Author Topic: Book promo stack (Read 9486 times)

Simon Haynes · « **on:** November 03, 2020, 06:39:54 AM »

It's been a long time since I ran any sort of promo, and I finally got myself organised.

I manually change the prices of my books at the drop of a hat, which means I sometimes have hard time organising a countdown deal. You have to wait 30 days after the last price change, and every time I look it seems there are still 29 days to go.

Anyway, I solved that issue by booking my discount days a while ahead, which is now the 21st to 28th November.

The deal is a box set of three novels, normally US$6.99, which I'll be offering for 99c/99p. The second omnibus, normally 9.99, will be 4.99, and the third (also 9.99) will be priced at 7.99.

I applied for Fussy Librarian and got that one for the 24th.
Applied for ENT at the same time (23rd) and just got the acceptance.
Then I booked Bknights + their newsletter promo, which I haven't used lately. (26th)
Finally, I applied for Book Cave with the editor's pick addon, and just got the acceptance for both (23rd)

Total spend came to about $120.

I looked at Robin Reads and Book Barbarian, but both are booked until the end of December in my genre.

I'll try and organise a couple of newsletter swaps as well, and I'll run AMS ads and BB ads during the week too. I might run an FB campaign on this special as well.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #1 on:** November 03, 2020, 07:34:28 AM »

Added a book barbarian 'overflow' listing, since those have a much shorter timeframe.

alhawke · « **Reply #2 on:** November 03, 2020, 02:24:58 PM »

Don't forget to consider Bargainbooksy, Simon. They always perform well for me. Good luck!

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #3 on:** November 03, 2020, 06:31:52 PM »

Thanks - I did look at their deal of the day about a week ago, but it was booked out through December. However, the secondary listing had a much shorter timeframe and so I just booked that in.

This is more for my records than anything else ;-)

99c Days 21-28

Book Barbarian overflow listing 22nd
ENT 23rd
Book Cave 23rd
Fussy Librarian 24th
BargainBooksy 25th
Book Doggy (25th)
Fiverr BKnights 26th
Booksends 26th

Also Book Angel (UK)

notthatamanda · « **Reply #4 on:** November 03, 2020, 10:50:26 PM »

Good luck with the promo.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #5 on:** November 04, 2020, 03:20:14 AM »

Thanks! i've been accepted by all of them except Book Doggy so far - just waiting for their email.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #6 on:** November 04, 2020, 07:43:35 AM »

And book doggy accepted too, so that's clean sweep.

Keeping a note of everything because my intention is to repeat this every month for a different series starter.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #7 on:** November 09, 2020, 07:03:29 AM »

Kind of on-topic, as I just put a preorder up for Harriet Walsh 4 (Foxtrot Hotel), as the book is already half written and my alpha readers just got the first handful of chapters. It's the first time I've ever had two books up for preorder, but I believe it will motivate me every time I 'don't feel like writing'.

Reason for posting here is because I'm planning to promo stack this series late in December, when book 1 will be 99c and book 4's preorder should be showing in the series list.

And then I'm planning to have Gold ready for the end of Jan, so I'll put THAT preorder up late December some time. And I'll repeat the 99c promo stack on Bronze in mid January.

Feb is Secret War 3, and then I'll finally have 3 books or more in every series.

As long as I keep writing, and repeat the preorder/stacking process month after month, with a different series each time, things should move along nicely.

I also have a cold case crime novel in the planning. (non-scifi/non-fantasy). It's one of my fave genres, and I've been mulling the idea around for a couple of years now.

LilyBLily · « **Reply #8 on:** November 09, 2020, 08:49:16 AM »

Sounds like a good plan.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #9 on:** November 22, 2020, 02:03:00 PM »

This promo stack starts tonight and runs for the next 5-6 days.

Rankings at the start as follows:

USA Ebook: 122k
Audio: 55k

UK Ebook: 44k
Audio: 16k

alhawke · « **Reply #10 on:** November 22, 2020, 03:20:51 PM »

Good luck!

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #11 on:** November 22, 2020, 03:58:26 PM »

Yep, hoping to repeat once per month with other first-in-series. Aside from AMS and sporadic FB/BB ads, I've not run a promo on anything for over a year now.

lea_owens · « **Reply #12 on:** November 22, 2020, 06:56:53 PM »

Good luck with your promo.

I've never been able to get a BookBub, even with Muted that now has 184 reviews/ratings and 89% of them are five-star. They don't want any of my books, even free.

I did a free promotion this weekend with Star Writer (romance, women's fiction) if anyone's interested in comparing results. Sales were only a few a week, so I may as well give it away. I've almost always covered costs of promos in the past from read-throughs even though the books are stand-alones and not a series, so fingers crossed that happens again.

I dumped most of the promotions onto the second day to try and jump into the top 100 overall free.

On November 19 it went free and I just did some posts in Facebook groups for 75 downloads.

On November 20, I had Free Booksy, Fussy Librarian, and Book Doggy, and had 3,305 downloads which put the book into #35 position in the free lists (overall), with positions 1, 4, and 10 in some big categories like Contemporary Romance.

November 21, no paid promotions but getting up in the ranking fuelled downloads and there were 1,180 and remained in the low 40s overall-in-store most of the day. Staying on that first page of 50 books in the Top 100 certainly helps.

November 22, I have a Book Cave and Fiverr BKnights just to try and stop the ranking dropping like a rock. It's already back down to #62 overall in store (free) and 1, 6, and 18 in categories, so it's about to be goodnight from me.

I've found this pattern of promotions has worked well in the past - if you can get seen in the first rows of categories or first page of overall, it definitely drives downloads. Hopefully, some of the downloaders actually read the book, like it, and see the message at the end, 'If you enjoyed this, you might like Muted - with 184 reviews and 89% of them five-star, it's proving popular with readers.'

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #13 on:** November 22, 2020, 08:01:24 PM »

Yes, spreading them out over a few days seems to work best (doesn't harm to have several on one day as well, of course.)

I just launched two bookbub ads to help the 99c promo along, one for the US and another for the UK.

Congrats on the results, and thanks for sharing too.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #14 on:** November 22, 2020, 08:09:15 PM »

Quote from: lea_owens on November 22, 2020, 06:56:53 PM

Good luck with your promo.

I've never been able to get a BookBub, even with Muted that now has 184 reviews/ratings and 89% of them are five-star. They don't want any of my books, even free.

I know you didn't ask for advice, but you did say you haven't been able to get a bookbub, so...

I just read the first few pages and it's really good - I can see why you have that high average rating. The cover's dynamic too, and if I had to pick one thing that might be turning Bookbub away I'd suggest it might be the book description on the product page.

To shorten it down a bit you might want to move the Bio to your amazon author page. It'll still show, but in a separate place further down the product page.

As for the blurb, if you can add a bigger hook at the end and something short and snappy at the start I think it'd work better.

I sometimes post my blurbs here in the section of the forum reserved for that kind of thing, just to get feedback. It always improves them tremendously.

Again, apologies if you weren't asking for advice!

lea_owens · « **Reply #15 on:** November 22, 2020, 09:00:03 PM »

Thanks for the advice. I haven't redone that blurb in a year or more, so it's time to get tweaking again. You made some good points and I've shortened it back and made it punchier.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #16 on:** November 22, 2020, 10:41:43 PM »

Yep, that's much better.

alhawke · « **Reply #17 on:** November 23, 2020, 01:51:09 AM »

Quote from: lea_owens on November 22, 2020, 06:56:53 PM

I've never been able to get a BookBub, even with Muted that now has 184 reviews/ratings and 89% of them are five-star. They don't want any of my books, even free.

Just wanted to add my 2cents, Lea. I wouldn't give up applying to BookBub. It seems you're getting a lot of success with your other promotions. Remember you can keep bugging BookBub editors with submissions. You can apply repeatedly every month (I think I applied like 20x before landing them).

And BB is not end-all. I had a lot of success with Freebooksy thanks to Writersanctum advice.

You saw the power of Freebooksy yourself, right? I think Freebooksy is becoming a force to be reckoned with for free promos, only getting stronger and stronger. Who knows, they could even rival the BB King in the foreseeable future.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #18 on:** November 23, 2020, 11:39:41 AM »

Before I start I should mention that I've avoided advertising this particular box set for the past 2 weeks. Didn't want people to pay $6.99 and then discover it's 99c.

Okay, day 1 and the BookBarbarian overflow listing has resulted in 37 sales of the main book (99c ea), 4 x book 2 (3.99 ea) and 3 x book 3 (7.99 ea).

I did get one click on my US bookbub ad, so that might be in there. 11 clicks on the UK ad, with maybe 3 conversions.

Ranks:

USA Ebook: 13k (from 220k)
Audio: 25k (from 44k)

UK ebook: 23k (from 44k)
Audio: 10k (from 16k)

ENT and Book Cave tonight.

notthatamanda · « **Reply #19 on:** November 23, 2020, 09:21:36 PM »

Good luck.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #20 on:** November 24, 2020, 07:55:46 AM »

Thanks!

I just got an email from Bookbub - the fourth novel in my Hal series has just been accepted for an international bookbub featured deal. (They knocked back the US portion, but I'll take it!) Sharing because this book is in KU, so it's not impossible to get a BB if you're amazon exclusive.

After I went exclusive in August last year I applied a handful of times, was knocked back with all of them, and gave up in March. This one was just a 'what the hell might as well' type of thing.

notthatamanda · « **Reply #21 on:** November 24, 2020, 07:59:35 AM »

Congratulations! Let us know the date so we can cheer you.
T-minus 7 days for Enigma.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #22 on:** November 24, 2020, 08:23:27 AM »

18th December. Alas the BB is less than 30 days after my current promo, so of course I can't repeat any promos on several of the usual sites (30 day min before repeat). Also, a few won't promote anything but the first book in a series, and since I'm running a promo now on books 1-3 in a box set, I can't run a promo on book 1 either ;-)

(In hindsight I should have picked a book from a different series, but I never expected to get the BB featured deal, to be honest.)

Anyway, I'll reduce the price of the first 5 books in the series to 99c, with the second 5 still at 4.99. Hopefully the former will generate sales and the latter will generate some income.

For me, the UK and US represent equal market share, so a BB in the UK with this series is actually a real win.

alhawke · « **Reply #23 on:** November 24, 2020, 12:24:14 PM »

Quote from: Simon Haynes on November 24, 2020, 08:23:27 AM

the fourth novel in my Hal series has just been accepted for an international bookbub featured deal. 18th December. Alas the BB is less than 30 days after my current promo, so of course I can't repeat any promos on several of the usual sites (30 day min before repeat). Also, a few won't promote anything but the first book in a series, and since I'm running a promo now on books 1-3 in a box set, I can't run a promo on book 1 either ;-)

That's awesome! Good luck.

If you still want to promote with the BB to bolster it--despite running a promo already. And gazing at your promo sites above--you could still promote with ereaderiq, Many Books, fkbt, Robin Reads (if not too late) and/or Book Gorilla. There's always medium riding players that are available. Obviously, never as powerful as BB or ENT, but they'll still could sell 10-20 in a 99c promo (ime, anyway).

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #24 on:** November 24, 2020, 12:51:56 PM »

Thanks for the suggestions.

Robin Reads has a long lead time (2-3 months) but the others are worth a look.

Fortunately, sales rank really doesn't matter with this one as it's book 4 in the series. I will plan a couple of Bookbub ads for the relevant markets to promote book 1/2/3 though.

I've been wondering whether to seek a free promo for book zero, which is a permafree, but amazon have a nasty habit of reverting it to paid.

notthatamanda · « **Reply #25 on:** November 24, 2020, 01:34:32 PM »

Bknights on fiver

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #26 on:** November 24, 2020, 02:19:54 PM »

37 sales of the box set today, along with 2 x Omnibus 2 and 3 x Omnibus 3.

US rank: 11k (from 13k yesterday)
UK rank: 6k (from 23k yesterday)

So ENT + Book Cave together were equivalent to the Book Barbarian overflow listing.

Fussy Librarian tonight.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #27 on:** November 25, 2020, 08:46:40 AM »

56 sales, 4 x Omni2, 3 x Omni3

US rank: 6k (from 11k yesterday)
UK rank: 8k (down from 6k yesterday)

notthatamanda · « **Reply #28 on:** November 25, 2020, 11:38:17 AM »

Good luck with Fussy.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #29 on:** November 25, 2020, 12:01:10 PM »

Thanks! I think that was last night my time & still ongoing. (It's 10am on the 25th November here.)

BTW I think I spent around US$300 on the stack. It's close to paying for itself and I still have 4 more promo sites over the next 2 days.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #30 on:** November 25, 2020, 01:17:02 PM »

Omni 1 has cracked the top 100 in Space Opera and SF Humour (the latter nestled amongst 40+ alien romance manchest titles, lol).

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-Humorous-Science-Fiction/zgbs/digital-text/16232453011

Sorry, but I can't help laughing at the traffic-light coloured manchests with titles like VORG, NORM and PRYK.

Also

#2 in Teen & Young Adult Humorous eBooks
#2 in Parodies
#14 in Teen & Young Adult Sci-Fi Action & Adventure eBooks

Unrelated, but A Riddle in Bronze has done well on Amazon US today for some unknown reason, with multiple sales of paperbacks and ebooks.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #31 on:** November 25, 2020, 05:02:48 PM »

Moved up 3 pages in the popularity rankings for SF humour, and it's got the orange flash!

Gerri Attrick · « **Reply #32 on:** November 25, 2020, 07:29:37 PM »

Well done, Simon.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #33 on:** November 26, 2020, 07:54:16 AM »

Stack 2: The Return of Stack

I've managed to get promos with BookGorilla, Manybooks and EreaderIQ around the date of the BB. (17th-20th December)

The bookbub is international, but since I'm going to manually drop the prices to 99c for the first 5 novels in the series, it makes sense to run a few promos in the US marketplace at the same time.

lea_owens · « **Reply #34 on:** November 26, 2020, 05:41:03 PM »

Congratulations on how this promo stack has gone - some good rankings there. I'm looking forward to seeing how the BB one goes. I love seeing how people's figures unfold over the days of a promotion. Thanks for sharing.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #35 on:** November 26, 2020, 06:13:39 PM »

Thanks!

Today's figs are a bit hard to measure, thanks to the AWS meltdown. My AMS dash is still catching up so I have no idea how much I spent on ads.

But so far it's 37 copies of Omni 1, 5 x Omni2 and 2 x Omni3.

Page reads for Omni2 are above average - maybe some bought the 99c Omni1, and are now reading the second in KU.

As for rankings, Omni1 is at 6k on the US store and 15k in the UK.

Tonight is the last push for this promo, and it's been pretty good so far.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #36 on:** November 27, 2020, 08:02:13 PM »

Finished the promo with 31 x omni1, 5 x omni2 and 2 x omni3. Hopefully people can judge the effectiveness of the various promo sites from the daily figures, although I did pair them day by day which makes it impossible to allocate sales precisely.

Definitely covered the cost of the promo with the sales of omni 1 and 2, so the sales of omni 3 were a bonus.

I've already got the next promo lined up for late next month, and I'm going to start working on a promo for Harriet Walsh in January. Book 4 comes out on the last day of the year, so the timing is good.

LilyBLily · « **Reply #37 on:** November 27, 2020, 11:01:46 PM »

That's great.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #38 on:** November 30, 2020, 01:13:08 PM »

Net effect of the 5 day stack was to move Omnibus 1 from page 9 or 10 of the 'Humorous Scifi Popularity List' all the way up to page 3. It won't stay there, but hopefully it's trained the algorithms a bit.

alhawke · « **Reply #39 on:** November 30, 2020, 01:25:06 PM »

Congrats

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #40 on:** December 17, 2020, 12:15:03 PM »

Book Stack take two:

Book 4 in the Hal Spacejock series has an international-only Bookbub in a couple of days (tomorrow night my time.)

To help it along, I've lowered the price of books 1-5 to 99c/99p and booked whatever smaller promos I could. (Hampered by Book Stack Take One, above, which occurred less than 30 days ago.)

The last 5 books in the series are all 4.99. (Everything is in Kindle Unlimited.)

I'd already decided to go wide in the new year, barring two unfinished series which will stay in KU until they're completed. This unexpected Bookbub means I'll be keeping the Hal series in for an extra three months, giving people a chance to borrow/read all ten books before they're yanked.

alhawke · « **Reply #41 on:** December 17, 2020, 02:43:36 PM »

Good luck, Simon!

notthatamanda · « **Reply #42 on:** December 17, 2020, 11:25:03 PM »

Good luck.

LilyBLily · « **Reply #43 on:** December 17, 2020, 11:27:07 PM »

I hope the BookBub does smashingly for you.

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #44 on:** December 19, 2020, 12:18:55 PM »

The BB happened last night, good results so far with book 4 #1 in various major categories across Amazon UK, AU and CA. (Books 1-5 did pretty well too, with about 1 sale of each for every 4 or 5 of the promoted book.)

Below is the top 100 teen/ya scifi for the UK store, which looks nice ... however fleeting it might be ;-)

LilyBLily · « **Reply #45 on:** December 19, 2020, 01:12:10 PM »

Woo-hoo!

Simon Haynes · « **Reply #46 on:** December 19, 2020, 01:52:55 PM »

It's doing well! #18 overall in Canada, #63 overall in Australia and somewhere in the 300s on the UK store.

Meanwhile all my promos are for book 1 on the US store, heh.

Gerri Attrick · « **Reply #47 on:** December 19, 2020, 07:09:36 PM »

Nice going, Simon. Hope the run continues.

notthatamanda · « **Reply #48 on:** December 20, 2020, 12:13:16 AM »

Congratulations.

News:

Author Topic: Book promo stack (Read 9486 times)