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Terry wrote: "Dumb question alert!
Is the idea of offering a limited-time free book (on Amazon for example) to get your book clicked on/downloaded/hopefully reviewed...and relevant?
Obviously, I’m a newb at this..."

Hey D.,
Many of the places you mentioned I never heard of. I'm going to check them out. I'm presently, looking for a professional line editor, while setting up my marketing strategy. I think I'll try to incorporate a few of the things you are doing in my plan. Thanks.

D. wrote: "I've posted this on other threads here on GR. Here are results for my sale of my 4 book Christmas series. Book 1 was free and books 2-4 were discounted 50%. David Gaughran (check out his free books..."
Really helpful and I guess the point is series sell and freebies help get you noticed. You need reviews too. I agree with David Gauran's advice don't spend (much if any ) money until you've more than one book to sell.
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Terry wrote: "Dumb question alert!
Is the idea of offering a limited-time free book (on Amazon for example) to get your book clicked on/downloaded/hopefully reviewed...and relevant?
Obviously, I’m a newb at this..."

That isn't a dumb question. Like you, I started writing late in life at age 64. I've been doing this awhile. Obscurity is the normal for a new author unless you have an excellent book (most first ones aren't) and tons of money to spend (I know I don't) so here's the deal.

You need to develop what they call a platform. The basis will be your email list. Don't have one? Well, that isn't all that hard to solve. Write a novella and use it as a reader magnet. Make sure it has something to do with your books. Make sure it has a way for signing up for your list...like a landing page or your website. Then put it out there for the list building promotions. Author's XP and Prolific writers are two. Book funnel has some also. Give the book away for free with a bonus (make it deal with your book like a short story or a character sheet or another book you wrote) for signing up for your email list.

What to do with that list? Keep in touch. Give them snippets of who you are, what your books are about, What new book you are writing. When you expect to publish it. Send something every month or two weeks just to let them know who you are.

When it come time to need a beta reader, ask them to volunteer. Launch time, get them on board with bonuses for helping you. Be inventive. Reviews, Give them ARCS and then ask for a review when the book goes live. (Better if you can get them to buy a copy at a reduced price so they are a verified buyer)

Do not spend a lot on the books other than for copy editing until you are selling more books. Amazon ads to start at launch will help, but not much. Remember, it takes most authors 5-10 years to become an overnight success.

If you are looking for a marketing guru to follow, Tim Grahl has the best launch plan. He has a lot of free things that will give you the basics. Nick Stephenson just put out an Email Unplugged series for launching a book and he and Tim Grahl have much the same type of launch plans.

As for post launch, Creativindie and Mark Dawson are good. As for Gaughan, he's okay. If you want free, go to Creativindie. He has a lot of free stuff on there. So does Nick Stephenson.

I agree that an email list and reader magnet are essential.

I like David Gaughran because he has a lot of free information for indie authors. His website, free course, free book, and weekly emails have been immensely helpful for me. Mark Dawson has a very expensive course that focuses heavily on FB ads. Tim Grahl's books are expensive. $9.99 for under 100 pages? Maybe he has other resources. I like Nick Stephenson's videos. Creativindie I'm not familiar with.

And, of course, indies sharing information is valuable!

Terry wrote: "Again, how many authors must have thought about this very concept?
"

Terry, without mentioning the "concept" you're proposing, let me say the answer is this: Too many. If even two authors do what you're talking about, the answer is: Too many.

What you're talking about only brings about things like dishonest reviews, bitter reviews, poor reviews and does nothing but tarnish the name of Indie authors. In other words, legit readers don't deserve or want dishonest reviews. Indie authors already have a piss-poor reputation and this is a good deal of why.

I'm removing your post. Talking about reviews is forbidden here as it is and specifically talking about what you're proposing is strictly forbidden. See our rules. Feel free to message me if you have any questions about this. Thanks.

Looking for advice:

I got a BookBub International only discount deal set up for next month. Hooray! First time winning this with BookBub!

My question is how far in advance of the deal date do I need change the pricing on my book, both with Ingram and Amazon?

A couple of days? Longer?

I've always changed the price about 3-4 days out. Then I keep the price about a week after the promotion date.

Murphy's law work well here. If you leave it for the last moment, you're guaranteed to see massive delays.
If you set it up a few days ahead, the price change will be processed in minutes.
Better safe than sorry, I would say.
I don't know how fast Ingram is, but a trick that tends to work, if Amazon is taking their time and other sources are updated already, just report a lower price yourself, they'll be quick to price-match.

Tomas wrote: "Murphy's law work well here. If you leave it for the last moment, you're guaranteed to see massive delays.
If you set it up a few days ahead, the price change will be processed in minutes.
Better s..."

Murphy's law works for me! Thanks!

Update - My BookBub deal is set for Thursday. I went to IngramSpark to change the price today (Monday) and it appears that they only change prices weekly, effective on Friday!!

I've emailed their support department to see if this can be changed to Thursday or earlier, but they say their response time is 1-2 days. They aren't accepting US phone calls asking for assistance.

I really don't like being beholden only to Amazon, but if this is the kind of service IngramSpark provides, it's no wonder Amazon dominates the market.

Eileen wrote: "Update - My BookBub deal is set for Thursday. I went to IngramSpark to change the price today (Monday) and it appears that they only change prices weekly, effective on Friday!!

I've emailed their ..."

Ingram Spark is just a mess, I was hoping it would improve! Sorry to read this, I've not had much to do with them, have my book there and that's it. I can't deal with their nonsense!

I like Draft2 Digital. I can change my prices and get my books into stores, libraries and other places that Amazon isn't.

I'm not fond of Amazon but do use them but I do have my own imprint, ISBNS. I don't trust them one bit. At least Ingram has a long history within the book market. Now that you know price changes are always on Thursday, you know to set your deals up accordingly.

Catherine wrote: "Please..."

NO!!!

Even with the added "please" you're still breaking so many rules with this post. Why don't you PLEASE review the rules of the group before posting again.

To sum up:

* No self-promotion
* No asking for reviews
* No hijacking threads
* No links of any kind

B.A. wrote: "I like Draft2 Digital. I can change my prices and get my books into stores, libraries and other places that Amazon isn't.

I'm not fond of Amazon but do use them but I do have my own imprint, ISBN..."
You guys who watch over these threads are on it! Thanks for keeping a watch I did see something that looked like a promotion somewhere along here! Thanks for your hard work!

Krunal wrote: "Thanks for shearing....

I dunno what you're talking about, but just two comments above yours I had to remind someone of the rules. Please follow the rules. No links! And this came across as self-promotion, though it could have been about shearing sheep. I'm not sure.

Christine wrote: "You guys who watch over these threads are on it! Thanks for keeping a watch I did see something that looked like a promotion somewhere along here! Thanks for your hard work!"

You're welcome. It seems like things are really quiet around here for weeks, then all of a sudden they all come out of the woodwork to spam us.

Dwayne wrote: "Krunal wrote: "Thanks for shearing....

I dunno what you're talking about, but just two comments above yours I had to remind someone of the rules. Please follow the rules. No links! And this came a..."

And this came across as self-promotion, though it could have been about shearing sheep.

Now I just want to see the spam... Cause that's funny... :-)

Not sure what everyone is griping about here--apparently I got in in the middle of the discussion, but there are plenty of places to promote our books besides this group.

Gail wrote: "Not sure what everyone is griping about here..."

I gripe because it is annoying to have to remove posts that shouldn't be here in the first place. I don't think anyone else is griping.

Christina wrote in Message 1 This thread is to discuss services and promo tactics. Got a question about a site? Ask it here. Got a suggestion for a new topic? Post here. The point of this thread will be to keep an open dialogue about promotion services without cluttering up the data threads.

When it's a long, interesting and popular thread, we mortals (well I do) sometimes forget what the thread is supposed to be for! So I've copied Message 1 as a reminder.

Dwayne, I won't mind if you remove this!

I'm doing the 30 day book promotion giveaway for May. Has anyone done it for more than the 30 days? If so, would it be best to skip a month and do it again? Or wait for a longer period. Thank you!

Has anyone had success with Amazon ads? I tried them out last year but had no luck. Thinking about giving them another shot. Just looking to try out some book promotion ideas.

I find Amazon Ads is a good way of giving Amazon some money...

In the early days they used to work well, though.

I think fiction is really hard to break through with Amazon ads and get a good ROI without breaking your budget, because there are so many novels that would have similar search terms. Meanwhile nonfiction about "President X" or "Excel tips" are pretty easy to find.

That being said, if you are trying to market it specifically for Mother's Day or Fourth of July or Summer Read, that might be helpful. Who knows? We're all just writers trying to be successful marketers.

"We're all just writers trying to be successful marketers," and it's not easy being green in a field in which we feel is cluttered with weeds. (Initial quote thanks to Vince Wetzel)

Justin wrote: "Has anyone had success with Amazon ads? I tried them out last year but had no luck. Thinking about giving them another shot. Just looking to try out some book promotion ideas."
I've had limited success with Amazon ads, but only with one of my books. Most of my books are mysteries and running advertisements didn't help at all with sales. However, with "The Back Nine", which is a book about golf (but mostly about life after fifty), I find I usually break even comparing royalties earned versus the cost of advertisements. I believe this is because people will search for books using some of my keywords (e.g. golf fiction, retirement, Alzheimer's). My other keywords are author names and book titles from the "Customers who bought this item also bought" list. I also find my pages read by Kindle Unlimited subscribers goes up when I run advertisements.

If your books aren't selling, ads aren't going to help. If you have some sales you might want to consider taking Bryan Cohen's Amazon Ad Challenge. It's free and will help you to get ads that work.

I write fiction & experiment from time to time with Amazon ads. But I don't have a big portfolio of books. My sense is that if you are only trying to market one book, Amazon ads can never yield sufficient sales/KENP read to cover their costs.

However, if you have a large volume of books, then every time you win a new reader, you are magnifying your returns. That's the idea of the "perma-free" book & giveaways -- to try and entice people to read your books.

Ads do the same thing -- they get your book in front of people in an overcrowded field. Your books will never be discovered without advertising. I've tried free book promotions (with paid email blast/social media ad support), Amazon ads, contests, and "book tours." Of all of these, I think the Amazon ads have earned me more actual readers.

Amazon ads are expensive, but if you structure them properly, they are not as expensive as any other kind of promotion, giveaway, etc. where you pay $30-$85 to run a "free" promotion to attempt to win new readers. The issue with "free" books is that people who download them often do not read them. Yes, you get into Amazon's "leader boards" for the period of time your promotion is live, but I'm not sure what percentage of freebie readers actually convert to fans. Other people may have more luck -- in particular authors who adhere more closely to genre conventions. For them, I think free promotions are THE WAY TO GO. You hook new readers, to whom you are delivering exactly what they expect & then they move on from the free book to download the 3+ other books you have on sale.

But if your market isn't as well defined -- say you cross genres or aren't writing a more on-trend kind of book -- then I don't think free promotions are as effective as advertising, where you can target readers more specifically by using comparable books.

My ROI is deep in the negative zone. It would have been a better cost-strategy to refrain from running ANY ads at all until I had a trilogy of books on the market. So there is no way for me to recoup all the wasted $$ I've poured into ineffective marketing campaigns -- on Amazon as well as on other services.

Laura wrote: "I write fiction & experiment from time to time with Amazon ads. But I don't have a big portfolio of books. My sense is that if you are only trying to market one book, Amazon ads can never yield suf..."

ROI ~ I've done much of the marketing myself, without any financial investment just sweat equity which is a lot and enough. I worked on LinkedIn and actually emailed a ton of people I knew would want the books, I got bloggers to review who were in my niche. There's a lot you can do without investing money but lots of sweat! This is a risk vs. reward business, if you can call it that, I call it more of a hobby. :-)

Ruth wrote: "Please vote for ...😎 "

No.

Christine wrote: "Laura wrote: "I write fiction & experiment from time to time with Amazon ads. But I don't have a big portfolio of books. My sense is that if you are only trying to market one book, Amazon ads can n..."

Laura wrote: "I write fiction & experiment from time to time with Amazon ads. But I don't have a big portfolio of books. My sense is that if you are only trying to market one book, Amazon ads can never yield suf..."

I'm not sure how this feed works but I do enjoy the advice. Personally I dislike marketing but realize I need to do it, on a shoestring budget. What's worked best for those who are reading this? Also is there any way we can join forces and market more than one author at a time? Just a thought. I appreciate any suggestions. Thanks

If you are marketing on a shoestring, Take Bryan Cohen's Ads for Amazon challenge. he should have one someone up soon. It gives you how to do the ads to make them work and why. It's free, and no, you don't need to take the course.

David Gaughran has good advice on his website. He sends a lot through the mail.

Tim Grahl is a professional marketer. He has a class that you would need to pay for that gives you what you need to know to market a book.

Russel Nohelty is great with Kickstarter and uses it for most of his books many of which are graphic comics.

You can work with others, promoting each other's books and making anthology series, etc. Again, you need to have good marketing for those to work.

Start small, learn what works and go from there.

Does anyone know if there's a way to trace where these sales are coming from on KDP? That would really help. Thanks!

I hope it's okay to post this question here (again)- since I've seen that this topic has already been discussed but I couldn't find the exact answer to my question - I tried to post the Booksprout link for my new e-book on two Facebook promotion Sites with the words: Book One of...... get a free copy here (link) for an honest review on Amazon - but my post never got approved - any ideas why? Is it possible that they have a look at my FB-profile which doesn't show much since I'm not doing a lot of postings? I mainly use Fb for book-promotions and some food pics.

Christine wrote: "Does anyone know if there's a way to trace where these sales are coming from on KDP? That would really help. Thanks!"

Go to "Reports" in KDP, then scroll down a little to the various sales info tabs and click on "Historical".

Then scroll down to the "Royalties Earned" chart, and it breaks down the Kindle Unlimited royalties "KENP" by country.

Also, I can recommend Ricardo Fayet's book "How to Market a Book." It has lots of useful information and its free for Kindle. Just came out earlier this year so still relevant.

Marion wrote: "I hope it's okay to post this question here (again)- since I've seen that this topic has already been discussed but I couldn't find the exact answer to my question - I tried to post the Booksprout ..."

It's against Amazon policy to offer a book in exchange for a review.

you mean i‘m not allowed to ask for reviews on booksprout when my book is sold via Amazon? OMG I didn‘t know that 😱 I thought I‘m just not allowed selling it on other platforms

I'm confused, Marion. I thought you said you wanted "honest" reviews on Amazon in exchange for a free book. Right? That's against Amazon's policy. I realize you're asking for reviews through Booksprout, but your book is on Amazon, and you want "honest" reviews on Amazon, right? Or am I missing something?

no you are not missing anything... I obviouls made a mistake cause I didn't know that I'm not allowed using Booksprout for my book when it's on KU...- the thig is that this is my first book and I've absolutely no experience in publishing. But a friend told me about Booksprout and that you can share your book there for honest reviews. So I signed up on Booksprout, created an ARC and klicked on the lines review wanted on Amazon and optional on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ - So, I thought, I'd get my reviews on Amazon then. But that was obviously wrong or not allowed so I deleted the link on Booksprout again.

Marion wrote: "no you are not missing anything... I obviouls made a mistake cause I didn't know that I'm not allowed using Booksprout for my book when it's on KU...- the thig is that this is my first book and I'v..."

The objective is to find readers who MIGHT provide reviews on Booksprout. You can post the link on FB. But you, as the author, are never allowed to SAY "Here's a free book, please write a review in return for the free book."

Here's what KDP says on their site: "Can I give free or discounted copies of my books to readers?
You may provide free or discounted copies of your books to readers. However, you may not demand a review in exchange or attempt to influence the review. Offering anything other than a free or discounted copy of the book—including gift cards—will invalidate a review, and we'll have to remove it. "

Thank u sooooo much for your help and patience:) I really appreciate this.

Eileen wrote: "Christine wrote: "Does anyone know if there's a way to trace where these sales are coming from on KDP? That would really help. Thanks!"

Go to "Reports" in KDP, then scroll down a little to the var..."

Thanks Marion, I saw that, I'd love to know though, exactly WHERE these sales are coming from, like... Linkedin? a Blog? ... I posted on LinkedIn recently and now one of my books has been getting sales daily, which is quite out of the blue. My husband thinks someone posted somewhere or is recommending. I'm sure there are more sophisticated ways of tracking but I have no idea.

Run don't walk away from Fastbooktours.com
They don't provide the services they charge for and when you ask them to provide or give a refund they send you a threatening letter from an anonymous email address (see below) They prey on indie authors and give lousy service.

Powered by Anonymousemail � Join Us!

YOU KNOW WHO WE ARE? If not, Google Anonymous hacker group. The person you have been harassing for reviews since the last few days is affiliated with us. We have already warned you to desist from such activities and be happy with what you have got. If you persist, you will lose whatever reviews you have gotten and get bad reviews on your book. Neither Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ/Amazon nor your country's law agencies can do anything to protect you from us. Consider this the last warning. We do not want our client to be harassed anymore. YOU WILL GET NO REFUNDS. JUST DISAPPEAR!

If you look at that error warning, it is written by someone in theirs 20's at the most, from their expressions, and limited grasp of English.
What happened, plus this, should be spread to FB, Twitter, etc.
Lots of authors see these scammed on there and would not know any better.
Also, if it were me, I would report them to Amazon if anyone else is reporting them.

Ran a sale on Amazon for my books, always spend more than I make, how about you?

Christine wrote: "Ran a sale on Amazon for my books, always spend more than I make, how about you?"

Definitely! Some authors in very popular genres (mysteries, romance) can make it back. However, I view the sales as opportunities to add reviews, which will eventually lead to more sales. Very eventually, too often!

Still, for indie writers, the key is getting reviews and adding to your shelf of books. I read somewhere (maybe David Gaughran) that you need to sell 200 books to get 1 review. My average is a bit lower than that, but I think he's pretty much correct.

Ann wrote: "Run don't walk away from Fastbooktours.com
They don't provide the services they charge for and when you ask them to provide or give a refund they send you a threatening letter from an anonymous em..."

Thanks for the heads up Ann

Are you on any Facebook groups for authors? Have you shared this on there? Is it alright if I do?

Thanks

Jason

Lou wrote: "If you look at that error warning, it is written by someone in theirs 20's at the most, from their expressions, and limited grasp of English.
What happened, plus this, should be spread to FB, Twit..."

the way it's written is incredibly unprofessional

Eileen wrote: "Christine wrote: "Ran a sale on Amazon for my books, always spend more than I make, how about you?"

Definitely! Some authors in very popular genres (mysteries, romance) can make it back. However, ..."
Agreed.. I like the exposure but I always feel the books have to earn their keep and sometimes they do. I try to do free advertisement, Reddit and other SM,,, Anyone else find free advertisment?