BookBub Featured Deal Questions

[S.B.Williams]

Hi all,

First real post here, and hoping to get some insight from those of you experienced with BookBub.

I finally got my first BookBub Featured Deal on the first book in my newest series; scheduled for December 20.

With my older two series both starting as trad-pubbed books, I couldn't even apply for a BookBub for the first in series with those, but there are currently four books in this newer series and I'm about to put the fifth on a 90-day preorder so that I'll be able to include the link to it inside all the other books in advance of the BookBub.

All the books in the series are priced at $3.99 and have been since launch. The BookBub deal for Book One is a $.99 deal and I've also stacked a few smaller promos in front and behind the day of the BookBub.

The entire series is also in Kindle Unlimited, and yes, I was surprised the book got accepted regardless of that.

My biggest question is how to best take advantage of this to maximize sell-through and page reads of the rest of the series?

I've read some posts that recommend keeping the sequels at full price, others say run a Kindle Countdown Deal on them all, for maybe 4 days after the BookBub promo. I can see how either strategy would have advantages and disadvantages. I've never done any price reductions on any of these books as they have been selling at full price and getting good numbers of page reads. If it would generate more sales and reads in the long run though, I've considered doing a .99 countdown deal on all of them from the 20th-24th, or possibly even to the 27th.

The featured Book One will have to be manually reduced to .99, as the BookBub is an international deal and I can't use the countdown for all the countries. I'll only get 35% royalties on that one but with the rest in countdowns or at full price, that should make up for it, especially with the extra page reads that will surely come in the next couple of months to follow.

Any better advice from those of you who have scored BookBub Featured Deals in the past? I'm super-excited to have landed this deal for this particular series, especially with four books available and a fifth on the way. The story arc will probably take it to seven books before it's done and this is bound to be a boost.

[David VanDyke]

After about 20 Bookbubs, I've come to believe that the book 2 should be 3.99 and the rest whatever you want to price them. Once they've read book 1, the price will not matter very much to their decision as long as it's in the normal range. I've found trying to give them a deal on book 2 just makes them greedy for another cheap deal and another. I've had people write and whine that book 3 is normal price and can I give them a discount. Best to go straight to normal price and stay there. The deal was to introduce them to your series, not to condition them to be whiny about price.

[notthatamanda]

Not specific to bookbub but I have found people are way more tolerant of pricing than I anticipated.  When I went wide this year I started raising the prices slowly on the second and third books in my trilogies.  Read through stayed pretty constant.   People have said in reviews that they are not moving on to book 2, for various reasons, but not price, unless they want it free.  Some people want the whole series to be free period, but those are free or nothing people.


Congrats on the book bub!   

[S.B.Williams]

After about 20 Bookbubs, I've come to believe that the book 2 should be 3.99 and the rest whatever you want to price them. Once they've read book 1, the price will not matter very much to their decision as long as it's in the normal range. I've found trying to give them a deal on book 2 just makes them greedy for another cheap deal and another. I've had people write and whine that book 3 is normal price and can I give them a discount. Best to go straight to normal price and stay there. The deal was to introduce them to your series, not to condition them to be whiny about price.

Thanks for sharing your experience, David. Keeping the rest of the series full price at $3.99 was my first thought anyway when I found out I had landed the Bookbub for book 1. I considered the countdown deals on the restl only because I read some blog posts and other forum posts about various strategies others have tried. I've never done any perm-free or priced any of my books below $2.99, and only one prequel to an older series is at that price. All my other indie titles are at $3.99 or $4.99. Coming from traditional publishing a few years ago where all the books are typically $9.99, I didn't see much reason to price anything at the lowest possible price points.

Since this Bookbub is a first, I want to maximize the effects, of course. I hope that since the entire series is in KU the new visibility of book 1 because of the Bookbub will generate a lot of page reads too. Today I'm working on finalizing the preorder file for book 5 in the series so I can set it to go live in advance of the deal and include the link in the first four books.

[S.B.Williams]

Not specific to bookbub but I have found people are way more tolerant of pricing than I anticipated.  When I went wide this year I started raising the prices slowly on the second and third books in my trilogies.  Read through stayed pretty constant.   People have said in reviews that they are not moving on to book 2, for various reasons, but not price, unless they want it free.  Some people want the whole series to be free period, but those are free or nothing people.


Congrats on the book bub!   

Thanks, and your experience matches mine. I've experimented some with price changes between $4.99 and $2.99 on my older series and saw little difference in sales. The new series has done great since the launch of book 1 with all of them at a consistent $3.99. I picked $3.99 in that case because it is the most popular price point in the genre. I've also done full-price preorders on every book in the series as well.

[VanessaC]

Congratulations on the BookBub!  Sounds like you're really organised with the additional promos. I hope it goes really well - please come back and let us know.

I haven't had a BookBub yet, but when I ran a Freebooksy on my first in series at the end of August, there was a good pick up in KU page reads and a nice tail when the book came off free and back to paid (0.99).

I'm about to experiment with a free run on Book 1 next week, and a Kindle Countdown deal on book 2 - this is just an experiment, to see what happens.  I figured if I had the tools there in KU, I might as well use them.  Will put the fifth and final book in series up on long pre-order at the same time.  Again, experimenting. 

[David VanDyke]

I've never done any perm-free or priced any of my books below $2.99, ... I didn't see much reason to price anything at the lowest possible price points.

Permafree accesses another whole market--those who will only try a new author with a free book. It's been the key to me making a living. It's the trickle that eventually fills the ocean. Once you feel as if you've tapped out the 99c discount market and your series stagnates (which tends to happen eventually) you need either constant low-level ads to get people to buy that book 1 at full price (3.99), or you need to go permafree and start using the options that gives you to do promos, including BB of course.

The point of windowing is to access all market segments. Cinema to DVD to pay-per-view to streaming, and the leftover DVDs go into the bargain bins as well. Studios wring every cent out of every market segment that way. Authors should too, yet so many seem afraid to take that last step to permafree--or even pulsed free, which can be good too. But as long as there are at least (IMO) four more books to buy in the series, and the sell-thru is good, it's crazy to hold back from something that might make you a lot of money and gain a lot of new readers--usually, I've found, for self-admitted emotional, not rational reasons.

[S.B.Williams]

Congratulations on the BookBub!  Sounds like you're really organised with the additional promos. I hope it goes really well - please come back and let us know.

I haven't had a BookBub yet, but when I ran a Freebooksy on my first in series at the end of August, there was a good pick up in KU page reads and a nice tail when the book came off free and back to paid (0.99).

I'm about to experiment with a free run on Book 1 next week, and a Kindle Countdown deal on book 2 - this is just an experiment, to see what happens.  I figured if I had the tools there in KU, I might as well use them.  Will put the fifth and final book in series up on long pre-order at the same time.  Again, experimenting. 

Thanks, and I will come back and post the results! One of the extra promos I stacked around the Bookbub was a Bargainbooksy at the same $.99 price.

Good luck with your Kindle Countdown experiment and your preorder. I always do pre-orders on all my new releases, usually for the full 90-days.

[David VanDyke]

Today I'm working on finalizing the preorder file for book 5 in the series so I can set it to go live in advance of the deal and include the link in the first four books.

I would have the preorder running, but go live (published) AFTER the deal runs--2-3 days. Most people won't read 4 books in 3 days, so you won't be upsetting anyone, and you'll squeeze a few more days on the HNR lists out of it. You will also get more people to click that big orange follow button before going live triggers the Amazon announcement.

You should also put in a reasonable-size teaser (1K-2K words or so, no more) into each book 1-4, to get them interested immediately, with buy links before and after the teaser.

[S.B.Williams]

Permafree accesses another whole market--those who will only try a new author with a free book. It's been the key to me making a living. It's the trickle that eventually fills the ocean. Once you feel as if you've tapped out the 99c discount market and your series stagnates (which tends to happen eventually) you need either constant low-level ads to get people to buy that book 1 at full price (3.99), or you need to go permafree and start using the options that gives you to do promos, including BB of course.

The point of windowing is to access all market segments. Cinema to DVD to pay-per-view to streaming, and the leftover DVDs go into the bargain bins as well. Studios wring every cent out of every market segment that way. Authors should too, yet so many seem afraid to take that last step to permafree--or even pulsed free, which can be good too. But as long as there are at least (IMO) four more books to buy in the series, and the sell-thru is good, it's crazy to hold back from something that might make you a lot of money and gain a lot of new readers--usually, I've found, for self-admitted emotional, not rational reasons.

Yes, I can see that permafree has its place, and I know lots of well-established authors such as yourself use it to good effect. I am not opposed to using it for non-rational reasons, it's just that my catalog is not deep enough yet. I have two series that started with traditionally-published books, so I can't do anything with those, although I did write prequel to one that I might try permafree with.

The other series and the one for which I just got the Bookbub is my main earner and there are currently just four books out with the fifth coming soon. Maybe when that series is finished with 6 or 7 books and I have a new one started I could go back and try permafree on Book 1. I know I'll get a lot more traction once have more than one series that I control from beginning to end.

[S.B.Williams]

I would have the preorder running, but go live (published) AFTER the deal runs--2-3 days. Most people won't read 4 books in 3 days, so you won't be upsetting anyone, and you'll squeeze a few more days on the HNR lists out of it. You will also get more people to click that big orange follow button before going live triggers the Amazon announcement.

You should also put in a reasonable-size teaser (1K-2K words or so, no more) into each book 1-4, to get them interested immediately, with buy links before and after the teaser.

Interesting strategy regarding the preorder. The Bookbub is on the 20th, so 2-3 days after is going to be right before Christmas. If the preorder goes live then and I announce it to my mailing list, I wonder if that's a less than optimum time for the open rate? What about the missed chance to have the link to the preorder page inside all those copies of Book 1 that will get into the hands of new readers because of the Bookbub? I supposed I could link it instead to the Coming Soon page of my website and maximize new newsletter signups that way?

I think I will go back and put the teaser material in. I used to have it in all my series books but took it out a few months ago in favor of just the cover image for the next book with a direct Amazon link under.

[David VanDyke]

The Bookbub is on the 20th, so 2-3 days after is going to be right before Christmas. If the preorder goes live then and I announce it to my mailing list, I wonder if that's a less than optimum time for the open rate?

What about the missed chance to have the link to the preorder page inside all those copies of Book 1 that will get into the hands of new readers because of the Bookbub? I supposed I could link it instead to the Coming Soon page of my website and maximize new newsletter signups that way?

I feel like there's a terminology problem here. In my world, which I like to think is the consensus of indie-dom over the last few years (since I've been active on forums for years and post several times a day and have read thousands of posts), (but I may be wrong!)..."a pre-order goes live" means the pre-order period has ended and the book is now live for immediate purchase.

It appears to me from my reading of your post that what you're actually talking about is for the book to be published in pre-order, rather than "going live." Live is "I can buy the book and start reading it right now."

But again, I may be wrong about YOUR intended meaning.

In any case, IMEO (in my expert opinion, yes, I'm willing to claim that) the optimum strategy is this:

- Publish the book 5 in pre-order status 2 weeks before the Bookbub. Publish the final draft, finished and perfect. Make the live date 2-3 days after the Bookbub. You could set the price at a discount for your mailing list people if you like. I suggest 2.99. Then don't touch it.

- 1-2 days after you push the button to create the pre-order, you should be able to get the link from KDP. You don't need to have the book go live for that. Just use the "View on Amazon" function and it will take you to the sales page, where  you can get the link.

- Put that link in all your live books, especially in Book 4 for a "buy now" button. The link won't change; it will always take you to the book sales page whether in pre-order or live. In other words, there is no such thing as a "pre-order page." It's the sales page, no matter what status the book is in. As soon as you get that link, you can put it in all the books and be confident the same link will take them to the same page all the time, where it will be live on its live date.

-Announce the book 5 being published in pre-order to your mailing list, 1 week-ish before your Bookbub. Tell them it's at a discount until it goes live, if it is. DO NOT change the price until it goes live, upon pain of disaster. I did that once. Bad idea jeans. Don't touch it until it's live for sure.

- If you discounted the book in pre-order, once it's live, you can update the price to be hat you want it to be permanently. I like to do a 2.99 pre-order for my mailing list, and bump it up to 3.99 or 4.99 once it goes live.

Does that clarify things?

[S.B.Williams]

Thank you for the detailed clarification, David. Yes, you are right, I was not on the same page as you regarding the terminology. When I referred to making the preorder "live" I meant hitting publish to take it from "draft" status to the actual "available to preorder now" status with an Amazon product page. I understand now that you meant making it "live" as in available to download now. So I will now refer to what I meant before as "publish to preorder."

With that clarified, what I usually do is publish to preorder shortly after the release of the previous book in the series and then write and edit the new book during the 90-day preorder period. This has worked well for me over the last 12 books and I haven't missed a deadline yet, although it does create pressure as the release date draws near.

In this case, the Bookbub acceptance was totally unexpected after several prior rejections, and it happened quick, with the featured deal scheduled for next week (December 20). Due to a death in the family since Book 4 was released two months ago, I have just started on Book 5. If I publish to preorder as early as today, I'll have until March 8 to upload it for a March 12 release. The reason I'm considering going ahead and doing this is to make sure that the product page is created and that there is time to ask for it to be linked to the rest of the series and to get my description and everything else on the page in order before the 20th.

I can certainly see the advantage of your optimum strategy as explained above, making the finished book live 2-3 days after the Bookbub, but in this case I can't do that, since it is yet to be written.

If I do publish to preorder and get that link, I will send an announcement with that page link to my mailing list on Tuesday, the 18th, announcing Book 5 with the cover reveal and letting them know about the Bookbub on Book 1 in case they want to forward it to friends or whatever. I have done this with every release (sent the link as soon as it is published to preorder) and it always gets a couple hundred preorders shortly after the announcement. Then they seem to keep tricking in at several a day over the entire 90-day period. My list has grown significantly since the release of Book 4, so I think those numbers will get better.

I did read your post about losing a lot of preorders due to a price change midstream. Thanks for that warning, as I had also considered a similar strategy.

Again, thank you for all your detailed insight and taking the time to answer my questions.

(Edited to add: Obviously, I don't have to publish Book 5 to preorder now and could just wait until it is closer to ready, but I thought with the Bookbub and all those new readers coming into the series through Book 1, it would look better to have a 5-book series than a 4. It seems that with every book I add to this series, sales of all of them get a boost.)

[notthatamanda]

Hi all,

First real post here, and hoping to get some insight from those of you experienced with BookBub.

I finally got my first BookBub Featured Deal on the first book in my newest series; scheduled for December 20.

Are you on google play? What countries is your Bookbub for?  Only because I just got through adjusting my prices for my Bookbub.  You can't see the pricing in the other countries on Google.  I had to ask a Google rep to check them for me, then I found out that I had to check the include tax button to make it come to 99 cents.  I got it worked out fairly quickly, but it wasn't intuitive so I thought I'd let you know. Or maybe it is intuitive but just not for me, cause that's how it goes sometimes er, often.  Amanda

Edit to try to fix the quote thingy.

[S.B.Williams]

Are you on google play? What countries is your Bookbub for? 

Hi Amanda,

No, this series is all in Kindle Unlimited, which is another reason I was really surprised I got the Bookbub, as I know they prefer books that are wide.

It is both U.S. and international, but thankfully I can go in and adjust all the prices in one place through KDP. Thanks for the heads-up on Google Play though. I don't have anything published through them now, but I do have a couple of wide titles through some of the other sales channels offered by D2D.

[David VanDyke]

Right, well it sounds as if you have it well in hand.

[notthatamanda]

6 AM East Coast US here.   Man I wish I lived in California.

See you on the other side & best of luck.  Amanda

[S.B.Williams]

6 AM East Coast US here.   Man I wish I lived in California.

See you on the other side & best of luck.  Amanda

Yes, the day has arrived! Best of luck to you too! 06:44 here now in the central time zone.

[notthatamanda]

Hope it went for you.  I was very relieved to see the Australia results come in today. 
Have a great holiday!  Amanda

[S.B.Williams]

Thanks Amanda.

Yes, it went very well. I'm going to post more detailed results later over in the other sub-forum where I read your results last night. Great to see that it went well for you!

My featured book made it all the way to #83 in the paid U.S. Kindle store yesterday evening and is currently still at #107 right now. Also got the orange #1 bestseller tags in it's main category in the U.S., Canada and Australia stores.

So the BookBub was certainly well worth it. The sell-through to the rest of the series began yesterday as well and is still building.

Happy Holidays to you as well!

[notthatamanda]

Awesome!
Congratulations.