Bookbub used to love me. Sigh. Those days are sadly long gone. They accepted me the first four times (!) I applied, though this was back in 2013. I thought it would continue forever. But since then, I've applied 43 times and...nothing! (Actually, I've probably applied more times than that, because I think their author dashboards only go back to 2015. So let's say I've been rejected 60 or 70 times, or even more). It's all the more painful because, as I said, they used to always accept me.
The problem is one of two things. The last promo they did for me, they somehow didn't list the book on Barnes & Noble, and I wrote (politely) and told them this. But I think somehow they didn't want to hear from an author that they made a mistake. Because, since that email, I've never gotten a promo again.
Or!! It might be this: I see they've recently added 'readers' ratings,' and I was shocked when I first saw this a few weeks ago...because my first book (which they featured three times) has 58 ratings...with a 2.81 average! Ugh! I know why, though. Some of their readers are VERY vocal about books with bad language, and mine are, I admit, littered with expletives. After those Bookbubs, the book was inundated with one star reviews--'vulgar!' 'disgusting!'--(and I am still struggling to raise the rating on Amazon from that ancient flurry of post-Bookbub one stars, but as we know reviews are far and few between these days). I guess they think I'm not a good fit for their readers (and, hmm, I guess it's true. But how large of a percentage of their subscribers can really have a thing against bad language? It seems strange to me, in 2018. I think most books I read tend to have some.)
I'll say this, though. Someone wrote on here that a Bookbub today isn't as successful as it used to be, and the tail isn't so long anymore. Without Bookbub, and through different promo sites, this year has been my best year ever, in copies sold and money made. So there's hope without Bookbub, Jan. And...I will keep applying, but I'm happy I found a way through the depressing scenario of being rejected again and again and again. It's so much worse, maybe, to have continually been accepted, and then never again, as opposed to never having been accepted in the first place. I feel, all these years later, and with each rejection, ss if a friend suddenly betrayed me. (Or...as if I had offended a friend somehow and didn't know why, and they refuse to tell me why...)
