First, let’s get talk about the elephant. Bookbub. Everyone loves them, tries to
get into them,. Heck even me. I used them, paid a hefty price tag of 160.00,
and yes, I got my money back. I had to sell a lot of books to do so. You have a
3 day window where you see the sales. The problem is, they are huge now
compared to when I first tried them and their rejection rate is depressing. I
have given up on them, and after my final rejection, I sought out to find other
means. I did.
Bottom line, YOU DON’T
NEED them. Let them enjoy their popularity. Charge a hefty price (Even to
advertise your free book), I’ll tell you how to get the same results or close for
100.00 or less. And not only will you not
have to sell as many books to get back your investment, smaller ad places have
long lasting effects. Plus, honestly, they care. They take it the extra mile.
Kindle Nation Daily – They range in price from 99.00 – 269.00. I got a 99.00 ad, as a featured
book, meaning no price change. Results …. I sold only 20 books. There’s better that are more affordable.
Bargain Booksy –
Not bad. The price tag for this ad is 50.00, you just about get your investment
back, and you will definitely see an increase in rank. The word gets out,
people browse this site and they do a nice page for your book.
Cheapebooks –
This is one of those sites that doesn’t push you to drop your price. I did
their ‘flash’ pack, three days flash, cost me 15.00. Because they say a person
has to see the book three times, sometimes before they buy. I did it on a book
that sold only 1 copy the previous month, no price change. I sold 12. Definitely
got my money back and showed me that the book probably will never sell. This is
an affordable use.
Ereader News Today –
This place sells out fast, they have a waiting list and there is no
guarantee you’ll get a spot. It’s non investment and that’s not just why. They charge by
the clicks that come from their site. So you can't lose your investment. No nail biting and adding to see if you got your money back. I went into this ad with a book that was
already semi popular, ranked about 3k, and selling 40 a day. Holy cow. Not expecting much I wasn't just pleasantly surprised, I was floored and felt like an addict the way I kept going to my page, checking sales and my rank. I was giggly and felt on top of the world. I hit Number #1 on military books and cracked the top 1000 rank, hell, I cracked top 500 for a minute and that's saying a lot. Not to mention,you get warm, friend, quick human responses from the reps. If you can get on the waiting list to be notified of a spot, do it. All this fuss about Bookbub, please. ENT has you saying, "Bookbub who?"
Book Gorilla –
This site is somehow affiliated with the Kindle Nation Daily site, but work differently.
Book Gorilla is $50.00 and the ad is a nice ad. The book gets out and you will
see sales. I came in under my investment, just a tad, but it did boost the
book.
Awesome Gang – I know
I recommended these guys with the free
ad, they do those too, but their paid for feature runs a mere $15.00 and with
that you get your sales, you see you investment returned, plus, another site
that cares. That newsletter alone is worth the $15.
Book Blast - My favorite and my ‘highly’ recommended bargain ad. At
a value bargain price of $35.00 you get exposure, sales, your money back, a
great rank, and a cool administrator guy to deal with. No kidding. Book Blast
is on of the best Ad Blast for your buck and I will use them again. There is a major residual sale factor with them for some reason. That's worth a lot.
What have I learned?
Never pull a media experiment in the same month. Yes, all of
these were run on different books in the same month. Results … I saw a 35%
increase in sales but lost 15% income. That’s not including what I spent. Yeah,
add it up. Imagine my surprise when I checked the royalty statement. Then I
realize. Why? Because these books were value priced at 99 cents. If I typically sell 10 books a day, my royalty
is 20.40 to get that at 99 cents, I had to sell … 60 books to recoup that daily
income and then another 100 to get the ad investment back. Only a few came
close.
So while I increased my sales by 35%, I gave up 65% profit on each book to do so. Not
a smart move to do on so many books at one time across a month. HOWEVER …. Because of these little ads,
yes, I took a dip in November, but December rolled in with great sales. I have
to attribute that to the ads.
So how can you make it work? Three ads at one time. Pick ANY
of the three I suggested, but I recommend Book
Blast as one of them. Run your ads the same day, and run your sale price
for three days only. You will see results similar to Bookbub without breaking your wallet.
Hmm. I think maybe I may look into finding authors affordable
bundle packages.
Best of luck with your book and remember … keep writing.
About the Author:Jacqueline Druga is a native of Pittsburgh, Pa and a fulltime author. She has written and published numerous novels in various genres, along with two full length feature films currently available on DVD. More than anything, she prides herself on being a kickbutt grandmother. To read more about Jackie’s work, read The Bookie Monster's review of The Forgottten.>