[Lisa Blackwood]

Yep, you guessed it, another promo thread.

I've learned a lot from other threads of this type, so I thought I'd pay it forward. So first, a little info. I write Fantasy Romance (I have two series out and am working on the third book for both at the same time. I have the attention span of a squirrel--I think I'm doing good to have narrowed it down to just the two series instead of the four my brain wants me to write.)

Up until this year, I've done exactly zero promotions, as I didn't see any point in tossing money into promotions when I only had one book out. My goals with this promo run is to increase rank/exposure and maybe get a couple reviews (which is the hardest part), and hopefully get readers buying my other books. I don't expect to make money on the promo itself (I'll be happy to break even.)

To get the wheels rolling, I just made the prequel story, Beginnings, free (5 day Select) and did a BKnight promo on it. So far, it has netted about 500 downloads, which is peanuts, but it's a short story prequel so it did better than I thought. Lol.

As for the promo line up, I had wanted to run them one a day so I could judge which ones worked best, however, that was almost impossible because of scheduling conflicts. So a number of them landed on the same day. Oh well.

Another thing I would change in the future is to not run a promo in or around a holiday. I didn't realize it was March Break at the time of booking. I'm not sure if it will matter or not. I'll find out I guess.

Before the promos started I was only selling an average of 2 sales/borrows a day (February was about 6 sales/borrows a day, not sure what happened to kill it off at the beginning of March. Shrugs) I don't expect to become a best seller, but I'd like to see 8-10 sales/borrows a day after the promo.

For the record--these were a mix of free and paid ads, and some of the little sites felt as useful as tossing money into a black hole. (I'm game to try anything once, but the non-performers won't be getting my money in the future.)

The lineup for Stone's Kiss:

March 12 (Discount Books Daily) (1 sale) (nice newsletter but not worth the $10)
March 13 (BKnight promo on short story Beginnings 500 free downloads) resulted on Stone's Kiss (4 sales/ 1borrow)
March 14 no ads (2 sales/ 3 borrows)
March 15 no ads
March 16 no ads
March 17 (Best Ebooks Free, Choosybookworm, Ebooksaurce) (5 Sales)
March 18 (Awesomegang, Booklovers Heaven) (1 sale) (will use again for free ebook promos--good results in past)
March 19 (Read Cheaply, Fussy Librarian, Pretty Hot) (16 Sales/ 1 borrow)
March 20 (Genre Pulse) (17 sales/ 2 borrows) bitly link still showing hits on march 21 (so actual sales may be higher)
March 21 (Bargain Booksy, Ebook Hounds, Booksbutterfly) (34 Sales/ 2 borrows)
March 22 (Ebooksoda, Booksbutterfly Day 2) (24 Sales/ 1borrow)
March 23 (ENT) (49 Sales, 5 borrows) Great results for the price.
March 24 (Sci-fi Book Freak, Many Books) (17 Sales, 3 borrows) three new reviews all rolled in at once, too.
March 25 (Riffle) (18 Sales) Does move a few, but not worth the price. ($30,)
March 26 (pixel scroll, bargain ebook hunter) (7 sales) (Ouch! promo cost $30)
March 27 (The Naughty List, Ebooklister) (7 sales)
March 28 (Sweet Free Reads) (13 sales) Great results for the $5
March 29 no ads
March 30 no ads
March 31 no ads

No response:

The Midlist
Ereader Cafe
Books on the Knob
People Reads
Reading deals

Rejections:

Bookbub (got rejected)
My Romance Reads (Not enough romance? Guess my cover looked too fantasy and not enough romance)

Saving for later:
Booksends (saving for a Free promo run)
One Hundred Free Books (saving for a Free promo run)
Book Basset (book like two months in advance)
New free kindle books
Buck Books
Ebookstage
Ebookarrow
It's Write Now
Just Kindle Books (jump through hoops)
Book Goodies (jump through yet more hoops)
Free Kindle Books and Tips (anyone know if this is American only--the online form required a 'state' and rejected my info)

 

[Frank Tayell]

.

 

[lyndabelle]

Interesting the way you've got your results posted. Good to know which ad does the best sales. Bookmarking to see which are the best ads.

 

[Lucian]

Thank you for all the details and for sharing. Good luck!

 

[Lisa Blackwood]

This is for state taxes (I think it only applies to Texas, and basically they want to know if you're from the Lone Star State). I wrote in 'United Kingdom' and it went through no problems.
Good Luck with the promotion

Thanks! (I didn't bother to try a second time--figured I had enough lined up for this promo. However, I will try again it in the future since it's supposed to be a good promo site.)

 

[Julz]

Your lineup looks incredible!! Good luck with the rest of your promo days I'm excited to see the results!

 

[Lisa Blackwood]

Thanks for all the comments. I originally wanted to space out each of the ads to see which ones did best for my genre, but ended up doubling some up on the same day. (Which is what I intend to do in the future once I find out what sites work best for my book. It's a fantasy romance).

Also, I imagine a lot has to do with placement within the ads--those near the top probably do much better. And someone has to be last on the list. For the record, I wasn't last on today's list, but still only got one sale. I'm not whining, just sharing. Though, I was hoping to do better with Awesomegang. I've used them before for a free book and did well, so will be using them again in the future. A lot of factors come into play (cover, blurb, look inside. Another, way cooler, book higher up on the newsletter. Bad timing with it being March Break. Or my book is just crap. Okay--that was whinny. lol.)

But honestly, Fantasy romance may not be a popular genre with them. Anyone had good results with a 0.99 fantasy romance with them? Just curious.

On the up side, my other books have sold more than the discount one. Might be that people are clicking out of curiosity and then checking out and liking the look of the series better. ::shrugs::

 

[Lisa Blackwood]

Just a quick update. So far, this promo run (counting what has come in today, which I haven't reported up in the top post yet,) has netted 63 sales/ 4 borrows, which isn't groundbreaking, but hey, I'll take it. And it's earlier in the promo schedule so I'm curious to see where it goes.

 

[AYClaudy]

Thank you for sharing this information. You have a great line up!

 

[Vinny OHare]

Hi Lisa

Was your book on Awesomegang using a paid featured ad or the free version? Either way I would like to investigate as those numbers sound really bad.

 

[Lisa Blackwood]

Hi Lisa

Was your book on Awesomegang using a paid featured ad or the free version? Either way I would like to investigate as those numbers sound really bad.

Hi, it was a paid ad for a 0.99 book, but don't worry. I've used your service before with good results on a different book. It was March Break here, not sure if Spring Break is the same in the states, but lots of people were on vacation etc, so I think it might just have been bad timing. Booksbutterfly was surprised it didn't sell like they thought it should either. So I'm going with bad timing.

Better that, than my book is crap. lol. In all honesty, my blurb probably could be better, too. (Not that I haven't overhauled it several times, but....)

However, Amazon did have a glitch about one week before my promo started and messed up my series book order (twice--I had all book ones and then all book twos.) before they got it fixed. Not sure if that would somehow change the link info I sent to the promo sites.

 

[Lisa Blackwood]

Just had to post this. lol. If I can remember how to post an image. (I know the ranking is more of a molehill than a mountain, but I'm proud at the moment anyway. Maybe I can get a Bookbub ad next time. That would have been cool.)

Amazon really does like a slow gradual climb. Cool. Thank you Wayne and everyone else I stole promo site ideas from.

 

[Julz]

Just had to post this. lol. If I can remember how to post an image. (I know the ranking is more of a molehill than a mountain, but I'm proud at the moment anyway. Maybe I can get a Bookbub ad next time. That would have been cool.)

Amazon really does like a slow gradual climb. Cool. Thank you Wayne and everyone else I stole promo site ideas from.

Awesome!!

 

[WrittenWordMediaTeam]

Honored to see Bargain Booksy in your lineup.

Congrats on the ranking! Molehill or not, it's exciting to see. Always good to celebrate the small wins.

 

[donna callea]

Thank you for posting your results.  I've got a weeklong 99 cent promo slated next month for my fantasy romance using many of the same sites. I've also ended up scheduling more than one ad site on some of the promo days.  Makes it harder to figure out where the sales are coming from, but what can you do?

Wishing you great success as you go forward.

 

[Lisa Blackwood]

Thanks, Julz and Taylor.

Thank you for posting your results. I've got a weeklong 99 cent promo slated next month for my fantasy romance using many of the same sites. I've also ended up scheduling more than one ad site on some of the promo days. Makes it harder to figure out where the sales are coming from, but what can you do?

Wishing you great success as you go forward.

I know, scheduling is the difficult part. Other things I would change for next time would be to change up my blurb--it could be better. It's the one thing I looked at and realized I'd dropped the ball on. And I'd also do a KCD instead of just a regular 0.99. I knew I would be taking a hit of royalties, but wanted it to be available to as many people as possible, but after seeing that most of my sales came from .com and .uk, I think I'll just do it as a countdown instead. (Just leaving it at the 0.99 prize point for as long as possible.)

 

[Guest]

1) I wasn't aware that doing a Kindle Countdown deal restricted you to Amazon US and UK. Interesting.

2) This: And I'd also do a KCD instead of just a regular 0.99.

Yes, always helps. Because you do the promo and you get higher on the Kindle Countdown Deal.

3) For what it's worth I really thought everything was fine with your book. I really liked it and the cover and thought there'd be way more sales. Anyways, next time.