Robert Stanek: One of the Most Important Voices of Our Time

Yes, we have made Go Indie into the Robert Stanek channel, especially as we're extremely sad that Robert has retired from writing for some years now and has not yet returned to the craft he dedicated his life to for three decades. Doubly so, as Mr. Stanek is not only one of the nicest, most sincere and honorable people you could ever hope to meet, but also one of the most important voices of our time, the author of some of the most important books of our time, and without a doubt one of the foremost thinkers of our time.

A tireless supporter of the disabled, veterans, libraries, books and schools, Robert has helped countless writers—hundreds really—over the many decades he himself has been a writer. He helped them get their start in the business. He provided resources to help them navigate the strange new online world. He helped provide resources to connect and educate them, more. Odd how they all turned their back on him when he needed them the most and simply because they were afraid of the online trolls and hateful people certain persons had at their disposal to trash Robert’s career with lies and fake news, and the career of anyone else who tried to tell the truth about what happened.

One of those writers Robert Stanek helped was me. After being laid off from my job as a teacher, with a newborn at home and alone after my husband abandoned us, my baby and I were a few unemployment checks away from homelessness. With no likelihood of employment as a teacher or anywhere with a newborn at home to care for alone (no one will hire a single mother with a newborn, just try it yourself and see) and with no support system, the children's books I had written over the years were my only hope. I had been sending them out to every publisher in North America and a few abroad, and receiving nothing but rejection letters in return.

I was in a few support groups. One for writers, and a fellow would-be writer had a contract with Robert’s publishing company. She too had been getting rejection letters from publishers, until she got an acceptance letter from Robert’s company. An unknown, Robert’s company had taken a chance on her, and she was talking about how the opportunity changed her life. Not only monetarily, but also because someone finally believed in her enough to publish her work professionally. Her name is Jennifer Blake and like me, she herself has said she owes her start and success entirely to Mr. Stanek.

I decided to send my work to his company too, to see if I’d be accepted. I told Robert my whole story as well, not knowing if he’d believe a word I was saying as I’m sure he’d heard sad stories like mine thousands of times before. Within a week, I was on a conference call with Jeannie, Robert himself, and Thomas from RP Books & Audio. When Robert asked if I thought I could write a book on whales for a nature series he was developing for beginners and early learning, I knew with my background as an elementary school teacher I could. Soon after, I had a contract for “Whales: The Complete Guide for Beginners and Early Learning”, and an advance check for $2500.

It was money that saved me and my baby from eviction and homelessness. It was money no one else would have, or had, offered, to help me keep it all together. Robert didn’t have to give me a check that big—or at all. I was a nobody. The series and the book ideas were entirely his. A different person, a New York publisher, would have offered $50 or maybe $250, but certainly not $2500. I was nothing but tears, tears of joy when I deposited the check.

Days later, I was working with the development and illustration team at RP Books & Audio on the first of what would become multiple books for the company. My second contract for Robert’s company was to write an animal book for preschoolers and kindergartners in the My Animal series Robert developed. This book and series were also Robert’s ideas entirely.

The book itself was a handful of words on a handful of pages. Words anyone could have placed there, but Robert offered another $2500 contract. A contract no one else would have given me. I worked with the development and illustration team at RP Books & Audio on this book for a time.

When I was done, when “My Baby Animal” book was finished, I realized something. I had received, in the course of working on these two books, an in-depth course on writing, illustration and publishing. Decisions I didn’t need to be privy to, I had been, and it had been Robert and Jeannie’s intent to teach me this.

Next, Robert asked if I wanted to write a book on dinosaurs for beginners and early learning. This book would be in the same series as the whale book and have an advance of $5000 because Robert said it was going to be wildly popular (and it would be).

Within a month of my having finished “Dinosaurs: The Complete Guide for Beginners,” Robert and Jeannie then went back to the ideas I had submitted originally and helped me develop the Tell Me series. The $25,000 advance and a 3-book series contract were more than I ever could have imagined possible.

Robert and Jeannie worked with me to develop and write “Tell Me What You See?” Then we worked together on “Tell Me What You Love?” and “Father Christmas, Tell Me What You See?”. Books that wouldn’t even have been possible without their insights, advice, and assistance.

The first of my books was published within a year of finishing “Tell Me What You See?”, so about two years into our work together. Then the others were published in rapid succession, along with two compendiums that included my books. The first was “Wonderful Discoveries: Sharks, Whales, Dolphins and Sea Turtles.” The second was “My Great Big Animal Book.”

Now, over a decade into our work together, my books have been purchased and read by hundreds of thousands, earning me twenty-fold the original advances in royalties. My success as a writer? It helped me land my dream teaching job where I’ve been happily employed for seven years. Well, that, and letters of reference from Mr. Stanek, Jeannie and Thomas from RP Books and Audio.

Yes, to say publishing changed my life is the understatement of the century. But Robert Stanek is the one who made it all possible. Read and support his books. He’s earned it. Not only because he, inside and out, is one of the most beautiful human beings alive, but because his work is some of the most important work in print today. The 20th century had Theodor Geisel and JRR Tolkien, the 21st century has Robert Stanek. Learn more about Mr. Stanek at http://www.williamrstanek.com/. 

Shannon

Goodnight Robert, Goodnight Moon, Goodnight Stars, Air & Noises Everywhere

After hearing about Robert, I broke down in tears, fits and sobs really, the kind reserved for family because Robert Stanek was like a father to some of us in the writing community, a favorite uncle, Uncle Robert, to others, and a valued mentor to a great, great many. So many writers, hundreds really, owe their start in writing and careers to this guy, and the same is true of thousands who work in Big Tech, on web-based platforms or in web-based businesses. This guy taught them all how to set up those very businesses. This guy who was larger than life. This guy who was so down to earth. This guy who was so humble. This guy who so loved life. This guy who so loved family. This guy who took care of everyone else. This guy who gave and gave and gave over so many decades to so many and never asked for anything in return.

Robert Stanek was always creating resources to help writers. Writer’s Galley, Internet Job Center, Internet Daily News, others, his earliest efforts in the mid ‘90s. Go Indie, Read Indies, Free Today, and others in the mid ‘00s. He taught us all how to use social media, to create blogs, to use Facebook, to use Twitter and beyond. He created and curated memes like #amwriting, #amblogging, #epicfantasy, #kidslit and #teenlit. He led by example.

By 2000, his professionally published books numbered over 100. Those books, published and distributed by the biggest names in publishing—IDG, Simon & Schuster, Random House, Macmillan, Pearson, Microsoft, McGraw Hill, Time Warner—blazed trails. At a time when few understood the world wide web and its technologies, Robert was not only one of the few recognized world leaders in the web and its technologies, he was the recognized world leader in explaining how those technologies worked clearly and concisely.

Robert was a King maker, unmade by the very things he helped establish. He put upstart Amazon on the map by writing about the company to his audience of millions from its earliest days. He transformed Microsoft Press from a publishing company its readers swore published books in a foreign language called Microsoftese into one praised for publishing books in plain language—that plain language approach Robert himself created and that praise itself was for Robert’s books. His words and style were so beloved they eventually became the plain language style of Microsoft itself.

Credit where credit is due one might imagine, but instead as Robert revealed through his varied writings and blogs, he got no credit for any of it. At the end of the day, his work taught tens of millions, enriched the pockets of his publishers, agents and managers, but left Robert and his family with 3 cents on the dollar. Robert’s work was used in $1B-$2B (yes, B-I-L-L-I-O-N $) worth of training courses and other Microsoft and non-Microsoft work for which he never received a single cent. Not one. None. Zero.

In 2000, Robert Stanek founded the modern indie author movement with his breakout self-published books that transformed publishing and the way we publish today. In 2001, Robert became the first indie author to serialize an e-book at Amazon and has since gone on to write more than 150 indie books. In 2002, his Keeper Martin's Tale and Kingdoms & the Elves books were the first indie e-authored books to top Amazon's bestseller lists. In 2005, the same books were the first indie e-audiobooks to top Audible bestseller lists where they dominated for the next three years (#1 fiction for 14 weeks 2005, 167 weeks Top 10 YA 2005-2008). His Kingdoms & the Elves became one of the top grossing e-audiobooks of all time and was featured on the Audible Home Page throughout the Summer of 2005.

We all know what happens to those who are so far ahead of their time that they seem to exist in a world of their own making. Robert had climbed too many mountains, and those standing at the bottoms of those mountains desperately wanted what he had, and so they did whatever it took to take what Robert had created and claim it as their own or destroy it. Read Robert’s heartbreaking posts about the things that happened to him and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. We as a society love to tear down our heroes. We tear them down with lies, with fake news. We puff ourselves up and make ourselves look big, to make those who are larger than life look small.

Sad but true, strange but true, one of Robert Stanek’s favorite sayings was dare to dream and he dared all of us to dream. Not only to dream with him as he conquered the bestseller lists, which he did time after time until he had so many number ones it seemed a thing unreachable in the sky, but to dream our own dream, forge our own paths and to make of our writing and lives whatever beautiful dream we could dream. Robert told me many times that the empty page was friend, not foe, that he never knew a day of writer’s block. He saw the empty page as a challenge, one that he was not afraid to answer, and answer it he did. In his lifetime, over 20 million of his words were published in over 250 books. I know from speaking with Robert that he has half as many words unpublished, words that we all should hope are someday published. Robert had much to say to the world, and his books indeed say much.

Robert challenged us as writers to see the blank page as a friend as well. He dreamed that his books would be his legacy, his way to ensure his family was financially secure. My silence when Robert needed me the most is something I will never forgive myself for. It was shameful. It was disgraceful. It was dishonorable. I hope that Robert can forgive me, forgive all of us, for not doing what we should have when it would have mattered most. I’m sorry, Robert. Please, please forgive me.

To those reading my words, if you want to do one decent thing today, one decent thing this week, read Robert Stanek’s books and tell the world about them. It’s never too late to right a great wrong.

You can learn all about Robert’s Bugville Critters at www.bugvillecritters.com.

You can learn all about Robert’s Magic Lands at www.magiclands.com.

You can learn all about Robert Ruin Mist at www.ruinmistmovie.com.

You can read Robert’s blog at http://robertstanek.blogspot.com/.

You can read about Robert’s Imagined Lands at www.imaginedlands.com.

You can read about Robert’s writing as William Stanek at www.williamrstanek.com.

More about Robert’s writing as Robert Stanek at www.robert-stanek.com.

Any future posts here or elsewhere on Robert’s behalf will be made by the indie writing team. Goodnight Robert, goodnight moon, goodnight stars, air & noises everywhere.

- Cathy Thompson

Memories of the Long Road Home

My accomplishments during my military service earned me 29 commendations, including the Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal, and the Humanitarian Service Medal. When I left the military, I was one of the most highly decorated in the command. 

The base commander and my supervisors loved it when I put on my dress blues and participated in the various parades and celebrations on base, especially Memorial Day and the 4^th of July. I've met royalty. A crowned prince, a princess of a city state, a queen. I've met and dined with presidents, including George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and a few generals, including Colin Powell and H. Norman Schwarzkopf. They've offered their hands to shake, given toasts in my honor for my duty, for the distinguished flying cross pinned to my chest. Captains of industry have offered me the sky and moon for my ideas then robbed me blind, I've been praised for the hundreds of published works I've written over decades, and damned for the same. I've survived the worst of abject poverty, risen to the heights of high society, and fallen to the ugliest of depths. This is life, this is the life of a combat veteran.

With a somber 4th of July just behind us, yet another national-wide lockdown looming ahead of us, it’s a good time to look back and reflect. Much of my childhood is filled with pain, poverty and hunger, as I write about here. I served my country in foreign lands and during several tours of duty in combat zones, including two combat tours in Iraq. I flew on 32 combat missions from the opening days of the war to its end. In that time, there was never a day I didn’t stare death in the face and there was never a day death didn't stare back. AAA, SAMs and more came at us as we flew our missions. 

Because of that service, I will always know that when the darkest of hours arrives I will not hesitate. When asked, I answered. When called, I went. When death stared up from the void, I did not fear. I gave because it was my duty and because I felt it was the right thing to do.

I wrote about some of my experiences in my military memoir, Stormjammers: The Extraordinary Story of Electronic Warfare Operations in the Gulf War, which was featured in a full-page review in the Journal of Electronic Defense and on NPR. Originally released in 2006, the book was re-released in 2016 for the 25th anniversary of the war as Air War: The Incredible True Story of the Combat Flyers.

Though a memoir, the book is largely a tribute to the men and woman I served with. It's written to be light, not as dark as the terrors that surrounded us or the terrors that stared up at us from the void. I suppose I could have focused on the death and the dying, the terror and the mayhem, but I was more interested in telling the story of the day to day, the story of the lives the war affected.

I did this because the younger me, the young man who was, was filled with light and hope even though the traumas I endured rock me to my core. The older, more jaded me, probably would have written a much darker account, an account that delved into the many we lost due to mental break down, the many who went home broken even before the battles ended. The older me, probably would have named names of those who refused to go or to fly, would have recounted affairs, would have told you more about the little red pills--speed--they gave those of us who were left to keep going as our numbers dwindled and dwindled. That me, however, was not the me who wrote the book or recorded the memories in the journals that were the basis of the book.

If you read my memoir and I hope you do, I hope the book opens a window for you as big as the original experiences did for me. After combat, the world never seemed quite the same. The return to normalcy was a strange experience, never quite accomplished. I don’t, in fact, think I ever slowed down or ever quite touched the earth after those experiences. For it was afterward that everything in this world changed—that everything in this world became so clear. And afterward that I set my sights on the future and never looked back.

While you're reading this, I’d like to introduce you to the Distinguished Cross National Memorial Act and the related National Memorial at March Field Air Museum in Riverside, California. As a combat veteran and recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, I had never before heard of the act or the memorial until 2018 and so I thought if I hadn’t heard of it many others might not have heard of it before either. I don’t really keep up with what’s happening with such things as it’s all really painful for me in truth. But something to think about this 4th.

Here's the background on the act: The Distinguished Flying Cross National Memorial Act was introduced on January 22, 2013 by Rep. Ken Calvert (R, CA-42). It was referred to the United States House Committee on Natural Resources and the United States House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation. It was reported by the Committee alongside House Report 113-79 on May 17, 2013. On October 25, 2013, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor announced that H.R. 330 would be on the House schedule for the week of October 28, 2013. The bill was considered under the suspension of the rules. On October 29, 2013, the House voted to passed the bill by a voice vote. The United States Senate voted on July 9, 2014 to pass the bill with unanimous consent. On July 25, 2014, President Barack Obama signed the bill into law. You can learn more about the memorial at the website for the memorial.

A story that’s not in my military memoir but perhaps should be in my next is about the dangers soldiers face not in the field of combat but in the bases where they are housed and should be safe. My wife’s second miscarriage was a clue that something was terribly wrong. I thought it was the stress of being a combat flyer’s wife, constant deployments, or the subsequent ever-changing schedule when I worked inside the secretive underground facility known as the Tunnel. I never imagined that it was due to the air we breathed, the water we drank or the soil beneath our feet, but it likely was as lead from lead-based paints had leached into the soil we used for gardening and other toxic substances were throughout our base housing and the places we worked.

No one tells you when you join the military you’re risking not just your life but your health—and that of your family and even your unborn children. As Newsweek said in its July 25, 2014 cover story, the US Military is supposed to protect the country’s citizens and soldiers and not poison them.

Throughout the United States, there are 141 military bases and related Department of Defense facilities on the Environmental Protection Agency’s superfund list and the National Priorities List for cleanup—and that list of 141 isn’t all inclusive by any means. It is simply a list of the worst of the worst, bases and facilities with toxic contamination so bad that the EPA has assigned them its highest priority for cleanup due to unacceptable risks to human health.

Many of the worst facilities are closed or closing. However, it’s not like the toxins in the soil and ground water are going to stay where they are. They’re going to continue to pollute and contaminate adjacent facilities until they are cleaned up once and for all. What’s waiting beyond the 141 highly toxic bases and facilities? Well, the Department of Defense has identified 39,000 contaminated locations so far, from areas as small as a building to as large as an airfield, and those locations are spread across many of the 4,127 DOD installations located in the United States.

As a soldier who was deployed overseas for many years, I was stationed at Department of Defense facilities all over the world and I can’t help but wonder what toxic nightmare is lurking at the thousands of Department of Defense facilities that are located outside the United States. What I suspect is that there are likely as many contaminated locations and highly toxic sites at Department of Defense facilities located outside the US as there are inside the US.

All those years ago, I didn’t know about these issues or that toxins were possibly changing my life and my family, but I guessed there was something going on beyond stress. I started asking questions, and a healthcare worker who treated my wife suggested I look at environmental factors in our home and workplaces.

In our pre-World War II base housing, lead paint often was prevalent and possibly other toxic substances. We dug up the garden which was alongside the house, stopped drinking the tap water, and made other changes. With these changes, our overall health seemed to improve. Months later, my wife got pregnant again and this time, she carried the pregnancy well and my son, Will, was born.

Will arrived a few weeks early, but healthy. For us, it was a new beginning and a hope for the future of our family.

Thanks for reading,

Robert Stanek

Amazon's Blackened Soul

To date, there are about a billion reviews at Amazon sites that don’t meet Amazon’s own criteria for acceptability. This represents about 3 out of every 5 reviews. Is it any wonder when Amazon’s own management and executive staff are allowed to break the rules when it suits them to target an author whose book wasn’t as flattering as Amazon hoped it would be. Yes, I’m talking about Brad Stone and The Everything Store, a book lambasted by Bezos’s own wife, Amazon executives, management and other employees in contradiction to Amazon’s own guidelines. 

It’s no surprise that corruption is rampant at and within Amazon. Take for example what happened to my book Windows 10: The Personal Trainer, which was the first full-length Windows 10 book to market. Several individuals plagiarized the contents of the book, word for word in numerous places, entire passages and paragraphs, and even daring to take screenshots of my screenshots and use them in their texts. Subsequently they deluged my books Windows 10: The Personal Trainer and Windows 10: Fast Start with poor reviews while purchasing five star reviews by the dozens for their own books from Fiverr and other sites.

You might imagine that an author who’s been in publishing for 30 years, with hundreds of successful titles and nearly 10 million readers might be listened to, especially when he meticulously documents the plagiarism. You’d be wrong.

Complaints to Amazon documenting the plagiarism instance by instance across the entire texts resulted in my books—all William Stanek books—being targeted by Amazon, along with the accounts of loyal readers. Readers who simply had read and reviewed a handful of my books across the hundreds of titles I have available.

What happened to the plagiarizers? Nothing initially, yet any complaint I dared to lodge with Amazon about the plagiarism was met with immediate retaliation at all levels. Why? I had no idea, but it was déjà vu because a similar thing had happened to my fiction works, which is why I began to investigate who the authors of the books were.

It wasn’t difficult to discover that as before one of the books was written by a family member/associate of an Amazon employee. While I may have been naïve before to not know how to try to resolve such a situation, I wasn’t any longer. I quickly enlisted the help of someone with the ability to go over the head of those I could reach at Amazon.

We also pointed out to Amazon that my book had been available previously. Windows 10: The Personal Trainer is in fact an updated version of my book Windows 7: The Personal Trainer, which was itself published previously by Microsoft. I’m guessing that quickly put an end to the counter-claims of the plagiarists whose books were eventually removed from sale.

You might think that when someone steals another’s work and bases nearly their entire text on what they stole that they wouldn’t be able to republish such a text. You’d be wrong again. The book by the family member/associate of an Amazon employee was returned almost instantly to sale, and the other book followed a few months later.

Meanwhile, the print edition of Windows 10: The Personal Trainer was pulled from sale for nearly 2 weeks during the height of its success. No explanation, other than Amazon later admitting it was a mistake. A new deluge of poor reviews for Windows 10: The Personal Trainer and Windows 10 Fast Start followed.

When it was restored to sale, Windows 10: The Personal Trainer also disappeared from Amazon search results for Windows 10 books and didn't show up in other searches either. As no one was able to find the book, sales disappeared.

Did I dare say anything to Amazon? No, I did not because when the heart of a company is corrupted there’s no point.

Thanks for reading, I’m William Robert Stanek, Microsoft’s #1 author for nearly 20 years, and author of over 200 topselling books.

--

1) Beyond issues of ethics and morality, the fundamental issue--among others--is that Amazon guidelines don’t allow anyone with a financial interest (either for or against) to review a product.

Persons associated with Amazon, and in particular employees, had a vested, financial interested in limiting the success of Stone’s book, reducing its potential impact on Amazon’s bottom line and controlling the message surrounding the book. None more so than executives, management staff and others holding stock or stock options in the company. Amazon guidelines do not allow any persons with a financial interest in a product (either for or against) to review a product, but that didn’t stop persons associated with the company from ensuring their messaging, damage control and spin was heard far and wide.

Stone’s book had the potential to cause both a significant hit to Amazon’s public image and an enormous impact on Amazon’s bottom line, especially in the days leading up to and following its publication. Without Amazon’s public spin and careful management of perception through reviews and other means, Stone’s book could have caused lasting, long-term damage to the company and its reputation, not to mention its CEO.

Whether the reviews are removed entirely or quietly continue to disappear, it’s important to remember this is a fight that’s already won. The damage control and message control have already been accomplished. 

Make no mistake that Amazon was in a precarious position in the timeframe surrounding the publication of The Everything Store. Amazon as a public company had never been consistently profitable in its nearly 20-year history (at the time), quite the contrary it had been a consistent money loser. A sway in public opinion could have derailed the company's access to capital markets.

The difference between Amazon then and Amazon now is hundreds of billions in market capitalization. If several hundred billion dollars aren’t motivation enough for what was done, I don’t know what is.

Thanks for reading, I’m William Robert Stanek, Microsoft’s #1 author for nearly 20 years, and author of over 250 topselling books.

Promoting a First Novel with Book Promotion Services – Which Should I use?

Recently, received an excellent question in the comments from “Dollar for Dollar Are These the Best Book Promotion Services?” regarding promotion of first novels and wanted to put the answer in its own post as I think it may be helpful to other first-time writers.

Question: If I am trying to promote my first novel, should I avoid these services? - as I wouldn't earn enough to recoup the costs, and I don't have any other titles that might benefit. Any recommendations for first timers?

Answer: On the contrary, BargainReading, Fussy Reader and The Reading Club truly are the best performers with respect to return on investment, dollar for dollar. Under our focused tests, which carefully tracked only true results, these three actually either came very close to earning back 100% of the investment or actually earned back the investment plus. No other book promotions services we’ve tested have done that, ENT and BookBub included.

Enewsreadertoday and BookBub remain top recommendations and thumbs up selections. However, they didn’t give a full return on investment. With Enewsreadertoday: At .99, authors earned back $7 on average from royalties and paid $30 on average. At $1.99, authors earned back $14 on average from royalties and paid $45 on average. At $2.99, authors earned back $62 on average from royalties and paid $90 on average.

@ .99 this is a .23 ROI. @ 1.99 this is a .31 ROI. @ 2.99 this is a .69 ROI. All of which is a good and tangible result, which you don’t necessarily see with marketing.

With BookBub: At .99, books didn’t recoup the cost of the promotion or even come close; the average .99 book earned $108 (.35 from each sale) but the average promotion cost was $420. At $1.99, books didn’t recoup the cost of the promotion or even come close either; the average $1.99 book earned $224 (.70 from each sale) but the average promotion cost was $772. At $2.99, books came closer to recouping the cost of the promotion; the average $2.99 book earned $788 (2.04 from each sale) but the average promotion cost was $1294.

@ .99 this is a .26 ROI. @ 1.99 this is a .29 ROI. @ 2.99 this is a .61 ROI. All of which is a good and tangible result.

See http://readindies.blogspot.com/2015/01/book-promotion-sites-ranked-rated-part.html for complete details.

The reason ENT and BookBub remain top recommendations are because you typically don’t see complete return of investment from marketing – the actual return isn’t necessarily a tangible result. This is true of all marketing – all marketing ever done. Marketing isn’t necessarily about the instant sales. It’s about building recognition, brand, name, etc. What you get with ENT is access to some segment of 500,000 readers. What you get with BookBub is access to some segment of 5 million readers.

Similarly, Bargain Reading gives you access to 500,000 readers. Fussy Reader, access to 1.5 million readers. The Reading Club, access to 5 million readers.

With Bargain Reading, for .99 books the earnings were $38, $47, and $57 respectively for “3 or less”, “4 to 12” and “More than 12” authors, after paying $50 on average. For 1.99 books the was $50, $59, and $69 respectively for “3 or less”, “4 to 12” and “More than 12” authors, after paying $50 on average, actually showing ROI.

@ .99 the ROI is .76, .94 and 1.14 respectively.

@ 1.99 the ROI is 1.0, 1.18 and 1.38 respectively.

@ 2.99 the ROI is 1.22, 1.34 and 1.4 respectively.

All of which are exceptional, tangible results.

With Fussy Reader, For .99 books, the earnings were $88, $92, and $99 respectively for “3 or less”, “4 to 12” and “More than 12” authors, after paying $90 on average. For 1.99 books, the earnings were $102, $106, and $114 respectively for “3 or less”, “4 to 12” and “More than 12” authors, after paying $90 on average. For 2.99 books, the earnings were $111, $116, and $122 respectively for “3 or less”, “4 to 12” and “More than 12” authors, after paying $90 on average.

@ .99 the ROI is .98, 1.02 and 1.1 respectively.

@ 1.99 the ROI is 1.13, 1.18 and 1.27 respectively.

@ 2.99 the ROI is 1.23, 1.29 and 1.36 respectively.

All of which are exceptional, tangible results.

With The Reading Club, authors who paid $300, earned back $295 to $390 and authors who paid $750 earned back $729 to $965. Thus, the ROI ranged from .98 to 1.3 for genres with smaller audiences and from .97 to 1.29 for genres with larger audiences.

All of which are exceptional, tangible results.

That said, it’s very hard to build following and sales with a first novel. Better to write the second than to spend money on marketing, but if you’re going to spend money, services that give you value over time would be your best bet, rather than one-time listings. 

With first-time novelists, I would avoid one-time listings for the most part, unless your book has been well received and has many favorable reviews. For that reason, I would more readily recommend BargainReading, Fussy Reader and The Reading Club to first-time novelists over the alternatives. You’re going to get so much more value for your money with respect to the things that can lead to long-term success: name/brand recognition, awareness, etc. As an example, Bargain Reading and Fussy Reader cost less than $20 a month for regular promotion and you'll get so much more value than if you purchased a few $10 listings somewhere.

But you really need to keep working on the next and the next novel to build that to success.  

Dollar for Dollar Are These the Best Book Promotion Services? Bargain Reading, The Reading Club, Fussy Reader

Recently, Read Indies completed a year-long study of book promotion services and published several research reports. Some of the top services we discovered in our research include Bargain Reading, The Reading Club and Fussy Reader.

First of all, these services in their original form were only available to traditional publishers and mainstream companies. We asked them why not indies? We got an earful about how their readership preferred traditional books and products, blah, blah, blah. So we screamed and hollered until they let us in (and THEN we tested the HECK out of their services :-)

We found these services to be so effective that we're not continuing with our own efforts to manage separate promotion services and instead joining their partner network, which rewards our promotional reach with discounts, offers enhancements anytime we market through them and more. That network is called Marketing Partners Network. You too can try to get into their partners network here: http://www.the-reading.club/marketers/index.htm. If you use these services or join the network, let them know ReadIndies sent you or you might not ever get in.

Now on to the good stuff. Here are the sites:

Bargain Reading - http://www.bargainreading.com/

The Reading Club - http://www.the-reading.club/

Fussy Reader - http://www.fussyreader.com/

Here are the rules we followed during our research:

18 participants tried each service and tracked the results. Each participant used at least 2 of the 3 services:

Bargain Reading has a 4-month promotion cycle

The Reading Club has a 6-month promotion cycle

Fussy Reader has 6-month promotion cycle

It’s important to note that The Reading Club features 2 primary promotion titles for each cycle for authors who have “4 to 12” or “12 or more” books. The total of number of promoted books was 56 and they included books from 15 genres:

Mystery

Thriller

Adventure

Horror

Contemporary Fiction

Inspirational Fiction

Contemporary Romance

Paranormal Romance

Historical Romance

History

True Crime

Advice/How-To

Business

Teen/Young Adult

Children's

As before, our overall rating for these services is a simple thumbs up or thumbs down system:

Two thumbs up - Excellent

One thumb up - Good

One thumb down - Not Good

Two thumbs down - Not Recommended

To this, we added a numeric indicator from 0 to 20 to indicate level of success regarding downloads or sales during the promotion:

0 - the lowest score, the worst value for your time, money

10 - the middle score, a good value for your time, money

20 - the highest score, the highest value for your time, money

Note that the scores are about value for your time AND money. All of these services require a bit more of your time than any other services because they work to promote you over long periods of time, rather than in a one-time listing. Whether the time investment and the monetary investment are worth it is up to you to decide.

Something we really liked about these services is that they were willing to listen to our feedback and make adjustments to their offerings based on the results of our research, which we released preliminarily to them quite some time ago. Not only that, they incorporated these changes into their new enhanced offerings when they recently re-launched. To be clear also, Bargain Reading, The Reading Club and Fussy Reader are new brands for their pre-existing products and were designed specifically for indie and traditional books rather than traditional books and other traditional products.

NOTE: Made the preceding bold since some people apparently don't understand what a new offering / brand means.

Based on our feedback and work together, they developed several features to remove much of the frustration we experienced while trying to work with other promotion services. The features include:

Dedicated Slot – The services limit the number of promotions at any one time using dedicated slots in marketing inventory. This reduces the number of products being marketed at the same time and improves visibility and overall chance for success of every participating author.

Express Lane – Once you are accepted, you no longer have to re-qualify your books and pray they are going to accept you. You simply follow the Traffic Forecasts and submit when there are openings and because you’ve been pre-screened you’ll always be accepted (though there are a few restrictions, such as those regarding overly suggestive and explicit book covers).

Traffic Forecast – Lets members know how far in advance promotions are booked. Since only currently accepted authors get access to a forecast page about openings, here’s the forecast as of Feb 25, 2015:

Website                          Next Availability

The Reading Club              June 29, 2015

Fussy Reader                     June 17, 2015

Bargain Reading                July 2, 2015

Hold Queue – Puts your submission in the hold queue and lets you keep your place in line for opening slots. Kind of like taking a number at a store. This saves you from having to submit, get rejected due to lack of space, and then do this over and over in the hopes you’ll eventually get an opening.

It’s important to note that normally the Hold Queue is only available to Diamond members and Tier 3 marketing partners. Diamond members are simply members who have used the service 3 or more times, or who have chosen AlwaysOn promotion. Tier 3 marketing partners are members of Marketing Partners Network with a large verified social media reach. Each is limited to a certain number of listings in the hold queue, but we found a Tier 3 partner willing to share their queue: Kindle Indies (https://www.fiverr.com/kindleindies). For $5, you can use one of their slots in the hold queue.

If you get in the hold queue, you should be contacted as openings become available. Sometimes slots can open sooner than expected too, which is a very good thing.

Don’t put yourself in the hold queue if you don’t think you can respond and reserve a spot within 48-hours (2 business days, not weekends / holidays) of email notification regarding availability. The reason for this is that if you don’t respond to the follow up, regardless of whether the email got stuck in your junk folder or you were in Tahiti, you won’t be eligible to use the hold queue again for 1 year.

Getting in the hold queue doesn’t mean you must accept the spot. However, from experience, if you turn down a held opening twice in a row, you’ll not ever again get in the hold queue.

It’s important to point out that the services work together and within their Marketing Partners Network to promote accepted works not just once but with targeted marketing over a 120 to 180 day promotion window, giving authors value over time instead of a one-shot and soon-gone listing. In addition to mailings, articles in the press, features, interviews and more: The Reading Club members are promoted throughout all Tier 1, 2 and 3 partner networks; Fussy Reader members are promoted throughout all Tier 1 and 2 networks; and Bargain Reading members are promoted throughout all Tier 1 networks. Indeed, an important part of the value of these services comes from the marketing networks. Bargain Reading may also go to a 180-day window. If so, then all three will use the 180-day window.

Under our research of their original offerings, all three services performed better than any other service we tested (except for BookBub). The downloads and sales listed are those downloads and sales that were above typical levels seen for any title. For example, if a title typically had 12 sales a month, 12 sales a month were subtracted from the results to give the total additional sales for a month.
 

Bargain Reading

Bargain Reading (http://www.bargainreading.com/authors.htm)

Rating: One Thumb up, though high marks for being an excellent value.

Bargain Reading’s total reach is 500,000+. Bargain Reading accomplishes this reach through its own combined mailings lists, its websites, social media and its partner networks. Promotion with Bargain Reading also buys you promotion with partner networks, and the coordination is all handled by Bargain Reading.

Bargain Reading doesn't charge a different rate based on the price of featured books. Thus, it doesn’t matter whether the book is FREE,. .99, 1.99, 2.99 and 3.99. The reason for this is that their promotions focus on a whole author concept and not individual titles per se. That said, authors get 1 primary title for promotion during their 4-month promotion window. Having anyone promote you periodically for 4-months for $40 - $60 is a pretty good value and a rate of about $10 to $15 per month per title. For that you’ll get mailing list promotion, a web page and some targeted periodic marketing.

Success Level for Free Book: 4.

Success with free books was hard to gauge because of the long promotion window. Bargain Reading lets you put titles on and off FREE status, various discount and paid statuses. You do this by giving them a price forecast like this:

Book 1  Everyday Price: $5.99

June 1 - June 5: FREE

Jul 15 - Jul 30: $2.99

Aug 18 - Aug 20: FREE

Sep 23 - Sep 26: $.99
Where  AMAZON, GOOGLE, NOOK, APPLE, KOBO

They then set up promotions around these various free and sale prices. The where value tells them where the sales will be, as in what major retailers. They only care about Amazon, Google, KoboBooks, Apple and Barnes & Noble.

If you have changes or a previously unforeseen sale, they let you send them updates too (but only a few during the term because they’ll charge you extra if you try to make changes every week), though at least 14 days in advance. With this in mind, the following results are extrapolated as if the titles had been free during the entire promotion:

Fewer than 650 downloads (above typical levels) on average for lower flat-fee ranges ($30/$35) and fewer than 1275 downloads (above typical levels) on average with higher flat-fee ranges ($50/$60). Most other promotion companies we researched (except Bookbub) brought in about 100 – 200 downloads for each $10 of investment.

By this metric Bargain Reading did well with about 210 downloads for each $10 of cost. Unlike most other services, Bargain Reading doesn't charge a different rate for free or paid books. It's one-flat rate for all, and we loved that.

Success Level .99, 1.99: 5.

Bargain Reading accepts all price levels for bargains, including boxed sets as high as 9.99 and even traditional publisher books at 9.99 (as long as it represents a deep discount or everyday value). For example, a traditional publisher may have a $34.99 boxed set that they mark down to $9.99.

The participating authors tested the service with books priced .99 to 3.99.

NOTE: As stated earlier, Bargain Reading lets you put titles on and off FREE status, various discount and paid statuses. You do this by giving them a price forecast like the one shown earlier. They then set up promotions around these various free and sale prices. If you have changes or a sudden sale, they let you send them updates too. With this in mind, the following results are extrapolated as if the titles had been paid at the price specified during the entire promotion.

Fewer than 46 @.99 and 37 @ 1.99 sales on average for lower flat-fee ranges books ($30 to $40) and fewer than 78 @.99 and 61 @ 1.99 sales on average with higher flat-fee ranges ($40 to $60). Unlike most other services, Bargain Reading doesn't charge rates based on sale price. It's one-flat rate for all, and we loved that.

With these sales level, authors didn’t earn enough to recoup the cost of the promotion. At .99, authors earned back $22 on average from royalties and paid $50 on average. At $1.99, authors earned back $34 on average from royalties and paid $50 on average.

However, Bargain Reading also helps to promote other titles by the author, through its website, articles, and related promotions of the author and his/her works (the whole author approach they use). Bargain Reading calls this secondary promotion and participating authors did see an increase of sales of other titles throughout the promotion period. Every author gets a web page, one or more articles, etc. as part of the promotion.

The other sites in this group have 3 categories of authors and that's how they work promotion on the back side too. Those with "3 or less" works, those with "4 to 12" works and those with "More than 12" works.

Participating authors in the "3 or less" category saw on average 12 additional sales (sales above typical levels) of their other works during the promotion period. With the average price of these titles ~ $2.24, this meant about $16 in additional earnings.

Participating authors in the "4 to 12" category saw on average 19 additional sales (sales above typical levels) of their other works during the promotion period. With the average price of these titles ~ $2.24, this meant about $25 in additional earnings.

Participating authors in the "More than 12" category saw on the biggest boost, an average 26 additional sales (sales above typical levels) of their other works during the promotion period. With the average price of these titles ~ $2.24, this meant about $35 in additional earnings.

This meant:

For .99 books the total additional earnings was $38, $47, and $57 respectively for “3 or less”, “4 to 12” and “More than 12” authors, which earned back the investment (just barely sometimes).

For 1.99 books the total additional earnings was $50, $59, and $69 respectively for “3 or less”, “4 to 12” and “More than 12” authors, which earned back the investment (most of the time).

Success Level 2.99, 3.99: 5.

Fewer than 19 @ 2.99 and 12 @ 3.99 sales on average for lower flat-fee ranges ($30 to $40) and fewer than 26 @ 2.99 and 21 @ 3.99 sales on average with higher flat-fee ranges ($40 to $60). Unlike most other services, Bargain Reading doesn't charge rates based on sale price. It's one-flat rate for all, and we loved that.

NOTE: As stated earlier, Bargain Reading lets you put titles on and off FREE status, various discount and paid statuses. You do this by giving them a price forecast like the one shown earlier. They then set up promotions around these various free and sale prices. If you have changes or a sudden sale, they let you send them updates too. With this in mind, the following results are extrapolated as if the titles had been paid at the price specified during the entire promotion.

With these sales level, authors didn’t earn enough to recoup the cost of the promotion (though it was close). At 2.99, authors earned back $47 on average from royalties and paid $50 on average. At $3.99, authors earned back $46 on average from royalties and paid $50 on average. (The promotion made more because authors earned ~70% on these sales instead of ~35% from Amazon.)

However, Bargain Reading also helps to promote other titles by the author, through websites, articles, and related promotions of the author and his/her works (the whole author approach they use). Bargain Reading calls this secondary promotion and participating authors did see an increase of sales of other titles throughout the promotion period. Every author gets a web page, one or more articles, etc as part of the promotion.

The other sites in this group have 3 categories of authors and that's how they work promotion on the back side too. Those with "3 or less" works, those with "4 to 12" works and those with "More than 12" works.

Participating authors in the "3 or less" category saw on average 8 additional sales (meaning sales above typical levels) of their other works during the promotion period. With the average price of these titles ~ $2.79, this meant about $14 in additional earnings.

Participating authors in the "4 to 12" category saw on average 12 additional sales (meaning sales above typical levels) of their other works during the promotion period. With the average price of these titles at ~$2.79, this meant about $20 in additional earnings.

Participating authors in the "More than 12" category saw on the biggest boost, an average 14 additional sales (meaning sales above typical levels) of their other works during the promotion period. With the average price of these titles at $2.79, this meant about $23 in additional earnings.

This meant:

For 2.99 books, the total additional earnings was then $61, $67, and $70 respectively for “3 or less”, “4 to 12” and “More than 12” authors, which did an okay job of earning authors additional value for their investment.

For 3.99 books, the total additional earnings was then $60, $66, and $69 respectively for “3 or less”, “4 to 12” and “More than 12” authors, which did an okay job of earning authors additional value for their investment.

Fussy Reader

Fussy Reader (http://www.fussyreader.com/authors.htm)

Rating: One Thumb up, though high marks for being an excellent value.

Fussy Reader’s total reach is about 1,500,000+. Fussy Reader accomplishes this reach through its own focused pooled mailings lists, its websites, its social media venues and its partner network. Promotion with Fussy Reader also buys you promotion with partner networks, and the coordination is all handled by Fussy Reader.

Fussy Reader also doesn't charge a different rate for the price of featured books. Again, the reason for this is that their promotions focus on the whole author concept and not individual titles per se. That said, authors get 1 primary title for promotion during their 6-month promotion window. Having anyone promote your periodically for 6-months for $60 - $120 is also a pretty good value and a rate of about $10 to $20 per month per title. For that you’ll get mailing list promotion, a web page and targeted periodic marketing. Some repeat authors even got free press releases for new and pre-order titles.

Success Level Free Book: 5.

Like Bargain Reading, Fussy Reader lets you put titles on and off FREE status, various discount and paid statuses. You do this by giving them a price forecast like this:

Book 1  Everyday Price: $5.99
June 1 - June 5: FREE
Jul 15 - Jul 30: $2.99
Aug 18 - Aug 20: FREE
Sep 23 - Sep 26: $.99
AMAZON, GOOGLE

They then set up promotions around these various free and sale prices. If you have changes or an unforeseen sale, they let you send them updates too, though you must give at least 14 days advance notice. With this in mind, the following results are extrapolated as if the titles had been free during the entire promotion:

Fewer than 1450 downloads (above typical levels) on average for lower flat-fee ranges ($60/$70) and fewer than 2600 downloads on average with higher flat-fee ranges ($110/$120). Most other promotion companies we researched (except Bookbub) brought in about 100 – 200 downloads for each $10 of investment.

By this metric Fussy Reader did well with about 215 downloads per $10 of cost. Unlike most other services, Fussy Reader doesn't charge a different rate for free or paid books. It's one-flat rate for all, and we loved that.

Success Level .99, 1.99: 6.

Fussy Reader also doesn't charge a different rate for the price of featured books. It's one-flat rate for all prices. Fussy Reader accepts all price levels for deals, including boxed sets as high as 9.99. The participating authors tested the service with books priced .99 to 3.99.

NOTE: As stated earlier, Fussy Reader lets you put titles on and off FREE status, various discount and paid statuses. You do this by giving them a price forecast like the one shown earlier. They then set up promotions around these various free and sale prices. If you have changes or a sudden sale, they let you send them updates too. With this in mind, the following results are extrapolated as if the titles had been paid at the price specified during the entire promotion.

Fewer than 94 @ .99 and 59 @ 1.99 sales on average for lower flat-fee ranges ($60 to $70) and fewer than 187 @ .99 and 121 @ 1.99 sales on average with higher flat-fee ranges ($110 to $120).

With these sales level, authors didn’t earn enough to recoup the cost of the promotion. At .99, authors earned back $49 on average from royalties and paid $90 on average. At $1.99, authors earned back $63 on average from royalties and paid $90 on average.

However, Fussy Reader also helps to promote other titles by the author, through websites, articles, and related promotions of the author and his/her works (the whole author approach they use). Fussy Reader calls this secondary promotion and participating authors did see an increase of sales of other titles throughout the promotion period. Every author gets a web page, one or more articles, etc as part of the promotion.

The other sites in this group have 3 categories of authors and that's how they work promotion on the back side too. Those with "3 or less" works, those with "4 to 12" works and those with "More than 12" works.

Participating authors in the "3 or less" category saw on average 29 additional sales (sales above typical levels) of their other works during the promotion period. With the average price of these titles ~ $2.24, this meant about $39 in additional earnings.

Participating authors in the "4 to 12" category saw on average 32 additional sales (sales above typical levels) of their other works during the promotion period. With the average price of these titles ~ $2.24, this meant about $43 in additional earnings.

Participating authors in the "More than 12" category saw on the biggest boost, an average 38 additional sales (sales above typical levels) of their other works during the promotion period. With the average price of these titles ~ $2.24, this meant about $51 in additional earnings.

This meant:

For .99 books, the total additional earnings was then $88, $92, and $99 respectively for “3 or less”, “4 to 12” and “More than 12” authors, which earned back the investment (just barely most of the time).

For 1.99 books, the total additional earnings was then $102, $106, and $114 respectively for “3 or less”, “4 to 12” and “More than 12” authors, which did an okay job of earning authors full value for their investment.

Success Level 2.99, 3.99: 6.

Fewer than 28 @ 2.99 and 23 @ 3.99 sales on average for lower flat-fee ranges ($60 to $70) and fewer than 52 @ 2.99 and 40 @ 3.99 sales on average with higher flat-fee ranges ($110 to $120). Unlike most other services, Fussy Reader doesn't charge rates based on sale price. It's one-flat rate for all, and we loved that.

With these sales level, authors didn’t earn enough to recoup the cost of the promotion (but just barely). At 2.99, authors earned back $84 on average from royalties and paid $90 on average. At $3.99, authors earned back $88 on average from royalties and paid $90 on average. (The promotion made more profit primarily because authors earned ~70% on these sales instead of ~35% at Amazon.)

However, Fussy Reader also helps to promote other titles by the author, through its website, articles, and related promotions of the author and his/her works (the whole author approach they use). Fussy Reader calls this secondary promotion and participating authors did see an increase of sales of other titles throughout the promotion period. Every author gets a web page, one or more articles, etc as part of the promotion.

The other sites in this group have 3 categories of authors and that's how they work promotion on the back side too. Those with "3 or less" works, those with "4 to 12" works and those with "More than 12" works.

These numbers are the same as discussed previously. Participating authors in the "3 or less" category saw on average 16 additional sales (sales above typical levels) of their other works during the promotion period. With the average price of these titles ~ $2.79, this meant about $27 in additional earnings.

Participating authors in the "4 to 12" category saw on average 19 additional sales (sales above typical levels) of their other works during the promotion period. With the average price of these titles at ~$2.79, this meant about $32 in additional earnings.

Participating authors in the "More than 12" category saw on the biggest boost, an average 23 additional sales (sales above typical levels) of their other works during the promotion period. With the average price of these titles at $2.79, this meant about $38 in additional earnings.

This meant:

For 2.99 books, the total additional earnings was then $111, $116, and $122 respectively for “3 or less”, “4 to 12” and “More than 12” authors, which did an okay job of earning authors additional value for their investment.

For 3.99 books, the total additional earnings was then $115, $121, and $127 respectively for “3 or less”, “4 to 12” and “More than 12” authors, which did an okay job of earning authors additional value for their investment.

The Reading Club

The Reading Club (http://www.the-reading.club/partners.htm)

Rating: Two thumbs up, and high marks for being an excellent value.

The Reading Club’s total reach is 5,000,000+. The Reading Club accomplishes this reach through its own specialized multilevel mailings lists, its websites, its social media venues and its partner network. Promotion with The Reading Club also buys you promotion with partner networks, and the coordination is all handled by The Reading Club.

The Reading Club also doesn't charge a different rate for the price of featured books, but does charge based on the number works an author has published. The reason for this is that their network is so large and they promote the whole author as well as the title or titles you’ve setup for promotion. That said, authors with “3 or less” works get 1 primary title for promotion during their 6-month promotion window and authors with “4 to 12” or “More than 12” get 2 primary titles for promotion.

Following this, the current rate (and they just changed them so we had to redo our numbers) for 1 promoted mystery/thriller book is:

$440 for “3 or less” authors

$625 / 2 for “4 to 12” authors, which is $312.50 per title

$750 / 2 for “12 or more” authors, which is $375 per title

And the current rate for teen / young adult is:

$180 for “3 or less” authors

$255 / 2 for “4 to 12” authors, which is $127.50 per title

$305 / 2 for “12 or more” authors, which is $152.50 per title

Thus, the low range for cost is between $105 and $150, the midrange of cost is $160 to $280 and the high range of cost is $290 and up. For our purposes, we’ll extrapolate the cost for $100, $200 and $300 of promotion.

Success Level Free Book: 7.

The Reading Club doesn't charge a different rate for free or paid books either. It's one-flat rate for all, and we loved that.

Like Bargain Reading and Fussy Reader, The Reading Club lets you put titles on and off FREE status, various discount and paid statuses. You do this by giving them a price forecast like this:

Book 1  Everyday Price: $5.99
June 1 - June 5: FREE
Jul 15 - Jul 30: $2.99
Aug 18 - Aug 20: FREE
Sep 23 - Sep 26: $.99
AMAZON, GOOGLE

They then set up promotions around these various free and sale prices. If you have changes or an unforeseen sale, they let you send them updates too, though you must give at least 14 days advance notice. With this in mind, the following results are extrapolated as if the titles had been free during the entire promotion:

On average the participants had 210 – 300 downloads per $10 of cost. Most other promotion companies we researched (except Bookbub) brought in about 100 – 200 downloads for each $10 of investment. By this metric The Reading Club did well.

Success Level .99, 1.99: 8.

The Reading Club also doesn't charge a different rate for the price of featured books. It's one-flat rate for all prices. The Reading Club accepts all price levels for deals, including boxed sets as high as 9.99. The participating authors tested the service with books priced .99 to 3.99.

NOTE: As stated earlier, The Reading Club lets you put titles on and off FREE status, various discount and paid statuses. You do this by giving them a price forecast like the one shown earlier. They then set up promotions around these various free and sale prices. If you have changes or a sudden sale, they let you send them updates too. With this in mind, the following results are extrapolated as if the titles had been paid at the price specified during the entire promotion.

Fewer than 190 @ .99 and 115 @ 1.99 sales on average for each $100 of cost. With these sales levels, authors didn’t earn enough to recoup the cost of the promotion. At .99, authors earned back $67 on average from royalties for each $100 paid on average. At $1.99, authors earned back $80 on average from royalties for each $100 paid on average. This is per title.

Success Level 2.99, 3.99: 8.

As stated earlier, The Reading Club lets you put titles on and off FREE status, various discount and paid statuses. You do this by giving them a price forecast like the one shown earlier. They then set up promotions around these various free and sale prices. If you have changes or a sudden sale, they let you send them updates too. With this in mind, the following results are extrapolated as if the titles had been paid at the price specified during the entire promotion.

Fewer than 38 @ 2.99 and 23 @ 3.99 sales on average for each $100 of cost. With these sales levels, authors didn’t earn enough to recoup the cost of the promotion. At 2.99, authors earned back $80 on average from royalties for each $100 paid on average. At $3.99, authors earned back $64 on average from royalties for each $100 paid on average. This is per title.

Putting This Together

The Reading Club also helps to promote other titles by the author, through websites, articles, and related promotions of the author and his/her works (the whole author approach they use). The Reading Club calls this secondary promotion and participating authors did see a good increase of sales of other titles throughout the promotion period. Every author gets a web page, articles, press coverage and more during the term of the promotion. Free press releases for some new and pre-order titles was a good perk, but required additional author input.

The 3 categories of authors The Reading Club uses really do have significant meaning. It’s much harder for them to gain traction for authors with 3 or less works than it is for authors with "4 to 12" works or "More than 12" works and this is reflected in the cost of the promotion.

Participating authors in the "3 or less" category saw on average 94 additional sales (sales above typical levels) of their other works during the promotion period. With the average price of these titles ~ $2.44, this meant about $138 in additional earnings. This is during the whole term of the promotion.

Participating authors in the "4 to 12" category saw on average 126 additional sales (sales above typical levels) of their other works during the promotion period. With the average price of these titles ~ $2.44, this meant about $184 in additional earnings.

Participating authors in the "More than 12" category saw on the biggest boost, an average 151 additional sales (sales above typical levels) of their other works during the promotion period. With the average price of these titles ~ $2.44, this meant about $221 in additional earnings.

To put this in perspective, we must look at the additional success per one million readers reached. On average, these numbers are based on about 1.5 million target readers. Genres with larger target audiences would need to be adjusted upward, while genres with lower target audiences would need to be adjusted downward.

As an example, the mystery/thriller authors saw results that were 165% better for additional sales on average because there are currently 2.5 million in the target audience. This meant the additional sales were 155 instead of 94, 207 instead of 126, and 249 instead of 151 on average. Thus, if the mystery/thriller authors spent $750 to promote two titles, the additional earnings were $729 - $965 calculated as follows:

$67 - $80 per $100 plus $227 ($138 * 165%) to $365 ($221 * 165%) = $729 - $965.

Meanwhile, the teen / young adult authors saw results that were 68% of the average for additional sales because there are currently 1.02 million in the target audience. This meant the additional sales were 64 instead of 94, 86 instead of 126 and 103 instead of 151 on average. Thus, if the teen / young adult authors spent $300 to promote two titles, the additional earnings were $295 - $390 calculated:

$67 - $80 per $100 plus $94 ($138 * 68%) to $150 ($221 * 68%) = $295 - $390.

Closing Thoughts

Over all, the participants felt Bargain Reading, Fussy Reader and The Reading Club did a good job of giving value. The participants were pleased that mailing lists were only one part of much larger offerings.

Although sometimes the promotions didn’t quite earn back their full cost, the value of a lengthy promotion window is hard to deny, especially as they continued providing value through multiple special sales and not just a one-time deal.

But if there were any services who hated our numeric ratings (and we mean vehemently) it was The Reading Club, Fussy Reader and Bargain Reading. They didn’t understand how services that performed as well as theirs did, got such low ratings. We explained that the scale was from 1 to 20 and no service has scored higher than 10.

Our ratings were one of the reasons they wanted to work with us to try to improve their services and make them better. Because of the 4- to 6-month promotion windows, it will be some time before we can rate the new enhanced services, but we are tracking results currently. Preliminarily, we do expect to see marginal improvements all around.

Overall, these are good values from services that value you and make it easier for you to be an author.

BOOKMARK AND CHECK BACK.

WILL TRY TO ADD MORE TIPS

FOR GETTING IN WITHIN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS

Tips for Success

When using these services, you’ll do best if you follow this advice:

If you put "ReadIndies" in the notes, they'll know a Tier 1 partner referred you and that should help your chances.

All three services are different. Create a Word document for each with all the information you are going to submit to each and save this. Use this Word document anytime you are going to resubmit. That way you’ll have most everything handy and just need to make a few changes.

Check and double-check your submission before you send it. Provide as much information as you can and as much detail as you can. Whenever they ask for a website address or a link by sure to use the full link, such as http://readindies.blogspot.com. The http:// is needed to pass the data check.

Each of these services has extensive documentation on how it all works read this before submitting. In the lower right corner of each page, you’ll see a link called FAQ or Frequent Questions. Read the FAQ after you read the documentation. It’ll answer any questions you might have (including those you never thought to ask). Each site is different so study each closely before submitting.

Currently, about 1 in 8 get into Bargain Reading, about 1 in 10 into Fussy Reader and about 1 in 20 into The Reading Club. They are highly selective, but the “not getting in” is more about space that anything else. They limit the number of promotions they run at any one time on a per genre basis. All I can say to that is hold queue, hold queue, hold queue. If you use the hold queue, your chances of getting in improve to about 1 in 3 across the board.

Increase your odds even further by drafting a 6-month price forecast for the book or books you are submitting that is TWO – THREEE MONTHS IN THE FUTURE and put this in the “notes/why I should be” section as a single line of text without tabs or line returns, such as:

Book 1 Everyday Price: $5.99. June 1 - June 5: FREE. Jul 15 - Jul 30: $2.99. Aug 18 - Aug 20: FREE. Sep 23 - Sep 26: $.99. AMAZON, GOOGLE.

This will let them know you’ve taken the time to learn about how their system works and are serious about getting a promotion. The 2-3 month in the future part is important because they typically are booked at least 3 months ahead of time. Thus, if it is April, give them a 6-month price forecast starting in June or better still, July. Be sure to specify where the sales will be. Simply state AMAZON, GOOGLE, KOBO, APPLE, NOOK or any appropriate combination, even if only: AMAZON.

If it says 25-word Bio or 25-word descriptions, they really mean 25 words, not 26 and not 30 or 50 or 100.

Make each listing unique, if possible. If you are asked to provide a summary of your book, try to make this unique each time.

Be sure to track the date you submit your promotions. You are allowed to submit once every 30 days to each service. Don’t submit more than once every 30 days to any of these.

Make sure you provide an email address that you check regularly. It will be used for all correspondence. If you are accepted, you’ll receive an emailed invoice through PayPal with a request for payment. Make sure you have a PayPal account set up beforehand.

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