Author Topic: Sale promotions for more than one book at a time  (Read 1641 times)

alhawke

Sale promotions for more than one book at a time
« on: March 25, 2022, 12:45:14 AM »
I'm curious over your experiences of promoting more than one title in any given month. I once had a promotion of an older book a week before a new release. I think it impacted the new release, but ... I'm beginning to wonder. If a reader wanted to try me as a new author, they probably picked only one of the two books. But how many purchases are made based on the author alone? I'd think more are sales are based on the cover and story. This distinction becomes even greater, I think, if the books are in different genres.

I'm broaching this subject now as I'm in a rare whirlwind of releasing three new books within three months; two are contemporary fantasy (one is a novelette) and an epic fantasy. But I really want to rejuvenate my older sci fi series, which has had a lull in sales lately (probably due to all the noise from promoting my new fantasies?).

Can I run a promotion on the sci fi books during one of the months of my new release sales?? Do you think this would hurt the new releases or the sci fi sale? And do you think promoting free or 99c with these books makes any difference?
 

Wonder

Re: Sale promotions for more than one book at a time
« Reply #1 on: March 25, 2022, 02:55:33 AM »
Authors promote multiple books simultaneously all the time! You should be fine. Also, sci-fi and fantasy are different enough that I imagine you’re promoting to different audience segments.
 
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alhawke

Re: Sale promotions for more than one book at a time
« Reply #2 on: March 25, 2022, 07:43:57 AM »
Also, sci-fi and fantasy are different enough that I imagine you’re promoting to different audience segments.
I'm hoping that's the case. But the promo companies believe there is some attrition. That's why most don't allow the same author to submit during the same month. I'm still undecided. Anyone note any drop in performance after doing a double promotion in the same month?
 

idontknowyet

Re: Sale promotions for more than one book at a time
« Reply #3 on: March 25, 2022, 08:09:02 AM »
i have been putting the first book in several series up for .99cents and promoting them at the same time works very well for me. Honestly i want to get to the point that i'm promoting most of my series beginners at the same time, but for that i need time.
 
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alhawke

Re: Sale promotions for more than one book at a time
« Reply #4 on: March 25, 2022, 08:19:04 AM »
i have been putting the first book in several series up for .99cents and promoting them at the same time works very well for me.
That's interesting. Thanks!

But you're not seeing one series take away sales from the other? I see this with daily advertising. In fact, I've had to stop ads due to this. It could be because I mostly use the same medium, BookBub, for daily ads.
 
 

idontknowyet

Re: Sale promotions for more than one book at a time
« Reply #5 on: March 25, 2022, 11:40:40 AM »
i have been putting the first book in several series up for .99cents and promoting them at the same time works very well for me.
That's interesting. Thanks!

But you're not seeing one series take away sales from the other? I see this with daily advertising. In fact, I've had to stop ads due to this. It could be because I mostly use the same medium, BookBub, for daily ads.

I'm only using fb so far. Will try ams again.
 

writeway

Re: Sale promotions for more than one book at a time
« Reply #6 on: March 25, 2022, 04:59:23 PM »
I have a catalog of 100+ books. For each month I set up promotions where I promote my new release as well one or two backlist titles. I usually release monthly though after April I don't plan on releasing for at least 5 months. But I usually will continue to promote recent backlist titles that released in the last few months until they die down and then after that I just alternate. I have books wide and in KU and KU free days have been wonderful in juicing up my backlist. I suggest for people in KU and with a big catalog, to try to do a KU free day promo at least once a month. Then promote the free days on Fussy Librarian, Freebooksy and Bookspry. Spread the advertising out so you get more bang for your buck while the promo is running. For example, if you do 3 free days, then schedule 3 promos on three different sites for 3 different days to keep downloads going. You don't want to stack and get a bunch of downloads on the first day and then trickles for the rest of the promo. I never stack. I stagger. I usually don't run all five days at once. I usually do 3 days of the free promo. But this is just a preferance. There is no wrong or right. If you write romance, keep an eye out for the promotions Zoebub and Takeover Tuesdays, which you can find in the FB groups. Your page reads will skyrocket with these promos. Zoebub is usually around ever 3 months and Takeover Tuesday does it more often. But, yeah if I waited until I didn't have a new release to promote a backlist book I'd never promote my backlist! I don't see why a backlist title would ruin a new release. I haven't experienced this. It's two different books so I don't see why they would affect each other negatively.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2022, 05:06:03 PM by writeway »
 
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writeway

Re: Sale promotions for more than one book at a time
« Reply #7 on: March 25, 2022, 05:45:10 PM »
Also, sci-fi and fantasy are different enough that I imagine you’re promoting to different audience segments.
I'm hoping that's the case. But the promo companies believe there is some attrition. That's why most don't allow the same author to submit during the same month. I'm still undecided. Anyone note any drop in performance after doing a double promotion in the same month?

Authors can submit as often as they like on most promo sites. They just can't promote the same book usually within a month. But one author can set promos for as many books as they want on most of the sites if not all. I use some of the same promo sites each month for different titles. Because I have a large backlist I sometimes promote on the same sites 2-3 a month with different books. And, I do several promos a month and see no drop but growth. Each time you promote it's exposure.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2022, 05:47:54 PM by writeway »
 

alhawke

Re: Sale promotions for more than one book at a time
« Reply #8 on: March 26, 2022, 12:26:14 AM »
Thanks for sharing, Writeway!

My promos run, on average, every three months, but are mostly for new releases. I haven't considered running them more often. Now that my backlog is enlarging, it's something I need to consider. I don't do KU, but I'd think much of this applies to wide as well. Perhaps cost of the promos themselves is becoming the greatest factor? The other consideration is price dropping. Promos usually rely on price drops, ads don't.

There's truly a marketing mix here between promotions, ads and author cross promoting. I wonder what's the magic formula? Nobody knows truly, I'd think.
« Last Edit: March 26, 2022, 12:28:46 AM by alhawke »
 

writeway

Re: Sale promotions for more than one book at a time
« Reply #9 on: March 26, 2022, 04:25:39 PM »
Yeah, definitely promote your backlist. Just pick one or two of your old books each month and promote those. That backlist can be a goldmine.  Grin
 
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