Thanks to everyone who ever participated in a Double-Cross Lit promo

[jdcore]

I appreciate you all for your efforts and trust. We just wrapped the final promo for the year, and unfortunately I'm here to announce that it will be the final promo ever. I had chosen an entire calendar full of duel-genre themes and given them such clever hooklines as Kisses & Tells for romance and westerns, Gunsmoke & Mirrors for westerns and mystery, and Fun & Games for humor and horror; but alas those promos will never see the light of day. Interest and participation never rose to the level I had hoped. I'm not clear as to why. This kind of promo represents zero cost to participants. I mean ZERO. And inclusion only requires a bare minimum of effort. Yet for that minimal investment of time, authors potentially found new fans and made invaluable connections with fellow authors.

So I'm abandoning the idea. The domain will expire in December, so if anyone else wants to spend a year or so banging your head against a wall for nothing, feel free to pick up the ball where I'm dropping it.

On the bright side, now I'll have more free time to devote to my own work. Cheers and best of luck to everyone.

[lyndabelle]

I hear you. I was doing a lot of cross-promos with authors when I was back on Kboards. But because of the implosion, it's just been less authors signing up to join in for promos that I run too. I did change it to Prolific Works, and that has helped a lot. I get a lot of authors on that website that sign up. A few authors have followed from KB to participate here too. But I'm getting most of my author participation from Prolific Works now. So, I guess, it's just time to pivot and find something else. Or you could try Prolific Works. Try organizing your promos through them, and you'll get the authors from there to sign up as well as some from here. It's worth a try. You sound like you've got some good promos going. Themes are great.

Good luck, and hope maybe you consider trying another approach.
-Lynda

[Maggie Ann]

Just to let you know that I stopped participating because my mailing list fell apart and my mailing list fell apart because I hadn't published anything new in a very long time.

I'm working on a new series (half done) and once that's ready, I'll work on building a mailing list.

[shrouded1]

Thanks JD. I stopped participating because I ran out of books, and I've been writing very slow lately. You might try StoryOrigin too.

[Bill Hiatt]

And, as long as we're making suggestions, BookFunnel. I've noticed the promos I participate in there tend to have a larger number of authors than those on Prolific Works and Story Origin, as well as more activity. (At least for me; I know people get different results. Results may also vary by genre. The number of authors may sometimes be affected by how specific the requirements are, since sometimes sponsors cast a very wide net; other times, the range of permitted books is extremely narrow.)

Current BookFunnel Newsletter promo:  authors: 112, book claims: 142. (science fiction and fantasy)
Current Prolific Works Newsletter promo: authors: 32, book claims: 8. (science fiction and fantasy, stories about portals to other worlds only, hence more restricted possibilities for authors)
Last Month's Prolific Works Newsletter promo (Featured by Prolific Works): authors: 57, book claims: 68 and 47 (two books) (science fiction, fantasy, and horror)
[This is not intended as a put-down of Prolific Works. I'm still going to try future promos there. But if you're experimenting with new approaches and only want to start with one (since there is a cost connected with each one), BF might be the most logical choice.]

The problem with a lot of indies these days is that we're crazed. Those of us who are trying to make a living at it have to keep up with what seems like daily changes in the environment. Those of us who have a day job end up with very limited time to write, let alone promote. I don't think there's anything wrong with your setup, JD. The promos sound like great opportunities. But it may be the days are past when a forum, even a large forum, is going to stir up enough interest by itself. Going into an environment in which authors are actively looking for cross promotion opportunities seems like the best bet under current conditions.

[CoraBuhlert]

Thanks for doing the Double-Cross Lit promo, Dave. I participated in a couple of promos and always enjoyed them. Plus, I usually got a few sales out of it, too.