Author Topic: Promotions through Draft2Digital  (Read 2479 times)

JRTomlin

Promotions through Draft2Digital
« on: July 01, 2020, 02:21:59 AM »
Because I am hellaciously lazy and did not want to have to bother with an Apple account in spite of having a Mac laptop, I sell on Apple through D2D. Well a month or so ago I got an email that I could apply for an Apple promotion of Historical Fiction first in series. (This was the first such email I'd received, so I'm not sure if it is a new thing or I just hadn't received any) So I applied and one of my novels got in. To my surprise, it has done fairly well. Not Bookbub level well, but more than 100 books sold (reduced price not free) and some sell-through of books 2 and 3. The sell-through on Amazon is always better than on Apple because Apple doesn't make the books in a series clear the way Amazon does.

One advantage of going direct with Apple would be that I could put a link to the next book at the end which D2D does not do. I must admit Apple doing promotions is news to me. Does anyone know if they offer them to people who list directly with them? I list directly with Kobo in order to use their promotions which give me so-so results, not great but worth being in.
 

Eric Thomson

Re: Promotions through Draft2Digital
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2020, 05:07:36 AM »
I'm through D2D with Apple and was offered a month long free promo on iTunes for the month of April. This came out of the blue, from Apple via D2D. It was for the first in my most successful series and was downloaded over 6,500 times. I made a fair bit of coin on the read through - my sales on iTunes basically doubled in April and May. I'll find out if that carried through June next week.

I have Books2Read links at the back of my ebooks and D2D never rejected them, so I can only assume Apple has no issues so long as it's not Amazon.
 

notthatamanda

Re: Promotions through Draft2Digital
« Reply #2 on: July 01, 2020, 05:12:29 AM »
Well this is exciting, maybe it is a sign Apple is taking ebooks more seriously. Congrats on the results of your promotions, both of you.

Like Eric all my books have books2read links in the back matter and I haven't had any problems with those. In books2read you can see who clicked through on what links and I do get click throughs to Apple.
 

JRTomlin

Re: Promotions through Draft2Digital
« Reply #3 on: July 01, 2020, 06:13:45 AM »
I'll have to look into using books2read links. This has been a problem since D2D doesn't add retailer-specific links. I'm honestly not sure how those work, but I'll check them out.
 

notthatamanda

Re: Promotions through Draft2Digital
« Reply #4 on: July 01, 2020, 06:21:57 AM »
One thing I wish I had done was set up separate links to use on Prolific Works. You can see where a user clicked through to, eg Apple, B&N, whatever but you can't see where they came from. But by the time I thought of that my links were a complete mess. Be careful to only create one for each book. I messed that up too and now I have extra links I have to deal with. Not that dealing with it is a big deal. I look to see what I'm getting clicks on and occasionally have it search to make sure it has all available links.
 
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JRTomlin

Re: Promotions through Draft2Digital
« Reply #5 on: July 01, 2020, 07:01:32 AM »
I hope you're right that it shows that Apple may start being serious about ebooks! It is an encouraging sign.
 

Lorri Moulton

Re: Promotions through Draft2Digital
« Reply #6 on: July 01, 2020, 09:44:52 AM »
I received a similar email for my historical non-fiction about a week ago. I hope they make it in.  :dog1:

Author of Romance, Fantasy, Fairytales, Mystery & Suspense, and Historical Non-Fiction @ Lavender Cottage Books
 

JRTomlin

Re: Promotions through Draft2Digital
« Reply #7 on: July 01, 2020, 09:50:26 AM »
Good luck!
 
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notthatamanda

Re: Promotions through Draft2Digital
« Reply #8 on: July 01, 2020, 10:05:24 AM »
I received a similar email for my historical non-fiction about a week ago. I hope they make it in.  :dog1:
Good luck!
 
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Eric Thomson

Re: Promotions through Draft2Digital
« Reply #9 on: July 08, 2020, 05:28:47 AM »
So, yesterday, I received an email from D2D inviting me to submit a book for consideration in the Apple 2020 Recent Bestsellers Promotion. Today, I received another email from D2D inviting me to submit a book for consideration in the Apple 2020 Science Fiction and Fantasy Promotion. I applied for both, seeing as how it costs nothing but a few moments of my time, but it's encouraging to see Apple stepping up like this.
 
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JRTomlin

Re: Promotions through Draft2Digital
« Reply #10 on: July 08, 2020, 05:35:56 AM »
It really is. I am now seeing substantial sell-through on the novels that were in my Historical Fiction promo.
 
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notthatamanda

Re: Promotions through Draft2Digital
« Reply #11 on: July 08, 2020, 06:22:31 AM »
Congratulations JR and good luck Eric.
 
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LilyBLily

Re: Promotions through Draft2Digital
« Reply #12 on: July 08, 2020, 10:20:52 AM »
That's good to hear. Too often lately the news of promos has been so-so.
 

JRTomlin

Re: Promotions through Draft2Digital
« Reply #13 on: July 08, 2020, 10:28:23 AM »
It's certainly not getting rich money, but having any promos at Apple is a big step in the right direction.
 

Alice Sabo

Re: Promotions through Draft2Digital
« Reply #14 on: July 12, 2020, 04:07:26 AM »
D2D allows you to add links to any store for your Books to Read page, even audiobooks and print. And when a person clicks on it, they get the option of format, then all the retailers.
Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic, Mystery and Space Opera Genre Hopper
 
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JRTomlin

Re: Promotions through Draft2Digital
« Reply #15 on: July 12, 2020, 04:31:39 AM »
I've never used Books 2 Read. As soon as I'm not up to my ears in getting this next novel out, I'll investigate it.
 

notthatamanda

Re: Promotions through Draft2Digital
« Reply #16 on: July 12, 2020, 07:30:01 AM »
D2D allows you to add links to any store for your Books to Read page, even audiobooks and print. And when a person clicks on it, they get the option of format, then all the retailers.
I didn't even think about adding print or audio. Thank you. Now will I actually do it? Um, sorry, someone's calling me, got to go.
 

JRTomlin

Re: Promotions through Draft2Digital
« Reply #17 on: July 20, 2020, 01:36:17 AM »
I don't know if this is because of the promotion and high sell-through or not, but my sales on Apple are about double what they usually are.
 
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spin52

Re: Promotions through Draft2Digital
« Reply #18 on: July 26, 2020, 08:07:15 PM »
Kobo offered the chance through D2D to join a promotion back in March, which was then delayed until late May because of the pandemic. I entered three books (the max allowed) and saw some sales from it, as well as readers following through on the rest of the series. I'd like to take part in an Apple promotion because it's my best D2D site for sales, and also the best for ratings/reviews.
I've got a Books 2 Read dashboard and page, but the numbers are so depressing that I rarely look at it! Only the occasional click.
     


Traditional mysteries with a dash of humor -- no cats, no cupcakes, no covens.