# What Sites Don't Work?



## JTCochrane (Feb 6, 2012)

Okay, I have a little promo money and I want to do an experiment over the next few months.
Instead of grouping all the paid promo site into one day.  I'm going to do them separately so I can see which ones are really worth it.  I'm doing this to save all of us money in the future.
I will edit this top message after each run so that you won't have to scroll to find figures.  If there are any of you who have tried something similar and want to put your data in here, I will also move it up to this post.  Because I am using money for a perma-free results may be different for $.99 and I'm sure everyone would love to see them.  Also if you could put your genre.  I'm going to add my reviews and rating just for more info.

I know that bookbub and ENT are worth it so they will not be included in these numbers

My book is a young adult fantasy/science fiction with a 136 reviews and 4.4 star rating.

So, for today through the 10th.  I used  eBookasuarus.  $10 for a Premium book listing.  So far it is not worth the money.  I have seen 0 change from my normal download rate.  

Results for Young Adult Fantasy
ORDERED BY EFFECTIVENESS WORTH IT:                        WONT BE IN ANY PARTICULAR ORDER NOT WORTH IT                    Inconclusive
genrepulse        $30.00                                                  eBookasuarus $10 NOT worth the money.                                      fkbooksandtips
fiverr bkknights $26.25                                                    PeopleReads $14.99  NOT worth the money.
bookbasset        $7.99                                                    
booksends        $60.00  Results but pricy 
ebookhounds      $5.50
Sweetfree          $5.00


Results for Various Genres
OTHER'S IMPUT.  THESE MAY BE IN ANOTHER GENRE:
Definitely worth it:                                                          Definitely not worth it:                                                  Inconclusive:
Ebookhounds (free)                                                        Hotzippy's romance list ($15)                                        Discount Books Daily ($10)
Bkknights ($5.50)                                                          Bookgorilla ($50)                                                          Ebook Soda ($10)
Sweetfree Books ($5)                                                      Genrepulse ($30)                                                          Ebook Arrow ($10)
The Naughty List (free)                                                    Kindle Nation Daily ($100)                                            Choosy Bookworm ($5) 
Ereader news today ($45)                                                Booktweeters  ($20)                                              

SOME HAVE HAD SUCCESS WITH THE SITES BELOW WHILE OTHERS HAVEN'T
My Romance Reads ($75)




Thanks 

James

P.S. if you have a site you want me to try, send the info and I will check it out.


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## aimeeeasterling (Sep 22, 2014)

I tried this last month with a 99 cent sweet romance title. I did double up a few sites near the end, so there are some inconclusive points, but these were my results:

*Definitely worth it:*
Ebookhounds (free)
Bkknights ($5.50)
Sweetfree Books ($5)
The Naughty List (free)
Ereader news today ($45)

*Definitely not worth it:*
Hotzippy's romance list ($15)
Bookgorilla ($50)
My Romance Reads ($75)
Genrepulse ($30)
Kindle Nation Daily ($100)

*Inconclusive:*
Discount Books Daily ($10)
Ebook Soda ($10)
Ebook Arrow ($10)
Choosy Bookworm ($5)

It seemed like, in general, the more I paid, the less the site gave back.


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

I'll be following with interest.

I've never heard of EBookasuarus. As a general rule, I think any site I haven't heard of is not likely to be a site that works. If a site works, I would have heard about it here at Kboards.

Philip


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## Patty Jansen (Apr 5, 2011)

Philip Gibson said:


> I'll be following with interest.
> 
> I've never heard of EBookasuarus. As a general rule, I think any site I haven't heard of is not likely to be a site that works. If a site works, I would have heard about it here at Kboards.
> 
> Philip


In general, I agree with this.

Yet, Bookbasset never ever gets mentioned on these boards. That site works.


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Patty Jansen said:


> In general, I agree with this.
> 
> Yet, Bookbasset never ever gets mentioned on these boards. That site works.


Must've been mentioned somewhere on these boards since I've heard of it and have used it.


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## JTCochrane (Feb 6, 2012)

Philip Gibson said:


> I'll be following with interest.
> 
> I've never heard of EBookasuarus. As a general rule, I think any site I haven't heard of is not likely to be a site that works. If a site works, I would have heard about it here at Kboards.
> 
> Philip


I think I found it on AuthormarketingClub but will double check.


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## JTCochrane (Feb 6, 2012)

aimeeeasterling said:


> I tried this last month with a 99 cent sweet romance title. I did double up a few sites near the end, so there are some inconclusive points, but these were my results:
> 
> *Definitely worth it:*
> Ebookhounds (free)
> ...


Good info. I will add it to the roll up when I do and will give some of them a try.


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## I&#039;m a Little Teapot (Apr 10, 2014)

Patty Jansen said:


> Yet, Bookbasset never ever gets mentioned on these boards. That site works.


Yep, they're pretty fantastic.


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## anniejocoby (Aug 11, 2013)

I strenuously object to My Romance Reads not being worth it. I ran an ad with them and got over 3300 downloads in one day. 

On the other hand, I'm running an ad with ENT right now, and it's left something to be desired. I've gotten 600 downloads today from that ad, which is okay, but nothing to write home about. 

My experience has been that all sites are kinda hit and miss. It all depends on a lot of factors - where you are on their list, for instance. I ran something with Freebooksy, and, ordinarily, I'm thrilled with them. But I think that I only managed less than 1000 downloads of Broken on the day that ad ran this time. The first time I ran Broken with them, I got 7000 downloads. I think that because this is like the fourth time I've run Broken with them, I got diminishing returns. That and the fact that, when I looked at their site, my book was way down the page. Things like that, you can't really help, but they can REALLY affect your ROI. 

I'm thinking that the same thing is going on, for me, with ENT - I don't think that my book is placed very prominently with them. So, yeah - the people who are higher up on their page are going to see a lot more action than those who aren't. It's unfair if we all pay the same amount, but, then, life isn't fair, and somebody has to be last on the page. 

All that said, I think that Freebooksy, ENT and My Romance Reads are at least generally worth the money. Booksends is okay, too, as is OHFB. But I'm running all of these guys on Broken this week and haven't yet gotten to 5000 downloads (the ads started on Monday). So my promo week, so far, isn't going so great. Maybe it's because my book has been out for awhile and has been fairly popular and has already been downloaded a ton. Perhaps it's because I already ran it with Freebooksy and Booksends last July. Who knows


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## Heather Hamilton-Senter (May 25, 2013)

What were your results with OHFB - anyone? This one is new to me....


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## I&#039;m a Little Teapot (Apr 10, 2014)

Heather Hamilton-Senter said:


> What were your results with OHFB - anyone? This one is new to me....


Over a hundred sales on a $0.99 for me. I haven't done a free run with them, but I would. They're really super people, and they're the list I probably buy or download from the most.


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## I&#039;m a Little Teapot (Apr 10, 2014)

anniejocoby said:


> I'm thinking that the same thing is going on, for me, with ENT - I don't think that my book is placed very prominently with them. So, yeah - the people who are higher up on their page are going to see a lot more action than those who aren't. It's unfair if we all pay the same amount, but, then, life isn't fair, and somebody has to be last on the page.


I don't know if this is a Gmail thing or what, but I've noticed lately some of the longer daily lists (ENT, KND) don't show all the books in the email, and I have to click to load the whole thing on a separate page. That could definitely be affecting books if they're lower down the list, for sure!


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## meh (Apr 18, 2013)

In general I agree with aimee's results.  Ebooksoda is good for a few sales particularly in the UK, but it didn't quite break even for me on cost. Other than that and the ones she listed as "Definitely worth it,"  pretty much all the other websites for me fall into "Not worth it." I'll do free options on many but even those don't give much of an impact. ENT is always good for at least a 1000 downloads on a free book.


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## SkyScribe (Aug 18, 2014)

The only trouble with this is that even books in the same genre can perform drastically different.



Patty Jansen said:


> Yet, Bookbasset never ever gets mentioned on these boards. That site works.


Have you used them recently? It'd been a few months for me and that would be my last time. I think the big drop in effectiveness at Facebook has obliterated their value and is only going to get worse as Zuckerberg pulls the plug further. A shame because they were good early in the year.


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## Heather Hamilton-Senter (May 25, 2013)

Has anyone done well with Booksends?


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## I&#039;m a Little Teapot (Apr 10, 2014)

Heather Hamilton-Senter said:


> Has anyone done well with Booksends?


They picked me up on their own when I first went permafree. They outperformed everyone else for me--except Bookbub. I can't remember the exact amount, but it was 2-3K or so.


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## A past poster (Oct 23, 2013)

SevenDays said:


> I don't know if this is a Gmail thing or what, but I've noticed lately some of the longer daily lists (ENT, KND) don't show all the books in the email, and I have to click to load the whole thing on a separate page. That could definitely be affecting books if they're lower down the list, for sure!


The books that are at the top of the list or near the top usually do the best. Placement in advertising is important.

Including all of the books in a promotional email is a separate issue. It would help if we all posted whether our books were included in the main email on the various sites. I don't want to waste money. It could be that some of the lists are simply too long.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

To me if I spend $10 I expect 100 downloads (those are free, not sales). I get that with GenrePulse *IF* I give them a proper wait between ad purchases. No advertiser is going to perform great month after month. That's why BookBub, ENT, ReadCheaply and others insist on a few months between ads.

Anyway, the other nice thing about GenrePulse is that James provides you with click tracks. You can see how many times people clicked on your ad, and then get a fairly accurate conversion rate from that. That can give you an idea if your blurb is working.


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## 60169 (May 18, 2012)

BookSends has worked well for me. I used them to promote a Christmas short story ten days ago and got 3,000 downloads.


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

I think "works" and "doesn't work" depends SO much on genre, subgenre, all sorts of things--who you're a match for.

I way outperform on BookBub--have always had far more than the average sales or downloads for my genre. So that one, obviously, is the top for me.

BookSends has been good, except once when it wasn't. 

ENT has been crappy, the couple times they accepted me. Usually, they've rejected me, and I've decided that they and I aren't a match, for whatever reason. BB has never rejected me, ENT has often rejected me. 

My Romance Reads--have tried them twice, two different books. HORRIBLE. Total waste of money. I got a very, very, very few sales out of them, for an expensive ad--both times, free and 99 cents. My take is--covers without nekkid boys? Forget it.

KND, on the other hand, has been good for me, worth the considerable cost.

Freebooksy has usually been quite good--second only to BookBub for a freebie. Except once when it wasn't (again with that!) 

BookGorilla has not been good.

The Fussy Librarian has been quite good, especially for the cost.

fkbooksandtips has been pretty good (not too pricey)--I'm a good match. (Subscribers tend to be somewhat older & more conservative ladies, I believe. More the B&N crowd than the iBooks crowd--different from My Romance Reads subscribers, is my guess.) 

I think, bottom line, you have to try the different sites yourself and see how they perform for you. Not easy at all to generalize across the board. I've heard of folks who don't do that well with BookBub, too.


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## Usedtoposthere (Nov 19, 2013)

Oh--on another note--pay-per-click ads? Amazon, Goodreads, Facebook. Just Say No. CPC (cost per click) isn't an economical proposition when you're talking about something as cheap as an ebook. You can easily be paying 25 cents for a click, and dollars for a sale!


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

These kinds of discussions aggravate me because they assume the ONLY metric important for advertising is ROI. But that's not true. 

Every mention of you and your book online, in print, in audio (like a pod cast) is a clip. The more clips you have, the bigger the audience you have exposed to you and your brand. Only a handful of clips will ever earn out their cost directly in sales you can trace directly to that ad purchase. The vast majority of clips will merely alert a potential customer you and your product exist.

This is why a marketing plan has to be MORE than just what ads can I buy that will immediately sell the number of books to make up for the cost of that ad. If you don't have layers, like free clips from blog posts and social media reach, inexpensive paid layers (like a $10 ad on a smaller blog) chances are the bigger ads that are "tried and true" will not get you the results you dream of. MOST readers take multiple exposures to a book before they'll even make a decision to wish list it, read a sample, or buy it. 

Many of the niche and smaller sites have overlapping audiences with the bigger sites. This is why many who want a super duper Bookbub run will buy smaller ads on other sites in the days leading up to the Bookbub ad. Readers see the book a few times  and if they didn't buy it the first few days of the sale but were interested can then commit with the Bookbub ad. Even if you look at the Bookbub purchase page, it's a range of expected results. Someone is that low end outlier. I'm willing to bet it's someone with a great book, but a lack of other exposure and clips on their product. 

Simplified, this is Your Mileage May Vary, but this is WHY your mileage may vary.


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## AA.A (Sep 6, 2012)

Booktweeters  20$  (Sending to 430,000 people) over a day. Worst Promo I have done, it brought me less sales than the day before!

Never had the chance with Bookbub. To me ENT has been the best, around 170 sales for my 0.99$ book, 2 weeks ago.
I was also happy with ebooksoda, Read cheaply, Slashedreads (Free).kb&t, Awesomegang(Free), Justkindle (Free), bookgoodies (Free). Ebooklister (Free).
Will be trying Fussy libr., readfreely, books on knob, bestbookreads  next week


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## JTCochrane (Feb 6, 2012)

So, I tried bookbasset last week and added the results to the top.  I just put in for a bkknights add for this week and will up date the top later.


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## romanticauthor (Apr 17, 2014)

I'm bookmarking this list as I'm particularly interested in the lower cost advertising. Another one I'd like to throw out there is the featured post at Fire and Ice Book Tours for $10. I've had results from this one, especially when I combine with a sale.

http://fireandicebooktours.wordpress.com


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## 75910 (Mar 16, 2014)

I have great ROI on My Romance Reads and also FB ads.  I never boost a post or try to promo my page.  I always send people AWAY from FB to my Amazon product page.


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## JTCochrane (Feb 6, 2012)

Okay, I updated the original post with my bkknights experience.  I've added in some of the responses but not all.  I will slowly keep adding them in.


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## RuthNestvold (Jan 4, 2012)

This is great info! Thanks for starting this.


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## deedawning (Aug 31, 2013)

anniejocoby said:


> I strenuously object to My Romance Reads not being worth it. I ran an ad with them and got over 3300 downloads in one day.
> 
> On the other hand, I'm running an ad with ENT right now, and it's left something to be desired. I've gotten 600 downloads today from that ad, which is okay, but nothing to write home about.
> 
> ...


Personally I think any advertising results during December and half of January will be skewed. Read my thread 'Has the Xmas Grinch descended on your sales?' from Dec 15th. Neverthe less since everything is relative, I'll be following the results with interest.


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## RuthNestvold (Jan 4, 2012)

My results for my promo last week (a 99c sale):

12/16 (Fussy Librarian) - 8 sales
12/17 (BKnights) - 4 sales
12/18 (Booklover's Heaven) - 2 sales
12/19 (Bestebooksfree) - 0

Since I also got a number of sales at full price of the other book in the series, Yseult, during the 99c of Shadow of Stone, I would be inclined to try the first two again for a book in a series. And since the third is free, a test might be in order with Booklover's Heaven first.

My complete blog post about the 99c sale is here:

http://ruthnestvold.wordpress.com/2014/12/22/starting-out-as-an-indie-author-where-to-promote-a-99c-ebook-sale/


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## Pauline Creeden (Aug 4, 2011)

I've had good experiences with FKBT - on 99¢ mentions (for their regular feature) The one time I did their "Featured" it didn't do quite as well.


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## kathrynoh (Oct 17, 2012)

I did an ad on My Romance Reads in September for a freebie (first in series) and found that, while the number of free downloads was less than ENT and Freebooksy, I got a lot higher sell through to the other books in the series from them. I guess that makes sense since it's a genre-focussed list.


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## Goulburn (May 21, 2014)

Rosalind James said:


> I think "works" and "doesn't work" depends SO much on genre, subgenre, all sorts of things--who you're a match for...


I totally agree. It isn't what sites work for others, it is what sites reach your reader.


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## Bill Larkin (Dec 22, 2014)

Curious if anybody has tried Kindle Nation Daily's - Kindle Daily Deal ($99.99) and the results? 

Seems like promotion sites should focus on genres, which would make them more targeted and effective. That's what BookBub does with its targeted emails via subscriber preference, so it works well for many authors.


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## hs (Feb 15, 2011)

I second the experience that Bknights works and Genrepulse doesn't. Yesterday, I ran a 99 cent promo with one book on Bknights and a 99 cent promo with another book on Genrepulse. I sold 17 copies via Bknights and just 3 copies via Genrepulse. Both books have delivered similar results for me in the past on Bknights, but just to be sure, I'm reversing them (the Bknights book will be promoted on Genrepulse and vice versa) in the coming week.


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## Lucian (Jun 8, 2014)

hs said:


> I second the experience that Bknights works and Genrepulse doesn't. Yesterday, I ran a 99 cent promo with one book on Bknights and a 99 cent promo with another book on Genrepulse. I sold 17 copies via Bknights and just 3 copies via Genrepulse. Both books have delivered similar results for me in the past on Bknights, but just to be sure, I'm reversing them (the Bknights book will be promoted on Genrepulse and vice versa) in the coming week.


Did genre pulse get back to you? I didn't get a confirmation email so I don't know if I'm up live today or not. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.


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## JTCochrane (Feb 6, 2012)

I added my results form booksends.  I did see that ebookasauras is indeed on the site list on author marketing club.

What is OHFB and I will try it?


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Genre is such a huge factor that this really needs to be done separately for each genre, imo.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

JTCochrane said:


> I added my results form booksends. I did see that ebookasauras is indeed on the site list on author marketing club.
> 
> What is OHFB and I will try it?


One Hundred Free Ebooks


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## hs (Feb 15, 2011)

Lucian said:


> Did genre pulse get back to you? I didn't get a confirmation email so I don't know if I'm up live today or not. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.


They did send me an email yesterday morning to notify me that the promotion went live along with a link to see the number of clickthroughs (I got about 40).


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

GenrePulse has worked for me every time except the last time. I gave them the description for one book, and the ASIN of another book. Oops. So, my bad.

I'm surprised ReadCheaply isn't mentioned here, they are awesome, as is The Midlist's *FREE* feature option.

For urban fantasy, I would definitely try I Love Vampire Novels. Fantastic sell-thru, and they advertise to B&N and Amazon customers, so if you go wide, you'll get more bang from your buck for them. Also, although Freebooksy has raised their prices lately, they have a free editorial feature that is worth applying for, as is OneHundredFreeBooks editorial feature. Bestebookreaderlovers is also a decent site, but they are unorganized, and confirming your booking can be in a pain in the tuckus. I'm trying Riffle again this month; I'll try to report back on its effectiveness.

There are a bunch of little sites I can get a blip from for my permafree: ebooklister, reading deals (I think), I Love Ebooks ... combined with a larger promo I think they are effective.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

hs said:


> I second the experience that Bknights works and Genrepulse doesn't. Yesterday, I ran a 99 cent promo with one book on Bknights and a 99 cent promo with another book on Genrepulse. I sold 17 copies via Bknights and just 3 copies via Genrepulse.


I've had reasonable results with GenrePulse on a free promotion for epic fantasy. Not outstanding but reasonable. It's really difficult to make comparisons, though. All we can do is try different things and see what works for a specific book and what doesn't.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

C. Gockel said:


> I'm surprised ReadCheaply isn't mentioned here, they are awesome,


I find the whole cross-promotion thing slightly icky. I'm happy to pay for an ad, but clicking 'like' buttons and 'follow' buttons'? That just feels wrong to me.


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## SB James (May 21, 2014)

7seasonsgirl said:


> I will add my experience about the sites that worked for me and those who did nothing. My books are in the romance category.
> 
> For the free book I used:
> Sweet Free Books 150 downloads.
> ...


I found that very interesting that you decided to promote all of the books in your trilogy the same day with bknights. I was toying with the idea of doing that last month when I marked down my Book 1 to 99 cents. I decided against it because I was worried that the presence of the permafree would cannibalize the sales of Book 1. It does not look like that happened with you, so I may try that in the future. 
FWIW I promoted Book 1 at 99 cents twice in November and the permafree once. I was very pleased even with the 99 cent sale results, though the permafree wasn't quite as good as the one I ran back in September. Bknights' price is right for the kind of results I get.
I'm going to look into Book Bassett. Bookmarking this thread too!


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## Pauline Creeden (Aug 4, 2011)

This is pretty interesting stuff - I'm having fun experimenting with your recommendations. I did try Kindle Nation Daily once and had pitiful results, but that was 2 years ago, so things may have changed...


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## SB James (May 21, 2014)

When I get Book 3 finished, I'm going to be doing another blitz of advertising, so I'd like to get some more sites lined up this time around than just bknights. Especially for the permafree. I think advertising too often on one site (because you can) dilutes its effectiveness.


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## charlottehughes (Dec 18, 2014)

I tried to find bkknights on fiverr, anyone have a link to him or a better term for searching?


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## SB James (May 21, 2014)

https://www.fiverr.com/bknights
Their site is digitalbookspot.com


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

> I find the whole cross-promotion thing slightly icky. I'm happy to pay for an ad, but clicking 'like' buttons and 'follow' buttons'? That just feels wrong to me.


I would agree, except that I actually like ReadCheaply's book recs. I buy/download from them about as often as BookBub. There are a few sites out there I do not work with because I don't like their recs and will not endorse them.


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## charlottehughes (Dec 18, 2014)

Ahmad_Ardalan said:


> Booktweeters 20$ (Sending to 430,000 people) over a day. Worst Promo I have done, it brought me less sales than the day before!
> 
> Never had the chance with Bookbub. To me ENT has been the best, around 170 sales for my 0.99$ book, 2 weeks ago.
> I was also happy with ebooksoda, Read cheaply, Slashedreads (Free).kb&t, Awesomegang(Free), Justkindle (Free), bookgoodies (Free). Ebooklister (Free).
> Will be trying Fussy libr., readfreely, books on knob, bestbookreads next week


Good information thanks, please let us all know on these when you get results


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## nico (Jan 17, 2013)

Anyone have any experience with Booksends’s Free Book of the Day. At $135, it seems s bit pricey for a free promo.


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## Nomadwoman (Aug 25, 2011)

nico said:


> Anyone have any experience with Booksends's Free Book of the Day. At $135, it seems s bit pricey for a free promo.


I wouldnt spend that for a free promo. 
ENT has delivered me 1800 downloads (so far) today on ILLUSION (narcissism novels Book 1) ($25)
BKnights gave me 800 yesterday ($5.5)

I'm at #1 in category thrillers>psychological (no idea why i'm in that category but maybe they like me there lol)
#2 in fiction>family life
#133 overall free

I'm looking forward to OHFB listing Monday because I think their selection is ONE HUNDRED times better than the Bub- I have been downloading since I joined their sign-up which I never do with BB. Konrath was there yesterday


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## A past poster (Oct 23, 2013)

SevenDays said:


> Yep, they're pretty fantastic.


I'm glad you've had success with Book Bassett, which seems to work for romances. Some other genres don't do as well.


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## Daizie (Mar 27, 2013)

anniejocoby said:


> I strenuously object to My Romance Reads not being worth it. I ran an ad with them and got over 3300 downloads in one day.
> 
> On the other hand, I'm running an ad with ENT right now, and it's left something to be desired. I've gotten 600 downloads today from that ad, which is okay, but nothing to write home about.
> 
> ...


What is OHFB?


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Daizie said:


> What is OHFB?


One Hundred Free Books


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## Daizie (Mar 27, 2013)

7seasonsgirl said:


> I will add my experience about the sites that worked for me and those who did nothing. My books are in the romance category.
> 
> For the free book I used:
> Sweet Free Books 150 downloads.
> ...


That's an awesome idea, promoting books in a series at the same time. I have a perma-free thriller and a paid thriller that is stand-alone, but it features some of the same characters. My perma-free does well on Bknights. But I never thought to run them both at the same time. My Bknights ads for the paid sequel usually get me around 6 sales, but if people see the first one is free right there, I might get more sales.


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## Daizie (Mar 27, 2013)

charlottehughes said:


> I tried to find bkknights on fiverr, anyone have a link to him or a better term for searching?


https://www.fiverr.com/bknights


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## Daizie (Mar 27, 2013)

PaulineMRoss said:


> One Hundred Free Books


 Thanks.


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## JTCochrane (Feb 6, 2012)

Okay, I took a little break during the holidays, plus my downloads were good without promotion.  Now, I'm going to get back on it.  I will shift through people's comments and give some of the sites mentioned a try.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.


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## Guest (Jan 2, 2015)

Hi Adding information about our site - Books Butterfly

Free - http://www.booksbutterfly.com/order/?tag=kboardsFree5

Paid - http://www.booksbutterfly.com/order/paidbookslots/?tag=kboardsPaid5

1) For both free and paid we have the option of performance based slots. So you pay ONLY FOR RESULTS. You measure the results.

2) For Free we also have fixed price slots with guaranteed number of downloads i.e. if you get less than the slot is for, you get a prorated refund.

3) There are authors on this thread and on this forum we've worked with. Hopefully they can chime in.

4) For Free Books we have 90,000+ email subscribers. For Paid Books, 20,000+. At our site you can also see our websites and blogs.

We just started selling paid slots a week ago. So you can set up a Performance Based Paid Slot.

For $1 & $2 books a silver slot that's $1 per 4 sales.
For Books at $3 or higher a gold slot that's $1 per sale.

5) Genres we're strong in - Romance, Mystery & Thriller, Non-Fiction, Christian. For other genres sales would not be high, however, you'd still pay only for sales.
For free we do well in all these and also in Adventure, Historical, Women's Fiction, YA Romance.
For Paid we haven't tested enough to say but the Top 4 should be good.

6) If you're doing a free promotion we can give you a real boost. We have 90,000 email subscribers - However, when you factor in wordpress email, rss, sites, blogs, etc. we have 100,000+ daily active readers. So it's not just how many ever subscribed or visited, it's how many open their email or visit the site every single day.

Please Note: For paid books it's only 20,000+ daily active at the moment.

If you have questions you can email me at [email protected]


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## A past poster (Oct 23, 2013)

I think it would be helpful to have a dedicated thread listing the promo sites and the genres they are most/least effective in promoting.


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## Kirkee (Apr 2, 2014)

Well, the only one that actually generates (real) sales would be Bookbub,
but you gotta be either Houdini or Mr. Wayne Stinnett to finesse your way
into that rarefied club.  

Best,

K.


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## Tricia O&#039; (Feb 19, 2013)

Does anyone want to update their results with OHFB paid listings?


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

Marian said:


> I think it would be helpful to have a dedicated thread listing the promo sites and the genres they are most/least effective in promoting.


Great idea.


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## Censored (Oct 31, 2014)

Kindle Nation Daily got me 2 sales on a $.99 thriller... for $100. Never again.

BKnights has done well by me for promoting permafrees. Also tried the same $.99 thriller deal there--it also got me exactly 2 sales, but at least it only cost $5! (Actually, BKnights refunded the $5 due to the ad's low performance, though I didn't ask them to.)

Will be trying a same-day promotion on BKnights of that same thriller and its sequel (with new covers and blurbs), both at $.99, later this week.

I am the prawniest of prawns with next to no reviews and at the time, (even more) amateurish covers and blurbs, so YMMV... but everything I've seen certainly indicates that KND (or Kindle Nation Disaster, as I now call it) is a "site that don't work".


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## Kate. (Oct 7, 2014)

Sorry to highjack the thread, FictionFugitive, but I just noticed you changed the covers for So Damn Beautiful. They look fantastic! It's made a huge difference to how "pro" your books look, and I hope it brings a nice big increase in your sales.

I heard KND _used_ to work well, but everything I've read within the last year is disappointing. It's disappointing to see they've kept their high prices, even when most (all?) of their authors won't come anywhere near to recouping $100 through them.

BKnights can be a little hit-or-miss from what I've heard. He posts a lot of books each day, so if your posting ends up down the bottom of the page (as mine did once) it's not easy for readers to find. But most of the time it does well, and sometimes it does _really_ well. He also seems like a very helpful sort of person.


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## Censored (Oct 31, 2014)

@Darcy: Thank you so much for noticing and saying so. My designer and I spent a few weeks collaborating to come up with new designs for all three books. I didn't get much feedback when I posted them (or the new blurbs) here, so I greatly appreciate your hijacking!


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## JTCochrane (Feb 6, 2012)

Hi.  I added PeopleReads and it is not worth the money.  

If everyone would add their results for FREE books and Discounted Books and what Genre you are working in, I will start organizing that data and moving it to the top of the thread.


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Anyone any experience with this outfit: http://www.bookbuzz.net/?


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## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

Andrew Ashling said:


> Anyone any experience with this outfit: http://www.bookbuzz.net/?


I just signed up with them two weeks ago just on the off chance it takes off later. I don't have a sales boost, but it's free so it couldn't hurt. They also are nice enough to cross post your blog posts and organize your author platform for you. All you do is enter the info and it's there. Seen here: http://bookbzz.com/black-parade-kyoko-m/


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

kyokominamino said:


> I just signed up with them two weeks ago just on the off chance it takes off later. I don't have a sales boost, but it's free so it couldn't hurt. They also are nice enough to cross post your blog posts and organize your author platform for you. All you do is enter the info and it's there. Seen here: http://bookbzz.com/black-parade-kyoko-m/


Thanks, Kyoko.


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## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

Andrew Ashling said:


> Thanks, Kyoko.


You're welcome!


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

> Well, the only one that actually generates (real) sales would be Bookbub,


You can use a lot of FREE options to generate sales on 99 cent books. I recommend attempting to get a BargainBooksy free placement, ReadCheaply, TheMidlist, EbookLister, and ManyBooks.net. Ebookhounds, SciFiFantasyFreak, I Read Fantasy are also free and would probably give you a boost if those are your genre.


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## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

C. Gockel said:


> You can use a lot of FREE options to generate sales on 99 cent books. I recommend attempting to get a BargainBooksy free placement, ReadCheaply, TheMidlist, EbookLister, and ManyBooks.net. Ebookhounds, SciFiFantasyFreak, I Read Fantasy are also free and would probably give you a boost if those are your genre.


I can verify that The Midlist is the bomb-diggity. I had a listing with them last month and sold over a thousand copies of my permafree. I was ecstatic because my sales were kinda bleh before them and the high sales continued until the end of December.

Also, for the OP, do not bother with Just Kindle Books. I somehow came out with LESS copies sold the day I had a promo with them on the second of this month. Yeah. Try to wrap your head around that for a minute.


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## JTCochrane (Feb 6, 2012)

I was very happy with genrepulse.


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## deedawning (Aug 31, 2013)

JTCochrane said:


> I was very happy with genrepulse.


Were You. I might have to give then another try. Wasn't all that pleased the two or three times I tried them.
I just got turned down on a thirty-five thousand word book because it wasn't long enough to sell for 99cents. Free was OK, but not 99cents. What's this business coming to? Course I can't believe people bother to get a refund for 99cents.

By the way I had good luck with Free Steamy Reads. They put the book on ten sites for $25.
They have a pay for site too, but it was pricy.


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## JTCochrane (Feb 6, 2012)

deedawning said:


> Were You. I might have to give then another try. Wasn't all that pleased the two or three times I tried them.
> I just got turned down on a thirty-five thousand word book because it wasn't long enough to sell for 99cents. Free was OK, but not 99cents. What's this business coming to? Course I can't believe people bother to get a refund for 99cents.
> 
> By the way I had good luck with Free Steamy Reads. They put the book on ten sites for $25.
> They have a pay for site too, but it was pricy.


I don't think Free Steamy Reads would work for me with ya fantasy/science fiction lol


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## deedawning (Aug 31, 2013)

JTCochrane said:


> I don't think Free Steamy Reads would work for me with ya fantasy/science fiction lol


Excellent point. Just like many sites won't work for me.


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## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

I also just struck out with Book Lovers' Heaven. No spike in sales of my permafree. However, they do say they will list my book for a month and if somehow things get better, I will return to this post with news. But initially, yeah, total waste of time. Good thing it was free.


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## deedawning (Aug 31, 2013)

Shawn Inmon said:


> BookSends has worked well for me. I used them to promote a Christmas short story ten days ago and got 3,000 downloads.


Well that is interesting. I submitted a 35K story to them and they turned it down bc it wasn't long enough. He said they want 50K min. How long was your shorty?


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

anniejocoby said:


> I strenuously object to My Romance Reads not being worth it. I ran an ad with them and got over 3300 downloads in one day.
> 
> On the other hand, I'm running an ad with ENT right now, and it's left something to be desired. I've gotten 600 downloads today from that ad, which is okay, but nothing to write home about.
> 
> ...


I found the same thing happened to me with BKnights this last week. Bought all the promo options except for the next day delivery as I didn't need that. Only got about 900 downloads total. I've done better than that at times with no promo at all. I went to look and I had to scroll past at least a dozen books before I got to mine. I don't think he/she divides them up by genre either.


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## deedawning (Aug 31, 2013)

kyokominamino said:


> I just signed up with them two weeks ago just on the off chance it takes off later. I don't have a sales boost, but it's free so it couldn't hurt. They also are nice enough to cross post your blog posts and organize your author platform for you. All you do is enter the info and it's there. Seen here: http://bookbzz.com/black-parade-kyoko-m/


You guys seem to be talking about two different sites. One is .net and the other is .com. One is Buzz and the other is Bzz. The two sites don't even look the same


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## P.C. (Peter) Anders (Feb 6, 2013)

Thanks for this very useful thread.


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## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

deedawning said:


> You guys seem to be talking about two different sites. One is .net and the other is .com. One is Buzz and the other is Bzz. The two sites don't even look the same


Ooh, my fault. Sorry!


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## Eskimo (Dec 31, 2013)

JTCochrane said:


> I was very happy with genrepulse.


I think it must depend on the genre in which you write. I used Genre Pulse for a mystery, and got 16 clicks and zero sales.


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## YoMama (Jan 27, 2015)

I did a bknights today for nonfiction 99 cent book.  I was pretty far down the page.

yesterday (no promos): 11 paid, 2 KU

today: 24 paid, 0 KU

I was at 0 sales today before the bknights promotion went out at 9 am PST


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## Eskimo (Dec 31, 2013)

C. Gockel said:


> You can use a lot of FREE options to generate sales on 99 cent books. I recommend attempting to get a BargainBooksy free placement, ReadCheaply, TheMidlist, EbookLister, and ManyBooks.net. Ebookhounds, SciFiFantasyFreak, I Read Fantasy are also free and would probably give you a boost if those are your genre.


Just to add a couple of experiences here. I've applied to The Midlist 4 or 5 times for a free ad and have been turned down every time. I'm reluctant to spend $50 on a site which some people on this board have expressed disappointment. I've also been turned down by Bargain Booksy for free. I used them once for a $65 promo and I am very mixed on the results. They did deliver 40 sales which is pretty good, but with a 99 cent countdown deal, that means I earned $27 on a $65 ad. While this will likely lead to some full priced sales down the road, I am not convinced the $65 fee is appropriate for what they deliver.

I've used some of the free sites for 99 cent promos and they normally deliver a few sales, not a lot, typically single digits. Still, it's something, and at least I'm not going into the red by using them.

The most effective sites for me, have been (obviously) BookBub, as well as ENT, Awesome Gang, Book Sends, and FK Books & Tips. They are a little pricier but are well worth it, and deliver solid results every time I've used them.

The disturbing trend I am noticing is that a lot of sites that used to charge $5 and deliver 5-8 sales are now charging $10-$20 -- but still delivering the same sales. I recognize they may not be making the money they need to make to stay in business, but their value to authors is declining with each fee increase.


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## Guest (Feb 1, 2015)

This: The disturbing trend I am noticing is that a lot of sites that used to charge $5 and deliver 5-8 sales are now charging $10-$20 -- but still delivering the same sales. I recognize they may not be making the money they need to make to stay in business, but their value to authors is declining with each fee increase.

It's supply and demand.

There are lots of authors spending ridiculous amounts of money on things that don't work i.e. see the thread on PPC at Amazon and what beta trial people spent.

So the Price per sale at sites that do work will go up. It's simple free market economics.

Even smart authors are happily spending 10 cents to $1 dollar per click on search engines without knowing whether they really get sales or not.

*******

Think of it from the site's perspective - Would you rather make $5 and deliver 10 sales or make $20 and deliver 10 sales.

There's also pressure to generate income because multiple companies are getting funded and going overboard on reader acquisition costs i.e. Bookbub $3.9 million funding in May 2014 and The MidList (Libboo) $1.7 million funding so far ($300,000 or so seed funding in Dec 2014).

So, if a site isn't making a lot of money from some source (ASsociate income from Amazon, funding, sponsor slots) it's going to get left behind. Check the cpc costs for search keywords like 'free books'. It's $1 to $5 per click.

*******

I hear from a lot of authors who are spending on various things like social ads and Google and such with very varying results. All that inefficiency means that efficient sites will gradually go up in price. Number of readers is a mostly FIXED number that's growing slowly. Number of sites is not very high. Number of sites that actually work is not very high either.

*******

Finally, 'value to authors' is VERY different for different authors. An author with a series of 10 books thinks of a paid sale SUPER DIFFERENTLY from someone with a single book or just 2 books.

And then there are obviously people who are in it for the 'love of writing' and just want to be read. 

It's a tough market. Supply exceeds demand. Both on the reader site and on the promotion site side.

If the market were to become truly efficient (bidding based) you'd be shocked at how much authors would be paying. The authors who are spending hundreds and thousands on very inefficient channels like search ads and getting just dozens or hundreds of paid sales would flow over to sites and channels that work. Same for Publishers. If you get a chance to talk tot he marketing department of Big 5, just ask them how much they pay as user acquisition cost per reader. It's WAY WAY higher than $1 or 50 cents per reader.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

I had a featured book on ebookhounds and it cost me $25. I think I got maybe an extra 15-20 downloads. Of a free book.   Complete waste of money.


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## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

MaryMcDonald said:


> I had a featured book on ebookhounds and it cost me $25. I think I got maybe an extra 15-20 downloads. Of a free book.  Complete waste of money.


I shouldn't kick them while they're down, but my emails from EBookHounds always wind up in my spam filter. Always. Can't say that about EBookSoda or SciFi Fantasy Freak. Keep that in mind, gang.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

Robert Dahlen said:


> I shouldn't kick them while they're down, but my emails from EBookHounds always wind up in my spam filter. Always. Can't say that about EBookSoda or SciFi Fantasy Freak. Keep that in mind, gang.


Yeah, I had to retrieve the one with my book in it from my spam folder too--just to make sure it actually went out.


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## David VanDyke (Jan 3, 2014)

Anyone ever use The Books Machine? I got an advertisement from them in my inbox today.

Note, this is not the quite different publishing site Book Machine.


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## Joyce DeBacco (Apr 24, 2010)

I had a Daily Deal promo with ebookhounds on Monday, but I never found it on the site. Was I supposed to sign up for their emails in order to see it? Doesn't matter now if it ran or not. I got absolutely nothing out of it.


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## I&#039;m a Little Teapot (Apr 10, 2014)

MaryMcDonald said:


> I had a featured book on ebookhounds and it cost me $25. I think I got maybe an extra 15-20 downloads. Of a free book.  Complete waste of money.


Yeah, they just don't have the subscribers (or the traffic on their Facebook page) yet. For $25 they're way, way overpriced.

I did a Fussy Librarian for my permafree (Women's Fiction) on Monday. It's a book that's had at least 50,000 downloads to date. It gave me 247 downloads on Amazon, 25 on iTunes, and I don't know about Nook and Kobo because D2D doesn't report them. I'm a bit iffy about the 25 on iTunes, too, because that's in the ballpark of what it's been for the past couple of weeks or so. And on Amazon I average between 20-40 a day.

The cost was $14


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## RuthNestvold (Jan 4, 2012)

Has anyone used Storyfinds.com before? They just sent me an email about a time travel theme week and a list of ads they offer, starting at $30.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

Ugh. Is Ebookhounds charging? I used them back when they were free. They were fine for free--but I wouldn't have paid $25 for them. Maybe $5 to help them get their feet ... but ugh! That's terrible.

Thanks for letting me know that's the deal. When I recommend sites I'll post the price next to them.


... I just looked. They're charging $3 for a normal free book feature. Actually, to me, that seems pretty fair for what I got from them. I'm going to use them again.


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## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

C. Gockel said:


> Ugh. Is Ebookhounds charging? I used them back when they were free. They were fine for free--but I wouldn't have paid $25 for them. Maybe $5 to help them get their feet ... but ugh! That's terrible.
> 
> Thanks for letting me know that's the deal. When I recommend sites I'll post the price next to them.
> 
> ... I just looked. They're charging $3 for a normal free book feature. Actually, to me, that seems pretty fair for what I got from them. I'm going to use them again.


I paid for a featured book ad, that's why it was $25. That was totally worthless.


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## T.J. Lantz (Sep 18, 2012)

Anyone have experience using these sites to promote middle grade (fantasy)? I know it's one of the more difficult genres to market, and I don't want to waste money on ineffectual marketing.


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## 58907 (Apr 3, 2012)

I used Booktastik on 2/6 for a permafree(interracial romantic suspense) and I didn't get more than 58 downloads. To give it a little context, I had 27 downloads the day before (not usual for a Thursday--sales/downloads are usually low) but on Wednesday I had 47 downloads. I don't consider 58 downloads worth the $10 I paid, especially since I usually get a little bump in sales/downloads on Fridays so I really can't tell what influence--if any--that site had on my downloads.


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## Antara Mann (Nov 24, 2014)

aimeeeasterling said:


> I tried this last month with a 99 cent sweet romance title. I did double up a few sites near the end, so there are some inconclusive points, but these were my results:
> 
> *Definitely worth it:*
> Ebookhounds (free)
> ...


Hi Aimee, thanks for the info. Did you pay for a facebok ad on Bknight or for their email list advertising?


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## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Some sites don't work, not because they have a limited reach but because their websites and submission procedures are absolutely terrible. Unlike Bookbub, BKnights, Kboards and some others, many sites require an incredible amount of unnecessary information and have really clumsy, hard to follow sign up and confirmation procedures.

BKnights requires we only input 2 items: 1. link to book, 2. date of promo. Yet he produces nice and effective ads without requiring we input masses of data about ourselves and the book, and his response is immediate.

Philip


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## deedawning (Aug 31, 2013)

BKnights requires we only input 2 items: 1. link to book, 2. date of promo. Yet he produces nice and effective ads without requiring we input masses of data about ourselves and the book, and his response is immediate.

Philip
[/quote]

I know. What's more they don't have requirements and to my knowledge they've never turned anyone down. No min reviews. No gender. No required ranking. No weekly of monthly spacing of ads. When you think about it they are one of a kind. I wish there were more like bknights


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## Guest (Feb 11, 2015)

Thanks for sharing this:

Which title did you test with?

Definitely worth it:
Ebookhounds (free)
Bkknights ($5.50)
Sweetfree Books ($5)
The Naughty List (free)
Ereader news today ($45)

Definitely not worth it:
Hotzippy's romance list ($15)
Bookgorilla ($50)
My Romance Reads ($75)
Genrepulse ($30)
Kindle Nation Daily ($100)

Inconclusive:
Discount Books Daily ($10)
Ebook Soda ($10)
Ebook Arrow ($10)
Choosy Bookworm ($5)


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## UnicornEmily (Jul 2, 2011)

Thanks for starting this thread, JTCochrane!  We write the same genre, so I definitely value your experience as helpful for ideas of what might work for me.

I tried Kindle Books and Tips last year.  I paid $25 and received 32 sales at $0.99.  It wasn't really worth it to me.  But I noticed all the romance books on the list that day did WAY better than me (ranking-wise, at least).  I suspect romance might be a genre it's strong in.

I tried a Kindleboards banner ad, thinking that would be better.  Sadly . . . $40 and it made only 5 sales.  Oh, well.  It's probably better for other people than me.

I tried eBookSoda soon afterwards.  They were charging $5 at the time, and I sold two copies of my book at full-price that day.  So that was worth it to me.  I was definitely thinking I would try them again, but I'm not sure if it's worth $10.  Maybe.

I noticed a spike of about 10 extra e-book sales during the month I offered two print copies of my book for a LibraryThing giveaway.  At full-price.  That was surprising and happy.  In the end, even after counting the cost of the books and postage, I more than broke even.  (I don't think either of the people who received the print book reviewed it, though . . .)

I later tried LibraryThing again for an e-book giveaway of a different book (a tricky one to get people to review, so I was hoping to get some reviews out of it).  I offered 50 copies, and 35 people wanted it.  No reviews yet (and this was six months ago), so it probably won't net me any.  On the other hand, I got a mailing list subscriber the day after I sent them out, and 4 sales of one of my other books.  So that was definitely worth it.

In November, I tried a free e-book giveaway through Bknights on Fiverr.  Many people had recommended him to me, and I second the motion that he's worth the money.  I paid $5.50 and I gave away 227 copies on the first day and 25 copies on the second day.  That might not sound spectacular, but I also sold one copy of my other book at full-price, so I'd say that easily covered half of it.  I also got another mailing list subscriber, so no complaints!


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## hs (Feb 15, 2011)

hs said:


> I second the experience that Bknights works and Genrepulse doesn't. Yesterday, I ran a 99 cent promo with one book on Bknights and a 99 cent promo with another book on Genrepulse. I sold 17 copies via Bknights and just 3 copies via Genrepulse. Both books have delivered similar results for me in the past on Bknights, but just to be sure, I'm reversing them (the Bknights book will be promoted on Genrepulse and vice versa) in the coming week.


I ran a couple more promotions on Bknights and Genrepulse with the same results. The Bknights promotions were usually worth the price I paid while Genrepulse wasn't. I also tried SweetFreeBooks for two of my books based on the recommendations in this thread, but they wound up selling no extra copies.  Note that all of my promotions were for 99 cent books that were originally priced at $2.99.


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## Guest (Feb 14, 2015)

Hi, could authors please include genres of their books. It becomes difficult to figure out what is what without genres.


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## hs (Feb 15, 2011)

ireaderreview said:


> Hi, could authors please include genres of their books. It becomes difficult to figure out what is what without genres.


Good point, since some promotion sites probably work better for some genres than others. My books are all YA speculative fiction.


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## Guest (Feb 15, 2015)

thanks HS.

Bknights results for YA Speculative Fiction are very good.

That's generally a tougher genre to do well in.


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