What is StoryOrigin and what is it good for? Most veteran authors are familiar with the necessity to have a persistent strategy of building up their email list used in promotional campaigns. The site StoryOrigin fits in perfectly in that strategy as it can help even the most novice writers to get their email campaign off the floor. But before we get off any further, maybe the best way to review the StoryOrigin is to answer a few basic questions about its purpose and functionality.

What is StoryOrigin? It’s an author’s promotional site used for the end-purpose of attracting new readers. There are a number of tools that the site offers to its subscribers. You attract new readers by giving away free samples of your book. If you choose not the give away the whole book, you can make a preview, featuring the first few chapters. Each time a reader downloads your book, they do not only provide you with their email addresses but also confirm their readiness to accept your future promotional emails, employing that you would not be spamming them in the future. Naturally, they can just as easily unsubscribe from your list, the indication that they are really not interested in your work.

How do I use StoryOrigin?

The site address is storyoriginapp.com. To register and login, all you need is an email address. The message will be sent to you and you use a link in that message to log into the site, confirming your identity.

Once you log in, the best first place to go is the tutorials. These are short videos that clearly demonstrate the site features and capabilities. When I first logged in, I made a mistake and skipped on this step and it took me a good while to properly orient myself. It’s easy to get overwhelmed here because there is just so much that the authors can do with this site.

But basically, you use:

Reader Magnet – you upload a book you want to give away. It’s a straight forward process which, if you have already published a book, does not need to take more than five to ten minutes. You put in the book’s cover and blurb. You can also upload a preview of your book which is very useful if your book is in KindleUnlimited and you agreed to an exclusivity clause. You will use Reader’s Magnet for joining Group Promos Giveaways.

Universal Book Links – here you link to all the places you are selling your books. This is intended for participating in Group Promos Sales or KindleUnlimited.

Sometimes, there are also group promos for gaining book reviews and you can also create here a Review Copies for that purpose.

Direct Downloads are used for just giving your book away without the requirement of the reader to provide their email address, meaning they will not be automatically added to your subscription list.

After you uploaded your targeted book material, you need to create your mailing list campaign. Here you state how many subscribers you have and when you intend to send your campaigns. It is all very straight forward. And the good part is that many new authors can start with zero. No minimums are required on many group giveaways.

Now, after you set up your book and created your email campaign, you can proceed to join group giveaways. Once you find the ones that suit you, make sure you read the instructions of the organizers. They have the sole right to grant you or deny you the participation in their giveaway, meaning that if you do not follow their instructions, you might not be accepted or you might be kicked out of the ongoing giveaway. I have organized a few giveaways and I have kicked out people who chose not to follow the instructions, so pay attention to that.

All this process does not need to take more than an hour or two of your time. My learning curve was a bit longer since I chose to figure things out on my own rather than watch those useful learning tutorials.

How much does StoryOrigin cost? StroyOrigin is currently free. It is stated that it is still in the beta version, but it is fully operational site with no glitches that I found. The owner of the site stated that eventually he plans to charge a small fee for its usage, but as of right now, it is all free.

Is StoryOrigin really worth it? Absolutely. And not just because you get to increase your mailing list. It is also a great place to get connected with other authors. You can also use it to see how responsive the readers are to your work. It’s a good way to know if your series is on the right track before you devote more time to writing it or spend financial resources promoting it. Take my example. I uploaded two different series on the site. Both of them had a professionally done book covers and were getting the same number of subscribers. But one was getting three times the amount of sales of other books in the series and a much lower rate of a subscription cancellation, clearly indicating that I should concentrate on that series alone.

Can I grow my email list on StoryOrigin? You certainly can. Naturally, the most important factor is the quality of your book cover and your blurb. The competition is stiff and your book will be side-by-side with some of them that populate top-selling lists.

Will I get any book sales if I join Group Giveaways? Yes, but you will not get rich from that. In my experience, most books that sell through Sale Group Promos are priced at $0.99. Longer books with more pages sell better than the shorter ones, most likely because readers perceive they are getting a better bargain that way and the fact that most readers like to read longer works. My own sell-through rate varies widely and ranges anywhere from one per three clicks to one per ten clicks. Books that are priced over 2.99 can also sell, but I found that I need a hundred click-through-rate to sell one book. So, it comes to what you want. Do you want to sell five to ten books at $0.99 or one at $3.99? The well-established authors might have a different answer than the ones who are just starting out.

How does StoryOrigin stack up against other similar sites, like ProlificWorks and Bookfunnel? As of right now, Story Origin is my favorite by far, not just because it is free but because of so many tools it has as well as the number of authors who employ it. The detailed review of how it stacks against its competition requires the whole post on its own.