[sarahdalton]

I'm releasing the second book in my trilogy in a few weeks and would like to increase sales for my first book in time for the release.

I just wondered if anyone had tried paid advertising, and if so, what works and what doesn't? I don't want to pay a lot. I know I probably won't make my money back - this is more about making the most of my second book release than anything.

I know Facebook tends to be expensive and doesn't see much in terms of results. Has anyone had any luck with Goodreads advertising? What about ENT or Kindle Daily Deals?

 

[48209]

I was on ENT (not as a BotD) and had an AMAZING day. I'm counting down till my next book has 10 reviews. I'm at 6 now, but I'm hoping they're open as soon as I hit the minimum.

I just bought my first ad The Romance Reviews site (http://www.theromancereviews.com/headlines.php). It goes live for the month of Feb.

I picked this one for several reasons:

1. I had "credits' earned toward an add for having a link on my site. I still bought more credits because of the ad I wanted was more (I picked the larger books on the left.)

2. Their site has over 11k followers

3. The ad is then posted on their twitter, newsletter and facebook - cross-post for the price of one!

4. It's for an entire month

5. I like the site. I know a lot of romance readers do. AND, it's a great mix of indie and NYT on there side panels.

6. Finally, it doesn't seem to cater to "hot" or "paranormal" or "amish mysteries where someone is killed and the witness flees to amish country where she has a long lost cousin of her mother's best-friends college roommate".... Um, yeah, it's fairly diverse.

That's how I picked. I have no idea how it will do. I"d love to hear what others have done/are doing!

 

[sarahdalton]

I've just checked ENT and it looks like they only accept books at .99 or lower. Mine is 1.99.

I keep hitting this roadblock. Most sites will only advertise free books!

 

[48209]

I highly reccommend doing a $.99 day if you can get on ENT

 

[sarahdalton]

Do you mean by doing a Select promotion? Or just reducing the price and then changing it back?

 

[Quiss]

I keep hitting this roadblock. Most sites will only advertise free books!

That is a problem.
The market is saturated with freebies and lowbies and readers are increasingly looking for those, forcing more authors to discount or give away their work.
So if more people are clicking on affiliate links to free books, more sites are going to be offering them.
It's a bit of a vicious circle right now and, unfortunately, has no end in sight until the sellers start curbing the free-for-all. Not likely to happen, from the looks of things. There is quite a number of discussions here about the pros and cons of free books.

Bookbub offers ads for more reasonably priced books but it gets pretty expensive. I wish there were more sites around that promoted priced books.

 

[sarahdalton]

Bookbub offers ads for more reasonably priced books but it gets pretty expensive. I wish there were more sites around that promoted priced books.

Me too. I agree completely about the vicious circle. I actually think freebies are a bad thing for writers overall but that's another debate entirely!

Bookbub is one of the sites I was trying to think of before I started this thread, thanks. I'll have a look.

I think my best bet might be finding a few popular blogs in my genre to advertise on.

 

[48209]

Do you mean by doing a Select promotion? Or just reducing the price and then changing it back?

Either way.

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
9/16 9/17 9/18 9/19 9/20 9/21 9/22 9/23 9/24 9/25 9/26 9/27 9/28 9/29
9 ** 7** 7 328 67 10 25 19 15 24 14 8 14 17

Those are my numbers for ENT (obviously it was on Wed the 19th LOL) -- You can see that it started a bump that continued for 2 months. Trust me, 2 days at 99 (maybe a little longer so people don't get mad) FAR outweighs not doing it. When I have the chance to do it, I'll probably add a note to the description stating that the price is temporarily dropped from $1.99 to $.99 so people understand.

ETA: The little stars are to make things line up

 

[Quiss]

Thanks for posting that Caitie.

I recently did a two-day Select freebie promo and the after-promo bump lasted about a week. Select really seems to have run its course.
Perhaps a temporary price drop to fish for new readers is the way to cut through the free-book clutter. 

 

[Susan Kaye Quinn]

I'm just coming off a BookBub ad on Thursday - well worth the price of the ad ($60 for the YA list) and temporarily dropping my price to 99cents. The BookBub ad more than paid for itself. At the same time, I did a $15 promotion on my FB page - I have 814 followers of the page (only a fraction of which I would have reached, because of the way FB restricts page views now), but reached 1900 people with the promotion. I saw similar result when I released my last book. I've decided the FB promo is worth it when I have something big to announce (trailer release, new book, etc.). I also have a Kindle Fire Department ad scheduled this week, and those have always paid for themselves as well.

ENT promos are also good (I did BoTD last november), but I didn't have good results with KND when I tried them a year ago.

Good luck!

 

[Elizabeth Ann West]

Hi Sarah!

Shared your Amazon and BN links on KotC and Cheap Ereads. Let us know when Book 2 comes out on Facebook's Authors on the Cheap.

 

[sarahdalton]

Wow, great replies. Thanks - this is really giving me some food for thought.

Caitie - thanks for the figures. You're winning me over on the idea of reducing the price, maybe even for a week. The only thing that worries me is price matching. But, I doubt I'm popular enough for that to be an issue!

Susan - I tried a facebook ad a while ago and it did result in a few sales, but I think a page promotion twinned with Bookbub might be more effective. Great suggestion.

Elizabeth - thanks so much! That's so kind of you.

 

[Elizabeth Ann West]

Wow, great replies. Thanks - this is really giving me some food for thought.

Caitie - thanks for the figures. You're winning me over on the idea of reducing the price, maybe even for a week. The only thing that worries me is price matching. But, I doubt I'm popular enough for that to be an issue!

Susan - I tried a facebook ad a while ago and it did result in a few sales, but I think a page promotion twinned with Bookbub might be more effective. Great suggestion.

Elizabeth - thanks so much! That's so kind of you.

LOL! It pays to be an author in charge of an advertising venue to readers.

 

[sarahdalton]

LOL! It pays to be an author in charge of an advertising venue to readers.

Maybe I'm going about this the wrong way - maybe I need to set up an advertising channel instead

 

[GWakeling]

Like Quiss, I'd love there to be more advertising solutions for non-freebie books. I've found it extremely difficult to find appropriate advertising spots, the the best are all very expensive and you have to book way in advance. I suppose I'll just have to keep on writing for now.