Now I know why I will never get a BookBub

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I will have to find more chapter book writers to join my campaign 

That could help. It might be that BookBub doesn't think they have enough of a market in advertising that younger category? If other author friends join, they'll probably take a look at it.

I submitted to the 'children' category as that was the only one they had. They replied to my query:
 
Hi, Jan,
 
Hope you're well and thank you so much for following up here!
 
For some context, though you initially submitted to our Children's category, this BookBub category is intended for a younger age demographic than the reading level of Bheki and the Magic Light. For this reason, our editors moved your submission to our Middle Grade category for review, which has a page-count minimum requirement of 100 pages.
 
I apologize for any disappointment that might cause, but I'd encourage you to reach back out with any questions you may have about this!

Will keep you updated on their next reply 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I have received another reply from BookBub.

Hi, Jan,
 
Happy Thursday! I appreciate you taking the time to reach back out here.
 
At present, the three categories that we offer for younger readers are Children's, Middle Grade, and Teen and Young Adult. You can view our 'Teen and Young Readers' categories here, as well as check them out to get a sense of the kinds of books we offer in our Children's and Middle Grade lists.
 
I’ll note that our editors always review submissions with the aim of choosing titles that best fit our readers' content interests in the given category. This can be tricky, because these parameters are often specific to the BookBub audience rather than traditional bookstore goers/demographics.
 
If none of these are a great category fit for you, a tool that you may be interested in here is BookBub Ads, our flexible auction-style advertising platform. BookBub Ads are displayed at the bottom of our daily emails and on BookBub.com — they can be used to advertise any kind of book content. You have complete control over your campaign budget, length, image, and audience targeting, which means you can create an ad that’s tailored to achieving your goals. If you’d like to learn more about this tool, you can do so here:
•   https://www.bookbub.com/partners/bookbub_ads
 
I do hope this context is useful, and if you have further questions about this, I'm happy to help however I can!

They are trying to be helpful, but the BookBub ads give me exactly the same problem - I can only choose from two categories, 'children' and 'middle grade' neither of which fit the 6-11 or 7-12 yr group.  Or maybe I am missing something 

I have asked that they consider adding a 'chapter book' group for the 7-12 yrs.

[alhawke]

You can direct ads to authors only and disregard the category.

But I'm trying to get your category problem (I don't write children's books, so I might be missing something here). Middle Grade should fit your 7-12 age range. As far as length, for their book promos, I know for adult books, novels have to be 150 pages or more (which is why I've seen some authors actually aim for 150pg books).

[RiverRun]

YA or teen books/ middle grade books/ children's books  are more like individual genres. Each tends to have its own tone and story expectations. It becomes muddy because the age recommendations are mixed up in it, but the age limits are not about who might enjoy a particular book. It has to do with fitting tone, pacing and subject matter. A children's book avoids complex emotional incidents and is paced fast enough to keep a younger child interested. It even has its own tropes. Anthropomorphic animals who don't experience complex feelings or emotional turmoil probably belong in childrens. If the average 7 year old is likely to be engaged by it, its a children's book. A middle grade book has to be long and complex enough to interest a young teenager.

Maybe this will make it easier to understand. In the US, kids start elementary school about age 5 and stay there till about age 10. They start middle school about 11 or 12 years old, and stay there until 13 or 14. This is often in a whole different building. They have their own school library. Middle grade is written for that age group and that library. Long chapters, more mature subjects. They have left beginning reading far behind. (Not saying this is what always happens. But this is the expectation.) Students 10 and under have a different school library. So, different books. 7-12 years leaves you in no man's land according to US categories.

So I think your book would fit well in childrens books. To fit  bookbub's children category you would have to narrow the recommended age range. (I don't even know if you can do that.) you would have to change the recommended age for your book.

ETA - now that I think of it, you're book specifically mentions a death at the beginning, doesn't. It? Which might be why it was rejected for children's book category. You would probably need to find someone who knows more than I do to tell you whether this makes it inadmissable as a Childrens book.

But you are welcome to completely ignore me too:) Hope you find a good place to spread the word about the book!

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

You can direct ads to authors only and disregard the category.

But I'm trying to get your category problem (I don't write children's books, so I might be missing something here). Middle Grade should fit your 7-12 age range. As far as length, for their book promos, I know for adult books, novels have to be 150 pages or more (which is why I've seen some authors actually aim for 150pg books).

Thanks for your interest in my problem.

I don't know of any authors who write similar books to mine. My Leon Chameleon PI books feature anthropomorphic animals and I have likened them to Beatrix Potter or Kenneth Grahame, but I doubt if many readers search for those names. Categories will reach the most readers.
My books are chapter books, but BookBub only have 'children' and 'middle grade'. Their middle grade requires a minimum page count of 100 pages
and my books (trad published) are about 60 pages.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

YA or teen books/ middle grade books/ children's books  are more like individual genres. Each tends to have its own tone and story expectations. It becomes muddy because the age recommendations are mixed up in it, but the age limits are not about who might enjoy a particular book. It has to do with fitting tone, pacing and subject matter. A children's book avoids complex emotional incidents and is paced fast enough to keep a younger child interested. It even has its own tropes. Anthropomorphic animals who don't experience complex feelings or emotional turmoil probably belong in childrens. If the average 7 year old is likely to be engaged by it, its a children's book. A middle grade book has to be long and complex enough to interest a young teenager.

Maybe this will make it easier to understand. In the US, kids start elementary school about age 5 and stay there till about age 10. They start middle school about 11 or 12 years old, and stay there until 13 or 14. This is often in a whole different building. They have their own school library. Middle grade is written for that age group and that library. Long chapters, more mature subjects. They have left beginning reading far behind. (Not saying this is what always happens. But this is the expectation.) Students 10 and under have a different school library. So, different books. 7-12 years leaves you in no man's land according to US categories.

So I think your book would fit well in childrens books. To fit  bookbub's children category you would have to narrow the recommended age range. (I don't even know if you can do that.) you would have to change the recommended age for your book.

ETA - now that I think of it, you're book specifically mentions a death at the beginning, doesn't. It? Which might be why it was rejected for children's book category. You would probably need to find someone who knows more than I do to tell you whether this makes it inadmissable as a Childrens book.

But you are welcome to completely ignore me too:) Hope you find a good place to spread the word about the book!

Thanks so much for your reply.

I can easily change the reading age to 6-10 yrs, which fits the intended chapter book category, but BookBub don't have that category. They jump from children's to middle grade and my page length is approx 60 pages and BookBub require 100 pages for their middle grade.

The books have been trad published so they fit the reading requirements/storyline for that age group (my Leon books have actually won awards, cough, cough   )

My books don't mention death at all, except for The Race, which briefly mentions that gran has come to visit because grandad died.

It's very frustrating to be thwarted by the page length/category 

[RiverRun]

I'm sorry, I misremembered about the mystery in the Leon book. Its been a busy week. But so much the better. I was just looking at some popular books on Amazon. The Grinch is age 3 and up which is a completely useless label. Probably because its so popular. But Dr. Suess's Horton Hears a Who is supposed to be for age 3-8. The Tale of Peter Rabbit is labeled age 1-5. The Magic Tree House books, which are by far the most successful chapter books for young readers,and have a similar chapter length to your Leon PI, are labeled age 5-8. So you could legitimately label your book for 5-8 if it was ever expedient for you. The US childrens book market is so big that they can categorize books quite narrowly, so recommendations from other countries may not be the best guide.  I've probably bored everyone with my diatribe here and will leave you all to get back to discussing bookbub. I just wanted to encourage you to try listing your book for a younger age range if you want to market it to a US audience.

Regarding similar authors - I think a lot of adults enjoy sharing classic kids books with children so I wouldn't hesitate to use an older author's name in an ad. For contemporary authors you might try Kate Dicamillio or Mary Pope Osborne (the magic treehouse author). They both write chapter books that involve adventure and mystery, and dicamillio has some talking animal books.

Here's another. Ron Roy. A to Z mysteries.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I'm sorry, I misremembered about the mystery in the Leon book. Its been a busy week. But so much the better. I was just looking at some popular books on Amazon. The Grinch is age 3 and up which is a completely useless label. Probably because its so popular. But Dr. Suess's Horton Hears a Who is supposed to be for age 3-8. The Tale of Peter Rabbit is labeled age 1-5. The Magic Tree House books, which are by far the most successful chapter books for young readers,and have a similar chapter length to your Leon PI, are labeled age 5-8. So you could legitimately label your book for 5-8 if it was ever expedient for you. The US childrens book market is so big that they can categorize books quite narrowly, so recommendations from other countries may not be the best guide.  I've probably bored everyone with my diatribe here and will leave you all to get back to discussing bookbub. I just wanted to encourage you to try listing your book for a younger age range if you want to market it to a US audience.

Regarding similar authors - I think a lot of adults enjoy sharing classic kids books with children so I wouldn't hesitate to use an older author's name in an ad. For contemporary authors you might try Kate Dicamillio or Mary Pope Osborne (the magic treehouse author). They both write chapter books that involve adventure and mystery, and dicamillio has some talking animal books.

Here's another. Ron Roy. A to Z mysteries.

Thank you so much for this useful information.

I have checked out Kate Dicamillio. One of her books is 66 pages and "Most customers got this book for a child between 6 and 8 years old." I see one of her books also says from 7 yrs up. I could try that. 

I will add her to the author list.

[alhawke]

I don't know of any authors who write similar books to mine. My Leon Chameleon PI books feature anthropomorphic animals and I have likened them to Beatrix Potter or Kenneth Grahame, but I doubt if many readers search for those names. Categories will reach the most readers.
My books are chapter books, but BookBub only have 'children' and 'middle grade'. Their middle grade requires a minimum page count of 100 pages
and my books (trad published) are about 60 pages.

You might find ads that still work well with smaller size books (but it sucks that their editors are not accepting them for promos though ).

Ads are expensive, not only due to the ad cost themselves, but the testing needed. I wouldn't put too much thought over the authors on your BookBub ad tests. I'd throw lots of darts out and then take a look at the data. It doesn't matter if an author writes novels or chapter books. If the author you choose in your ad leads to readers, or most importantly, buyers, to click on your ad, then you'll start seeing success.

One of the main reasons why many of my BB ads are so successful is because I know the audiences that will look at my books. Realize that you want to grab readers to look at the ad, NOT cater to readers that you think match your books. An author that you think fits your writing might not work at all for bringing your ads clicks. One author I stumbled on yields me a click rate of 5%, sometimes 9%, but I stumbled after trying out multiple author, I didn't research all that much. And it was after running upwards of a hundred of ads with other authors.

So set ads at $5 and watch your click rate and impressions. You start BB ads with a high bid to get bites, and then work your way down. My ads average a click rate of about 3-4% which enables me a fairly good payback for full priced books. When I started BB ads they were at 0.5. If I don't get sales, I stop running the ad. Hope my advice helps, Jan. Good luck!

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

I don't know of any authors who write similar books to mine. My Leon Chameleon PI books feature anthropomorphic animals and I have likened them to Beatrix Potter or Kenneth Grahame, but I doubt if many readers search for those names. Categories will reach the most readers.
My books are chapter books, but BookBub only have 'children' and 'middle grade'. Their middle grade requires a minimum page count of 100 pages
and my books (trad published) are about 60 pages.

You might find ads that still work well with smaller size books (but it sucks that their editors are not accepting them for promos though ).

Ads are expensive, not only due to the ad cost themselves, but the testing needed. I wouldn't put too much thought over the authors on your BookBub ad tests. I'd throw lots of darts out and then take a look at the data. It doesn't matter if an author writes novels or chapter books. If the author you choose in your ad leads to readers, or most importantly, buyers, to click on your ad, then you'll start seeing success.

One of the main reasons why many of my BB ads are so successful is because I know the audiences that will look at my books. Realize that you want to grab readers to look at the ad, NOT cater to readers that you think match your books. An author that you think fits your writing might not work at all for bringing your ads clicks. One author I stumbled on yields me a click rate of 5%, sometimes 9%, but I stumbled after trying out multiple author, I didn't research all that much. And it was after running upwards of a hundred of ads with other authors.

So set ads at $5 and watch your click rate and impressions. You start BB ads with a high bid to get bites, and then work your way down. My ads average a click rate of about 3-4% which enables me a fairly good payback for full priced books. When I started BB ads they were at 0.5. If I don't get sales, I stop running the ad. Hope my advice helps, Jan. Good luck!

Thank you so much for the valuable advice.  It is very expensive to run an ad as the exchange rate is approx $1 = R20 so all recommendations are very much appreciated.

With regards to the BookBub ads and age categories that don't fit, I will try my next Leon ad with "A thrilling animal detective story for 7-12 yrs." Or something similar, and see if that helps. I've got one day left of my 5 day BookBub ad and I only have 2500 impressions and a measly 2 clicks that came on the first day - and that is for a free book Children's books are a difficult sell.

[Bill Hiatt]

Hmmm... I guess BookBub wouldn't offer any categories if it had no subscribers who were interested. But children's books are tough in general because that still seems to be a more print-oriented market. I suppose near the upper end, more of the kids are more likely to have a place to read ebooks.

The season may be working against you a little. Christmas shopping tends to be more oriented toward things you can wrap and put under the tree or stick in a stocking. I'm actually surprised that my December sales are actually shaping up to be higher than my November ones. But part of that is driven by an increase in paperback sales, which, for the first time in a long time, are actually beating ebook sales. In fact, in the early part of the month, paperback sales were beating KU as well, which has never happened before.

It seems as if children's book authors might benefit from more ways to sell paperbacks or hardbacks leading into the holidays.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Hmmm... I guess BookBub wouldn't offer any categories if it had no subscribers who were interested. But children's books are tough in general because that still seems to be a more print-oriented market. I suppose near the upper end, more of the kids are more likely to have a place to read ebooks.

The season may be working against you a little. Christmas shopping tends to be more oriented toward things you can wrap and put under the tree or stick in a stocking. I'm actually surprised that my December sales are actually shaping up to be higher than my November ones. But part of that is driven by an increase in paperback sales, which, for the first time in a long time, are actually beating ebook sales. In fact, in the early part of the month, paperback sales were beating KU as well, which has never happened before.

It seems as if children's book authors might benefit from more ways to sell paperbacks or hardbacks leading into the holidays.

My books are also available in print and I sometimes sell an ebook followed by a print edition  That is what I hoped would happen with my free ebook offer.

Glad to hear you are selling paperback copies. 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Something interesting happened overnight.

I had approx 3000 impressions and 3 clicks on my BookBub ad and saw 3 free downloads.

Woke up to find I had 93 downloads  . I didn't do any other advertising (apart from Facebook at the beginning of the freebie) and wondered where they came from.

Then I discovered a message on my website:
'Leon Chameleon Pi And The Case Of The Missing Canary Eggs' is highlighted today on eBookDaily.com and in the newsletter mailed to 23,000 subscribers.
I would greatly appreciate if you mention this promotion on social media and/or link to it on your Website. Each deal on eBookDaily has a dedicated Author Promotion Page with one-click links to promote on your Facebook page or Twitter feed:

Maybe eBookDaily is a better option for free books. They must have picked up Leon from Amazon (or BookBub). I will look into using them for my next free book (they only have one category for children  ).

[Bill Hiatt]

Interesting!

One of the tactics BookBub used to grow in the first place was picking up sale or free books, advertising them for free, and then sending a similar message to the author involved. Perhaps a similar tactic would work for BB's competitors.

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Interesting!

One of the tactics BookBub used to grow in the first place was picking up sale or free books, advertising them for free, and then sending a similar message to the author involved. Perhaps a similar tactic would work for BB's competitors.

The tactic has brought them to my attention. 

I asked why they didn't have a category for humour/humor as I'd like to try But Can You Drink the Water?
They replied: Contemporary and Literary fiction is really "other fiction".  So now you know 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Just had a further reply from BookBub. I asked which of their categories I should use for the BookBub ad, and how would adding an author/s affect the impressions.

Hi, Jan,
 
Happy Monday and thanks for following back up here! This is a great question. In your case, I might suggest targeting both our Children's and Middle Grade categories, in order to generally reach those interested in books for younger readers. While these categories might not be perfect fits for your book, this targeting can help differentiate your ad audience from young adults and adults.
 
I'll also note that an author's audience on BookBub Ads is comprised of the users who've expressed explicit interest in that author on our site. This includes direct followers, as well as readers who've looked through their Author Profile and engaged with any of their titles or clicked on any of their features, etc., so targeting Beatrix Potter or Kenneth Grahame wouldn't limit your ad audience to the readers who've searched directly for those authors.
 
As for choosing relevant authors, one tip that we often find helpful as partners are deciding which specific authors to target is to look through the "Also Bought" section on your book's retailer sites, to get an idea of which authors' fanbases are likely to interact with your work. It's a great tool because you can be pretty sure that readers who are already fans of authors similar to you will be fans of yours, too! Additionally, by looking through our Ebook Deals page, you can gain a better sense of which BookBub authors you might share categories with. This post from our Partners Blog offers a more in-depth overview on selecting effective author targets, as well.
 
We really do appreciate your feedback here, as we're always looking for more ways to bring great books to as many readers as possible. That said, based on our testing, there isn't yet enough BookBub reader interest, engagement, and partner submission volume for ebooks intended for this age range for us to add another young readers category at this time. We consistently revisit the idea of adding categories, so while this isn't in the works for the immediate future, it's something we'll continue to keep our eye on in case there is a strong enough opportunity to expand into another young readers category down the line.
 
Of course, please feel free to reach back out if you have any more questions about setting up your ad!
 
It's hard to believe that readers are not looking for books for children between 6 - 12 yrs