There are a lot of sites out there for book promotion. Some are good, some...not so much. Below is one author's (me) experiences with a number of popular promo sites, number crunched and graphically displayed for your perusal.
METHODOLOGY
All promos were for a perma-free, fantasy/paranormal romance
novel with a professionally designed cover and over 125 reviews (now up to 190)
with a 4.3 star rating on Amazon.
All promotions were scheduled with at least three days
between the next promo to assure a truer evaluation of the benefit of each
site. Bang for your buck (BFYB) was calculated by dividing the number of
downloads on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Nook and Smashwords from the beginning of the promo out 72 hours by the cost
of the promotion . The larger the BFYB, the more cost effective
the promotion.
Promos were conducted between December 23, 2014 and June 17,
2015.
RESULTS
Table 1. Promo Site Results, Ranked by BFYB, Highest
to Lowest
|
Site
|
Cost (US$)
|
Downloads
|
Cost/Download
|
BFYB
|
|
BookBub
|
195.00
|
25423
|
0.007670
|
130.37
|
|
eReader News Today
|
30.00
|
993
|
0.030211
|
33.10
|
|
Lendle Book of the Day
|
35.00
|
1026
|
0.034113
|
29.31
|
|
Books Butterfly
|
28.00
|
755
|
0.037086
|
26.96
|
|
Free Booksy
|
100.00
|
2032
|
0.049213
|
20.32
|
|
Free Kindle Books
|
25.00
|
458
|
0.054585
|
18.32
|
|
eBooksoda
|
10.00
|
141
|
0.070922
|
14.10
|
|
BKnight (Fiverr)
|
15.75
|
205
|
0.076829
|
13.02
|
|
Kindle Book Review
|
20.00
|
258
|
0.077519
|
12.90
|
|
Digital Books Today
|
20.00
|
186
|
0.107527
|
9.30
|
|
Best Graphic (Fiverr)
|
5.50
|
47
|
0.117021
|
8.55
|
|
Book Sends
|
50.00
|
380
|
0.131579
|
7.60
|
|
eBookImpresario
|
5.00
|
38
|
0.131579
|
7.60
|
|
Book Kitty (Fiverr)
|
5.50
|
28
|
0.196429
|
5.09
|
|
New Free Kindle Books
|
5.00
|
20
|
0.250000
|
4.00
|
|
eBookasaurus
|
10.00
|
35
|
0.285714
|
3.50
|
|
Bindingsauthor (Fiverr)
|
5.50
|
12
|
0.458333
|
2.18
|
|
Indie Book of the Day
|
30.00
|
31
|
0.967742
|
1.03
|
|
Bookbear
|
20.00
|
12
|
1.666667
|
0.60
|
Figure 1. BFYB,
by Site (alphabetized)
So, what can one conclude from all this? The statistically sound way to get a good idea of a site's worth would be to gather this information from lots of authors to establish a mean BFYB with standard deviations. My data does not have that, but I think it gives a good picture of what one might expect. Not surprisingly, the Bub was da bomb. Beyond that, there are a number of sites that had good numbers, and some were definite duds. Remember, the results are likely genre-specific, and subject to the vagaries of the cosmic karma that influences indie book sales (e.g., phases of the moon, placement on the site's page or day of the promotion).
I find Tuesdays, and a waxing gibbous are best.
