Skip to main content

Five myths about promo sites



Recently I asked for a featured Bookbub deal for one of my books. I got response that my book should be free priced and my expense would be 230 dollars. This is really funny, because I could expect people grab my book for free and give me one star (as it happens when books are available for everyone). To pay such amount of money would be waste and without a purpose.

I am mix of traditional and indie author. Having a publisher, but not bestseller books, I am looking for ways to increase my book sales.

Promo sites like Bookbub are very expensive and they offer their deals for 25% books from authors who applied for this. I had an insight to author's books who grabbed Bookbub deals. It works will authors who are already selling a good amount of their books.

In general, promo sites are not working for favor of indie authors.



These are five myths about promo sites:

Promo sites give many readers.

It is not true, because you will get visibility and many trolls, but not readers.

Promo sites justify my investment and give profit. 

In promo sites, you must offer a half price of your book for a bargain sale. When Kindle cut off your royalties and taxes  grab their part, you will get zero.

Promo sites are ways to get many reviews. 

Yes, you can get ratings and some reviews, but not many. Mostly you can get ratings without explanations.

Promo sites sell paperbacks. 

You can sell e-books and get KENP reads, but selling paperbacks is something else. When someone sees promo offer 0.99c, that person will hardly buy a paperback version.

Promo sites will push books on top lists. 

Yes, you can get your book between first 100 free books downloaded, but this is short time, and for a day everyone will forget this.


Then, how to sell books? Every indie author must accept reality, a small number of sold books. If you don't trust promo sites, it will save your money. Promo sites are like gambling hall, you can invest money and lose or get small profit. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should we respond to negative reviews?

Recently I had a discussion in my social media about negative ratings. There was a situation in Goodreads, where I got two negative reviews on my two books. The point was in the way how the ratings were set up. First rating for my book "Body in the waves" was placed under 5-star review from another reviewer. While the reviewer praising my book, the troll came under to say "This is really bad book." Second rating was described as " Poor author needs writing lessons." Both reviews broke standards of reviewing, because there is no visible evidence that book was downloaded in Kindle unlimited or purchased. It was a clear troll act from a new page, without a profile photo and with a nickname. I reported this to Goodreads and they responded me they are processing this. Meanwhile, I heard from other authors that Goodreads failed to do anything about trolling.  In these terms, Goodreads should delete such profiles and forbid the access because of breaking rules. T...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why the refund is damaging indie authors?

I understand someone can be disappointed with a book. It is like I was disapointed with my trousers online and returned it. What makes a difference, my trousers were 40 euros. The book was 2.49 cents. This makes return funny, because what can you do with this money? Some readers don't understand story behind the refund. The author will get minus royalties. - 0.13 c in my Kindle report, that will vanish when someone else buy the book. The situation happens. Someone accidentaly clicked and bought a book. A random customer wants a refund. Maybe it was not a random move. Maybe the customer clicked, bought and did not like the book. When you don't like the book choose another options, instead of damaging authors. Write a negative review. Write negative one star rating. Don't purchase another books from this author. Or, maybe to reconsider and read it, again? If you write negative reviews or rate it with 1 or 2 stars, you are making a favor to authors. You are moving algorithms i...
Post a Comment
Read more