# If NOT BookBub and ENT....then What?!?!



## markcooper76 (Jan 22, 2012)

Hi everyone,

I been looking for good paid promotion sites for my books. And from what I am reading and people are telling me it seems the two giants are BookBub and ENT. I actually tried paid promotions with another of the book blog/sites out there and at best it has gotten mediocre results (in most cases I actually lost money). 

It seems it is only worth advertising with BookBub and ENT. Those two seems to be the only paid sites that will give your book a major sales bump and a positive ROI. 

However, they seem to be quite hard to get accepted into. I tried submitting my books and got rejected. 

I am reaching out to you to see if there are any alternatives to these two major sites? Do we have any other good options besides these two? 

Thanks,
Mark


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## 90daysnovel (Apr 30, 2012)

Pixel of Ink, BookBlast.co and Free Kindle Books and Tips are solid options.


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## purplesmurf (Mar 20, 2012)

bookbasset isn't too bad either. It worked really well for me once and then so-so the second time I used them.


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## RM Prioleau (Mar 18, 2011)

markcooper76 said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> I been looking for good paid promotion sites for my books. And from what I am reading and people are telling me it seems the two giants are BookBub and ENT. I actually tried paid promotions with another of the book blog/sites out there and at best it has gotten mediocre results (in most cases I actually lost money).
> 
> ...


My search continues, too! I, too, keep getting rejected by BB and ENT (including other big sites like POI, Bookblast, Books and Tips, and a slew of others that people have used on here). No one wants my money, it seems.

I will continue watching this thread.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

I'm doing that Thursday and Friday.
Got a freebie promo without BookBub  

Using Harvey's new series promotion feature, BookBasset and every freebie-listing site I could find.  Will be an interesting experiment.


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## dotx (Nov 4, 2010)

RM Prioleau said:


> My search continues, too! I, too, keep getting rejected by BB and ENT (including other big sites like POI, Bookblast, Books and Tips, and a slew of others that people have used on here). No one wants my money, it seems.
> 
> I will continue watching this thread.


I had the impression Bookblast accepted pretty much everybody. I booked an ad for September 10th and the acceptance took just minutes. No questions or anything (I did send a link to the book in the initial email, so maybe they took a look and decided it was ok for them?). I thought Books and Tips and Book Gorilla were easy to get into too.


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## Cliff Ball (Apr 10, 2010)

Bookblast flat out said no to my Christian fiction thriller novel, so nope, they don't accept everyone.


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## ChrisWard (Mar 10, 2012)

Bookblast require 5 reviews, Kindle Books and Tips 8. Always lose money on the first but usually break even on the second. Got a book stuck on four reviews for months now. Complete nightmare. Never thought I'd miss free promos but it really helps you to meet review requirements.


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## Guest (Aug 27, 2013)

Write the next book. Works for me--I've never done a paid ad anywhere.


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## RM Prioleau (Mar 18, 2011)

dotx said:


> I had the impression Bookblast accepted pretty much everybody. I booked an ad for September 10th and the acceptance took just minutes. No questions or anything (I did send a link to the book in the initial email, so maybe they took a look and decided it was ok for them?). I thought Books and Tips and Book Gorilla were easy to get into too.


Nope. All rejected for one reason or another (reviews, length, genre, interest, etc.). I sent them a fully-detailed email with links to my books and followed their submission instructions to the finest detail. I felt like I was querying agents or something.


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## dldkrypto (Mar 18, 2012)

If you've got a vampire themed book try http://www.ilovevampirenovels.com

I did an ad for 67 dollars yesterday for book of the day and have sold near a 150 copies (combining Amazon and the various sites from D2D) at 2.99 each. It's slowing down a bit now, but it's the best sales I've ever had. Their Facebook page has a lot of traffic, and they have a pretty decent mailing list too.


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## dotx (Nov 4, 2010)

dldkrypto said:


> If you've got a vampire themed book try http://www.ilovevampirenovels.com
> 
> I did an ad for 67 dollars yesterday for book of the day and have sold near a 150 copies (combining Amazon and the various sites from D2D) at 2.99 each. It's slowing down a bit now, but it's the best sales I've ever had. Their Facebook page has a lot of traffic, and they have a pretty decent mailing list too.


Thanks for the tip! I'll send them an email.


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## CEMartin2 (May 26, 2012)

Well, since I can't get any of them to even announce free days for me, I just post to FB, Twitter, and Goodreads forums I've joined and comment in periodically. It's not much, but I seem to be able to giveaway about a hundred copies whenever I do. Give it a shot!


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## Guest (Aug 27, 2013)

It seems that free giveaways are being combined with paid sales. Free giveaways are a bit different and can effectively be promoted in other ways. I ran a whole campaign through Twitter one time and did quite well in downloads. 

However, for paid sales, excluding ENT (which I got on) and Bookbub (which I can't get on), BookBlast and Kindle Books and Tips worked the best for me. 

Kindle Books and Tips also generated sales for a few days after the promo ran so I was more than happy about that little bonus. 

I need to try Pixel of Ink again. I remember them being very nice, but really don't remember the sales generated. It was a long time ago!


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

Bookblast, Kindle Fire Dept., Kindle Books Tips & Tricks, BookGorilla, Kindleboards, Digital Book Today, Freebooksy, Flurries of Words, eBookHabit, there's a lot. I know I'm missing some, but this is just off the top of my head. I would hit them all. Many of them have nominal fees.


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## SEAN H. ROBERTSON (Mar 14, 2011)

I just checked out BookBasset based on this thread....seems interesting. Thanks friends for the tips.


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## RuthNestvold (Jan 4, 2012)

I hadn't heard of BookBasset before either. To those who have used the service: What kind of success have you had?


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## Maia Sepp Ross (May 10, 2013)

BookBasset will take paid books, but only if you have a free book, which I don't - last time I checked after a thread like this, anyway


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## Just Browsing (Sep 26, 2012)

dotx said:


> I had the impression Bookblast accepted pretty much everybody.


Nope. They turned me down for having a review average of 3.7. They have a minimum requirement of 4, they said.


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## ChrisWard (Mar 10, 2012)

Sophrosyne said:


> Bookblast, Kindle Fire Dept., Kindle Books Tips & Tricks, BookGorilla, Kindleboards, Digital Book Today, Freebooksy, Flurries of Words, eBookHabit, there's a lot. I know I'm missing some, but this is just off the top of my head. I would hit them all. Many of them have nominal fees.


I would never give money to Digital Book Today or BookGorilla based on feedback from other authors. Freebooksy is okay if you get a free listing but I seriously doubt you'd make back your $50 for a paid ad. I hope someone has data to prove me wrong though.

I hear Bookblast results are good for certain genres but in the three times I've been on the fantasy list the most sales I've had was 14, and that was at 99c. They've been better each time, but I think their prices are rising faster than their customer list. A guy I know got 500 free downloads on a $25 listing the other day, which is rubbish for that price. I got 360 on a novel with no reviews and zero advertising a few months back. I'd want 5000 for that price absolute minimum.


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## dotx (Nov 4, 2010)

ChrisWard said:


> I would never give money to Digital Book Today or BookGorilla based on feedback from other authors. Freebooksy is okay if you get a free listing but I seriously doubt you'd make back your $50 for a paid ad. I hope someone has data to prove me wrong though.
> 
> I hear Bookblast results are good for certain genres but in the three times I've been on the fantasy list the most sales I've had was 14, and that was at 99c. They've been better each time, but I think their prices are rising faster than their customer list. A guy I know got 500 free downloads on a $25 listing the other day, which is rubbish for that price. I got 360 on a novel with no reviews and zero advertising a few months back. I'd want 5000 for that price absolute minimum.


I'll report back on what results I get from Bookblast. So far, it doesn't sound like it's that effective. Plus, I'm reducing the price to only $2.99, not 99 cents, so that'll probably get me fewer sales.

I don't want to reduce to 99 cents because I'm saving that for a Bookbub ad in December (when book two in the series comes out). If they'll take me, of course.


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## ChrisWard (Mar 10, 2012)

dotx said:


> I'll report back on what results I get from Bookblast. So far, it doesn't sound like it's that effective. Plus, I'm reducing the price to only $2.99, not 99 cents, so that'll probably get me fewer sales.
> 
> I don't want to reduce to 99 cents because I'm saving that for a Bookbub ad in December (when book two in the series comes out). If they'll take me, of course.


Good luck! Bookblast are definitely one to keep an eye on. Unlike a lot of sites which basically look the part but do nothing in terms of generating sales, at least they're moving in the right direction.


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## Writer1000 (Jul 28, 2013)

I'm currently running a 5-day free promo for Book 2 of my first series. I had a Bookblast ad for Day 1 (Saturday) and the highest ranking I got for that day was #172 free although it did reach a high of #118 in the wee hours of the morning on Day 2 (US PST).

There were no paid promos for Day 2 (I think some of the unpaid sites picked up the book but I didn't really check which ones - definitely not ENT or POI) and by the end of the day, the book was ranking #130.

On Day 3 (Monday), a Kindle Nation Daily and Book Gorilla ad came out and it took the book to #67. It stayed in the Top 100 Free for most of Days 3 and 4 although as I type, it had slid down to #134 (and Day 5 has just started).

The boost in sales for my other books is good by my standards. I have priced Book 1 at 99cents and my other two books are at $2.99. I will break even today (Day 5) and the last time I did a free promo for this same book back in April, it was during the 2 weeks after the promo period that I made some decent money. (All books in the series sold briskly for that period of time). I'm hoping for similar results after today.

If Book Bub continues to reject me, I'll go for KND/BG and Bookblast again - and maybe try Freebooksy - at least for free promos. I haven't tried them with 'not free' books.


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## TechnoHippy (Feb 22, 2013)

I got zero sales with BookGorilla. I've booked a giveaway slot on Freebooksy, it'll be inetresting to see how that does.


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## purplesmurf (Mar 20, 2012)

dotx said:


> I had the impression Bookblast accepted pretty much everybody. I booked an ad for September 10th and the acceptance took just minutes. No questions or anything (I did send a link to the book in the initial email, so maybe they took a look and decided it was ok for them?). I thought Books and Tips and Book Gorilla were easy to get into too.


I got rejected from bookblast 3 times before they took me and it was only after changing the cover and blurb that I finally got accepted.



TechnoHippy said:


> I got zero sales with BookGorilla. I've booked a giveaway slot on Freebooksy, it'll be inetresting to see how that does.


I did a 99 cent run with Book Gorilla and got 40 sales day of and a handful the day after.


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