If you're thinking about discounts, a BookFunnel promo may be a good avenue. BF readers seem to be more interested in discounted books than full prices ones, but if you're going to discount anyway, you may reach some people through BF that you wouldn't hit otherwise. In any case, conversion rates (from clicks on your book to sales) are higher than AMS ads, for example, and I often move more books in BF than I do with a newsletter promo. For the price, it probably comes closer to a positive ROI than most things I do. And BF is good for other things besides just promos, depending on what your needs are.

If you do go that way, it's important to find a promo with an appropriate theme. That increases the odds that you will get more sales, as BF readers do seem to pay attention to theme as well as genre. Of course, it's also good to have a large number of authors in the promo (more promotional reach). But the more specific the theme, the shorter the list of participants sometimes is, so it may pay to find a good balance between the two.

If you use BF a lot, it's also important to shift among different promo hosts. Sometimes, the same host will run a similar promo each month and attract more or less the same authors. This tends to mean advertising your book(s) to the same audience over and over. The more shifting you can do, the better.

Thanks a lot, Bill. I have the basic BF plan now, and I use it just for getting the ARCs to my ARC team, but I used to have the Mid-list plan, and I did join promos there and (now, this is maybe five years ago) and it seemed that eventually the promos that would be good for my book were pretty scarce, and I got pretty frustrated with it and didn't feel the results justified the time and effort.

But when I think about how frustrating AMS ads are now, my memories of what BF was like seem better. I really think I'm going to give BF another shot.

Sure. I even once ran a two free promos for a book in one month.

The rule of thumb is to wait a month if you repeat a listing and to drop down the price on the subsequent promotion (never up the price). But  You never really know how these things will fair. It's not easy to saturate the market.

If you land a BookBub, all rules are off. You could probably run a BookBub a week later if they accept you.

Don't forget to try multiple genres too, if your book fits. My books are romance/fantasy so, depending on the book, I can run a fantasy promo with a paranormal romance promo alternating audience exposure. I also can discount more than one book at one time, promoting a second book or series.

Thanks A.L. Good to know about the difficulty of saturating the market. And also multiple genres. I'm writing legal thrillers now, and I just ran a Fussy Librarian ad and got in "thriller" and "suspense" categories. Now I'll check other promo places' categories more carefully.

I'm still kind of wondering if you think I, after the 99 cent promo stack for the sequel ends on Friday, if the first free promo I should run should be the 1st book or the sequel? Got an opinion?

If you're thinking about discounts, a BookFunnel promo may be a good avenue. BF readers seem to be more interested in discounted books than full prices ones, but if you're going to discount anyway, you may reach some people through BF that you wouldn't hit otherwise. In any case, conversion rates (from clicks on your book to sales) are higher than AMS ads, for example, and I often move more books in BF than I do with a newsletter promo. For the price, it probably comes closer to a positive ROI than most things I do. And BF is good for other things besides just promos, depending on what your needs are.

If you do go that way, it's important to find a promo with an appropriate theme. That increases the odds that you will get more sales, as BF readers do seem to pay attention to theme as well as genre. Of course, it's also good to have a large number of authors in the promo (more promotional reach). But the more specific the theme, the shorter the list of participants sometimes is, so it may pay to find a good balance between the two.

If you use BF a lot, it's also important to shift among different promo hosts. Sometimes, the same host will run a similar promo each month and attract more or less the same authors. This tends to mean advertising your book(s) to the same audience over and over. The more shifting you can do, the better.

There are a few very good groups on Facebook which are well moderated and mostly manage to keep people on topic. UK Crime Book Club does author interviews and real world events, and a group I know for women writers and editors etc provides quite a bit of useful up to date information.

Quote from: Jeff Tanyard on March 17, 2025, 01:03:57 PM

The cgi blood floating in zero-g, though obviously dated now, was new and really cool at the time.

And the only time Klingons had purple blood, which was to avoid a stricter rating.

Seriously?  Man, that's lame.