Getting promos back on the rails

[Dale]

About a year ago, I started ramping up my promos. I wanted to have something running every month. Unfortunately, my wife's illness and passing derailed those plans. I'm finally getting back to it now, starting with something new for me: a BookBub ad for A Day for Bones.

I'll be running the ad starting this Saturday, after Thanksgiving so people will (with any luck) be less distracted. It will run for one week, with the price reduced to $2.99 (normally $4.99). I'll see how that goes, then probably run another variation of it later in December.

I've heard mixed things about BB ads, but I figure it can't hurt to give it a shot. I also would like to submit the book for a BB deal. I think it's good enough to get their attention, but I have almost nothing in terms of reviews yet, which might be a negative. (If you want to take advantage of the sale price to read and review it, I won't complain!)

I previously submitted Space Operatic for a BB deal, but it wasn't picked up. I could possibly try it with The Fibonacci Murders, since I have a fairly good crop of reviews for that one. But that will be a decision for next year.

[Anna]

BookBub is great if it picks your book for a featured deal. It used to be more accessible for Indies but now I see the list littered with top authors and, of course, BookBub being a business rather than a charity for Indies goes for the big names mostly. Don't despair, you might get past the gatekeepers one day.

As for BookBub ads, well they don't cost much usually but I don't see many sales through them. I do an ad when nothing much is happening so that it is easier to see if KU reads or the odd sale might come from them. I still use them though - visibility is important.

[Dale]

Yeah, my first ad seems to have generated only one sale, although I did serve 9900 impressions and got 58 clicks. For a first go, that's probably not too bad. I want to try some A/B type tests, although I'm not very skilled at this stuff right now. The experts all seem to agree that you can't expect much from your first few ads. It takes time to learn how to make them work, and worse, BB ads don't work quite the same way as Amazon ads, so if you're doing both, you have a learning curve for both.

I need to hire a marketing genius. But I can't afford one of those. ;-)

[Carole]

The book market has gotten crowded, and to combat indies, the traditional guys really invest in marketing their books. I find them on all the sites where I market and then some. Book Trib, Children's Book review, Blue Ink, to name a few.

It's definitely gotten harder to sell. I invested with Grady Whill and despite some really great reviews, don't have much to show in sales.

I didn't do much for the three picture books I put out because of that.

I still find the best result is placing ads and links on Facebook pages where readers congregate.

[Dale]

Having run a couple of these ads now, I can say with confidence...I don't get it. :-P I'm shifting my focus, at least for now, to running BB promos with $0.99 ebooks in an effort to reach more readers.

One small victory, though. I submitted A Day for Bones for a PW review back in July. The other day, I got an email from them that begins:

"Our editors have looked at the BookLife project you submitted (A Day for Bones), and they are considering it for review. While this is no guarantee that your book will receive a Publishers Weekly review, you have cleared an important hurdle.

Remember, the reviews consideration process can take between six and twelve weeks...."

I'm pleased that I haven't been disqualified yet, although I wish the process was a tad faster. It's taken them 24 weeks to decide that they want to consider reviewing the book, now it will be another 6 to 12 weeks for them to give it thumbs up or down. And then, if it gets the green light, someone actually has to review it.

Still. Patience is a virtue. Right??