Direct email contact is the most sure way to get in front of potential readers. But how do you achieve it? One way is to build your own list of interested opt-in subscribers that you administer through an online application like Mailchimp or Constant Contact, through your friends and contacts, through your website and blog, through building social media contacts, and through encouraging visitors at your events to sign-up for your list. I’ve been working on mine since 2008. It’s a great list, but it has only 5500 subscribers. The most important thing you can do with this list once you’ve built it is NOT EMAIL IT. The fastest way to get unsubscribes is to bombard your list every week (God forbid every day) with stuff from you about your books. I have kept my list intact by emailing only 2-3 times per year, when I am announcing a new release. Any other news that I hope they’ll care about I include in one of those releases. This has been critical for me: it’s a way to reach thousands of people who care about my books and/or me when I want them to consider one of my new books.
Another way to achieve email contact is to buy a list. This idea doesn’t generally work, though. These people don’t have any connection to you, and often resent their contact information being sold.
Yet another is to run a promotion through a site with a large email following. BookBub is a great example of how effective this can be. It’s pricey, though—currently $750 to promote a 99 cent discount to their 2,350,000 subscribers— and they accept only about 20% of the applications they receive. They’ve picked my books They’ve picked my books six times in the last 15 months, and it’s wonderful, but they’ve turned me down more times than they’ve picked me. Bookbub is just one of many promo sites, but they’re currently the best. http://bookbub.com. Others I currently use frequently because of their great emailing lists: BookSends, Kindle Nation Daily, FreeBooksy, OHFB, and Books Butterfly. I was actually shocked at how effective my most recent Books Butterfly promotion was, and they’re a new addition to my “best of the web” promo sites list.
The last way is “free,” but it requires hard work and savvy, and that’s to get the sales sites to do your promotion for you, to their email lists. If you’re on the short list for advertising expenditures with a giant publishing company, this is a shoo-in. If you’re not at the top of their heap, you don’t get it because you ask for it or pay for it. You have to position yourself for their selection. One such way is the Kindle Daily Deal. Supposedly this is also something big pub can and does ask for. The rest of us haven’t figured out how to talk to humans at Amazon. But it’s a one-day 99 cent (usually) promotion of an ebook handpicked by Amazon. I think it goes without saying that this book is normally a well-reviewed book with a super cover that they expect to sell like gangbusters.
But there’s another way to show up on their lists, and it’s a list TAILORED to you, and that’s to put your next novel up two to three months before it’s due to be released, as a pre-order on Amazon. Check out this amazing email that Amazon sent to its customers last week, about the pre-order for my next novel, especially the text boxed in red.
Holy Mother Goose and Grimm, right? They actually send these out. Ever heard the expression from popular advertisements of lotteries, “You can’t win if you don’t play?” Well, yeah. That’s how it works with Amazon emails about pre-orders, too. Now, if only five souls have downloaded your books on Kindle, this won’t mean much, but t’s still better than nothing. If you’ve sold books to someone on Kindle in the past, Amazon knows who they are and has their email address, and they’re willing to send them an email about you and you alone to encourage them to buy your books again. YOU don’t have access to those emails. YOU don’t know who those people are. The only entity in the world capable of reaching them is Amazon. And that is why I am recommending that you absolutely, positively do not fail to put your novels up for pre-order on all sites. Not all of them do this, but there’s cross-over interest on other sites when these emails get forwarded, or when they go to someone who’d prefer to buy on Nook next time, etc.
Some of the people on Amazon’s “Pamela Fagan Hutchins” list are on mine, too, and/or they’re on BookBub or Books Butterfly or some other promo site as well. And guess what? That means they may hear about your book two or three times during your promotional push for your new release. And it takes most people multiple exposures to your book before they act, if they ever will. This early shot across the bow by Amazon sets your new release email to your opt in subscriber list and your first big promo with someone like Books Butterfly up for even greater success.
I’m putting Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on my holiday gift basket list for next year. That email about went out last week to, oh, about 500,000 people. Squee! (You can reserve a pre-order copy of the e-book version of Heaven to Betsy (Emily #1), a Katie & Annalise spin-off mystery series, anywhere online, if you want. Like Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Apple iBooks, Google Play, Kobo, or Smashwords.)
And you can get tips like this and more in the JUST UPDATED (January 2015) What Kind of Loser Indie Publishes, and How Can I Be One, Too? ebook. If you purchased it previously, just update your books on your device to get the latest version.
Pamela
Pamela Fagan Hutchins writes award-winning and bestselling romantic mysteries 
and hilarious nonfiction, chairs the board of the Houston Writers Guild, and dabbles in employment law and human resources investigations from time to time. She is passionate about great writing, smart authorpreneurship, and her two household hunks, husband Eric and one-eyed Boston terrier Petey. She blogs on writing, publishing and promotion at Skip the Jack and on her beleaguered family, and much-too-personal life at Road to Joy. She also leaps medium-tall buildings in a single bound (if she gets a good running start). Check out her USA Best Book Award winning new novel, Going for Kona, available now, everywhere.
Hi, Pamela. I love reading your blog and all the wonderful advice for fellow Indie authors. 🙂 I was just wondering if you would elaborate a little on your experience with Books Butterfly. I have seen them floating around, heard bits and pieces about them, but to be honest, their website doesn’t really inspire confidence.
Particularly, I was wondering what type of slot you used (paid/free, etc), whether the numbers were anything like their expected projections, and whether you made your money back.
Thanks a lot for all the great info!
Kate, I am 100% with you on their website. They aren’t cheap either. But their results for me were on par/slightly better than with OHFB, BookSends, FK Book and Tips, Kindle Nation Daily and FreeBooksy, and the price in the same range. I promoted my permafree book, and I paid a flat fee of $79 for and then paid per my download delta on the 1-day promotion (they actually promote you on two separate days, however, I discovered, and you pay on both for the delta), which we did on the honor system. My husband tracks my downloads and sales every morning so we had great data. Before I share that with you, let me show you the kind of data they provided me in a personal email from Ahbi Singh:
***
Hi Pamela
These are results
Could you please let me know downloads above normal daily average for 23rd and 24th. So I can send you an invoice.
Day 1 (23rd): #230 to #126.
Day 2 (24th): #139 to #113.
Best Rank:
Best Rank :
(4:40 am, Sunday, Jan 25 PST ) #113
#4 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#6 in Mystery > Cozy
Sales Rank Proof Page (if you want to share your sales rank): http://pageworm.com/smallrank/saving-grace-katie–annalise-book-1-2015-01-24-B009FZPMFO/
Detailed Sales Rank Tracking:
B009FZPMFO Title:Saving Grace (Katie & Annalise Book 1)
Author: Pamela Fagan Hutchins
Genres:Cozy, Mystery, Literature & Fiction, Romantic Suspense, Suspense, Ghosts
Rated: 4.4 stars on 985 reviews.
Pages: 280
Price: Free [Drop from 2.99]
Sales Rank Change: #230 to #113
Rank when Mentioned :
(1:20 pm, Friday, Jan 23 PST ) #230
#6 in Mystery > Cozy
Best Rank :
(4:40 am, Sunday, Jan 25 PST ) #113
#4 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#6 in Mystery > Cozy
Latest Rank :
(5:41 am, Sunday, Jan 25 PST ) #113
#4 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#6 in Mystery > Cozy
[-]Collaps Sales Rank Details
Complete Sales Rank History (New Tab)
5 minutes After:
(1:20 pm, Friday, Jan 23 PST ) #230
#6 in Mystery > Cozy
6 minutes After:
(1:20 pm, Friday, Jan 23 PST ) #230
#6 in Mystery > Cozy
25 minutes After:
(1:40 pm, Friday, Jan 23 PST ) #230
#6 in Mystery > Cozy
1 hours After:
(2:40 pm, Friday, Jan 23 PST ) #236
#6 in Mystery > Cozy
2 hours After:
(3:40 pm, Friday, Jan 23 PST ) #236
#6 in Mystery > Cozy
3 hours After:
(4:40 pm, Friday, Jan 23 PST ) #251
#6 in Mystery > Cozy
4 hours After:
(5:40 pm, Friday, Jan 23 PST ) #244
#6 in Mystery > Cozy
5 hours After:
(6:40 pm, Friday, Jan 23 PST ) #182
#4 in Mystery > Cozy
6 hours After:
(7:40 pm, Friday, Jan 23 PST ) #182
#4 in Mystery > Cozy
7 hours After:
(8:40 pm, Friday, Jan 23 PST ) #179
#4 in Mystery > Cozy
8 hours After:
(9:40 pm, Friday, Jan 23 PST ) #179
#4 in Mystery > Cozy
9 hours After:
(10:40 pm, Friday, Jan 23 PST ) #171
#4 in Mystery > Cozy
10 hours After:
(11:40 pm, Friday, Jan 23 PST ) #153
#4 in Mystery > Cozy
10 hours After:
(12:05 am, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #153
11 hours After:
(12:40 am, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #153
#4 in Mystery > Cozy
12 hours After:
(1:40 am, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #154
#4 in Mystery > Cozy
13 hours After:
(2:40 am, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #144
#4 in Mystery > Cozy
14 hours After:
(3:40 am, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #144
#4 in Mystery > Cozy
15 hours After:
(4:40 am, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #136
#3 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
16 hours After:
(5:40 am, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #135
#3 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
17 hours After:
(6:40 am, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #135
#3 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
18 hours After:
(7:40 am, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #134
#3 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#4 in Mystery > Cozy
19 hours After:
(8:41 am, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #134
#3 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#4 in Mystery > Cozy
20 hours After:
(9:40 am, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #133
#3 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#4 in Mystery > Cozy
21 hours After:
(10:40 am, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #133
#3 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#4 in Mystery > Cozy
22 hours After:
(11:40 am, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #126
#3 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#4 in Mystery > Cozy
23 hours After:
(12:40 pm, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #137
#4 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#4 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(1:40 pm, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #139
#5 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(2:20 pm, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #139
#5 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(2:22 pm, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #139
#5 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(2:40 pm, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #139
#5 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(3:40 pm, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #147
#5 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#5 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(4:42 pm, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #147
#5 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#5 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(5:40 pm, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #152
#5 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#7 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(6:40 pm, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #152
#5 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#7 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(7:40 pm, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #154
#5 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#7 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(8:41 pm, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #156
#5 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#7 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(9:40 pm, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #156
#5 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#7 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(10:40 pm, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #153
#5 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#7 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(11:41 pm, Saturday, Jan 24 PST ) #150
#5 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#7 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(12:40 am, Sunday, Jan 25 PST ) #150
#5 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#7 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(1:41 am, Sunday, Jan 25 PST ) #141
#5 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#7 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(2:40 am, Sunday, Jan 25 PST ) #126
#4 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#6 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(3:41 am, Sunday, Jan 25 PST ) #126
#4 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#6 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(4:40 am, Sunday, Jan 25 PST ) #113
#4 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#6 in Mystery > Cozy
1 days After:
(5:41 am, Sunday, Jan 25 PST ) #113
#4 in Mystery & Suspense > Mystery
#6 in Mystery > Cozy
***
Nice, huh? Here’s some more of this conversation, because it’s informative about Books Butterfly:
***
Hi Abhi. Normal daily average is 490 since it went permafree June 2014—we track it every day! On the 23rd, the downloads were 953 and on the 24th they were 1038.
23rd delta: 953-490= 460
24th delta: 1038-490=548
Thanks so much we were thrilled with the results.
Pamela
***
That’s great Pamela. My only regret is we couldn’t push it into the Top 100.
I’ll send you an invoice.
thanks
Abhi Singh (Books Butterfly)
***
You were very close. If I’d run a better promotion last week and gave you a better starting rank, you would have. Next time 🙂
You guys will do promos on a book once every 6 months, right?
If so, I’ll calendar to get in touch with you in 5 months or so.
Pamela
***
Yes, every 6 months.
If you like i can schedule you on the Calendar now and send you an invoice dated for July so you don’t have to pay it until July.
Also, in case we change prices (though unlikely) please note that prices are locked-in for repeat customers. So you’d always have the option of $5 for every 100 delta in your downloads.
***
Punchline, I paid an additional $50 for a total of $129. I pay $135 for BookSends, $100 for FreeBooksy and OHFB, $99 minimum for Kindle Nation Daily and up to $200 on FKBooks and Tips.
I consider $75 to $150 a good price to pay to generate in the 1000 free download range for Kindle. Of course, I pay $250 for Bookbub and generate 100 times that, but then there’s no one else like BookBub.
I have found that I need to promote my permafree book continuously to keep the rankings and number of downloads up. If those numbers stay up, the paid sales inevitably follow. The only time that ratio doesn’t move in exactly the same manner (on a delayed basis, after the people that are going to read my permafree book have had time to read it and decide whether to buy other books of mine) is when I change a price or add a book to my paid roster. So Books Butterfly is generating the same quality downloader-to-purchaser ratio as do the other promo sites.
There aren’t enough high quality paid sites for me to advertise with every week due to the fact that the good ones won’t run the same book overly often, and I only run one of my books permafree. So, while Books Butterfly is a little higher than some of the others, it was in the range I’m seeking and the results were great. Actually, my husband said this time it beat everyone but BookBub. And Abhi gives it a personal touch that makes it different than working with other sites who keep you at arm’s length.
And his website sucks :). Abhi, if you’re reading this, my only quibble with you is your landing page.
Pamela
Wow, that’s amazing. Thanks for all the great information! One more question: The sales rank proof page– is that generated from your husband’s amazing tracking data, or is it something that any of us can pull up? I’ve never seen such a detailed report before.
That was all Ahbi. He generated it and sent it to me. It jibed with our data as my husband tracked it intermittently, but was more comprehensive. Amazing huh?
Oh, wow. Wonder if he’s got some neat program to do that. It kind of rocks.
Thanks for answering all my questions! 🙂