Jackie Weger of eNovel Authors At Work (#eNovAaW) recently shared her experience promoting her book using free days. Even though Bookbub has repeatedly accepted her, she wanted to learn if indie authors could earn out in less costly promotions. Her first experience, which you can read about here, was positive. So, now was the time to repeat the experiment and see which promoters offer the best value for money. She has ran two promos so far:
The First Promo
Jackie ran a 5 day Free promo on her romance novel, No Perfect Fate, in January 2017. Total units moved: 7,316. She spent $431.00 advertising that and earned $689.30, plus 98,931 KENP pages read and 127 crossover sales of 2.99 priced books. When that is added, it was a nice return on investment–a bit over $1000.
Jackie promoted with the following promoters:
- eReaderIQ
- DigitalBookToday
- Kindle Romance Deal and Steals
- Awesome Gang
- Hot Zippy
- My Book Cave
- Book Scream. Genre Pulse ($19)
- Awesome Gang ($10)
- eBookStage
- eBookHound
- KindleBookReview
- free99books
- Just Kindlebooks
- bookaddict.com ($10)
- Book deal hunter
- ContentMo (free)
- ItsWriteNow (free)
- FKBT
- ask.David (free)
- Readers Gazette.com (free)
- freebooksy ($100)
- Reading Deals Submission Tool-$29
- Accent on Romance Newsletter-using her own subscriber list of 15K subscribers. Cost for her newsletter: $56 a month.
Following her experience, Jackie says she would drop off of this list Freebooksy and Reading Deals Submission Tool. Freebooksy did not move as many units as her newsletter, and she only heard from two promoters on the Reading Deals Submission Tool–plus it is very easy to submit to those promoters and learn if a unit is accepted or not.
The Second Promo
Jackie ran a second 5 day FREE on another romance novel, No Perfect Secret, in February 2017. Total Units moved: 6,080 at a cost of $408. She earned $726.72, plus: 91,015 KENP pages read and 135 crossover sales of 2.99 priced books, which brings the return on investment to about $1200.
This time, she promoted with:
- eReaderIQ
- Booktastik
- PeopleReads
- eReaderNewsToday
- Digital Books Today
- eBookSoda
- eBookBetty
- Reading Deals
- The Books Machine
- Many Books
- eReader Cafe (free)
- Mega Books Deal
- ReaderGazette (free)
- Bookbub CPM ad ($200)
And, of course, her Accent on Romance newsletter. She also co-promoted newsletters with two other authors, and Accent on Romance also promoted a Rafflecopter with four other authors.
Who would she drop off this list? Amazingly enough, the 5 day CMP Bookbub Ad. Bookbub moved 1000 units at a cost of $200, but so did her newsletter, which cost $56.
Using Free Days
If you are wondering how a FREE unit earns sales, Jackie’s experience shows that readers visit your book pages, download the free and also ‘borrow’ or buy other books on an author’s list. Plus, if a reader enjoys a book, they may post a review.
She ends with a caveat, though: a new trend seems to be lower downloads in promotions across the board. She uses Bookbub’s pricing list as a guide, among other data. In the past, Bookbub suggested average downloads in romance to be in the neighborhood of 60K. Today, average downloads on a free romance unit are 41,300.
You can find out more on the eNovAaW blog and on The Book Tavern and Fiction Bar.
Update: Jackie’s Tip
In response to a comment asking what more we can do to promote our books, here’s what Jackie has to say:
Offering units for free only works if one gets a ‘tail’ on the promotion… Borrows/KENP pages read and crossover sales. As an indie digital marketer, my books are on Amazon’s virtual shelf. In the past mine and other romance authors got our reputations by word-of-mouth in used book stores, where our books were traded over and over again. We didn’t earn a dime in royalty for those used book sales, but they served us well. eBooks don’t get traded in used book stores… so our free books are kind of operating as word-of-mouth. A reader who enjoys a free unit will often buy or borrow (Kindle Unlimited) our other books. I often find a new reader will download my entire back list at full price. It shows up in “also bought”.
You absolutely can promote your book at full price. One must build a readership, have an effective newsletter to reach those willing to pay full price. The book has to resonate with readers to get momentum. Not to mention an interesting and interactive blog/webpage. Here is what you are up against: Digital readers got burned early on by less than quality books. They have learned not to take a chance on a new author at full price. They just won’t do it.
Even in our maturing market, new indies still produce less than stellar books. I’m not talking about the story line. Some are not edited/proofread. Formatting mishaps abound. I recently downloaded a book with a great cover, a stellar book description and there was NO Content. Major mishap. Which tells me the author did NOT use the Amazon preview tool right there online.
While writing my books, my relationship is between me and my characters. Once published, my relationship is between me and my readers… From that point on, all has to be reader-centric.
You may also enroll your book in Amazon Select and promote it Read FREE with Kindle Unlimited. All of my books are full price except when in promotion.
Great info!
Couldn’t agree more 🙂
UPDATE: Nicholas: Here it is July 2018. I’m happy to mention Booksy has lowered prices. So a 99c unit gets promoted for $70. I booked a slot. And wonder of wonders Bookbub is offering $500 in a Rafflecopter to drum up subscribers. One smart thing we are doing in eNovel with our Rafflecopters is sending the entrant list through https://www.bulkemailchecker.com/ before random drawing a winner or winners. This keeps our mailing lists clean and reduces bounce rates and unsubscribes. Astonishing fact: Many entrants skew their email addresses so lose out on the opportunity to win fabulous books and stunning gifts. In a survey to my subscribers, I learned above 80% also subscribe to Bookbub, which tells me readers are always searching for a good book free or discounted.
Hope you and yours are enjoying your summer in the Greek Isles. We’re pouring sweat in 100° heat in Texas.
Thank you so much for the update, Jackie! It’s hot all right, but we have the sea close by to cool things down 🙂
Fabulous advice from Jackie – an author dedicated to helping indies promote effectively. Thank you for sharing the links to enovel’s blog and the book tavern too, Nicholas. The first is where indies get to learn loads of hot tips. The tavern is where they are welcome to meet the enovel authors and a host of bookworms eager to hear about free and 99c books! Indies, come on over for a chin wag. We even serve cake 😉 https://www.facebook.com/groups/181749865562011
Many thanks for the link, Fros 🙂
Nicholas, this is great stuff. I love how detailed it is. Another thanks goes out to Jackie for sharing and being so detail-oriented. It helps in the science of book marketing.
The devil sure does lie in the details 🙂
Nicholas! Thanks for sharing my blog posts about smaller, less costly promotions. There are indie books making the best seller list every day, but I’m noticing that status is not sustainable in our current climate. We have to be satisfied with less sales and borrows. Having said that: each promotion I design has to earn an ROI. And every book I release has to pay its way i.e. my investment in it. Frankly, as my basic promotions, I’m using every tool Amazon provides the author to include giveaways for followers on Amazon and sponsored ads–which cost pennies a day. Those ads take a while to gain traction, but eventually they are in the $$$. Commercial promoters who are raising fees and producing less downloads have slipped off of my preferred promoter lists. The savvy small promoter charging $5 or $10 is moving books. Not in huge numbers, but as an aggregate they pull their weight.
Again, Thanks for sharing. How is your lovely new daughter doing?
She’s gorgeous and has stolen my heart 😀
Many thanks for sharing your experience, Jackie. Your blog is a precious resource for everyone!
Great tips from Jackie. She did really well.
Best wishes, Pete.
She’s the best, when it comes to promos (and to supporting others).
Interesting stats and thanks to Jackie for sharing her experience. I’ve been using Book Shark and Loved Kissed Promo with good results.
Do you have a link for BookShark? That is new to me.
Sure, here you go: https://www.bookshark.org/advertise/
Thank you!
You’re most welcome, Jackie!
Thanks for sharing that, NN!
My pleasure, Nick! Always willing to share info on promo. 🙂
Thank you for sharing that!
I wonder what will be next. What can an author do more than offering their stuff for free?
jazzfeathers: That is a good question. Offering units for free only works if one gets a ‘tail’ on the promotion…Borrows/KENP pages read and crossover sales. As an indie digital marketer, my books are on Amazon’s virtual shelf. In the past mine and other romance authors got our reputations by word-of-mouth in used book stores, where our books were traded over and over again. We didn’t earn a dime in royalty for those used book sales, but they served us well. eBooks don’t get traded in used book stores…so our free books are kind of operating as word-of-mouth. A reader who enjoys a free unit will often buy or borrow (Kindle Unlimited) our other books. I often find a new reader will download my entire back list at full price. It shows up in “also bought”.
You absolutely can promote your book at full price. One must build a readership, have an effective newsletter to reach those willing to pay full price. The book has to resonate with readers to get momentum. Not to mention an interesting and interactive blog/webpage. Here is what you are up against: Digital readers got burned early on by less than quality books. They have learned not to take a chance on a new author at full price. They just won’t do it.
Even in our maturing market, new indies still produce less than stellar books. I’m not talking about the story line. Some are not edited/proofread.Formatting mishaps abound. I recently downloaded a book with a great cover, a stellar book description and there was NO Content. Major mishap. Which tells me the author did NOT use the Amazon preview tool right there online.
While writing my books, my relationship is between me and my characters. Once published, my relationship is between me and my readers…From that point on, all has to be reader-centric.
You may also enroll your book in Amazon Select and promote it Read FREE with Kindle Unlimited.
All of my books are full price except when in promotion. Hope this helps. Wishing you good luck.
Thanks for the comment, Jackie. I’ll copy it over to the main post, so that people don’t miss it.
Lol – my very first promo was a forlorn-looking photo of me with a post-it saying, “please buy my book.”
Didn’t work too well.
Nicholas! You made me smile. That reminds me of panhandlers at intersections holding ups signs: Homeless VET, Hungry or Will work for food. I don’t know if you have panhandlers in Greece. the USA is flush with them. When traveling across the state, I carry a bunch of five dollar bills to hand out, especially at Christmas. The men in my family put the zinger on that…but what about wearing a sign, Starving author! With a stack of books to sell. New wave promotion!
We do have panhandlers, mostly immigrants. Like you, I use five-euros banknotes almost exclusively for charity, although I’m too starving an author to hand most of them anything larger than a one-euro coin. Hadn’t thought of the stack of books idea, I’ll probably try it out one of these days. I still have some 250 copies of Smile to sell 😀