Just a few basic stats I thought were interesting.
For the Freebooksy promotions I had to do series promotions.
For April 2023 I chose the Science Fiction category, which is advertised at 295,000 subscribers. On the day of the promotion I got 1,284 free downloads and made 5 sales. Cost: $125
For this May 2024 I chose the Thriller category, which is advertised at 548,000 subscribers. On the day of the promotion I got 1,493 free downloads and made 42 sales (approx. £100). Cost $160
In both instances I didn't make my money back immediately, but for the first one I did it appeared to give a good kick to sales over the following few months, and appeared to pay for itself over that time. That's why I ran another one just now, to give the Destroyer trilogy extra visibility over the summer.
Although the Thriller subscriber list was almost twice as big as the SF one, there was only a small increase in free downloads. It has long been a concern that if I want to pitch to the thriller market I would need a cover that looked more like a thriller - I did get them redone to remove the starship and replace it with figure looking out from the deck of a ship, but I wasn't happy with them and so have left them as is. If I had liked them better I would definitely have looked to change them before a thriller promotion to have something that looked more like the thriller market.
Overall, I had planned to leave promotions until I had my next book out, as I figure they give a better return on investment the more books you have out. Unfortunately I've been too ill over the past few years to write it, so I figured I may as well push a little on what I have got, even if it might not be so cost-effective.
Anyway, just some commentary in case of use to anyone.
www.freebooksy.com
