Being an indie author, I don't have the power of a traditional publisher's PR machine behind me. No book tours, no review in the New York Times, no nothing. That being the case, marketing and promotion is of singular importance with respect to my writing. Thus, I've put a little effort (and money) into promoting my work, as noted below.
Goodkindles
First, I turned to Goodkindles. This is a site whereby - for a minimum of $7 - you can submit your Kindle ebook and have it promoted on their webpage. Goodkindles bills itself as a place "[w]here writers meet readers" and states that they have "large and rapidly growing traffic." From what my research reveals, the site gets about 1000 - 2000 visitors per day.
The Pros: Submission is easy and your ad can get aproved in just a few hours. In addition, it gets listed at the top of the Goodkindles homepage (and apparently stays there until the next ad gets approved and knocks you down into the second slot). They also promote your book via their Facebook page, Twitter account, and daily newsletter. Finally, your ad stays on the site permanently, remaining searchable by category and appearing in widgets.
The cons: I'm not sure how much value the ad retains after you get knocked out of the top slot on the homepage (and there's no guarantee of how long your book will sit there). Moreover, I'm concerned that the number of visitors isn't high enough to translate into noticeable sales. By way of example, if the site gets 1500 visitors per day, that translates into roughly 63 per hour (just slightly more than 1 per minute). Of those, how many will be interested in books in my genre? And how many will actually see my ad - especially if it slips out of the top spot or off the homepage?
In short, I think Goodkindles has a few positives, but it's difficult to determine whether they really merit your time and money since you don't receive any metrics. (It would be great if the site sent you a report that maybe stated how many visitors the homepage got while your ad was in the top slot, while your ad was on the homepage, etc.) I can't say that they didn't deliver what they promised, but until they can offer some quantifiable results I probably won't use them again. Still, for anyone interested, you can check out the site here.
Erotica Every Day
Erotica Every Day is a site that focuses on free and bargain erotica/romance books on Kindle. This one was simple and straightforward: it's free to advertise there - whether your ebook is being offered for free or not. (And it's hard to argue with free.) You just fill out a form and you're done. For those interested, you can check out the site here. And did I mention that it's free?
(Whew! Writing this took a lot longer than I thought. I had also planned to discuss my ads on Goodreads, but that one will probably get its own post.)
No comments:
Post a Comment