Okay, so I did a Kindle Countdown Deal for Dying Embers last week. I had the book at 99 cents from the 14th through the 17th, sold 14 books (one of which was in Australia where it wasn't on sale). It reached 95th in the top 100 serial killer suspense ebooks on Thursday and promptly fell back into the hundreds where it stayed.
I paid for an ad at Omnimystery News that ran during the course of the sale, and I had a free ad with the ReadCheaply newsletter on the 14th. I sold 7 books the first day. One book the second day and 2 books the third day (UK and Australia).
I also attempted to do a Facebook boost thing on the 14th, and was declined because my ad had too much text. I changed the ad and resubmitted on the 15th, and it was declined again because it had too much text. I said 'fuck it' on the 16th and tried to boost a post with just my book cover - that one went through. It was boosted on the 16th and the 17th for a cost of $20. During that time, I 'reached' 1386 people and 39 'engagements', and sold an additional 4 books which netted me another $2.80.
Additionally, I hit Twitter and FB pretty hard with posts and status updates about the sale. Not sure if any of that worked, or I just annoyed people.
One unexpected benefit? I received a new 5-star review, which is nice.
I am running a Kindle Countdown Deal for Accidental Death starting this Wednesday. It will be 99 cents through Saturday - just like Dying Embers' Deal. I will be doing another Facebook boost (now that I know what works) but maybe for a little more money. I won't be doing another Omnimystery ad. Not sure if it was that cost-effective - especially considering my ad was so far down the bar readers had to scroll past the end of the page text to see it. (I don't know about you, but I don't scroll past page text to look at ads.) I will be contacting ReadCheaply for another ad there - if it remains free, why not*?
If you know of any sites where I could do an ad that don't require a lead time and a panel of people to approve the ad, let me know. Oh, and that don't cost necessary body parts. I can't justify pricey ads for low priced books to my CFO - not yet anyway.
Any questions? Anything to add?
*Apparently at ReadCheaply, an author can only do one ad every 30 days - even if the books in question are different. Hmphf. Well, fark. Too late to change any of this now. :shrug:
Interesting info. You know I suck at marketing so no advice from me. Sorry. :( Some of the people on the self-publish loop have mentioned AskDavid.com. I have the site penciled in on my white board to check out but haven't done so yet. I don't remember the details. Again, sorry. Deadline brain.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'm putting it out there just in case anyone might find it interesting. I think we all suck at marketing - even those of us bred to the skill. I'll have to look at that site. Never heard of it. No prob. Deadline brain eats us all.
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