After an author friend twisted my arm to do a promo I set about scouring Kboards and various websites looking for advice and techniques and found a lot of helpful data. I figured it would be right and proper for me to "give back" and contribute my results.
This is a detailed (perhaps overly detailed) breakdown of my first 99 cent promo for my first novel, Zombie Bigfoot, and the various places I advertised. I spent several hours on Jan 11 and 12 setting up the ads and dropped the price on January 13, 2017, running the first ads the next day. A note here... I realized that the $1.99 add-on of the Audiobook for any Kindle Purchase was an excellent "additional deal" to mention and I emailed everyone to add a sentence to my promo. Some did, some didn't. I'll show my numbers for 30 days. A quick note... be sure to sign up for the newsletter for every promo site you run on so you can see how the ad looks in the email. I kinda forgot for a few of them.
January 14 Robin Reads. Cost: $35
Good ad, but didn't mention the audiobook add-on
January 14 Ereader News Today Cost $30
Good ad, but didn't mention the audiobook add-on.
January 14 Late in the day, as I realized I was likely to hit #1 in Horror Comedy, I nudged a bit on my Facebook feed, AND reached out to two authors I have narrated for who had liked my book. Michael Reisig put out a quick blast to his fans and a more detailed mention in his newsletter the following Monday. Wayne Stinnett also pushed my book to his fans. I should say "repushed"! He had already done that for me early on and had helped my release day numbers considerably.
January 14 SK Publishing (Fiverr) Cost $6 (scheduled for Jan 15 but went up early. Author "Interview" was kinda silly and I doubt he has many actual engaged followers. Had to flip photos he'd put up. Yeah, it was only 6 bucks but I won't repeat.
END OF JAN 14, at Midnight, #1 in Horror Comedy, #5 in Folklore, #7 in Horror US
Amazon Sales Rank #2,508 (Audible: #3,034) Peak Author rank: 5,870. Given that I was at 301,000 On Jan 1and 65,000 the day before the first ad (due to organic sales) I'd say those two sites are winners. Or ONE is... I will make sure to try them both again on separate days.
DAY ONE (next morning's assessment): 94 kindle sold, 11 audiobooks (had two wait a few days to get that number. ACX reporting slooooow). Page reads, 787 (and lots more on subsequent days... I will list them in those days, but they are likely from purchases on Day One.) Reached #1 in Horror Comedy, #5 in Folklore, # 7 in Horror U.S. Earned Bestseller tag in for Horror Comedy. Overall Kindle Sales Rank: 2474. Avg Author Rank on Author Central: 6797
January 15 FreeBooksy Cost $25
Good ad, but didn't mention audiobook add-on. Also, odd choice of review was posted. Misspelled "Big Foot" in their section header (it's one word). My request to include audiobook language got a cutesy auto-email response about being "home enjoying some reading on the weekend".
DAY TWO 32 kindle sold, at least 2 audiobooks . Page reads showing on this day: 642. Dropped from #1 in Horror Comedy. Overall sales rank: 2,668. BUT, I think that rank was just after midnight... still riding high from Day One. I'd say I spent most of Day Two at about 4,000.
January 16 GoodKindles Cost $45 (three genres) They were responsive, and they added my audio promo information. HOWEVER... this is the one that I paid extra to list in three categories... and on a day with SEVEN ads I only sold 17 (see below). So I don't think GoodKindles is that good... Because even if it shares many subscribers with my earlier ads, the new categories of Adventure and SciFi should have helped SOME. I did contact them and they confirmed it was on all three lists. A plus, that may lead me to repeat: they keep the book on their "bookshelves" permanently and occasionally it'll pop back up via a "you might also enjoy" plug-in. Also, it was a Monday.
January 16 BKnights (digitalbookspot). I did get the email blast, but waaaaay down the list and doesn't seem to have genre categories. Cost $11 Got back to me fast and scheduled quickly, though. I've heard good things about them, but this day was such a bust, I dunno about repeating.
January 16 Readcheaply Cost $25 Not sure I ever got the email with my listing. It was there in genre and audio info was on it (good) but they took days to get back to me (bad).
January 16 Manybooks. I have a note that they are free, but checking I see that they are $29. Weird. They did put the audio mention in. Negative with them was they took several days to get back to me and then scheduled a specific day without my say-so. So, if you have a pile of ads lined up, make sure you give specific promo dates to Manybooks that DON'T match the entire time your promo price is in effect... give the a start date for as the earliest day you'd want them to post the ad.
January 16: Bookscream COST: $5 An email seems to imply it's set for the 16th... but no notice of receipt. It DID show up on the 16th but I had a little trouble finding it.
January 16: Bookloversheaven. COST $5. They force you to pay before you know what dates you get. BUT, they keep it up there a while. And my book is the only one in horror. But since this is on a day with SEVEN other ads, and sales were not great, I'm not sure of their readership. BUT, they did put the audio blurb in AND mentioned it on the actual button to Amazon!
January 16 Fiverr: psymon_h Cost $15 jan 12 order. No initial contact. Got a notice on the 16th that, tada, it was posted. I already had too many that day and these little-to-no communication outfits have taught me you need to lie about the exact days of promotion and just tell them the days from when you want them to start. Promo was posted on twitter too... and he has a lot of followers. But again, it was on a slow day with tons of ads. I will not repeat. I did get a spreadsheet of "hits" and "clicks" but some of the places he posted were bizarre and not relevant.
DAY THREE Only 17 sold. Sad trombone. It is at this point that I, Captain Obvious, realize that the majority of subscribers on a promo site are probably on many other ones... thus diluting the effectiveness of each successive ad. Page reads (1,21 make me feel good, even though many are probably from Day One pickups. Audiobooks: 1 Overall rank 5,428.
January 17 Readingdeals FREE I'm on front page, 9 down. No "Horror" category. They posted a poor choice of Blurb, so next time I'd send one small paragraph and insist on it.
January 17 Ebookasaurus FREE Simple ad. Tweeted on Jan 16. No photo in tweet, so useless as far as twitter goes, given all the titles that DID have photos.
DAY FOUR Kindle: 10 sold. Page reads 588. Audiobooks:2 Overall rank:6,929
January 18 Booksends (with EreaderIQ newletter) $30 See below, I think was VERY effective (though they also failed to integrate my short sentence about 1.99 audio add-on)
DAY FIVE 48 units! And 835 page reads. Audiobooks: 7. Wtf? (That language I asked about, telling them about the 1.99 add-on, wasn't in there... but blurb was good) I was shooting all day on a TV set and didn't realize sales were good until late... but I did see # 4 in Horror Com, and #4 in Folklore. Overall Rank #4,472
January 19 AwesomeGang Cost $10 Good ad, longer than most. Did include my audio promo, though... with all that space, why the hell not?
DAY SIX Only 10 units, 544 page reads, 6 audiobooks. I'm actually OK with these numbers. Just one ad for 10 bucks, and coming a day after a heavier day. I will check on audiobooks, see if I can actually figure out which came when.
DAY SEVEN No ads, 2 sales, 150 page reads. 2 audiobooks Rank 8,433. Oy. I was hoping for some residual momentum but whatever.
January 21 Ebooksoda COST $21 No mention of audiobook deal. Minimalist post. No big spike in sales the next day so I'm betting most are residual sales from earlier activity or or organic sales.
DAY EIGHT 11 sales, 594 page reads, 1 audiobooks. #13,978
DAY NINE 7 sales, 716 page reads, 0 audiobook #13,208
DAY TEN 9 units, 765 page reads, 3 audiobooks. #16,365
DAY ELEVEN 4 units, 329 page reads, 2 audiobooks, #21,046
DAY TWELVE 5 untis 589 page reads, 0 audio (1 buy, one return) #21, 551
DAY THIRTEEN (Jan 26) 2 units, 260 pages, 0 audio, #31,109
January 27 BookGoodies Cost $25 A bit slow to respond, and not clear you get your specific date unless you ask. I gave them a span of 1/27 to 2/6 for my promo dates but when I asked about getting a specific date they simply responded "you asked for 1/27". So, again... don't give them any promo dates prior to what you want.
January 27 Free Kindle Books and Tips: $30. I asked on 1/13 for spots between 1/19 and 2/4. On Jan 16 was given Jan 27. So, a little slow to respond. Ad is posted all the way at the bottom. It had my regular price wrong (I pasted all of that, so it wasn't me). No Audiobook language. At 8:30am requested it be added. They never added it.
DAY FOURTEEN 25 sales, 457 page reads, 1 audiobook, #8,239
DAY FIFTEEN 9 sales, 1,0005 page reads, 3 audiobooks, #8,796
DAY SIXTEEN 7 sales, 753 pages, 1 audiobook, #13,185
DAY SEVENTEEN 2 units, 574 audiobooks 0, Page reads, #15,768
DAY EIGHTEEN 12 units, 130 page reads, 3 audiobook sales, #16,322
February 1: I noticed this several days later: 13HorrorStreet.com had posted my deal on Feb 1 (I never approached them). They posted it as being a 99 cent deal for just Feb 1. Next time, I will contact them ahead of time and give them the full span of days.
DAY NINETEEN (Feb 1) 5 units, 1,319 page reads, #12,825
DAY TWENTY 5 units, 1,300 page reads, 1 audiobook, #13,071
DAY TWENTY-ONE 6 units, 676 pages, 1 audiobook #19,240
DAY TWENTY-TWO 6 units, 645 page reads, 2 audiobooks, #15,614
February 5 Fussy Librarian Cost $18 Had a server error when I first tried to put in for Feb 4. Emailed them right away and by the time I tried again, the 4th had been taken. They give me the 5th... like an idiot I forgot that that was Superbowl Sunday. I emailed asking for Audiobook language to be added on 1/27 and they said no problem (and they added it). Day of the ad, 9:30am EST ad is not there. Why wait? Sunday morning coffee, and all... checking again at 10:15 I now see it. So... I had some problems with Fussy and they require a VERY early booking compared to some. If you're thinking of a promo with them, schedule them early. Sales weren't great but I might try again since I've heard good things and their price is reasonable.
DAY TWENTY-THREE 12 units sold, 400 page reads, 2 audiobooks sold, #14,149
DAY TWENTY-FOUR 9 units sold, 427 page reads, 2 audiobooks sold, #13,600
Feb 7 Technically, the Promo is over. I'm extending it a few days to catch any remaining Superbowl stragglers.
DAY TWENTY-FIVE 4 sold, 707 page reads, 1 audiobook, #14,653
DAY TWENTY-SIX 5 sold, 868 page reads, 2 audiobooks, #16,657
DAY TWENTY-SEVEN 1 sold, 713 page reads, 2 audiobooks, #22,677
DAY TWENTY-EIGHT 3 sold, 676 pages, audio: 0 #26,267
DAY TWENTY-NINE Raised price back to 3.99 last night. 4 units sold, 1,039 pages, #15,166. Audiobooks 0.
DAY THIRTY 6 units, 1,900 pages, audio 0, #18,405
OK, enough numbers! On to some final thoughts. First, notes on a few more sites:
Bookzio Free. I asked for 1/17-2/6 (no post as of 1/19, no response other than auto-confirmation of joining their list.) I resubmitted at middle of campaign, again no response. As far as I can tell, they never posted it.
Newfreekindlebooks Free. Asked for 1/17-2/6 No response.
BookBub: Create your profile NOW cuz the "claim your author" process takes a while. I want to be ready if you decided to submit to them. I'm still a bit small potatoes to do BookBub but I intend to try for one once sequel is nearing completion.
Goodreads. I joined several groups but initially I ONLY posted my deal in one: a Zombie-centric group. Later I posted in another targeted group. You gotta "watch it" on Goodreads with over-promotion. This is a site of hard-core readers and it's a great place to discover books and interact with authors and readers. Don't clutter it up.
Kboards.com I posted in the PR section in the Book Bazaar. You should ONLY post a promo in there, nowhere else. Not many views... 23 in first 24 hours.
Maybe try a $20 promo next time? Wonder if anyone has thoughts on their effectiveness.
http://www.kboards.com/bargain-book-promo/
KUForum.co.uk I posted in Fantasy/scifi/horror in Authors/ebookPromotion
This forum seems superior to Kboards Book for promotion. More targeted. 50 views. Remember to convert to British pounds. Key board macro for the pound sign is ALT-0,1,6,3) Doublecheck your prices on Amazon UK and link to THERE, not US Amazon.
Amazon Advertising. I've been running a cost-per-click campaign. Does ok, not great. I can tell you this, doing the ad where you select specific products to advertise on works MUCH better than the "by genre" option.
So, what did I learn? Promos work. Or, some of them do. I wrote a horror spoof so I'm in a genre that has a low number of subscribers compared to many other genres so my overall numbers didn't quite pay for the ads... but I think the bump in exposure will correct that eventually. AND, with a second book on the way, I intend to do this again once it's a month or two out. One thing to keep in mind with all my numbers up top... the DAY you run it on makes a big difference. Fri-Sat is best... but I had some good weekdays too; my second best day was a Wednesday!
Ad sites I loved and will definitely repeat: EReader News Today, Robin Reads, Booksends (with EreaderIQ newletter add-on), AwesomeGang (cheap!)
Ones that underperformed but I'm willing to try again: Fussy Librarian, Freebooksy, GoodKindles, Bookscream, and Bookloversheaven (the last two didn't perform well, but were cheap enough to give another shot)
Freebies to try again: Readingdeals, ebookasaurus, 13horrorstreet
Hope some of this will prove useful to others!
Nick Sullivan
www.zombiebigfoot.com
This is a detailed (perhaps overly detailed) breakdown of my first 99 cent promo for my first novel, Zombie Bigfoot, and the various places I advertised. I spent several hours on Jan 11 and 12 setting up the ads and dropped the price on January 13, 2017, running the first ads the next day. A note here... I realized that the $1.99 add-on of the Audiobook for any Kindle Purchase was an excellent "additional deal" to mention and I emailed everyone to add a sentence to my promo. Some did, some didn't. I'll show my numbers for 30 days. A quick note... be sure to sign up for the newsletter for every promo site you run on so you can see how the ad looks in the email. I kinda forgot for a few of them.
January 14 Robin Reads. Cost: $35
Good ad, but didn't mention the audiobook add-on
January 14 Ereader News Today Cost $30
Good ad, but didn't mention the audiobook add-on.
January 14 Late in the day, as I realized I was likely to hit #1 in Horror Comedy, I nudged a bit on my Facebook feed, AND reached out to two authors I have narrated for who had liked my book. Michael Reisig put out a quick blast to his fans and a more detailed mention in his newsletter the following Monday. Wayne Stinnett also pushed my book to his fans. I should say "repushed"! He had already done that for me early on and had helped my release day numbers considerably.
January 14 SK Publishing (Fiverr) Cost $6 (scheduled for Jan 15 but went up early. Author "Interview" was kinda silly and I doubt he has many actual engaged followers. Had to flip photos he'd put up. Yeah, it was only 6 bucks but I won't repeat.
END OF JAN 14, at Midnight, #1 in Horror Comedy, #5 in Folklore, #7 in Horror US
Amazon Sales Rank #2,508 (Audible: #3,034) Peak Author rank: 5,870. Given that I was at 301,000 On Jan 1and 65,000 the day before the first ad (due to organic sales) I'd say those two sites are winners. Or ONE is... I will make sure to try them both again on separate days.
DAY ONE (next morning's assessment): 94 kindle sold, 11 audiobooks (had two wait a few days to get that number. ACX reporting slooooow). Page reads, 787 (and lots more on subsequent days... I will list them in those days, but they are likely from purchases on Day One.) Reached #1 in Horror Comedy, #5 in Folklore, # 7 in Horror U.S. Earned Bestseller tag in for Horror Comedy. Overall Kindle Sales Rank: 2474. Avg Author Rank on Author Central: 6797
January 15 FreeBooksy Cost $25
Good ad, but didn't mention audiobook add-on. Also, odd choice of review was posted. Misspelled "Big Foot" in their section header (it's one word). My request to include audiobook language got a cutesy auto-email response about being "home enjoying some reading on the weekend".
DAY TWO 32 kindle sold, at least 2 audiobooks . Page reads showing on this day: 642. Dropped from #1 in Horror Comedy. Overall sales rank: 2,668. BUT, I think that rank was just after midnight... still riding high from Day One. I'd say I spent most of Day Two at about 4,000.
January 16 GoodKindles Cost $45 (three genres) They were responsive, and they added my audio promo information. HOWEVER... this is the one that I paid extra to list in three categories... and on a day with SEVEN ads I only sold 17 (see below). So I don't think GoodKindles is that good... Because even if it shares many subscribers with my earlier ads, the new categories of Adventure and SciFi should have helped SOME. I did contact them and they confirmed it was on all three lists. A plus, that may lead me to repeat: they keep the book on their "bookshelves" permanently and occasionally it'll pop back up via a "you might also enjoy" plug-in. Also, it was a Monday.
January 16 BKnights (digitalbookspot). I did get the email blast, but waaaaay down the list and doesn't seem to have genre categories. Cost $11 Got back to me fast and scheduled quickly, though. I've heard good things about them, but this day was such a bust, I dunno about repeating.
January 16 Readcheaply Cost $25 Not sure I ever got the email with my listing. It was there in genre and audio info was on it (good) but they took days to get back to me (bad).
January 16 Manybooks. I have a note that they are free, but checking I see that they are $29. Weird. They did put the audio mention in. Negative with them was they took several days to get back to me and then scheduled a specific day without my say-so. So, if you have a pile of ads lined up, make sure you give specific promo dates to Manybooks that DON'T match the entire time your promo price is in effect... give the a start date for as the earliest day you'd want them to post the ad.
January 16: Bookscream COST: $5 An email seems to imply it's set for the 16th... but no notice of receipt. It DID show up on the 16th but I had a little trouble finding it.
January 16: Bookloversheaven. COST $5. They force you to pay before you know what dates you get. BUT, they keep it up there a while. And my book is the only one in horror. But since this is on a day with SEVEN other ads, and sales were not great, I'm not sure of their readership. BUT, they did put the audio blurb in AND mentioned it on the actual button to Amazon!
January 16 Fiverr: psymon_h Cost $15 jan 12 order. No initial contact. Got a notice on the 16th that, tada, it was posted. I already had too many that day and these little-to-no communication outfits have taught me you need to lie about the exact days of promotion and just tell them the days from when you want them to start. Promo was posted on twitter too... and he has a lot of followers. But again, it was on a slow day with tons of ads. I will not repeat. I did get a spreadsheet of "hits" and "clicks" but some of the places he posted were bizarre and not relevant.
DAY THREE Only 17 sold. Sad trombone. It is at this point that I, Captain Obvious, realize that the majority of subscribers on a promo site are probably on many other ones... thus diluting the effectiveness of each successive ad. Page reads (1,21 make me feel good, even though many are probably from Day One pickups. Audiobooks: 1 Overall rank 5,428.
January 17 Readingdeals FREE I'm on front page, 9 down. No "Horror" category. They posted a poor choice of Blurb, so next time I'd send one small paragraph and insist on it.
January 17 Ebookasaurus FREE Simple ad. Tweeted on Jan 16. No photo in tweet, so useless as far as twitter goes, given all the titles that DID have photos.
DAY FOUR Kindle: 10 sold. Page reads 588. Audiobooks:2 Overall rank:6,929
January 18 Booksends (with EreaderIQ newletter) $30 See below, I think was VERY effective (though they also failed to integrate my short sentence about 1.99 audio add-on)
DAY FIVE 48 units! And 835 page reads. Audiobooks: 7. Wtf? (That language I asked about, telling them about the 1.99 add-on, wasn't in there... but blurb was good) I was shooting all day on a TV set and didn't realize sales were good until late... but I did see # 4 in Horror Com, and #4 in Folklore. Overall Rank #4,472
January 19 AwesomeGang Cost $10 Good ad, longer than most. Did include my audio promo, though... with all that space, why the hell not?
DAY SIX Only 10 units, 544 page reads, 6 audiobooks. I'm actually OK with these numbers. Just one ad for 10 bucks, and coming a day after a heavier day. I will check on audiobooks, see if I can actually figure out which came when.
DAY SEVEN No ads, 2 sales, 150 page reads. 2 audiobooks Rank 8,433. Oy. I was hoping for some residual momentum but whatever.
January 21 Ebooksoda COST $21 No mention of audiobook deal. Minimalist post. No big spike in sales the next day so I'm betting most are residual sales from earlier activity or or organic sales.
DAY EIGHT 11 sales, 594 page reads, 1 audiobooks. #13,978
DAY NINE 7 sales, 716 page reads, 0 audiobook #13,208
DAY TEN 9 units, 765 page reads, 3 audiobooks. #16,365
DAY ELEVEN 4 units, 329 page reads, 2 audiobooks, #21,046
DAY TWELVE 5 untis 589 page reads, 0 audio (1 buy, one return) #21, 551
DAY THIRTEEN (Jan 26) 2 units, 260 pages, 0 audio, #31,109
January 27 BookGoodies Cost $25 A bit slow to respond, and not clear you get your specific date unless you ask. I gave them a span of 1/27 to 2/6 for my promo dates but when I asked about getting a specific date they simply responded "you asked for 1/27". So, again... don't give them any promo dates prior to what you want.
January 27 Free Kindle Books and Tips: $30. I asked on 1/13 for spots between 1/19 and 2/4. On Jan 16 was given Jan 27. So, a little slow to respond. Ad is posted all the way at the bottom. It had my regular price wrong (I pasted all of that, so it wasn't me). No Audiobook language. At 8:30am requested it be added. They never added it.
DAY FOURTEEN 25 sales, 457 page reads, 1 audiobook, #8,239
DAY FIFTEEN 9 sales, 1,0005 page reads, 3 audiobooks, #8,796
DAY SIXTEEN 7 sales, 753 pages, 1 audiobook, #13,185
DAY SEVENTEEN 2 units, 574 audiobooks 0, Page reads, #15,768
DAY EIGHTEEN 12 units, 130 page reads, 3 audiobook sales, #16,322
February 1: I noticed this several days later: 13HorrorStreet.com had posted my deal on Feb 1 (I never approached them). They posted it as being a 99 cent deal for just Feb 1. Next time, I will contact them ahead of time and give them the full span of days.
DAY NINETEEN (Feb 1) 5 units, 1,319 page reads, #12,825
DAY TWENTY 5 units, 1,300 page reads, 1 audiobook, #13,071
DAY TWENTY-ONE 6 units, 676 pages, 1 audiobook #19,240
DAY TWENTY-TWO 6 units, 645 page reads, 2 audiobooks, #15,614
February 5 Fussy Librarian Cost $18 Had a server error when I first tried to put in for Feb 4. Emailed them right away and by the time I tried again, the 4th had been taken. They give me the 5th... like an idiot I forgot that that was Superbowl Sunday. I emailed asking for Audiobook language to be added on 1/27 and they said no problem (and they added it). Day of the ad, 9:30am EST ad is not there. Why wait? Sunday morning coffee, and all... checking again at 10:15 I now see it. So... I had some problems with Fussy and they require a VERY early booking compared to some. If you're thinking of a promo with them, schedule them early. Sales weren't great but I might try again since I've heard good things and their price is reasonable.
DAY TWENTY-THREE 12 units sold, 400 page reads, 2 audiobooks sold, #14,149
DAY TWENTY-FOUR 9 units sold, 427 page reads, 2 audiobooks sold, #13,600
Feb 7 Technically, the Promo is over. I'm extending it a few days to catch any remaining Superbowl stragglers.
DAY TWENTY-FIVE 4 sold, 707 page reads, 1 audiobook, #14,653
DAY TWENTY-SIX 5 sold, 868 page reads, 2 audiobooks, #16,657
DAY TWENTY-SEVEN 1 sold, 713 page reads, 2 audiobooks, #22,677
DAY TWENTY-EIGHT 3 sold, 676 pages, audio: 0 #26,267
DAY TWENTY-NINE Raised price back to 3.99 last night. 4 units sold, 1,039 pages, #15,166. Audiobooks 0.
DAY THIRTY 6 units, 1,900 pages, audio 0, #18,405
OK, enough numbers! On to some final thoughts. First, notes on a few more sites:
Bookzio Free. I asked for 1/17-2/6 (no post as of 1/19, no response other than auto-confirmation of joining their list.) I resubmitted at middle of campaign, again no response. As far as I can tell, they never posted it.
Newfreekindlebooks Free. Asked for 1/17-2/6 No response.
BookBub: Create your profile NOW cuz the "claim your author" process takes a while. I want to be ready if you decided to submit to them. I'm still a bit small potatoes to do BookBub but I intend to try for one once sequel is nearing completion.
Goodreads. I joined several groups but initially I ONLY posted my deal in one: a Zombie-centric group. Later I posted in another targeted group. You gotta "watch it" on Goodreads with over-promotion. This is a site of hard-core readers and it's a great place to discover books and interact with authors and readers. Don't clutter it up.
Kboards.com I posted in the PR section in the Book Bazaar. You should ONLY post a promo in there, nowhere else. Not many views... 23 in first 24 hours.
Maybe try a $20 promo next time? Wonder if anyone has thoughts on their effectiveness.
http://www.kboards.com/bargain-book-promo/
KUForum.co.uk I posted in Fantasy/scifi/horror in Authors/ebookPromotion
This forum seems superior to Kboards Book for promotion. More targeted. 50 views. Remember to convert to British pounds. Key board macro for the pound sign is ALT-0,1,6,3) Doublecheck your prices on Amazon UK and link to THERE, not US Amazon.
Amazon Advertising. I've been running a cost-per-click campaign. Does ok, not great. I can tell you this, doing the ad where you select specific products to advertise on works MUCH better than the "by genre" option.
So, what did I learn? Promos work. Or, some of them do. I wrote a horror spoof so I'm in a genre that has a low number of subscribers compared to many other genres so my overall numbers didn't quite pay for the ads... but I think the bump in exposure will correct that eventually. AND, with a second book on the way, I intend to do this again once it's a month or two out. One thing to keep in mind with all my numbers up top... the DAY you run it on makes a big difference. Fri-Sat is best... but I had some good weekdays too; my second best day was a Wednesday!
Ad sites I loved and will definitely repeat: EReader News Today, Robin Reads, Booksends (with EreaderIQ newletter add-on), AwesomeGang (cheap!)
Ones that underperformed but I'm willing to try again: Fussy Librarian, Freebooksy, GoodKindles, Bookscream, and Bookloversheaven (the last two didn't perform well, but were cheap enough to give another shot)
Freebies to try again: Readingdeals, ebookasaurus, 13horrorstreet
Hope some of this will prove useful to others!
Nick Sullivan
www.zombiebigfoot.com