u/BlakeLoch

Hi everyone! I released my debut novel about six months ago and keep meaning to make a comprehensive post about everything I learned, but that will still have to wait. For now, I wanted to share the results of my KDP Countdown email newsletter promotions. I know many have shared their data before, but my book is not genre fiction, so I thought others who write literary fiction, or novels that don’t fit neatly into labels might find this useful.

Also note, every time, my book was marked down to $0.99 for these promotions.

(I know the predominant advice on this sub is to wait until you have multiple books, but I had to at least try.)

So, on the first round I already made the mistake of thinking promo stack, meant to stack them all on one day, and even worse, I picked a Saturday. Suffice to say, my initial stack of

• BargainBooksy (literary fiction) – Cost $30
• Fussy Librarian (literary fiction) – Cost $16
• Booksends + eReaderIq (literary fiction) – Cost $30
• BookCave (general fiction) – Cost $28

Netted me a whopping 7 sales and a KENP read or two. But since I’d stacked them all together, I had no idea where they’d come from. So don’t make the same mistake I made, especially on your first promo run, space them out so you can get a general idea of which ones work for your book.

Also important, my number of Amazon reviews did not change much from promotion to promotion, which makes the data a bit more interesting.

This was the next promo stack I did:

• Monday, Bargainbooksy (literary fiction) – Cost $30 – 0 sales - They did give me a coupon for a free mystery slot because of poor results.
• Tuesday, Fussylibrarian (literary fiction + mystery) – Cost $34 - 7 sales
• Wednesday, Booksends + eReaderIQ (literary fiction) – Cost $30 – 8 Sales
• Thursday, Awesomegang – Cost $10 – 1 Sale

This stack actually let me hit the top 100 in contemporary literary fiction which was exciting even if it only lasted for an afternoon.

And now, my current promo stack from this week, my book is still currently on deal, but I doubt many more sales will be coming from the newsletters, but this is the results.

• Tuesday, Bargain Book Mystery – (Cost $70, but used coupon) – 6 Sales
• Wednesday, Book Cave – Cost $28 – 2 Sales
• Thursday, Bookraid – Cost per click (16 clicks, so 3.20) - 2 Sales

So, all in all, after multiple rounds, I’ve sold 33 copies and maybe around 3 to 4 KENP reads, using these services. For genre blending literary fiction, I’m not too disappointed by the results, but still obviously would’ve liked for a bit more. Safe to say, I probably won’t be using Bargainbooksy again, despite their good customer service.

Obviously if I had read-throughs to other books, these services would be more worth it (fingers crossed, book two should be off to the editor soon), but I think if you set your expectations right, for some people the cost can still be worth it just to see a few early sales as a debut nobody. Just knowing some people were reading helped me to keep going and keep pushing.

I’m probably going to chill out on the promos for a while, but if I do run another stack, think Booksends, Fussylibrarian, and eReaderIQ are where it’s at for cost-to-value, and Bookraids is actually pretty neat with their cost per click model.

Hopefully this data can help others decide if promo stacks are worth it for their non-genre fiction.

Hi everyone! I released my debut novel six months ago and keep meaning to make a comprehensive post about everything I learned, but that will still have to wait. For now, I wanted to share the results of my KDP Countdown email newsletter promotions. I know many have shared their data before, but my book is not genre fiction, so I thought others who write literary fiction, or novels that don’t fit neatly into labels might find this useful.

Also note, every time, my book was marked down to $0.99 for these promotions.

(I know the predominant advice on this sub is to wait until you have multiple books, but I had to at least try.)

So, on the first round I already made the mistake of thinking promo stack, meant to stack them all on one day, and even worse, I picked a Saturday. Suffice to say, my initial stack of

• BargainBooksy (literary fiction) – Cost $30
• Fussy Librarian (literary fiction) – Cost $16
• Booksends + eReaderIq (literary fiction) – Cost $30
• BookCave (general fiction) – Cost $28

Netted me a whopping 7 sales and a KENP read or two. But since I’d stacked them all together, I had no idea where they’d come from. So don’t make the same mistake I made, especially on your first promo run, space them out so you can get a general idea of which ones work for your book.

Also important, my number of Amazon reviews did not change much from promotion to promotion, which makes the data a bit more interesting.

This was the next promo stack I did:

• Monday, Bargainbooksy (literary fiction) – Cost $30 – 0 sales - They did give me a coupon for a free mystery slot because of poor results.
• Tuesday, Fussylibrarian (literary fiction + mystery) – Cost $34 - 7 sales
• Wednesday, Booksends + eReaderIQ (literary fiction) – Cost $30 – 8 Sales
• Thursday, Awesomegang – Cost $10 – 1 Sale

This stack actually let me hit the top 100 in contemporary literary fiction which was exciting even if it only lasted for an afternoon.

And now, my current promo stack from this week, my book is still currently on deal, but I doubt many more sales will be coming from the newsletters, but this is the results.

• Tuesday, Bargain Book Mystery – (Cost $70, but used coupon) – 6 Sales
• Wednesday, Book Cave – Cost $28 – 2 Sales
• Thursday, Bookraid – Cost per click (16 clicks, so 3.20) - 2 Sales

So, all in all, after multiple rounds, I’ve sold 33 copies and maybe around 3 to 4 KENP reads, using these services. For genre blending literary fiction, I’m not too disappointed by the results, but still obviously would’ve liked for a bit more. Safe to say, I probably won’t be using Bargainbooksy again, despite their good customer service.

Obviously if I had read-throughs to other books, these services would be more worth it (fingers crossed, book two should be off to the editor soon), but I think if you set your expectations right, for some people the cost can still be worth it just to see a few early sales as a debut nobody. Just knowing some people were reading helped me to keep going and keep pushing.

I’m probably going to chill out on the promos for a while, but if I do run another stack, think Booksends, Fussylibrarian, and eReaderIQ are where it’s at for cost-to-value, and Bookraids is actually pretty neat with their cost per click model.

Hopefully this data can help others decide if promo stacks are worth it for their non-genre fiction.

Hi everyone! I released my debut novel six months ago and keep meaning to make a comprehensive post about everything I learned, but that will still have to wait. For now, I wanted to share the results of my KDP Countdown email newsletter promotions. I know many have shared their data before, but my book is not genre fiction, so I thought others who write literary fiction, or novels that don’t fit neatly into labels might find this useful.

Also note, every time, my book was marked down to $0.99 for these promotions.

(I know the predominant advice on this sub is to wait until you have multiple books, but I had to at least try.)

So, on the first round I already made the mistake of thinking promo stack, meant to stack them all on one day, and even worse, I picked a Saturday. Suffice to say, my initial stack of

• BargainBooksy (literary fiction) – Cost $30
• Fussy Librarian (literary fiction) – Cost $16
• Booksends + eReaderIq (literary fiction) – Cost $30
• BookCave (general fiction) – Cost $28

Netted me a whopping 7 sales and a KENP read or two. But since I’d stacked them all together, I had no idea where they’d come from. So don’t make the same mistake I made, especially on your first promo run, space them out so you can get a general idea of which ones work for your book.

Also important, my number of Amazon reviews did not change much from promotion to promotion, which makes the data a bit more interesting.

This was the next promo stack I did:

• Monday, Bargainbooksy (literary fiction) – Cost $30 – 0 sales - They did give me a coupon for a free mystery slot because of poor results.
• Tuesday, Fussylibrarian (literary fiction + mystery) – Cost $34 - 7 sales
• Wednesday, Booksends + eReaderIQ (literary fiction) – Cost $30 – 8 Sales
• Thursday, Awesomegang – Cost $10 – 1 Sale

This stack actually let me hit the top 100 in contemporary literary fiction which was exciting even if it only lasted for an afternoon.

And now, my current promo stack from this week, my book is still currently on deal, but I doubt many more sales will be coming from the newsletters, but this is the results.

• Tuesday, Bargain Book Mystery – (Cost $70, but used coupon) – 6 Sales
• Wednesday, Book Cave – Cost $28 – 2 Sales
• Thursday, Bookraid – Cost per click (16 clicks, so 3.20) - 2 Sales

So, all in all, after multiple rounds, I’ve sold 33 copies and maybe around 3 to 4 KENP reads, using these services. For genre blending literary fiction, I’m not too disappointed by the results, but still obviously would’ve liked for a bit more. Safe to say, I probably won’t be using Bargainbooksy again, despite their good customer service.

Obviously if I had read-throughs to other books, these services would be more worth it (fingers crossed, book two should be off to the editor soon), but I think if you set your expectations right, for some people the cost can still be worth it just to see a few early sales as a debut nobody. Just knowing some people were reading helped me to keep going and keep pushing.

I’m probably going to chill out on the promos for a while, but if I do run another stack, think Booksends, Fussylibrarian, and eReaderIQ are where it’s at for cost-to-value, and Bookraids is actually pretty neat with their cost per click model.

Hopefully this data can help others decide if promo stacks are worth it for their non-genre fiction.