You may remember my recent promotion of Infinite Waters and The Power of Six. For five days, the former was available for free. The latter has stayed on 99c for a little longer, as I didn’t want to interrupt its downloads.
Go Free
From timashton.org.uk
In the past, I’ve used paid services to announce my sales to the world. I usually spend between $50 and $100 per promo. Depending on the season, this generated between 300 and 3,000 downloads. The former was far more common though; that last one was a bit of a fluke, as it was Christmas, and I was accidentally helped by someone posting on Reddit about it (you can read all about it in my A-Z post).
This time, I went (almost) all free. Capital controls are still imposed in Greece, which means that I’m pretty restricted as to spending money abroad. So, I used Effrosyni Moschoudi’s list of free promoters, realizing in the process that some of the places have now either gone bust, or require payment. In the interest of helping you out, here is a direct link to an Excel spreadsheet with the places I actually submitted to.
The (Books) Butterfly Effect
But first, let me clarify that I did get one paid promo for free: I had asked Books Butterfly to let me test their guarantee service. You see, Books Butterfly has a brilliant system, where they offer a prorated refund. That means: If you pay $100 for a Platinum Slot (which guarantees 2,000 downloads) and you only get 1,500 downloads, you get a $25 refund.
Abhi had left me a message on this blog suggesting I try their service, so I bought a $50 spot. However, he wrote back explaining that interest in short stories is roughly 1/5th that of full-length books. As a result, this was not a good way to test their service at all. He very generously offered to run my short story collection, Infinite Waters, for no charge.
On the day that Abhi ran his promo, I had 400 downloads. The next day, 244. All this had already broken my usual number, so I’ll definitely be trying out Books Butterfly again in the near future.
The Numbers
During the rest of the days, I had a little over 400 free downloads, bringing the total number to a little over 800.
Throughout the promo, I also sold some 40 books, 25 of which were of the discounted Power of Six. The rest were full-price copies of the rest of my books. This 95% free / 5% paid ratio was steady throughout the campaign, which leaves me to think it must be a thing.
What’s more exciting is the ranking success the promo had. Both books hit #1, with The Power of Six hitting it much sooner and for longer (since it was a paid book; not a free one).
The Power of Six had this lovely “Best Seller” caption next to it for a few days
Once again, The Power of Six ranked pretty high in its subgenres, reaching #1 in one of them
Infinite Waters reached #1 in one category, and quite high listings in two more
What’s next?
For my next promotion, I may try a combination of free and paid sites. I’ll be using Jackie Weger’s recommendations. As she says 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.”
So, what’s the verdict?
Well, this had to be the best zero bucks I’ve ever spent 🙂
Half of the downloads came from free submissions. I think this proves that you don’t necessarily need to spend a fortune on ads to promote your sale, as long as you are willing to spend the time and effort to submit to a number of places.
All the same, the fact that the other half came from Books Butterfly shows that a few well-placed promos may well be worth the money spent, as they will save you tons of work.
So, it really boils down to a simple question: which are you willing to spend to promote your free deal: time or money?
A reminder: If you’ve run a promo, please do take the 3-question survey and help other authors by sharing your results!
Facebook Caveat
I’m updating this post to include a caveat I just discovered on KBoards. According to J.E. Taylor, posting the exact same content on multiple FB pages at once can get you banned. As she says, “once you are banned, you are out of the water for 14 days minimum. It’s a 14 day black out from any group activity, and what is worse, when they ban the user from posting to groups, they delete ALL their posts from the beginning of time, not just the ones that may have triggered their algorithms. This includes deleting entries in groups that that author created, even closed or secret groups.”
So if you use this option in your marketing strategy, you might want to think twice or at the very least, spread out your posting throughout the day to gain exposure without risking being banned.
For further information on this, check out the entire post on KBoards.
Thank you for educating us about the promos. And thanks for the follow.
A pleasure! I’m glad you found my post useful – and welcome 🙂
Thanks. It will be great following your blog.
Aw, you. Barely 5′ here and you’re already my favorite 😀
LOL
I’m still so intimidated by this ‘promo’ thing.
Thanks so much for sharing this. I learn something every time. One day, I’ll be able to do something myself… I hope…
It’s really not hard, provided you have the necessary time or, alternatively, cash 🙂
Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.
Thank you for sharing your experiment Nicholas. I will have to try it out. 😀
Best of luck if you do – and don’t forget to share your experience 😉
Will do 😀
Thanks for sharing your insightful analyses and for the resource links as well. Passing them all along! 🙂
Yay! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks for the informative post…very kind of you to share your results.
A pleasure! Thanks for reading 🙂
Awesome post. I’m just gearing up to a promo. I need to make about 800 free downloads a month, basically. If they’re mostly UK based that earns me about £200 in onward sales, if they’re mostly US based I earn about /£100. To get the £1/200 I have to spend about £25-50 depending on which sites I’ve advertised on before and which one’s are up next. 😉
You mention a couple of sites I’ve never heard of so I will definitely give them a go.
Cheers
MTM
Yay, so glad to help! Interesting ratio that 1/200 you mention.
Yeh, it’s a bit rough, it can be £150 or £75 or £225 and £120 but it does, at least, give me a kind of ball park for working it all.
Thanks Nicolas. A very helpful post.
Yay! Thanks 🙂
Reblogged this on TheKingsKidChronicles.
I read on Book Barbarians “Book Barbarian only features books from bestselling or award winning authors and select titles with outstanding reviews and high ratings.”
So I guess that means a newcomer like me can’t get in with them.
All the promoters I know also feature special new books sections. So, I wouldn’t be so fast to give up 🙂
As a newcomer, be sure to check out my marketing posts on https://nicholasrossis.me/guides/ . Hopefully, you’ll find them useful 🙂
Reblogged this on Audrey Driscoll's Blog and commented:
Helpful information, even for the marketing-averse like me.
Yeah, little by little I’m doing more paid so this is good. I’ve never heard of the one you mentioned so THAT’S going on my list for sure. THANKS!
Having read here about Books Butterfly, I just signed for a promo with them for my permafree. I like the way they operate. For one of my priced books, they dissuaded me from a $75 package in favour of a $50 one that sets (they say) more realistic sales expectations for that particular book. Of course, they do partial refunds if they don’t meet their goals.
It’s great to find new and interesting promo sites. Thanks so much, Nicholas.
Good to hear that you, too, had a positive experience with them 🙂
Thanks for sharing. It’s always interesting to see what others are trying out and how it works for them. There is a huge difference, I’ve found, in what sites move certain genre. When my little crime fiction novel is ready for promo, I’ll probably need different resources than those that have worked well for my historical novel.
That’s very true – and an excellent point.
Very interesting post.
Thanks! I try 🙂
Great info authors can use. Thanks, Nicholas. 🙂
I’m so glad you found it useful 🙂
Great data, Nicholas! My favourite. PS, you’re looking well. 😀
Hello, my dear! And thanks again for the great night out 🙂
My pleasure. Glad Dublin didn’t scare you off
Are you kidding? It was great – and lovely weather. No idea what you’re on about all the time :b
Next time, it’s my turn to show you around. Just grab Mark and hop to Athens 🙂
Only if you promise to walk us for miles not knowing where you’re going, and introduce us to local strangers who feel the need to tell us things which are not relevant to absolutely anything. Then it’s a deal. 😀
Ha ha – no worries, you were a lovely, much appreciated company, and I wouldn’t have rather been lost in Dublin with anyone else 🙂
BTW, I have a confession: I have no idea what that chap was on about. I couldn’t understand half the things he was saying 😀
Oh God neither did I. I just make the appropriate noises until they eventually stop
Ha ha ha – and I thought that was just me 😀
What? Nicholas, you were in Dublin? When? I was in Dublin at the beginning of September.
So funny! I was there last Thursday (8th)
Thanks for generously sharing this info with us Nicholas and Effi. And nice that you mentioned, that some of these sites to close down, as well as many previous free have become paid. PS. I couldn’t open your excel link Nicholas for your promo list of sites. Am I the only one? 🙂
Oh! I don’t know if you’re the only one, but I just tested it and it seems to be working fine. Just drop me an email through https://nicholasrossis.me/contact/ and I’ll email you a copy 🙂
Thanks again Nicholas. Oddly enough, when I couldn’t download it, while I was about to close my laptop for the night, the file magically appeared opened in the corner of my desktop page? Strange, but happy! 🙂 PS I love your children’s book, you do have a gift for children’s writing! 🙂
Aw, you! Thank you 🙂
Oh, I read your lovely book on travelling on Friday! On an airplane, no less. Great fun – and how appropriate 😀
Lol, perfect airplane read! Thanks so much for reading and sharing so much with us! 🙂
Thanks for the updates, Nicholas. It’s funny, I was just looking at Books Butterfly the other day. I’m so happy to know that you had a good experience with them.
You know me. I always share 🙂
Reblogged this on authorkdrose and commented:
One of the great things about indie writers is that we share marketing attempts and outcomes. Here’s a great example.
Good stuff. Since I’m now my own publisher I will be free to use these tools on my new release. Thanks for all the information.
A pleasure; I’m glad you found it useful! Just share your results, please 🙂
Yes boss
😀
Valuable info, Nicholas, thanks! I’m running several promos this fall, for both my free and paid books. Books Butterfly sounds excellent and I plan to give it a try. FYI, I’m also about to launch a FB campaign, using their demographics to drill down and test very specific audiences. This is invaluable for someone like me, whose books aren’t in a genre.
That’s great! Best of luck – and do share your results, please 🙂
Great info, Nicholas. I had pretty good luck with a promo on free sites but did put in a day of work setting it all up. BooksButterfly sounds worth a good look too. Thanks for pulling all this together. I end up saving these posts for future reference
I’m so glad to hear that. For your convenience, I have them all listed under https://nicholasrossis.me/guides/ 🙂
Awesome.
More top tips from the top literary tipster!
Thanks, Nicholas.
Best wishes, Pete.
Lol – a tipster, huh? Love that 😀
Good to know all of this. Very interesting, Nicholas.
And I am still reading your book. I am was on General Parad.
Now, I am in to read on the horrorfying old lady! Evil woman. 😛
Lol – the jury is out on that.
And thanks for reading!!! 🙂
A crazy jury!
But I really love the story even from the first chapter. The way you explain the reasons of politics and what powers and fear can do to the mind of the public which destroy all the trust and even hope.
Even though it is a novel, still, it is education in some way. More people should read this book of yours not because only that it is a good interesting sci-fi novel, but also it is one way to get into the mind of people that power of politic can be dangerous. And that people should not be afraid to their bad or evil leader(s). People has the FREEDOM to chose their leader and have peace for their country.
Education is a powerful tool for the mind. But the truth is, there are too many un-educated mind out there and they don’t understand politics at all.
Thank you – I love it when a reader gets me. Have you noticed how populists always start out by bad-mouthing politicians in general? The more people are disgusted by politics and turn away from voting, the easier it is for populists to push their agendas. It’s happening right now all over the world, and no one seems to care. It drives me nuts!
Yes, it is a thing what is going on everywhere. They hate and fear their leader, and yet they know they NEED them so that they may (perhaps) stay safe within their own zone. For as long there are no wars and more killings, people just don’t really care, unless they have really such a shit scary evil leader who kills everyone in their way like that Styx. The creature in her room is scary! I am going to read more this night. A very good novel, Nicholas! Thumbs up! 🙂
Yay! Thank you so much 🙂
Outstanding. Thank you for sharing, Nicholas. 🙂
A pleasure! I hope you find the info here useful 🙂
I hope so too. 😉
As always, Nicholas, fascinating info. I’ll check into the sites you mentioned today. Thanks!
Thanks! Glad you found it useful 🙂
Very informative post, Nicholas 🙂 I ran a free promo recently as well, and also noticed that I sold quite a few copies of the paperback during the promo, then continued to sell e-books after, plus my KENP count has gone way up. I ran a paid promotion on three of the five days and on those days my downloads quadrupled so I ended up with just under 4500 downloads overall in the five days. I’m planning on running a similar promo when my third book comes out and will check out some of the promo sites you have listed here. This is why I love blogging – people such as yourself who are so generous with information! Thank you xx
I’d love to hear your experience with what worked and what didn’t.
It all worked pretty well,to be honest. The days I ran an additional promo were definitely more successful than those when I didn’t – I promoted with Booksends, Robin Read and E Reader News today and received similar results from each of them. The costs were minimal and I made most of the back with the sales I had over the free period. I realise the download figures are high and I had some positive reviews on Amazon and Goodreads to back up the book, so I think that helped too.
eReader News Today is on top of my list to try out next. I’ve never heard of Robin Read though. So you were very happy with these?
Yes, they all went well, and each gave me a similar result. I will say in terms of price the Booksend ad cost more than the other two ads put together. I would certainly use this combination again.
Awesome! Any chance you could share on https://nicholasrossis.me/2015/03/02/take-the-3-question-ad-results-survey/ ? 😉
Done! 🙂
Thank you!!
Aw, thanks 🙂
That’s great! Please do share the sites where you promoted, as I’m sure that a lot of people would love results like yours 🙂
Thanks Nicholas – I promoted with Booksends, E Reader News Today and Robin Reads, and ran a single day on each during the five day promotion. All gave me similar results, which was about a fourfold increase in downloads compared to the days when I didn’t promote. Costwise, Booksends was the most expensive, but as mentioned I made back most of my costs with KENP pages and paperback sales during the promo. I’m still quite surprised by the results, to be honest!
Wow! Awesome. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing. Always looking for an effective place to promote. 😀
Interesting data. I like the look of that book on the left side of your graphic too.
Actually, I spent some time on an airplane yesterday, and I reread it. I really loved it, even the second time around (and I’ve been meaning to let you know). Although I particularly enjoyed the one with the biplane, I have to mention the chilling brilliance of the clone one, and, of course, the hilarious last one… An amazing collection, indeed!
I’ve never had anyone tell me they reread something of mine. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. The comment makes my day.
Ooh, and I loved the Fogg story! Darn, it’s so hard to pick one 😀
Seems like everyone has different favorites. I take that as a good sign that they resonate with readers. Jason Fogg is a character that could be used again. Not saying I will, but the way his tale ended is different than say Candice.
Oh, I loved Candice. Plus, she might escape. Which would make for an interesting story, right? 😉
It might at that.
Great analysis, Nicholas! As a book promoter, that’s why I offer my Wednesday FREE promotion. It allows authors to test out my services before paying. I’ve seen a lot of promo sites go bust, too. It’s sad but such is the way of the business.
That’s a great opportunity! Send me a direct link and some details, please, and I’ll add it to all relevant posts – or even schedule a dedicated post 🙂
yes! please post a link!
Reblogged this on Books and More.
Interesting numbers. I’ll have to look into that Book Butterfly thing when I get a chance. You mentioned some places going bust and I just wanted to mention that I’ve seen the same thing this year. Looks like a lot of small marketing sites either disappear or freeze. Probably lost a third of my promotion list over the last year because the sites simply aren’t there any more. Curious if this means something is shifting.
I wonder if it might have to do with KU.
I do wonder how much that’s changed everything. Still getting used to seeing those large numbers and knowing they might not mean much.
Lol – I know, right? Pretty misleading 🙂
Yeah. Is it one person who read the whole book or a ton of people who refused to go through the first chapter? The author will never know.
I’m confused. What large numbers are you addressing that are misleading? If you mean KENP–check the reviews. KU Readers are vocal. They will say if they are not getting past the first chapter. One can also tell if readers are enjoying a title by the review rank. A book that is maintaining a rank of 4.0/5.0 on 100 reviews or more is being read and enjoyed by most readers. That is the gold standard.
I was referring to the fact that, when I first saw KENP numbers, I thought I was selling books by the hundreds. Then I realized it was just pages read. It was a joke on my misinterpretation 🙂
Charles, What has happened is BookBub who has sorta swallowed much of the business. And, IMO, authors want an ROI for their money. Many of these companies just can’t get a share of the readership to warrant their fees.
Very true!
I’m confused. What large numbers are you addressing that are misleading? If you mean KENP–check the reviews. KU Readers are vocal. They will say if they are not getting past the first chapter. One can also tell if readers are enjoying a title by the review rank. A book that is maintaining a rank of 4.0/5.0 on 100 reviews or more is being read and enjoyed by most readers. That is the gold standard.
So kind of like how Amazon has swallowed up a lot of the eBook publishing market? Makes sense.
Re Bookbub: I cannot fault a good business plan by a group of smart promoters. Bookbub delivers good books to a buying reader public. Love it.
Those two are not mutually exclusive: Bookbub is both swallowing up smaller promoters, and delivers on its promises.
Interesting list of resources. Nice to see real facts and figures to illustrate the results. I’ll be checking them all out.
Excellent! Glad you found it helpful 🙂
Reblogged this on Anita & Jaye Dawes and commented:
slowly coming to the conclusion, that to rise above the crowd even by just a little, I may have to spend some money!
An excellent post, Nicholas, and I am sure authors will benefit from Jackie’s tips that you shared. Jackie tests all sites and knows what she’s talking about. If she says these sites are above the fold, it’s a guarantee. I’ll try them too next time, in the measure that I can afford it. Being in Greece like you, I also have the payment problem due to the capital controls and it’s a nightmare. I haven’t had a choice during most of my promos and so, I’ve always spent my time rather than my money, LOL. Hence the long list I came up with and shared – thank you for the mention, by the way 🙂 I find that my list needs updating every time from one promo to another as there are months in between and our business is incredibly fluid, as you know. Still, it’s good to have some kind of list to work on. I find the Facebook pages tend to last longer than the sites, LOL 🙂
Good point on the FB, and thanks for the kind words! I owe it all to you, of course 🙂
Thank you Frossie and Nicholas for the mention. Some promo sites do disappear… owners get tired or life gets in the way. Too, Amazon changed the way affiliate fees are paid on the combo of paid and FREE which greatly disrupted cash flow for those sites. As we indies become more knowledgeable, we discover how promo sites work. Some curate trad and indie pubbed best sellers off of Amazon to lure subscribers, and gather affiliate fees and also sell promo slots to indie authors–the suggestion being that if we promote with the site, we will see the same results as the curated books by authors who are not actually clients of the site. We often won’t. That is all legal. But it is still a little on the bait and switch side. It behooves us to read the fine print, otherwise we might be disappointed in downloads. We cannot market our books without promoters. I really like to support small promoters who are actively building a subscriber list of book buyers and are NOT top heavy with authors. In eNovel we do evaluate promoters…we look for how well the promoter works with indies and how knowledged based. We like to know who they are. We like transparency. If a site has 20,000 subscribers–great. Happy for you–but what is the open rate of your newsletter? What is the click through rate? I recently was offered a free slot on a site that had four books in promotion–one of which has 14 pages of one star reviews. I checked the books. I am not putting one of my books on a site next to an indie book with 14 pages of one and two star reviews–however lovely the presentation. We indie authors must stay on our game to get the best results for our promotions.
Thank you for reading, and for raising some excellent points! I’ve also noticed an interesting trend; more often that not, the more expensive an ad, the less successful it tends to be. Bookbub being the obvious exception here 🙂
I would invest both. But I’m totally new to all of this and I have big difficulties 😀 your post certainly helped me to see things more clearly. Thank you!
Yay! So glad to hear it! Thanks and welcome 🙂
Oh, and be sure to check out my marketing guides:
https://nicholasrossis.me/guides/
I will, thanks a lot!
I found all that really interesting.
Glad to hear it 🙂
Great post! Informative and helpful ^_^ Congrats on the success of your promotions!
Thank you so much for the kind words, and welcome 🙂