Author Topic: Promo Stack - done! (Read 2771 times)

idontknowyet · « **on:** June 11, 2021, 05:55:58 AM »

I'm planning my second promo stack for my first series.

This series will have 9 books released at the time of the promo and one book on preorder.

So far these are my plans.
Book 1 Free
Book 2 .99cents
Book 3-10 full price

Current promo accepted. Will at more as I receive acceptance.
FKBT - July 5th - Book 1
Book Bassett - July 5th - Book 1
Many Books - July 5th - Book 1
Red Roses - July 6th - Book 1&2 double feature
Robin Reads - July 6th - Book 1
Freebooksy - July 6th - Book 1
Fussy Librarian - July 6th - Book 1
Bargin Booksy - July 7th - Book 2
Fussy Librarian - July 8th - Book 2
Ereader IQ - July 8th - Book 1
BKnights - July 5-July 9th - Book1
Book Raid - July 9th - Book 1

I have 3 or 4 more promo's yet to be accepted. I applied for bookbub on a lark we all know its doubtful I'll get approved.
I'm wondering if I should book BKnights for book 2.

In addition to all these promos, I have nl swaps with half a dozen authors in my genre for that week.

Lately I've been seeing authors that put the entire series up for .99 cents each for one of this promos. Everyone that I've read about have done exceedingly well. I don't think i'm at the point i want to do something like that. Maybe if i had a dozen or two series and this one was barely selling.
Currently that isnt the case.

Thoughts. Suggestions. Idea. Anything would be appreciated.

alhawke · « **Reply #1 on:** June 11, 2021, 07:59:06 AM »

Good luck. You've definitely done your research.

I can't believe how elaborate the planning is becoming to have a good promo run. This, in and of itself, is something to ponder regarding marketing a book in 2021. I stumbled on a thread in Kboards in 2012 about a free ENT landing thousands of downloads. Oh what I'd do to be marketing back then (imagine your plans in a time warp in 2012 ;) Not that there's anything to be done about it, I suppose.

My critique, if any, is repeating Fussy Librarian. This could be a waste of money as you're already advertising with the free book. I'd be careful with using the same ad company. You might be better off cancelling the 99c and using a totally different ad company.

I've never promoted two books at the same time. Please let us know if you have a lot of success doing that.

Did you apply for ENT?

Maggie Ann · « **Reply #2 on:** June 11, 2021, 08:27:22 AM »

Quote from: alhawke on June 11, 2021, 07:59:06 AM

Good luck. You've definitely done your research.

I can't believe how elaborate the planning is becoming to have a good promo run. This, in and of itself, is something to ponder regarding marketing a book in 2021. I stumbled on a thread in Kboards in 2012 about a free ENT landing thousands of downloads. Oh what I'd do to be marketing back then (imagine your plans in a time warp in 2012 ;) Not that there's anything to be done about it, I suppose.

My critique, if any, is repeating Fussy Librarian. This could be a waste of money as you're already advertising with the free book. I'd be careful with using the same ad company. You might be better off cancelling the 99c and using a totally different ad company.

I've never promoted two books at the same time. Please let us know if you have a lot of success doing that.

Did you apply for ENT?

I remember those days. You could tell when Pixel of Ink or ENT picked you up because your book would be zooming up the ladder. You didn't even have to apply for a spot. 10-30K downloads was the norm. Then Zon clamped down on the freebies and a lot of newsletters folded.

(Old Geezerette moaning about the good old days

)

idontknowyet · « **Reply #3 on:** June 11, 2021, 08:35:47 AM »

I did apply for ENT. That's one of the ones i'm still waiting to hear from.

Yeah I'm not sure if doubling down will work on freebooksy/barginbooksy and Fussy. But I figured not everyone checked their newsletters everyday, so i might get a whole different group of people.

Also some I applied for wf and others I applied for romance. Which also might help or might hurt.

BelindaWhite · « **Reply #4 on:** June 11, 2021, 09:46:38 PM »

Looks like a good plan.

I would make one little suggestion, though. Even if you aren't ready to put all the books down to 99 cents (I am at the end run of doing just this for the very first time! But it's only 5 books and I have a few series out--the promo'd one is the oldest), it might be beneficial to put book 3 at the very least down to $1.99.

Not sure what your regular prices are, but normally there is a lot of room between 99 cents and full price, and if you are doing KCD's you'll still get the 70% royalty and that helps!

The benefit of having more than one discounted is simply the added visibility in the store. If your book makes it into the top 100 of its category, that's nice. Having 2 or more there at the same time? Awesome!

(I currently have 4 out of 5 of my promo'd series in the top 100 of its main category. The only one missing is the free book 1. It's a great feeling!)

idontknowyet · « **Reply #5 on:** June 12, 2021, 01:49:43 AM »

my regular price sits at 3.99 though I keep thinking of raising it to 4.99 since many books in my genre are around that.

Those are the results i keep reading about. It's soo tempting to try this!

idontknowyet · « **Reply #6 on:** July 05, 2021, 02:30:26 PM »

Starting rank Book 1 - 22035

Starting rank Book 2 - 61060

Starting rank Book 3 - 102975

Starting rank Book 4 - 181850

Starting rank Book 5 - 62419

Starting rank Book 6 - 272574

Starting rank Book 7 - 319148

Starting rank Book 8 - 95430

Starting rank Book 9 - 81848

As you can see yesterday July 4th wasn't great for read through, but i did have a decent sale day on book 1.
Assuming amazon actually changes my prices all my promos start today!

Starting rank Book 10 opps forgot to put this in it was like 200k

idontknowyet · « **Reply #7 on:** July 06, 2021, 02:51:17 PM »

Day 1 update

will change if this updates when i wake up.

Book 1
rank 52 free in store (highest i saw was 50)
'sold' - 2226

Book 2
rank 19587 (didn't really check this one often but i think thats the highest)
sold - 26

Book 3
rank - 34792
sold - 9

Book 4
rank - 116338
sold - 2

Book 5
rank - 64668
sold - 2

Book 6
rank - 86496
sold - 2

Book 7
rank - 101773
sold - 2

Book 8
rank - 139115
sold - 2

Book 9
rank - 94934
sold - 2

Book 10
i got my standard amount of pre orders.

Overall pg reads for book 1 were about 1/3 of what they usually are. The rest of my pg reads were about the same. At this point i attribute none of them to my promo.

Book 2 is priced at 99cents so i get like .68cents per sale
Books 3-9 are full price of 3.99.

Today is currently at a loss i believe.
But this is about long term so we'll see how the rest of the week and the tail goes.

alhawke · « **Reply #8 on:** July 06, 2021, 02:59:30 PM »

Thanks so much for posting! Tomorrow you should do fantastic with Freebooksy & Robin Reads. These did well for me in the past. Good luck!

idontknowyet · « **Reply #9 on:** July 08, 2021, 12:33:30 AM »

Day 2

Book 1
Rank 19
'sales' - 4917

Book 2
Rank - in the 8-9k range through most of the day
Sales - 46

Book 3
Rank ~40k
Sales - 1

No other sales.

I'm not sure if this day was better even though i gave away more books.

Pg reads

Book 1 is still 1/3 of what it previously was.
Book 2 is now 1/2 of what it previously was.
Book 3 is up by about 1/2.
Book 4 is now half of what it previously was.
Book 5 is now 1/3 of what it previously was.
Book 6 is now 1/3 of what it previously was.
Book 7 is the same.
Book 8 is the same.
Book 9 is 1/2 of what it previously was.

idontknowyet · « **Reply #10 on:** July 09, 2021, 01:19:06 AM »

Day 3

Book 1
Rank 19 for most of the day then down to 45
'sales' - 951

Book 2
Rank - in the 6-7k range through most of the day
Sales - 43

Book 3
Rank ~30k
Sales - 3

No other sales.

Pg reads
I'm actually seeing a bit of an increase. I need that to go way way way up.

Book 1 is still 2/3 of what it previously was.
Book 2 is now double what it previously was.
Book 3 is up by about 1/2.
Book 4 what it previously was.
Book 5 is now 1/2 of what it previously was.
Book 6 is now 3/4 of what it previously was.
Book 7 is the same.
Book 8 is 1/4 of what it previously was.
Book 9 is 1/8 of what it previously was.

Still not sure this is going to be profitable, but i need to have patience.

alhawke · « **Reply #11 on:** July 09, 2021, 01:32:10 AM »

Quote from: idontknowyet on July 08, 2021, 12:33:30 AM

Day 2 Book 1 Rank 19 'sales' - 4917

4917 given away = future reviews and future sales. That's a great run.

idontknowyet · « **Reply #12 on:** July 10, 2021, 01:32:42 AM »

Day 4

Book 1
Rank 75 for most of the day then down to 81
'sales' - 644

Book 2
Rank - in the 3-5k range through most of the day
Sales - 32

Book 3
Rank ~27k
Sales - 5

Book 4
Sales - 2

1 sale for every other book!

Pg reads
My pg reads have almost doubled. Even book 1 is almost back to normal.

I might have done something super smart or super stupid. I started a ton of amazon ads. They are all doing super well. Developing relavance and 'sales'. We'll see if that continues tomorrow.

idontknowyet · « **Reply #13 on:** July 11, 2021, 02:16:27 AM »

Day 5

Overall today was my slowest day. But i really only had 1 promo running and some fb/ams ads. The fb and ams ads are responsible for at least 40 of the 'sales' if not more.

Book 1
Rank dropped steadily ending in 183
'sales' - 456

Book 2
Rank ~ 6k for most of the day
sales -14

Book 3
Rank ~23-30k
sales - 4

Sold 1 book of all my released books

Pg reads are down from yesterday about 1.75x my normal day.

Fun new fact. Amazon sets you back to your rank before your sale. So i'm starting at 23k for book 1.

There is some over in sales hours so i have 9 free books sold today go figure.

Here goes the real experiment. How long is the tail. Will it pay for the cost of the ads.

idontknowyet · « **Reply #14 on:** July 11, 2021, 12:05:27 PM »

Welcome to the forum ghorner91.

you might get more eyes on your post if you put them in the promo sign up desk!

TimothyEllis · « **Reply #15 on:** July 11, 2021, 02:34:27 PM »

Quote from: idontknowyet on July 11, 2021, 12:05:27 PM

Welcome to the forum ghorner91.

you might get more eyes on your post if you put them in the promo sign up desk!

I moved it there.

idontknowyet · « **Reply #16 on:** July 12, 2021, 12:55:03 AM »

Day 6

was my best sales day ever.
mostly in pg reads which were more than double my regular amount. i also got about 4 book sales i can attribute to the promo.

I have to do the math but i think i've broken even or made a profit already.

alhawke · « **Reply #17 on:** July 12, 2021, 08:56:23 AM »

I examined your results and got a little bit of a headache after a while matching each day with all the promo companies.

I was trying to determine if promoting a 99c book at the same time as a free book is worth it. I'm not sure. What do you think?
It seems like you got maybe an extra 10 99c book sales or so when selling the 99c book on the same day as the free book (versus what you'd get normally with the free promo or 99c promo alone). So, the question is, is it worth ten extra sales? It might be. Particularly for KU. You're on KU and the extra ranking (as KU always helps increase the ranking a tad) and exposure could lead to more KU reads and future sales. I just don't know. It's not a huge increase, but could be worth it.
Anyway, many thanks for all the results. It's very informative and I think you did great.

idontknowyet · « **Reply #18 on:** July 12, 2021, 11:02:07 AM »

I did a .99 cent promo the day my books released. Lasted a week and change.

I will say my sales weren't that great. And my max page reads were terrible.

But i was a complete unknown. So that might affect the release. I have my results around here some where let me look.

idontknowyet · « **Reply #19 on:** July 12, 2021, 11:06:14 AM »

For an unknown i didnt even make half my money back for a .99cent promo.

Its here on pg two.

Was dismal though i was excited soo there is that.

I might try them again but not for a very long time.

More tempting is the full series at .99 cents. That really seems to help with visibility rank and read through. I've seen more and more authors trying it sucessfully. But that's gotta eat most of your chances of selling that series so i would only do it with and old mostly dead series.

alhawke · « **Reply #20 on:** July 12, 2021, 11:37:34 AM »

It's hard enough for me to sell free without getting upset while still grudgingly doing it

. But I'm considering the 99c tag along very carefully for my future promotions. The thing is, for my books, I don't intend to write more than three book series--though I'm considering a prequel for an upcoming trilogy. So the question is, is it worth it for a three book series to sell the 2nd book at 99c? I don't know. Because you're right. You will lose some money in the tail for future sequel sales. In your case, you've got plenty of books still to sell in the series.

Eventually we'll all give up and just give it all away.

idontknowyet · « **Reply #21 on:** July 12, 2021, 12:05:10 PM »

You need a different series.

The thing is to put an entire series for .99 cents. The more books the higher it seems to drive the rank. Then hope people start reading your next series.

Though with a few hundred to thousand sales at .70cents a piece its really not that bit of a loss. Especially if the series stopped selling years ago.

alhawke · « **Reply #22 on:** July 12, 2021, 01:44:27 PM »

Quote from: idontknowyet on July 12, 2021, 12:05:10 PM

You need a different series.

I didn't mean it's hard for me to sell. I meant it's hard enough to get myself to sell free. Lol, I don't need a new series, the series sells fine.
Then again, maybe we have no books to sell at all at the moment with the entire store being down (Amazon is currently down, for all I can tell; hopefully it will get back online).

Selling an entire series for 99c each book--that's too bad for the series if that's the only way to sell the books. I think something along those lines only works if you're trying to hit bestseller status or something with a boxed set.

idontknowyet · « **Reply #23 on:** July 12, 2021, 02:06:56 PM »

Quote from: alhawke on July 12, 2021, 01:44:27 PM

Quote from: idontknowyet on July 12, 2021, 12:05:10 PM
You need a different series.
I didn't mean it's hard for me to sell. I meant it's hard enough to get myself to sell free. Lol, I don't need a new series, the series sells fine.
Then again, maybe we have no books to sell at all at the moment with the entire store being down (Amazon is currently down, for all I can tell; hopefully it will get back online).

Selling an entire series for 99c each book--that's too bad for the series if that's the only way to sell the books. I think something along those lines only works if you're trying to hit bestseller status or something with a boxed set.

Was it you that broke it.

Yeah i hate giving stuff away. Though this free promo might be convincing me.
I wanna raise the price on all my books, but i dont think im big enough to go to 4.99

alhawke · « **Reply #24 on:** July 12, 2021, 02:07:51 PM »

I was selling too many books from my promotion.

idontknowyet · « **Reply #25 on:** July 12, 2021, 02:18:22 PM »

What ever broke it's brain i want it to happen again. I went from like 29k to 17k.

Someone break it again!!!

idontknowyet · « **Reply #26 on:** July 13, 2021, 01:14:15 AM »

Day 7

I get to say it again this has been my best sales day ever!!!
I'm well into profit zone. And the numbers are looking better for day 8. I really hope this tail lasts for more than 2weeks

Oh and in a new think my sales internationally have started. When i made the book free it seems to have applied to most countries. Now i have sales in india, uk, ca, au!!! The india ones shocked me since many of them are full price sales on book 1. EEEK.

idontknowyet · « **Reply #27 on:** July 16, 2021, 03:09:26 AM »

Pg reads are significantly down. Still about 1.5x where they were but falling fast.
I did have a nice burst of book sales yesterday that made up for the difference. Still at about double what i was making, but dont know how long the tail will last.

idontknowyet · « **Reply #28 on:** July 17, 2021, 03:08:40 AM »

So pg reads seem to burn out quickly.

I'm almost down to my regular daily pg reads.

Book sales are intermittent. Some days they stink and i think it's just my normal sales others they are fantastic.

If i end up getting 90 people buy my entire series it will be worth it. Past that right now it was profitable. Not sure it was worth giving away almost 10k copies of my book and inviting all the negative reviews.

News:

Author Topic: Promo Stack - done! (Read 2771 times)