There are tons of sites that will promote for you, but not all of them will give you much oomph. One that will is BookBlast, a site that routinely gives authors great results on their eBook promotions.
BookBlast's Home Page
I did a BookBlast ad on November 6 for my perma-free book, and just a few hours after the email went out I got about 250 extra downloads. Unfortunately I didn’t get a big boost in the rankings right away, and actually fell two spots. I think the algorithms were a bit slow when I started out.
What my BookBlast ad looked like on the site and in the email
When I began my rank at 2:30 AM was #2,275 and I had 295 ‘sales,’ or free giveaways if you will, for the month. That rank put me at #33 in the Epic Fantasy sub-category, which is the main category I always aim to place high in, within the Top 20 at least.
My BookBlast eBook Promo Results
The ad went out later that morning, around 11 AM or so. When I checked my sales at 1 PM I’d jumped all the way up to 439 for the month, or an increase of 144 sales. That might not seem like a lot to some, particularly those in more popular genres like mystery and romance, but I know from tracking my perma-free sales each day that it would have taken me a week or longer to get that many sales.
Unfortunately that did nothing to boost me in the Amazon rankings – I was still stubbornly showing up at #33 in Epic. What’s worse, by 6 PM I’d actually fallen to a rank of #2,420 overall even though my sales had gone up by 176 since I’d last checked, for 615 total sales for the month.
Now, they should have gone up. I should have had a big boost in the rankings, and I knew there was a problem. And I knew exactly what the problem was, too – it was the slow reporting and algorithm adjustments of Amazon itself. There was nothing I could do but wait it out.
By 7:30 PM the Amazon algorithms had finally kicked in and I got the boost I was looking for. I’d jumped to #611 overall and to #5 in Epic Fantasy. What’s more, I got onto the main Fantasy chart, coming in at #51, something I hadn’t expected at all.
My sales would continue to come in, and by 10 PM I’d gotten to 688 sales for the month, 393 more than I’d started with that morning. That put me at a rank of #547, the high point in my climb up the charts, and I got to #4 in Epic Fantasy and #50 in Fantasy. After that I started to fall, but I wasn’t too worried about it because the next day I had a Kindle Fire Department (KFD) promo scheduled.
Unfortunately that did nothing to boost me in the Amazon rankings – I was still stubbornly showing up at #33 in Epic. What’s worse, by 6 PM I’d actually fallen to a rank of #2,420 overall even though my sales had gone up by 176 since I’d last checked, for 615 total sales for the month.
Now, they should have gone up. I should have had a big boost in the rankings, and I knew there was a problem. And I knew exactly what the problem was, too – it was the slow reporting and algorithm adjustments of Amazon itself. There was nothing I could do but wait it out.
By 7:30 PM the Amazon algorithms had finally kicked in and I got the boost I was looking for. I’d jumped to #611 overall and to #5 in Epic Fantasy. What’s more, I got onto the main Fantasy chart, coming in at #51, something I hadn’t expected at all.
My sales would continue to come in, and by 10 PM I’d gotten to 688 sales for the month, 393 more than I’d started with that morning. That put me at a rank of #547, the high point in my climb up the charts, and I got to #4 in Epic Fantasy and #50 in Fantasy. After that I started to fall, but I wasn’t too worried about it because the next day I had a Kindle Fire Department (KFD) promo scheduled.
The Highest Rank I Achieved - #547 in Free
The BookBlast Ad Shot Me to #5 in Epic Fantasy
Reactions to My BookBlast Ad
Overall I think my BookBlast ad was $50 well spent. I saw no additional sales for Books 2 and 3 in the series at all during that day, but I know those will come over time. In fact, I expect my monthly sales of those other books in the series to double over the coming months.
How do I know this? Because I busted my balls over the past few months re-editing all three of those books so they’d be a lot better. My works’ paid off, too – sales have increased on those paid titles.
Another added benefit of my BookBlast ad was getting a whole new set of ‘Also Bought’ listings. Before I had several books that didn’t really appeal to my genre, fantasy. I’d done a promo with some other authors in August and lots of different readers bought the book, giving me things like romance and self-help books in my ‘Also Bought,’ which I didn’t want. After the ad, however, I had lots of great titles.
How do I know this? Because I busted my balls over the past few months re-editing all three of those books so they’d be a lot better. My works’ paid off, too – sales have increased on those paid titles.
Another added benefit of my BookBlast ad was getting a whole new set of ‘Also Bought’ listings. Before I had several books that didn’t really appeal to my genre, fantasy. I’d done a promo with some other authors in August and lots of different readers bought the book, giving me things like romance and self-help books in my ‘Also Bought,’ which I didn’t want. After the ad, however, I had lots of great titles.
Several Pages of New 'Also Boughts' Came My Way
I look forward to doing another BookBlast ad soon, although I’ll have to wait 30 days as they only allow one author one ad per month. And when I do another ad I think I’ll do it for a discounted book, perhaps one going for $0.99.
That means I could get fewer sales, but the people who buy it are much more likely to read it and hopefully leave reviews. I could get some reads and reviews for The Jongurian Mission, but the consensus is that most reviews for free books are bad.
This ad helped me give away a lot of my hard work for free, and I think it’ll do wonders for the work I charge for as well. I’d highly recommend you check out BookBlast and see what they can do for you!
That means I could get fewer sales, but the people who buy it are much more likely to read it and hopefully leave reviews. I could get some reads and reviews for The Jongurian Mission, but the consensus is that most reviews for free books are bad.
This ad helped me give away a lot of my hard work for free, and I think it’ll do wonders for the work I charge for as well. I’d highly recommend you check out BookBlast and see what they can do for you!
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