BookBub Featured New Release- Worth It?

[Author59]

Hi All,

A couple of days ago I released my standalone novel. As I mentioned in an earlier thread, it is my second book, and I don't have much of a mailing list. I have been tinkering with AMS ads and having mild success. I applied for BookBub a few weeks ago, and was notified today that my book had been selected for a Featured New Release. The cost is $490 in the Literary Fiction category. I am currently in KU. Not wide. Is this BoobBub feature something I should consider? Thanks!

[LilyBLily]

Will your other book be an easy also bought in the same genre? Is the BB for a free title or a discounted one? What is the goal of this ad?

[Author59]

The BB is for full price at $4.99. My other book is similar, but skews younger. They may or may not compliment each other. Sales of my new standalone is the objective, but I'm not sure how BB works. Thanks.

[VanessaC]

I haven't run a Featured New Release with Bookbub but from reading others' experiences, the answer tends to be: no, not worth it.

Seems to be very expensive, and I've yet to hear about anyone making their money back from it - it might work if you're a big name author, or have a massive marketing budget.

If you get a Featured Deal (for a discounted book) that's different - most people make their money back from that. (And they're really difficult to get!)

Have you thought about running Bookbub ads? Again, not something I've done, but they seem to be working for some people.

[Tom Wood]

There's a thread at Kboards where the author describes how they tried to launch a full price book ($6.99 I think) with a BB new release, and they called it a catastrophe disaster. A $1600 spend to sell a couple of books, IIRC. The consensus was that BB readers expect a discounted price.

ETA: Here's the thread: https://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,306769.0.html

[notthatamanda]

Based on what people have been saying I didn't even consider the featured new release when it came out.  I have been running bookbub ads for the new book, sold one on B&N, I put the full price in the ad to hopefully discourage clicks from people who don't want to pay full price.  I have only sold the one so I've lost a couple of bucks on the experiment so far, but literally a couple of bucks, not hundreds.  Still experimenting with B&N targeted ads.

Bookbub sends out a new release notification to your followers anyway.

[Author59]

Thanks all! Something to think about.

[LilyBLily]

The BB audience expects discounted books. I misunderstood which of their ads you initially cited. If you aren’t discounting, you won’t get significant sales. Many people do discount on launch briefly, but as others have said, this particular kind of ad doesn’t seem to get traction.

[idontknowyet]

I wonder if it would be worth it for a .99 cent book?