Support for Indie Authors discussion

Hey everyone out there, I was wondering if any of you have used promotional web sites for your work?

I've been looking into sites like: Robin Reads, Betty Book Freak, The Fussy Librarian, and a host of others.

Have any of you used these sites, and have you seen a good return on your investment?

I haven't paid for a spot, no. But I did use Betty Book Freak before they started charging(When she was SciFi betty). Don't know that it made a large difference.

I find there are a lot of Promo scammers out there.

great insight, thanks EJ.

Free Kindle Books & Tips has been my best bet so far.

I used facebook. I tried different book supports and haven't seen much. I also use Google plus business ads. They have been pretty good.I'm now getting about 100 hits a day to my website through the google plus ad. I've spent $35.00 in 2 months.
Sales? not so great, 35
free day downloads, over 2,000
kdp read pages, about 8,000 to date.
I paid for fb ads but that ran into about $200 for ppc
I really don't know exactly where the sales are from, but I DO know the traffic to my website.

I went onto AwesomeGang and promoted my book and then it gave me a list of other places as well.

I signed up for Betty Book Freak for next Friday the 13th. I'll let you'll know how sales go on Saturday the 14th. Thanks for the comments, and keep them coming.

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I do promos and tour on my website you can check out if any package suits you www.bookwormiespot.com

I'm in the middle of two promo days and have been impressed with a handful of free/inexpensive services.

- AskDavid ($0), BookScream ($3), Snicklist ($2), and StoryFinds ($0) all helped. They posted on schedule, gave me prominent spots on their websites and social media, and communicated well via e-mail.

These four aren't giving me BookBub numbers, of course, but I don't have enough reviews yet to qualify for the super premium sites.

Anna wrote: "I'm in the middle of two promo days and have been impressed with a handful of free/inexpensive services.

- AskDavid ($0), BookScream ($3), Snicklist ($2), and StoryFinds ($0) all helped. They pos..."

Thanks for sharing this information.

Good information! Thanks for posting. I've been writing a few posts on my blog about the sites I've used and the results--or lack thereof--that I saw.

www.kevinrhill.blogspot.com

Anna wrote: "I'm in the middle of two promo days and have been impressed with a handful of free/inexpensive services.

- AskDavid ($0), BookScream ($3), Snicklist ($2), and StoryFinds ($0) all helped. They pos..."

Thanks Anna, I will look into these sites.

I have used Thunderclap (could not get enough 'claps' cause I really hate to ask - so I posted a couple of times in different places like twitter, facebook and some other social places and I still have a couple of days but I lost the desire..., AskDavid, BookDaily, The Book Promoter which posted on BooksGoPublic all just recently so I don't have an 'outcome' yet - time will tell - what I really need are some reviews and I am going through those motions now to find reviewers - will let you guys know how that turns out (if I can find my way back here, lol)

Kevin wrote: "Good information! Thanks for posting. I've been writing a few posts on my blog about the sites I've used and the results--or lack thereof--that I saw.

www.kevinrhill.blogspot.com"

Love your blog, so many helpful tips on promotion sites!

I wanted to give everyone an update. I used Betty Book Freak for a promotional day. I was their spotlighted author for the day, but did not yield any sales. Obviously I was disappointed so I contacted the site. The gave me my money back, and offered me a free day with a different title. I will use them again because of how they handled the situation. I think their niche, is Mystery, and Sci-Fi, which is not what I write, so authors in those genres may have better luck. Thanks again for everyone's opinion on this subject.

LegaiaBooks wrote: ""

This topic is for authors speaking about their experiences with services, not for companies to promote themselves.

AskDavid.com is definitely a good site. They don't ask too much of you and they allow you to promote your book in a very sufficient manner. You can pay for extra promotion if you wish but they don't float it out there in front of you in a demanding way either.

Have generally found most promo sites to be a complete waste of time, or vastly over priced for the service being offered.

Have had infinitely more success with headline ads on The Romance Reviews, and similar sites.

Alp

Justin wrote: "I went onto AwesomeGang and promoted my book and then it gave me a list of other places as well."

AmesomeGang was a waste of $10 for me.

E.J. wrote: "E.J. wrote: "signed up for the Fussy Librarian, but it won't go out until the 29th."

Update: I only got four sales out of it. However, that might not be a bad thing, as my book hasn't been selling..."

Oh no, I just paid for a spot on their newsletter on the 24th. Welp, I guess I will have to see how it turns out for my book (I was kind of hoping to at least make my money back via sales...).

I just had some good results with http://booktweeters.com/, although the owner and I got off on the wrong foot (no confirmation email to say my order went through, but there was a charge on my PayPal account almost immediately. Then when I emailed them, no reply for a day or so - my brain automatically going into "I've been scammed mode").

The promotion was on Friday and I garnered 14 sales, Saturday I got 25, then 39 on Sunday. Today is Monday and I have sold 21 so far (all on Amazon for my book priced at $2.96). Up until the promotion, the most I had sold in one day was 9, so I assume the increase was due to the promotion. Either way, I made back the $19USD they charged :)

Update: So I think the Tweeting may have helped, but what kept it going strong was the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" section on Amazon. There are two #1 Best sellers on that list with my book page, so I'm guessing the boost is mainly run-off sales.

I'm gonna try Facebook to see what kind of results I get, I'll let you know, after it goes live.