Are these promotional websites worth your money?

2013 Views 23 Replies 15 Participants Last post by lilywhite, Jun 27, 2015

Ethan Jones

Discussion Starter · Jun 16, 2015

Hi everyone:

I'm wondering whether any of the promotional websites below are worth your money. They range from $15 and up.

If you have used any of them, do you mind sharing your experience?

Thanks in advance.

Sincerely,

Ethan

http://thedailybookworm.com/

http://www.freebookdude.com/2014/03/featured-book-promotions-with-book-dude.html

http://www.iloveebooks.com/advertising.html

http://indiebooklounge.com/

http://www.xtme.de/submitting-a-free-e-book-to-xtmeenglishbooks/

http://www.humanmade.net/submission-form

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1 - 20 of 24 Posts

Sorry Nathan, I haven't used any of these. Due to my books being new and low(er) in reviews I've only been able to use a handful with ENT and Booksends doing the best for me. Let's see if someone else chimes in. (That's why I sometimes post a not very useful answer so I can follow this thread)

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CherieMarks

· #3 · Jun 16, 2015

I don't know anything about the ones listed by the OP, but http://robinreads.com/author-signup/ gave me some success and was $10.00 when I used it a couple months ago. Definitely got my ROI on that one. Otherwise, ENT is the only other one with which I've had good results. I don't have enough reviews currently for Bookbub, but that's the one where an author might see great success.

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Ted Cross

· #4 · Jun 16, 2015

CherieMarks said:
I don't have enough reviews currently for Bookbub, ...

Is there a certain number of reviews you need before Bookbub will consider you? I have only 26 reviews so far, so I'm wondering how many more I need before I can try Bookbub.

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Salvador Mercer

· #5 · Jun 16, 2015

Ted Cross said:
Is there a certain number of reviews you need before Bookbub will consider you? I have only 26 reviews so far, so I'm wondering how many more I need before I can try Bookbub.

Actually no, and the Book Bub King, Wayne Stinnett, got a Book Bub with only 7 or 8 reviews so it is possible if all the other factors work in the author's favor. I intend to submit once I qualify and my first published book has only 11 reviews. We'll see what happens.

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SkyScribe

· #6 · Jun 16, 2015

I've gotten a BookBub ad with as few as 3 reviews before. And that was somewhat recently. As you might expect, their guidelines are just for show.

I wouldn't spend a dime on any of those sites. The number of sites with no audience that are holding their hands out to authors is disgusting.

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Salvador Mercer

· #7 · Jun 16, 2015

SkyScribe said:
I've gotten a BookBub ad with as few as 3 reviews before. And that was somewhat recently. As you might expect, their guidelines are just for show.

I wouldn't spend a dime on any of those sites. The number of sites with no audience that are holding their hands out to authors is disgusting.

OK, so the new bar to entrance is 3. Thanks for sharing, gives some of us hope

Btw, was your BB paid or free?

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MQ

· #8 · Jun 16, 2015

Last year I got a BB ad for a permafree with less than 10 reviews... I only had 2 books in the series back then so I wasn't able to fully utilize the promo effectively, IMO... this year I've been rejected over half a dozen times for the same book which now has over a 150 reviews... I've got 6 books in the series now so I'm really hoping to get that one Bookbub ad... so you never know when they'll take your book (I think it mostly has to do with scheduling... ie. the number of books they receive for that category, etc).

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SkyScribe

· #9 · Jun 16, 2015

Salvador Mercer said:
OK, so the new bar to entrance is 3. Thanks for sharing, gives some of us hope Btw, was your BB paid or free?

That was for a paid book. I'm pretty certain I've seen on very rare occasions books with no reviews at all.

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C. Gockel

· #10 · Jun 16, 2015

. I'm pretty certain I've seen on very rare occasions books with no reviews at all.

If a box-set comes out of a series of three books or more that are all well reviewed, BookBub is very likely to promote it--even if the set itself has no reviews. Also, if the book has a review from Midwest Book Reviews or Kirkus I think they'll pick it up too.

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Ethan Jones

Discussion Starter · #11 · Jun 16, 2015

Thanks, everyone.

Back to the main topic of this thread, I assume those websites aren't worth my money, unless I hear any objections . . . ;-)

Ethan

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Jenna K

· #12 · Jun 16, 2015

C. Gockel said:
If a box-set comes out of a series of three books or more that are all well reviewed, BookBub is very likely to promote it--even if the set itself has no reviews. Also, if the book has a review from Midwest Book Reviews or Kirkus I think they'll pick it up too.

Oo, that's great to know, thanks!

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Antara Mann

· #13 · Jun 16, 2015

C. Gockel said:
If a box-set comes out of a series of three books or more that are all well reviewed, BookBub is very likely to promote it--even if the set itself has no reviews. Also, if the book has a review from Midwest Book Reviews or Kirkus I think they'll pick it up too.

Oh, that was useful to know! Thanks.
I want to stress out that the number of reviews plays a huge role in which genre your book is. For example, LGBT or African -American are one of the smallest genres and I did really see an LGBT book with only 2 reviews on a BookBub ad even twice in the distance of a few days, one after the other. However, the mega big genres like thrillers and mysteries are very competitive with the largest amount of subscribers - over 2 millions and the ad costs is the beggest so the number of reviews required is also bigger. Yong Adult, Fantasy etc are in the lower class, yet bigger than LGBT so even between 8-15 reviews should be sufficient. I think it's best to opt BookBub to choose when they can feature your book - thus way you improve your chances with them.
As for Wayne Stinnett - he seems to get what he wants from BookBub - I think maybe they are aware he writes here threads about his promos with them thus promotes their service so he is special to them

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Mark at Marble City

· #14 · Jun 27, 2015

I'd just like to chime in with a vote for RobinReads. $10 promo for quite a niche lit fic title (Scherzo) netted 25 sales yesterday at 99c Countdown.

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Caddy

· #15 · Jun 27, 2015

Antara Man said:
Oh, that was useful to know! Thanks.
I want to stress out that the number of reviews plays a huge role in which genre your book is. For example, LGBT or African -American are one of the smallest genres and I did really see an LGBT book with only 2 reviews on a BookBub ad even twice in the distance of a few days, one after the other. However, the mega big genres like thrillers and mysteries are very competitive with the largest amount of subscribers - over 2 millions and the ad costs is the beggest so the number of reviews required is also bigger. Yong Adult, Fantasy etc are in the lower class, yet bigger than LGBT so even between 8-15 reviews should be sufficient. I think it's best to opt BookBub to choose when they can feature your book - thus way you improve your chances with them.
As for Wayne Stinnett - he seems to get what he wants from BookBub - I think maybe they are aware he writes here threads about his promos with them thus promotes their service so he is special to them

As Bookbub said when they were on here for 2 days, there is no minimum number of reviews. It's just that some, like thriller, are very competitive so most days they get a lot of requests. If that happens, of course reviews come into play. However, I got into thriller with 17 reviews, after being rejected for the same book twice. I evidently hit a day where not as many were submitted.

Because of the Bookbub ad that book now has 148 reviews. And I'm making a living.

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AnonWriter

· #16 · Jun 27, 2015

Which BKnights Fivver gig do people here usually order for a 99-cent KCD? There are so many. Do people ever order any of the extras?

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Robert Dahlen

· #17 · Jun 27, 2015

Emily Wibberley said:
Which BKnights Fivver gig do people here usually order for a 99-cent KCD? There are so many. Do people ever order any of the extras?

For the promo I'm currently running (99 cents, but not a Countdown), I upgraded to a $15 package that includes the basic Facebook promo, the viral promo, and the newsletter. BKnights was the best performer in my February 99 cent promo with the smaller package (though that one didn't have ENT or Booksends), so I'm hoping this will give me at least the same number of sales.

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AnonWriter

· #18 · Jun 27, 2015

Thanks, Robert and good luck on your promo!

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Salvador Mercer

· #19 · Jun 27, 2015

I've also read something to the effect that they will give a Kboarder the entire package for only $5, but I didn't ask for it and just paid the $5 on my one and only promo with them. I'll email them and verify what they do for kboarders as I plan using them for my second's book first promo in July.

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LizB

· #20 · Jun 27, 2015

Robert Dahlen said:
For the promo I'm currently running (99 cents, but not a Countdown), I upgraded to a $15 package that includes the basic Facebook promo, the viral promo, and the newsletter. BKnights was the best performer in my February 99 cent promo with the smaller package (though that one didn't have ENT or Booksends), so I'm hoping this will give me at least the same number of sales.

Would you please link to this Fivver seller? I can't find him

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