OMG!
After years of applying, I FINALLY SCORED AN ALL-REGIONS BOOKBUB!!!
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, let me explain. Inclusion in the BookBub Featured Deals newsletter is the Holy Grail of book advertising. Actually getting one is roughly as difficult as getting a publisher. You can make your own BB ads for a small price, which will be seen by a small number of people, but getting into their weekly newsletter, sent to over 5 million subscribers, is what all book marketers aspire to.
Take a read of this post from Dan Koboldt to see more about the numbers involved, and why authors regularly subject themselves to potential disappointment in their efforts to score a place on the BB newsletter.
There is no feedback on rejection, so you will have absolutely no idea why your book didn’t qualify, although they do cite general reasons as:
- Cover not professional enough
- Reviews not good enough
- Blurb not up to scratch
- Your discount isn’t significant enough (you need to have your book on sale, or free)
- They have already accepted something similar to yours
- Your book won’t appeal to their readers
Now, you can do something about the first few. The rest, not so much. So, once you are sure your cover and blurb are professional, and you have enough good reviews (you don’t need heaps, just good feedback), all you can do is keep applying.
You can apply once a month, and many people do just that – big publishing houses as well as indie publishers. I apply about four or five times a year, and I’ve been fortunate to twice get an International BookBub (all regions except the US), the first one of which netted me 1000 sales in a week at $0.99. This is most effective for first in series, because if a significant number of readers like book #1, they go on to buy the others at full price, and I have a very high read-through rate in my series.
But an all-regions? Including the US? Think double the numbers.
BookBub are NOT cheap! Eye-watering, in fact. Each genre is priced according to popularity.
I realise that needs glasses, or a magnifying glass. If you want to take a closer look, see the entire price list HERE, starting at $1138 for the top genre, crime fiction.
My genre, fantasy, for a $0.99 book, all regions, has a $704 price tag!
On the plus side, the average number of sales in my category is 1860. At 35c (Amazon only pays out one third of the sale price) that should bring in $651, and then you go on into full price sales for the rest of the series. PLUS, the ranking of your book goes way up, making it far more visible on Amazon with, hopefully, a long tail of continued sales for some time after the ad day. The tail doesn’t seem to be as long-lasting as it used to be (my first one continued for over a month, with THE PRINCE’S MAN reaching #1 in Australia and Canada, and #2 in the UK in epic fantasy, which is a hot, hot, hot category), but I can always hope.
D-day this time is December 6th, and THE PRINCE’S MAN will be on sale from December 1st – 10th at $0.99, so when the time comes, any help spreading the word will be gratefully received!
deborahjay 
Reblogged this on Sue Vincent's Daily Echo.
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Thanks Sue đ
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My pleasure, Debby đ
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đ
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Debbbbb congrats!!!!! Amazing for you. Persistence paid off, and ouchee, you paid a handsome fee. Bookbub is so expensive! Congrats to you my friend! Let us know how you make out after the promo! â€
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Thanks Deb! I’ve been after one of these ever since I started to dabble in paid advertising. So far it’s always paid off, but with the price tag, we shall see!
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Yes. I know you have persisted with BB. I hope it pays handsomely. â€
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Thank you đ
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Congrats, Deborah! That’s wonderful. I’m so intimidated by the price tag. Yikes. But I’ve heard that it’s worth it. Can’t wait to hear your results. đ
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Their prices are highly intimidating, but by all accounts they usually pay off. I think I’ve been lucky to have the two ‘dry runs’ so to speak, with the International BBs which are considerably cheaper, though not by any means cheap! They have given me the confidence to tackle this waaaay more expensive one.
I will be reporting in due course, with all the figures – I do like my figures â€
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I wish you loads of luck!
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Cheers!
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Congratulations, Deborah!
I hope you need to build a new barn to hold all the scads and oodles of cash that is gonna come pouring in. I hope!
That’s fantastic news. Your perseverance has paid off.
Happy Sales and Happy Trails!
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Mmm, lovely idea, thank you Icky â€
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Congratulations!
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Thank you!
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Good going!
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Cheers!
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