Saturday, April 2, 2016

B is for BookBub

No, not Bubba

For anyone who didn't see my theme posts, this month I will be bringing up a tool for book marketing or promotion and asking all of YOU for experiences, knowledge, and ideas.

So what is BookBub?

I learned about it from my neighbor... she asked me if I'd heard of it, then proceeded to tell me about how she would go and get free and cheap books...

FREE BOOKS!

Now we don't want to give ALL our books away, but a high profile site to give away one or two so people want to buy our OTHER ones is a great idea.

What I don't know... what I hope some of YOU might be able to help with, is: 

HOW DOES ONE GET THEIR BOOKS ON BOOKBUB!?  

Anybody know the process? 

How much does it help sales?

Have you done this? How was the experience?


And because this is a group event, don't forget to go visit OTHER A to Z bloggers this month!

24 comments:

Cynthia said...

Sometimes I see bloggers doing online events where they are offering to give away their books.

Ted Cross said...

Bookbub was the ONLY thing that ever worked to get my book noticed. It put my sci-fi novel at #1 in both Cyberpunk and Technothriller on Amazon for three days last October, and I hit #9 overall in Science Fiction. As far as I can tell it's the only truly effective advertising that is affordable to indie writers.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Hart - I'm not doing the A-Z .. but I'm going to enjoy your series and learn from everyone's answer ... Cheers Hilary

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

My publisher used BookBub to promote a ninety-nine cent sale of Cassafire a couple years ago. It hit number one in science fiction and was in the top two hundred overall. But they said it's become very difficult to get a book into BookBub and the price has tripled, so they probably won't ever use the service again.

Fran Clark said...

I've also heard it's very difficult to get your book accepted by them. I didn't know there was a fee but I'm curious to find out how much. Good luck with trying to get to grips with them!
Fran
@FranClarkAuthor
Writing Women’s Fiction

Tasha Duncan-Drake said...

I'm not too sure about BookBud, I've only poked at it and I'm still looking over their FAQ. Sorry.
Tasha
Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)

Rajlakshmi said...

haven't heard of this before... Free books! that's awesome... let me see if I can find more information

Visiting from A to Z Challenge
Pam's Unconventional Alliance Team
A Whimsical Medley
Twinkle Eyed Traveller

Yolanda Renée said...

Just know it's hard to get into, but worth the effort, I hear. Good luck!

H. R. Sinclair said...

Good to know from the comments if worked. I saw on their site a link at the bottom for "Submit New Deal". I suspect that's it, but you have to have an account to continue.

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Sorry, Ted, it's not very affordable now. $500 to list your book? Like Net Galley, it got way too big for its britches and now charges rates that only the larger publishers can afford. Plus they got uber-picky.

Scarlett Braden said...

I personally have not done a book bub yet, but have several friends who have. As for price it depends on if your book is free or how much it's selling for and what genre your book is in. Their price is set by genre based on how many subscribers they have for that genre. Everyone I know that has gotten a bookbub ad says it really paid off, BUT you must have other books for it to pay off. For instance, if you have a series of 3 books, the first one you give away on Bookbub and give away 10,000 copies, then you will sell the books 2 and 3. If you don't have a book 2 and 3 you make nothing and the ads are in the hundreds of dollars. I know several best Selling authors who are rejected over and over for book bub ads. But if you can get one, and have other books, it's well worth it.

@ScarlettBraden from
Frankly Scarlett

Jan Morrison said...

Don't know about this but will check it out for sure. Sounds interesting.

Jan Morrison this crazy writing life

Ted Cross said...

Diane, I say affordable because unlike other ads I have done, Bookbub easily paid back what I paid into it. Yes, if you do a free book then it's unlikely your return will help you unless you get a lot of buy-through into a series, but with the .99 sale I made around $3000 off of a $520 charge. I consider that affordable.

Karen Baldwin said...

Bookbub? Never heard of it, but it sounds like a geat idea.

T. Powell Coltrin said...

Sounds like a good way to get noticed if one can afford it and get a return on it.

T

Hart Johnson said...

Oh, YAY! Some good information gathered, here! Thanks to those of you with specific experience!!!

Anonymous said...

I haven't used it as an author but I have used Book Bub as a consumer and I love it. Of course, I already have 100 unread books on my shelf, so I shouldn't be acquiring more, but I can't help myself. As a consumer note, even when books are free on Book Bub, I won't get them if they don't interest me. And I'm equally likely to get one of the $.99 or $1.99 books as a free one.

THE KATY said...

I definitely subscribe to BookBub to get free or cheap book deals. I've heard from some authors that they can be very picky about who they choose, but I don't know from first-hand experience.

:)
-Katy from THE KATY blog
http://thekatyblog.com/

Unknown said...

I would really love to put my book up for free for a short time but then I think about the people who have already paid for it and wonder how they'd feel. Maybe I could do it on a different platform like BookBub. Visiting from A-Z challenge :)

NIV said...

I've gotten books from BookBub before, but after a while all the emails are simply exhausting. Still, as a way to market yourself and your books, I can see the value. Good luck with it!

@niicki from OfftheBeatenPlan.com & IVEYbooks.com

Think Positive, Be Positive said...

Hi there!

I’m stopping by from the #AtoZChallenge. I've always wondered if BookBub really worked for authors. Interesting post!

I have two blogs in this challenge…my author blog at THE STORY CATCHER (www.donnalmartin.com) and my KICKS Kids Club blog (www.kickskidsclub.blogspot.com.

If you get a chance, check them out and good luck with the challenge!

Yvonne Ventresca said...

I don't have any advice about bookbub, but love the theme!

I'm blogging about productivity for creative people this month.
Happy A to Zing!
Yvonne

Unknown said...

Good to know

Chrys Fey said...

I had looked into Bookbub and I remember it would've cost me a LOT of money to advertise one of my romantic-suspense books. I decided not to use them for that reason, although they say you can make that back but I didn't want to take the chance of being out hundreds of dollars.