In January 2023, I gave away 60,301 books on Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo combined. And that is only for one title.
I almost died of pleasure. Not only did this mean that 60,000 people were willing to take a risk on my book, but it surely also meant publicity, sales, and another big wins for a small writer like me.
How did I do it? It took blood, sweat, tears and a little bit of luck.
A take a look at my book marketing strategy
To grasp my marketing strategy, we want to return a yr.
Around March 2022, I made a decision on the primary book in my series, Fire in Frostdurable.
Permafree is a term that simply signifies that a book is all the time free or “free endlessly.”
Fast forward to December 2022. I submitted a free book to BookBub for consideration – for the tenth time. You possibly can only apply once a month, so I made a decision to maintain trying.
I could not imagine it once I got the e-mail saying that they had accepted my book for publication and were planning to run my ad on January 4, 2023.
What’s BookBub? How does BookBub work?
When you do not know BookBub, is the holy grail of book marketing for fiction authors.
BookBub was what made the difference on this promotion. When you loaf around other writers long enough, you will discover that BookBub is like that THIS a spot to advertise your books in the event you can.
But you’ll be able to read tons of BookBub reviews online, so I prefer to go a step further and assist you use this tool.
Here’s how BookBub works. The corporate sends newsletters to hundreds of readers every single day. You pay to have your book appear of their newsletters. The worth varies depending on the worth of your book and the newsletter you ought to appear in.
They need to contemplate the potential of permanently using free books, but generally speaking, they’re in search of book deals at deep discounts.
BookBub for Authors: Find out how to Get the BookBub Feature
While BookBub is incredibly effective for authors, it actually is unusually It’s hard to get your book accepted.
I attempted 10 times with my free book before I used to be finally accepted. An writer friend of mine recently said she tried 18 times before she was accepted.
With this in mind, there are a number of things you’ll be able to do to extend your possibilities of BookBub featuring your book.
Listed here are my suggestions for getting your book featured on BookBub:
1. Get the most effective deal you’ll be able to.
BookBub wants to offer its readers with the most effective deals, so try to supply your book without spending a dime (if it’s the primary in a series) or for $0.99. They typically don’t offer anything over $2.99, and it’s unlikely your book might be featured in that price range if it is usually priced there.
2. Try the primary book within the series.
BookBub seems to just like the first a part of the series because (so far as I understand) it’s going to earn a living from affiliate sales of other books if their readers buy the remainder of the series.
3. Make your book available on all platforms and territories.
BookBub wants deals that appeal to all readers. Although they generally offer books which are exclusive to Amazon, you normally have a greater likelihood in case your book is accessible on all platforms (Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Google Play) and if the offer is accessible in all territories (US, UK, Australia, India and Canada).
4. Have an incredible cover.
Consider it or not, readers really do judge books by their covers, identical to the people at BookBub. If you may have a canopy that is unobtrusive, you might want to contemplate redesigning it, not only for BookBub, but because it’s going to help All promotions of your books.
5. End the series.
BookBub finally accepted my offer once your complete series was available on the market on all platforms. This does not guarantee they’ll accept your book, but it surely helps because readers don’t desire to attend for the following one. Offering a whole series will make your deal more attractive.
6. Collect reviews.
BookBub doesn’t require a minimum variety of reviews, but more reviews make your book appear more popular. It also gives BookBub editors an idea of how readers will reply to your book. You possibly can collect reviews by placing a call to motion in the back of the book, freely giving free copies, or encouraging reviews from individuals who have already read the book.
7. Tell me about your book.
BookBub provides a comments section after you place a bid. Use it to speak about your book. Mention whether it won any awards or what editorial reviewers or famous authors said about it. I discussed that my series had over 200 five-star reviews on Goodreads (on the time), and I believe that helped me find the article on BookBub.
8. Be flexible.
BookBub is in such high demand that in the event you need a particular date, it might already be full.
As an alternative, consider planning a promotion their. They are going to ask you in case your date is flexible or not. Be open to every thing and it’s going to increase your possibilities of getting the feature.
9. Retweet.
Submit as often as you’ll be able to (once a month) and do not hand over!
Find out how to use BookBub promoting
After paying for the ad (cost details below), I knew I needed to provide you with a game plan.
I desired to profit from this feature. I even have applied to many other job sites and newsletter services and have been accepted by most of them. I planned to run ads throughout the week to extend my profits Amazon Rankings.
Most ads were released on Monday or Tuesday, and the BookBub feature launched on Wednesday. Here’s what my investment looked like:
- BookBub: USD 115*
- Soda eBook: $15
- Book gadgets: $17.50
- Picky librarian: $5
- Reading offers: Free
- ReadFree.ly: Free
- EReader news today: $35
- Many books: $25
*BookBub ad prices vary by category and price point. I posted an ad for a free book within the Teens and Young Adults category.
I also increased my Amazon ad spend to $10 per day and ended up spending $39.68 the week of the promotion. Plus, I ran Facebook ads for $10 a day and spent $43.69 the week of the promotion. As a part of other freebies, some friends have agreed to share the book of their newsletters, and I’ve shared mine as well.
My goal was to achieve as many individuals as possible with the promotion of my book. When all was said and done, I spent $295.87 promoting my giveaway.
Result? These promotions put my free book of about 2,000 copies within the Amazon Kindle free store at number 7 in your complete store. I used to be ranked #1 for all free books for teens on Kindle.
Here’s what it looked like (see #7):
The high Amazon rating further increased my exposure and made the series sell well throughout the month and beyond.
Overall in January, I had 33,485 downloads from Amazon’s US site, 8,491 downloads from Amazon’s international sites, and 18,325 downloads between Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.
What did I gain from the BookBub promotion?
Listed here are my advantages from promoting this book:
I made money from my books
You might be wondering why I might do all this only for a free book. In spite of everything, I’m not making any money from this, right?
That is what it could be like if I only had this one book. By reaching readers with the primary book, sales of the second, third and fourth books also increased.
By the top of the promotional week, I had already made a reimbursement and much more from the sales of my other books.
I met plenty of positive opinions
After the promotion went live, my reviews skyrocketed. I received well over 50 reviews for the primary book on Amazon and have now surpassed over 1,000 reviews for the series on Goodreads. All this translates into much more exposure.
I even have achieved bestseller status on Amazon
At the top of the month, I made a decision to do a $0.99 flash sale on books two, three, and 4.
Because the increase in sales from this promotion had already boosted my rating, these additional sales helped my books take the highest spot in Amazon’s categories. I used to be also named one in all the highest 100 authors for teens.
Granted, it is not a Latest York Times bestseller, and I’m not going to brag about being an Amazon bestseller on my book covers or anything, but it surely was a private goal of mine that I used to be joyful to realize.