# A Mini Guide to Launch Promo Services - Sites You Can Use for New Releases



## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

*Note on May 13, 2018: this list will no longer be updated. Thanks for everyone who helped out, commented, and added to it over the past two years.*

*Last updated Dec 9, 2017.*

This is a brief guide to promo services meeting the following criteria:

A) they can be used to launch your new book
B) they do not require previous reviews
C) they aren't ridiculously priced for the results they provide

You can also use these sites for older books that have few/no existing reviews. If you want more (real) Amazon reviews, I wrote a mini guide to that here.

This is not a complete list (assembling one would be impossible and overwhelming), but it includes the major options, along with my personal, unfiltered commentary.

I'm normally a big proponent of pursuing either pure ROI or mailing list sign-ups when shelling out for advertising, but launching is different. *You essentially want to build a massive sales pyre, then hope that Amazon's algorithms come in with a flamethrower to ignite the whole thing*. Do this, and your book becomes "sticky," in the parlance of the boards. Thus, services that wouldn't make sense in other contexts become useful, because more sales during the launch window = a better chance of catching the algorithms' notice.

*Why Should I Even Launch?*

The launch is kind of like "free money" on Amazon. Your book isn't DOA if you don't hit it, but they provide certain advantages (emails, visibility lists, algorithm benefits) that make getting off on the right foot a good idea. Dumping the same amount - or more - into a promo stack six months down the line just won't have the same effect that it does in the first month of release.

What's the line where Amazon starts magically pushing your book? This question can't really be answered, *but it seems that you need to sell 500+ copies in a week for the algorithms to pick up and notice* (note: this was originally estimated as 100 copies; I now believe it's much higher for most genres). There are obvious exceptions to this rough rule - and KU borrows skew this - but that's a solid benchmark to aim for. I sold 110 of a space opera and 150 of an urban fantasy book and didn't get sticky, so *the "sticky threshold" is dependent on the competitiveness of your sub-genre - I'd say aim for the Top 20 of your sub-genre, preferably Top 10*. You can reverse-engineer how many sales it will take by looking at rankings of the top charting books. More important than the pure # of sales seems to be the quality of the also-boughts. Thus, advertising in lists that cater to your genre can be a huge boon to your fledgling book's prospects. E.g. 50 sales on a "general" promo site might not be as good as 30 on a genre site.

That's just speculation based on analyzing all the major launches coming through KBoards + my own data. Amazon's algorithm is a black box, so it's kinda hard to determine what's going on. As a brief aside, if you're launching to nudge Amazon's algorithms, stagger your promos. Their algorithms seem to like consistent sales across a number of days, typically 3 - 10, rather than massive spikes on a single day and then nothing. Sometime after day 3 is when the also-boughts tend to kick in. If it's gonna happen, the heavy-lifting from the algos kicks in a little bit after that.

*How Much Should I Spend?*

This can get expensive. I've seen some authors spend as much as $500 - $1000/day on ads during the launch window. This isn't strictly necessary by any means, but it's important to keep in mind that many of the authors - be they trad pub or indie - dominating the high ranks spend a fair amount on advertising. Of course, there are others who spend basically nothing. Building a robust mailing list (or other platform - e.g. Facebook) can cut down on your launch/marketing expenditures significantly.

*Promo Sites w/ No Review Requirements*

These aren't offered with any sort of ranking. I'm merely listing them here with approximate prices as of 12/9/17.

Mailing list (free): some of you don't have one, but this is the best way to rocket up the charts + launch your latest books. 50 - 100 sales from your list in conjunction with some of the sites below can push you up into the top 1000, with a little planning and luck. Learn how to get your first 1,000 email subscribers in this free step-by-step guide.

Bargain Booksy ($25 - $70): I usually get around 10 - 25 sales from Bargain Booksy @ $0.99. Lead time = 3 - 5 days.
FKBT ($25): sold 12 of a YA box in 2015, a genre that's typically a tough sell. Lead time = 4 -6 weeks.
BKNights  ($6): will muck with your also-boughts, but usually good for 5+ sales, depending on your placement. Lead time = 5 - 7 days.

*Other Sites w/ No Review Requirements, but Less Concrete Data on My End*

Read Cheaply ($25 - $35): didn't separate this out for my space opera release; for a month old free UF novel I got 395 free downloads for $35. Lead time = 1 - 2 weeks
eBookBetty ($1: Formerly Betty Book Freak. I didn't separate this out, so I can't tell. But usually good for 5+ sales. Lead time = 5 days to 1+ week. 
eBook Hounds ($10): didn't separate this out for my space opera release. Lead team = 1 - 2 weeks
Genre Pulse ($17 - $40): didn't separate this out for my space opera release; pricey, given results I've gotten in the past for other books. Lead time = 1+ week
Booktastik ($10): used in conjunction with Book Raid on space opera - 10 sales for the day, although I can't tell you the split. Lead time = 1+ week
ChoosyBookworm ($20): used in conjunction with Read Freely - 14 sales for the day, although I can't tell you the split. Lead time = 1 - 2 weeks. 
Book Raid (price based on # clicks): Allows new releases with no reviews, although submissions are subject to approval. Lead time: 3 - 7 days.

*
These have review requirements of sorts, but not for the new book itself:*

ENT($30): they will accept new release books with no reviews with reasonable covers/blurbs. It helps if you have an established series with a few reviews. They will often accept books with few reviews (less than five), even without an established series. 
BookSends ($25 - $50): BookSends will accept new releases if you have previous books with reviews. 
Fussy Librarian ($10 - $20): need a previous book with 10 Amazon reviews with a 4.0 average
Book Barbarian ($35 for a free book; $20 for $0.99): previous book with 50+ Amazon reviews (fantasy/sci-fi only)

*If you're launching at free (no reviews required):*

FreeBooksy ($70): usually good for 1000+ downloads, often upwards of 1500.
BKNights ($6): usually pushes 100 - 400 copies; more if you happen to get picked up by some sites
Genre Pulse ($40 w/ newsletter option): I got 300 clicks on my link; pricey, but can push you towards the top 100

*No longer recommended*

At one point, these were on the recommended list, but they've been bumped off. Explanations below.

OTOH Book Blast (formerly Hungry Author/GenreCrave) ($299 - $499): this is an _extremely_ popular service (booked months in advance). As such, you might be considering it. Unfortunately, some of the sales are likely generated via gifting (read these posts - *1, 2, 3, 4* - for more details). The order page is vague about how the sales are generated; this gifting stuff does not thrill me for Amazon TOS reasons (especially since I spent $1500+ on Book Blasts before I learned this). The results have also been subpar on an ROI basis; I sold around ~150 copies each for two Mega Blasts ($499) and 75 copies for a standard blast ($299) all in 2017 - all urban fantasy books, which is GC's wheelhouse. Zero stickiness, almost no tail, and practically no sell-through.

To be clear, GC's owner/employees have always been gracious and fair to me. I just don't think it's worth the hefty price tag given these factors.

BooksButterfly ($70): got around 11 sales when I used it on a space opera book (Sept 2016). The owner has always been gracious and professional with me, but there are numerous complaints on the forum about subpar customer service experiences.

ILVN ($70): for UF/PNR. Haven't used them for a launch, but they do accept new releases w/o reviews. From reports on the boards, their effectiveness has waned substantially over the past few years.

*Author Cross Promo*

Patty's Cross Promo for SF/Fantasy (free)
Renee Pawlish's Cross Promo for Mystery/Thriller Authors/Thriller (free)
Other author cross promo (free): Patty's promos have been an integral part of many of the recent successful launches on KBoards. I think the reason is simple: quality, relevant also-boughts. Some authors have built their releases around these, and it's paid off well. Putting it around day 3 - 7 seemed to really ignite things.

EB Brown's Mega Mailing List/Facebook Freebie promos ($15 & $10, respectively.) - The first option is for building your mailing list. I've seen her promos be an integral part of people's launches. The latter option is for free titles, and for generating KU borrows + free downloads (you don't have to be KDP exclusive to join; obviously your book has to be free, though).

Cross promotion via another author's email list (free): this requires networking, but we saw Chris Fox do this to tremendous effect in DESTROYER's launch. The author should be in the same genre. Cold-emailing random authors who are selling more than you and offering nothing in return is a poor strategy. Effective networking takes time and is usually a byproduct of other organic interactions (re: normal, non-business stuff) over the course of a year or two. Being a real human being generally helps.

*Pay-per-click options*

Facebook PPC (variable): a potential money pit, but great for generating relevant also-boughts and often cheaper than the newsletter services above on a per sale basis. Minimum $5/day spend.

Amazon Marketing Services (variable): same as FB: untapped potential for also-boughts/launches, but be careful with your budget (although it's pretty difficult to get Amazon to spend your money).

BookBub PPC (variable): not to be confused with their legendary Featured Deals. Like the other forms of PPC, these can get very expensive - but they also allow you to hit your target readership like a laser. Just watch the daily budgets.

*Non-fiction*

Buck Books: apparently they're second to only BookBub in non-fiction, and they will run new releases. It looks like you have to contact them to be considered, rather than entering a submission form. You also have a better chance of being accepted if you bought your cover from Archangel Ink. I'm unsure on fees/lead-time, as I've never used their service.

*Things that seem to do very little that I've seen mentioned on KBoards:*

Amazon follows (free): I acquired about ~1500 of these (based on # of entries) from giveaways for eBooks. When the emails went out, I saw zero sales. Organic follows likely work better, but I have my doubts as Amazon is a bit unreliable about sending out the alerts.

BookBub follows (free): sent out to 166 followers. 1 sale that day. If you have more, it might move the needle.

*Getting Reviews & Other Options*

Already linked at the top, but if you missed it and want to expand your promo options, check out this comprehensive mini guide to getting more reviews. Once you have more reviews, check out my curated list of promo sites.

*Launch Threads*

If you're wondering how you should plan your launch, these threads detailing successful launches - many into the top 1k - are incredible resources that I recommend reading from cover-to-cover. I do plan on doing a "Launch Blueprint" thread at some point, covering much of the information within - but I have to actually put together a few successful sticky ones in a row before I can do that.

Engineering a Bestseller (Domino Finn's UF post that kicked off the UF trend)

How I Got My Best Release Ever (J.A. Cipriano explains how he got his new UF series in the top 500)

Overnight Success: It Only Took Me 17 Years (Sonya Bateman's UF post about how she launched into the top 1000)

Funnel experiment: new release (Lady Gargoyle details how she hit the Top 100 in the Kindle Store with a standalone fantasy book, and via some clever cross-selling, revived a book in a completely different series and got it into the Top 1000.)

How I Sold a Load of Books (Finally) (Al K. Line details how he stuck in the top 600 with his new UF book Black Spark, after 19 releases that didn't do much)

Epic fantasy book launch pwtucker unveils how he got an epic fantasy book sticky around 1,000, and then doubled his sales/income with the launch of Book 2 in the follow-up thread

Slow-burn launch for stickiness (Aimee did a great job spacing out the launch for stickiness; great details + chart)

Can I break 1,000 launching Book 2? (Aimee returns for the sequel to HALF-WOLF with another great launch post...and spoiler, she broke 1,000)

Can you write a good book in 21 days? I'm about to find out. Destroyer is live. (Chris Fox's now-classic post on how he wrote the space opera novel DESTROYER in 21 days, then proceeded to launch it into the top 250...and get sticky in the top 1k for a month)

Coming Back to Life - The Launch Thread You Weren't Really Asking For (Rob Cornell explains how he launched a book, on a limited budget, into the top 3k and got it sticky around 5k at $2.99; I interrupt at random points with details on my own idiotic experiment that somehow got sticky)

YA Fantasy Launch - Can I Move Up From Prawny To... (Megan Crewe details how she launched a standalone YA novel into the top 1,000, launched with 50+ reviews and ran a killer pre-order bonus campaign that generated 500+ pre-orders)

My debut novel is knocking on the door of 1k (2017) (wingsandwords details how her debut urban fantasy novel broke the top 700)

Breaking down an Amazon Bestseller Launch (2017) (Six figure author Chris Fox details his latest Top 250 launch)

Proving I'm Not a One Hit Wonder (2017) (First year six figure author wingsandwords details her Top 250 launch)

My biggest and best launch ever (2017) (Rachel Medhurst details how she broke the Top 2000 with her new UF series)

*If anyone has anything to add, please let me know*. This guide is purely for new releases that have no reviews. I realize that many sites have low review requirements (5 reviews or so). These can often be added later during the first month of release, as organic and ARC reviews trickle in.

Nick


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## vault2008 (May 23, 2016)

I'm priming the release of my first book and I think this will be very helpful. Thank you so much.


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## FFJ (Feb 8, 2016)

Thanks for the very helpful info, per usual.

Greatly appreciated.


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## Ebooksforfreeinc. (Jan 1, 2016)

Consider adding us to your list - we do not have review requirements either - we study the book itself if it has no reviews to decide whether to post it or not. The book must be free or 99c though.

http://ebooksforfreeinc.com/


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Ebooksforfreeinc. said:


> Consider adding us to your list - we do not have review requirements either - we study the book itself if it has no reviews to decide whether to post it or not. The book must be free or 99c though.
> 
> http://ebooksforfreeinc.com/


Just a note: ONE popup for the whole site will do! And the same with those annoying moving sliders.


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## -alex- (Jul 12, 2011)

I'm getting closer to launching my YA PNR. So, thank you for this!


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## juliatheswede (Mar 26, 2014)

Great guide, Nicholas. Thanks for putting it together. ENT told me they actually do new releases, and they featured my thriller Jan 1st of this year (the book had only been out 4 days). It did have two reviews,  but I don't think they expected that. Maybe the fact that I had other books out with several reviews made a difference for them to accept my book (much faster than normal). Anyway, it's worth shooting ENT an email and asking them if they can run your book.


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## juliatheswede (Mar 26, 2014)

BVLawson said:


> Julia, was the new release that ENT featured a freebie, discounted, or full price?


It was discounted from $3.99 to $0.99.


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

Ebooksforfreeinc. said:


> Consider adding us to your list - we do not have review requirements either - we study the book itself if it has no reviews to decide whether to post it or not. The book must be free or 99c though.
> 
> http://ebooksforfreeinc.com/


I'll test your site during my latest new release ad lineup in mid-June. If the results are reasonable, then I'll add you to the list.

@BVLarson: if you want to launch at full price, most of these ad sites are out - or the results will be so muted that it's probably not worth buying the ad at all. Granted, the latter point hasn't been confirmed by me, as I've never run promo on a book priced over $0.99. Just evidence from the boards that suggests running a promo site ad for an indie book at $1.99+ doesn't work that well.

You need a fairly robust and responsive email list to launch at full price, or close to it (e.g $2.99). If you're interested in doing so, listen to Mark Dawson's most recent podcast, where he launched his 9th John Milton book, THE JUNGLE, at $4.99 - a $1 discount from his normal price of $5.99. He details all his strategies and what he did to launch the book into the top 100 on Amazon.

Note: his list is 50,000+ so that obviously helps.

http://www.selfpublishingformula.com/spf-013-how-to-launch-a-book/

Nick


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## amdonehere (May 1, 2015)

Thanks Nicholas!

One question: FKBT "New Release" option, and other sites that may promote "new releases", what if your new release is a later book in your series? Do you ever promote that? The chorus/echo chamber everywhere is to not promote any book other than Book 1. So if a series say has 10 books, then that author will never be able to take advantage of the "new release" option for any promo sites. What do you think about that?


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

AlexaKang said:


> Thanks Nicholas!
> 
> One question: FKBT "New Release" option, and other sites that may promote "new releases", what if your new release is a later book in your series? Do you ever promote that? The chorus/echo chamber everywhere is to not promote any book other than Book 1. So if a series say has 10 books, then that author will never be able to take advantage of the "new release" option for any promo sites. What do you think about that?


TLDR: which book you promote depends on whether your series needs to be read in order.

For FKBT in particular, the site owner generally will only promote the first book. There are exceptions, but that's the general "rule" on most sites if your series is told in a serial, linear style a la The Hunger Games, Game of Thrones or The Lord of the Rings. These books must be read in order, otherwise they don't make sense (or the reading experience is heavily impacted). I believe your series falls in this category. In that case, a promo stack on Book 1 w/ a link in the description to the discounted new release is effective (and notify your list, of course, of the new release).

The exception, of course, is where you have a series a la Jack Reacher, Robert Langdon (Da Vinci Code) Travis McGee or ...In Death. These are standalones that star the same character(s) - think Law and Order, right, where you can catch a one-off episode and be totally fine. In the case of Jack Reacher/Robert Langdon, the character remains similar over the course of the series. In Travis McGee and ...In Death, the characters change + grow, but these backstory elements aren't crucial to understanding the core narrative.

In that case, you can promote the later books in your series. This is an underused tactic for indies, but one that works tremendously well. You see Wayne Stinnett do this well - he's run BookBubs for a number of the titles in his series. His Jesse McDermitt character draws inspiration from Travis McGee. Same with Mark Dawson and his John Milton character, which definitely draws on classic thriller characters like Jack Reacher.

Sites will run these standalone books as new releases, so long as you make it clear that they are standalones. That being said, by the time you have a series of 10 books, hopefully your mailing list is strong enough to launch without needing the 100 - 200 sales these sites typically provide - or you at least have a little extra money to devote to some heavier artillery (i.e. Facebook or BookBub ads).

If your book is a standalone, as defined above, you can run a heavy promo stack on Book 1 + a new release promo stack on the latest book, thus amplifying the effects. For example, I ran a BookBub in December on a 1 - 3 series box set and advertised the just-released 4 - 6 box set for $0.99 in the description + did a $400+ promo stack on the 4 - 6 box. Result was 1500+ sales the first month for the 4 - 6 box. This on a series not remotely written to market.

Nick


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Because all my series are well along now, I am launching the books at full price.


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## Will C. Brown (Sep 24, 2013)

How do you book a launch-week promo if you don't have a link to your book yet? Its been a while since I published, so I don't remember when the ASIN is assigned.

Thanks for the guide!


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

@Mark: This is wise. The ultimate goal should be to build up your platform enough to launch at full price, or at $2.99+. Shelling out money for an algo-goosing loss leader is a useful strategy, but it should be viewed as a stepping stone to bigger + better launches. Mark Dawson's recent launch into the top 100 at $4.99 shows that early discounting isn't necessary if you build your platform over time.



Will C. Brown said:


> How do you book a launch-week promo if you don't have a link to your book yet? Its been a while since I published, so I don't remember when the ASIN is assigned.
> 
> Thanks for the guide!


The book has to be live + available on Amazon's site for you to get a link to your book page. There are two options:

A) put it up for pre-order. This will get you a live Amazon listing with an ASIN, so you can submit your link to promo sites. There's a lengthy ongoing debate on KBoards about pre-orders vs. non pre-orders. Basically, if you can push a ton of copies (500+) Week 1, you're probably costing yourself sales if you put up a pre-order due to Amazon's ranking algos. If your list/platform are such that you need decent outside launch juice to push copies, the debate is pretty much a moot point. So the only reason not to put up an Amazon pre-order in such an instance is that the manuscript isn't ready.

B) do a soft launch, where you release the book but don't tell anyone. The instant it goes live - usually about 12 hours after you hit publish - you submit your link to every site for ads about 4 - 10 days in the future. This obviously precludes some sites, as they require a longer lead time. But you can submit to them anyway and see what happens. Then you would simply structure your launch as normal: day 4 you might announce on FB; on day 5, you might tell your list; on day 6 you might have promo site 1; day 7 promo site 2; day 8 your Twitter, and so forth.

Nick


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## LindsayBuroker (Oct 13, 2013)

Thanks for putting together the links, Nicholas! We mentioned your post and quoted you on our podcast on book launches this week.


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

LindsayBuroker said:


> Thanks for putting together the links, Nicholas! We mentioned your post and quoted you on our podcast on book launches this week.


Cool, Lindsay! Your blog posts have been immensely helpful over the years. Glad I could be helpful in some small way.

@Book Club Promotion: I'm down to try your service for my upcoming release. If it delivers reasonable results, then I'll see about adding it.

Nick


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## MaggieWay (Jul 15, 2016)

Wonderful guide Nicholas!! I made the mistake of trying to do a blast for my first book, with the other books still due to come. I'm hindsight I should have done the blast for book 1 with at least two or three books in the series out. 

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk


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## angela65 (Oct 8, 2014)

Nicholas, just a big ole thanks for everything, especially your time. You've been one of the biggest helps on Kboards.


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## Moticom (Jun 29, 2016)

Decent thread with great information. Thanks for all of this.


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## mmandolin (Oct 16, 2014)

Nice summary, Nick. Thanks as always for the excellent info.

I'd toss in Buck Books (especially for non-fiction) & SweetFreeBooks - both are pretty lax about reviews, although with Buck it helps if you've forged a relationship with them.

For those who are interested, here's a great example of "slow burn" launching: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,233074.0.html


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## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

good thread


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## mmandolin (Oct 16, 2014)

Oh, yeah - another thing you can use if your book is in KU is Amazon Marketing Services. 

Some people have started having good results with this service; I personally like it. It can have great ROI, particularly while launching.


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## Viv Phoenix (Dec 19, 2015)

Thanks. I'm adding this to my collection of your helpful posts. Love this: "C) they aren't ridiculously priced for the results they provide" I spend more on promo every month. The key is to spend it well.

I'll echo Mmandolin on *SweetFreeBooks*. The first time I contacted her, I mentioned the book was a new release and sent a link to my author profile to show that I have books with good averages. She responds fast, terrific to deal with.

I've seen comments that the $40 *Genre Pulse* package isn't any more effective than the genre-specific one. Nothing against GP, just something people might want to dig into before booking. I like their click-tracking feature.

*E.B. Brown's MMLhttp://www.ebbrownbooks.com/vip-reader-rewards.html* promo gave my mailing list a huge boost. $15 for the first book, $5 each for additional books. I'm running three books there, so it also gave quick feedback on the preferences of a new reader pool.

I had a good 99c sales bump from *BargainBooksy* for Horror in a different book line. The cost of an erom ad was too high for the results on a recent bundle. It didn't feel like a waste of money; I just don't plan on doing another of their high-priced slots this year.

I've seen sales bumps from *Awesome Gang*. It's one of the few free ones I still use.

*Book Raid* is great to deal with and I like their dashboard feature. It's one of the best-looking and well-designed promo sites I use. I credit a few sales to them due to testing them on their own a couple of times.

I'm experimenting with* BookSprout* because I like to reach into more devices/reader pools. When I asked for a shortcut for uploading our entire catalog, he did it! It takes only a couple of minutes to check over the fetched listings.  He added a promo-tracking feature, too.

*Bknights* works so well for free runs and is so inexpensive, I don't mind that results on launches/99c sales are uneven. I just stack it.

BTW, *Mailer Lite* is free and unlike MailChimp, it has customer service and automated emails for free accounts. I discovered this when I found out my MailChimp link led to a bad certificate - right before the MML promo. Mailer Lite expedited my approval and I was able to use their easy landing page to handle my signups for the promo. Thanks to Kboards, I found Zoho mail, too.


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

MaggieWay said:


> Wonderful guide Nicholas!! I made the mistake of trying to do a blast for my first book, with the other books still due to come. I'm hindsight I should have done the blast for book 1 with at least two or three books in the series out.
> 
> Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk


I wouldn't consider this a mistake, so long as you had a mailing list link in the back of book #1. In fact, I really like advertising as much as possible at launch, since you're playing with "house money."

@mmandolin: Thanks for the additions! Sweet Free Books + Amazon Marketing Services have been added. I recently discovered SFB was eligible (re: yesterday). Good catch. If I could find a submission form for Buck Books, I'd be game to include it - but I can't. Do you have to email them?

Also, if you or anyone else knows if AMS PPC still requires you to set a $100 campaign budget, let me know. I found that super annoying and unnecessary early on, but maybe they've changed it.

Your link to Aimee's excellent slow burn post inspired me to dig through my links and add recent threads that are gold-mines of information. At some point, I'll do a launch post that breaks down the main strategies, but if people have time to spare before that happens, those are absolutely worth the reads from cover to cover.

@Viv Phoenix: thanks for all the additions! I've added Book Raid to the list - I recently submitted my first new release to them the other day, and I agree, it was super painless. I think they could be pretty big in the future. I also added E.B. Brown's MML to the list - but does anyone know if this is different than the cross author promos she runs? I seem to remember that she ran free cross author promos in the past, a la what Patty does. Maybe it was the MML thing all along, and I just wasn't reading close enough.

Also, if anyone has links to author promos, I can add them. There's a lot floating around the boards these days across a bunch of genres.

Interesting tip on Mailer Lite. I've switched mailing list ESPs three or four times, I believe, in the last couple months. Super annoying to find a good one. I'm now using ConvertKit (convertkit.com; $29/mo), which has pluses (super easy, painless tagging/automation, fast dashboard) and minuses (weird email formatting/writing issues). But it's better than Aweber, Mailchimp and GetResponse, and offers easier automation/tagging than Drip.

Nick


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## MaggieWay (Jul 15, 2016)

Nicholas Erik said:


> I wouldn't consider this a mistake, so long as you had a mailing list link in the back of book #1. In fact, I really like advertising as much as possible at launch, since you're playing with "house money."
> 
> @mmandolin: Thanks for the additions! Sweet Free Books + Amazon Marketing Services have been added. I recently discovered SFB was eligible (re: yesterday). Good catch. If I could find a submission form for Buck Books, I'd be game to include it - but I can't. Do you have to email them?
> 
> ...


Thanks Nick  
I didn't make back my money, I blame this down to an irrelevant cover and not compelling enough blurb.
All good, my biggest focus is building my mailing list.
I will say KND and Bknights were effective promotions for me.

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk


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## Viv Phoenix (Dec 19, 2015)

Nicholas Erik said:


> [snipped]
> @Viv Phoenix: thanks for all the additions! I've added Book Raid to the list - I recently submitted my first new release to them the other day, and I agree, it was super painless. I think they could be pretty big in the future. I also added E.B. Brown's MML to the list - but does anyone know if this is different than the cross author promos she runs? I seem to remember that she ran free cross author promos in the past, a la what Patty does. Maybe it was the MML thing all along, and I just wasn't reading close enough.
> 
> Also, if anyone has links to author promos, I can add them. There's a lot floating around the boards these days across a bunch of genres.
> ...


You're welcome. I get a great deal of value from your posts. Here's the link to *MML *info: http://www.ebbrownbooks.com/mega-promo.html She also does a separate one for free books. That one is $10 and doesn't have a giveaway for mailing list building. I discovered her promos via the thread here. I didn't see any no-charge options on the site.

BTW, realized after I wrote that post that results are relative. My mailing list is only a few weeks old, so the 156 new signups since MML started on July 1 exceeded my expectations. That might be small to someone with a much larger list. Some participants report fewer signups.

Glad ConvertKit is working better for you than the others did. Easy, fast and with automation are high on my list. I'm keeping my overhead as low as possible to maximize my ad budget, so a free account was my priority. Finding out the hard way that my MailChimp account was dead due to a bad certificate and they don't allow any customer service contact from free accounts put me off MailChimp. I was looking for an alternative due to the new Captcha hassle; posts here indicated that people are seeing a decline in signups.

Everything went smoothly with my first *MailerLite* campaign. Newsletter creation is fast with their drag & drop interface. Lots of customization options, too. I'm going to give it a couple weeks to make sure it works for everything I need, then move my other mailing lists off MailChimp. Their customer service reps have been fast and helpful. Their paid rates are much lower than MailChimp and MadMimi for when I do want to upgrade: $10 a month for 1k-5k subscribers. Their landing page has a demo of their form-building interface: https://www.mailerlite.com/

Yes, *Book Raid* is confidence-inspiring. I'm making the most of their sweet beta free-ness.
Here's *Booksprout*: https://booksproutapp.com/publisher/


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

Thanks for the clarification. I've updated the original post to explain. 150+ signups for $15 is more than reasonable, given that many people pay up to $1 per email address via Facebook ads. 

Keeping costs low is key early on. I was terrible at this, and spent close to $600 on Aweber over three years before I even sent out a broadcast. 

@MaggieWay: I used to recommend KND's Free Highlighter, but when I recently ran it alone I got less than 50 downloads. I haven't used any of KND's other options. But that was a bummer, since the free highlighter used to be gold.

Nick


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## Viv Phoenix (Dec 19, 2015)

Nicholas Erik said:


> Thanks for the clarification. I've updated the original post to explain. 150+ signups for $15 is more than reasonable, given that many people pay up to $1 per email address via Facebook ads.
> 
> Keeping costs low is key early on. I was terrible at this, and spent close to $600 on Aweber over three years before I even sent out a broadcast.
> [snipped]
> Nick


You're welcome. I agree, it's a good value. I paid $25 for my MML run ($15 for the first book and $5 each for two more). Based on results I've seen from other participants, signup numbers vary a great deal. I got sales bumps and increased page reads on the three books, too, so I'm glad I tried it. Here's *E.B. Brown's Mega Mailing List promo thread*: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,227874.0.html

Ouch on your Aweber expense. Live and learn.  I started publishing with no budget at all, so I've had to force myself to increase my spending. The money keeps coming back thanks to getting way beyond my comfort zone with promotions. That's why promos get first dibs on my publishing dollars.


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## mmandolin (Oct 16, 2014)

Nicholas Erik said:


> @mmandolin: Thanks for the additions! Sweet Free Books + Amazon Marketing Services have been added. I recently discovered SFB was eligible (re: yesterday). Good catch. If I could find a submission form for Buck Books, I'd be game to include it - but I can't. Do you have to email them?
> 
> Also, if you or anyone else knows if AMS PPC still requires you to set a $100 campaign budget, let me know. I found that super annoying and unnecessary early on, but maybe they've changed it.


You should still be able to contact Buck Books through here: http://buckbooks.net/affiliates/contact.php
If that doesn't work for folks they can PM me.

I think with AMS you need to set that $100 budget, but I suggest doing it. The sponsored products type of ad where you put in keywords is solid.


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## Viv Phoenix (Dec 19, 2015)

Thanks Mmandolin, that email address for Buck Books works.

I want to add that Awesome Gang has a feature option for $10. At the end of the submission form click the Yes bubble under this header: Featured Book Listing $10 (optional)* Here's the description of what's included in the featured book promo: http://awesomegang.com/advertising-on-awesomegang/


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## drewavera (Apr 24, 2013)

Really great thread. I'm saving this one


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## Guest (Aug 15, 2016)

Update: we only offer the triple blast option now, called a book blast. It's normally $299, but there is a $99 off coupon for members of our Facebook group. We adjusted to only hosting 1 new release per day for optimized results. Some authors are using an add on spotlight feature to this ($100) and I haven't had a lot of people report results on that yet. One girl said it got her 30 sales more and another girl told me it got her 200 sales in a couple hours (but here was a boxed set). I don't know where she finished for the day. ✌🏻️ Authors who see the best results seem to do HA on day 1 and then follow up with other promos on day 2, 3, and 4 to get sticky. One author got sticky in top 1000 (might have been top 500?) and raised price to $2.99 and stayed there all month. They were also in KU though. Gorgeous covers seem to help. My readers are pretty open about the fact they judge books by their covers and will one click a book of the cover is pretty enough. Hope that helps!


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

Cool; appreciate the info, Rebecca. I updated the Hungry Author/Genre Crave section.

Nick


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

Just a quick update: added around 10 new options - with results, if I have them to report - that I've used or discovered since writing the original post. Hope you find them helpful. 

Nick


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## mmandolin (Oct 16, 2014)

Thanks for the updates, Nick. Epic stuff


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## Viv Phoenix (Dec 19, 2015)

Thanks for the updates.

I got another 113 subscribers from my current *EB Brown* promo, and they're still coming in. 
*BookSprout* keeps adding cool features to the app and it's still free. https://booksproutapp.com/publisher/
*BookRaid,* still one of the best-designed promo sites and it now displays clicks. Results have ranged from 0 to 8 sales. 
*Ebook Soda possibly 12 sales but some might have been from another promo the day before. 
BKnights *no longer seems worth using for 99cent books in Erotic Romance and free downloads have declined, too. 
*Romance Devoured*: Probably 15 sales on my new MMF Bisexual Romance this month.


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## Lefevre (Feb 1, 2014)

Way past cool! Thanks for posting.


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## Not any more (Mar 19, 2012)

Setting up a first-in-series release in December, so this is very helpful. Have a release-day blast with Rebecca, then setting up additional promos for the rest of the week. The biggest hassle is not yet having an ASIN.


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

Hard to believe this is almost a year old. I just edited the original post, making sure the info was up to date. If anything slipped through the cracks, let me know.

And if anyone has any new sites or options, post 'em.

Nick


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## mmandolin (Oct 16, 2014)

Nicholas Erik said:


> Hard to believe this is almost a year old. I just edited the original post, making sure the info was up to date. If anything slipped through the cracks, let me know.
> 
> And if anyone has any new sites or options, post 'em.
> 
> Nick


Thanks Nick!

AMS is definitely becoming a primary tool for my launches. Lots of potential with AMS; they like taking my money during a launch more than at any other time, and I'm glad to give it to them.


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## Used To Be BH (Sep 29, 2016)

I want to mention how helpful this thread was during my last book launch. I found about some promo options of which I was unaware.


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

Bill Hiatt said:


> I want to mention how helpful this thread was during my last book launch. I found about some promo options of which I was unaware.


Glad it was helpful, Bill - hope you sold a bunch of books.



mmandolin said:


> Thanks Nick!
> 
> AMS is definitely becoming a primary tool for my launches. Lots of potential with AMS; they like taking my money during a launch more than at any other time, and I'm glad to give it to them.


Yeah, I'm really starting to think that spending more money on PPC is the way to go (for launches, for building a list, and in general). For one, you know where it's going (e.g. you don't have to worry about promoters doing questionable things). And two, even if you're losing money (e.g. your goal is pure visibility), you still lose less on a per sale basis in comparison to most of the newsletter services. Lastly, it's scalable - so if you have money to burn, you can get up to $200, $400, $1000+ a day and not run through Facebook's audience (if you're in a big genre, at least).

ETA: I've added a "no longer recommended" section. I've debated doing this, but I think it's important to go over why a few services have dropped off the list, rather than simply deleting them.

Nick


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## GoingAnon (Jan 16, 2014)

[ORIGINAL POST MODIFIED SEPT 21, 2018. I do not accept nor do I consent to KBoards/VerticalScope's Terms of Service which were implemented without proper notification. As I await a response regarding my request for full account and content deletion - pursuant to GDPR - my continued use of this forum should not be construed as consent to, nor acceptance of, KBoards/VerticalScope's aforementioned Terms of Service.


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

Alix Nichols said:


> Do you run Product Display ads? I've done Sponsored Product ads for my launches, and they are effective, but scaling them during the launch window is a Herculean task...


Not mmandolin, obviously, but I only run Sponsored Product ads. The Product Display ads still mandate a lifetime budget of $100 or more. Not that AMS usually approaches even 5% of that, from the few I've ran (not recently - over a year ago), but I'm still wary. The results were negligible from the few I ran, but that's not a real sample size. Others have had much more success with the Sponsored Product ads, too, though.

The Product Display ads might be good for "zagging" right now - e.g. the Sponsored Products are becoming somewhat saturated. I'll test a few more to see. But keep an eye on the budget to make sure the spend doesn't go up.

Nick


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## mmandolin (Oct 16, 2014)

Alix Nichols said:


> Do you run Product Display ads? I've done Sponsored Product ads for my launches, and they are effective, but scaling them during the launch window is a Herculean task...


Yeah, sponsored product ads are usually the way to go. The best way to get more impressions/clicks during launch is to have higher bids, and several hundred keywords. Then cut down bid price and ineffective keywords later, if need be.


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## JaclynDolamore (Nov 5, 2015)

Nicholas Erik said:


> Not mmandolin, obviously, but I only run Sponsored Product ads. The Product Display ads still mandate a lifetime budget of $100 or more. Not that AMS usually approaches even 5% of that, from the few I've ran (not recently - over a year ago), but I'm still wary. The results were negligible from the few I ran, but that's not a real sample size. Others have had much more success with the Sponsored Product ads, too, though.


But Product Display asks you to set a time frame for the ad to run and then you can choose to spread the ads over the duration of that period, so...it shouldn't blow through $100 like, "surprise!" Unless someone has stories to the contrary, but I haven't heard any. (With that said, I've had no luck with them, but at least too much money spent isn't my concern.)


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

JaclynDolamore said:


> But Product Display asks you to set a time frame for the ad to run and then you can choose to spread the ads over the duration of that period, so...it shouldn't blow through $100 like, "surprise!" Unless someone has stories to the contrary, but I haven't heard any. (With that said, I've had no luck with them, but at least too much money spent isn't my concern.)


I had one a year ago that blew through the budget in a single day to my absolute horror. But they didn't charge me for it.


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

JaclynDolamore said:


> But Product Display asks you to set a time frame for the ad to run and then you can choose to spread the ads over the duration of that period, so...it shouldn't blow through $100 like, "surprise!" Unless someone has stories to the contrary, but I haven't heard any. (With that said, I've had no luck with them, but at least too much money spent isn't my concern.)


You are correct - you can set the ads up in such a way to spread things out. Was just a disclaimer so people double-checked all the settings. Otherwise you can have an experience like Cassie's if AMS is feeling like spending your money.

Nick


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## Lord_Aetius (May 3, 2017)

Much appreciated by a newbie trying to learn about promotion


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## S.L. (Jun 6, 2016)

I recently had good luck with Booksends and Bargain Booksy for my newest launch.


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

Bumping this; I've updated the list slightly, added a thread to the list of launch threads, and done some minor housekeeping on services no longer available. If anyone has anything to add, post it.

Nick


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## C. Gold (Jun 12, 2017)

This is a great resource. Bookmarked it!


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## ppdiva (Feb 4, 2016)

Thanks Nick very helpful as usual


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## KitSarge (Apr 1, 2015)

Thank-you so much! This thread along with your FB ads tips one are invaluable. I've booked a few of these sites for my launch on Tuesday. You can see the thread here: https://www.kboards.com/index.php?topic=258819.0


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## Andres (Jan 28, 2015)

Nick,

Excellent resource! One question: I can't book promo sites for my launch until I've already made the book live, because the promo sites require the AISN number. Yet, some promo sites have lead times to book that can be weeks. So how do we time stacking promos launching a new book? I was hoping to book the promos now even though my book releases in April.
Also, Library Thing Giveaways are not easy to set up. You have to first import 50 books into your account....

Thanks for any advice!


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## Nicholas Erik (Sep 22, 2015)

Andres said:


> Nick,
> 
> Excellent resource! One question: I can't book promo sites for my launch until I've already made the book live, because the promo sites require the AISN number. Yet, some promo sites have lead times to book that can be weeks. So how do we time stacking promos launching a new book? I was hoping to book the promos now even though my book releases in April.


Set up a pre-order for your new book. Then submit this live link to the promo sites.

Nick


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## LindsayBuroker (Oct 13, 2013)

Andres said:


> One question: I can't book promo sites for my launch until I've already made the book live, because the promo sites require the AISN number. Yet, some promo sites have lead times to book that can be weeks. So how do we time stacking promos launching a new book? I was hoping to book the promos now even though my book releases in April.


If you don't want to set up a long Amazon pre-order, which may dilute some of your launch juice, you can put the book up on Goodreads with the cover and all the details. I did this for Book 1 of my space opera series and emailed the sites along with my application and let them know that I could send them the ASIN/Amazon link a week before the promo. They all said that was fine. I did do a pre-order of a few days so I could get that info to them in time. If you've already got good reviews on other stuff you've published, they'll probably be fine with just seeing that the book looks professional, and Goodreads is fine for that.


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## Andres (Jan 28, 2015)

Lindsay,

This is extremely helpful! Thank you for the tip!!!! Answers my question exactly.


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## FFJ (Feb 8, 2016)

LindsayBuroker said:


> If you don't want to set up a long Amazon pre-order, which may dilute some of your launch juice, you can put the book up on Goodreads with the cover and all the details. I did this for Book 1 of my space opera series and emailed the sites along with my application and let them know that I could send them the ASIN/Amazon link a week before the promo. They all said that was fine. I did do a pre-order of a few days so I could get that info to them in time. If you've already got good reviews on other stuff you've published, they'll probably be fine with just seeing that the book looks professional, and Goodreads is fine for that.


Thanks for this tip.


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