# Is Robin Reads worth $40?



## DGS (Sep 25, 2013)

I am doing a promo for a free Steamy Romantic Suspense book (First in the series), doing a bunch of websites, can list them later if people are curious. I see a lot of options, from $8-15 is pretty normal. What I'm curious about is if there are any services $25-50 that are definitely a great bang of the buck. A couple of those and you're in freebooksie territory, so just trying to play this smart. Robin reads I've heard something good about, but it's $40. Feedback appreciated.


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## Sara C (Apr 30, 2014)

I would gladly pay $40 for Robin Reads. I usually see around 800-1000 downloads with them.


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## mmandolin (Oct 16, 2014)

Think it's pretty genre-dependent. IMO Freebooksy is worth paying a bit more for because you're very likely to get good results. 

I'm curious too of how effective Robin Reads & ENT are today in terms of free runs...


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## DGS (Sep 25, 2013)

mmandolin said:


> Think it's pretty genre-dependent. IMO Freebooksy is worth paying a bit more for because you're very likely to get good results.
> 
> I'm curious too of how effective Robin Reads & ENT are today in terms of free runs...


oops, thanks for pointing that out, edited. It is Steamy Romantic Suspense.


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## DGS (Sep 25, 2013)

Sara C said:


> I would gladly pay $40 for Robin Reads. I usually see around 800-1000 downloads with them.


ok you made me go look at my stuff.

ebookhounds (+ sweetfreebooks + knights = $22. I got 228 dlds


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## DGS (Sep 25, 2013)

Has anyone done Romance Series on Freebooksy? How did it go? How did that compare to just the regular gig?


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## Sara C (Apr 30, 2014)

DGS said:


> oops, thanks for pointing that out, edited. It is Steamy Romantic Suspense.


Steamy Romance anything seems to do really well on Freebooksy (I don't write steamy, just judging on other results I've seen listed on here). I've only run Urban Fanasy on Robin Reads, so that's what my results were for.


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## Guest (Jul 14, 2016)

I've used both Robin Reads and ENT for 99 cent sales, and they both more than paid for themselves and had good sell through to the other books in the series. I write mysteries.


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## DGS (Sep 25, 2013)

Out_there said:


> I've used both Robin Reads and ENT for 99 cent sales, and they both more than paid for themselves and had good sell through to the other books in the series. I write mysteries.


interesting to hear that. I thought 99 works worse than simply doing a free ad promo and letting them buy the rest. I would prefer the 99 simply because it gets people acclimated to paying for the books. so that's 121 buys to break even. Hm


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## S.R. (May 19, 2016)

[My posts have been deleted in response to the unannounced KBoards TOS change that was made by the new forum owner (VerticalScope) -- I do not agree to the new terms and have requested that my account be deleted as well]


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## kathrynoh (Oct 17, 2012)

I've had a good ROI with both. I'd probably book them more often but you need to set them up well in advance. With Robin Reads, you can pick your date but there might not be anything available for ages, with ENT they take a longish time to get back to you. If I was more on top of planning promos, I'd definitely use them more.


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## Nancy_G (Jun 22, 2015)

I have an ad with RR set for 7/25 for my contemporary romance. Excited to have been accepted because pretty picky.

Just adding that this is for a paid deal (.99), not free. Oh, they also said it'd be a Book of the Day feature, so not really sure what exactly that means, maybe in the e-mail listing? I had that with My Romance Reads also, so really hoping it says a lot about my little book!   Or it could mean absolutely nothing...ha!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

I've had a couple of free runs with RobinReads which got me over 1,000 d/l, which is definitely into Freebooksy territory (that's for epic fantasy). They're getting pretty popular, though, so (like ENT) it's hard to get in these days.


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## Lisa Blackwood (Feb 1, 2015)

I have a Robin Reads 99c slot for my swords and sorcery romance in August. And I've used Robin Reads before (another 99c sale) and they've always done well. So I can only imagine they'd be great for a freebie. My prequel story is free at the moment and I just used Freebooksy and a few others and got 3000 downloads on it yesterday. If you're interested in the lineup I'm using this time around, PM me. I'm always happy to share #s. (Just didn't want to de-rail the thread)

But, yes, Robin Reads is totally worth the money, IMHO.


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

Robin Reads went fantastic on a multi-author boxed set I promoted. That was paranormal fantasy.


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## Lisa Blackwood (Feb 1, 2015)

DGS said:


> interesting to hear that. I thought 99 works worse than simply doing a free ad promo and letting them buy the rest. I would prefer the 99 simply because it gets people acclimated to paying for the books. so that's 121 buys to break even. Hm


It depends. If you're in KU. A big 99c promo run can generate a far better ROI. (But is has to be big enough to boost the title high up it the ranks.) I'm in the middle of a big promo for my sorceress series at the moment and am using both Free (Sorceress Found) and 99c (Sorceress Awakening). This muddies the waters, as I don't actually know what's doing what for sales. But my idea was to do a 99c promo of book 1 to get it ranking well and also give away a boatload of the freebie at the same time. My theory is that those readers will hopefully slowly buy book 1 helping to maintain it's rank. I'll see if that works.


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## lilywhite (Sep 25, 2010)

I've had stellar luck with RR, across several genres.


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

I've used Freebooksy several times for steamy romance. Each time, I've gotten anywhere between 3500 and 6000 downloads.


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## R. M. Webb (Jul 24, 2014)

I used RobinReads with my urban fantasy and would gladly use them again. (Unfortunately, it was awhile ago and I've misplaced the data with # of dl's.)

For my steamy romance, I used Freebooksy and found them to be fantastic, netting me around 6k downloads with a nice bump on all the books under that name for the next several weeks.


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## Guest (Jul 14, 2016)

DGS said:


> interesting to hear that. I thought 99 works worse than simply doing a free ad promo and letting them buy the rest. I would prefer the 99 simply because it gets people acclimated to paying for the books. so that's 121 buys to break even. Hm


Free always gets way more downloads, but I've found that people who are willing to pay at least $0.99 gets me more buy through and a longer tail. Even, at that price point they tend to be more selective and are more likely to read the book.


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## Craig Andrews (Apr 14, 2013)

I used Robin Reads for a 99 cent promotion for the first in my urban fantasy series, Fracture, and had a very positive experience. I plan on using them to promote the same book when it goes permafree in October when I release the third book in the series. Definitely recommended!


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## DGS (Sep 25, 2013)

Out_there said:


> Free always gets way more downloads, but I've found that people who are willing to pay at least $0.99 gets me more buy through and a longer tail. Even, at that price point they tend to be more selective and are more likely to read the book.


Glad to hear you confirm. We know freeloading line is always longer for anything in life.

So got the RR for 99. Wish me luck and thank you all for chiming in. If RR is reading, you're welcome for the publicity!


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## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

I haven't used them yet but I think I will. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say a bad thing about them. By all accounts, they're pretty awesome.


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## juliatheswede (Mar 26, 2014)

I love Robin Reads. They have always delivered great results for me. I write mystery and suspense with some romance thrown in. Nothing steamy.


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## Nancy_G (Jun 22, 2015)

WasAnn said:


> For a 0.99 Robin Reads for my romance pen name first book release, it more than paid for itself and that was for a brand new pen name. They do well at 0.99!


Awesome. Can't wait for mine next week!

Mine went great! Sold 161 copies the first day and 14 the next, and my book is contemporary romance, steamy.


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## Alvina (Oct 19, 2015)

By the way, have Robin Reads and ENT just recently increased their cost of promotion to $45?


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## Taking my troll a$$ outta here (Apr 8, 2013)

RR is definitely worth it. Good luck!


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

I've always been pleased with my results from Robin Reads. I'd recommend them.


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## martyns (May 8, 2014)

I've done okay with Robin Reads. If I recall I didn't do so well second time around, so have a punt, give em' a try and if they do so good, try someone else next time!


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## Justawriter (Jul 24, 2012)

I've found for free promos that Robin Reads does the same as Freebooksy for less than half the price. ENT gave the best results of all three, for me. I write sweet romance mostly, and genre could make a difference.


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## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

used them for the first time last month on a free book had available for free and was quite pleased with the result. Will definitely use them another go in the future.


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## Small Town Writer (Jun 11, 2014)

Just used Robin Reads for the first time this weekend. I dropped _The Full Moon_ to $0.99 and saw about 30 sales. The next day I saw 4 sales. Now, that's the best sales day I've ever had, but I thought it'd be more. Not to say that I think I should've sold more of _The Full Moon_, but I would've thought I'd see more sell-through. Maybe in the next few weeks.

It might be my genre (urban fantasy), my cover, blurb, or any number of things. Or it could just be that I'm still learning advertising basics haha. I'd use them again, but I'd do things differently to see if that makes a difference.


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## martyns (May 8, 2014)

David Neth said:


> Just used Robin Reads for the first time this weekend. I dropped _The Full Moon_ to $0.99 and saw about 30 sales. The next day I saw 4 sales. Now, that's the best sales day I've ever had, but I thought it'd be more. Not to say that I think I should've sold more of _The Full Moon_, but I would've thought I'd see more sell-through. Maybe in the next few weeks.
> 
> It might be my genre (urban fantasy), my cover, blurb, or any number of things. Or it could just be that I'm still learning advertising basics haha. I'd use them again, but I'd do things differently to see if that makes a difference.


I really like your cover! I find it very enticing!


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## Small Town Writer (Jun 11, 2014)

martyns said:


> I really like your cover! I find it very enticing!


Thanks! I get a lot of compliments on my covers! I didn't design them, so I can brag about them


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## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

martyns said:


> I really like your cover! I find it very enticing!


have to agree, it's a cool cover


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## Ethan Jones (Jan 20, 2012)

I did an ad and offered my first spy thriller in one of my series and got almost 700 downloads. Not sure if they were all from RR, since I had also hit a few of the smaller free websites on the same day and two days ago the book was on FreeBooksy.

Blessings,

E


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## celadon (Sep 12, 2015)

Robin Reads was MORE than well worth it for me. A 99 cent non-fiction, and I had never seen such sales numbers!


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## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

Totally worth it. It was the only site that resulted in a profit on my NF $0.99 promo.


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## FMH (May 18, 2013)

David Neth said:


> It might be my genre (urban fantasy), my cover, blurb, or any number of things. Or it could just be that I'm still learning advertising basics haha. I'd use them again, but I'd do things differently to see if that makes a difference.


Since your book is first in a series, I'd do a freebie promo on both Freebooksy and Book Barbarian, in your genre. You'll most likely see more sales than you've ever had...and a closer number to your original hope. .99 promos can be tricky.


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## EllieKeaton (Apr 12, 2014)

Robin Reads was totally worth it for me on my other pen name and so easy to work with.  Highly recommended


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## Small Town Writer (Jun 11, 2014)

FMH said:


> Since your book is first in a series, I'd do a freebie promo on both Freebooksy and Book Barbarian, in your genre. You'll most likely see more sales than you've ever had...and a closer number to your original hope. .99 promos can be tricky.


I'm hesitant to drop the price to free, only because I JUST dropped it to $0.99 for the Robin Reads promo. I figured I'd give it a month or two at $0.99 to see how it does and then drop it to free. I know if you're asking people to pay for something they're less likely to do so.

Thanks for the input, though. Definitely anxious to try other marketing efforts, but I want to give $0.99 a shot first.


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## martyns (May 8, 2014)

When people say ENT who are they talking about?


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## Guest (Aug 9, 2016)

martyns said:


> When people say ENT who are they talking about?


eReader News Today


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

RobinReads has always been worth it for me. I do try to give 6 months between promos with them, and I think that helps.


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## Alvina (Oct 19, 2015)

3 month ago a promo with Robin Reads cost me only $30, and now suddenly it's $45 !! Is it still worthy?


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## Not any more (Mar 19, 2012)

My first-in-series is free in RR today. I'll let you know how it goes.


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## DexyDoo (Jul 12, 2016)

I'd love to know if they are any good for paranormal romance.


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## martyns (May 8, 2014)

Anma Natsu said:


> eReader News Today


Ahhh thanks!


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## Not any more (Mar 19, 2012)

My RR promo went live at 9 am EST, and I got the email at 11:30. Stats as of 4:00 pm:

684 downloads plus six sales of the follow-on book in the series.

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #155 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
    #2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Metaphysical & Visionary
    #2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Science Fiction
    #2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Coming of Age


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## Alvina (Oct 19, 2015)

brkingsolver said:


> My RR promo went live at 9 am EST, and I got the email at 11:30. Stats as of 4:00 pm:
> 
> 684 downloads plus six sales of the follow-on book in the series.
> 
> ...


Congratulation for your result! 

At $30, I'm very confident that RR will give me a positive ROI for 99c sales. However, now I'm just hesitating to pay for a sudden hike at $45.


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## Not any more (Mar 19, 2012)

My promo was $25 in the SFF category. Gave away over 1,000 books, sold as many today as I did the first nine days of the month. Easily paid for itself.


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## TellNotShow (Sep 15, 2014)

Robin Reads always pays for itself, in my experience, and are a definite 2nd tier promo site. Sales/downloads can vary a lot, but even at their worst, I get 600 free downloads, which is great for the money, as that many leads to good sellthrough.

Occasionally I get rejected by them, even with books that have gone to #1 in Amazon Free during a Bookbub.

And lately, they've booked me so far ahead it's been a case of the promo coming two weeks after my other promos on the book. Regardless of these small issues, always worth it. Always.


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## Not any more (Mar 19, 2012)

Final results yesterday: 1300 downloads, 16 sales of the follow-on books (I was also in Patty's promo last weekend, so 2530 free downloads in 5 days). Yesterday was my second-best day ever, so the $25 to RR was a definite winner. As noted above, I get rejected there more than accepted, but I've been happy with the three promos they've done.


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## Neil Port (Sep 10, 2016)

Hi, just joined . I haven't tried RR but am booked for late Oct. I suspect it varies with Genre. Mine are sword and sorcery High (Epic) Fantasy and RR says they have 10.7% for the whole group of Science Fiction and Fantasy combined. Maybe I should look more closely for something serving my target audience.


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## Kate. (Oct 7, 2014)

Neil Port said:


> Hi, just joined . I haven't tried RR but am booked for late Oct. I suspect it varies with Genre. Mine are sword and sorcery High (Epic) Fantasy and RR says they have 10.7% for the whole group of Science Fiction and Fantasy combined. Maybe I should look more closely for something serving my target audience.


Welcome to Kboards, Neil!

BookBarbarian only promotes sci-fi and fantasy, and I've heard good things about them - they might be worth a try.


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## Neil Port (Sep 10, 2016)

Thanks soo much  Kate, I joined their "horde" for their newsletter too. Good luck with your horror and supernatural suspense books.


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## Kate. (Oct 7, 2014)

Neil Port said:


> Thanks soo much Kate, I joined their "horde" for their newsletter too. Good luck with your horror and supernatural suspense books.


Very welcome, Neil! I hope both ads do well for you! [nobbc][/nobbc]


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## C. Rysalis (Feb 26, 2015)

Neil Port said:


> Hi, just joined . I haven't tried RR but am booked for late Oct. I suspect it varies with Genre. Mine are sword and sorcery High (Epic) Fantasy and RR says they have 10.7% for the whole group of Science Fiction and Fantasy combined. Maybe I should look more closely for something serving my target audience.


I had the same concern - I booked RR about a week ago for a sort-of superhero Urban Fantasy. But the results were FANTASTIC - 80 sales at 99c. I also had Ereadercafe booked that day, but I think RR was the lion's share of sales. They gave me by far the best RoI of any promotion service I ever tried.


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## Michele Brouder (Jun 13, 2011)

DexyDoo said:


> I'd love to know if they are any good for paranormal romance.


I've run 2 RR promos in the last year and my book is YA paranormal romance. I booked it under the fantasy/sf category. Book was 99¢ and I was very happy with both promos but the 2nd promo doubled what I sold for the first promo.


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## JTriptych (Aug 23, 2015)

RR, along with ENT and Freebooksy are my second tier go to firms for sales ads (Book Barbarian also if its sci-fi), thry are right below Bookbub (I still havent gotten a BB ad yet), imo.


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## martyns (May 8, 2014)

I just got over 800 downloads from Robin Reads!

I'm tracking all my promos and Robin Reads definitely appears to be one of the better ones! At least it seems decent for fantasy!


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## J. Nardizzi (Apr 21, 2014)

Robin Reads garnered 30-35 sales in the mystery/suspense category, so for me, just a medicore return.  
ENT has gotten 200-400 sales over a weekend, although that was a few summers ago and times are a changin'...


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