C. M. Skiera's Blog

You may have heard of BookBub , or already know all about it, but if not, I've come across some potentially helpful information I wanted to share. First off, BookBub is an online service that reaches "millions of readers" while providing authors a way to increase sales. BookBub’s marketing tools let authors promote their books, for a substantial fee. I've never submitted to BookBub, but my research  shows it is the premiere service for book sale promotions and exposure. I've also learned BookBub is very discerning about the books they sell ad space to. In addition, it's no small investment to promote your book on BookBub. While writing this post, I checked the price to advertise my fantasy novel Crimson & Cream for a US-only sale. The BookBub cost was $470. To run an international sale adding the UK and Canada, the cost was $688. For me, that cost is daunting not only for the upfront fee, but the realization that I would need to sell over 700 eBooks p...

Last month I posted a summary of my 2017 eBook sale promotions and this month I'm sharing the results of my 2017 Amazon Marketing Services (AMS) advertising campaigns. I've been advertising my three epic fantasy novels and a  compilation eBook  on AMS since June 2017. After some trial-and-error experimenting, I'm currently earning more in combined eBook sales and Kindle Unlimited (KU) revenue than I spend on AMS advertising; however, the Amazon market is dynamic and ever-changing, and your promotional tactics need to be flexible as well. What works today may not work tomorrow, and results will certainly vary by user. I'm quite conservative in my AMS spending, as if you're not careful, it is easy to spend a lot of money while getting no sales. AMS provides you two choices when setting up your ads: 1) Sponsored Products (or keywords ads) and 2) Product Display Ads (aka focused ads). I've found that the Sponsored Products (aka keywords ads) perform better ov...

With 2017 behind us, I studied the costs and results of all the eBook sale promotions I ran last year, with the goal of optimizing my advertising spend for 2018. I ran seven Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) promotions in 2017 for three novels and a compilation eBook .  All the promotions ran in the second half of the year, so it's really a six-month data set. What follows are my results advertising fantasy eBook sales - your experience will vary. For each of my seven KDP eBook sales, I ran only one promo per day (although my Amazon ads were running simultaneously, so a small portion of the daily sales can be attributed to the Amazon ads). Over the last six months of 2017, I advertised with the following online book sale promotion services:  1. BKnights (on Fiverr) : I ran 3 events for a cost of $27 and sold 9 eBooks, for a cost/sale of $3.00  2. BookBarbarian : Ran 3 events for a total of $100 and sold 67 eBooks, for a cost/sale of $1.49  3. BookDoggy :...

Happy 2018! I hope you enjoyed the festive season and I wish you all the very best for the new year. After the holidays and the associated travel and events, I feel like I'm emerging from writing hibernation. Time to shake off the old year and dig in for 2018. This year, I'll begin a new, stand-alone, fantasy novel, set in a different world from the Oxbow Kingdom, with new characters and adventures. I've started world-building, outlining, and plotting, and plan to begin writing in earnest soon. I'll provide more details and teasers in future posts, but for now, know that I'm still plugging away with my writing. I'll also be honing my marketing skills while trying to sell more copies (and garner more reviews) of The Oxbow Kingdom Trilogy . December was a watermark month for me sales-wise, and I'll prepare a future post with more tips and lessons learned from advertising on Amazon. Also in the upcoming year, I'll be adjusting my strategies and experime...