Now I know why I will never get a BookBub

[Marti Talbott]

I finally submitted a title again for a featured deal. We'll see what happens!

Good luck! I landed an international BB for $154.00 that ran on Wednesday. So far around 850 downloads of The Viking. Naturally, Zon didn't mark my .CA down, so no go there. This book has been free forever, so I didn't think I needed to check. I should know better. Now I wait to see the buy-throughs.

[LilyBLily]

BookBub just turned down my submission. Why are they working on a Saturday afternoon?

I'll send them something else next week, I guess, but first I should tinker with my blurbs for this series and add some A+ content, and all the rest.

[Marti Talbott]

BookBub just turned down my submission. Why are they working on a Saturday afternoon?

I'll send them something else next week, I guess, but first I should tinker with my blurbs for this series and add some A+ content, and all the rest.

I think that for the Bot to reject a submission on Saturday, there must be something in your submission that doesn't fit their agenda for that genre, something that the bot could spot right away. Maybe changing the blurb is a good idea, concentrating more on keywords for that genre? Just a thought.

If only I was better at taking my own advice.

[notthatamanda]

One thing I noticed with my bookbub (Int'l only) was that I had significant returns on books 2 and 3 with bookbub. Usually I get one or two readers a year returning books 2 and 3 after presumably reading them. I got more returns after that bookbub than all total since I published the trilogy in 2016. It kind of soured me on future bookbubs to be honest.

But best of luck to the rest of you.

[LilyBLily]

You think BookBub uses a bot? I guess that makes sense since they get inundated with submissions, but then again, why wouldn't the bot have rejected my book within mere hours of it being submitted instead of waiting two-and-a-half days? My assumption is they held it until they got a better submission for the category. However, maybe I'm wrong about that. We really don't know how they do their decision making.

How many days' worth of submissions do they compare at one time? My newsletter from BB always contains one time travel romance, for instance. Just one. Do they pool all the time travel romance submissions per week and then pick their favorite seven? Or do they decide daily? They only work 30 days in advance, so at most they'd consider 30 time travel romances at one time, one would think. Do they have an internal deadline for choosing, and they hold some possibles until that deadline, hoping an expensive trad pub ad comes in? That would seem the most likely scenario. It's weird, though, that we actually do not know how they choose. 

[Marti Talbott]

You think BookBub uses a bot? I guess that makes sense since they get inundated with submissions, but then again, why wouldn't the bot have rejected my book within mere hours of it being submitted instead of waiting two-and-a-half days? My assumption is they held it until they got a better submission for the category. However, maybe I'm wrong about that. We really don't know how they do their decision making.

How many days' worth of submissions do they compare at one time? My newsletter from BB always contains one time travel romance, for instance. Just one. Do they pool all the time travel romance submissions per week and then pick their favorite seven? Or do they decide daily? They only work 30 days in advance, so at most they'd consider 30 time travel romances at one time, one would think. Do they have an internal deadline for choosing, and they hold some possibles until that deadline, hoping an expensive trad pub ad comes in? That would seem the most likely scenario. It's weird, though, that we actually do not know how they choose.

Logic would dictate that their decisions are based on reader preferences. If time travel books have lost their reader pull, then maybe it's that and not anything an author can change to make the book more saleable. I'm just guessing, of course. I wonder if we can tell by scrutinizing their price list. I've thought all along that their "predicted" download numbers are inflated because many of those are authors and not necessarily readers.

[idontknowyet]

Not related but Marti i love the new cover!!!!! So pretty!

[Marti Talbott]

Not related but Marti i love the new cover!!!!! So pretty!

Thank you!

[LilyBLily]

We're nearing the end of the month, so Amazon has let me know that one of my discounted books--the one that had a BookBub on December 31st--has earned me nine cents in India.

I hope they liked the story. 

[idontknowyet]

It felt like i had a full read through of my entire series for like a quarter in india. Doesn't seem profitable for amazon.

[alhawke]

We're nearing the end of the month, so Amazon has let me know that one of my discounted books--the one that had a BookBub on December 31st--has earned me nine cents in India.
I hope they liked the story. 

I didn't sell any books in India last year at all--including after BookBub promos. I sold my first book in Japan . Nothing in India.

[LilyBLily]

Got another international only BookBub for early September and feel lucky that I didn't get Labor Day.

The interesting thing is BB says it's only going to be for Canada, Australia, and the UK. No India or other random countries. No Europe.

[idontknowyet]

Congrats!

[notthatamanda]

Congratulations Lily and good luck. Is it the first in a series?
I just popped open Bookbub and it looks like they dropped India. Wonder why.
I submitted an audiobook deal, that did well for me once. It was free the one time I got it, now they are charging 10% so no money up front. FYI - you have to distribute through Findaway to do that.

[LilyBLily]

Women's fiction. A stand-alone title that I've now claimed is third in a very loosely connected series. I have never yet started a series intentionally, although possibly I am about to. It's hard for a pantster to plan ahead.

[alhawke]

I have never yet started a series intentionally, although possibly I am about to. It's hard for a pantster to plan ahead.

Same with me. Good luck with your BB! 

[LilyBLily]

I've set my title that will have an international BookBub to 99 cents on Kobo for a number of days, but I note that if I let Kobo take another 10% off the top, I can perhaps participate in one of its Double Daily Deal promotions. One has to submit to Kobo, but if I say I have a BookBub they'll probably accept my pleading. (Ain't advertising wonderful?)

Question is, is it worth it? Opinions?

(This is women's fiction, basically stand alone, very loosely connected to a few other books. It might sell the others, but it's not Book 1 in a series.)

[alhawke]

I've set my title that will have an international BookBub to 99 cents on Kobo for a number of days, but I note that if I let Kobo take another 10% off the top, I can perhaps participate in one of its Double Daily Deal promotions.

I'd try to add it. I did this in October for a 99c US BB promo. I told them a BB was scheduled and they accepted the Double Daily Deal. My book was a paranormal fantasy Boxed Set. Kobo sales were 110 that week, largely from the Double Daily Deal. But I found ads were most effective. I ran B&N BB ads and had about 350 sales in B&N. B&N gives no extra promo push, so, though I loved Kobo's extra boost, I found my ads packed the greatest punch. In the future, ads are where I plan my focus to lie when bolstering a BB ad.

As far as the 10% drop, most of the money you'll get back with your BookBub promo will be from your Amazon sales. While the extra Kobo sales from the Double Daily might break even the 10% loss in Kobo.

[LilyBLily]

Interestingly, Kobo immediately refused my submission, saying it won't allow a planned price drop to overlap with their Double Daily Deal promotion. Since it would be folly to not discount my book on the very day BookBub is advertising it, I can't do Kobo's promo that falls on different days. Oh, well. I guess that means I won't lose an additional nickel per sale after all.   

 

[alhawke]

Interestingly, Kobo immediately refused my submission, saying it won't allow a planned price drop to overlap with their Double Daily Deal promotion.

I don't see any other way to connect the two promos. The only thing I did differently than you was contact them before I price dropped it. You could email them direct outside of the deal application and explain the situation.

I hope it's not something silly like their AI system didn't accept your book application since you already price dropped it (I fear that could be the problem).

[notthatamanda]

It will be interesting to see what you get with the bookbub without the daily double. I sold 81 of my psych thriller on Kobo during my international bookbub when it was 99 cents (December 2018).

Good luck.

[LilyBLily]

Kobo suggested I drop the regular price instead of doing a timed price drop. Then I could submit and might qualify for a Double Daily Deal. However, it also takes 48 hours for Kobo to realize I changed the price. So I keep checking to see if it has accepted that so I can try again to submit to the Double Daily Deal.

Or is it the Daily Double Deal? No, that doesn't sound right. 

Anyway, one of the dates for the deal closes tomorrow and I'm not holding my breath that this will clear up by then.

[alhawke]

Kobo suggested I drop the regular price instead of doing a timed price drop.

I never run a timed price drop. I can't recall why. I think it's because there's still been delays with resuming regular price, but I... can't recall. I wouldn't use their schedule. I'd just change the regular price for every price drop.

Give it a go, if you still can. The BookBub will push things a little and might get you accepted.

Even if you don't get the Double Deal, you might want to mention that you're running the BB to their main contact staff. There's other deal sections that their editors might be able to fit your book in, aside from their regular listed promos. Good luck!

[LilyBLily]

The Kobo daily deal rigmarole--backing out of the sale price and then applying for the deal--did not work despite what they told me. The correct price drop did occur and that's that.

So far, results are reasonable, and it's a kick having a book in the top 100 of any store. In a couple of categories, it's even in the top 10.

Interestingly, in the Amazon U.S. store, despite having sold well over 100 copies today, the book ranks only in the 24 thousands. A tribute to just how many books are for sale on Amazon these days. Used to be that one could attain a much better rank with far fewer sales.   

(Edited to correct my error, since the current KDP sales page does not show marketplaces the way the old one does. Checking that, I see the U.S. sales, while still ahead of the worldwide sales, are not so many units more than, say, Australia. Thus the ranking this morning at 35k in the U.S., while still unfortunately proportional to the vast U.S. store, is not for every Amazon sale.)

I remember many years ago working for a company that had a big publicity push planned for a certain day. Then a world leader was assassinated that day. So much for plans. I don't think the dear Queen's death today is likely to affect my international BookBub today, but the title of my book relates to death, so who knows?

Edited to add more details and then again to clarify them.

[LilyBLily]

Unfortunately, since my international BookBub deal was for the UK and two of the Commonwealth countries and was for the very day Queen Elizabeth died, it is not surprising that the ad did not earn out during this period of public spectacle and emotion. People read my kind of fiction to be emotional, and the royal family provided that for them last week and still is doing so this week.

I bought two U.S.-based modest newsletter ads ($90) and sent out a newsletter ($7). Had I not paid for the ads, the BB deal might have just broken even.

I can't say this is a lesson-learned situation; it's just bad luck to have collided with a world event. 

Maybe I'll get a few new fans from it and some ratings. Most people who bother to read my books like them.

[alhawke]

I can't say this is a lesson-learned situation; it's just bad luck to have collided with a world event. 

Sounds like it. Sorry to hear it. Hopefully you still make the money back with the tail and get some new fans.

[LilyBLily]

Having finally been paid for all my September sales, I think I edged into a tiny profit on my otherwise disastrous Sept. 8 international BookBub deal.

Meanwhile, BookBub keeps trawling (or is it trolling?) for more deal submissions.

Eh. Maybe I'll try again with my western box set. January is a good month for binge reading.

[cecilia_writer]

That was really bad luck but I'm glad you came out a little way ahead.
My Setptember sales were dreadful - I don't think anybody in the UK was reading much until after the funeral as there was such a lot of live drama involved in the ceremonial events, the queues etc.

[LilyBLily]

I've submitted another book for a deal. Women's fiction. I don't know the ideal spacing between discounts, but the last one on this title was New Years' Eve. Talk about my crazy luck!

I was going to try with the western box set but BookBub has never given me a deal on any western romance, perhaps rightly realizing that an international only deal for a western would not do well. The era of westerns being super popular the world over has long since waned. This even though they continue to do well with U.S. readers in more than one subgenre--the straight western action story and the western romance. In fact, they do surprisingly well. The urge to visit wide open spaces is still there, apparently.

[alhawke]

I've submitted another book for a deal. Women's fiction. I don't know the ideal spacing between discounts, but the last one on this title was New Years' Eve. Talk about my crazy luck!

I was going to try with the western box set but BookBub has never given me a deal on any western romance, perhaps rightly realizing that an international only deal for a western would not do well. The era of westerns being super popular the world over has long since waned. This even though they continue to do well with U.S. readers in more than one subgenre--the straight western action story and the western romance. In fact, they do surprisingly well. The urge to visit wide open spaces is still there, apparently.

Good luck! I submitted under supernatural suspense this week.  I had a new release for less ran last month, but this is a completely different book and category. And it's been over a month, so...  I'm trying for a BB free. I've never ran a free promo with BB. They've only accepted 99c promos with my books. But free is cheaper and I was thinking it might help with exposure.?? So I'll be waiting seven days for their "unfortunately Yada yada"...

[LilyBLily]

Got a nope from BB.  My only regret is that other ads are harder to organize--and now I have no excuse and must do some other ads. 

[alhawke]

Got a nope from BB.  My only regret is that other ads are harder to organize--and now I have no excuse and must do some other ads.

Sorry to hear it. Me too. For me, that makes 7 rejections in 9 months. Last BB promo was in February.
I've worked out that if I pay around the same amount with strong alternate stacked promos as one BookBub, I get about 1/4 as many sales--which is still good. In other words, an average of 250 instead of 1000 for a 99c promo. But it proves how worth it is to keep applying to BB.

[LilyBLily]

I just organized a promo for my western box set. I might submit it to BB even though they have never ever said yes to one of my western romances and I don't see those advertised on BB either. Or maybe it would make more sense to do a CPC ad. I'll think about that. Too many options.