $0.99 on Friday 15th of September (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)
[3] (Cost $70) BookBarbarian Double Feature (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 and ATW at $2.99 on Saturday 16th September (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo).
Still a great lineup! Good luck :)
Just noting that Amazon are offering my Kindle books at a 12% discount to the list price. I would think that doesn't impact the royalty value they have to pay to Pronoun and hence me.
Now they have competition.
New primary categories areFantasy: https://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Advent...
Thriller: https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=dp_brlad...
Vampires: https://www.amazon.com/Vampire-Suspen...
My most recent Goodreads giveaway ended on August the 13th. I gave away 4x sets of signed copies of ASA and ATW. I targeted the main markets for my books, and down at the post office today, I spent $134 AUD to post 3 sets of my books.Ouch!
(the 4th set has a query on the address -- I'll send that Monday for $45)
Total cost including the physical books which after postage to Australia are about $10 each.
$180 postage + $80 Books = $260 AUD.
Double Ouch!
Most of the giveaways end up in in one of two places.
[1] The hands of a happy reader who effusively praises the books on GR, or
[2] in Never Never land where they end up in the bilge water of a pirate ship never to be seen again.
The later happens more often than the former.
If I spent $260 on BargainBooksy for adverts - I would get 4 adverts over 4 months, with approx 60-80+x sales and $60-$80+ in royalties and a lot more actual readers.
Now drawing a line under Goodreads Giveaways - they are simply not a cost-effective way to promote books - especially if you are providing a 'signed' copy from Australia.
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G
Thank you for this thread, Graeme. For the last six months I've put all my free time into getting reviews for my debut novel; as a result, I'm working through a learning curve for reviews, but not for sales. Your shared experience is a great initial primer/orientation in this regard, and has helped calm this writer's quiet freakout. It's reassuring to follow your progress. Best of luck!
Hi Andrew,Glad you got some value out of it. The thread is a way for me to learn from past experience and an opportunity to share with other authors who are wading through the same murky depths.
Well,RobinReads (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Friday 8th of September (Amazon, B&N) has now run.
18 sales of ASA on Amazon. 0 sales on B&N.
For the price 18 sales is a good result, I'll try the Thriller genre next with RR.
Clearly no penetration at B&N with RR.
Had my first library sales for ASA & ATW on the 14th Sept via Bibliotheca.Now in a library somewhere in Australia.
World, Writing, Wealth
Books mentioned in this topic
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The Calibre author is quite scathing about the ePUB Validator and what they do at https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre/+b...
So I'm going to stick with .docx approach and accept the minor cosmetic issues. I don't have the time to iron this out this year. too much else on including the deadline for The Dragon's Den in January 2018.