[Heather Walsh]

I've gone through the archives and read a lot about how KND used to be a really effective advertising site which then lost a lot of its power and reach. But most of these posts were from 2010 - 2012.

Anyone use it recently and want to share their experience? They sure haven't dropped their prices to a reasonable rate if they aren't a big player anymore!

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Well, who ARE the big players at the moment?

 

[Amanda Brice]

Well, who ARE the big players at the moment?

BookBub, ENT, Pixel of Ink

 

[Heather Walsh]

BookBub, ENT, Pixel of Ink

That's exactly what I've read on these boards. And Kindle Fire Department is often included as well. This extremely long thread seems to conclude that KND should not be included in that list, but the last post was in May 2012:

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,30592.0.html

Just wondering if this is still the case, and if so how the heck are they justifying these prices?

 

[jimkukral]

They justify by volume of people subscribing to their email lists and FB pages, and also return on promotion. (Sales, etc...)

Those are great options and from what I've heard they provide a great return, depending on the book genre.

 

[H.M. Ward]

I ran bargain books on KND since I signed up forever ago. I honestly can't tell if they do much. The position on the page was moved late last year and its no longer highlighted in a good spot. I think they are throwing too many things at the readers now to be effective. I have one more slot later this month.

KFD rejected one of my titles (contemporary romance) b/c they were uncomfortable listing it. KND will list anything. They're a business. BB is a business. I got the impression that KFD is a person doing it from their kitchen. Some ladies were yelling at her for posting some book that was mainstream b/c it offended them. She was trying to calm them down, but they were crazy with a K. There is no way to know what will offend and what doesn't. I felt kind of bad for her. Anyway, I don't submit over there anymore b/c of that. I like to have all the rules up front and consistency.

I'm hoping more stuff like BB pops up. They have a firm grasp on successful marketing do's and don'ts. Plus it helped with the other vendors, not just Amazon, which was awesome.

I've been hearing the cover reveal book blogs are cheap and create a lot of buzz, too. Might want to look into that option as well for YA or romance.

 

[Amanda Brice]

I've been hearing the cover reveal book blogs are cheap and create a lot of buzz, too. Might want to look into that option as well for YA or romance.

I'm planning to do a cover reveal tour thingy for my upcoming time travel!

 

[Heather Walsh]

They justify by volume of people subscribing to their email lists and FB pages, and also return on promotion. (Sales, etc...)

Those are great options and from what I've heard they provide a great return, depending on the book genre.

I might still try an ad in case this is still true. If I do, I will share my results!

 

[Amanda Brice]

I might still try an ad in case this is still true. If I do, I will share my results!

I've never done an ad with them because I've never heard of contemporary YA so much as even breaking even on the cost of the KND ad, but I've heard of folks writing romance and/or mysteries doing well. Of course, this was 2011 and early 2012 data. I haven't really heard much about KND at all lately.

 

[Heather Walsh]

Well I did decide to go ahead and give it a try. Steve publishes all of the result data here, and there are certainly still some very good results being posted in the past few months (and some duds too, no question):

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AlfzLsx6vYzodHZaUWJ6QS0tdC1Rb1pFay1sNW5pSHc&gid=26

I booked the Free Kindle Nation Shorts Excerpt - Email Blast to run in May. We shall see!

 

[TexasGirl]

I had the WORST experience with KND two weeks ago and will definitely never use them again. They pulled a pointless sentence from my description (the one that said it was part of a series) and NOTHING ELSE. Big waste of time, and bad customer service. We're paying them, surely they can at least read and pull a good sentence? The very next one would have done nicely.

I hope it goes well for you. Let us know if it does, so there can be new and balanced info.

 

[Heather Walsh]

Wow. Sorry to hear that, Deanna! I will let you know how mine goes.

I've got Kindle Fire Department and Bookbub promos scheduled in the next few weeks, too. My ENT bargain book promo made me hungry for more

 

[N. Gemini Sasson]

I did my very first two books with them in 2011 and had great results. Got both books into the top 100 for HF and they stayed there awhile - although that was back when rankings didn't yo-yo so much and there was no Select with freebies.

In August of last year I ran an ad on a 3rd book there - a sequel to one of the above books. It was barely a blip. Instead of 15 a day I might have sold 18 or 19, but that would have been a good regular day even without the ad. This was for a regular priced book, so you might have different results with a bargain book.