Authors-Readers Connect discussion

Hey all authors and readers! Let us know what you think about certain advertisements you've seen. We all need some help in setting them up!

If you're a reader, tell us what you think is more effective in advertisements, and where you have seen some good advertisements (specific sites.) Also, let us know what price ranges you find the best, and how much you normally spend on books. Just your thoughts overall!

Authors, let us know how your advertisements went with specific websites. Include how much it costed, how long the promotion was, and what type of impact it had on your sales or website visits.

Thanks all!

I'll go first and talk about the highly controversial Goodreads advertisements.

So the nice thing about the advertisements is that you only pay money WHEN SOMEBODY CLICKS on your ad. You can "bet" a certain amount of money on each advertisement, and you'll pay that much when you click. Another awesome thing is that you can make multiple advertisements for multiple books, all for one main campaign.

For mine, I had 3 advertisements for My Abigail and 2 advertisements for She: A Horror Novel. I had each one set at .26 per click, so 26 cents. The click rate is about 1 click for every 2,500 views.

HERE'S THE THING! Your main goal is not to get people to buy your books. It's to get them to ADD your books. So if you get 2,500 views but only 1 click... that's fine. That's great. That means your advertisement is going to stay up there much longer.

There was one day that I had over 7,000 views and only 2 clicks. Does that mean only 2 people added the book to their shelves? No. OVER 200 people added the book to their shelf. Without it costing me a cent.

I put 50 bucks total onto the campaign, but it seems like after about 2 weeks the buzz dies off and the views dry up. So my plan is to pause my campaign for about a month, then start again fresh in a month with whatever remaining money I have. At this pace, I could keep this advertisement up on Goodreads for about a year.

If you're looking for exposure, do some research and this is the way to go for you. It's a long-term, cheap investment that does help your sales.

I tried that. And it works like you say. Only thing with me is that while I got clicks and a lot of views, that's where it ended. After all this time, still no sales or reviews. To me, and this is just MHO, all it does is get you views and clicks--that's it. And on top of that, your book is among the hundreds of others that were added to the readers' shelves. And that's usually where it stays.

Readers' continue to add more and more books, and would most likely not get to the point of reading yours. So it gets pushed further back and back until it's long forgotten. But that's just me. It doesn't work for me. But, if you like it, and it works for you and others, that's good news:)

Thus one reason the word, controversial, is used.

That's very true. And it's hard to suggest good ads for other people, because a lot of time it's kinda just a hit and miss thing. It can be great for you, but suck for me. Oh well. I'll keep trying to find some good ones.

I don't know if I wrote this here or not, but I've heard some good things about Bargain Booksy. It's pricey, but the authors who have promoted on the site made their money back, got exposure, and some received a lot of sales of their books. I'm going to try it.

Hmmm alright please post when you do give it a go!

I will let you know if it's as worth it as they say.

Thank you Groovy

Banner ads are dead as a doornail. The best traffic volume I got was advertising on Questionable Content, and—like others have mentioned—I only got views, not sales. The amount of extra exposure versus the amount you have to pay just isn't practical.

I've had some success surfing for promotional sites (either free or $0.99) and submitting my book there. I saw most of the traffic via free book giveaway, the $0.99 sites usually cost money and the ROI isn't worth it.

Best way to generate buzz is to hand out ARCs to anyone and everyone that will agree to read and review, get their email, then send out a couple of gentle reminders about the book's release date and that they promised to review it. Getting about 40 reviews on the first day with a four star rating or greater will help jump you up the ranks in Amazon, and the absolute best thing you can do for your book is have it show up in "trending" or "recommended" with a lot of reviews. Nature takes its course from there. :)

Good advice, H.C. I get a lot of traffic from free promotions, too. I just wish I didn't have to give a lot of my books away. A purchase now and then would be nice--LOL! I agree, banner ads and promoting on the side of a book website doesn't work at all.

I also have car magnet signs advertising my website. It gets a lot of looks and questions of interest. But it doesn't help that much.

I should know this, but what is ROI?

Dang, the review thing sounds great. I haven't been able to get that many, but I did get 20 one time and the launch went great. Anyways. I second Groovy's questions about ROI. Thanks a ton for the info, H.C.!

I'm gonna try a BargainBooksy promotion, because it was suggested by Groovy. I'll let you all know! Doing it for She, which is around 700,000 ranking right now and hasn't sold a book in toooooo long.

Promotion is June 2. I'm pumped :)

I hope you get your advertisement investment and a lot more back, David. I haven't been able to do it, yet. But since you're doing it first, I'm eager to know how it goes. I plan to do one soon, though. Especially, now that I agree with you what genre to place my current book under.

I hope it works for you.

The Horror genre was so cheap (25 bucks) that I had to take advantage of it and try it out!

Well, I went ahead and did a Bargain Booksy deal---wait for it----

IT WORKS!!! I didn't recoup all of my $50 back (I sold 6 units), but that's better than when they weren't selling at all, just being given away free!! I'm happy with that. It's a start, right? And another thing is, that's exposure and hopefully word-of-mouth. I'm going to put another book in.

How did you do, David? Has anyone else tried this?

Same here! My genre was Horror, which only cost me TWENTY-FIVE BUCKS, and I sold double digit copies. Around 11 or 12 in one day. I really think it's a great service. One of the cheapest, and you actually sell books!

I'm not sure how to maximize it yet, because I'm sure there's some trick to get the numbers even higher, but hey it looks great! I'm very happy with this.

Hey, has anybody tried BookRunes? I got a spam-looking email, but the website looks legit to be honest. 25 bucks... they say 50,000 readers. I'm thinking about using it, but don't know yet.

I just received that same email. I'm going to ask on some other forums before I try it. Let me know what you found out. But here's my question: If they're so popular (50,000 readers) why do they need to email authors? I heard about Bargain Booksy by word-of-mouth praising the site. Something to think about.

Another question: What did they tell you was their most popular category?

And good for you on all those sales. I'm glad it worked out. I'm sure I would have sold more if my genre wasn't a mixture of thriller and sci-fi. Some thriller readers just aren't into Sci-Fi and visa-versa.

I have a feeling it has to do with Bargain Booksy then. They must be getting the emails of authors who use it, Sounds like a can of spam eek

I received this in my email today. Apparently, they think I'm a New York Times Bestseller with a million dollar contract. Talk about pricey! Anybody with this kind of money, feel free :) Note that this is their discount package :

Dear Author:
 
Looking to promote your book? Shelf Unbound, a 2017 Maggie Award Finalist for Best Digital Magazine, reaches more than 125,000 book-thirsty readers. You can read our current issue here: https://issuu.com/shelfunbound/docs/s.... Learn more at www.shelfmediagroup.com.
 
For our August/September 7th Anniversary Issue we’re offering discounted rates of a quarter-page ad for $275 and a full-page ad for $575 (ad design included at no cost).
 
What our advertisers are saying: “My ad in Shelf Unbound was the best advertising venue I have found to date. My book sales went up by 50%.” — Andrea Pflaumer, author of Shopping for the Real You 
 
Please let me know if you would like more information. — Margaret Brown, publisher, [email protected], 214.704.4182, www.shelfmediagroup.com
 
PS: Our ADVERTISING POWER PACKAGE includes a full-page ad in 12 issues (two years), a full-page Recommended Reading excerpt from your book in 12 issues (two years), a full-page ad in our Holiday Gift Guide, a four-page interview with you in one issue, a 30-minute podcast interview with you, and a full-page ad promoting your podcast interview in six issues of our sister magazine Podster (one year). Price is $3,700.
 
Margaret Brown
Publisher
Shelf Media
Shelf Unbound | Podster
Nat'l Book Critics Circle Lifetime Member

2015 & 2016 Maggie Award Winner for
Best Digital Magazine

Wow! You'd have to sell over 500 books to break even, and that's if you charge them at 1.99. Crazy that people will pay that much.

It's incredible how many people out there will prey on aspiring authors because of their frustration with the submission process. In my (much) younger days, I got taken in by one of these scam artists. It ruined my ability to write a novel for about a decade. =/

It's a lot nicer now that self publishing is no longer a dirty word. People are starting to realize there's no real reason to collect an advance and then have your fledgling career scuttled after you don't make it back.

I mean, you're going to have to do all the promotion yourself anyway, so...

Exactly, H.C. And thanks for a place like Goodreads where you get a lot of good advice that keeps us from falling for that anymore.

I agree, you're better off managing your own writing career, you're going to be doing all of the hard work of promoting anyway. And you don't have to pay someone else a percentage on top of reimbursing them for what little they do. Yes, they have connections, but I think we can do just as well in that area, too.

I'm so grateful to Amazon Kindle for opening up this opportunity to all of us to bypass the guards at the publishing gates where some of us were constantly told, "Just not for us", "Readers will not be interested in this.", or, "I'm not interested in representing this." Instead you hear, "I really loved your book", "This character really moved me", or, "Your book helped me through a rough time."

The only way I would go traditional is if I get to keep 99.99% of the money, and they did all the promoting--LOL!!

Okay, so I just planned a promotion on bookreadermagazine.com. It's associated with Awesome Gang and their affiliates. They have loads of subscribers and offer free author interviews, so head on over there and introduce yourself. They will show your book for free, but if you want a week long promotion, it's $20. Not as pricey as Bargain Booksy.

I'll let you know if it helped in sales.

Wow that's interesting. Let us know how it goes, please, because I'm very interested ;) Trying to kick up interest for She 2. And thanks for your comments, Groovy and H.C.

You're both very smart people!

That is so sweet.

Are you going to do a Bargain Booksy deal with this one?

This is just my opinion, but I am not impressed with Book Reader Magazine advertising. No sales so far (went up on 17th). And why would anyone want to click on my information? There's no picture of my book, just a highlight of the title with the summary. It looks like a lot of information bunched together that someone like me would not bother to read through. I guess you get what you pay for.

To be fair, it is displayed on their home page, though.

Like I said on the other thread, I will not advertise with them again.

...H.C. You're...smart people!

Let's not say things we can't take back.

;D

Man, that's a shame about Book Reader. I got an email from ManyBooks that read this:

<>
My name is Lisa Clifford and I am the editor for ManyBooks.net. I hope you don’t mind me reaching out, but I wanted to say that I saw your book “She” featured in the Bargain Booksy newsletter and I think it would be well received by our readers.

We were wondering if you’d like to be featured in our newsletter? We send out our daily newsletter to over 150,000 subscribers, and if you’re able to book something shortly, we could offer you a feature for just $24 (instead of the usual $29).

If you’re interested, please fill out our discount submission form: http://manybooks.net/get-featured?dis...
<>

And yes, I will probably do a Bargain Booksy with She 2 once it releases. I'm excited, but it isn't until November sadly.

H.C., that's what the edit button is for!

I just learned something about those sister sites I listed in another thread here. They offer free, but usually all you get is a lonely link that nobody knows about but you. Sites like Pretty-hot, and Awesome Gang will only showcase you if you pay for a promotion. Of course, I don't know if that would result in sales. Like I said, Book Reader Magazine did nothing. It makes me wonder if they're being deceitful about how many subscribers they really have.

Someone advised to look up the books they're promoting on Amazon and see if they have a lot of ratings.

Hmmm that's a good idea. I don't feel like forking over another 25 bucks right now, when I don't know if anything will come of it. Bargain B was a sure-fire hit, these other ones are truly gambles

I agree. I read that bookdaily.com gives your books good exposure, and this author states that she gets good sales. But here's the clincher, it's $49 a month. Another bill I can't afford right now:)

It stuns me how many of these sites charge fairly hefty fees. It's like, if I could actually turn that much of a profit, I wouldn't be indy (or at least not for very long).

Also, if I had that kind of money, I would hire a PR team, not float around on a book site where I MIGHT get noticed.

David, I just saw your book SHE on a Goodreads' click-ad. Very good description of book, BTW. Are you getting any sales from it?

Sales, somewhat. Adds? Yes. I built up thousands of to-read shelve adds, and when I had my giveaway that turned those into exposure. It did get me some sales, and especially helped out with the reviews once those giveaway copies went out.

I posted about the giveaway earlier, Message 2 I think. Most of that stays the same. Counting my month-long break for the campaign, it's probably lasted me almost 6 months and spent 50 bucks. Of course, if you're looking for outright sales it might not be your thing, but if you're willing to just get your name out there and drum up some interest/Goodreads ratings, it's a fantastic tool!

(P.S. a lot of the people who see these giveaways are avid readers, and therefore have Kindle Unlimited. She was on there, and I've definitely seen a HUGE boost in Pages read. So they are reading.)

I decided to do a free giveaway on Amazon. I thought it would take the two weeks limit and I'd probably still have a couple of books not claimed afterwards. I don't know how it got around, but the giveaway started at 12:04 today and ended at 12:21 today. I didn't even get a chance to promote it on the forums.

I ain't complaining, but that's the quickest time my books have been claimed in a giveaway. I plan to do more.

Interesting. That's great it went by so quickly!

I was looking around for some other advertisements because of an interesting Facebook thread, and I found a great set of sites that offer affordable promotions. Somebody said they used it to great success, so I'll probably try it soon. The great thing is, you can price your book anywhere you want and still use the promotion, while some others only accept free and 99 cents.

Book Barbarian (http://bookbarbarian.com/ad-requireme...) is for Sci and Fantasy. Runs around 25 for .99 books and 40 for free.

Red Roses (http://redrosesromance.com/why-advert...) for Romance. Runs 10-25

Book Adrenaline (http://bookadrenaline.com/why-advertise/) for Thriller, Horror. Runs as low as EIGHT dollars

Thanks for the heads up. I'm going to give those a try. If you don't hear from me in a bit, it's because Wimbledon is airing. And you know it's hard to find me then...:)

If you're still getting your feet as an author, Kindle Unlimited is absolutely worth the exclusivity contract. It costs the reader nothing but time if they don't like your book, and you still get a tiny amount for the pages they did read.

I hate to encourage monopolies, but unless you know there's going to be a demand for B&M copies of your book, KU plus a couple free days at launch is the best plan. Be warned up front that Amazon has been a little dodgy when it comes to royalties. They won't undercut your sales to beat market value like Google or Apple, though.

I agree. Unless you have huge followers just waiting to get their hands on your books, I would stay with KU. I've seen other authors with their books in all the other ebook stores like B&N, Nook, and such, and it's just a lot of work keeping up with what's happening, no big jump in sales or exposure.

Okay, I have been asking on another forum what PAID promotional sites work and which don't. I'm going to try just about all on the list I received (some are too darn expensive) then I'll come back here and update. The first one that an author swears by is:

readingdeals.com. It's very reasonable ($29) So I'm going to try it.

Groovy wrote: "Okay, I have been asking on another forum what PAID promotional sites work and which don't. I'm going to try just about all on the list I received (some are too darn expensive) then I'll come back ..."

*makes notes for later*

Great! When I finish my next novel approximately 15 minutes before the heat death of the universe I'll look them up. ;)

I'm planning to use 3 or 4 of these paid promotions on the same day when She Watches comes out, and see if that can get me a jumpstart with sales. It's worth a shot!

I can't wait to see the results.

Me too!

I plan to promote one of my books on Readingdeals.com. I want to use two, but they have a rule that your book has to have over 5 reviews with an average of 4 stars. One of my books fall short by one. I say this to emphasize the importance of reviews. Out of the thousands of my books that have been downloaded, or the number of giveaways I've hosted, you'd think I'd have loads of reviews on all of them. It's so hard to get readers to take out 1 minute to leave a review.

Yeah it really is tough. I've gotten most of mine by doing review swaps probably, or from my loyal base of about 10 reviewer fans. If you get beta readers, make sure you have them review

Okay, I just signed up for a readingdeals.com promotion for $29.00 for Aug. 25. If I get accepted, I'll come back and relate how it went.

Let us know how it goes!

BY THE WAY. I spent 30 bucks on an e-reader news today promo, and I sold OVER 70 COPIES. Ever since then, the sales have been through the roof because of the sales rank jump, so overall I probably made 100 bucks from this. Who knows when they'll drop back down! It's been 2 weeks, still going strong.

Good for you, David! **cheers and applause**

I just got accepted to readingdeals, so it's on!

I made a couple of mistakes so my promo with readingdeals had to be refunded. I'll try again later. I'm going to try e-reader news.