# [By Popular Demand] Which Book Promo Site Gave You the Best Results in 2014?



## abonje (Jan 12, 2013)

Okay kBoarders.

By popular demand, here's the poll! 

Let's pool our collective experience from running paid ads last year, and find out what platforms really delivered the goods!

1. Vote your most successful book promo site in the poll above, then 
2. share your  best results in the comments below!


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## Amity Lassiter (Nov 28, 2014)

FussyLibrarian... $7... 4800 downloads in 1 day. I emailed the owners just to tell them how satisfied I was with it and even THEY were surprised at how well it went down. It didn't hurt that my book was the only free one in the newsletter that I got that day.


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## abonje (Jan 12, 2013)

Amity Lassiter said:


> FussyLibrarian... $7... 4800 downloads in 1 day. I emailed the owners just to tell them how satisfied I was with it and even THEY were surprised at how well it went down. It didn't hurt that my book was the only free one in the newsletter that I got that day.


Wow - 4,800 in 1 day for $7.00?

Way to go! Great share, Amity!

How long ago was this, and have you tried again?


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## Amity Lassiter (Nov 28, 2014)

abonje said:


> Wow - 4,800 in 1 day for $7.00?
> 
> Way to go! Great share, Amity!
> 
> How long ago was this, and have you tried again?


I am sure that once it gained some visibility, that helped, and other sites likely picked it up but that was the paid advertisement for that day (the first of three free days). This was about two weeks ago. I also had my second book come out a week before that, so I think that could have factored in.

I am still a relative newbie to this whole game and the free run was just an 'experiment' at the end of my initial Select enrollment. I didn't expect a HUNDRED downloads, nevermind 11K in 3 days along with hitting #1 in my genre list and #26 in the Kindle store. I think it was good luck and being in the right place at the right time and a really, really pretty cover.

ETA: I spent a whopping total of $15.50 on advertising in those three days - FussyLibrarian, ReadCheaply (free), eBook Hounds, and BKnights. I got some other great pick ups once people saw it moving, including a Twitter account with 39K users. I just wanted to test out a small run, since I only have two books out. Once I get the other four out this year, I'll try to hit some of the bigger hitters like BB, ENT, etc.


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## abonje (Jan 12, 2013)

SkyScribe said:


> My go to sites are BookBub, ENT, BookSends, and The Midlist. I'm amused that there are sites on this list that I've never heard anything positive about whatsoever.


SkyScribe, which of those gave you the best results?


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## SkyScribe (Aug 18, 2014)

abonje said:


> SkyScribe, which of those gave you the best results?


I use them all together, whether all on the same day or in successive days. In my humble opinion, the answer to the question of what gave me the best results would be Multiple Sites Combined.


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## abonje (Jan 12, 2013)

SkyScribe said:


> I use them all together, whether all on the same day or in successive days. In my humble opinion, the answer to the question of what gave me the best results would be Multiple Sites Combined.


Ah - the cocktail approach. Well played, sir.
Can you share about how many downloads that approach gives you?

Sounds pretty unique - I don't know that a lot of folks are taking the cocktail approach.
I suspect most of us hit up one site at a time, but I could be wrong.

Thanks for the share!


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## Guest (Jan 28, 2015)

Does anyone have results (actual numbers) for The Midlist.

I keep hearing good things about them and they seem to have a long waiting list. However, I've never seen them mentioned anywhere outside of KBoards.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Without doubt, BookBub. 

It was the perfect storm of promotions. A newly released book, only out for four weeks when I submitted it with only seven reviews. It was the prequel to the series and only took 53 days to write, have edited, and published. BookBub gave me the date of 8/1/14. That new book sold over 3,000 by the end of 8/2 and 5.400 for the month. Sell through to the other three titles was phenomenal. I sold a total of 11,655 books in August, giving me my first, and thus far only, $20K royalty month.


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## Lionel&#039;s Mom (Aug 22, 2013)

Well, I had to put Bookbub, because, well, because.  It's the most expensive in dollars but the cheapest in ROI. 

But BB isn't something that's easy to plan, since you never know if they'll take you or when, if they do. So, next for me last year was ENT, which has been amazing for me both at .99 and free, and their price can't be beat. 
Then the Midlist, who picked me up for free, and it was so good I would have been happy if I'd paid.

For me, I thought Freebooksy was just very meh, definitely not worth the money I paid, though I've heard so many people get good results I may try again this year and see if my day was a fluke.
Oh, and for 5$ or whatever it is now, of course I was happy with BKnights on fivver. 

Another one not on the list who picked me up for free was I heart Vampire Novels. I'd pay for them it was such a nice bump, and my book is just borderline paranormal romance, no vampires. So if you're in or around PNR, give them a shot.


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## Shiriluna Nott (Aug 26, 2014)

Well, my BookBub ad just went live an hour ago, but I'm already going to go ahead and say it'll top ENT and Freebooksy's numbers for me, judging by the crazy results in the last 60 minutes. So yeah, the almighty BookBub gets my vote too!


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

ireaderreview said:


> Does anyone have results (actual numbers) for The Midlist.
> 
> I keep hearing good things about them and they seem to have a long waiting list. However, I've never seen them mentioned anywhere outside of KBoards.


On a 0.99 book, I sold over 50 copies (I don't remember exact figures now). This was with their free option. I'm doing their free option again in February on my permafree.


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## aimeeeasterling (Sep 22, 2014)

ireaderreview said:


> Does anyone have results (actual numbers) for The Midlist.
> 
> I keep hearing good things about them and they seem to have a long waiting list. However, I've never seen them mentioned anywhere outside of KBoards.


I recently used them for a 99-cent sale and got 70 sales of a book that had been moving one copy per day. I used the free option and set it up a couple of months in advance. They definitely gave me the highest return on my investment of any ad so far! The Midlist kept rejecting my books, but finally accepted me when I replied to one of their rejection emails and asked for more information on why I was getting rejected.

That said, I finally got accepted for a Bookbub ad in early February, so I have high hopes that listing will blow this previous result out of the water.


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## anniejocoby (Aug 11, 2013)

BookBub is a no-brainer, of course. But getting in....you pretty much have to sacrifice a goat.

So, I would say, for those who write romance and can't get into BB - Freebooksy is excellent, as is My Romance Reads.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

Hello --

BookBub was number one for me, but you shouldn't discount the little sites, and the not so littles.

Greater than 100 downloads per $5 spent:
OneHundredFreeBooks (free slot)
TheMidlist (free slot)
ReadCheaply ($0)
ManyBooks.net ($0)
ebookButterfly - depends on your genre. I had a really good promo with them.
ENT ($20)

Greater than 100 downloads per $10 spent
FussyLibrarian ($9)
I Love Vampire Novels ($59)
GenrePulse ($10-$30)
EBookArrow ($10)
DigitalBookSpot (Bknights) ($5)
SweetFreeBooks ($5)
Riffle--they recently raised their prices from $25-$40 and I'm not sure they will be worth it anymore.

And then there are the little sites that add up and help a lot: Awesomegang's free promotion, Ebooklister, Ebookhabit, FreeDigitalReads, ILoveEbooks, IReadFantasy, SciFiFantasyFreak, Ebookhounds


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## abonje (Jan 12, 2013)

anniejocoby said:


> BookBub is a no-brainer, of course. But getting in....you pretty much have to sacrifice a goat.
> 
> So, I would say, for those who write romance and can't get into BB - Freebooksy is excellent, as is My Romance Reads.


Good share on Freebooksy, Annie. 
About how well did Freebooksy and MyRomance Reads do for you, in terms of number of downloads (compared to BB)?


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## abonje (Jan 12, 2013)

aimeeeasterling said:


> I recently used them for a 99-cent sale and got 70 sales of a book that had been moving one copy per day. I used the free option and set it up a couple of months in advance. They definitely gave me the highest return on my investment of any ad so far! The Midlist kept rejecting my books, but finally accepted me when I replied to one of their rejection emails and asked for more information on why I was getting rejected.
> 
> That said, I finally got accepted for a Bookbub ad in early February, so I have high hopes that listing will blow this previous result out of the water.


Great share, Aimee - selling 70 books from that one promo is pretty good. 
Do you think TheMidlist is as selective as Bookbub?


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## aimeeeasterling (Sep 22, 2014)

abonje said:


> Great share, Aime - selling 70 books is pretty good!
> Do you think they're as selective as Bookbub?


I don't know for sure, but I get the impression they lean toward more literary books. The book they accepted of mine was my most literary (and thus also my worst seller), and they seemed much less interested in my much more popular werewolf book.


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## anniejocoby (Aug 11, 2013)

abonje said:


> Good share on Freebooksy, Annie.
> About how well did Freebooksy and MyRomance Reads do for you, in terms of number of downloads (compared to BB)?


Freebooksy has done very well for me. On Broken, I managed 7000 DLs in one day, 100 paid sales the day after the ad ran. And, on Beautiful Illusions, the first time I ran it with them, I got around 5000 DLs for that month. That said, there is diminishing returns with them - every time I have run Broken, I've gotten fewer and fewer DLs each time. But that's with any site - if you run the same title more than once, you're going to see less DLs each time. Even with BookBub I've seen that.

My Romance Reads was good for 3200 DLs in one day. That was for Broken, and I was running other promos that week, so I was quite pleased with that result!


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## Maia Sepp Ross (May 10, 2013)

C. Gockel said:


> Riffle--they recently raised their prices from $25-$40 and I'm not sure they will be worth it anymore.


I used them in Dec on my bestselling book - I don't think I'll use them again. Btw, I listed to your interview on the Bitter Without You Podcast yesterday - really enjoyed it!


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## Maia Sepp Ross (May 10, 2013)

ireaderreview said:


> Does anyone have results (actual numbers) for The Midlist.
> 
> I keep hearing good things about them and they seem to have a long waiting list. However, I've never seen them mentioned anywhere outside of KBoards.


I used them in Dec and sold 150 on my biggest-selling book, and in November (I think) on my second book and got about ~65 sales or so. They are great to deal with, with fab results.


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## A past poster (Oct 23, 2013)

BookBub, by miles.

That said, bknights did exceptionally well for both paid books and a free book. ENT is my other go-to choice. I wish there were more promo sites for literary fiction. I'd like to be able to build up a BookBub ad the way Wayne does.

I see Pixel of Ink on the list. I've applied there a number of times and have never been accepted.

Riffle was a disaster--they messed up my blurb and refunded my money.


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## Guest (Jan 29, 2015)

Thanks for the data points everyone.

Good to get some figures for MidList. Those are good sales for a paid book.

Hadn't heard of some of the ones C. Gockel mentioned like Riffle. Will check them out.


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## abonje (Jan 12, 2013)

Maia said:


> I used them in Dec and sold 150 on my biggest-selling book, and in November (I think) on my second book and got about ~65 sales or so. They are great to deal with, with fab results.


Good share - thanks, Maia. 
Have they been your best to date?


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## Perro Callejero (Dec 23, 2013)

What about KBT (Kindle Books & Tips, fkbt.com )?  I don't think I saw them on the list.

They seemed like a pretty decent ad site in the beginning of the year, though I'm not sure what kind of return on investment they offer now.

Personally, I haven't had much success with ads earning out since August, so I've stopped running ads except for freebie-deals and 99-cent bundles on bknights.


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## abonje (Jan 12, 2013)

Perro Callejero said:


> What about KBT (Kindle Books & Tips, fkbt.com )? I don't think I saw them on the list.
> 
> They seemed like a pretty decent ad site in the beginning of the year, though I'm not sure what kind of return on investment they offer now.
> 
> Personally, I haven't had much success with ads earning out since August, so I've stopped running ads except for freebie-deals and 99-cent bundles on bknights.


Perro, what kind of results have you been seeing from your bKnights promos?


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## David VanDyke (Jan 3, 2014)

Really should have left BB off. Everyone knows it's the best. The interesting question would be which are the next best.


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## Perro Callejero (Dec 23, 2013)

abonje said:


> Perro, what kind of results have you been seeing from your bKnights promos?


For a murder mystery novel at 99 cents, 3 sales.
For erotica shorts at 99 cents, 6 - 14 sales.
For erotica 3-pack bundles at 99 cents, 13 - 18 sales.
For a horror novella freebie, 500 downloads.
For an epic fantasy novel freebie, 900 downloads.

Also note that BKnights just changed their policies relating to erotica--they no longer accept most of it--so for now, I'm pretty much only using them to announce freebies, and only every once in a while.


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## abonje (Jan 12, 2013)

Perro Callejero said:


> For a murder mystery novel at 99 cents, 3 sales.
> For erotica shorts at 99 cents, 6 - 14 sales.
> For erotica 3-pack bundles at 99 cents, 13 - 18 sales.
> For a horror novella freebie, 500 downloads.
> ...


Cool - very useful share.

Thanks, Perro!


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## Perro Callejero (Dec 23, 2013)




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## abonje (Jan 12, 2013)

David VanDyke said:


> Really should have left BB off. Everyone knows it's the best. The interesting question would be which are the next best.


That' true, David.

This does give us a clue though, as to % of kBoards authors are getting accepted by Bookbub.
Evidently, if you get accepted to Bookbub, it will likely be your biggest promotion.

But many authors aren't getting accepted to Bookbub, so their best promos end up being on the other sites.

ENT is a clear #2... after that, it's all over the map. (Pixel, bKnights, Freebooksy,MyRomanceReads, etc. etc.)


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## YoMama (Jan 27, 2015)

Perro Callejero said:


> What about KBT (Kindle Books & Tips, fkbt.com )? I don't think I saw them on the list.


I did a $25 ad for a .99 non-fiction book on fkbt yesterday, got 164 downloads


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## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

**********


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## evawallace (Aug 7, 2014)

Thank you all for sharing, you've provided food for thought for my future promos.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

> I used them in Dec on my bestselling book - I don't think I'll use them again. Btw, I listed to your interview on the Bitter Without You Podcast yesterday - really enjoyed it!


Off topic: Thanks so much! I was so nervous and misspoke a couple times. There are reasons why I write. Not being able to speak coherently is one of them ...


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

C. Gockel said:


> Off topic: Thanks so much! I was so nervous and misspoke a couple times. There are reasons why I write. Not being able to speak coherently is one of them ...


Don't feel bad. I'm exactly the same way. On paper, I'm reasonable eloquent and intelligent. When I speak I sound like an idiot. By the time the words come out of my mouth, my brain has already skipped onto the next thing.


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## ArchangelEST (Jan 19, 2015)

Lots of good information in this thread guys. Awesome stuff. 

I'm trying to gear up for my 0.99$ promo's and it's pretty hard to properly distribute my resources. Not rich enough to blindly pick who's advertisement deals to go with. But with the information here, I should be able to get more bang for my buck.


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## SB James (May 21, 2014)

I haven't ever done a Book Bub. I may give it a try on my book one later in the year, for laughs.
Bknights has been good for me, and I've virtually always earned out on my paid promos, since there are follow-up sales and a bit of a tail. For the free book promos, I get a big spike in the rankings, but nothing much with follow up sales.
I'm still mulling over what to do next. I'd like the next promotion to be geared more towards the sci fi/fantasy readers. Maybe a Facebook ad?


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

> By the time the words come out of my mouth, my brain has already skipped onto the next thing.


I like to say that my brain is faster than my mouth. But sometimes I think it's the other way around.


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## WDR (Jan 8, 2014)

With my second book soon to launch, I'm considering putting my first book on sale for a short period. It seems to me that BookBub is the way to go on that front.


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## LadyStarlight (Nov 14, 2014)

I've tried Freebooksy ($100), ENT ($20), BKnights ($5), Genrepulse($10), and fussy librarian ($10) ---This is for free books 1st in series.

ENT was by far the best value.  I got 1450 downloads for only $20.  I consistently get 300-400 using Bknights, which is well worth the $5.  Genrepulse I got around 150, but I have another one scheduled to test it again on a different book.  Fussy Librarian I actually received lower downloads than I did 3 previous days without any promotion, so I don't see myself using them again.  Could be the genre, not really sure.  I got ~800 downloads with freebooksy for $100.  Considerable downloads, but too high of a price for it.  That said, I was a little disappointed in the results and emailed them and they actually ran another title of mine for free, and it also received around 1200 downloads so that was really nice of them.

I also ran a kindle countdown (99cents) with BKnights ONLY and got 101 sales in a day on one of my titles, and 73 on another.  They were on the first page of the kindle countdown homepage so I  can't say exactly how much was due to Bknights.

ENT also gave me the best sell-through for the next books, but I guess that's to be expected when I got the most free downloads.


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## CJAnderson (Oct 29, 2014)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Without doubt, BookBub.
> 
> It was the perfect storm of promotions. A newly released book, only out for four weeks when I submitted it with only seven reviews. It was the prequel to the series and only took 53 days to write, have edited, and published. BookBub gave me the date of 8/1/14. That new book sold over 3,000 by the end of 8/2 and 5.400 for the month. Sell through to the other three titles was phenomenal. I sold a total of 11,655 books in August, giving me my first, and thus far only, $20K royalty month.


Wayne,

That is awesome!


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