Support for Indie Authors discussion

I did. I signed up for askdavid.com, having seen some suggestions on this board. I'm wondering if others have had results from the service, because I have seen no impact.

My thought is that the service may have been effective at one time, but it has become so inundated with books that it seems like an oversaturated wasteland. I do not want to be snooty, but over half the book covers on there are shirtless people making out. It just feels like a giant heap of desperation.

They do let you send tweets from their account to 51K followers, but I'm not sure if any of those people are alive. I send a tweet and I don't get a single "like," not one (none of the others seem to either, so it's not just me). You'd think out of fifty-one thousand people, one of them would have enough of a pulse to click the little heart. I suppose I was leery of the tweeting from the beginning, as I wondered who would pay attention to a Twitter feed from which anyone in the world who felt like it could send their spam.

Well, you try things and you learn. I'm not bitter, just wiser and curious about other experiences.

I tried AskDavid when it was still in early "new" stages (AKA, free) I have book entries as well as havibg ysed the free tweet option. Never seen any results.

J. wrote: "My thought is that the service may have been effective at one time, but it has become so inundated with books that it seems like an oversaturated wasteland...."

I think this is true for many (most?) of these types of services, with the possible exception of Bookbub.

Ken wrote: "J. wrote: "My thought is that the service may have been effective at one time, but it has become so inundated with books that it seems like an oversaturated wasteland...."

I think this is true for..."

The general consensus seems to be that Bookbub is the best paid advertisisng service and definitely worth it. However, some others give a definite observable return, but it may not make a meaningful financial benefit.

The general consensus seems to be that Bookbub is the best paid advertising service and definitely worth it.

That is because Bookbub has to approve the book as high quality before they will do a promotion for you--and it is a major investment to use them.

The problem with services like askdavid.com is that any twelve-year-old can piece a book together and list it on there, so no one is going to pay attention to all that noise.

I've had one book on askdavid. I only noticed blips in downloads when I used their tweeting service to mention deals. I think I got ten tweets with the package, now every so often I get an email with a link to a free tweet which I use. Otherwise, no discernible sales.

I use askdavid and I think it has been excellent for running promos. On average, I will get about 8 retweets for each of my tweets from their account. I have not had much luck when promoting my book at full price, but I have when advertising a free promo.

Neil wrote: "I've had one book on askdavid. I only noticed blips in downloads when I used their tweeting service to mention deals. I think I got ten tweets with the package, now every so often I get an email wi..."

I was given twenty-five free tweets and have used five of them. At this point, I don't feel like it's worth the time to create a tweet--maybe if I'm sitting at a bus stop, bored.

Twitter doesn't seem to be that useful anymore. It's like throwing a message-bottle into the ocean. Instagram seems to be where people actually pay attention, and even more so Pinterest.

If a service had 51K Pinterest followers, that would be gold.

Marie wrote: "I use askdavid and I think it has been excellent for running promos. On average, I will get about 8 retweets for each of my tweets from their account. I have not had much luck when promoting my boo..."

Well, that's a really good point. Anyone who is paying attention to their feed is likely looking for free books.

I cannot say enough about AskDavid.com for layout and promotion of one's work. I have my book on a lot of sites and grateful for that, but AskDavid is my favorite. Plus, the staff is so available and helpful when needed. They are hands-on, which is important to all of us.

J. wrote: "I did. I signed up for askdavid.com, having seen some suggestions on this board. I'm wondering if others have had results from the service, because I have seen no impact.

My thought is that the se..."

One of the things I did was to research the site for authors in my genre and sent them a friend request. I can't say all of them responded, but some did and we now share one another's successes as well as reading the books. My goal had been to form a group of my genre on there with the support of the AskDavid staff because they said no one had tried that in the past. So, they gave me the go-ahead. Maybe another genre of authors would be more interested. Its worth a try.

Ken wrote: "J. wrote: "My thought is that the service may have been effective at one time, but it has become so inundated with books that it seems like an oversaturated wasteland...."

I think this is true for..."

Ken, I was told the catch is that you have to be a bestseller to get your books on BookBub, and I'm not there yet. Please share if that is inaccurate. Thank you.

Gippy wrote: "I cannot say enough about AskDavid.com for layout and promotion of one's work. I have my book on a lot of sites and grateful for that, but AskDavid is my favorite. Plus, the staff is so available a..."

I agree that the staff at AskDavid is great, I was just hoping to see measurable results.

While Amazon ads have been effective for me, many of the other things I've tried (all recommended) have been a bust. Since time wasted is time I could have spent writing, I want to focus on promotions that are proven to have a reliable payoff.

Gippy wrote: "Ken wrote: "J. wrote: "My thought is that the service may have been effective at one time, but it has become so inundated with books that it seems like an oversaturated wasteland...."

I think this..."
Gippy,

It actually doesn't look at your sales, only reviews. Here are their tips page for submitting. https://insights.bookbub.com/tips-on-...

Even with meeting requirements, most authors have to submit an average of 8 or 9 times before their promotion gets shared. But every author I have spoken to says even at deeply discounted prices, they make their money back.

I am saving up for a Bookbub right now.

I have used and still use AskDavid.com. I don't get a ton from it and J I see you don't either but I'd ask, do you invest serious time with it? Have you tried to post frequently and at appropriate times?

When you sayTwitter isn't worth it anymore I wonder again how much time are you investing and are you posting at the right times? I mean I only have 650 followers and I can make a post and out of no where have someone retweet it. Its about knowing the right people, using the proper hashtags, posting at the correct times and making the most of what you post. You can't just tweet something or make a post and sit back and expect results you have got work at it and look into where they value is going.