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Paid Promotions - A Case Study of Experience
Graeme wrote: "Had my first library sales for ASA & ATW on the 14th Sept via Bibliotheca.Now in a library somewhere in Australia."
Wow, that is so great! I looked at bibliotheca.com, but they are a library systems company, not a distributor. Oh, but now I see that Pronoun distributes through Bibliotheca and Overdrive (ebooks in the US)--https://the-digital-reader.com/2017/0.... Were they ebooks or hardcopy?
(My daughter's dream is to get one of her books into libraries--and she was stuck on trad publishing for that, even though I told her that you can get into libraries through self-publishing too. So, I showed your achievement to her.)
EDIT: Ah, the article said that Biblioteca (spelling correction--no wonder I didnt' find it) was also an ebook distributor.
eBooks. 1 copy each. I'm assuming Australia as the listing in Pronoun was for Bibliotheca (au).
Hi Graeme, considering how much you've written here, I'm shocked I've only just now stumbled upon it!
I just wanted to interject with another avenue I didn't see mentioned (that works best for free promos). I had The Risen out for a short while and it wasn't doing anything, and I saw bknights on fiverr.com recommended so I did something like a 10 or 15 dollar promo with them. That got nearly 1,000 downloads and put me in the top 10 horror, maybe even post apocalypse (sorry can't remember). The knock on from that was 23 sales next month and 3,000 page reads.
That's the only paid marketing I've done for The Risen so can't say owt about anything else. I did use bknights again last month for my short stories collection ($5) and got 201 downloads, not too bad for something quite unmarketable.
As a side note, did any of the Cultured Vultures attention hit your sales? (Only wondering as I might stop posting them there as my own blog gets more views!)
Hi Adam, good to see you here.I'm taking a policy of not doing any free promo's, (but I may do so in the future, once I have enough of a tail to benefit from on sales).
I'm looking at accumulating an audience who are willing to pay for books.
That said, getting 23 on sales after a free promo is an excellent result.
Unfortunately, I've never seen a sale I could positively attribute to a review. It may have happened, but I don't know.
BookBarbarian Double Feature (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 and ATW at $2.99 on Saturday 16th September (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo) has now run.Results are 21x ASA on Amazon, 1x ASA on B&N, 2x ASA on Apple, and 6x ATW on Amazon.
30x books total at an all up cost pf $1.40 per book to sell.
Still a good result, but not quite as effective as Bargain Booksy.
October promos coming up.[1] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Saturday 14th October (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo).
[2] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ATW at $2.99 on Sunday 15th October (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo).
Essentially, a double feature weekend.
While hitting the fantasy genre, the advert blurb will highlight the action/thriller content.
I'll swap over to Thriller genre in November.
Total sales so far for September. 74x ASA, 8x ATW.
Picked up some residual sales overnight.5x ASA on Amazon, 1x ASA on Apple, and 2x ATW on Amazon.
(Just reset my prices back to normal, $3.99 for each book).
I'm in discussion with Early Bird Books and The Portalist with regard to a promotion. Should have something running in November. The Portalist is Fantasy/Sci-Fi and EBB have a mailing list of 500K.We'll see how it goes and I'll provide feedback here.
EBB: https://earlybirdbooks.com/
Portalist: https://theportalist.com/
October promos coming up.[1] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Saturday 14th October (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo).
[2] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ATW at $2.99 on Sunday 15th October (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo).
Now includes the Fussy Librarian (For the first time) - Running this promo four days after the BB promos will allow me to guage its effectiveness.
[3] (Cost $25) FussyLibrarian (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Thursday 19th October (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo).
Pronoun have a chart that separates out marketing channels.Based on 100+ sales since the 10th August 2017, I can say the following.
AMAZON US: 70%
AMAZON Everyone Else: 2%
B&N: 18%
Apple: 9%
Kobo, Biliotheca, etc: 1%
B&N and Apple more than make up for the loss of Kindle Unlimited reads.
Adam wrote: "Hi Graeme, considering how much you've written here, I'm shocked I've only just now stumbled upon it!
I just wanted to interject with another avenue I didn't see mentioned (that works best for f..."
Hi Adam, I had a look at https://www.fiverr.com/bknights might be worth having a look at them if doing a free promo. But I'm thinking that wont pay off properly until I have more books on my shelf.
Speaking of which, I need to get off social media and get back to work on TDD.
Great job with EBB. It comes at a price but the results from them are the best I've had with any site aside from Bookbub.
Thanks Marie,Just talking at the moment with EBB, but it does look like I will have something with them around November.
I've already booked another BookBarbarian double feature (ASA + ATW) for December 16th. I waiting for RobinReads and EReaderNewsToday 90 day periods to open up, which they will do this month. RR for December and ERNT for November.
Of course, I'll try and line up ERNT with EBB, and RR with BBar.
Well here is an interesting tidbit of Bookbub Featured Deal info."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). This rule does not apply to free deals, however, and we’re happy to feature permafree books!" REF: https://support.bookbub.com/customer/...-
I would break at least 14 days of discounts in every 90 day period guaranteeing feature submission non-acceptance.
I'll have to think about how I handle this requirement.
ASA Amazon rank is suddenly sub 90K, must be making a few sales off the price drop to $0.99 for the upcoming promos running from the 14th to the 20th.
EBB is firming up for promos in late November, just working through confirmation and payment.
The only conclusion I get with Bookbub is that I need to do a FREE promo for ASA and position it directly after BookBarbarian, and Robin Reads promos.The reason for that is that sites like RR and BBar don't like to do PAID promos if a book has been offered FREE. By hitting BookBub directly after RR and BBar, I can use their 90 day/3 month windows between adverts to clean out the "FREE" promo aspect of BookBub with minimal impact.
The upshot, I will target a BookBub Free promo just after the 16th of December.
Graeme wrote: "ASA Amazon rank is suddenly sub 90K, must be making a few sales off the price drop to $0.99 for the upcoming promos running from the 14th to the 20th."Amazon rank rose to sub 36K on the 12th of October on the back of the price drop from $3.99 to $0.99 and 7x ASA sales on Amazon US.
No advertising yet, and I have no idea how buyers pick up on the price drop.
Any suggestions?
[1] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Saturday 14th October (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo), has now run.19x ASA on Amazon and 1x ASA on B&N.
Expecting some tail sales over Sunday, etc, and ATW to pick up approx 5x on Sunday based on Amazon ranking.
Are your books on countdown? Amazon customers can look up which books are on sale.
Hi Marie. Just standard through Pronoun.
[1] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Saturday 14th October (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo).[2] (Cost $40) BargainBooksy (Fantasy) for ATW at $2.99 on Sunday 15th October (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo). Have now both Run.
Results as follows.
Oct 14th: B&N ASA x1. Amazon ASA x19
Oct 15th: Amazon ASA x4, ATW x3
Oct 16th: Amazon ASA x5, ATW x1
Oct 17th: B&N ASA x1. Amazon ASA x2
Totals over the three days: ASA x32, ATW x4.
ATW sales are a little disappointing, not cost-effective. ASA sales are ok for a Fantasy promo. Not a lot of action on Non-Amazon channels.
May be better to run a single BargainBooksy Thriller promo at $50 for ASA, rather than a promo for each book at $80.
[3] (Cost $25) FussyLibrarian (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Thursday 19th October (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo). Still to run.Sitting by itself a couple of days later will allow me to evaluate this promo in isolation.
Future promos.Nov: Early Bird Books and The Portalist for ASA.
Dec: RobinReads (Thriller) for ASA and BookBarbarian Double Feature for ASA & ATW are all (almost) locked in, just waiting for confirmation of payments to clear.
I had heard that BookLinker.net (referenced in our group’s author resources spreadsheet) enables you to track click-thrus via a unique url. That would be somewhat useful when you have multiple simultaneous promos. Have you tried it? Is it true? (I didn’t see it in their FAQ.) It looks like it’s free, at least for creating the url. If you’re interested enough to try it out, inquiring minds would like to know. ^_^
Unfortunately there are not a lot of promotional sites that will enable you to use your own link (like a booklinker link). They require you to either enter the ASIN or direct Amazon link. I assume this is because many sites get affiliate earnings by using their own links.
[3] (Cost $25) FussyLibrarian (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Thursday 19th October (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo), has run.Amazon 2x ASA. Disappointing, but this site asks for specific details about the story relating to violence, and I marked ASA as containing 'torture,' which it does.
This filters out a lot(?) of the audience. Hence not a good marketplace for my work.
Upcoming November promos.[1] (Cost $55) BargainBooksy (Thriller) for ASA at $0.99 on Friday the 24th November (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo).
[2] (Cost $200) Early Bird Books (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Saturday the 25th November (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Google Play, Kobo).
[3] (Cost $100) The Portalist (dedicated Sci-Fi/Fantasy - sister site of EBB) on Wednesday the 29th of November (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Google Play, Kobo).
Noting that the BB promo will seed the ground for the EBB promo.
Early Bird Books offer 500k subscribers and handle 'name' authors, hence the high cost.
Ooh, trying to inoculate yourself with low 3-digit-priced promos against bookbub sticker-price shock? ^_^It will be a good data point to see how the Portalist does since it’s by default dedicated to your target audience vs one where you specify your target.
Overnight had some firsts.[1] First royalty cheque from Pronoun hit my Paypal account.
[2] First 2 star rating for A Subtle Agency on Goodreads.
On balance, a positive.
Those first dodgy reviews are a bit painful, aren't they? But that cheque must be nice 😊
Thanks Leonie,I'm already over it. The bottom line is they are inevitable, and they add authenticity to the rating/review process.
Yes - the cheque is nice.
Pronoun will pay monthly, and have no minimum amount like Amazon does.
They also pay to Paypal which is convenient,
I agree with the addition of authenticity - I'm always suspicious of books with only high reviews. (Having been burnt by a couple with appalling spelling and grammar.) In reality, not everyone likes everything they read, so it stands to reason that every book should have a few dodgy reviews at least.
There are a lot of great books out there that average around 4.0 with a sprinkling of 1 and 2 star reviews.Frankly, I would love to have 10K ratings with an average of 4.0 with 100x 1 star reviews.
Just looked up Salem's Lot by Stephen King,
.250K+ ratings. Avg 3.99, 4% 2 star (11K+) and 1% 1 star (2740).
Approx 5% negative reviews on a book deemed a classic of the genre.
Actually, filter on his 1 star reviews, it's enlightening to read what some readers think of his work - gives great perspective.
Pronoun (book distributor) are shutting down.Ok. Actions taken.
[1] Moved both A Subtle Agency and A Traitor's War to Draft 2 Digital.
[2] Reused the constructed .mobi files from Draft 2 Digital to update my Amazon Kindle files (all epub/kindle files will have the same look and feel).
[3] Shutdown my Pronoun accounts. Books are coming offline now.
To Do.
[4] Publish Amazon Kindle versions (just waiting for Pronoun versions to come off the sites).
[5] Update currently booked advertisers with the updated links.
NOTE: Paperback versions of my books are unaffected by this.
Graeme wrote: "Pronoun (book distributor) are shutting down.Ok. Actions taken.
[1] Moved both A Subtle Agency and A Traitor's War to Draft 2 Digital.
[2] Reused the constructed .mobi files from Draft 2 Digita..."
I'm shocked!! Didn't Pronoun just open??
Been around for a couple of years (I think).I was only there since July, say four and a half months.
I'm outta there.
The Pronoun to Draft2Digital shift is starting to settle.I have adopted the following architecture.
[1] Amazon KDP (Not KDP Select = Non-Exclusive) for Amazon.
[2] Draft2Digital for everything else.
One of the interesting things D2D offer is a universal link to their associated stores.
https://www.books2read.com/u/mqpNB8
Once I get The Dragon's Den out, I'm going to start a process of pinging BookBub for a "free" promo for ASA, as it should pay off with on sales for books two and three which will be priced at a higher rate.
November promos. Only ASA in play. Price has discounted to $0.99.[1] (Cost $55) BargainBooksy (Thriller) for ASA at $0.99 on Friday the 24th November (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo).
[2] (Cost $200) Early Bird Books (Fantasy) for ASA at $0.99 on Saturday the 25th November (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo).
[3] (Cost $100) The Portalist (dedicated Sci-Fi/Fantasy - sister site of EBB) on Wednesday the 29th of November (Amazon, B&N, Apple, Kobo)
Using Amazon, and Draft2Digital for the distribution.
Graeme, your book marketing strategies appear intense. And, your documentation of them is probably a (god)send to many authors. I am somewhat late to this party, so would it be cheeky? bad form ? to ask for a summary.In other words, how many months have you been promoting ASA? How much have you invested in US $$ in the promotions? How many copies of ASA sold ( not downloaded for free) ?
Are these valid questions? Or would it be more to the point to ask how many ASA downloaded, and how many Traitor's War sold? In other words can you discern a readership buildup?
Joanna wrote: "Graeme, your book marketing strategies appear intense. And, your documentation of them is probably a (god)send to many authors. I am somewhat late to this party, so would it be cheeky? bad form ? t..."Hey Joanna! Stay tuned to my blog as the year draws to a close. I plan on writing a tell all as it were about my own experiences this past year wrestling with the beast of book marketing. I'll be detailing where I promoted, how many sold, what it cost, the whole enchilada as it were ;)
Hi Joanna. It's a good idea. I will see what I can put together.
World, Writing, Wealth
Books mentioned in this topic
BookBub Ads Expert: A Marketing Guide to Author Discovery (other topics)A Subtle Agency (other topics)
A Subtle Agency (other topics)
A Subtle Agency Omnibus (other topics)
A Subtle Agency Omnibus (other topics)
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Results are 25x ASA on Amazon, 3x ASA on B&N, 1x ASA on Apple, and 1x ATW on Apple.
A good result with an average all in cost to sell each book of $0.95.
Approaching the $0.00 point to break even on an advert.