# How To Sell More Books



## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

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## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

Phoenix Sullivan said:


> A nice list.
> I would, however, not beg family, especially those on your same IP address, for reviews.
> And one correction: BookBub's current policy is to not accept multi-author box sets. Single-author boxes, yes, but not multi.


Thanks for the correction Phoenix. And by the way, with your success with Steel Magnolia press, I wouldn't mind seeing what kind of list you could come up with.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

I believe listmania lists are not supposed to be used for commercial/advertising purposes, so I'd lose that, too.


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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

Monique said:


> I believe listmania lists are not supposed to be used for commercial/advertising purposes, so I'd lose that, too.


updated. If anyone else has new tips, please feel free to add yours.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

lacymarankevinmichael said:


> updated. If anyone else has new tips, please feel free to add yours.


I echo Phoenix's note about removing the part about begging family to review.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

Good tips. 

I will add one - never miss a chance to promote. Put something in all those profiles you fill out, even if there isn't a specific place for it.


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## Ardin (Nov 1, 2012)

Great list. Thanks.


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## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

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## blakebooks (Mar 10, 2012)

I can second Phoenix's input on BB and multi-author box sets.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Nice list!

In my experience the best way to get quality reviews has been NetGalley, hands down. (It is not cheap however)

Followed by a Blog Tour.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Are there really no high return advertising places that don't require you to already have enough success as to have a ton of reviews? Why is this industry so backward? No TV affiliate would make you prove you sold a thousand couches with ten percent of customers signing affidavits before they took your money to advertise your furniture store.


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## alex mars (Sep 13, 2013)

A great set of ideas. I think every writer could benefit from trying some, if not all, of these out!


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## Pauline Creeden (Aug 4, 2011)

I echo Vera - Blog Tours are a great way to get reviews ...better than annoying family and friends with feeble attempts at begging


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## johnlmonk (Jul 24, 2013)

Great list, and thanks


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## Lloyd MacRae (Nov 18, 2012)

How does this Story Cartel work? I see where you're giving away your book for free in return for reviews. How long does the giveaway last? And can it trigger an Amazon price match to free?


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## Ryan Sullivan (Jul 9, 2011)

Bookmarked.  I just did a LT giveaway, which got me a review only a few days after it ended, and I'm going to do a GR giveaway in October. I don't want to do September because it still seems to be like a bad selling month. Or maybe Sept would be good, since then I'd be in lists when the buying months come around. 

I've heard about NetGalley, but I think they tend to rate lower? Something to do with the different rating systems (a 3 star being considered better on NG than on Amazon)? I look forward to trying out Story Cartel.

When my next book comes out in Q1 next year, I'm thinking of making my current book perma-free and seeing what effect that has.


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## Izzy Hammerstein (Jul 6, 2011)

Some useful ideas here.  Thanks.


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## lazarusInfinity (Oct 2, 2012)

Thanks for the info.  Very much appreciated.


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## hs (Feb 15, 2011)

Thanks for the tips!
Regarding the paid promotion sites, which ones offer the best return for the money spent? Does it differ based on genre?


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## Christa Wick (Nov 1, 2012)

-- wrong thread --


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## authorjea (Sep 14, 2013)

This is the first place I've heard of Book Cartel. The site's GUI is slick and a welcome reprieve from visually-busier pages. I've only found 1 solid article from a blogger discussing her stats. They sound solid, but I'm always leery of being the first to dive into something when its Interwebs-related.

Have any other KB authors tried out Book Cartel? I'd be particularly interested in feedback compared to NetGalley.


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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

hs said:


> Thanks for the tips!
> Regarding the paid promotion sites, which ones offer the best return for the money spent? Does it differ based on genre?


Even though it's the most expensive, Bookbub tends to give you the most bang for your buck. Not to mention it'll help out your sales on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Apple.

If they select you, Pixel of Ink can be great because they feature people for free, but I've had no luck with them and they are a complete mystery to me.

I have had great results with Ereadernewstoday, although I've found that my experience with them has been not typical.


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## NicWilson (Apr 16, 2011)

Glad I'm not the only one asking about StoryCartel. I've never heard of them. Must check it out.


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## Amrit (Sep 11, 2013)

This is great. Really useful. Thanks!


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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

Amrit said:


> This is great. Really useful. Thanks!


I'm glad a lot of you are finding this list useful.


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## WrittenWordMediaTeam (Oct 23, 2012)

I'll just throw my hat in the ring here...

Freebooksy & Bargain Booksy accept multi-author book bundles! We've seen them do VERY well.

If you have a free promo coming up and have never used Freebooksy before, shoot me an email with the book link and promo dates ([email protected]) and I'll feature you on the site for free. May as well test out a site with no risk before purchasing ad space, right? Just mention that you heard about us on Kboards. Same goes for Bargain Booksy, if your book is priced below $5. 

Cheers


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

Freebooksy_Taylor said:


> I'll just throw my hat in the ring here...
> 
> Freebooksy & Bargain Booksy accept multi-author book bundles! We've seen them do VERY well.
> 
> ...


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Anyone know how much Story Cartel costs?


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## Ryan Sullivan (Jul 9, 2011)

Vydor, Story Cartel cost me nothing to put my book up.

Question re: Bookblast. If the book is normally $2.99, and it would be $2.99 during the promo, would they not consider me? I intended to have the book at 99c all through this month, but I can't do that if the book needs to be 50% off -- I want to make sales, not freebie downloads.

So should I raise my price to $2.99 just for now, and schedule request the promo at 99c?


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## christianem (Sep 15, 2013)

Thank you for this! It's great help to those just starting out with self-pubbing.


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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

christianem said:


> Thank you for this! It's great help to those just starting out with self-pubbing.


No problem. Hopefully you can avoid the mistakes I made at the beginning of my career.

@Ryan. I think if your book is normally $2.99, they'd want you to put it down to 99 cents or $1.99. Of course you can email Jason to find out for sure.


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## Ryan Sullivan (Jul 9, 2011)

Thanks! I'll raise it to $2.99 so I can lower it for the sale.


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## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

Ryan Sullivan said:


> Thanks! I'll raise it to $2.99 so I can lower it for the sale.


By the way, have you gotten many reviews from storycartel yet?


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## Ryan Sullivan (Jul 9, 2011)

No reviews.  And no one's signed up since the initial list. I currently have a predicted potential 0-1 reviews


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Bear in mind that info on which promo sites yield the best return on investment is always changing. That is the biggest reason why the KBoards Writers' Cafe is such an active forum.

Regarding Story Cartel:

I just paid for their $125 package and have gotten 4 reviews from it after twenty days. To be fair, my book cover is not properly targeted to the tone of the book, nor is the cover professional. I am changing that right now.

I updated this thread rather than start a new one because an excellent post on why books aren't selling linked to this thread. You can check that post out here if you haven't already seen it:
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,178468.0.html


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## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

In the wake of a couple of recent posts about book marketing and making more money etc, I went through some of the old posts that I kept.

I thought I would bump this one back up there because it has plenty of info in it that is still current and useful  

I found it helpful, which is why I kept it bookmarked, so hopefully some other people might find it helpful too.


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## dragontucker (Jul 18, 2014)

does this strategy still work well? Making the first of the series Permafree?


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## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

dragontucker said:


> does this strategy still work well? Making the first of the series Permafree?


First in series permafree with a some level of a hook/cliff hanger ending + have the other parts of the series ready to go, still works, and probably still is the best way for a total unknown to go, but the market has been diluted some over the past few years and it will take more work, and a better product to accomplish the same results.

Make sure that permafree is the best you can make it, and expect that results will take many months.


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