Written Word Media launches Reader Reach ads

[alhawke]

Got this in my email box today. Written Word Media--you know, the folks behind Bargain/Free Booksy, Red Feather Romance, and NewInBooks--have just launched a new ad service. It's $150, pricey, but sends out Facebook and Instagram ads based on your book. Basically, they have a team that runs ads for you. The duration is 3-5 days.

I'm always a sucker for new ways to promote. I signed up in 30min . This company has done very well for me and I haven't dipped my toes yet in Facebook. I'm excited to grab the attention of new readers. And I'm launching a new book.

The disadvantages I see so far is duration, cost, and ?effectiveness (of course). All promotions I've done with Facebook in past, newsletter anyway, have been for nothing. But I trust this company and I think if anyone, aside from BookBub, could do this successfully, they could. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm running it at the tail of my newsletter promos hoping for ... well, a sales tail.

[PaulineMRoss]

I signed up for this in conjunction with a FreeBooksy, not realising it was a brand new deal. I hate FB ads with a passion, so I was very happy to pay someone else to set them up for me. So far I can say that they definitely generated more free downloads than expected in the days after the Freebooksy ran, and there's been a spike in revenue, too. I'm not close to covering the cost, but then it's only been a week, so it may yet pay for itself. ETA: the advertised book was one of my epic fantasies which hasn't been promoted for about three years, so expectations were low!

[alhawke]

I got their email this am, but they might have been sending it out as "new" in waves to different subscribers. When I applied, the next week or so was already booked.
Good news regarding your extra sales. Hope you have more!
I'm crossing my fingers.

[idontknowyet]

I signed up to try it. I hate facebook ads.

[LilyBLily]

It's tempting...but they don't do women's fiction ads. I also hesitate because if I spent $150 on a Facebook ad in 3-5 days I'd be freaking out.

Funny. I used to spend upwards of $500 a month on AMS ads before they fell apart. Always profitable, too. What the heck happened? Amazon's fault or mine? I'll never be sure.

[Maggie Ann]

Two things I don't like about Freebooksy is that they are very expensive and they make you rewrite your book description. If they are going to set up the Facebook ad, they should, being the experts, write the ad themselves. Nevertheless, I have not done any advertising for several months so I had extra money in my account. The temptation was too much to resist.

My ad will start on 9/23. I chose the book that, without advertising, has the most free downloads.

Fingers crossed, candles lit.

[idontknowyet]

We're on the same day Maggie Ann.



Can you choose something close? LilyBLily I write crossover wf and sweet romance so i just picked sweet romance.

[LilyBLily]

I spent an hour dummying up my own sweet romance ad in Canva, completely stealing the examples on Written Word--although, of course, using my own images. Maybe I'll actually run  a FB ad.

If it's not going to be Written Word's text all the way, I doubt if they will improve on my pitiful ad copy. It took me years to realize I'd written a "best friend's brother" romance--basic proof I do not think like a marketer.

Today's free seminar with Bryan Cohen at the end offered a complete package of cover, keywords, categories, and blurb for (discounted) just under $700. It's not a bad deal considering you get a brand new cover out of it and Bryan's people do know how to write ad copy. I didn't bite on that one, either.

[alhawke]

Bryan Cohen, huh? $700 is steep, unless he delivers. But I'm sure his ad group can make a better ad than me. I bookmarked it for possible future consideration. Thanks for the tip!

[LilyBLily]

Bryan Cohen, huh? $700 is steep, unless he delivers. But I'm sure his ad group can make a better ad than me. I bookmarked it for possible future consideration. Thanks for the tip!

I suspect he charges more sometimes.

[ashleycapes]

I'm curious too - haven't taken the dive yet, so keen to see any results folks might like to share (if so inclined)

[Crystal]

For a cover, a blurb, and and AMS campaign, $700 is a solid deal. Assuming the cover is well done, of course.

Though a one-month turnaround is outrageous for a $300 blurb. If I'm paying $300, I want that blurb in a week (two max). A month is an eternity in indie publishing.

[LilyBLily]

For a cover, a blurb, and and AMS campaign, $700 is a solid deal. Assuming the cover is well done, of course.

Though a one-month turnaround is outrageous for a $300 blurb. If I'm paying $300, I want that blurb in a week (two max). A month is an eternity in indie publishing.

What we want and need isn't what these services suppliers want and need. Bryan said there were over 300 people tuning in to the webinar. That number will increase with the people who didn't attend but who get the recording. Assuming the event was a success, the people who work for him will have a big stack of orders to get through.

[Crystal]

So what?

His business is his business. If he has too much demand to keep up, he should hire more people. It's not really my job, as a client, to worry about his business.

Just as it's not his job, as a service provider, to worry about the other intricacies of my business. He offers what he offers. I agree it works for me or not. Maybe I counter or we negotiate. Maybe not. It's not his problem if I want a blurb in a week. Just as it's not my problem if he has too many orders. As long as we all agree to the terms and deliver on them.

I don't know the guy or the webinar. I found the site via Google and I'm speaking generally. That's just too much to pay for a one-month turnaround. If the turnaround is usually two weeks, okay, but a month is just not a good deal for $300.

If other people think otherwise, then obviously they can buy the blurbs, and everyone is happy. But I'll continue to feel that price is too much for that speed.

[idontknowyet]

my ad started today thought it started tomorrow oh well.

So far zero changes! Will keep everyone updated

[LilyBLily]

So what?

His business is his business. If he has too much demand to keep up, he should hire more people. It's not really my job, as a client, to worry about his business.

Just as it's not his job, as a service provider, to worry about the other intricacies of my business. He offers what he offers. I agree it works for me or not. Maybe I counter or we negotiate. Maybe not. It's not his problem if I want a blurb in a week. Just as it's not my problem if he has too many orders. As long as we all agree to the terms and deliver on them.

I don't know the guy or the webinar. I found the site via Google and I'm speaking generally. That's just too much to pay for a one-month turnaround. If the turnaround is usually two weeks, okay, but a month is just not a good deal for $300.

If other people think otherwise, then obviously they can buy the blurbs, and everyone is happy. But I'll continue to feel that price is too much for that speed.

I doubt his potential customers are even thinking about turnaround. They're paying for hand-holding when at the beginning of an indie career or for credible expertise because they've got a bunch of books out that aren't selling.

I think it's another instance of buying hope by putting all one's trust in someone else. I must have turned off the webinar before he got to how long it takes.     

[LilyBLily]

I almost signed up for one of these new ads, and then in the process I noticed that Amazon somehow added all my Author Central copy to my blurb. With no spaces between sentences, of course. Rather than talk to an obtuse customer service rep, I've gone in and manually changed it back, but obviously I don't want to commit to advertise this book until the problem is resolved.

[PJ Post]

If I'm paying $300, I want that blurb in a week (two max).

Holy-smokes Batgirl!

People may that much for blurbs? Jesus...

I'll do it for $200, and have it back, critiqued, edited and ready to go in one week. I'll even throw in a log line and an AMS pitch. Hell, I'll even give you A/B versions for testing.

[Crystal]

I've paid for blurbs before though never close to $300. I would pay $150 because I hate writing blurbs (who doesn't) but it would be an impulse buy, so I wouldn't feel tempted if I had to wait a month.

I'm not sure any of the blurbs I bought were worth it. The only really great one was smaller tweaks on the rough draft blurb I sent, but the blurb writer wouldn't let me pay because she said she didn't change enough. (I've had other blurb revisions with minimal changes where the writer did take my money).

I would say $150 is fair for a great, fast blurb, but of course, these things are subjective. IME most not by the author blurbs read a little stiff.

[R. C.]

Back to the subject line... My Written Word Reader Reach ad runs tomorrow.  I'll let you know the results.

R.C.

[Maggie Ann]

Back to the subject line... My Written Word Reader Reach ad runs tomorrow.  I'll let you know the results.

R.C.

Me, too.

[R. C.]

As a side-bar...

One of the reasons I decided to splurge is the good support from Written Word Media. When I reported less than stellar results, WWM refunded the ad fee. Not a credit, a full refund. Quality people running the show over there.

R.C.

[alhawke]

Mine runs now. I'll let you know (but I cheated by adding another promo). If I can sift through any meaningful stats, I'll share it with you.

[idontknowyet]

The day isn't over, but I havent seen any noticeable sales from this promo. I'm hoping it works it way up. Otherwise this was a huge waste of money.

[LilyBLily]

Thanks for taking the risk and reporting. My foray into Google ads has been a huge waste of money so far, too.

[idontknowyet]

update day 2 morning - nada on top of nada

[Maggie Ann]

Six freeloads so far for Amazon. D2D will report today's stats tomorrow. I'm hoping for at least 300 downloads across the board. So far, it's a slightly better than average the for this book.

[idontknowyet]

I should report my book is full price no discounting.

[PJ Post]

I would say $150 is fair for a great, fast blurb, but of course, these things are subjective.

$150 for the win.

Includes logline, AMS copy and one week turn around.

Any takers?

 

___

Seriously, is this something many writers would want?

[idontknowyet]

do you provide guarantees your work will increase our conversions? 


Though i hate blurbs so much im tempted to try something

[Anarchist]

I enjoy writing blurbs and descriptions. For books' pages on Amazon, for email promos, for ads, etc.

No one knows my books better than me, and no one knows how to sell them more effectively.

[Crystal]

How much do I have to provide?

That's usually the issue with these things. By the time I provide the info for the blurb, I've done enough work to write the blurb. If I can throw a manuscript and cover at you, or even a cover and a rambling list of tropes, themes, tone, character traits...

That's a lot more appealing.

[PJ Post]

How much do I have to provide?

That's usually the issue with these things. By the time I provide the info for the blurb, I've done enough work to write the blurb. If I can throw a manuscript and cover at you, or even a cover and a rambling list of tropes, themes, tone, character traits...

That's a lot more appealing.

It's not about providing the information, it's about providing the right information, or put another way, it's about asking the right questions. It's not necessary to read more than the opening chapter to get a feel for the tone and style.

With a proper questionnaire and some authorial honesty, it doesn't take all that long to get the necessary information - seriously, like minutes.

do you provide guarantees your work will increase our conversions? 

No one can guarantee anything, but yeah, I think a good blurb - not even a great one - will get people to click, either to buy or to read the sample.

Send me some book info on a first in series that's underperforming and let's see if I can help you.

[Maggie Ann]

They said I could request an example of my ad. They sent it to me, but it is protected so I can't post it here.

It's an excerpt from a five-star review, "entertaining, clean, historical romance," and a "learn more" button. My cover is set against a field of flowers.

Here's the cover.

[idontknowyet]

We're not quite at the end of day 2 but close. So far I'm at the worst sales day I've EVER had. Joy.

[LilyBLily]

We're not quite at the end of day 2 but close. So far I'm at the worst sales day I've EVER had. Joy.

Oh, dear. Maybe the weekend will turn the tide.

[R. C.]

We're not quite at the end of day 2 but close. So far I'm at the worst sales day I've EVER had. Joy.

Yeah, after day one, I have gained exactly: Nada.

R.C.

[Maggie Ann]

Day One

52 Freeloads
2   Book 2
2   Book 3

Nothing through D2D

[idontknowyet]

Update morning 3 - zero sales!

[Marti Talbott]

update day 2 morning - nada on top of nada

Hope it gets better overnight. I did a regular ad with them last month, only gave away 600 free books with little or no follow through. I think I've over-promoted that book, or their reader list isn't attracting new readers.

[Maggie Ann]

update day 2 morning - nada on top of nada

Hope it gets better overnight. I did a regular ad with them last month, only gave away 600 free books with little or no follow through. I think I've over-promoted that book, or their reader list isn't attracting new readers.

According to my dashboard on WWM, I haven't done a promo with them for two years and I haven't done a Freebooksy on The Brave Heart since 11/29/18. So, I shouldn't be oversaturated in any case. I haven't been doing promotions with any service and I stopped doing promos with WWM because they are too expensive for the results, at least in my case.

Of course, they couldn't include the audio in the ad, but I was hoping to sell at least a few audiobooks through whispersync. We'll see. There's still time.

Did anybody ask what is their criteria for an ad to run for the full five days

[Lorri Moulton]

Thank you all for sharing the results, but I think I'll stay with Fussy Librarian.

[idontknowyet]

Thank you all for sharing the results, but I think I'll stay with Fussy Librarian.

Fussy Librarian for their regular promos is great.

[idontknowyet]

Zero sales almost the end of day 3.

[Maggie Ann]

Thank you all for sharing the results, but I think I'll stay with Fussy Librarian.

Fussy Librarian for their regular promos is great.

I prefer them too, but I want to wait a little while more before I schedule them.

[LilyBLily]

Thanks for the info. You just saved me $150.

[Pemry Janes]

Zero sales almost the end of day 3.

Thank you for trying. And without any feedback, it is hard to say the reason why.

Did you at least get a preview of what the ad looked like?

[R. C.]

Rolling into day three. Two day sales total: 1

R.C.

[notthatamanda]

Sorry you guys are having such poor results.

[R. C.]

Sorry you guys are having such poor results.

Nothing ventured...  Life is one long learning curve.

R.C.

[Maggie Ann]

Day Two

91 Freeloads
2   Book 2
1   Book 3

Nothing through D2D. No Audiobooks

[idontknowyet]

Zero sales almost the end of day 3.

Thank you for trying. And without any feedback, it is hard to say the reason why.

Did you at least get a preview of what the ad looked like?

I should ask.

[Maggie Ann]

Zero sales almost the end of day 3.

Thank you for trying. And without any feedback, it is hard to say the reason why.

Did you at least get a preview of what the ad looked like?

I should ask.

IMO my ad was nothing special for $150. Cover, Amazon link, brief quote from ***** review. I suppose we were paying for WWM's expertise in marketing to the proper groups. I'll see what the future brings in sell-thru.

[idontknowyet]

almost end of night report ZERO. seriously zero sales this is ridiculous. they should put a caveat that full price books dont sell.

[notthatamanda]

Written word media has always been great to work with so at the end of the campaign I would suggest sending an email nicely voicing your disappointment and see what they say.

[LilyBLily]

Yes, do express your dismay. They must have some stats, too, which you'll want to know, such as how many views and clicks and the bid price.

[R. C.]

Written word media has always been great to work with so at the end of the campaign I would suggest sending an email nicely voicing your disappointment and see what they say.

FWIW - In the past, WWM sent a survey email after AD run completed. I've answered the survey in the negative and received a response.

R.C.

[alhawke]

Okay, I started the thread so I'm gonna give you guys stats to mull over if it'll help. My results are skewed. I added the service at the tail of a big launch promotion. I can tell you guys that, for my books anyway, this launch and the numbers I'm seeing are pretty brutal. In other words, I'm getting lower numbers on all promotions for my launch. I've sold over 100 books. Great, but I usually sell around 200 to 400 based on my prior books with the marketing I did. Could be the book, but I'm not so sure. My book currently has 4.4 stars with 12 reviews and is brand new. All the reviews are legit ARCs. And all of my books aren't selling well this week. So, not a good week.

But back to Reader Reach, here's my 2 cents. I was going to wait but I have a moment so, unless things changed, I'm pouring it all out now.

I've had 29 sales for a 99c book over the past four days. Add an expected 5-10 or so based on daily sales but we'll see. One of those days included Fantasy Deals promotion, the day I had the most sales, and I usually get 5-10 sales from that promo. So dock off 5-10 sales. I'm also running my own BB adds shelling out maybe $10 per day or so. The BB ads btw are not doing well either this week.

The negative. Numbers are obvious. But most of you who run ads know that the problem with ads is that usually you have to let it marinate to become effective. Written Word Media's 5 days may not be enough.

The positive. I've had an uptick in International sales and, the greatest positive, I've sold more paperbacks--more paperbacks sold than ever. The weird thing is that some are my other books. My theory is that I never advertised on Facebook before and new readers took a look at my stuff. One of the sales was an omnibus for $38 USD. That helped. I sold seven paperbacks during the ad run (I usually sell one during a launch week).

There you are. I do think the service is workable depending on your goals, but, like I mentioned at the start, it's quite pricey. It could be effective as another weapon in our arsenal to try to push a bestseller or during a series launch. My book was not a series and this also made revenue suffer. I will consider it in the future for books on sale or free. And I'd think the service will improve.

Nothing ventured...  Life is one long learning curve.

.
Yes. Ah, if only my pocket book didn't suffer trying new things.

[idontknowyet]

Still zero sales.

I sent an email day three. The feel i got from the letter was they didn't care my book was getting clicks.

[R. C.]

Approaching day four... not so much.

R.C.

[Maggie Ann]

Day Three

117 Freeloads
2     Book 2 -1 refunded 1 net
2     Book 3 -1 refunded 1 net

Nothing through D2D

As of Day Four 306 Freeloads

[Maggie Ann]

Day Four

94 Freeloads
1   Book 2
1   Book 3

Day five is showing some numbers, so I guess WWM is running the ad for the full five days.

[R. C.]

Woohoo!  Two whole sales yesterday!  Four day total: Three.

R.C.

[LilyBLily]

 

Sorry your results are so disappointing. Obviously WWM does not have the lock on how to ace FB ads after all.

[Maggie Ann]

Sorry your results are so disappointing. Obviously WWM does not have the lock on how to ace FB ads after all.

No, but they have the lock on how to maximize their profit. I give in and try them about every year or two but no more, no matter how tempting the package they put together.

[R. C.]

Sorry your results are so disappointing. Obviously WWM does not have the lock on how to ace FB ads after all.

No, but they have the lock on how to maximize their profit. I give in and try them about every year or two but no more, no matter how tempting the package they put together.

This new AD format is disappointing. I have had success with the "regular" AD services with WWM.

R.C.

[idontknowyet]

Just wanted to update you all.

I did the survey and as you can guess I mentioned that the promo resulted in no sales. There might have been 1 possible but we'll call it a wash.
They promptly got back to me saying your ad preformed as expected. 318clicks for $150 that's seems like a effective ad. Not.

And that was that.

Would I try it again? For full price absolutely not.
Maybe and I mean doubtfully for a free or .99cent books. I think I'd prefer to give fb the $150 myself. At least I know spending that much money I'll get a few sales.

[LilyBLily]

Wow, not only is that disappointing, it's also nervy of them. Thanks again for being the guinea pig.

[Maggie Ann]

Just wanted to update you all.

I did the survey and as you can guess I mentioned that the promo resulted in no sales. There might have been 1 possible but we'll call it a wash.
They promptly got back to me saying your ad preformed as expected. 318clicks for $150 that's seems like a effective ad. Not.

And that was that.

Would I try it again? For full price absolutely not.
Maybe and I mean doubtfully for a free or .99cent books. I think I'd prefer to give fb the $150 myself. At least I know spending that much money I'll get a few sales.

I got a similar letter.

"This is surprising to hear as your book performed in line with the usual ranges we see on our end. According to Facebook, your book received 896 clicks and 6302 impressions over the 5-day ad period."

[idontknowyet]

That makes me scratch my head.

How is 900 clicks even comparable to my 300. You literally got triple the amount. I mean they both resulted in almost nothing, but what is their definition of an acceptable range. Because 1/3 doesn't seem that way to me!

[Maggie Ann]

That makes me scratch my head.

How is 900 clicks even comparable to my 300. You literally got triple the amount. I mean they both resulted in almost nothing, but what is their definition of an acceptable range. Because 1/3 doesn't seem that way to me!

Mine was a freebie.

I don't think I've ever turned a profit with Freebooksy/Bargainbooksy. If I wanted to advertise, I'd go with Fussy Librarian. I always made  money with them but that was before Zon interfered with my audiobook sales. Also, Fussy has priced themselves out of my range. They raise their prices whenever there is a jump in subscribers and justifiably so.

[Marti Talbott]

I wonder whar they were thinking. Maybe it had to do with blurbd, thinking they could write better ones than we could. I think it's an all around market problem. As I've said before, we now have to compete with streaming movies.

Even Bookbub doesn't seem to be selling our books the way they once did, although they keep raising their prices - perhaps to compensate for their losing bottom line.

I've hadn't promoted in several Goodreads groups until a couple of weeks ago and sales are starting to pick up a little. Wish I could find more groups like that. Again, for me it's the problem of saturating the market. There has to be a way to find new markets without paying an arm and a leg.

I just made the first book in my MT Romance Series free, so hopefully it will sell the other books in the series. Hopefully! All we can do is keep trying new things and new places.

[oganalp]

https://kindlepreneur.com/facebook-ads-for-books/

Here is a really useful guide for FB ads that work.

I am running $1.25/day ads, and I am still getting around 1000 to 2000 page reads per day for most days.

A free book and a $9/day ad with good targeting and copy should generate good results, at least in the clicks department. FB ads can be daunting at first, but they will be automatic once you create a set or two. One word of advice: make sure you calculate your ad budget good. Unlike Amazon, FB takes your money almost daily.

EDIT: The hardest part of FB ads is finding interest groups as indie authors (and most trads) are not targetable.

Before following this guide, I had 0 results.

Actually, most of the stuff on the Kindlepreneur website is good.

[R. C.]

With the disaster that was last week, I forgot to give an update.

WWM - Not so much. I have had success in the past with their Reader Reach, this time it was a bust.

On the other hand, Fussy Librarian's ADs hit it out of the park. Over 3700 downloads. I have not yet recouped costs but sales are up and follow-on sales continue to trend positively.

R.C.

[notthatamanda]

Congratulations!