Are Authors 'Nuts' To Use This Book Marketing Service?

A Literal Literary Loser Looks at Lots of Losses

After almost thirty years as a professional writer (I sold my first novel to Avon Books in 1994), I finally dipped my toe into the paid marketing space two years ago.

I wrote about how much I made - and how much I lost - here.

I wrote about the many, many scammers I encountered, here.

This week, I’m covering a service that isn’t a scam exactly. It’s just a huge waste of money - based on my results, at least.

The publisher of my most recent novel, “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region,” History Through Fiction, held a fundraiser in November to raise funds to support indigenous writers in Minnesota. There was a silent auction, and I won a Dedicated Email Blast from the book promotion company, LitNuts.

It is described on their website as:

• Feature the covers and descriptions of up to three books.

• Share a brief profile and photo of the author or publisher.

• Solicit newsletter subscribers and social media followers.

• Includes promotion on LitNuts' home page slider for two weeks and promotion via LitNuts' social media accounts.

This Dedicated Email Blast usually retails for $75. Because of the silent auction, I got it for $35.

Was it worth it?

I chose to highlight my “Figure Skating Mystery Series (5 Books in 1),” an e-book compendium including all five novels of the paperback originals first published by Berkley Prime Crime.

The email blast was scheduled to go out on Saturday, January 20. The book, as promised, was featured on their homepage and on a dedicated page. It was listed on their Facebook page.

According to their marketing pitch:

LitNuts features only indie books. That means you won't be competing for attention with the Big 5. And we have a following of 35,000+ booklovers who are genuinely interested in and supportive of indie publishing. They want info about indie books. Show them what you've got!

So, with a following of 35K booklovers, a dedicated email blast, placement on their homepage and promotion on their FB page which shows 2.3K followers, how many books did I sell?

Since Saturday, January 20, I have sold… one book.

One. For the royalty of $6.81. (And that’s not even all mine to keep, since I share proceeds with Ice Theatre of NY, which provided the videos to bring my figure skating mysteries to life.)

After spending $35 on a package that usually retails for $75, I made… around five bucks.

Compare that to the previous week when, with no paid promotion whatsoever, I sold two copies of “The Figure Skating Mystery Series,” and one copy of “Murder on Ice,” the first book in the series, as well as two complete reads in Kindle Unlimited.

Or to the Winter of 2012, when I partnered with two-time Olympic Champion Dick Button to produce his Twitter coverage of the Sochi Games and promote my books during the commercial breaks, selling over 100 copies.

Why did the LitNuts promotion fail so spectacularly? I have a theory:

LitNuts boasts 35,000 subscribers. But how many of them are mystery readers?

If we assume the standard distribution at LitNuts is the same as among all readers, then only 30% are fans of the mystery genre.

That shrinks the audience to 10,500 right off the bat.

Of all mystery readers, 62% read in the suspense category, which includes cozy mysteries like mine.

So, even if we calculate generously, that still lowers the number of potential interested readers to 6,510.

And then, the big question: How many of them are interested in figure skating?

If this were 1994, and Nancy Kerrigan had just gotten whacked on the knee in Detroit (I was there, and those of us inside the arena had no idea what a big stir it caused outside of it), I would say: Many, many people.

If this were the mid to late 1990s, when the television airwaves were flooded with skating specials to satiate that interest (I worked the 1996 and 1997 US and World Championships, and the 1998 Olympics in Japan), I would say: Many, many people.

But it is 2024. Most figure skating competitions aren’t even broadcast on major networks. They’re streamed. This would suggest that many, many people… no longer care.

And that’s what I think the problem is with any non-targeted marketing approach.

I sold more books to an audience of what I suspect was no more than 1000 or so hard-core skating fans who followed Dick Button’s Twitter than to an alleged 35,000 who had no interest in my subject or my genre.

Maybe I would have done better with a more popular genre like romance.

Looking at another LitNuts featured title, “Grace’s Forgiveness,” an Amish romance, I see that it’s current Amazon ranking is in the 800,000 range. This suggests that, like me, she’s sold a single copy in the last few days.

“How To Win a Duke,” a Regency romance, has a ranking of 31,000, which indicates 4-5 copies sold. But this title also retails for $0.99 cents, which means the author needs to sell many more copies to turn a profit.

Every writer, of course, must decide for themselves what’s worth it and what isn’t in the battle for reads and readers.

For me, LitNuts was a waste of money. What about you? How has your paid marketing experience been? Share the good, the bad, and the ugly in the comments!