Jackie Weger is more than an author of great romance novels; she’s a tireless supporter of Indies, both on her own and through her eNovel Authors at Work group.
Jackie has written a score of posts detailing her (rather extensive) marketing experience. As she includes the experience of the 50-odd authors in her group as well, this is an excellent resource for anyone interested in paid ads. As she puts it,
“eNovel keeps a Preferred List and on the Preferred List, we have Above the Fold and Below the Fold. On Above the Fold are promoters to whom we always submit. Below the Fold are promoters we like and trust, but sometimes do not deliver as well as hoped. If a single author reports dreadful results with a promoter, we note it. However, at least three or more authors have to report less than stellar results for a promoter to drop below the fold.”
Above the Fold
In her experience, the following are Above the Fold:
- Choosy Bookworm
- The Fussy Librarian
- The Book Barbarian
- Books Butterfly
- Free & Bargain Booksy
- People Reads
- eBook Soda
- Readfree.ly
- Bookstastik
- fkbt
- Bookbub
- Digital Books Today
- Content Mo
- Hot Zippy
- BKnights on Fiverr (For promo results with BKnights see this entry on KBoards)
She also recommends BeezeeBooks.com. He works out of New Zealand and builds an author a nice books’ page. Tweets promos and the site has a decent Alexa ranking. It is a free site and great for exposure on both free and priced books.
Must-read resources
The above was hand-picked from a four-part blog post, titled eBook Promoters ~ The Best & The Worst:
- eBook Promoters – The Best & The Worst – Part 1
- eBook Promoters – The Best & The Worst – Part 2
- eBook Promoters – The Best & The Worst – Part 3
- eBook Promoters – The Best & The Worst – Part 4
- eBook Promoters – The Best & The Worst – Part 5
She has also published a two-part post titled Book Promotions ~ Indie Authors Report Results:
- Book Promotions ~ Indie Authors Report Results – Part 1
- Book Promotions ~ Indie Authors Report Results – Part 2
I strongly recommend you read and share the above posts. We all need to start sharing our experience, in order to help ourselves and others use our limited marketing budgets wisely!
Update
For my next promotion, I may try a combination of free and paid sites. I’ll be using Jackie Weger has the following update on Review Mania II:
“Two promotion sites that have made it onto eNovel’s Above the Fold list are booktastik andBettyBookFreaks. Here is why: On a recent ten author/5 day tour. Dionne of booktastik promoted the tour on her site for free all five days. Dionne has also started streaming promotion results for transparency. That is the GOLD Standard.
Betty ofBettyBookFreaks grabbed our posts and was a Tweeting Wizard for our tour and promotion. They pay-it forward. We love ’em.
BookBarbarian has just made it to our Preferred list for Sci-fi and Fantasy. $8 for promotion and BookBarbarian streams results. Transparency. So has BookScream – which sends the author an indepth activity on a book promotion. These all are smaller sites with fewer subscribers, but the owners are doing it right.”
Who is Jackie Weger?
An award-winning author, Jackie Weger has been writing romance novels off and on for thirty years. When she’s writing, she’s anchored in a tiny room with a desk, a chair and a cat.
When not writing, blogging or chatting with fans, she’s traipsing around the Internet searching for recipes, but much prefers to travel the good earth by foot, bus, canoe, sloop, mule, train, plane or pickup–and let somebody else do the cooking.
What Readers are saying about Jackie’s Books
“This has got to be one of the most enjoyable books I have come across in a long time-heart warming and some crazy characters–funny,lovable, hopeful and believable!” ~ avp
“Best read in a long time. Thrilled with the whole book. Good clean book. Wish I could find more on the caliber.” ~ avp
“This was an awesome read the characters are fantastic and you can’t help but love them. Jackie Weger has written a love story that has you wanting more about these characters and the dialogue is just awesome. Loved It!” ~ avp
Connect with Jackie
- Follow Jackie on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Accent-on-Romance/328632520587813
- Visit Jackie’s blog at www.jackieweger.com/blog
- Follow Jackie on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JackieWeger
- Keep up with Jackie and other award winning authors at https://enovelauthorsatwork.com.
You can read my own results on the Call to Arms survey here. Don’t forget to share your experience on the 3-question survey and help me improve the results!
HI Nicholas, what a great job you’ve done on this post for Jackie and eNovel authors. I’m impressed! I’ve learned so much from Jackie since joining, and I thought I was a marketing guru! She makes me look like I’m standing still.
Thank you so much, Rebecca! Yes, she has that effect on me,, too 🙂
Lovely post, Nicholas, and I have to say, as a newbie, not only to eNovelAuthorsAtWork but also a relative newbie writing/marketing wise, I am so grateful for being privy to all that Jackie shares. I am always amazed at what she comes up with. It’s like going to the University of eNovel…FOR FREE!!
I also want to thank other eNovel members for sharing and presenting sites for marketing.
So thank you Jackie, and eNovel members for being so generous and giving out so many sites/promos/ideas to follow and chew on! And thank you, Nicholas, for reminding us all…
Thank you so much for that, Sarah 🙂
Great post Nicholas, and I can tell you first hand that Jackie Weger is the consummate professional as writer, author, Internet marketeer and general all around guru. She has helped myself and many others weave through the morass of online promoters.
Kudos, Jackie!
David Wind
Thank you for that, David! 🙂
I’m part of the Books Butterfly Team. Just wanted to add my thanks for Jackie.
1) She found us even before we were selling slots. And she wrote about us and it was great – most authors tend to take promo sites that don’t charge money for granted. Those sites are actually your best friends – the little sites that don’t even charge you and promote you.
PLUS you never know which one becomes big and then having a good working relationship really helps.
2) She’s been very generous with her advice and very encouraging. At some places we had authors who didn’t know anything about us attack us for no reason. However, some authors were very supportive and Jackie was #1.
3) Jackie freely shares her wisdom and knowledge. With her success she could easily go the route of making $500 video courses (and I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that – in fact, she should make a UDemy course). However, she’s giving it all for free.
I track the market very closely and you have no idea how valuable all this information is. I talk to authors who’ve spent $500, $1000 and if they had just read Jackie’s advice first they would have tripled or quadrupled their results.
4) Fundamentally, it’s going to be champions for indie authors as the driving force and indie authors as the hammer that brings the current revolution in books to a glorious conclusion (and hopefully a steady state where readers and authors and the ecosystem can create a win-win-win). We need more Jackies! 10 Jackies and the future of books would be safe.
all the best to all indie authors and especially to Jackie.
Thank you so much for the kind comment, and welcome 🙂
Wow! Switch11; What a fab compliment. But I’m laffin’ because I don’t have a clue what a UDemy course is, much less how to create a video. I do love what I know how to do, which is write and sell books, a few or a lot. Writing a book is the fun and easy part of our indie universe. Learning how the market works and somehow designing an effective promo campaign in an ever changing climate is challenging. You nailed it though. I love to work with start up sites because we need our promoters, especially promoters who listen to our author needs. Building reader subscriber lists is critical. To do that the promoter must
engage the subscriber and offer good books. Butterfly is wonderful. I do remember when you promoted our indie books for free… and not charging a dime for years on end. When a promoter is successful, so is the indie author. A tip of the hat to Butterfly–because the site moves books! Win-Win.
Best to you and yours.
Jackie Weger
Hey switch 11, I’m one of BookButterfly’s happy customers, and a happy member of eNovel Authors.I spend time and money every month on promotion–it works, and I believe promotion is an integral part of getting readers, sales, success!
Hi Rebecca. Always a pleasure to run your books. The cover of Dead Red Cadillac is one of my favorite covers.
Reblogged this on Books and More.
I wish I had half of Jackie’s energy and endurance. Not sure how she does it all! But I am grateful for her guidance and support, and for those lists! It takes the guesswork out of promo…
Julie Frayn
Author of Mazie Baby</a
I know what you mean… Thanks and welcome! 🙂
So agree, Julie and Nicholas. Jackie can run circles around most of us…and she’s an inspiration to us all.
Amazing resources for authors, Nicholas! Jackie is the most generous and well-informed author I know. Thank you both for all the wisdom you share with the rest of us!
Well, don’t know about the wisdom bit when it comes to me, but thanks – and welcome! 🙂
Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.
Excellent post. Bookmarking… Thank you!
Glad you found it useful! 🙂
Jackie is amazing! She generously shares what she knows with other people – real numbers, real sites. Nicholas, I love your spreadsheet! Thank you both for the information
Thank you, Traci, and welcome 🙂
Great of you to share Jackie’s invaluable advice on your site!
Thanks and welcome! 🙂
Reblogged this on Dale Furse and commented:
As indie authors, we need to market our books, but we don’t have the big budgets Traditional publishers do. We need posts like this one by Nicholas Rossis helps us choose where to spend our small budgets. Thank you to Jackie Weger for the information.
Great post, Nicholas. Terrific info, thanks, Jackie.
I agree, indies need to stay on top of their promotions and posts like these help us to decide where to spend our precious dollars wisely. 🙂
Thank you, Dale! 🙂
Thanks, Nicholas, for introducing us to Jackie. She sounds wonderful. Helping others is such a beautiful trait in a person.
She’s adventurous too! Sloop, and mule??? I admire her guts!
Melinda
I know, right?? 😀
Thanks for the excellent post. Enjoyed it
Thanks for reading, Gigi! Glad you found it interesting 🙂
Great blog post, Nicholas. Jackie Weger is a marvel. When it comes to book promotion she knows what she’s talking about and indie authors should listen – and act. She has helped me enormously. I think perhaps the most valuable piece of advice she gave me was to make sure I never let ego get in the way of my books.
Mary Smith
Lol – I Know what you mean 😀
Appreciate all of the helpful info Jackie puts together for us indies. It’s the springboard we need to dive in to this crazy industry and make a splash!
Quite right! 🙂
Wow. What a fabulous resource. Another one that I need to tuck away and comb through. I need to make myself a folder. Thank you, Jackie, for the info, and Nicholas for sharing!
Thank you, D! 🙂
D. Wallace Peach: Here is what I do: I have a file named ehow. I open it every morning and let it live on the bottom task rail on my computer. I add neat info and links so when time permits, I can read, absorb and follow up. I hope the series helps you to make the best decision for your books and keep them flying off the digital shelf.
Highest regards from,
Jackie Weger
I save them to my favorites now and then eventually pin them in pinterest (my file cabinet). The challenge is always getting back to them…which I do, just not as quickly as I would like. It’s easier when there’s so much info in one place. Thanks so much for the informative post.
Thanks for this excellent post. Truly informational. 🙂
Hope you find it useful 🙂
Reblogged this on MM Jaye writes… and commented:
A list of “Above the Fold” and “Below the Fold” promoters for your books, recommended by a writer in the know. Great stuff!
That post is gold! Well, Jackie Weger is gold, too. Both as a writer and as a marketer. Reblogging!
Thank you so much! 🙂
Woot! Oh, my word. How are you, MM Jaye? Another Greek author, and I just happen to own a copy of Fate Accompli. I am getting so hung up on the Greek isles and gorgeous heros, I may soon hop a plane, sit in an outdoor cafe and watch those guys stroll past. I learned this astonishing tidbit: The Egyptian Pharaohs were all of Greek extraction. You folks get around, make history and write great books to boot!
Shame on me, Nick. I did not thank you for curating the posts on eNovel and jackieweger.com. Fabulous and well done. I once had to change a flat on my van. Step 3 instructed me to jack the van. Step 5 said: Loosen lugs before step 3. Notice men design cars. Dashboards look like airplane cockpits, GPS talks. And there is no place for a woman to hang her purse. It has to live in the footwell on passengers’ side. Not on a guy’s radar.
How true. I prefer to let my wife drive me around. I always end up with her purse on my lap. Sometimes I think that purse spends more time in my hands than in hers 😀
Hahaha! I always get a kick of watching my husband in the grocery store with my purse on his shoulder. Too funny.
Hey! That could be me, you know! 😀
Lol. That’s terrible, but funny re: step 5!
Reblogged this on Grace Brannigan Romance Author and commented:
Some wonderful information on book marketing. Meet Jackie Weger.
Golly, Grace. Thank you. I see all of the nice things said about me. And I do appreciate every kind word. The best suggestion I have for indie authors is to make the best decision you can for your books–whatever your preferred genre. However, we cannot made the best decisions based on skewed facts or generic blogs, i.e. “My book sales on B&N are 20% of my sales on Amazon.” That sounds fabulous until…
I look at the book on B&N and discover it doesn’t even have sales rank because the book has yet to sell a single unit. Why lie? We need promoters. We cannot move books without them. I like promoters who will work with indie authors and listen to us. I do not like promoters who get snarky when we ask pertinent questions. Some promoters are wonderful, but their sites are often impossible to navigate. I just this morning got an email from a promoter who told me to watch 30 minutes of videos so I would know how to navigate the site. HUH? I have to laugh because that is a guy thing. If you don’t think that is true, read in your car manual, “How to Change a Tire.”
JackieWeger
No Perfect Fate
FREE Globally June 25-27, 2015
And there I was, thinking it’s only guys who don’t know how to follow instructions! 😀
Thanks and welcome 🙂
Thank you. Going through the links now. 🙂
Hope you find them useful 🙂
Jackie Weger is a friend and mentor to me and knowing how humble she is I won’t embarrass her by saying in detail how wonderful she is as a person, writer, and marketer. I’ll just confirm what you relayed here quite wonderfully, Nicholas, i.e. that she researches constantly all the promo sites under the sun and that she knows her onions. Indie authors can only benefit by following Jackie’s blog and the eNovAaW blog too. Last, I can also vouch for the wonderful support of Mike Smith at BeezeeBooks. He even offers to his newsletter subscribers the chance to join a small author group and promote each other’s free/discounted books in a very simple but effective way he has chosen (via email). The man is a benevolent force of nature and all he delivers is wonderful exposure at no cost. Highly recommended!
Thank you so much for that! 🙂