Amber Argyle

Book Promotion Sites: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

Posted by amberargyle at 11:14 AM Monday, March 30, 2015

If you learn nothing else, learn this: Bookbub rocks!

As in, life changing, book changing rocks. They're hard to get into: Read their requirements page and their tip page. Be flexible. In their comments box, mention other genre lists you'd be willing to be on.

And don't give up! If they reject your promotion, try a different book/boxset or a different price point.

Ereader news today

· Alexa=27,773

· $15

· Love them—subbed Winter Queen

Read Cheaply

Free!
Subbed WQ

Midlist

· Alexa=61,934

· Free listing for permafree books (subbed Winter Queen)

· To be sponsored is $100--not sure about this feature.

Free kindle books and tips

· Alexa=108,200

· $25

150,000+ people via an e-Ink Kindle subscription, email or social media subscription, or directly on the blog’s website, or via an RSS reader.
Susan Quinn says they are great, but work best with free books.
Subbed WQ

Digital Book Today

· Alexa=62,471

· Free listing for permafree books. (subbed Witch Song, saw no sales spike whatsoever)

Booksends: tried it for Witch Born

Priced it out at 2.99 (down from 6.99)
Total waste of money. $40 and I sold 3 ebooks on Amazon the day of the ad.
Though it might work better with a lower price point.

The Fussy Librarian

Waste of money

Free/Bargain Booksy

Alexa=124,291
50,000 subscribers
Listed on website
Rachel Morgan said it didn’t help her much
Susan Quinn says Freebooksy is better
*update 1-2-15* I tried their Series Promotion (Witch Song) for $200. I saw a nice bump the day of the ad (1054 units which tapered to 242, 118, 60, 92 per day after). So far my sales of the rest of the series haven't bumped up. So the downloads are there, but the ROI isn't (they claim this is a long term idea, so I'm still hoping).

One hundred free books

· Alexa=12,889

· 28,000 email subscribers

· Free listing for permafree books. (subbed WS)

· $75

book bassett

· Alexa=235,138

· They feature up to 5 of an author’s books, which I think is cool. Subbed my novels.

· 21.99

Kindle Nation daily

Alexa=20,889
169,00 Kindle owners every day via web posts, email blasts, Facebook, and Twitter
37,000 opt-in email or Kindle edition subscribers.
Options ranging from $100-150
Free pop over to bookgorilla (alexa=63,610)
IMO, they’re overpriced for the small bump they give you, but Heather Moore loves them.

Books Butterfly

*Full disclosure* They contacted me and asked to be listed here. I agreed if they would run my book so I could test their results.
0.99 book and free book promotions
prorated refund in case a promotion does not hit the specified targets
I ran the "Pure Silver" slot, which guaranteed 300+ downloads over 3 days. I had 262 downloads. If I had paid for the ad, I could have had a prorated rate.
My ranking went straight back to normal on the 5th day.

Many Books

*disclosure* They offered me a free $25 slot if I posted my results here.
Increased downloads by ~200. Downloads went back to normal after the 2nd day. The sales of my paid books actually dropped.
110,000 subscribers

*10-3-16 Note

I ran another ad with them for Witch Song and saw a spike of 80 additional downloads from the day before.

Bookbarbarian

These guys have become one of my go to's for all my books. If you write fantasy, they're great!

BKnights

Cheap, super effective, fast delivery. Love them.

This data is from my own personal experience along with a few others. You're results may differ. And if you have tried one of these, I'd love to know your results in the comments!

Tweetable:

#BookMarketing #tips via @amberargyle. Marketing sites: which ones work and which ones are a waste of time. http://goo.gl/JVTmFo #promotip

What I hate about being an indie author.

Posted by amberargyle at 10:44 PM Thursday, March 19, 2015

Don't get me wrong. I love being an indie author (most days). No one cares as much about my work as me, and I get to make sure everything is top notch. And honestly, I'm good at what I do, from writing books to cover design.

But that doesn't mean I love everything. So here's a list of five things I hate about being an indie author (not in order).

1. I hate being a business woman. I love writing stories and designing covers. I hate doing taxes, cataloging inventory, tracking expenses, upkeeping my novels, and answering emails. The list goes on and on. I'm a small business owner, and I have all the work that comes with it.

2. I dislike marketing. Though I'd say I have it pretty streamlined, it's still a lot of time and money. Time I'd rather spend on writing new stories. Money I'd rather spend on a fun vacation.

3. I hate feeling like a second-class citizen in the publishing world. I get it, there are no gatekeepers to indie publishing. And much of it isn't very good. But I am good. Many of us are. I get tired of being told I can't teach the craft of writing at a writer's conference, that I need to stick with stuff specific to indies. Or that I can't be on the blog hop with the "traditionally" published authors because there were too many complaints (not by participants, but by the traditionally published authors themselves ((But don't worry. We'll give you indies your own "special" team)). Or being told that the difference between indie publishing and traditional publishing is quality.

4. I hate NEVER being done. I have a huge to do list, and I usually only skim the top. I'm always behind, always feeling like I'm drowning in an attempt to keep up.

5. I hate never knowing what my paycheck will be. This has a huge upside, as there is no ceiling for me. But there's no bottom either. When Amazon introduced Kindle Unlimited, my paycheck dropped by half. Which sucked, cause for a while there, I was making a lot of money.

I still wouldn't change anything. I like being in charge. I love being able to put the best covers on my books and hire amazing content and copy editors, instead of being stuck with whatever the publisher thinks my book deserves. I love that I can make a living at this. That I can create my own schedule.

*technically, I'm a hybrid author, as my first book was traditionally published. But I consider myself an indie author.

Tweetable
#Bestselling #IndieAuthor @AmberArgyle dishes on what she hates about #SelfPublishing http://goo.gl/zbB3jF #WritersLIfe #IndiePub #RT