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91
Yeah, it's hard to see what the advantage would be. I think some authors have adopted the throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach.

Not quite as disturbing is the people who entered so many promos at once that it's difficult to see how they publicize them all appropriately.
92
I hate to share a BF promo that's supposedly all sweet romance and someone has sneaked in very suggestive covers and obviously is writing steamy. If I preview the promo and discover those steamy writers, I don't bother joining. I know that my readers don't even want to look at those covers. The people running some of the BF promos don't do enough policing, IMO.

There's a place for each type of story, but willy-nilly just shoving your book into every promo is bad form. I find it hard to believe that it sells books--of either kind.
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Bar & Grill [Public] / Re: What Did You Blog About Today
« Last post by Vijaya on March 18, 2024, 05:34:23 AM »
March Feast Days and discovering an old book: https://vijayabodach.blogspot.com/2024/03/march-feast-days.html
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Quote
And is there even any security on other retailer sites like Amazon anyway if you don't click dmarc? I never choose dmarc.
I think you mean DRM. DMARC is the email thing. But after a while, the acronyms do begin to run together.

I don't know if this is still true, but I remember seeing a study a few years back that indicated that books without DRM sold better than books that had it. There may be confounding variables, however, like the higher priced trad ebooks being more likely to have DRM, though if I remember correctly, the study got the same result at different price points.

I've also heard that DRM is easy to crack, though not being a hacker, I can't confirm that from personal experience.

Bookmarking is a good idea, though.
Quote
And I really like that authors have to APPROVE who enters the promos.  I'm so tired of the wrong genres putting their books in BF promos.
Getting books with the wrong genres is certainly an issue for promo sponsors, but the SO approach can be difficult for promo users if the sponsor doesn't check the sign-ups and do approvals every day. More than once, I got in a bind because I'd signed up several days in advance but hadn't been processed yet. I think some people wait until the day before the promo to approve the sign-ups, but I usually sent out my newsletter on the day the promo went live and didn't really want to wait until the last minute to put it together. I ended up having to cancel my sign-up because I didn't have a link to put in the newsletter. Grrr.... In one case, the sponsor emailed me ten minutes before my newsletter was scheduled to go out to tell me he'd approved me. Sigh!

Admittedly, though, the BF thing made me crazy, too. I've only done about four so far, and all of them had at least some people whose books didn't seem to fit. Trying to be nice, I emailed to ask them if they could explain the connection between their book and the genre and theme of the promo. Not one of them ever answered. Looking at their past histories revealed that most of them had been entering without regard to the nature of the promo for months, which surprised me. It seems as if being in a promo that was a poor fit wouldn't do them any good.
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Marketing Loft [Public] / Re: What the heck happened?
« Last post by Jeff Tanyard on March 17, 2024, 03:39:40 PM »
I don't know, but I'll add the possibility of internet or site outages resetting algorithms and whatnot.   :shrug
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I know some authors on Payhip won't allow Payhip downloads and only give out BF so they can be stamped.

Pirating is a pain, but all my books were pirated BEFORE I had a store.  When they were on Amazon. LOL  So I doubt it makes much difference. I put PDFs on all my book files, so readers in other countries (or those without e-readers) can easily access them.

I'd rather have a happy reader than worry about pirating.  That's going to happen.  They pirated my railroad book. Seriously?  If they'll take that, they'll take anything.  So I decided to ignore them and focus on my readers.
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Exactly!  I always have a couple of "last minute" sign ups with erotic romance in the G-rated promos.  :lalala
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Okay, got one another big concern with direct sales:
Bookmarking to prevent pirating.

If you sell with Bookfunnel, you can bookmark ebooks. I don't believe StoryOrgins has this function. I don't know. And what of pirating audiobook concerns, the biggest item I'm considering selling to profit with direct sales.

When I send ARC copies, I do this.

The idea is to bookmark files to prevent pirating. Now we've been through the pirating thing a zillion times on writing forums. I get the argument is a free book isn't a huge issue and you can always ask for a takedown. But if you're selling a lot of these books, does it become more of a concern? And is there even any security on other retailer sites like Amazon anyway if you don't click dmarc? I never choose dmarc.

I'm not sure about this pirating issue in regards to direct sales.
99
Yes, looking at the functionality, you should be able to link the web page to Google ads.  AND you could set up individual links for each book--again, by simply linking the book URL. It be nice if D2D moved to universal links including a direct link button (like Bookfunnel with landing pages).
...And I really like that authors have to APPROVE who enters the promos. 
If you run a Bookfunnel promo, like I'm doing this week, you can remove books there too. I always have to do this for a few books that don't meet guidelines. It is something I absolutely loathe doing (which is why some organizers probably don't do it), but I'm caught between authors who sign up accepting a particular type of promo (genre, heat level) while balancing new submissions that don't fit.

Maybe you're saying Story Origins organizers have to approve first? That might be a better set up than removing.
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Thank you, A.L.  :mhk9U91:

If/when someone downloads or buys an ebook, Story Origin automatically sends a link along with my store/courtesy of Lemon Squeezy...much like BookFunnel does with Payhip. 

I don't use Google ads, but that's a good point.  I haven't entered any Story Origin promos yet, but I think the KU ones might be fun.  And I really like that authors have to APPROVE who enters the promos.  I'm so tired of the wrong genres putting their books in BF promos.

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