Of all the book-advertising sites, Bookbub is king. But with great power comes…a pretty hefty pricetag and seriously restrictive submission requirements.
I applied three times before I was finally accepted, and I had to downgrade my wish list from a 99-cent listing to a free listing. I was a little concerned, actually, that I might have to explain to my husband why I’d spent $175 giving away free books…but then Bookbub’s email went out yesterday afternoon and soothed my ragged nerves.
By 8 pm, I’d already broken even due to increased sales of the other novel and short story in the series, and I woke up this morning to find that my Bookbub-pushed title was number two free on all of Amazon! Book two in the series (aided by a countdown deal mentioned in the description of book one) had soared to #402 paid, and I had an author rank for the first time ever!
The moral of the story? If you’ve been considering applying for Bookbub, but have been afraid of the big bucks involved…do it. Be sure to read their requirements carefully, though, and consider applying when your book will be free since free slots are easier to land than sale slots. The more books you have in the series, the more of a return you’ll see on your investment, and remember that Bookbub ads can now be seen in Canada and the UK as well as the U.S.
The only downside I’ve found with Bookbub so far is the constant urge to refresh my sales data. Makes it hard to write book three….
The Write Stuff 
Congratulations, Aimee! That’s wonderful! I’m soooo happy for you, and I hope you sell MILLIONS! 🙂 Thanks for the input on BookBub, too. Somehow, I had thought it cost even more than $175. That’s a lot, but doable. I had heard figures over $500, but maybe that’s for different types of placement or something. I am definitely going to consider applying when I’m ready. So far, I’ve done nothing whatsoever with poor Rabbit. My mind went numb as soon as I hit the Publish button, and I’ve not promoted at all. That’s got to change soon.
I HAVE been doing local promoting for Swamp Ghosts, and have my book in some gift shops now. I have a presentation on using Florida’s wildlife and habitat as a backdrop for a suspense series scheduled tomorrow, along with a few more coming up. But poor Rabbit needs to be put out into the world. I’ve definitely got to decide what I’m going to do. BookBub will now factor in there, at some point.
Thanks for sharing this! And I hope those numbers continue to climb.
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Marcia — You can see the prices here: https://www.bookbub.com/partners/pricing. They vary from $30 to $1,875 depending on how many subscribers have signed up for that genre, how much you’re charging for your book, and whether you advertise just in the U.S., or also in the UK and Canada. In fact, I see that the free fantasy listing has increased from $175 to $190 since I paid for my ad, which is due to Canada being added on. (They were nice and gave me Canada for free since I’d already paid.) Romantic suspense is currently $155 for a freebie — pretty affordable given the results!
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So glad we have you to do our exploring into things like this! 😀 Seriously, thank you so much for the additional information. I will most definitely be applying to BookBub once I’ve checked out (and met) the criteria necessary. It is moving up to the top of my list, because I suspect I’ll have to try a time or two to get on there. But I probably wouldn’t have pursued them any time soon if not for this post, so I’m very happy you shared your experiences with us.
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Good to hear such great results – well done on those rankings!
I’m planning on applying for an ad for the first in my fantasy series when I release the second. Fingers crossed the price doesn’t skyrocket before then, and that I can score an ad – comes to something when you have no guarantee of being able to place an ad, even when you’re happy to pay a large sum to secure it. Guess it goes to show the strength of the ebook market 😀
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Good luck, everyone. I’m looking forward to hearing about your results
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Hi, Louis! Nice to see you tonight. I hope we get a few more folks chiming in, too. I won’t be ready to do this for a bit longer, so will have nothing to share, but maybe some others will. Have a great weekend. (Getting cold up here!)
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Thanks for putting this out there. I have a Bookbub promo scheduled for *tomorrow* and was searching for reassurance that I didn’t just toss $175 out the window. You have given me that reassurance. I’ll turn off the internet now and get back to work. Thanks again!
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