Figuring out where to advertise your book is worse than standing in a betting shop, five minutes before a race. You have money in your pocket, but a limited amount of time in which to select a guaranteed winner, and the odds are not in your favor.
I have already posted my ad results online. But I need more information. So, please send me your precious data. Where did you advertise, how much did it cost you and how many books did you sell as a result?
I will use this data to inform you of the best ways to invest your precious, limited advertising budgets. Also, I promise to share my own sales and ad results with you. With your help, we can reach thousands more – just share, reblog and share some more. Let’s help each other navigate these treacherous waters and make sure we don’t spend another dime in vain!
Want to learn more? Find out why this survey is the best thing to you since sliced bread (what, you want us to go back to a barbaric world where we have to tear the bread apart ourselves with primitive tools?)
Update: You can read the preliminary results on the Call to Arms survey here.
Nice article, I haven’t published yet but I’ll certainly publish in future.
Thanks! I hope you find these promoters useful when you do 🙂
Well, I filled out the survey: but some of the sites I used did not perform as well as in the past. And not just for me. In our private groups, several colleagues reported sad results with the same promoters. And this happened: a colleague snagged a Bookbub International, which does not include the US. She stacked other promos and Robin Reads out performed Bookbub. She did not use any of the lower performing sites and saw about the same # of downloads as I did. Spent far less than I did, too.
This is happening: Authors are forming genre-specific co-operative cross promotions to sell books and build their own newsletter subscriber lists. We’re taking our books direct to the reader without a 3rd party. In the past when a site did not move books, I thought, okay, an off day. Better books than mine grabbed the show, but with a dozen of us reporting the same sad performances, (and among the books are USA Today and NYT bestsellers), I’m dropping some promoters. I’m not paying a site with 10,000 followers on Twitter 19$ to Tweet my books. I have 3x that many Twitter followers. Our subscriber lists are readers and fans–not author top heavy as some promoter lists. Some of us are organizing street teams to generate interest and about our books.
Amazon has sent out warning notices to promoters that affiliate codes may not be used on books in newsletters. It’s against Amazon TOS. Some sites will fade away, others will raise their prices even though their subscriber list are tired and static.
So. Exciting and interesting times.
Exciting and interesting times, indeed. I feel like I live in a Chinese curse 🙂
I cant contribute a cost analysis ( because I always forget what I spend as soon as I have!) but I had a free giveaway (paid through Riffle) and although there were circa 70 downloads free it did not sell a single copy once the free came to an end ( despite nothing but 5* reviews prior to that). I paid for a display ad (about £150) in a specialist magazine at the same time as they carried an extended article on my book, again absolutely nothing sold. I paid a very well known publicist for an analysis and rejigged website who achieved a press release on CNN- again nothing sold at all. His view was it was entirely a numbers game and one just had to keep on keeping on. Yet all the stunning reviews by notable people have made no difference either!
I have recently been watching an excellent how to advertise on Facebook free course in three parts( by Mark Dawson) but he ( like you Nicholas) has books in series and seemingly a constant monitoring and targeted ad campaign(s) which would never apply to my work (but definitely works for his). I clearly have to devise something entirely different and I am working on an idea that involves no money but perhaps a year of work!
I offer this not to create despond but to comfort others whose work is of no genre and not part of a series. I am happy to create a ‘magnet’ ( short story or whatever) to achieve followers but feel that any one thing of mine is no indicator of any other thing of mine!
So my experience is probably of no help to anyone else.
I don’t think that’s true (that your experience is no help to others), as I see all of us as being part of a spectrum. We need all points to understand the trends. For starters, you point out how hard it is to promote a single book. Then, you point out that giveaways often don’t work, if it’s sales you’re after (and a 70-book giveaway on Riffle is an interesting statistic on its own).
I have helped some author friends with their promos, and they give away up to a couple of thousand copies during their free days. However, this, too, doesn’t guarantee sales, especially with stand-alone titles.
So, thanks for your candor and for sharing 🙂
Thanks Nicholas. I just feel the only help I can offer is having tried so many things (many, such as endorsements from Ervin Laszlo and specialist essays, articles, and stunning reviews) would be considered by a publisher to guarantee sales. So a realistic appraisal of the limits of self publishing (for work such as mine) might help generate other strategies ( co-operatives, collective fringe events- shared platforms) rather than each of us beavering away alone and without the time to think creatively. I get the impression that Alli is fostering such initiatives too.
Perhaps realistic expectations is a help?
That they certainly are.
Reblogged this on .
I have a terrific editor who doesn’t rape me financially. Marketing is not only a priority, but a necessity that is a real pain in the …!
I called and got myself invited to the local CBS TV station to plug my books, paid for radio advertising, and had two local newspapers write wonderful articles, twice. I sent out over a hundred post cards that I had made advertising my book signing at a local bookstore that was scheduled the same date as the TV appearance, and it was super successful. I attended two art and craft fairs handing out pens, letter openers, bookmarks, calendars, keychains, and more, that had my books on them, and sold a great many books. I advertise here, on Tumblr, Stumbleupon, Pinterest, Twitter, Promocave, about.me, Google+, and two different facebook pages. 2014 was more than a very good year for sales. My books sell on numerous web sites which include of course Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and get good reviews on Goodreads.
I sat down and went over all the figures, and I spent $2143 for advertising. That includes the booth fees for the two art and craft fairs. It was certainly a good investment, but a very short run.
Now, sales have dropped dramatically. I’ll have a new book published by late summer or early fall, but I feel my books are only reaching a widespread area in the state of North Dakota. I feel the TV thing and newspapers would say enough is enough to another request. Does anyone have an idea what I can do to bring back and or expand my sales?
First of all, it sounds to me like you should be teaching courses on how to promote one’s books! Congrats on your success 🙂
I can’t imagine what more to do than more of the same: keep building your platform and write more books!
Sandi, That’s amazing — all you’ve done and how it worked for a while. I’d suggest internet podcasting/radio shows that cater to small niche audiences. I keep hearing how this is a big part of the future of advertising books, and works much better than a broad appeal on a CNN or network TV newscast. But that’s just what I’ve heard. Haven’t tried it yet myself although I know several authors who’ve done short internet radio interviews. Good luck with the future.
Reblogged this on Lori Schafer's Short Subjects I Feel Like Writing About and commented:
Author and blogger Nicholas Rossis is conducting a survey regarding the effectiveness of different ad campaigns. Contribute your data and make sure we never spend another dime in vain!
Reblogged this on Jo Robinson.
Happy to let you know. I’m trying out some new ad strategies. My book Words We Carry will be going on a kindlecountdown next Thursday March 12th and I’ve got a few ads going. 🙂
Woo hoo – wish you best of luck! Send me some tweets that I can share, will you please?
Thanks so much Nicholas. Oh, and incidentally, I did run a ‘free’ promo on one of my books in January. I spent $10 u.s. on ads and advertised with a few other companies for free. I managed around 1500 downloads and caught a few sales on my other books after. Unfortunately there is no way on our sales sheets to verify which ads brought in the most traffic. Let me know if you want to know the sites I advertised with. 🙂
I’d love that, thanks! 🙂
Reblogged this on Tara Sparling writes and commented:
The last post regarding e-book advertising costs to sales kind of exploded. Now, that sounds very violent, but I don’t mind, because if there’s one thing I love, it’s data goo.
Now my partner in crime, fantasy author Nicholas C. Rossis, has hit on the genius idea of asking you authors – yes, you out there – for your own advertising results. If you have marketed your own book, please visit his site and take his survey: just 3 tiny wee questions will take only 2 minutes but make some data lovers (like me) very happy, but more importantly, contribute to invaluable information which will be promptly re-released to you, on which advertising methods have worked, and which have not.
Please take the survey! If you do, I promise at least one more chart. Mmmmmm….. charts…..
Hi Nicholas,
Do you want a separate survey for each ad we’ve run if there’s more than one (I mean, is that supported)? Also, we’ve been having a similar discussion in one of my Goodreads groups – happy to promote your survey there as well if it will help with the data collection 🙂
That would be great. But I can also break them up, if you prefer (it’s why I’ve left plenty of space for comments).
I’d love it if you forwarded my post to your Goodreads discussion – that would be great!! Thank you! 🙂
Reblogged this on Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life and commented:
How about helping Nicholas C. Rossis out with his survey.. Ad results.
We haven’t run any paid ads yet, so I’ll be interested in the results.
I hope this will help you pick the best places 🙂
So do I 🙂
Filled in and reblogged – thanks for undertaking this research; about time someone did!
Thank you so much for your support! 🙂
Reblogged this on The Write Stuff and commented:
Join in folks, it’s about time someone did this research.
Reblogged this on beetleypete and commented:
Have you published online? Perhaps you can help others by replying to Nicholas. This is genuine, and not a scam.
I haven’t published Nicholas, but I will reblog and see if that helps. Best wishes, Pete.
Thanks, Pete! Much appreciated 🙂
I am rewriting my book before publishing it… Am several steps behind you
I wish you best of luck 🙂
Will let you know – book launch is today.
Best of luck!!! What’s the link?
Not up on Kindle yet. The book is on Amazon now, though:
https://smile.amazon.com/Death-Dacron-Sail-Brewster-Mysteries/dp/0578149532/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425299243&sr=1-1&keywords=Death+in+a+Dacron+Sail
Plus there’s more on my blog: https://saylingway.wordpress.com
Thanks!
Thanks! I’ll tweet about it as soon as the Kindle version is available 🙂
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Not at all! Just please remind me, as my memory is sieve-like… 🙂