# Best Paid Advertising for LGBT Romance



## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Hi - I have a $0.99 sale coming up in November for my m/m romance, A Taste of You.

I'm wondering what my best options for advertising are. So few of the email blast sites seem to break out an LGBT category and I don't want to spend a bundle to advertise to readers who won't buy in my sub-genre.

I know the following have LGBT Categories:
Bookbub (out of my budget for this one)
Fussy Librarian

Have any of you had success with other advertisers or know of any with and LGBT list? I wish could assume I would get decent response just placing it under romance...


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## WordNinja (Jun 26, 2014)

The Rainbow Shelf is new, and they're free until they build up a readership. For m/m romance only. 
http://www.therainbowshelf.com


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Andrea - thanks for this.

I forgot to add Queercentric Books, I suppose.
http://www.queercentricbooks.com/

I submitted to them a few weeks ago and they never responded.


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## 77071 (May 15, 2014)

Bookbub IS expensive but it has a good return on paid items.  You should make back what you spent plus some profit the first day (and continue to make profit for the next few days).  However, it's not easy to get accepted, and you do need to pay up front...  

Can I ask which of your stories you're planning to advertise?  I'll wait and buy it then...


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Hi HSh - 

It's A Taste of You (the foodie in my sig).

Yes - I agree Bookbub CAN be worth it - but this book is with a publisher who takes a cut of my royalties and I don't have enough other books in this genre to feel like Bookbub is a good option in my particular situation. I'd love to do a Bookbub once I have a few more titles out but right now I'm looking for less expensive options.


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## 77071 (May 15, 2014)

I see!  That makes sense!  

Thanks for telling me.  I'll definitely pick it up then.  

*edit*  Alternately, if tweeting it would help more, I can do that if you let me know (though I don't have a lot of twitter followers.)


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Well, you convinced me to take a look at BookBub, and the price for LGBT was so reasonable I was considering it.

Then I realized I'm four pages short of their minimum length. Four pages!


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## Speaker-To-Animals (Feb 21, 2012)

IreneP said:


> Yes - I agree Bookbub CAN be worth it - but this book is with a publisher who takes a cut of my royalties and I don't have enough other books in this genre to feel like Bookbub is a good option in my particular situation. I'd love to do a Bookbub once I have a few more titles out but right now I'm looking for less expensive options.


Which is why they should be paying for this type of thing.


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## 77071 (May 15, 2014)

You could ask your publisher to add a couple pages of backmatter advertising their other titles.

Also ask them to go halfsies at least if you're not getting much in royalties from this.

Alternately, just write another story.

The best way to get a Bookbub, IMO, is to have a lot of stories that fit their guidelines and don't give up, just keep approaching Bookbub, cycling through all of them till you wear them down.


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## AveryCockburn (Jul 5, 2015)

Here's a list of sites I've found which have a separate LGBT list:

Bookbub
Fussy Librarian http://www.thefussylibrarian.com/for-authors/
Booklovers Heaven http://bookloversheaven.com/
Ebook Hounds	http://www.ebookhounds.com/overview/
Read Cheaply	http://readcheaply.com/partners/#guidelines
Book Gorilla http://www.bookgorilla.com/advertise
EbookSoda http://www.ebooksoda.com/authors/terms/


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## 77071 (May 15, 2014)

AveryCockburn said:


> Here's a list of sites I've found which have a separate LGBT list:
> 
> Bookbub
> Booklovers Heaven http://bookloversheaven.com/
> ...


*bookmarking*


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## elizabethsade (Feb 3, 2015)

HSh said:


> *bookmarking*


Same.


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

OMG - thanks y'all - _so much_!


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## AveryCockburn (Jul 5, 2015)

Just added Fussy Librarian to my other post. It was mentioned earlier in the thread, so I forgot to include it originally.



IreneP said:


> So few of the email blast sites seem to break out an LGBT category and I don't want to spend a bundle to advertise to readers who won't buy in my sub-genre.


I second this! Bookbub recently had a blog post saying that the engagement (click-through and purchase) for their smaller categories like LGBT and African American is VERY high:

http://insights.bookbub.com/how-engaged-are-readers-in-your-genre/

(Which thrills me to no end, as I have a Bookbub coming up on September 23. )


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## 77071 (May 15, 2014)

The Bookbub category has improved (and increased in price) dramatically just in the time I've been publishing. The cost has at least doubled since last year. But visibility has also increased a great deal. L.A. Witt had another BB ad today and the ranking of the story is currently #41 FREE i_n the entire Amazon store_. Talk about visibility! 

BTW I had a Fussy Librarian ad a few months ago (April) for a 99 cent countdown book. It wasn't very expensive, but it didn't give great returns either--maybe a mild rise or a few sales.


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

I've had success with gay romance on The Naughty List, by using their The Romance List. ALso BKnights has done well for my gay romances.


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## 77071 (May 15, 2014)

Caddy said:


> ALso BKnights has done well for my gay romances.


Can I ask if it was a paid or free book that did well? I had heard they didn't do well for paid books...


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## AveryCockburn (Jul 5, 2015)

Caddy said:


> I've had success with gay romance on The Naughty List, by using their The Romance List. ALso BKnights has done well for my gay romances.


Thanks for mentioning the Naughty List! I placed a couple of ads with them just now after reading this.

I've also found BKnights to be exceptional.


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

HSh said:


> Can I ask if it was a paid or free book that did well? I had heard they didn't do well for paid books...


Mostly I did free. But mine were episodes of books, six 10,000 to 12,000 word episodes to make up one story. It was a test for KU. For one of them I advertised the first as free and the rest as .99. I don't think they will do that anymore, but I was happy with my results that time, too.


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## kevin armstrong (May 6, 2015)

I've had pretty good results so far from Freebooksy. Not as expensive as Bookbub.


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## AveryCockburn (Jul 5, 2015)

HSh said:


> Can I ask if it was a paid or free book that did well? I had heard they didn't do well for paid books...


The time I used BKnights was for a Kindle Countdown deal of my prequel novella and the results were good*. Because many promo sites don't advertise novellas, I only had 1-2 promos running each day, so I'm fairly confident that BKnights worked.

I did the full $21 BKnights bit, with Facebook spotlight posts--definitely worth it to spend $5 extra for this added exposure. The basic FB post just shows your cover in a gallery amid all the others from that day, so it doesn't really stand out.

*By "good" I mean a big increase over usual sales in a day. Not "good" as in stratospheric sales or even paying for itself, but that's my own fault for doing a Kindle Countdown Deal on a novella. A $2.99>>$0.99 drop just isn't that enticing. In the future I'll do only free promos for this book and Book #1 in the series and save the Countdowns for later novels, if at all.


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## 77071 (May 15, 2014)

Caddy said:


> Mostly I did free. But mine were episodes of books, six 10,000 to 12,000 word episodes to make up one story. It was a test for KU. For one of them I advertised the first as free and the rest as .99. I don't think they will do that anymore, but I was happy with my results that time, too.


Thanks!  I think I tried a countdown there once and it didn't do well, so I was wondering if it was still like that (or just me LOL).  That sounds like a wonderful option, having a series with the first free, and I might try that with my December release which is a three-parter. (Or that's the plan anyway!!)



AveryCockburn said:


> The time I used BKnights was for a Kindle Countdown deal of my prequel novella and the results were good*. Because many promo sites don't advertise novellas, I only had 1-2 promos running each day, so I'm fairly confident that BKnights worked.
> 
> I did the full $21 BKnights bit, with Facebook spotlight posts--definitely worth it to spend $5 extra for this added exposure. The basic FB post just shows your cover in a gallery amid all the others from that day, so it doesn't really stand out.
> 
> *By "good" I mean a big increase over usual sales in a day. Not "good" as in stratospheric sales or even paying for itself, but that's my own fault for doing a Kindle Countdown Deal on a novella. A $2.99>>$0.99 drop just isn't that enticing. In the future I'll do only free promos for this book and Book #1 in the series and save the Countdowns for later novels, if at all.


Thanks for sharing! :-D That sounds like a great plan. BTW I got your newsletter today and it's so professional and enticing. Damn!


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## AveryCockburn (Jul 5, 2015)

HSh said:


> Thanks!  I think I tried a countdown there once and it didn't do well, so I was wondering if it was still like that (or just me LOL).  That sounds like a wonderful option, having a series with the first free, and I might try that with my December release which is a three-parter. (Or that's the plan anyway!!)
> 
> Thanks for sharing! :-D That sounds like a great plan. BTW I got your newsletter today and it's so professional and enticing. Damn!


Thank you so much! I basically just use an Aweber template. I try not to attempt anything too fancy, because that way lies frustration for my limited technical abilities. 

Just picked up your Boyfriend Potential n KU. Looking forward to reading it!


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## 77071 (May 15, 2014)

AveryCockburn said:


> Just picked up your Boyfriend Potential n KU. Looking forward to reading it!


  Eek! Thank you...


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Avery - congrats on your Bookbub - I'll make sure to look for it!

Caddy - thanks for the info on The Naughty List and BKnights. I've seen them recc'ed several places and wondered if they were worthwhile  for our genre. Also (OT) - based on discussions on the other thread the other day I did NOT choose LGBT Fiction as a category for my latest pre-order. It went there anyway (shrug). Eventually, maybe it will be like Women's Fiction and focus only on "issue" stories. But it is what it is for now.

Kevin - Have you tried Bargain Booksy? I don't have anything free...


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## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

Yes, if your keywords target LGBT the "bonus" is you still might get listed there, too. But with several categories  listed people will get a real feel for what your book is about. ANd, if it is gay romance, then LGBT makes sense, too.


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Well, y'all, I launched Boots this week and of course I've been second-guessing all promo.  Because I launched at full price, my options for blast sites were limited. My only paid advertising was Fussy Librarian, Ebook Soda, some FB ads, and a cover ad on Joyfully Jay. 

The one big decision I made was to put the book in KDP Select. Except for release day - it looks like I'm earning more so far (well, it's only been a few days) through select. Is this normal? I'm not complaining - I put the book there for the exposure - it's just interesting to see the numbers in real-time for the first time and know that so many of my reads are KU. It's also making me a little nutty to see the page-reads and not know how many downloads it took to get there.


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## 77071 (May 15, 2014)

If you know your kenpc count, and you should, you can divide pages read by length for an approximation. Alternately look at your rank and try to figure out how many downloads per day it takes to attain that rank, i guess. It looks like it's doing well, so congrats! 



IreneP said:


> The one big decision I made was to put the book in KDP Select. Except for release day - it looks like I'm earning more so far (well, it's only been a few days) through select. Is this normal?


Yes.


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Yeah - I did the dividing by pages thing - but I've got to assume not everyone is finishing it. I had no idea the borrows would be that high. I'm pleased with the select experiment so far.


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## AveryCockburn (Jul 5, 2015)

IreneP said:


> Well, y'all, I launched Boots this week and of course I've been second-guessing all promo. Because I launched at full price, my options for blast sites were limited. My only paid advertising was Fussy Librarian, Ebook Soda, some FB ads, and a cover ad on Joyfully Jay.
> 
> The one big decision I made was to put the book in KDP Select. Except for release day - it looks like I'm earning more so far (well, it's only been a few days) through select. Is this normal? I'm not complaining - I put the book there for the exposure - it's just interesting to see the numbers in real-time for the first time and know that so many of my reads are KU. It's also making me a little nutty to see the page-reads and not know how many downloads it took to get there.


Just wanted to pop in and say congrats on the release! Glad to hear it's doing so well in KU. Having greater earnings from borrows than sales is normal in my experience. I think romance in general and growing genres like this one in particular have high readership in KU. I bought a KU subscription myself specifically to satisfy my voracious appetite for books in my genre, so I can only assume that other readers feel the same.

And yeah, you can drive yourself round the bend trying to work out how many downloads all those page reads really represent, or you can enjoy the experience of seeing readers inhale your books!


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## Lia Cooper (Jan 28, 2014)

Just going to chip in my two cents and say that for its price the LGBT Bookbub is really reasonable, especially for a free book if youve got a series, though I would definitely hold off investing into bookbub until you have a few books to channel buy throughs to. The only thing that bums me out is the minimum page requirement =/ i've got a novella series in the words i'd love to promo with bookbub in the near future but theyre juuuuust not quite long enough.

One list I can't seem to get picked up by is ENT. I know quite a few writer friends in scifi and paranormal fantasy who have had really good success advertising with them but I've had nothing but rejection responses (3 times theyve rejected a book i've advertised w/ bookbub on multiple occasions, as well as 2 other rejections for other books in the series).

I've tried Fussy Librarian a couple times since theyre relatively inexpensive and they have a targeted LGTBQ list but I can't say I've seen much of a pickup from them =/ Maybe someone else has seen better success.


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## AveryCockburn (Jul 5, 2015)

Lia Cooper said:


> One list I can't seem to get picked up by is ENT. I know quite a few writer friends in scifi and paranormal fantasy who have had really good success advertising with them but I've had nothing but rejection responses (3 times theyve rejected a book i've advertised w/ bookbub on multiple occasions, as well as 2 other rejections for other books in the series).


Same here with ENT. My book chosen by Bookbub wasn't accepted by them.

Has anyone here been accepted for ENT with an LGBT book? I've been meaning to ask on this thread, so I'm glad you brought it up.


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## chalice (Jan 5, 2013)

*I'm bookmarking this thread for future references.
Thanks all.

Best Regards,
Shana Jahsinta Walters.*


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

ENT also rejected A Taste of You during my $0.99 sale. It's a fairly short novel, but over their guidelines. It's the only time I've submitted to them, so I can't draw any conclusions.


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## Shiriluna Nott (Aug 26, 2014)

I've lost count of how many times ENT has rejected both my LGBT fantasy novels now. I've seriously had better luck with BookBub than ENT at this point. Lol.


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## Lia Cooper (Jan 28, 2014)

Shiriluna Nott said:


> I've lost count of how many times ENT has rejected both my LGBT fantasy novels now. I've seriously had better luck with BookBub than ENT at this point. Lol.


same!

i kind of suspect that they just don't accept lgbt both from my experiences and the fact i've yet to hear from a single lgbt author who was picked up by them =/


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## Shiriluna Nott (Aug 26, 2014)

I've unfortunately suspected the same. I would LOVE to know for sure though...


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Awww... HOLLIS... you write incredibly sweet.  

Sorry, but Bunny Trails was a lovely palate cleanser between Jordan Castillo Price bundles and I couldn't find your Twitter to gush over it


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## 77071 (May 15, 2014)

Thank you.    You're very kind!  

As luck would have it, I've been re-reading some JCP recently...  When is the next Vic story coming out??


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## bang on the drum (Nov 2, 2015)

Before paying up, make sure you are targeting people interested in MM romance (primarily heterosexual women), not people interested in general LGBT books (primarily gay men). Gay people are not big buyers of MM romance. Crucial to know the distinction. If you are hitting a list of gay people or people interested in gay issue books, it's not the most lucrative target for MM romance.


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## FireBadTreePretty (May 24, 2015)

I have never tried this but here is a lesbian book site that accepts submissions.

http://www.lesbianreadingroom.com/ - book reviews, listings, and blogs for lesbian readers including a mailing list. 
Submit a title for review here: http://www.lesbianreadingroom.com/book-stuff/upcoming-titles/submit-upcoming-title/


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## CarmenShea (Jan 18, 2016)

AveryCockburn said:


> Here's a list of sites I've found which have a separate LGBT list:
> 
> Bookbub
> Fussy Librarian http://www.thefussylibrarian.com/for-authors/
> ...


Great list of sites! Thanks for sharing


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## Queen Mab (Sep 9, 2011)

To whoever suggested The Rainbow Shelf, thank you. I submitted to them and am waiting to hear back. It's an MM newsletter that goes out every Friday.


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

I love the Rainbow Shelf - I always check their newsletter and I always try to get a spot if I am doing a promo!


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## Queen Mab (Sep 9, 2011)

Crossing fingers that they take me


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Y'all - if you have eBookLister on your promo list you can mark them off.

Just got this email:

We do not accept Gay/Lesbian submissions.


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## Queen Mab (Sep 9, 2011)

I think there was a thread about that on Kboards a while back. It's disgusting, IMO.

Irene, did you notice Rainbow Shelf taking more than a couple days to respond to you? I submitted on Sunday and nothing yet. Just seems odd.


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Gabriella West said:


> Irene, did you notice Rainbow Shelf taking more than a couple days to respond to you? I submitted on Sunday and nothing yet. Just seems odd.


Yes, they sometimes take a little while. I'm sorry, but I can't bring to mind what "little while" means right now. More than a day or two but not weeks.


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## Queen Mab (Sep 9, 2011)

Good to know.


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## Dionne (Jul 14, 2013)

I just had a promo with ebooklister - $25 and my book is fantasy. I have had no sales, not one, and my book went up around 10 hours ago. Not sure if their email goes out at a different time, but so far, I can't believe I paid $25 for nothing. So I think they've actually done you a favour. If my sales suddenly go up, I'll post, but so far big fat zero.


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Dionne said:


> I just had a promo with ebooklister - $25 and my book is fantasy. I have had no sales, not one, and my book went up around 10 hours ago. Not sure if their email goes out at a different time, but so far, I can't believe I paid $25 for nothing. So I think they've actually done you a favour. If my sales suddenly go up, I'll post, but so far big fat zero.


I hate to be _fair _in this case but... hang in there. I think I saw someone posting about "delayed sales" someplace else.

Sorry, I didn't see your book there today. I, uh... _unsubscribed _after being given the reason for my rejection.

Good luck with the rest of your promo, though.


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## Dionne (Jul 14, 2013)

Thanks . Still no sales from that one either. I've applied to ENT, but I haven't heard back yet and I'e also applied to Choosy Bookworm. I'll cross my fingers. Good luck with finding good sites for your book too.


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## Lia Cooper (Jan 28, 2014)

Hey Dionne, just wondering if you ever heard back from ENT? That's one of the "bigger" sites ive applied to multiple times with m/m and always been rejected by so i'm always curious to hear from others submitting to them.


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## Dionne (Jul 14, 2013)

ENT rejected me, but I just had a Choosy Bookworm feature. For $25 I got 3 sales. Not impressed. I think many sites get away with high pricing and low sales because everyone features a few sites on the same day, which is a shame as then we don't know who the good sites are. I've heard Robin Reads is good, but they were booked out for my sale dates, and I'm not sure if they take erotic fiction, but you could try.


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## Queen Mab (Sep 9, 2011)

I just want to put in a plug for Rainbow Shelf for free books. It took them a while to get back to me, but on the day my book was featured, I got 273 downloads and my rank briefly shot up to #524 in the free store! I stayed high on the free gay romance list for a long time after that. They only run on Fridays and only do MM romance. But it's free!

I wouldn't have known about it but for this thread.


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## AveryCockburn (Jul 5, 2015)

Reviving this thread to see if anyone has had any luck with M/M romance on Red Feather Romance. They're run by the people who do Freebooksy (Written Word Media), which has always done pretty well for me. 

I've got a Freebooksy ad on the first day of my free run next week (Tues - Sat), and I was thinking of adding Red Feather on Friday as well. I don't really mind reaching the same subscribers twice, because sometimes people need multiple impressions before they click, plus they might not open every email, anyway. But for $125 I want to make sure I'm targeting the right audience.

My lineup so far:

5/23: Freebooksy
5/24: Bookbub
5/25: Newsletter
5/26: Rainbow Shelf

I've also submitted to Fussy Librarian's free list and Read Cheaply, both for any day during the free promo; and to Booklover's Heaven for the 25th or 26th.

It's been over a year since I've done a free promotion, so any advice on how the landscape has changed in that time would be so appreciated!


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Noooooo. 

Just got my Rainbow Shelf newsletter and they are closing.

They were my go-to for LGBT promos.


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## Queen Mab (Sep 9, 2011)

It sucks, doesn't it! 

I used them to buy books as well


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## michisjourdi (Jan 21, 2016)

I just signed up for a book mailing site (as a reader), and I remember that in categories to check off, they had an LGBT option. I can't remember which site, though. I think it was BookZio.  I'll go look.

Edit: Yes, it is BookZio.


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## Elizabeth Barone (May 6, 2013)

IreneP said:


> Noooooo.
> 
> Just got my Rainbow Shelf newsletter and they are closing.
> 
> They were my go-to for LGBT promos.


I saw this, too, and was just coming here to let you all know.

It's not quite the same, but LGBTQ Reads accepts cover reveals and teasers: https://lgbtqreads.com/about/blogging-policies/


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## michisjourdi (Jan 21, 2016)

Dionne said:


> I just had a promo with ebooklister - $25 and my book is fantasy. I have had no sales, not one, and my book went up around 10 hours ago. Not sure if their email goes out at a different time, but so far, I can't believe I paid $25 for nothing. So I think they've actually done you a favour. If my sales suddenly go up, I'll post, but so far big fat zero.


I think I was accepted by them once for their free listing and saw no results from them either. I'm going to go ahead and cross them off my list.


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## Annette_g (Nov 27, 2012)

I have an M/M blog, Zipper Rippers:
http://zipperrippers.blogspot.co.uk/

You can have teasers/excerpts, cover reveals, interviews etc. No charge, but no guarantee of sales either.

It's mainly M/M, but I do feature other LGBTQ books as guests


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Anyone used Price Dropped Books (Bookgrow)?

I see they have an LGBT list, but the price suggests it may be small...


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## Bookzio.com (Sep 29, 2016)

michisjourdi said:


> I just signed up for a book mailing site (as a reader), and I remember that in categories to check off, they had an LGBT option. I can't remember which site, though. I think it was BookZio. I'll go look.
> 
> Edit: Yes, it is BookZio.


Hello,

yes, we do have an LGBT category (and readers). Until recently, we only managed to promote books in this category occasionally. Lately, we've been actively looking to increase the number of LGBT books we promote - because in a recent survey, some subscribers wrote to ask us to -- and we like to keep our readers happy!

In fact, because we don't have many regular LGBT authors submitting books to us, your book stands a good chance of being included in a promotion. And there's less competition, right now.

So, if any of you are promoting LGBT books at a reduced price, or free, please submit to Bookzio.com - if you come from Kboards then put a note in your submission just to let us know. We'd also love to hear from you with feedback on how well your book did on one of our promotions.

You'll find our submissions page here: http://www.bookzio.com/promote-your-book

Best regards,
Philip


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Philip - just subbed some books and PM'd you.


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## LittleFox (Jan 3, 2015)

IreneP said:


> Anyone used Price Dropped Books (Bookgrow)?
> 
> I see they have an LGBT list, but the price suggests it may be small...


I tried them last month and had very poor results, I couldn't get a response from them when I emailed either. I gave up after the third email with no response.


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

KhaosFoxe said:


> I tried them last month and had very poor results, I couldn't get a response from them when I emailed either. I gave up after the third email with no response.


Well, shoot.

Was it for a free or $0.99 promo?

I'm not sure why I'm asking except morbid curiosity. I'm doing $0.99 which is bound to be worse results than free...


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## LittleFox (Jan 3, 2015)

99c on a book that usually garners very healthy sales from RobinReads and such.


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

KhaosFoxe said:


> 99c on a book that usually garners very healthy sales from RobinReads and such.


Ahh...


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

Bookzio.com said:


> In fact, because we don't have many regular LGBT authors submitting books to us, your book stands a good chance of being included in a promotion. And there's less competition, right now.
> 
> So, if any of you are promoting LGBT books at a reduced price, or free, please submit to Bookzio.com - if you come from Kboards then put a note in your submission just to let us know. We'd also love to hear from you with feedback on how well your book did on one of our promotions.
> 
> You'll find our submissions page here: http://www.bookzio.com/promote-your-book


Guys, just got approved for some promo next month.

Hoping the results are as outstanding as the customer service has been so far. Philip's been great!


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

So... way back near the beginning of this thread, there was some discussion about ENT.

I just got my an LGBT book accepted in their PNR category.

Hoping for good things...


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## AveryCockburn (Jul 5, 2015)

IreneP said:


> So... way back near the beginning of this thread, there was some discussion about ENT.
> 
> I just got my an LGBT book accepted in their PNR category.
> 
> Hoping for good things...


Great to hear! Let us know how it goes.


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## Lia Cooper (Jan 28, 2014)

IreneP said:


> So... way back near the beginning of this thread, there was some discussion about ENT.
> 
> I just got my an LGBT book accepted in their PNR category.
> 
> Hoping for good things...


Any updates on how ENT or bookzio performed w/ an LGBT title?


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## 77071 (May 15, 2014)

Hello again. Here to plug (suggest?) https://www.queeromanceink.com. I finally broke down and joined at the $20 level (5 books). It wasn't as difficult as I feared it would be to upload a book.

Today I got the new release email...which included the book I just listed.  To me, that's definitely worth it. I'll add my latest books as I release them, now. Maybe I'll even spring for a higher level and upload all my old books. Haven't decided yet.

At any rate, I think this site has promise, and it's not unreasonably priced. Four dollars per book for a year long listing, AND a new release email to their readers if applicable. Yeah, I'm thinking that's a good deal.

I don't know if it'll help sales or not but for visibility, I'm hopeful.


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## Bella Breen (May 24, 2015)

I just signed up with queeromanceink.com earlier this week too.  I asked the admins how much traffic they got. I wasn't going to put my books on a site that wasn't going to do anything for me. 

They get over 13,000 unique visitors a month.  That is a much larger number than I expected and well within the range of 'do it'.  Putting my books on was super easy.  

As for the newsletter, I didn't even realize they had one! So seeing my two books that I released this month was a great bonus.  I'll continue to put all my books on the site.


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## IreneP (Jun 19, 2012)

QRI also has a growing FB group and they are super nice and always looking for ways to improve the site.


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## 77071 (May 15, 2014)

With the demise of ARe, the KU deluge of the Amazon bestseller lists, and a fairly small number of review blogs overall, the industry has been ripe for a new discoverability tool. This site looked like it's already emerging in a good light there.

I've heard good things about the people involved, I think, and hearing some of the numbers (and that they're on FB too, something I wasn't aware of), makes me even more sure this is going to be _the_ discoverability tool of the future for the genre. Or at least one of them.

I think more and more, people will be looking outside of Amazon for discovering new stories. IMO we're lucky to have such a site developing in our genre(s).  As long as they're not too hard to use, and don't become prohibitively costly.

Now for the next big place to sell books...  Waiting and hopeful...


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## Secret Pen Pal (Dec 27, 2013)

Full Hearts Romance is open to LGBT. Their ads start at $5.


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## Diana Waters (Jun 14, 2019)

Reviving this thread, as I'm curious to know if there have been any other paid advertising options for LGBT-specific romances pop up within the last couple of years. I'm already signed up with Queeromance Ink (and think they're great!), but am always on the lookout for new opportunities. 

One issue I seem to run into a lot with paid advertising is that in order to be considered to be added to a newsletter or what have you, it's stipulated that your book must have x number of reviews already on Amazon. This can be a real catch 22 - I'm paying for advertising to get more reviews to hopefully generate more sales, but I have to have more reviews to qualify for advertising. 

This isn't a complaint post - I know that hard work is what gets results, and I've always been willing to put that in, be it via relevant Facebook promo groups, guest blog posts and features, submitting books for review on review blogs, getting involved in various forums, hosting giveaways, reviewing other people's work in exchange, being as active as possible on my own social media pages, etc. etc. I'm just trying to see what opportunities I might not yet have thought of or what I may have missed along the way - definitely still learning!


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