Promo Sites Performance in July 2016

I promoted four different books on two different sites to see how each performed in terms of translating promotion into sales. PriceDroppedBooks (http://pricedroppedbooks.com/author-promotions/) has several genre-categories; the most expensive one is $22.00. This is all ONE-day only promo. There is a residual trickle of sales the day after running the promo but the effect plays out rather quickly.

http://pricedroppedbooks.com/author-promotions/ (ran three books (separately) on following dates, July 4, July 11 and July 14) The sales below are for all the books published independently that were sold in the time frame of the … Read more »

I discovered a new promo site (courtesy of the blogger&writer, Molly Greene who mentioned using it) that delivers results even better than ENT (EreadersNewsToday) and it’s http://robinreads.com/  They are selective, you can only run your book once every 90 days but I was really impressed with their results.

The drawback is that your book must be either 0.99 cents or free and I no longer promote my one perma-free book because it’s getting a ton of downloads on its own and even though it has had thousands of downloads (literally!) I have not received a single review for it that … Read more »

Not a day goes by when I don’t receive a dozen+ invites (I call them enticements) to ‘come and play’ as a self-published author with various book distributors who cater to self-publishers. All such business outfits have a regular list of ‘free-to-download’ booklets, compiled by well-known business gurus, and best-selling authors and marketing experts and so on, on marketing and selling of your books.

The latest one is from IngramSpark. Doesn’t say anything I haven’t heard a thousand times. Yet  I know that regardless of how often I heard the words “marketing strategies” I will always look at the next … Read more »

Where do you stand with your earnings as an indie writer…?

Molly Greene’s blog does not make a frequent appearance but when it does, it has something interesting to say; that is interesting to the indie writer. This time she posted her earnings for 2015.

http://www.molly-greene.com/my-2015-author-earnings/

She has 7 books out in one series (mystery) and up to now has been exclusively with KDP Select. The Book 1 of her series came out in November 2013, and her last one, Book 7 came out December 21, 2015.  Her books are all around 260 pages (give or take) which should be … Read more »

Goodreads…and of what use is it to the Author?

Amazon owns Goodreads. Does that mean that Amazon’s business principles (or lack thereof) or Amazon’s level of technology and its corresponding use (or misuse), or more importantly the ever increasing watchfulness and security over user-input into any product review, are also in-house features at Goodreads?

In a nutshell—no. If you want to find a good ‘read’ in your favorite genre, and see how it compares to the big-name bestsellers before you buy it, you go to Amazon.

If you want to see a mish-mash of books and genres, if you want … Read more »

PAID PROMO – Beware -Try it Once – GoTo – Bingo

Bargain Ebook Hunter otherwise known as tiny-tea-cup and mostly empty http://bargainebookhunter.com/feature-your-book/

When you arrive at the above site it re-directs you to HotZippy which is now its parent-site. There you have 4 choices: BargaineBookHunter, PixelScroll, Romance Ebook Deals & 13 Horror Street.

http://support.hotzippy.net/?page_id=581

At Bargain Ebook Hunter you have a choice of number of books to promote and number of days.

To promote 5 books for ONE single day can set you back $75 (US)

To promote 1 book for 1-day is $15 (US).

An extra day of promo … Read more »

Why an Author Should Never Ask a Fellow-Author (or group member) to Review His/Her Book.

How many times did you see the plea for review of their book by someone who is in your group, and either a fellow-author or a new writer that the publisher (if you have one) has brought ‘in.’ Too many. I see them all the time. Then there are those who ‘connect’ with you on facebook or twitter just for that purpose and once again, ask—sometimes directly, sometimes in a roundabout way—to review their book.

You’d like to help. Sure. I did—once and will never … Read more »

Why isn’t my book selling…?

If you’re asking yourself this agonizing questions, continue reading.  Following is a list of “most-likely-and-very-possible” causes why your brainchild is not flying off Amazon’s electronic shelves.

1. Book pitch/blurb that appears in Amazon

This is the hardest thing to get just right. Many ‘advice’ gurus out there will tell you to go look at what the bestselling writers’ blurbs are…except their blurbs were likely done by very expensive (and therefore experienced) sales-pitch copy writers.

I can’t afford to even look for one, never mind hire one. Just do your best. These copy-writers were also very much … Read more »

PAID PROMO – Beware -Try it Once – GoTo – Bingo

http://www.ebooklister.net/submit.php    eBookLister

http://www.ebooklister.net/promote.php

otherwise known as your book is in the ‘ball-crawl’ pit – ineffective promo

They have a ‘free’ feature where you submit your book but they would like to see a donation. I made one – $10US and it was a total waste of money. They do not have any means of checking whether your book was featured on a particular date back a month or even back a few days. Their site is skimpy. There is no historical database feature. There is no “search” feature on … Read more »

PAID PROMO – Beware -Try it Once – GoTo – Bingo

http://awesomegang.com/advertising-on-awesomegang/

otherwise known as your book gets put to sleep (lost) on their site

It’s cheap vague-promo, $10 US to list your book on their site and send it out via their newsletter that claims 7,000 subscribers. No way to confirm that but if your downloads (sales) are any indication few if any of those subscribers are more than just an email. The owners are nice, approachable though there’s not much to ‘approach’ for. Your promo runs for 2 days. Your book is listed on their site but even … Read more »