Welcome to the fantastical side of romance with magic and myth, ,
This year I've decided to try out BookSiren for my ARCs, I still am using BookSprout because I already paid for it, and because I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket without first testing the basket out.
But first, TODAY I'm finally celebrating my kid's birthdays (practically a month late, because we were all sick with Covid, but today is bouncy house day and cotton candy machine making day! Wish me luck in wrangling all the kiddos! What's funny is that it's actually closer to my own birthday this next Saturday! Eeep, I'm getting older!)
My experience with BookSprout has been reasonable.
I use the "Growing Author" plan at $90 a year (7.5 a month expense) for 1 running campaign at a time and 25 max readers to a campaign. If a campaign were to fill up to 25, I can simply end that campaign and start a new one for an extra 25 readers.
For acquiring new readers, this platform has seen the best results for my books personally. I average of getting around 10-20 new readers every month on backlist books. And there is a high rate of readers completing reviews. When I have a new release, I have 31 readers on my Booksprout Team for my romantasy, and 59 readers on my alien romances:
You can join my romantasy team here: https://booksprout.co/reviewer/team/24550/sm-mccoys-review-team
And for 7.5 a month (though I pay the full 90 upfront) that costs me 37cents to 75cents per new reader joining my ARC team. (They may or may not review, but at least they are a new reader joining the team to help spread the love of my books.)
The CON of BookSprout is the 25 cap limit on the campaign for launching a new book. So, I believe the platform is great for growing new readers on backlist books. I don't find it as helpful for the "cost" for launching a new book. Their next tier up on their pricing is too high in my opinion.
That leads me to BookSiren for handling ARC distribution.
I do send out my ARCs through certified mail through Bookfunnel to those that sign up on my ARC form, but I also like having a quick and easy way for those readers to grab the book instead of waiting for me to send it. Which is where BookSiren is actually great at!
I can set the quantity limit on how many people can download the book from the site, and it separates what reader its platform found, and what readers joined because of my link to it.
For backlist books that are approved on BookSiren, I didn't find much of a difference in how many readers it found to join my team. There was a large difference in how many times they displayed and showed the book to their readers. They have stats on how many impressions the book has received from them, but though my Taking Medusa had 620 impressions, it received 4 new readers from BookSiren over the course of 2 months.
For an upcoming ARC release Breaking Fate, it had over 5.5K impressions, but still only had 4 new readers join because of BookSiren.
Because of the experience with low engagement for new readers, I think I would have been better off doing their "Promote an ARC" pay per reader found. Instead of their unlimited yearly membership.
It's $10 per book. and then $2 per new reader which would have cost me $36.00 in total for Taking Medusa and Breaking Fate. Instead of the $100 for unlimited.
You can follow my BookSiren profile here: https://booksirens.com/author/BRIRE5H/FQOHME6
BUT, with the unlimited, that means I can add more books for the rest of the year without added costs. So, I can make the 64$ difference up, as long as I release 2 more books this coming year. I think I can make up that cost difference when I launch my next alien romance Her Alien Captor, and then I would be allowed to submit previous books in the series like Her Alien Savior and Her Alien Warrior to the platform, thus marketing my backlist in the series at the same time as seeing how it does with alien romances versus romantasy arcs.
With BookSprout working as my new ARC team reader growth, and BookSiren as a supplement, plus also BookFunnel for distribution and author networking. You can see that an indie author is already spending around $440 a year on services so that we can GIVE our books away for free to ARC readers. (My Bookfunnel is 250 a year for my two pen names, plus audiobooks)
That's a minimum of 36 a month to maintain those services, Plus website hosting, domain rights, business license, and misc marketing expenses. My average just Author Maintenace cost is $8.00 a day. (That means in order for me to breakeven on existing it's $8.00 a day, not including launch costs for launching a book)
Right now, I average out around 4 dollars a day between all of my books. I'm sure I'm not alone in the indie universe in this respect that we are investing in our books to bring them to life.
This isn't meant to guilt you, but more of a transparency to be kind to the indies in your life and feel a bit of fuzzy warmth of love from the indies that bring you books you love. Give an indie a hug today and leave a review, share a book with fellow readers, and if you're able read their books in KU/KOBO, or help support them by grabbing their book.
For fellow indies that are on my newsletter, do you use BookSprout or BookSiren? Or both? What has been your success with those services?
I'd love to do a follow up newsletter on some stats other than my own.
Have you read Taking Medusa? You can read it in KU here: https://books.steviemarie.com/takingmedusa
If you're excited about Book Two Breaking Fate, then head on over and pre-order today! https://books.steviemarie.com/breakingfate
Signed paperbacks have arrived at my house on September 11th! You can grab the paperback early from my author store and have it arrive before it is live on Amazon! https://payhip.com/b/GbQi9
And it comes with commissioned ART!
I'm so excited!
chat soon!
xoxo
Stevie
Breaking Fate Snippet:
"What did you do?" I could still hear Poseidon growl through the golden crab shells secured behind my ears. They were magically connected with him, regardless of what Hades did, at least for the briefest of moments before realizing those were the last words I'd hear from him without Hades's permission.
"Fate is such a tricky mistress," Hades began with a cool demeanor. He wasn't talking to me, I realized soon enough. "I had a fated mate myself, brother. I followed my path and yet I was spurned for doing so. You avoid your own, and what? I'm supposed to congratulate you and hand her over without you proving to me your fate deserves to be happier than mine?" His haunted laugh still echoed in my mind as he finished with ignoring his brother that I could no longer see nor hear, then faced me to say, "I control who sees you, Little Goddess. Do a good job in your new role as protector and I will grant you time to do with as you choose. Do you choose to see your fated mate? Or perhaps you choose to see someone else?"
It was clear what he meant. Would I choose to see Poseidon, or Triton, instead? Or my sister?
"Are you the only one who can see me?" I asked first, ignoring his interest in my love life.
"Of course not," he balked. "It would grow tiresome. You'd become a pest that would never leave me alone. No, you have access to all the Underworld, and of course any dark god you wish to extend your protection to. As for other gods… that's a case-by-case basis. If they know what they're looking for then I can't say my protection will hold. But in the Underworld, the crown's power is absolute. It is where you will be safest when the time comes that Olympus discovers what you are up to."
"And what am I up to?" I wanted him to clarify my new role as an Underworld servant.
"My brother," he said plainly before he lifted a brow and clarified, "the one you aren't fated to, is overly obsessed with results. To the point that if there is even a miniscule chance that Apollo's prophecy can be interpreted a different way, he will see to squashing it. Anyone with Tartarus blood will be hunted, and as soon as you start to protect them, they’ll begin to gather, growing in number. Well, I don't need to spell it out for you, do I?"
"He'll think I'm building an army for war," I finished for him, my voice trailing off in thought.
"I knew you were clever," he mocked and then yawned like he was bored with our conversation.
Continue reading Breaking Fate or start from the beginning with Taking Medusa!
Dive into a Fantasy Romance Adventure with a slow burn romance that defies prophecy and a new modern twist on Greek Mythology.
Amazon: Taking Medusa (available in Kindle Unlimited and Audible)
Amazon: Breaking Fate (launching Oct in KU and Audible)
Chat soon!
xoxo
Stevie
Read Taking Medusa today in Kindle Unlimited: https://books.steviemarie.com/takingmedusa
Taking Medusa is available in Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!
Add to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/150498806-taking-medusa
Support more books by S.M. McCoy by pre-ordering Breaking Fate: (launching Oct 2024) https://books.steviemarie.com/breakingfate
Add to your Goodreads shelf: Breaking Fate (Dark Gods Rising, #2) by S.M. McCoy | Goodreads
Pre-order on Breaking Fate on Amazon: https://books.steviemarie.com/breakingfate
Check out the Author store and grab the signed hardcover or signed paperbacks! https://payhip.com/BrokenBooksPublishing
Read the award winning Romantasy Taking Medusa and how we got to this point: https://books.steviemarie.com/takingmedusa
Also by me: Do you like Alien Romances?
Check out my Pen Name Sky Robert!
Check out my Sky Robert's Alien Romances available in Kindle Unlimited. All are standalone complete romances where you can start from any book, but the more books you read, the more you unravel about the universe and how all of our couples fight together to save it! Sky Robert Books:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0BNXSFHZ4/allbooks
Author Updates/Writing Progress!
Breaking Fate Progress! OFF to the ARC TEAM!
Book Stats: Breaking Fate currently has 43 preorders on Amazon, and 2 pre-order from my author store! The total cost of launching Breaking Fate is currently at $1400 (including 600 for editing costs) and around $90 in preorders, makes us at 6.4% of launch costs covered.
If you would like to help support future books, and this series, you can preorder Breaking Fate on Amazon here: https://books.steviemarie.com/breakingfate
Or READ TODAY from my Author Store here: https://payhip.com/b/CDfku
Chat soon!
xoxo
Stevie
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