"What Did We Do Wrong?" Why Book Promotion Sites Fail
I recently received an email from a book promotion site with the subject line, "What did we do wrong?" The email went on to say, "Lately, we've noticed participation in our promotions has slowed." As I read on, I got to the survey link. I'm not going to name the site, but kudos are in order for asking authors why they're not buying promos like they used to.
I have no data to back this up, but I suspect that all promo sites' business is down from what it used to be. Because promos just don't work. Yes, you will find the outlier; the author whose promotion resulted in 2,000 sales, but authors would do well to ignore those testimonials. First of all, are they real? I have my doubts. Authors like me have learned (through spending too many $$) not to rely on these sites for sales.
This particular site offers all kinds of promotions, from social media to newsletter signups to Goodreads ads. Rather than focusing on one thing and doing it well, it tries to be everything to everybody. If social media posts actually worked, I'd be a millionaire. I've never sold one book via social media, and I gave it my all.
The sad truth is, people want freebies, not necessarily to read, but to collect. FreeBooksy works great for me; I netted more than 1,000 downloads once and several hundred from subsequent promotions. Where did that get me? Nowhere. Not even one stinkin' review. The promotion sites that issue newsletters are only successful in that, yes, people will gobble up the free books, but one priced at $1.99 or even 99 cents is a no-go.
Here's a look at my past results:
| SITE | COST | RESULTS |
| AuthorsXP | $45.00 | 730 pages previously; nothing from this promotion |
| BookRaid | varies | 3? |
| FreeBooksy | $60.00 | 1,275 |
| FreeBooksy | $60.00 | 689 |
| FreeBooksy | $60.00 | 594 |
| BargainBooksy | $30.00 | 3 |
| eReaderIQ | $20.00 | 0 |
| It's Write Now | $10.00 | 0 |
| Awesome Gang | free | 0 |
| BookDoggy | $24.00 | 0 |
| LitNuts | $16.00 | 0 |
| DiscountBookMan | $10.00 | 0 |
| BookReaderMagazine | $10.00 | 0 |
| The Fussy Librarian | $16.50 | 0 |
| AuthorsXP | $20.00 | 0 |
| LitRing | $10.00 | 0 |
| The Kindle Book Review | $29.99 | 0 |
| Book Goodies | $25.00 | 0 |
| Crave Books | $45.00 | 0 |
| Just Kindle Books | $38.00 | 0 |
| Bknights | $13.55 | 0 |
| BookBub | $40.00 | 0 |
| AuthorsXP | $10.00 | 0 |
Tell me why I would ever spend money on these sites again.
"Well, your genre is the problem."
No. It's not. Granted, more people want romance or cozy mystery or fantasy, but it's a big wide world with a multitude of tastes, and many readers just want a good story.
Serious book buyers gravitate to places like BookBub, but BookBub is geared toward offering discounts on best sellers. An indie author can purchase a BookBub ad, and I've done it, but one has to bear in mind that they're competing with books by famous authors being offered at a steep discount. A couple recent examples:
There was a time I had limited success (very limited) with BookBub ads. These were for books other than my current novel. But when I tried an ad for Running From Herself, it was crickets. I made sure to choose good comp authors and I targeted specific regions and audience sets. Didn't matter. BookBub dangles ads out there in front of us, when it knows full well that its money is made from trade-published books. (And I don't mean to rag on David Gaughran, who I respect, but he's been guilty of pushing BookBub ads, too.)
And here's the Catch-22: In order to have any chance at all at a successful promotion, an author needs to discount their book or make it free. Now, free does nothing for my bottom line, and as I noted, it doesn't even result in reviews. If I instead reduce my book's price to 99 cents, I get a 35% royalty, which = 35 cents. With a rock bottom ad buy of, say $40.00, I would need to move 114 books just to break even. That's never happening.
Yes, I'm willing to give away my book to my blog readers. My blog readers are discerning people. But in the big picture, I'd really like to make some money from sales. I'd like to make some money from Kindle Unlimited page reads.
I can no longer afford to pay out dollars for zero return.
And that's what all the book promotion sites have served me up: ZERO
What's the answer? There isn't one. Sorry. Wait--word of mouth. Word of mouth works and it's free.
Good luck getting that.
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