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I have had a lot of sales with the Bargain Booksy promo. It is not expensive and targets certain genres for different prices It is by far the best I have ever used. I hope this helps someone. My genre is memoir.

Shirani wrote: "Does anyone have any tips on promoting a poetry book? This is harder to promote than novels. My book is released on August 21st and apart from asking for reviews and lining up some information feed..."

Most of the promo sites do have a literary option and some will specify if they promote poetry. I've seen collections of poems show up in several newsletters, but again, these were books on promotion. Not sure about new releases.

I've used a number of promotional sites over the past year for my wife's nonfiction book (a family memoir set in the context of 20th century British/German history, so, although very readable and well-reviewed, perhaps not 'mass-market popular'). I reported some of the results on this thread's predecessor.

Those promotions were associated with KDP Countdowns. Results were generally disappointing, complicated by the book having 99 images and therefore a large file size. This limits how low the price can go while still retaining 70% (download charge about $1.60).

More recently, I've tried Amazon Marketing Services advertising at full price and I have to say that it's the only promotion so far that has given a positive ROI, It's quite complicated to set up, but there's plenty of guidance in the blogosphere. The downside is that it means more time away from the writing. The theoretical advantage of the promotional sites, of course, is that their low-price sales or free downloads should push a book further up the lists, but in the meantime the author is selling his/her work at knockdown prices to the bargain-hunters who are the self-selecting target group of the sites.

AMS doesn't get much coverage here compared with all of the promotion sites that are keen to get our business, so I thought my experience might be of interest. May be worth taking a look.

Peter wrote: "AMS doesn't get much coverage here compared with all of the promotion sites that are keen to get our business, so I thought my experience might be of interest. May be worth taking a look.

There are several threads regarding AMS ads, actually. In fact, there's a really informative thread discussing AMS vs Facebook ads. But here, no, this is a discussion thread on promo sites, meaning websites and newsletters that promote books while they are free or at a reduced rate.

OK, thanks,I hadn't noticed those.

On another thread, Brian wrote: "Thanks for the great info!

I checked several of these and they all seemed to be tied to Amazon Kindle promotions. Amazon has a lot more restrictions around promotions, so I've been using Smashwords for running those. Does anyone use any sites that will link out to Smashwords or other non-Amazon stores"

Hi Brian, discussion about promos need to be on this thread only so that we can keep the info threads easy to access.

To answer your question, many sites will allow you to list your promo as long as it's on a major retailer. Unfortunately, that doesn't include Smashwords as they are a distributor and their store is not well known. You would need to have the promo be available on Barnes and Noble, iTunes, or Kobo to be considered if you don't use Amazon.

I'm wondering if maybe some don't read the expanded distribution through smashwords though? Because you can distribute through smashwords and all of the other sites as well! I tend to gravitate towards pronoun myself they give you the Amazon distribution without all the restrictions on promotions! From what I understand you can also get 70% royalties for 99 cent books!

Ember-Raine wrote: "I'm wondering if maybe some don't read the expanded distribution through smashwords though? Because you can distribute through smashwords and all of the other sites as well! I tend to gravitate tow..."

Smashwords has a large distribution, yes, but the promotion options they offer is for their site only, usually employing a coupon code. You would have to manually change the price and use one of the major retailers to qualify for the promo sites that allow you to forego Amazon.

Ahh I see yeah so that just confirms to me that Pronoun is probably the better option when you are dealing with promo opportunities! Thanks Christina!

Ember-Raine wrote: "Ahh I see yeah so that just confirms to me that Pronoun is probably the better option when you are dealing with promo opportunities! Thanks Christina!"

If you don't use KDP and don't want to use up countdown deals then Pronoun is great for that. 70% on 99c is amazing.

I've heard some fellow authors complaining that promotions haven't gone as well as they typically do in the last week. I'm guessing it's the time of year so if people were thinking about doing one, maybe wait until after school starts back up?

I think you might also need to be direct through Amazon to get AMS. At least, that used to be true. So it's all a trade off.

I believe you can use AMS now even if you aren't exclusive.

I think you still need a KDP account, though, right? Maybe I'm wrong, since I've never had to worry about it!

You do need a KDP account, so no, if you use Pronoun to publish to Amazon, you can't use AMS ads. But to bring things back on topic, I've resurrected the Pronoun thread earlier today and put it under the ebook publishing folder.

Oops! Sorry Christina! I didn't mean to derail the thread!
I just did a free promo on Sunday for my prequel novella that goes with my Romantic Suspense series! It did reasonably well considering I didn't pay for a promo (because most companies won't promote super short reads!) but I can't stress enough the power of social media! After I posted my freebie I had probably 15 DLs in less than an hour and while I know this is nothing in the grand scheme of free promotions, it was pretty good and I ended up top 10 in 3 different categories that day!

At the end of the month I have a new release coming out and Bargain booksy will feature new releases if you have been approved for a promo with them before and you don't actually have to discount your book if it is normally between $0.99 and $. I used them before with another $0.99 promo and did really well!

That same weekend I have my very first free promo with my very first Romantic Suspense book I ever wrote! I have an ENT, Fussy Librarian, and a my book cave promo stacked that weekend so I'm hoping for some awesome DLs that weekend! I will let you all know what happens!

Chris wrote: "Hey everyone~
My five day Amazon promotion in line with a promo with My Book Cave just ended. I discounted my book Burning Man to .99 and did a $15 promotion with My Book Cave in their "Action / Ad..."

Dang! You hit bestseller with a $15 promo? That's amazing. I haven't tried MBC for a paid book yet, but I think I might have to give that a go in the future.

Christina~
We hit our mailing list pretty hard with an email campaign a couple days before and on the day of the launch. Our first day sales were only a dozen or so. But we went on to some forums and did some other grass roots stuff, ie: podcasts and it just so happened that an interview went live that week as well. Stars aligned and our sales doubled each day peaking out at around 48 sales per day towards the end. We hit bestseller and now have fallen back pretty hard with the book returning to the regular price. Either way. A great experience. Thanks for your insights and your website list.

Congratulations, awesome job!

Anyone tried Authorxp? I got an email from them based on my ENT feature.

Marie Silk wrote: "Anyone tried Authorxp? I got an email from them based on my ENT feature."

I got that email too. Their website was confusing. I don't recall if I wrote back asking for more info or not.

Christina wrote: "Shirani wrote: "Does anyone have any tips on promoting a poetry book? This is harder to promote than novels. My book is released on August 21st and apart from asking for reviews and lining up some ..."

Thanks Christina, it's hard to get poetry into any kind of promotion.

Does anyone have any resources on sites that promote preorders and/or new releases? It seems very difficult.

For full price, there's a few, but I'm not sure about results. Lower price end there's ebook stage, booktastick, ebook soda, fussy librarian, awesome gang (and their suite of sites), and book doggy.

The higher tier promo sites all require a discount if at least 50% with the exception being Bargain Booksy (which you noted).

The problem with the lower price thing is that if I have, say, a $0.99 preorder, it's still not technically discounted, because it's always been that price. But I also don't want to be the asshole that makes everyone preorder at full price, and then drops it to $0.99 on release day. That'd only make those that preordered it angry.

No easy answers, I guess.

Aislinn wrote: "The problem with the lower price thing is that if I have, say, a $0.99 preorder, it's still not technically discounted, because it's always been that price. But I also don't want to be the asshole ..."

I meant lower priced promo sites. Those I listed allow you to have a regular priced book.

Cool, thanks :)

I have written a Kindle book with special reference to Africa. Could some kind person please inform me about which promo sites would be best for me? Thank you for your advice.

Marie-Anne wrote: "I have written a Kindle book with special reference to Africa. Could some kind person please inform me about which promo sites would be best for me? Thank you for your advice."

All promo sites list the categories they promote as well as other requirements.

Excuse my ignorance - how do I access these promo sites, please?

Marie-Anne, they're listed here in this same folder. 'Complete list of paid promo sites', and 'complete list of free promo sites'.

Thank you for your kindness, Aislinn

Aislinn wrote: "The problem with the lower price thing is that if I have, say, a $0.99 preorder, it's still not technically discounted, because it's always been that price. But I also don't want to be the asshole ..."

I did Fussy Librarian when it was a few days before my release date and I sold 35 pre-orders at 99c. Not sure if I would do it too far in advance of release date.

In the Stacked Promo thread Yvonne wrote: "Hello Marie, thank you for sharing and in such great detail! This Stacking Promotion idea is all new to me, therefore, I'm learning from you, the pro. Congrats on covering your expenses so far; the rest will be gravy. I see that you are able to tell your ranking on Kindle as the days went buy. How did you follow up with that since rankings change constantly? Thanks again for sharing and I wish you much more success. "


Remember folks, keep discussions off the results threads.

I added results of my recent stacked promo to the other thread. For this particular promotion, I also submitted to Book Hippo, AuthorsXP, and ENT, but was unable to book them. I don't like to put all my eggs in one basket just in case I get declined or the ball is dropped somewhere and my book isn't featured like it was supposed to be (sadly, this has happened many times, even with paid features). The promotion went well and money was recouped by the second day. I was glad to see that one of my 99 cent books got picked up and featured by Book Angel (a UK site). Even with the big promo and having this feature, only 1 sale came from UK.

I also had an Amazon Giveaway and Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Giveaway going over the weekend to hopefully maximize exposure. I intended to mark down my 1.99 book on a countdown, but found out that you can't do a countdown unless the book is 2.99+. So I manually reduced the book to .99.

Book Daily:

I learned of a site called Book Daily, which I wish I would have researched first before I spent time and energy signing up. It turns out they won't feature you until you pay $50/month on recurring payments. I do not recommend.

AuthorsXP:

I tried to get a promo with AuthorsXP for my Sunday promotion. After paying for a feature + author spotlight, I got a partial refund plus email back saying they don't usually run features for promotions on Sunday unless a lot of people sign up for it ??? I get the best results for free promos on Sundays, so I didn't take another spot offered on a weekday. I said I would still try the author spotlight. She said they were booked out months for that but she would get back to me about when my day was scheduled.

Buck Books:

Still not sure how I feel about this one or how effective it will be, but I have one of my books set up to be featured November 1st. The cost was $9. So we will see :).

Christina wrote: "In the Stacked Promo thread Yvonne wrote: "How did you follow up with that since rankings change constantly?"

The ranks do change throughout the day, so I used the rank that was displayed at the end of the promotion day.

Super helpful! I've used AuthorsXP and I have mixed thoughts on them. I feel like they can be a tad expensive for what they offer and what you get in return.

I agree about Book Daily. I thought about using them in the past and checked out a couple of the deals they had listed and the rankings on the books were higher than I would have expected for such a big group.

I’m a debut author with only 1 novel, write Sci-Fi, and have a Professionally Designed Cover.
My novel was priced at $0.99 for promos with the following sites and I personally experienced a dismal ROI, and as such, cannot recommend any of them. Either the listed numbers of followers for my genre are incorrect, or the majority are authors signed up in that category who also promote their books. I have since Unsubscribed from all these sites.

Bookzio
BookReaderMagazine
BookGorilla
Fire&IceBookTours
FussyLibrarian
BargainBooksy
ReadingDeals

For a $0.99 Promo MyBookCave was by far the most productive for my genre (and very nice to deal with—they also count your swear words—so don’t fudge.)

For FREE Promos, I can recommend the following 4 sites, which produced over 2,600 total downloads, plus a gazillion KOLL:
Booktastik
FreeBooksy
FreeKindleBooks&Tips
Riffle

As of today, BookBarbarian is all booked up until late October.
My ad was declined by ENT and OHFB (too many for the date I picked was the stated reason?)

Hope this helps

Thanks for moving this, Andria.

One thing I can definitely say is that it is difficult to do a successful 99¢ promo on a book that's been free within the last 6 months. I tried that myself at the beginning of the year with terrible results. Maybe wait a while before trying again.

Could someone please let me know me if there is a special site where one can promote a book that has been written solely for African readers living on the African continent? Thank you.

Christina wrote: "Thanks for moving this, Andria.

One thing I can definitely say is that it is difficult to do a successful 99¢ promo on a book that's been free within the last 6 months. I tried that myself at the..."

Yes!! Very much agree with that!!

Marie-Anne wrote: "Could someone please let me know me if there is a special site where one can promote a book that has been written solely for African readers living on the African continent? Thank you."

Hi Marie-Anne,
I know a former mod here had her books being sold through an ebook store in Nigeria, but I am not aware of any company that specifically targets all of Africa. Most promo sites are US centric, primarily dealing with Amazon promotions. A few also list other Amazon territories, but again, those would mostly be the larger English speaking markets.

Christina wrote: "Marie-Anne wrote: "Could someone please let me know me if there is a special site where one can promote a book that has been written solely for African readers living on the African continent? Than..."

Thank you so much Christina - you wouldn't by any chance know how I could connect with this ebook store in Nigeria? I would be so grateful if you could also indicate where I could access the other Amazon English-speaking markets, as they would cover a wide range of anglophone African states. Thank you again for your time.

Just jumping in here. What an interesting thread! I have been navigating the indie-author waters for about two years. So I went out on a wild hair and submitted my book and it will be published by an indie press. But the pressure is still on to promote your own title through whatever means possible which I won't list here, cuz, y'all know what I'm talkin' 'bout.
This is what I've realized. If your book has potential (a genre that is popular) then hire a marketing agent. If not, and your book is something that was written to satisfy your muse. Don't give up, a story doesn't die once it's told. And read a lot of proverbs about how success never happens overnight.

Marie-Anne wrote: "Thank you so much Christina - you wouldn't by any chance know how I could connect with this ebook store in Nigeria? I would be so grateful if you could also indicate where I could access the other Amazon English-speaking markets, as they would cover a wide range of anglophone African states. Thank you again for your time."

By other markets I mean the markets that Amazon specifically separates due to commerce law. This would be UK, Canada, India, and Australia. I believe most countries in Africa fall under the 35% royalty rate through the .com store, but I'm not positive. You'll need to check your KDP terms for that info.

Please be aware of marketing freelancers on the site "Fiverr" to blast post your book. Paid $25 for a 50 site posting of my free kindle this weekend. When I checked the list of sites there were non existent or my book was not posted. Recommend to check references and successful campaigns before ordering.

Angela wrote: "Please be aware of marketing freelancers on the site "Fiverr" to blast post your book. Paid $25 for a 50 site posting of my free kindle this weekend. When I checked the list of sites there were non..."

Most sites where you pay to have them submit to other sites are only submitting to free,no guarantee sites that you can submit to on your own. The idea is that you're paying for the convenience of not having to fill out the form yourself,but there are a lot of drawbacks including:

•Many sites have protocols in place that automatically delete bulk submissions.

•Many sites they submit to are not active.

•Submission may require an email verification, which most these sites don't do as they use throwaway email addresses to submit.

•Active sites are usually those who do free and paid, meaning the likelihood that you'll be accepted is already low.

I have had zero luck with fiverr blasts.

Thanks Annabelle for sharing- glad and sad to know I'm not the only one!

I work on Fiverr as a freelance writer and I have tried probably 2-3 book blasts on free promotion days. These were all for children's books which can be harder to market anyway. I only spent maybe $5-$10 per seller. I went in with very low expectations and wasn't disappointed. Like Christine said above, they're only putting your free book on free sites that you could do yourself.

When you look at the prices of some companies that do book blasts on Twitter, Facebook etc, their prices are much cheaper so you can't expect a lot. I can't remember the company off hand, but we did a month long Twitter blast through their 3-4 accounts of 100-200k followers and zero bumps in sales for a $50-100 investment.

I have slowed down on Twitter a lot lately, focussing instead on author interviews, blogs, guest posts, etc.

any thoughts about sites for promoting picture books?