[Promotion] BookBub

Absolutely not a scam. Can be very, very good in some genres, and moderately good in others.

A lot of self-published romance writers swear by it. It doesn't work as well for trad-pubbed authors because the readers who use it are looking for bargains well below normal trade pricing. It's definitely not a scam.

One of my books was heavily discounted last month and I took out a paid ad, where you only get charged if people click on it. I didn't spend much but I got a few hundred sales out of it.

Actually, publishers have been using it themselves a great deal--which has caused much grumbling among self-published writers.

Marissa D said:

Actually, publishers have been using it themselves a great deal--which has caused much grumbling among self-published writers.

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I actually saw a Big Five publisher use it the other day. I thought that was weird - especially as most people using the site are looking for books under $2.

But you're really not going to find many Random Penguin authors there. It still is mostly authors who can set their own prices low enough to get "daily deal" promotions.

edit: I'll elaborate. I saw "Carina Adores" - the new Harlequin/HarperCollins imprint - advertising on BookBub. However, when my ebooks are priced at $6, of course I can't compete with indie authors who set their own prices. And I get a daily BookBub email, and everything is about 99 cents.

I use Bookbub as one of my searches for new books and I've found some really great reads there—both self-published and trade published. This thread intrigued me since I do use Bookbub so what you're about to read is ONE (avid) reader's opinions and thoughts about using that marketing tool:

1. Bookbub is kind of pricey; therefore, you definitely want to get the best value for your marketing dollars. Bookbub's featured deals pricing here.
   
2. There's a lot of so-called conventional wisdom out there regarding using Bookbub to its best advantage. Some of that info is covered by Bookbub Insights, some of it is off Bookbub. I recommend researching both.
   
3. This reader's experience using Bookbub differs slightly from some of those recommendations. For instance, from what I could tell the recommendation for garnering interest in your series is to discount your first-in-series but leave the rest of the series priced at the regular price. I agree with the latter but not necessarily the former. I've found in my buying habits that the first book in the series might not necessarily interest me enough to make the commitment to the full series. But . . . BUT a knock-my-socks-off later book in the series will, without fail, cause me to not only buy it but also the preceding books at the same time so I can read them in order. (Trade publishers seem to do that a lot on Bookbub, so really do pay attention to the reviews on each book in your series when selecting one to put up on Bookbub. YMMV)
   
4. If, on the other hand, you've only written one book so far consider using Bookbub ONLY if the reviews you've garnered are good. Otherwise, concentrate instead on writing your next and better book.
   
5. If you've written several standalone books, consider putting the best-reviewed/best selling one up on Bookbub. Doing so is more likely to pique interest in your other books.

Again, those are one reader's thoughts and opinions.

Sonya Heaney said:

I actually saw a Big Five publisher use it the other day. I thought that was weird - especially as most people using the site are looking for books under $2.

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My publisher ran my books there a number of times. I was told it almost always produces a nice sales bump.

So yeah, not a scam.

When most people say "BookBub" what they mean is a BookBub feature deal, but there are also ads, and you can recommend and post reviews on the website, I think. Definitely not a scam.

Feature deals are for free or cheap books. Your book will appear in a daily e-mail sent out to LOTS (the numbers are big) readers. When I see Big Five publishers use it, it's more often for cheap books, not free.

In my subgenre (contemporary romance), a feature deal for a free book is EXPENSIVE (still cheaper than a feature deal for a non-free book, though). Many hundreds of dollars. From the sounds of it, most people do recoup their money, but not everyone does. Many recommend trying to get a BookBub--and I say try, because I think t heir acceptance rate is something like 20%--on the first book in a series, then make your money back on sell through to later books. Readers who would not otherwise hear of you may see your book in a BookBub e-mail and click. This will also cause your Amazon rankings to sore, and then other people who look at the top 100 list on Amazon and such will see your book.

(the only time I applied for a feature deal, I was rejected, but I recently used a bunch of similar services with smaller audiences than Bookbub, but similar idea, for a different book. That was Book 2 in the series, and I probably had enough sales from Book 1 to make my money back already)

As a reader, I get a daily BookBub email (as well as Early Bird Books). As Ari says, I have found some absolute gems on there.

One thing I've noticed is that when they have big name authors on there, it's never that author's big sellers. I suspect the strategy is to bump sales by the reader saying "Oh, I liked her other book, I'll try this one on sale I've never heard of" when there is no chance I would have purchased it otherwise. Not a bad strategy for a backlist or as a teaser for a series.