BookBub. What was your experience?

I dream of one day joining the elite authors who get a Bookbub, the holy grail of book marketing... :-)

I wish that it wasn't so difficult to get accepted though I admit I've had a pretty decent track record with being accepted. The reason I wish it wasn't so hard is because if I could I'd spend all my money on a BB for each book. ROFL! With BB, you don't need any other promotion. It is that good. I'd base my promo just on BB features if I had the power to.

My advice to getting a Bookbub is first off, don't believe the review thing. That is a myth. Many of my books don't have tons of reviews. The first book that got accepted had 9 reviews and that was last year and even after a BB and now that it's permafree it still only has 9 reviews. Most of my books have good ratings and maybe that helps but the review thing is not true at all. I don't know where the rumor came from that you gotta have tons of reviews to get a BB, it's not true.

Yes, it's best to be wide. You CAN get a BB in KU but they do prefer wide books and they tell you this flat out. Wide brings in more for them and they have tons of readers who buy on stores outside of Amazon. So if you are in KU and have a book coming out or a series, I'd definitely go wide and see if I could get a Bookbub because your chances of getting a BB soars when you are wide. I know several authors who couldn't get a BB to save their life when in KU and once they got out, they started getting them.

Also, submit a permafree if you can because it can do wonders for a series.

One more thing, don't let fear stop you. I did. I went forever for not trying for a Bookbub because I'd convinced myself there was no way I'd ever get one and I got one on my first try! So whatever happens, don't be afraid to submit. You never know what happens and if you get one, most likely you won't regret it. 

Maybe they're hoping the higher prices will lessen their workload a bit, since fewer authors will submit. Or maybe they figure they can justify it since they're soooo popular, and are greedy. The thing with raisin prices is that even if you lose customers you can often still make more money, depending on how high you raise them. It sucks for us indies though that don't have that kind of coin. But maybe it will pave the way for a new kid on the block to come along and take their place!

I got yet another rejection from BookBub this morning. All my books are in KU, so my chances are probably low, but I keep trying. And for some reason, keep thinking that I have a chance. Maybe I'll try going wide some day. I noticed the new higher prices. It was kind of a relief to not get accepted this time since I'd have to come up with all that cash!

*hugs* and yaays for saving money.

If you really want to spend money to promo your KU books, AMS ads are likely the better option.

Yeah, they've raised their prices again since about a month or so ago!

More than half my royalties are from KU, plus it seems like a lot of work to go wide, but I might still try it. I'm not sure how effective BookBubs will be if the prices keep going up. I've noticed other newsletter prices going up too.

I just got my 7th Bookbub which will take place in a few days. This one is a 99 cent promo. I had one a few months ago for a permafree book. I'd promoted it through BB before last year. For my last 99 cent BB promo it did VERY well. I made the Barnes and Noble bestseller list and stayed there for a few months straight. I also just scored three promotions with Barnes and Noble. Two for permafree titles and another for the book I am doing the Bookbub 99 cent promo for. I never thought I'd be picked for a B&N promo let alone three at one time. Those B&N promos do great. The rankings on the two free books are as good as if I had a Bookbub for them.

All I have to say is keep trying and don't give up. BB is worth it and I find the results are even better in stores outside Amazon because the tail is much longer there.

Also, if you are wide don't sleep on the promos with those retailers. All offer in-house promotions and it's good to at least try for them. With Barnes and Noble and Kobo, you have to be accepted for the promotions and you have to be direct with them. For Apple, you have to be direct for their major promos but you can do promo codes if you aren't direct. You can get the codes from Draft 2 Digital. Google Play also have promotions that you can set yourself but again you have to be direct.

Thanks for the update, writeway! It's good to know it still works. And congrats on your promo doing so well!!!!

I've gotten at least 20 promos. Always good. However, the last one wasn't as good as it used to be. The market is maturing, and is heavily saturated, so instead of stratospheric 10,000% ROIs, we'll be counting our ROIs in the tens or hundreds from now on--which is still pretty good and eminently desirable. I've seldom heard of anyone reporting not breaking even, except on the new paid New Release notices, which don't seem to be very effective at anything by 99c.

Much Luckage writeway in building your email list. How did your BookBub go?

My plan is completely finish TCOK, publish, and then dedicate the rest of my life to promoting it. *titters*

I'll start with social media, build my list, and try and make sure my books are listed everywhere they are allowed to be listed. I'll try buying ads later if I sell any copies.

Is your avi an xmen character?

writeway,Sorry your bookbub tanked! If they were free it wouldn't matter so much. I wonder if they still do refunds if results are disappointing? They're prolly too big to do stuff like that now. Yaays for doing well back in August!

I think Storm looks really cool! She's a terrific avatar! I've seen several of the xmen movies, but my mind wanders a lot because I have trouble following action scenes. But I still like watching as many of the superhero things as I can. Even if I don't remember a thing about them two hours later. *haha*

I'll have to see if any of the xmen cartoons have that Storm in them, or if she's just a comics character.

Superman has always been my least favorite superhero. But then I'm not into dudes so that doesn't help. I was a kid for most of the 80s, but I don't really remember any of it. My memories don't really kick in until the 90s when I turned 7. So I consider myself a 90s kid.

I'm still all in with KU, and I don't regret it yet. I just really like watching the cents roll in, and hearing the kaching. I'm really unclear as to whether I am losing or making more than I did when wide. I think I'm about even, really. I may be missing out on a little that I would have gotten from D2D, but D2D has no kachings, so I don't care.

I recently had a hard drive crash and lost half of my publishing folder, including all of my records. So I'll have to go back and redo them all at some point. Fugglespreff. But my highest months when wide was $60, and this month I'm at $53.10, so that's pretty good. For me.

I know that being wide is the safest option. And being partly KU and partly wide is likely the smartest. But for now I'm still digging the daily Kachings.