Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Thanks for posting this, Marie. It will certainly safe us some time.

I've tried googling it to no avail - how do you get a book into the Prime Reading program? Does your Kindle book have to be through KDP?

I think, from what I just read on another thread, the book has to be enrolled in the exclusive KDP Select and that prime reading status is by invitation only.

Sally wrote: "I think, from what I just read on another thread, the book has to be enrolled in the exclusive KDP Select and that prime reading status is by invitation only."

Yes, this is on a different topic that was closed. This thread is for discussing promotional newsletters/websites that promote free and discounted books.

Two sites I have used where yo can add links such as Barnes and Noble, Kobo etc. are:
Bookzio.com and bookbrag.com

Is book pinning even active? Last I looked nothing had gone up since 2015.

When I used the e-book bandit form a couple of times I added the link to the book on kobo - can't remember if I did it right in the description or if they had a specific "extra info' prompt, but I do remember that the ad that went up did include the kobo link.

Has anyone used Online Book Club for a book of the day thing? It's pretty expensive and I have no idea if it's worth the money.

J. wrote: "Has anyone used Online Book Club for a book of the day thing? It's pretty expensive and I have no idea if it's worth the money."

Yes, and all I'll say is don't bother. For me, it was a total waste of time and money. Customer Service is awful and I had to keep contacting them to even put the obligatory review from one of their own people up. The links they posted for my book were faulty and didn't link to my book correctly.
They're supposed to put your book out there for people to see but I couldn't see anything done by them at all. I don't recommend them at all, too much money for not enough return from them in my opinion.

I've been placing links to book pages on curtain facebook book pages. Got some results. Just have to check page rules before putting links on them.

E.A. wrote: "J. wrote: "Has anyone used Online Book Club for a book of the day thing? It's pretty expensive and I have no idea if it's worth the money."

Yes, and all I'll say is don't bother. For me, it was a ..."


Very helpful!! Thank you so much. E.A. Sorry you had such a bad experience, because yeah, they're crazy expensive for no results!

Speaking from my own experience marketing my books, and it's been pretty extensive, any sort of marketing or advertising that you have to pay for almost never pays for itself. I cannot include Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ in that, though, as I've only recently become a member and am becoming acquainted with the various resources offered.

Marie Silk wrote: "I've been slowly moving my historical fiction series into the world of wide distribution. Since this is the first time my books won't be exclusive to Kindle, I'm treating the transition as a new la..."

Thanks for sharing your notes. It all helps in this crazy business.

Hi everyone. I've just posted my most recent stacked promo results over in the relevant thread, and thought that it might be useful for you to know that after Book Runes recently hiked their promo fee to $39, they've reduced it to the previous level of $25. Perhaps the increase killed off author submissions. For the modest results that they bring, I wouldn't consider paying $39.

Well that's good that they reduced it back to what it was. I did plan to use them a few months out from now. I'm not sure I would have paid $39 though.

Thanks for the heads up, HE. I've always had good international sales with Book Runes and I've had nothing but positive experiences when speaking to them, but I was hesitant to spend because of my limited budget. Definitely going to add them into my next promo.

Christina wrote: "Thanks for the heads up, HE. I've always had good international sales with Book Runes and I've had nothing but positive experiences when speaking to them, but I was hesitant to spend because of my ..."

You're welcome Christina. Book Runes is definitely good for sales in the UK, Canada, and Australia. Hope your next promo goes well.

With you being a seasoned veteran in such matters, I wonder if you, or any of the other folks in the group, would have any advice as to the best sites to use for a book launch. I've been keeping a keen eye on people's results over in the 'Stacked Promo' thread, and think that Bargain Booksy followed by an ENT feature could be the way to go. I've never done a big promo on a paid title before, and to all intents and purposes it won't look like a discounted book, as I'm publishing it at 99c/99p and leaving it there for the first fortnight to a month, before increasing the price to $2.99/£1.99. It'll be novel length, so seems an appropriate price when my shorter tales are all on sale at 99c/99p.

Although everyone's experience varies, what sort of sales do you think I might garner from each of these sites for an occult mystery? An alternative approach I've been mulling over is running a free promotion on an earlier book in the series in the hope of spillover sales.

Any advice welcome. Cheers!

That's a tough one. I have only ever done launch promotion on two books. The first I did at the 99¢ pre-order price with the note that it would be going up. I had a decent number of sales, but at 35¢ royalty, I barely scraped up enough sofa cushion change to pay for an ad. The other was a first in series, so I did a huge freebie to kind of push sales. It worked well and my next promo is actually on that book again for the launch of the last book in the series. I'll let you know how this goes. I'm doing something a bit different in that I'll be offering book one for free, but I'm not doing any discounts on books 2 or 3 just to see what happens. I've got a two day launch planned with a couple of smaller sites on day one and a tier one site for day two.

Hello,

I've just joined, so can anyone please tell me if Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ is beneficial to indie authors? I've spent so much time promoting my book instead on writing away on a sequel that I now feel dispirited and fatigued.

Adrian wrote: "Hello,

I've just joined, so can anyone please tell me if Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ is beneficial to indie authors..."

Well, this group is more beneficial if members stay on topic and this is off topic. As for if Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ in general is beneficial... not sure what you mean. It can be, I suppose. Maybe flesh out your question a little more and start a new thread, perhaps in the marketing folder?

Hello Everyone!
Has anyone had any success with promoting your book in Ingram Spark's "ADVANCED" magazine.
I'm finding them quite uncooperative about the ad, when it will appear and actually giving me a copy of the ad. Sounds ridiculous, right? Thanks! Christine

Christine, save yourself the headache and whatever they would charge you - the chances of you even selling one book from this sort of thing is probably 1 in 100. The only people who read this sort of "magazine" are other authors who are just making sure their own ad appears.

L.K. wrote: "I recently ran promotions on my two psychological suspense novels while they were on a 99c/99p Kindle Countdown deal, which I promoted using various promotion sites (FKBT, Book Raid, ENT, Bknights ..."

Thanks so much for all of the detailed information on your first-hand experience. I really appreciate it. This will help when my husband launches his novel this summer.

Christina wrote: "That's a tough one. I have only ever done launch promotion on two books. The first I did at the 99¢ pre-order price with the note that it would be going up. I had a decent number of sales, but at 3..."

Thanks for your comments Christina. I've decided to go for a hybrid approach, so will be running a Bargain Booksy promo later this week, followed by a big push on a book from my back catalogue from Monday to Friday next week. I'll report back on the results over in the stacked promo folder.

Hello, new author *wave* I have just published my first book but I'm struggling to work out where to advertise a polyamorous bisexual science fiction romance. Does anybody know of a suitable site. At the moment it is on Amazon and I have a Facebook page but that is the sum total of my research so far :/

Dennis wrote: "Christine, save yourself the headache and whatever they would charge you - the chances of you even selling one book from this sort of thing is probably 1 in 100. The only people who read this sort ..."

Too late I got sucked in, not once but twice. For what it's worth, I've yet to see the "ad" which is supposed to be posted this month and the Ingram Spark support stinks regarding when the ad appears. Ugh! Lesson learned. So I haven't even seen an ad appear yet! Bought it in February! Ridiculous!

Marie wrote: "Marie Silk wrote: "FWIW Book Hippo featured my book when I wrote my own name in the editor field."

How long did it take for Book Hippo to feature your book? Did it work on your first submission, o..."

Hello, I'm sorry I didn't see this one before. If I remember right, I submitted to Book Hippo a few times before they featured my book. I did not use a professional editor.

Anita wrote: "A link and nothing else"

No links.

Does any one know how you can get your sponsored ad to come up first on Amazon? Mine comes up after showing about 10 or 20 others first. Being the first one would make a huge difference.
Also, does it count as an 'impression' (where your ad shows itself) if a book buyer does not click on the arrow for the second and third etc etc, pages of sponsored ads?
And while we're on the subject, what does it take for Amazon to push your book in their daily featured emails we get every day? They plug books every day to me and you, I'm sure.

David wrote: "Does any one know how you can get your sponsored ad to come up first on Amazon? Mine comes up after showing about 10 or 20 others first. Being the first one would make a huge difference.
Also, does..."

None if this is truly on topic as this discussion was meant to compare notes on free and discounted promo sites, but to answer:

Bid higher.

Amazon takes your bid price into account when placing the ads. You also want as many keywords as possible.

An impression will only register when your ad is viewable, so no, there is no impression if they don't click next.

As for the emails, Amazon sends out books in the tailored to your history email, so if you constantly look at your own page, you'll likely get an email recommending your own book. Anyone who looks at similar books may also see yours. Anyone who follows your author page will get an email when you release a new book.

If you mean the deal of the day emails, you'll have to be big enough to get on Amazon's radar and have them offer you the chance to put your book on a discount that they will run to the masses. I've known very few Indies who have had this. You have better idds with BookBub.

Hey everyone, just wanted to report on my experience with a site called Noisetrade. It has a similar concept to Instafreebie and Bookfunnel where you upload your book files directly to the site, then readers can download your book after agreeing to be added to your mailing list. Noisetrade is free to authors. I briefly had my book uploaded there and it had like 2 downloads the first week (not as eventful as Instafreebie).

Noisetrade has an email newsletter they send out to bring attention to albums or books, and after reading author blogs about how this newsletter feature resulted in 500-2K downloads for them, I thought I would give it a try. It was $50 for a feature in the newsletter. The result for my book was 33 downloads. I would not pay $50 for a feature with them again but some authors seem to have done all right with it.

I liked your reply, Christina.
Another thing to add is # of reviews. 50 5-star is the first jump point, and 100 gets Amazon to push your book on their own.
This is one reason why reviews matter. Always have an independent (not Mom or a friend) editor and another independent proofreader before pub.
Pay attention to covers. It pays to have professional covers.
In addition to writing and reading westerns, I read a lot of syfy. I use my private browser when searching Amazon syfy so it doesn't affect my Western searches on Amaz.

Christina wrote: "David wrote: "Does any one know how you can get your sponsored ad to come up first on Amazon? Mine comes up after showing about 10 or 20 others first. Being the first one would make a huge differen..."

Thank you for taking the time to answer at length, Christina.

Frank wrote: "I liked your reply, Christina.
Another thing to add is # of reviews. 50 5-star is the first jump point, and 100 gets Amazon to push your book on their own.
This is one reason why reviews matter. Al..."

Interesting what you say about editors, Frank. I had three great editors work on my books. One Steven Bauer, a real pro, two, my daughter Lauren, also a pro, and a proof reader, formerly an English teacher. So, from what you are saying, having my daughter's name appear as main editor maybe a drawback.

Are there any threads dedicated to audio book promoters?

On advertising on Book Runes, how many days does $25 cover? Just seen the name here and there is no info available on the website before someone advertises. Would appreciate some pointers. Thanks.

Wanjiru wrote: "On advertising on Book Runes, how many days does $25 cover? Just seen the name here and there is no info available on the website before someone advertises. Would appreciate some pointers. Thanks."

Their fee covers just one day on their website and inclusion in their daily mailing.

H.E. wrote: "Wanjiru wrote: "On advertising on Book Runes, how many days does $25 cover? Just seen the name here and there is no info available on the website before someone advertises. Would appreciate some po..."

Much appreciate the reply.

Frank wrote: "I liked your reply, Christina.
Another thing to add is # of reviews. 50 5-star is the first jump point, and 100 gets Amazon to push your book on their own.
This is one reason why reviews matter. Al..."

Both Amazon and top NYT best-selling authors have confirmed that the number of reviews has absolutely nothing to do with the visibility of a book.

But again, this topic is for promo site discussion only. Please return to topic.

Felix wrote: "Getting your book into local libraries appears to be more difficult than at first sight. It appears that they have an in-built dislike of self-published books but, in addition, require a book to co..."

This is also off topic. There is a thread regarding libraries in the marketing folder.

How do I find that?

Top right under the group name is a search bar.

Christina wrote: "Top right under the group name is a search bar."

The search bar doesn't seem to be working right, at least for me. I posted a link to Felix in one of the multiple places he posted about libraries. I'm removing the rest. No need to post this question all over the place.

eBooks Habit...
I sent them an email asking for their average number of clicks and their newsletter subscriber count. I didn't want to spend money on them without having an idea of their numbers. This is how they replied:

"Our policy has always been to not provide those numbers. At best, they can be manipulated, and isn't a true view of the value provided."

Anyone else find that fishy? Every other site I've contacted has been more than willing to give up their numbers, and the best sites even post the numbers right on the submission page. Their reply really turns me off from working with them. Has anyone had any experience with them, or thoughts about this in general?

It's true that some promotions sites are more transparent with their numbers, but it's also true that click/download numbers can be manipulated or fabricated. I haven't seen significant results from that particular site so I don't use them anymore. You might be better off trying the Booksy sites or Book Gorilla.

On the Booksy sites, you might try coupon code PAIDAUTHOR-5 for 5% off.
Book Gorilla just sent out a coupon code for 40% off a feature. The coupon is good for features booked before Sept 17th and availability starts Oct 1st. Coupon code: BG40

Hey, thanks! Very helpful.

Has anyone heard of readercoin? I searched groups as a whole but didn't get a hit on any thread of any group about this.

Based on what I read it's a get paid with "reader coins" to promote your book. And readers get paid to read as well with the same kind of coins.

Has anyone tried this?

Marie Silk wrote: "It's true that some promotions sites are more transparent with their numbers, but it's also true that click/download numbers can be manipulated or fabricated. I haven't seen significant results fro..."

Thanks for the tip with booksy - just happened to see this yesterday before booking a slot, so saved 5%!

James wrote: "Hi. I don't read the rules."

Read the rules James. No bookwhacking, no links, no hijacking...

Has anyone tried Rafflecopter for giveaways as a book promotion? I keep considering it but now I'm even more curious after having seen a video on it.