For Authors: E-mail Marketing Companies Compared

During the holiday season I decided to try out 3 different e-mail marketing companies for my first novel, Silenced Memories. I will discuss the results of each below. I did attempt to submit my book to 3 other websites as well, but they were booked (because many other authors were probably thinking the same thing-holiday promotion!)

1. December 5th- ENT- E-Reader News Today

Sale price Dec. 5th-Dec. 6th

Price for ‘romance suspense’ – $45 (price varies depending on genre)

E-book discounted from $2.99 to $.99

Books sold on day 1: 208 Amazon; less than 10 between ibooks & nook

Books sold on day 2 (no promo running): 46 Amazon; less than 5 (ibooks/nook)

Overall results: I think this campaign was very successful. Gaining that many new readers was great. I also reached #69 on romance suspense on Amazon (for a few hours!) & #49 on romance military. I made my money back, which is always nice. And my sales remained steady each day after the sale ended.

2. Dec. 29th- FUSSY LIBRARIAN

They have you list dates for your sale (so mine ran until Jan 3rd). Since readers know this, they have more time to download and sample before buying. So, I assumed results would be more scattered. Fussy librarian will also advertise your book at an every day low price (so next time I plan on doing that at the reg. price of $2.99). I also plan on using them for my new release in March. They will promote the book (without reviews) as long as another one of your books meet their review requirement.

Price: $17

Sale price: $0.99

Books sold on day 1: 13 on Amazon; 5 nook; 2 ibooks

Dec 30th-Jan 1: 20 on Amazon; 6 more between nook/ibooks

Overall results: Not the greatest results, but I am also wondering if New Years (parties/family, etc.) might have impacted number of views. Again, I will try them again with my 2nd book – because the cost is low (so minimal risk). Continued sales is questionable considering I ran another promo on the 2nd (so I cannot analyze that data).

3. Jan. 2nd- Manybooks.net

Manybooks contacted me after viewing my book on Fussy Librarian and asked if I’d like to run a promo for a discount ($19). Since my sale ended on the 3rd, I decided–why not? They ran the promotion on the 2nd.

Books sold on day 1: 27 on Amazon; 10 between ibooks/nook

Books on day 2 (last day of sale): 8 on Amazon; 6 between ibooks/nook

*Sales in Italy, U.K., Canada, and Australia from this campaign as well, which was nice.

Overall results: I was surprised by the results, as I was not anticipating too much since I’d never heard of the company before and it was hard to access my book on their website (and they didn’t update their facebook page because of the holiday)- so sales were strictly from their email. Clearly I had better results than with Fussy Librarian. My sales on ibooks, nook, and Amazon have continued each day following this sale at the regular price. I have made more profit post sales (at reg. price) than I did during the sale, which is always a plus. But being new in the game of publishing–I value each sale (each new reader)- so I am def. more excited about the increase in new readers (and subscribers to my website) than I am about sales!

*A side note- Amazon did not update my price on the 4th after several requests. The were incorrectly price-matching. I always change the price at ibooks/nook before Amazon to avoid this (because nook takes the longest to update). When I called Amazon – they apologized (discovered I was right)- and at least gave me 70% commission off the sales (opposed to 35%) & a little more money as well to compensate for their error!

 

***** Well, I hope this helps any of you that have yet to embark on the marketing/sales journey***

If anyone knows of e-mail marketing companies that DO NOT require a discount (aside from Fussy Librarian) – please comment below. THANKS!