Use $85 and 3 Hours to Score 172% ROI & 8,841 eBook Downloads
7,021 Complimentary Downloads on Kindle...
Are you bewildered and overwhelmed with too many options in how to market and promote your book? I completely understand as I have been there! It is hard to sort through which ones are a waste of time and/or money.
While I have spent thousands of hours learning how to successfully execute sophisticated digital marketing campaigns for my books, I want to share one of my successes with you to help you leverage the blood, sweat, and tears I have spent to arrive at my current knowledge and expertise in digital marketing for books.
I chose to spend $85 USD to reach 210,000+ Business-focused Bookbub email subscribers offering my eBook Becoming Generation Flux free (normally $6.99). The email to Bookbub subscribers went out on July 16th, 2015, and I ran the complimentary download until July 31st.
Plus, I only spent a total of 3 hours of my time planning for this book marketing promotion.
While I have spent thousands of hours learning how to successfully execute sophisticated digital marketing campaigns for my books, I want to share one of my successes with you to help you leverage the blood, sweat, and tears I have spent to arrive at my current knowledge and expertise in digital marketing for books.
I chose to spend $85 USD to reach 210,000+ Business-focused Bookbub email subscribers offering my eBook Becoming Generation Flux free (normally $6.99). The email to Bookbub subscribers went out on July 16th, 2015, and I ran the complimentary download until July 31st.
Plus, I only spent a total of 3 hours of my time planning for this book marketing promotion.
Click "READ MORE to find out what happened next...
AND...
1,821 Complimentary Downloads on iTunes
8,841 Total Free Downloads with only 3 hours of work and a paltry $85 spent.
1,821 Complimentary Downloads on iTunes
8,841 Total Free Downloads with only 3 hours of work and a paltry $85 spent.
How My Book Promo Email Looked to BookBub.com Email Subscribers
Becoming Generation Flux Listing on BookBub.com Website
Not only did I connect with new readers of Becoming Generation Flux, I sold 3 paid Paperback books @ $5.72 USD royalty each, 14 paid eBooks @ $4.90 USD royalty each, and 33 Audiobooks @ $4.41 USD each during the free promo via BookBub.com.
Check out the book marketing sales graphs below showing my 172% Return on Investment.
You might be wondering about the eBooks I received payment for; these 14 paid eBook sales were from other countries on the Kindle platform where the eBook wasn't made free.
So I made $231.29 total for an investment of $85. I will take that any day of the week. Sweet success! Plus, that didn't count any sales from my other book Why Leadership Sucks, so you can see how having multiple books can dramatically increase the ROI of book marketing promotions.
Check out the book marketing sales graphs below showing my 172% Return on Investment.
You might be wondering about the eBooks I received payment for; these 14 paid eBook sales were from other countries on the Kindle platform where the eBook wasn't made free.
So I made $231.29 total for an investment of $85. I will take that any day of the week. Sweet success! Plus, that didn't count any sales from my other book Why Leadership Sucks, so you can see how having multiple books can dramatically increase the ROI of book marketing promotions.
Investment $85, Revenue $231.29, 172% ROI The Sweet Smell of Success...Priceless
Me, Oh My! Look At My Kindle PAID Book Sales Graph
And The Largest Increase in Sales...My Audiobook!
You might be saying, "Miles, you made money, but I have done similar promotions and only broke even or lost money." And that may be true on some book marketing promotions; heck, I have lost money on many of my marketing, but remember I am sharing one of my successes, so you can take it and hopefully make money too.
There are four key takeaways I have learned from many different book marketing promotions that aren't always apparent right on the surface.
1. Most ebook marketing promotions lose money on the first round of sales, especially in the case of free ebook promotion. So "break even" is not a bad proposition if I can provide enough value to customers who download my free ebook that they signup for my enewsletter, connect on Twitter or LinkedIn, or become a fan of my work, leading to future sales of books, courses, speaking engagements, etc. Keep in mind that my book marketing promotion would have only "broken even" if I hadn't self-published an audiobook version that generated a whopping 63% of my PAID sales.
2. I have the potential to make even more money if I had more books with a similar theme or genre, since if readers like what I write, they are much more likely to purchase again.
3. If you add on a layer of lead generation and lead nurturing via email then you can continually communicate with fans of your work and excite them about helpful blog posts and future book offerings. This can lead to more money over the long run, and I don't know about you, but I am in this for the long run. Book sales grow incrementally with one or two books but exponentially after that.
4. Particularly in fiction writing, the money can even more lucrative, since it is primarily consumed as a form of entertainment.
There are four key takeaways I have learned from many different book marketing promotions that aren't always apparent right on the surface.
1. Most ebook marketing promotions lose money on the first round of sales, especially in the case of free ebook promotion. So "break even" is not a bad proposition if I can provide enough value to customers who download my free ebook that they signup for my enewsletter, connect on Twitter or LinkedIn, or become a fan of my work, leading to future sales of books, courses, speaking engagements, etc. Keep in mind that my book marketing promotion would have only "broken even" if I hadn't self-published an audiobook version that generated a whopping 63% of my PAID sales.
2. I have the potential to make even more money if I had more books with a similar theme or genre, since if readers like what I write, they are much more likely to purchase again.
3. If you add on a layer of lead generation and lead nurturing via email then you can continually communicate with fans of your work and excite them about helpful blog posts and future book offerings. This can lead to more money over the long run, and I don't know about you, but I am in this for the long run. Book sales grow incrementally with one or two books but exponentially after that.
4. Particularly in fiction writing, the money can even more lucrative, since it is primarily consumed as a form of entertainment.
Yeah, I Hear You Miles, BUT!!!
How Do I Accomplish a Book Marketing Promotion With BookBub?
While it is fairly straightforward, there is no gaurantee that BookBub's editorial team will select your title for promotion, even if you are willing to pay the money.
Here are BookBub's tips for making your submission more competitive.
Here are the 5 steps to complete for a BookBub book marketing promotion:
1. Fill out the submission form and wait for the Book Bub editorial team to respond. I have personally been rejected before I was accepted for this book marketing promotion of Becoming Generation Flux.
2. If selected, BookBub will send you an invoice for the amount (dependent on genre selected) that you can pay by credit card directly to BookBub or via PayPal before the process can move forward.
3. Then you will receive an email to confirm the date they selected. I recommend accepting what they offer, but you can suggest a different day if you must. Just make sure your new date is relatively close to their initial offer.
4. Make sure your ebook is free on Kindle, Kobo, & iTunes worldwide. These are the main eBook providers they will promote to their email list. You will have to set your price as $0.00 on iTunes and Kobo, the only providers that allow you to set book prices that low. Then you will need to email KDP support kdp-support@amazon.com to let them know that your Kindle book is free elsewhere and ask them to match the price, since you can't do that on the KDP dashboard. Make sure you do this at least 7 days before your promotion, as you don't want any delays in matching that zero price to affect your BookBub marketing promotion.
5. Sit back and watch your sales dashboards on Kindle, Kobo, & iTunes to see how many free and paid downloads you receive from the increased exposure to your book brand.
Here are BookBub's tips for making your submission more competitive.
Here are the 5 steps to complete for a BookBub book marketing promotion:
1. Fill out the submission form and wait for the Book Bub editorial team to respond. I have personally been rejected before I was accepted for this book marketing promotion of Becoming Generation Flux.
2. If selected, BookBub will send you an invoice for the amount (dependent on genre selected) that you can pay by credit card directly to BookBub or via PayPal before the process can move forward.
3. Then you will receive an email to confirm the date they selected. I recommend accepting what they offer, but you can suggest a different day if you must. Just make sure your new date is relatively close to their initial offer.
4. Make sure your ebook is free on Kindle, Kobo, & iTunes worldwide. These are the main eBook providers they will promote to their email list. You will have to set your price as $0.00 on iTunes and Kobo, the only providers that allow you to set book prices that low. Then you will need to email KDP support kdp-support@amazon.com to let them know that your Kindle book is free elsewhere and ask them to match the price, since you can't do that on the KDP dashboard. Make sure you do this at least 7 days before your promotion, as you don't want any delays in matching that zero price to affect your BookBub marketing promotion.
5. Sit back and watch your sales dashboards on Kindle, Kobo, & iTunes to see how many free and paid downloads you receive from the increased exposure to your book brand.
SUPER Important Bonus Tip
Make sure that when you contact Amazon KDP Support to let them know your price on iTunes or other online store is now free that you send them links from not only their US store but UK and Canada (see below).
UK iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/becoming-generation-flux/id955167614
CA iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/becoming-generation-flux/id955167614
US iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/becoming-generation-flux/id955167614
I would love to hear your comments and feedback! Please write them below. I hope you have even greater book marketing promotion success than I have had!
UK iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/becoming-generation-flux/id955167614
CA iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/becoming-generation-flux/id955167614
US iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/becoming-generation-flux/id955167614
I would love to hear your comments and feedback! Please write them below. I hope you have even greater book marketing promotion success than I have had!
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