So, I know there has been a lot of speculation out there about what authors were getting before All Romance Ebooks closed. But I thought I’d set the record straight and show you the last emails I got from ARe the weeks before it sent out notices through emails of its closure. I’m just putting it out there so you can see they were operating as business as usual until the time of the closure emails on Dec. 28.
Here is the Boxing Day Promo that was sent to me on 12/19/16. It was the last promo email I got. I had also received one for a promo back during Halloween and for Black Friday. So, it looked like it was running as usual. I had done a promo during the earlier part of the year and past other years. This year, it didn’t seem to generate any sales as compared to other years. So, I didn’t sign up for either of these sales.
Boxing Day Promo Email received on 12/19/16. It also includes a blurb about their Daily Deals program for 2017. So, they were clearly trying to promote advertising for 2017.
“FREE Promo Ops at All Romance!
Participate in our Boxing Day #AReBlast
Deadline December 23, Noon Eastern
This promotion will be held for 1 day only, on December 26. In celebration of Boxing Day, we’re going to b e promoting a 25% discount from select publishers.
You agree to discount your entire catalogue of books by 25% for the day and we’ll do the rest. We’ll set the discount and tag all of your titles with the hashtag AReBlast and link our front banner ad to them. Then, on the 25th, we’ll blast the promotion all over social media and we’ll be sending out a dedicated Boxing Day Bargain Newsletter.
If you’d like to participate in the Blast, just reply to this email. Include your publisher/company name along with written permission to include you.
Please note: If you have other discounts set for books on this day, the greater of the two discounts will be applied. If you are a hybrid author who sells self-published titles through us, this offer only applies to books within your publisher account.
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Participate in our FREE Daily Deal Program for 2017
These Daily Deal’s provide an opportunity to get a discounted title in front of thousands at the point of checkout.
- Works must be originally priced at $2.99 or higher.
- You must be willing to allow us to discount by at least 50% for the day of the promotion.
- The final discounted price cannot be less than $0.99.
All submissions MUST come from the publisher (or author if the title is self-published).
You may submit more than one title for consideration, and you may submit for any available month. Start your submission process here: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/reservations/
- Choose the month for your“Daily Deal Submission” and click“Search Availability”. Please note that you are selecting the month of your deal, and your deal may be scheduled for any one day during that month.
- If your chosen month displays in the pop-up, you can begin the submission process by selecting “Apply”.
- Then scroll down to view the order form. Daily Deal promotions are FREE and should show $0.00. Click “Purchase.”
- Enter the requested information.Read and understand the guidelines and specs, check the boxes if you agree, then click “Upload your artwork.”
- Enter the ARe URL of your book, the regular price, and the discount price.
- Next you will be asked to attest to the fact that you are the publisher of the work and have the right to set pricing by entering your initials.
- Click “Submit Info” then “Complete order.”
- You will be pr ompted to review your order and choose a payment method. Since price is $0.00, simply click “Complete order.”
If your submission is selected for a Daily Deal, we will notify you via e-mail and supply you with promotional graphics.
Please e-mail Lisa Kessler at Lisa.Kessler@allromanceebooks.com if you have a specific day in mind. If that date is available and your submission is approved, we will do our best to accommodate you.
We look forward to partnering with you to promote your books and the romance genre!
If you have any questions, please let us know!
Lori James
CEO
All Romance eBooks, LLC”
The next email is the 2017 advertising email trying to get authors to sign up for 2017 ads and list all the options for where your money could be spent. I received this email on 12/23/16.
”
2017 Advertising
All Romance eBooks (ARe), founded in 2006, is the largest eBook-focused commerce bookseller specializing in the Romance genre. The company has close to 1.2 million titles across its two retail sites. ARe has built a loyal and recurring customer base of over 480,000 registered readers, which we additionally reach through our social network and content site, our newsletter, and social media advertising. Our demographic is your demographic.
#1 Google ranking for “Romance eBooks”
+35 millions annual page views
+195,000 opted in newsletter subscribers
6.26 minutes average session duration
34.5% new sessions
16,691 Alexa rank in the US
+52 thousand social media followers
Reserve here: https://www. allromanceebooks.com/reservations
Website Advertising: Most of our 2017 Sidebar Ads have sold out. We do have a few slots remaining in Zone 3. These ads will appear in a 10% Share of Voice rotation on all pages of AllRomance.com, OmniLit.com, and AReCafe.com. You can purchase multiple slots to increase your SOV. Reserve your spot now!
Social Media Advertising: Leverage the power of our Facebook and Twitter platforms and let us manage your social media campaigns. We work with monthly budgets from $50 – $1000.
Newsletter Advertising: We have large banner ads (600X300) and cover spots (140X210) available throughout the year. If you want to promote a discount, consider featuring your bargain in our Friday newsletter (+195,000 subscribers). The spotlight will include a large cover image, summary, price point, and links out to Amazon, BN, Kobo, iTunes, and AllRomance.
Featured Author Spots: Get your author brand in front of our readers with a feature on the AReCafe.com and our weekly newsletter! Each feature includes a photo, bio, tailored interview questions, and book covers.
Daily Deal Promotion: Get a discounted title in front of thousands at the point of checkout. Works must be originally priced at $2.99 or higher. You must be willing to allow us to discount by at least 50% for the day of the promotion. The final discounted price cannot be less than $0.99.All submissions MUST come from the publisher (or author if the title is self-published).You may submit more than one title for consideration, and you may submit for any available month.
Reserve here: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/reservations
Please send questions to lori.james@allromanceebooks.com
You are receiving notice this notice because you have books available on AllRomance.com and an active author page. This mailing list is only used for important business communications and promotional opportunities. Author pages usually contain author contact and website information as well as a bio and author headshot. If you wish to update your author information or remove your contact information and thereby unsubscribe from future notifications, please email Audrey.Sharpe@allromanceebooks.com.”
So, I thought this would be helpful since I’ve been noticing a lot of speculation and rumors about what emails authors received. People didn’t seem too sure at times or know exactly what they said. I like to read the actual article to make my own opinions. So, I’m posting the emails to let readers know the behind the scenes for authors affected by ARe’s closure.
The actual email of ARe’s closure is available in my original post when this all began on Dec. 28, 2016.
I hope this answers questions and helps others in their research of this romance publishing/retailer failure. If there is any other information available, you can be sure I’ll post it. Until then, keep writing and reading,
-Marilyn
Marilyn Vix 