# BookBub Q&A on KBoards, Feb 3-4



## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

_*Coming up: BookBub Q&A begins, 10am Eastern on Tuesday February 3rd*_

Here's a link to the starting post in this thread:
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,204466.msg2899375.html#msg2899375

~~~

_*Dec 18, 2014: Announcement post*_

Authors, we know many of you have high interest in BookBub, and we've set up something special for you.

Members of the BookBub team will host a two-day Q&A session with authors on KBoards next month, January 27th through 28th February 3rd through 4th. This will be an opportunity for you to find out more about BookBub behind the scenes, and ask any questions you have about BookBub promotions.

The Q&A will take place in this thread. If you're interested, I suggest you bookmark this thread (using our KBoards bookmark feature in the menus, or with your browser's bookmark tool). You may also want to use the Notify button to be alerted to updates to this thread.

Thanks for being members of KBoards!

-Harvey

Update: start time will be 10am Eastern time (7am Pacific) on Tuesday January 27th Tuesday February 3rd.

Update: BookBub is based in Boston and there are severe storm predictions for the area this week -- so we are re-scheduling this for February 3rd and 4th!


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Great   Looking forward to it.


----------



## Rich Amooi (Feb 14, 2014)

What a score, but are sure you have enough bandwidth for this session.


----------



## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Woohoo!


----------



## Rachel Aukes (Oct 13, 2013)

Thanks for organizing this, Harvey. You guys really go above and beyond.


----------



## noob (Dec 11, 2014)

sounds great. thank you!


----------



## lilywhite (Sep 25, 2010)

.


----------



## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

Awesome. Just put in my first bookbub request yesterday.


----------



## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

Bookmarked. I love what Bookbub has done for my sales in the past. I like their after the run survey feature too. Which reminds me...


----------



## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

Wow! Awesome, how exciting!


----------



## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

You might have to set some ground rules first, though - otherwise it will just end up with a load of rejected authors wailing, "_Why_ won't you accept me?" 

ETA: (Including me.)


----------



## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

We'll have a few ground rules, but I expect a good variety of questions. There may be multiple people from BookBub participating, and I think this will be a high-value session for authors.

As for bandwidth -- yes, I'll be doing some backroom stuff to ramp up for the potential surge in activity.


----------



## heidi_g (Nov 14, 2013)

How totally cool! And thank you for the advance notice. Definitely have this marked on my calendar!  As usual, Harvey, you are totally awesome


----------



## D-C (Jan 13, 2014)

Cool. I'll bring popcorn.


----------



## Christian Martin (Dec 1, 2014)

Thank you! Being brand new in all of this, sure will help.......thanks!


----------



## Raquel Lyon (Mar 3, 2012)

David S. said:


> No need to bookmark the thread. It will be at the top for both days. The biggest problem will be keeping up.


Yeah, I won't be awake and able to start reading until the thread is 8 hours (and probably about 20 pages) old.


----------



## donna callea (Dec 25, 2009)

Looking forward to it.  Thanks, Harvey!


----------



## Saul Tanpepper (Feb 16, 2012)

Awesome. Thanks, Harvey! (And BB)


----------



## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

I doubt bookmarking will be necessary. It's sure to be in the top five threads the whole two days.  

Wonder if the BookBub team knows what they're getting into.


----------



## spike Pedersen (Feb 2, 2014)

Yes! great Job!


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Terrific initiative, Harvey. Looking forward to it. Thank you.


----------



## Harry Manners (Jul 6, 2013)

Ah, Harvey, you're a God. I look forward to it. Wayne's right: no need for bookmarking!


----------



## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Sorry about the inconvenient time for our UK and other non-north-america members! We had considered doing this as a "chat," but figured that would be too chaotic, and too inconvenient for people in various worldwide time zones.

At least with it being a thread, the various questions and answers will remain viewable for those who are able to jump into it when they can. BookBub will be monitoring and responding over the 2-day period, so hopefully this will feel somewhat interactive even for those across the globe, albeit with a bit of a slowdown during US east coast sleeping hours.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

For those of you who might consider clicking on Notify for the thread, you might want to consider the option to be notified only for the first unread reply. Then, after you've read the thread, you only be notified once until the next time you check into the thread:

http://www.kboards.com/index.php?action=profile;area=notification










Betsy


----------



## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

Perhaps a "Questions for BB" thread could help for those who might not be available? Have a designated person who will ask the best questions from said thread on the day of.


----------



## KL_Phelps (Nov 7, 2013)

SWEEEET!


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Oh, boy. I think you might have just bit off more than you can chew!


----------



## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

I look forward to doing some learning, thank you, Harvey


----------



## 69959 (May 14, 2013)

Looking forward to it!


----------



## Sapphire (Apr 24, 2012)

I can't wait to learn everything that this thread will present.


----------



## SB James (May 21, 2014)

This should be interesting. I've been rather convinced that Book Bub would not be as good a fit for my book at it is for others. Maybe there will be some good questions asked and answered that will change my opinion...


----------



## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

Thanks, Harvey. They've been very helpful to me and always easy to work with. I look forward to hearing what they have to say!


----------



## Maria Romana (Jun 7, 2010)

Excellent idea, Harvey! Maybe this will be the start of similar threads with other service providers offering insight and answering questions.


----------



## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Yes, if this goes well I think we'll plan similar events with some of the larger service providers. Once we've completed the BookBub session, I'll ask for feedback on it, and get ideas from you all on potential future invitees.


----------



## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

Harvey said:


> Yes, if this goes well I think we'll plan similar events with some of the larger service providers. Once we've completed the BookBub session, I'll ask for feedback on it, and get ideas from you all on potential future invitees.


Just in case I miss said feedback thread: over at the "selfpublish" subreddit on reddit we had Lulu approach us to do an "Ask us anything" post. They were very thorough and fast in their responses. (Even the dumb questions like - "When you tell people where you work, do they think you make yoga pants?" (because of "lulu lemon.") The answer was yes (and also people mishear it as 'Hulu.')


----------



## Mip7 (Mar 3, 2013)

I see Citizen Soldiers is on your recently read list. Mine too. What a *fantastic* revelation that work is!


----------



## Goulburn (May 21, 2014)

Thank you.


----------



## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

Did this happen somewhere yesterday on the 27th?


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

Caddy said:


> Did this happen somewhere yesterday on the 27th?


Maybe in an alternate universe where yesterday was January 27th....


----------



## RuthNestvold (Jan 4, 2012)

Cool, Harvey! Thanks for organizing this.


----------



## Joseph J Bailey (Jun 28, 2013)

I'm excited to see how this goes!

Thanks, Harvey!


----------



## bethrevis (Jul 30, 2014)

Thanks for doing this! This is going to be resource that will be invaluable for people for months and years to come.


----------



## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Mongo excited.


----------



## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

VydorScope said:


> Maybe in an alternate universe where yesterday was January 27th....


LOL! Oh, dear. I am finding myself doing all sorts of crazy things, trying to balance 3 names, the holidays, etc. What can I say? I'm blonde. Thanks for pointing this out. I'll mark my calendar CORRECTLY!


----------



## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Just a reminder to mark your calendars for this Q&A session with BookBub! Details are in the 1st post in this thread.


----------



## Deke (May 18, 2013)

Someone ask them why they rejected Andy McBean…twice.  (That reminds me I should apply again.)


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Hi everyone! 

Happy New Year! We hope you've all enjoyed the holidays and that 2015 is off to a good start. We're getting very excited for our Q&A with KBoards later this month. A few members of our Partners Team will be participating (Sonja, Mel, and Craig) and we're all really looking forward to "chatting" with you for a few days.

We really only have one guideline for the upcoming conversation, which is that we're not going to be answering questions about specific past or future submissions during the Q&A. Aside from that though, the floor is open! We'll be answering as many questions as we can, and we're happy to talk about things like how our selection process works, our expansion to the UK, the logistics of discounting, how to make the most of a BookBub promotion, and anything else you can think to ask. 

We'll start the Q&A at 10 a.m. EST (7 a.m. PST) on Tuesday January 27th, and will be answering questions during business hours that day and the day after.

See you in a few weeks!  

Katie Donelan
BookBub Partners Team


----------



## Kirkee (Apr 2, 2014)

Thank you, Katie! Thrilled to hear from the gals & guys behind the mighty BookBub.
We finally get a chance to find out how things (exactly) work over there & what we, as indie authors,
need to do to be able to participate & aide in in continued success at your end, as well as at ours. 

Goes without saying: one hand washes the other. We need you, no doubt about it. We can create
the product (our books), but without Bookbub, Bknights, BookSends, BookBoosters, etc., to get the
word out to readers, it's an uphill climb with next to zero traction. Well, it's an uphill climb any way you look at it, but you guys just absolutely rock & make things happen. All we have to do is take a look at the way a cool guy like Wayne Stinnett, and others, were able to leave their day gigs and pursue that which they love: writing.
Of course it's because of you (as well as other PR entities), but none show the awesome reach that you guys continue to have & improve on. 

Look forward to the Q & A.  

Regards,

Kirk Alex


----------



## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

One week away -- if you're interested in BookBub, you may want to start jotting down questions to ask during the Q&A session. The session will be open continuously for two days, to accommodate time zones for our members across the globe. 

Thanks to BookBub for doing this Q&A with KB!


----------



## Moist_Tissue (Dec 6, 2013)

I am hoping this is an actual productive and fruitful dialogue. I've read through their comment sections, and I fear that we will get the same sort of answers.


----------



## Doril (Nov 2, 2013)

We might just break this thread with our questions.


----------



## Ancient Lawyer (Jul 1, 2013)

Thank you, Harvey (and Bookbub!) this is a really cool idea.


----------



## KatrinaAbbott (Jan 28, 2014)

I'm looking forward to this and am hoping we can get a more transparent view of the selection process. There are so many variables, obviously, but not knowing what they are and not getting feedback when declined creates a lot of frustration when aiming for a moving target. 

Thanks to Harvey and the BookBub people for putting this together!


----------



## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

** UPDATE**

BookBub is based in Boston, and there are severe storm predictions for the area this week -- so we are re-scheduling this for February 3rd and 4th! 

Stay safe and warm, BookBub -- and all of our KB members in the Boston / New York region.


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Hey KBoards authors!

Question #1: Where are BookBub's offices?
Answer #1: Boston 

This first round of question and answer is meant to explain why we're unfortunately going to need to *reschedule our q&a session* with all of you to next week. Boston is about to be hit with a "historic storm" that's predicted to bring 2-3 feet of snow !

Our building is likely going to be closed tomorrow and possibly Weds as well, and many of us are expecting to lose power in our homes . Because of this, we're worried about our ability to respond quickly and effectively (if at all) during the Q&A this week. We want this to be a super helpful experience for all of you, and our ability to ensure that's the case over the next few days is unfortunately really unpredictable.

We know this isn't ideal, and we're very sorry for the inconvenience. We were really excited to start chatting with you tomorrow! But please come back next week -- *on Feb 3rd and 4th, same time, same place* -- for the rescheduled Q&A. Think of it this way: now you have an extra week to come up with even more great questions!

All best (and stay warm if you're in the northeast),

Katie & the partners team


----------



## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Looking forward to this. Hope the the Bookbub people get through the storm okay.

Now I'm worrying that the storm might disrupt the ads for my ongoing Countdown promo. Does anyone know where BKnights, ENT and Kindle Books and Tips are located?

Philip


----------



## Charentaise (Jun 29, 2011)

Thanks for organising - can't wait!

I haven't quite got my head around exactly how it works, but it will be interesting to see how Bookbub respond to the new Amazon KDP Select Advertising  option.  It certainly looks in theory like a far more reliable means of being able to plan a book launch and get directly to interested readers without having to go through the unfathomable and unpredictable BB application-rejection cycles.


----------



## anaeross (Mar 30, 2013)

This is an awesome opportunity to connect with other authors. Thanks BookBub and Kindle Boards.


----------



## MyraScott (Jul 18, 2014)

--> Questions for Book Bub <--

1) Rejection

Would you guys consider adding a rejection code to your response?

[list type=decimal]
[*]Does not meet our standards. Do not resubmit.
[*]Does not our fit our schedule for this time period. Try again later.
[*]Accepted for an alternate date. Please respond if you will accept an ad on xx/xx/xxxx. 
[/list]

You don't need to go into details on the first one although no doubt, you'll get many outraged authors who want to know _why?_ Why? WHY But even without details, they would know to move on.

2) Scheduling

Would you consider some sort of online scheduling display that showed upcoming dates and how many books were submitted for each date, by category? It could help people to find a date/category where they are more likely to be accepted.

Thanks!


----------



## StephanieQueen (Dec 2, 2011)

Did you post the ground rules yet? 
Darn if I missed them.


----------



## zachfortier (Jul 18, 2012)

This is a great idea. I will be there. See you tomorrow. Z


----------



## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

I don't have any specific ground rules from BookBub, although we may have to come up with some as we enter into it. 

Note that this won't be a format for asking about specific book submissions/approvals/rejections, e.g. "Can you tell me why my book wasn't selected when book XX was?" kinds of questions. 

Come prepared with your questions and let's make this a useful, informative session. It kicks off at 7am Pacific tomorrow morning.


----------



## H. S. St. Ours (Mar 24, 2012)

Lydniz said:


> You might have to set some ground rules first, though - otherwise it will just end up with a load of rejected authors wailing, "_Why_ won't you accept me?"
> 
> ETA: (Including me.)


Ditto.


----------



## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

MyraScott said:


> --> Questions for Book Bub <--
> 
> 2) Scheduling
> 
> ...


+1 Or even a basic availability calendar that extends beyond a month.


----------



## authorednah (Aug 30, 2010)

Crap, I have a class tomorrow morning and will miss this. I wonder if they base their rejection on book covers too. I know a Listing that does.


----------



## 68564 (Mar 17, 2013)

MyraScott said:


> --> Questions for Book Bub <--
> 
> 1) Rejection
> 
> ...


This would be my question/suggestion also.


----------



## rpdahlke (Mar 3, 2013)

Harvey, I had to reload this link twice --this is kboards, not BookBub, right? And I would expect that BookBub is your competition, right? Or did BookBub buy out kBoards? (every time I turn around, someone is busy buying another company).

I've been a happy promoter with BookBub now since they gifted me a spot--which shows you how long I've been promoting with BookBub!

I'll be interested!


----------



## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

rpdahlke said:


> Harvey, I had to reload this link twice --this is kboards, not BookBub, right? And I would expect that BookBub is your competition, right? Or did BookBub buy out kBoards? (every time I turn around, someone is busy buying another company).
> 
> I've been a happy promoter with BookBub now since they gifted me a spot--which shows you how long I've been promoting with BookBub!
> 
> I'll be interested!


While there is some overlap in what we do, I don't view BookBub and KBoards as competitors. We're mainly a discussion board, and they're mainly a book recommendation newsletter service.

No buyouts have occurred!


----------



## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

Suggestion: Go back and read Bookbub submission guidelines so you aren't asking something they address there. I'm going to.


----------



## DonyaLynne (Feb 3, 2015)

Looking forward to the discussion. Thank you.


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Harvey said:


> _*Coming up: BookBub Q&A begins, 10am Eastern on Tuesday February 3rd*_
> 
> _*Dec 18, 2014: Announcement post*_
> 
> ...


So in England that should be around 3.00 p m. Great! Thanks for this, Harvey. I'll go and get myself a drink and something crunchy and settle down to participate.


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Hi Kboards!

We're really excited to officially open our Q&A today! Mother Nature tried to foil our plans a second time with 12 more inches of snow yesterday, but luckily we all managed to make it into the office and are ready to start taking your questions.

Here's a brief bio of each person from BookBub participating in the chat (written by Morgan, our Account Manager and wittiest team member):

*Mel* is an Account Coordinator who used to love sick beats, but now just likes music, as Taylor Swift has trademarked that phrase.

*Katie* is our fearless Director of Business Development. She's been with BookBub almost since its founding! She strongly dislikes being cold, but likes blankets, so that kind of works out.

*Craig* is an Account Coordinator who likes rowing, preferably in a rowing shell he carved himself from old-growth redwood. He's excited to be here, though he'd be even more excited if BookBub opened a sunny San Francisco office...

*Sonja* is an Account Coordinator here. She's been with BookBub since August 2014. She also knows how to code, which makes her teammates feel like they really should have paid more attention in college, or at least they should have taken that "How to Computer" summer seminar.

*Carlyn* is the newest addition to our team. She's a recent college grad with a sunny disposition, which means she's got about two more Boston winters until she turns into one of those grumpy old Muppets like the rest of the team.

We're all excited to be chatting with you guys today! As a reminder, the only guideline for the conversation is that we aren't able to answer questions about editorial decisions on specific past or future submissions. Aside from that, it's up to you! Looking forward to hearing from everyone--who's up first?


----------



## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Welcome, BookBub team!


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Thanks, Harvey! We're excited to be here!


----------



## cslakin (Oct 15, 2011)

Thanks for doing this. I really love Bookbub and run as many ads as I can with you. I often tell you in my comments that I wish I could run an ad for each of my books more often than every six months (since Bookbub is a huge source of income, directly and indirectly, for me). My questions: any chance you might change that policy to, say, every four months for repeat books that have sold well? My other question is about nonfiction and what types of NF sell well on Bookbub.


----------



## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Let me kick this off with a question... BookBub has been a popular topic on KBoards for a while now in our Writers' Cafe. Can you tell us when you all at BookBub first became aware of KBoards as an author hangout?


----------



## zachfortier (Jul 18, 2012)

THanks for hosting this Q and A. Will BB be expanding into any more additional markets as they have been this past year?


----------



## Kathy Dubois (Jan 4, 2013)

Welcome Bookbub!


----------



## nico (Jan 17, 2013)

Do you have any plans to support promotion shorter works, like novellas or serials? Do you hear from readers about the popularity (or disdain) for such books?

Also, as a publisher, we'd really like to be able to share data on the performance of our books on BookBub. Having some statistics on click-through rates and conversions would be great, even if we had to sign NDAs for this type of information. More information to make informed investments in our products would be great! Is this something you'd consider?


----------



## Indigo W (Dec 27, 2014)

BB specifications indicate that works should be 150+ pages to qualify for an ad, does BB use a word count guideline to clarify estimated pages counts for works that are only in ebook format?


----------



## bethrevis (Jul 30, 2014)

There have been a lot of similar services to BookBub, but BB remains the best by far. It's the one universally loved service that I've repeatedly heard of from many different sources. How did you set yourself apart to become the quality advertiser you are, rising above the competition to hold such a strong corner of the market? What did you do differently from the imitators to make your service stand out?


----------



## cblewgolf (Jan 3, 2011)

My question:

Why do you turn down a book that has been free in the past, for a discounted paid ad?  I can understand if you don't want to feature a book for free that has been paid in the past because then your subscribers would say, "Hey, I paid $1.99 for that book 6 months ago, and now it's Free."  But I don't see why a book that has been Free a year ago, can't be listed for $.99.

Thanks for being here!


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Harvey said:


> Let me kick this off with a question... BookBub has been a popular topic on KBoards for a while now in our Writers' Cafe. Can you tell us when you all at BookBub first became aware of KBoards as an author hangout?


Thanks for the question Harvey (and for hosting us today)! I honestly can't remember when we first discovered KBoards but we've known about you guys for a long time. We think it's an awesome place for authors to talk to each other about all the challenges they face.


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

zachfortier said:


> THanks for hosting this Q and A. Will BB be expanding into any more additional markets as they have been this past year?


We just expanded to Canada last week!! And we're certainly hoping to expand to more English-speaking markets over the course of this year. Right now we're thinking about Australia, India, and South Africa. Are there any countries or regions you'd like to see us add?


----------



## KatrinaAbbott (Jan 28, 2014)

MyraScott said:


> --> Questions for Book Bub <--
> 
> 1) Rejection
> 
> ...


Welcome!

I'm seconding (and bumping) Myra's questions - I'd love to see a bit more depth into reasons for rejection to help everyone on both sides. Any chance this is on your to-do list? p.s. Thank you, Myra, for posing this.


----------



## Kathy Dubois (Jan 4, 2013)

What do you find are the most downloaded genres and which ones have the least?


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Hi, All at Bookbub,

I wondered if you're likely to break up historical fiction into eras/centuries/countries, even, any time soon? 

As a reader, I'm mostly only interested in Tudor and Plantagenet times. 

And as a writer, it would be great if my promotions could be more cheaply (and accurately) targeted at those readers specifically interested in these eras.

Thanks.


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Indigo W said:


> BB specifications indicate that works should be 150+ pages to qualify for an ad, does BB use a word count guideline to clarify estimated pages counts for works that are only in ebook format?


Thanks for your question! We use the page counts listed on Amazon and Goodreads to determine the length of a book.


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

cslakin said:


> Thanks for doing this. I really love Bookbub and run as many ads as I can with you. I often tell you in my comments that I wish I could run an ad for each of my books more often than every six months (since Bookbub is a huge source of income, directly and indirectly, for me). My questions: any chance you might change that policy to, say, every four months for repeat books that have sold well?


Hi C.S.!

Great to hear you're happy with your BookBub ads! I can answer your question about the 6 month policy. There's a couple reasons we have to limit how frequently a book can be promoted. First, in order to keep our subscribers happy and engaging with BookBub, we've found it's important to offer a variety of books and authors. We also want to wait until there are enough new subscribers in a category so that your promotion isn't reaching the same people--we used to promote books more frequently, and saw a decrease in success of the repeat promotions. Hope that helps explain!

-Sonja


----------



## zachfortier (Jul 18, 2012)

Carlyn, thanks for the response. I had not considered South Africa! Yes I would have definitely suggested Australia and India. The latest book I have written has a more international appeal and I am really excited about your expansion. It has made a tremendous impact on my sales and ranking.


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

nico said:


> Do you have any plans to support promotion shorter works, like novellas or serials? Do you hear from readers about the popularity (or disdain) for such books?
> 
> Also, as a publisher, we'd really like to be able to share data on the performance of our books on BookBub. Having some statistics on click-through rates and conversions would be great, even if we had to sign NDAs for this type of information. More information to make informed investments in our products would be great! Is this something you'd consider?


Currently, our subscribers expect books on BookBub to be full length content -- we've gotten complaints in the past when we've promoted shorter books. Since we promise our readers the best deal available, a $0.99 deal on a short story isn't as appealing as a $0.99 promotion on a full length book. However, we know authors are interested in promoting short stories and novellas so it's something we're keeping in mind as we work to add features.

In terms of data and book performance, we're hoping to be able to provide this kind of information to our authors down the line!


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

cslakin said:


> My other question is about nonfiction and what types of NF sell well on Bookbub.


I'll tackle the nonfiction part of this because I work on these lists! The first thing I would say is that our subscribers LOVE history, especially WWII history and US Civil War history. They also like trivia and popular science. Easily digestible things that teach something are perfect for our audience 

The second thing is that we've recently launched a True Crime category and a Parenting category. We're hoping to grow those audiences and get more nonfiction content outside of our traditional General Nonfiction list!


----------



## cherylktardif (Apr 21, 2010)

Hi Harvey, Katie, Sonja et al,

I'd love to know if you're planning to accept multi-author bundles in the near future. 

I'd also like to see the addition of novellas, especially for imprints like our Imajin Qwickies(TM).  Do you think you'll be opening up this opportunity, perhaps to works that are 100+ pages or 20,000 words minimum?

Also, I'd love to see a German language option as Germans are voracious readers.

Many thanks for all that you do.

Cheryl Kaye Tardif, author & publisher, Imajin Books


----------



## cslakin (Oct 15, 2011)

Thanks, just thought I would suggest it. And I would very much like to have a reason for not being chosen AND if the reason is the dates requested, would you be open to suggesting other dates? I imagine most authors will grab any dates you offer.


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

cblewgolf said:


> Why do you turn down a book that has been free in the past, for a discounted paid ad? I can understand if you don't want to feature a book for free that has been paid in the past because then your subscribers would say, "Hey, I paid $1.99 for that book 6 months ago, and now it's Free." But I don't see why a book that has been Free a year ago, can't be listed for $.99.


Hi there! We promise our subscribers the best deals available, so we don't feature books that have been more heavily discounted in the past 3 months. So if a book was free for a week in January, we wouldn't promote until it had been back up to it's original price for 3 months (although we do feature permafree books). Hope that makes sense!


----------



## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

Thanks for the ads you've run for me in the past. I'm getting ready to apply for ads on my two real-life history mysteries. I just pulled them out of Select and plan on opening distribution to all the ebook vendors. 

Are you more apt to accept books that have wider distribution than just Amazon?

Do 99 cent book deals have a better chance of being picked over free simply because of the volume of requests you receive?


----------



## cslakin (Oct 15, 2011)

Yes, and I would REALLY love more of a breakdown in the romance category, as readers also have specific tastes.


----------



## zachfortier (Jul 18, 2012)

Would you consider allowing authors to promote in multiple categories? for example a General non fiction/bio/african american combo?  Since the authors ability to advertise their book is limited to once every 6 months per book, I would like to maximize the one add I am able to run on each book. Is this a possibility?


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

bethrevis said:


> There have been a lot of similar services to BookBub, but BB remains the best by far. It's the one universally loved service that I've repeatedly heard of from many different sources. How did you set yourself apart to become the quality advertiser you are, rising above the competition to hold such a strong corner of the market? What did you do differently from the imitators to make your service stand out?


Hey Beth! Thanks for joining the q&a today and for your kind words about BookBub! I think we've been very lucky in a lot of ways, but there are definitely things we've done from the beginning that we believe have played a role in our success so far. And with almost three years under our belt at this point, we've learned a lot along the way (and we're definitely still learning every day). One thing that's been really important to us from day 1 is the curation element of the daily email, which we think has played a big role in keeping our readers coming back every day. Another factor is that our consumer marketing team is really dedicated to finding new users who are super engaged. There are lots of ways to increase a user-base quickly, but for us it's more important to make sure the users we have are really interested in the service and that they keep coming back for more books! The last thing I'd call out is that we're very data driven. We look at the performance of every single book we feature to inform future decisions. Hope that answers your question!


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

hardnutt said:


> I wondered if you're likely to break up historical fiction into eras/centuries/countries, even, any time soon?
> 
> As a reader, I'm mostly only interested in Tudor and Plantagenet times.
> 
> And as a writer, it would be great if my promotions could be more cheaply (and accurately) targeted at those readers specifically interested in these eras.


Great question! We're constantly reevaluating our categories to make sure that we're meeting the needs of our readers and authors. For example, Romance used to be one big category in the past, but we realized that certain subgenres, such as Paranormal Romance, were underperforming. We had enough submissions from authors that we decided to separate it out into its own category in order to better target paranormal readers. If something similar started happening with historical fiction subgenres, then we'd certainly consider doing the same thing!


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

FireMonkey said:


> Hi BookBub, thanks for such a great opportunity to ask questions!
> 
> How will you be catering to independent authors in the future, now that traditional publishers are starting to take advantage of BB's huge market share of subscribers? Will you maintain a certain ratio of ads, split between the two to provide an equal share? With more and more publishers switching their advertising from the high street to digital, do you think _Indies_ are in danger of being squeezed out?
> 
> Cheers


Hey there!

We definitely don't plan to stop working with independent authors! We love working with the indie author community--they were the earliest adopters of BookBub, so they've been and continue to be a huge support for us. The publishing landscape is getting more and more diverse and we want books on Bookbub to reflect that diversity, with best of both independently and traditionally published books. We currently have roughly a 50/50 split of indie books and traditionally published books, with slightly more books by indie authors. We're also working on expanding our promotional offerings so that everyone has more opportunities to promote books with us!

-Sonja


----------



## Kathy Dubois (Jan 4, 2013)

Hi, love your service! I was wondering what weight do you put on each category for acceptance such as reviews, cover, etc. ?


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

Kathy Dubois said:


> What do you find are the most downloaded genres and which ones have the least?


Hi Kathy! We have information on the average number of downloads for each category on our pricing page here: https://www.bookbub.com/partners/pricing


----------



## Doril (Nov 2, 2013)

Carlyn from BookBub said:


> We just expanded to Canada last week!! And we're certainly hoping to expand to more English-speaking markets over the course of this year. Right now we're thinking about Australia, India, and South Africa. Are there any countries or regions you'd like to see us add?


That's awesome. Germany would be great


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Lisa Grace said:


> I'm getting ready to apply for ads on my two real-life history mysteries. I just pulled them out of Select and plan on opening distribution to all the ebook vendors.
> 
> Are you more apt to accept books that have wider distribution than just Amazon?
> 
> Do 99 cent book deals have a better chance of being picked over free simply because of the volume of requests you receive?


Hi Lisa! Our editorial team certainly takes retailer availability into consideration when reviewing a submission. We want to make sure that as many of our readers are able to download a book that they're interested in, so it benefits both authors (reaching a larger audience) and our users when a deal is available across multiple retailers.

To answer your second question: We actually have more flexibility on our free lists versus our paid lists. Oftentimes, we have more availabilities for free promotions -- in general, we always encourage authors to submit the most competitive deals possible!


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Hi, Sonja, Carolyn, Mel and the gang from Bookbub!

Thanks so much for doing this for our membership!

As a reader, and related to some of the earlier questions, I wonder if you would consider adding a search capability and tags--which might allow authors to add some of the subcategories they're asking for and allow readers to search for specific subgenres.  I tend to browse rather than look at my emails (I'm perennially behind on reading emails).

Betsy


----------



## Shiriluna Nott (Aug 26, 2014)

Hi BookBub! Thanks for being here today. I had a free promo with you last week and it went great, so thank you! 

My question is, any plans to allow authors to book promos more than a month in advance? 

Thanks.


----------



## Doril (Nov 2, 2013)

Mel from BookBub said:


> Currently, our subscribers expect books on BookBub to be full length content -- we've gotten complaints in the past when we've promoted shorter books. Since we promise our readers the best deal available, a $0.99 deal on a short story isn't as appealing as a $0.99 promotion on a full length book. However, we know authors are interested in promoting short stories and novellas so it's something we're keeping in mind as we work to add features.
> 
> In terms of data and book performance, we're hoping to be able to provide this kind of information to our authors down the line!


Thanks for your response, Mel. Just one question. How about shorter works which are free? Would you consider accepting shorter works for books only offered for free (no discounted books)? Maybe you'll receive less complaints that way. Thanks again.


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

zachfortier said:


> Would you consider allowing authors to promote in multiple categories? for example a General non fiction/bio/african american combo? Since the authors ability to advertise their book is limited to once every 6 months per book, I would like to maximize the one add I am able to run on each book. Is this a possibility?


Hey Zach! Great question. Featuring books in multiple categories would mean that subscribers would get fewer options on a given day (for example, if someone is opted into both nonfic and biographies, they'd get one title instead of two), so we've opted to send books to only one category at a time. Also, as a side note, it's difficult for us operationally to cross-category schedule!


----------



## Harriet Schultz (Jan 3, 2012)

Greetings from another snowbound New Englander (and Pats fan),

BookBub promos have always had spectacular results for me, so thank you for your existence.

If BB has already run the first book in a trilogy, what are the chances of you accepting the second or third book in the series? It would be great not to be limited to a 2x year BB ad for the first book.


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

cherylktardif said:


> Hi Harvey, Katie, Sonja et al,
> 
> I'd love to know if you're planning to accept multi-author bundles in the near future.
> 
> ...


Hi Cheryl! Thanks for your questions.

We do accept multi-author collections of novellas and short stories--we just don't accept multi-author collections of full length works and don't plan to in the near future. As for promoting stand alone short stories and novellas, right now our readers expect books on BookBub to be full length content--we've gotten complaints from readers in the past when we've promoted shorter books, which is why had to put page count minimums in place. However, we know authors are interested in promoting short stories and novellas so it's something we're keeping in mind as we work to add new features.

Finally, as you probably already know we're working on expanding internationally--we just added Canada and the U.K.! Our plan is to start with English language speaking countries, but after that it's definitely possible we'd expand into others.


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Harriet Schultz said:


> Greetings from another snowbound New Englander (and Pats fan),
> 
> BookBub promos have always had spectacular results for me, so thank you for your existence.
> 
> If BB has already run the first book in a trilogy, what are the chances of you accepting the second or third book in the series? It would be great not to be limited to a 2x year BB ad for the first book.


Go Pats!!! What a game. That was the best  

Anyway, please feel free to submit later books in the series! The editors will take the performance of the first book in the series into consideration while reviewing the later ones, but if they think the second and/or third will be good fits for our readers, we're just as happy to select those.


----------



## DonyaLynne (Feb 3, 2015)

This information certainly is helpful. I know I've had tremendous success with BookBub in the past and rave about the service, both as an author and a reader. 

My question is: Is it helpful to see a book that has a wide range of reviews, including bad reviews? Obviously, you'd prefer more five stars than one stars, but some people like seeing books with bad reviews for a couple of reasons: 1) It proves that the author didn't just go out and buy good reviews and/or round up all their friends and family to give him a plethora of awesome reviews; 2) As some NY agents and publishers have said, they like books with a lot of fives and a lot of ones, because that's a sign that the book is getting talked about and striking up interest. How does BookBub weigh in on bad reviews and their effect on whether a book gets listed?

Thank you.


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

My mind seems to be on a single track today - sorry!

But, as an off-shoot to my up-thread question about the likelihood of you dividing up historicals into eras, are there any plans to divide up mysteries into sub-categories?

I write both, and feel, sometimes, the competition on BB is likely to be too overwhelming for an author not on a best seller list, so I don't apply (though, the only time I did apply, you accepted me! Thank you for that. After all the 'they rejected me' woes here on kboards, I'm still trying to figure out how I got lucky on my first and only shot at a place. Not sure the fates (or BB) are likely to be so kind a second time and I'll be adding my voice to the cries of woe.    ).

But anyway, I digress. Mystery sub-cats? Likely? Or not?


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

cslakin said:


> Yes, and I would REALLY love more of a breakdown in the romance category, as readers also have specific tastes.


Since I work with most of our romance authors, I'm happy to tackle this!

We do oftentimes see trends, but it's tough to say what will be working on our lists a month from now (or even next week!) since our readers' tastes are constantly evolving and changing.

Right now, we've noticed that BDSM titles are performing really well in our Erotic Romance category. We've also seen highlander romances kill it to our Historical Romance list, and marriages of convenience and books about "second chances" do well on our Contemporary and NA/College Romance categories.


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Doril said:


> That's awesome. Germany would be great


And don't forget New Zealand. Some lovely people down there have bought my books!


----------



## Doril (Nov 2, 2013)

DonyaLynne said:


> This information certainly is helpful. I know I've had tremendous success with BookBub in the past and rave about the service, both as an author and a reader.
> 
> My question is: Is it helpful to see a book that has a wide range of reviews, including bad reviews? Obviously, you'd prefer more five stars than one stars, but some people like seeing books with bad reviews for a couple of reasons: 1) It proves that the author didn't just go out and buy good reviews and/or round up all their friends and family to give him a plethora of awesome reviews; 2) As some NY agents and publishers have said, they like books with a lot of fives and a lot of ones, because that's a sign that the book is getting talked about and striking up interest. How does BookBub weigh in on bad reviews and their effect on whether a book gets listed?
> 
> Thank you.


Interesting question.


----------



## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Hmm, I should have added "no Superbowl comments" as one of the ground rules for this discussion.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

LOL, yes we should remind people that Harvey lives near Seattle...and he is the host. 

We'd hate to have connection problems...

Betsy


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Kathy Dubois said:


> Hi, love your service! I was wondering what weight do you put on each category for acceptance such as reviews, cover, etc. ?


Hey Kathy! Thanks for joining the thread! This is a great question and it's tough to give a specific answer in terms of weight because our editorial review process is very holistic. If you haven't read it in the past, I'd recommend checking out this BookBub Unbound post on the selection process:

http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/89056785680/how-bookbubs-selection-process-works

To give you a quick summary, the first thing we look at is whether the submission meets our minimum requirements. If it doesn't, we let the author know which requirement it doesn't meet. Once we know it does meet the minimums, the editors look at things like reader reviews, critical reviews, historical performance of the book or author if they've run with BookBub before, and cover. The important part here is that they're looking at these areas in comparison to the other submissions we've gotten for that category at the time -- so the "averages" for things like reviews are constantly changing based on what the editors are getting in. Anyway, at that point they're also looking for content fit. Sometimes we get submissions for books with hundreds of reviews and beautiful covers that are just about a topic our subscribers haven't responded well to in the past!

Hope that helps but let us know if you have any other questions about the selection process!


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

Shiriluna Nott said:


> Hi BookBub! Thanks for being here today. I had a free promo with you last week and it went great, so thank you!
> 
> My question is, any plans to allow authors to book promos more than a month in advance?
> 
> Thanks.


Hi there! Glad to hear you were happy with your promo! 

There are a couple reasons we don't book more than a month in advance, but the main one is that we want to stay up-to-date with our readers' tastes. We evaluate the performance of every book, and if we booked more than a month in advance, that info wouldn't be as current!

We also frequently change or update our categories, so if we booked too far out some authors would lose the chance to promote to more targeted lists that might be better fits for their books.

Hope that makes sense! Thanks for the question


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Hi, Sonja, Carolyn, Mel and the gang from Bookbub!
> 
> Thanks so much for doing this for our membership!
> 
> ...


Hi Betsy!

Totally understand--I tend to like browsing the site instead of checking my email every day too... Anyhow, we're working really hard on building new features on the site, and we actually have already started to implement a tagging system. If you click on a book page--for example at https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-game-by-terry-schott, you'll see a list of tags at the bottom of the description. If you click on one of the tags, you'll be brought to a page listing other books marked with that tag--for example, you can see all of our books tagged "dystopian" here: https://www.bookbub.com/tags/dystopian. As I said, our tech team is working on adding more useful features so the site will hopefully be much easier to browse in the future!


----------



## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

Hi, everybody from BookBub! Wow, there's like five of you here. That's awesome! Thanks for stopping by and agreeing to be pelted with questions. You guys are great. 

I advertised with you once before and had the best time ever. It is SO MUCH FUN watching those numbers pile up.  (For anyone with a BB ad coming up, I'd recommend taking a day off and exercising your refresh-click muscles... you will not be able to look away from your dashboard. ) So first, thank you for providing such a phenomenal service for authors -- and thanks especially for having it open to all writers, no matter how they make their books available. A lot of the services available for indies are high-priced ripoffs, so it's fantastic that you're providing something that actually delivers returns.

And I do have a question in here somewhere, too.  It's about your regional promotions. Does the six-month wait apply for advertising the same book in different regions? 

Like, for example, say I wanted to advertise to your Canada list because I love Canada, and then I wanted to advertise to the US and UK lists a bit later, but not six months later (more like one or two months). Would that type of scenario be possible?

Thanks again!


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Doril said:


> Thanks for your response, Mel. Just one question. How about shorter works which are free? Would you consider accepting shorter works for books only offered for free (no discounted books)? Maybe you'll receive less complaints that way. Thanks again.


That's a good suggestion! I'll be sure to mention it to our editorial team


----------



## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

Hi BookBub,

I've had great success with BookBub for my women's fiction (written as Keeley Bates), but, in general, Young Adult seems a more difficult category to crack.  What are your plans, if any, to increase your YA subscriber list?  Thanks!


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

KatrinaAbbott said:


> Welcome!
> 
> I'm seconding (and bumping) Myra's questions - I'd love to see a bit more depth into reasons for rejection to help everyone on both sides. Any chance this is on your to-do list? p.s. Thank you, Myra, for posing this.


Hi Guys,

I'll give this one a try. We do actually give specific rejections for each of our basic guidelines. If your book is too short, you'll get a rejection that says this is too short. If the pricing doesn't work, we'll tell you. If we're out of space, we'll send you an email that says we're too booked please resubmit in 1 week. And if we've accepted your book but we don't have any openings during the dates you picked, we'll send you an email offering you a different date!

Where it get's complicated is for the books we don't pick that do meet our minimums. SO much of the editorial process is based on timing because the editors compare all submissions in a given category to pick the best fits for our readers. Sometimes there are a lot of submissions for one category and very few spots open, driving up the standards for that category and forcing us to pass on books that we might take in four weeks, which is why we always encourage resubmissions. At other times we have spots open and can schedule the books we think are the best fit for readers current tastes, which we track based on historical performance of promotions we've run. Reader tastes change! Books about chihuahuas might be all the rage now, but books about golden retrievers might be all the rage in a couple weeks. We can't predict these changes, so we do want to see the books that aren't a good fit now in the future, when they might be a better fit!

One more thing - we get 700-1,000 submissions a week  and there are FOUR people responding to every single submission. I promise we're doing our best


----------



## Doril (Nov 2, 2013)

S.W. Vaughn said:


> Hi, everybody from BookBub! Wow, there's like five of you here. That's awesome! Thanks for stopping by and agreeing to be pelted with questions. You guys are great.
> 
> I advertised with you once before and had the best time ever. It is SO MUCH FUN watching those numbers pile up.  (For anyone with a BB ad coming up, I'd recommend taking a day off and exercising your refresh-click muscles... you will not be able to look away from your dashboard. ) So first, thank you for providing such a phenomenal service for authors -- and thanks especially for having it open to all writers, no matter how they make their books available. A lot of the services available for indies are high-priced ripoffs, so it's fantastic that you're providing something that actually delivers returns.
> 
> ...


I hope to experience that excitement one day


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

hardnutt said:


> My mind seems to be on a single track today - sorry!
> 
> But, as an off-shoot to my up-thread question about the likelihood of you dividing up historicals into eras, are there any plans to divide up mysteries into sub-categories?
> 
> ...


Our Mysteries list is actually one we've been thinking about splitting up into sub-genres in the near future, so stay tuned!


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Sonja from BookBub said:


> Hi Betsy!
> 
> Totally understand--I tend to like browsing the site instead of checking my email every day too... Anyhow, we're working really hard on building new features on the site, and we actually have already started to implement a tagging system. If you click on a book page--for example at https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-game-by-terry-schott, you'll see a list of tags at the bottom of the description. If you click on one of the tags, you'll be brought to a page listing other books marked with that tag--for example, you can see all of our books tagged "dystopian" here: https://www.bookbub.com/tags/dystopian. As I said, our tech team is working on adding more useful features so the site will hopefully be much easier to browse in the future!


Interesting. I didn't know that. Sounds great!


----------



## Lorena5 (Jan 31, 2012)

Hi BookBub Gang! 

I'm wondering if you could shed a little light on the blurb writing process. Does the author have any input or ability to influence what the blurb says? 

Thanks, and keep up the great work!


----------



## Doril (Nov 2, 2013)

Mel from BookBub said:


> That's a good suggestion! I'll be sure to mention it to our editorial team


That would be awesome. Please do.


----------



## Daniel Knight (Jul 2, 2013)

Is it possible you could create a separate set of categories specifically for short works, similar to what Amazon has done with their Short Reads? That way you would be targeting readers who are specifically interested in shorter works. You mention that Bookbub has received complaints when they ran ads with shorter works, but have you ever polled your entire subscriber base to find out if there is a subset that is interested in shorter works? 

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions - it's very generous of all of you.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Sonja from BookBub said:


> Hi Betsy!
> 
> Totally understand--I tend to like browsing the site instead of checking my email every day too... Anyhow, we're working really hard on building new features on the site, and we actually have already started to implement a tagging system. If you click on a book page--for example at https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-game-by-terry-schott, you'll see a list of tags at the bottom of the description. If you click on one of the tags, you'll be brought to a page listing other books marked with that tag--for example, you can see all of our books tagged "dystopian" here: https://www.bookbub.com/tags/dystopian. As I said, our tech team is working on adding more useful features so the site will hopefully be much easier to browse in the future!


This sounds great! I think it should help, eventually, with some of the questions about subcategories for things like historical fiction. Thanks!

Betsy


----------



## katherinef (Dec 13, 2012)

Hi, I love Bookbub and thanks for all the great ads you ran for me. I'm curious about some things, though.

1. Do you check every submission's ratings and reviews on all sites, including Goodreads, and check how many books there are in the series? Or do you only check Amazon's page? I'm asking before I often wonder if I should include the information about series or ratings in comments section when applying or not.

2. I noticed that one month in YA category the only paid book ads were traditionally published books and occasional indie box-set, and free books were mostly indie. Considering trad-pubbed books are more expensive and the discount will always be bigger, does that mean you're always more likely to accept trad-pubbed book?

3. Sometimes I notice there's a day when no books are featured in a certain category. I thought it was because of my email settings, but then I went to the site and saw that there really wasn't any book featured that day. How is that possible? I'm sure you have plenty of submissions.

Forgot my other questions. Maybe I remember them later.


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

S.W. Vaughn said:


> Hi, everybody from BookBub! Wow, there's like five of you here. That's awesome! Thanks for stopping by and agreeing to be pelted with questions. You guys are great.
> 
> I advertised with you once before and had the best time ever. It is SO MUCH FUN watching those numbers pile up.  (For anyone with a BB ad coming up, I'd recommend taking a day off and exercising your refresh-click muscles... you will not be able to look away from your dashboard. ) So first, thank you for providing such a phenomenal service for authors -- and thanks especially for having it open to all writers, no matter how they make their books available. A lot of the services available for indies are high-priced ripoffs, so it's fantastic that you're providing something that actually delivers returns.
> 
> ...


Hi S.W.,

Glad to hear you're such a big BookBub fan!! 

The 6-month and 30-day rules apply across all regions. If you run a book in Canada only, you'd still have to wait 6 months to promote it in the US or UK. So we'd recommend that you run in as many regions as you can for each promotion!


----------



## frigatebird (Jan 21, 2015)

Hi, and thank you!  I want to say first off that I really appreciate you keeping this a great service for READERS.  I actually don't mind when I get rejected because I know your methods are what keep Bookbub such an effective service when we ARE accepted, and I know I'm not alone in that, so I just wanted to make sure it got said.

My question: Are there any sorts of things in the "additional comments" field that are immediately helpful to you in knowing whether the book is a good fit?  I can always think of plenty of things I could add there, but I'm never sure which are the most relevant ones.

Many thanks, again!


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Augusta Blythe said:


> Hi BookBub,
> 
> I've had great success with BookBub for my women's fiction (written as Keeley Bates), but, in general, Young Adult seems a more difficult category to crack. What are your plans, if any, to increase your YA subscriber list? Thanks!


Hey Augusta! This is a very astute observation . Our current user-base skews female and it skews older (power readers!), so Young Adult has been a bit of a challenge for us. We are fully aware of this and our consumer marketing team is planning to target different groups of readers in the future. For example, we've seen a higher percentage of males sign up over the past few months, and they're skewing a little younger too, based on some new marketing channels we're trying. So it's a matter of targeting our efforts, but hopefully someday we'll have a super robust YA audience too!


----------



## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Hey Bookbub peeps, thanks for being here today. I have a burning question and want to put it to you before everyone else thinks of it, and I fail to be their hero  

When are you going to start promoting our audio books? I noticed your last survey (I think it was your last one) asked about whisper sync. If you're considering audio, will whisper sync be one of the criteria, or would you consider just adding an audio book link next to the usual store link?

Thanks again,

Mark


----------



## Mark Dawson (Mar 24, 2012)

I might have a question later but, for now, kudos to you all. I advertised with BookBub right back in the beginning, and careful promotion - usually with BookBub as the fulcrum - helped me have a mad, dream-fulfilling, 9-5-job-leaving, year last year. More power to your elbow(s), I say.


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

DonyaLynne said:


> This information certainly is helpful. I know I've had tremendous success with BookBub in the past and rave about the service, both as an author and a reader.
> 
> My question is: Is it helpful to see a book that has a wide range of reviews, including bad reviews? Obviously, you'd prefer more five stars than one stars, but some people like seeing books with bad reviews for a couple of reasons: 1) It proves that the author didn't just go out and buy good reviews and/or round up all their friends and family to give him a plethora of awesome reviews; 2) As some NY agents and publishers have said, they like books with a lot of fives and a lot of ones, because that's a sign that the book is getting talked about and striking up interest. How does BookBub weigh in on bad reviews and their effect on whether a book gets listed?
> 
> Thank you.


Great questions! You're right in thinking that our editors are on the look out for reviews that appear to be bought, and one of the signs that something might be fishy can be exclusively positive reviews. In general, having a high number of reviews with a good but not perfect rating is much better than having just a few five star reviews. However, certain types of bad reviews are red flags, such as reviews indicating that a book is badly edited and full of typos and errors (though the editors will also check for editing quality by looking at a sample of the book.) And in the end, customer reviews are just one factor in the process, and the editors look at them in the context of all the information they can find about a book.


----------



## KatrinaAbbott (Jan 28, 2014)

Craig from BookBub said:


> One more thing - we get 700-1,000 submissions a week  and there are FOUR people responding to every single submission. I promise we're doing our best


Thanks so much for the response - that does make sense and I didn't realize that those who don't meet threshold get reasons for being turned down. I think what those of us who are rejected get frustrated about is the constantly moving target and the inability to see precisely what we're up against. We don't see behind the scenes (which would be impossible, obviously) and this is VERY HELPFUL. Thank you!


----------



## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

Carlyn from BookBub said:


> Hi S.W.,
> 
> Glad to hear you're such a big BookBub fan!!
> 
> The 6-month and 30-day rules apply across all regions. If you run a book in Canada only, you'd still have to wait 6 months to promote it in the US or UK. So we'd recommend that you run in as many regions as you can for each promotion!


Thank you, Carlyn! Yep, definitely a huge BB fan -- as a writer, and a reader. You all have built a wonderful service!

And I shall be patient until I can budget for all the regions.  Thanks again!


----------



## Andrei Cherascu (Sep 17, 2014)

Craig from BookBub said:


> Hi Guys,
> 
> I'll give this one a try. We do actually give specific rejections for each of our basic guidelines. If your book is too short, you'll get a rejection that says this is too short. If the pricing doesn't work, we'll tell you. If we're out of space, we'll send you an email that says we're too booked please resubmit in 1 week. And if we've accepted your book but we don't have any openings during the dates you picked, we'll send you an email offering you a different date!
> 
> ...


Hi guys, thanks for answering our questions. Craig, what you wrote here is very important. I think many authors may not realize that you give specific reasons for your rejections. I don't think that's very clear from your message. When I got your rejection I read it and it looked like a standard rejection letter, didn't find anything in there that would suggest why the book was rejected. However, after reading your post, I re-read the thing and noticed that it says "Other titles the editors reviewed were better fits for our readers' current tastes." At the time, I didn't realize that this was basically the specific reason why the book got rejected. It just looked like something generic, especially because it was followed by the "tips for resubmitting" part. Perhaps other writers are having the same problem.

I think it might be good to specifically state somewhere that you do give the reasons for the rejections. I can't remember reading that anywhere on your website.


----------



## Iwritelotsofbooks (Nov 17, 2010)

Thank for doing this.  I love your service.  
I have a few quick questions for you:

1.  Is it possible to tell us two or three categories that have the highest acceptance to submission rate?  For example, I know you probably get swamped with mystery and contemporary romance submissions, but are there categories that are easier to get selected for an ad in?

2.  Are there any categories where you wish you got more submissions?

3.  I know it has been mentioned earlier, but I think it would be great to subdivide mystery up more.  For example, there are a lot of hard-edged darker mysteries, but also a lot of lighter, more humorous women's sleuth-type mysteries that warrant their own separate category.


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Daniel Knight said:


> Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions - it's very generous of all of you.


It certainly is when you consider the upwards of 1,000 submissions a week that BB receive, as they stated.

Guys, I'll be thinking of you the day after tomorrow when you return from your outing to kboards, gaze at your inbox and start pulling your hair out in chunks!

I suggest you go freebie and get yourself an intern or three.


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Lorena5 said:


> Hi BookBub Gang!
> 
> I'm wondering if you could shed a little light on the blurb writing process. Does the author have any input or ability to influence what the blurb says?
> 
> Thanks, and keep up the great work!


Hi Lorena, thanks for joining the conversation!

Our editorial team is in charge of writing all of the blurbs for our promotions. We're certainly happy to pass along author suggestions, but the editors have been at this for two years and have a lot of research about the kind of language that sells books. The blurb writing process is very data-driven -- we're a startup, after all!


----------



## DonyaLynne (Feb 3, 2015)

Sonja from BookBub said:


> Great questions! You're right in thinking that our editors are on the look out for reviews that appear to be bought, and one of the signs that something might be fishy can be exclusively positive reviews. In general, having a high number of reviews with a good but not perfect rating is much better than having just a few five star reviews. However, certain types of bad reviews are red flags, such as reviews indicating that a book is badly edited and full of typos and errors (though the editors will also check for editing quality by looking at a sample of the book.) And in the end, customer reviews are just one factor in the process, and the editors look at them in the context of all the information they can find about a book.


Followup question: What do you consider a high number of reviews?

Thank you.


----------



## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

Hi to everyone at Bookbub! I want to say how great every one of you who I've communicated with have been. I've been using Bookbub since the beginning, and it has helped me a LOT in building readership. Without you I would still be struggling to see any future in writing my novels. Thank you.

I have a couple questions. I have been accepted several times in historical fiction, but have been rejected a couple times in thriller. I have heard thriller is the most competitive category. Any suggestions on how I can increase my chances? Because it is such a competitive category do I need a ton of reviews no matter when I submit? Should I try a different category? Also, will you consider breaking down the thriller categories? I personally write psychological thriller, but there are many.

*I would also really like to see Drama as a category. I know you have Literary Fiction, but for so many readers Literary seems to mean "hard to read and understand", experimental, high brow, etc so some don't sign up. Yet, many readers do enjoy a good drama.

Another welcome category would be just plain "Contemporary" instead of just Contemporary Romance or Women's Fiction. Again, people who are "afraid" of literary fiction might like this.*

Also, I am another who would love to see short stories reduced to "Free" accepted. Many people now like short works because they are so busy. For instance, a bunch of us did an anthology called "Stories on the Go" with was marketed as flash fiction to read when sitting in a waiting room, etc...and the downloads have been very good. It seems people like something they can quickly read on their phones, etc.

One last question, if an author has a book which could be categorized in more than the two allowed categories on Amazon, can they submit it to a category you have even if it is not listed in that category on Amazon?

Again, thank you so much for always being helpful, kind, and professional...and for helping me build a career with my work.


----------



## StephenEngland (Nov 2, 2011)

Mel from BookBub said:


> Hi Lorena, thanks for joining the conversation!
> 
> Our editorial team is in charge of writing all of the blurbs for our promotions. We're certainly happy to pass along author suggestions, but the editors have been at this for two years and have a lot of research about the kind of language that sells books. The blurb writing process is very data-driven -- we're a startup, after all!


This relates to a question I had, Mel. In September of 2013, I ran a very successful promo with Bookbub after they selected the first few lines of my product description (Which were written as a reader hook) as the blurb.

This past October, I ran another promo with Bookbub and the e-mail was sent out with a custom-written blurb which regrettably completely mischaracterized the nature of the book. Sales were less than half of their previous numbers, and reviews received after the promo indicated that some readers certainly hadn't received what they expected based on the blurb. Another colleague of mine had an identical negative experience with his Bookbub promo blurb around the same time.

Based on this, I would definitely like to see more author input on the blurb, if that is feasible.


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

DonyaLynne said:


> What do you consider a high number of reviews?


Hi Donya,

You'll probably hate this answer, but there's no "magic number" of reviews. It depends on both the category AND the other books that have been submitted at the same time. For example, it's rare that our editorial team will pick Contemporary Romance novels with fewer than 100 reviews (because it's a very competitive category!), but books with far less reviews might get accepted in one of our other romance categories. To get a better sense of what the platforms look like for some of the accepted books in certain categories, you can browse through the books on our website!


----------



## Lorena5 (Jan 31, 2012)

Mark Dawson said:


> I might have a question later but, for now, kudos to you all. I advertised with BookBub right back in the beginning, and careful promotion - usually with BookBub as the fulcrum - helped me have a mad, dream-fulfilling, 9-5-job-leaving, year last year. More power to your elbow(s), I say.


I second this, Mark!! My BookBub promotional runs have made it possible for writing to be my full-time dream job as well. Watching the KDP dashboard spike with free and paid downloads during a promotion is an amazing feeling.


----------



## cslakin (Oct 15, 2011)

Could you please tell me your specific requirements for a novella submission? Do you require a minimum word count? Anything else?


----------



## Guest (Feb 3, 2015)

Caddy said:


> One last question, if an author has a book which could be categorized in more than the two allowed categories on Amazon, can they submit it to a category you have even if it is not listed in that category on Amazon?


I'd like to know this answer to this one, too!


----------



## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

cslakin said:


> Could you please tell me your specific requirements for a novella submission? Do you require a minimum word count? Anything else?


That answer is on their site: https://www.bookbub.com/partners/requirements


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

frigatebird said:


> Hi, and thank you! I want to say first off that I really appreciate you keeping this a great service for READERS. I actually don't mind when I get rejected because I know your methods are what keep Bookbub such an effective service when we ARE accepted, and I know I'm not alone in that, so I just wanted to make sure it got said.
> 
> My question: Are there any sorts of things in the "additional comments" field that are immediately helpful to you in knowing whether the book is a good fit? I can always think of plenty of things I could add there, but I'm never sure which are the most relevant ones.
> 
> Many thanks, again!


Hey there! Excellent question. We could definitely do a better job of explaining what's useful to put in the additional comments section. The editors will read a book's product page VERY carefully, so there is no need to include awards, editorial reviews, endorsements, and other information that's already on that page in the Comments section. However, if there's some new information that you haven't yet added to the product page, that's a great thing to mention in your comments section. Also, if your dates are generally flexible but there are a couple dates that don't work for you, that's something you might want to mention as well. Hope that helps clarify!


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

katherinef said:


> 1. Do you check every submission's ratings and reviews on all sites, including Goodreads, and check how many books there are in the series? Or do you only check Amazon's page? I'm asking before I often wonder if I should include the information about series or ratings in comments section when applying or not.


Hey Katherine! Let me try to tackle all these . We do check every submission's ratings and reviews on all sites, including Goodreads. The editors do also look into an author's backlist and other books in the series. However, each book is reviewed individually, so if there's another book in the series that has double the number of reviews, that won't necessarily help the book that has been submitted. There's no need to include info about ratings or reviews in the comments section though!



katherinef said:


> 2. I noticed that one month in YA category the only paid book ads were traditionally published books and occasional indie box-set, and free books were mostly indie. Considering trad-pubbed books are more expensive and the discount will always be bigger, does that mean you're always more likely to accept trad-pubbed book?


We definitely consider books from indie authors and traditional publishers in the same way and the editors select whichever will be the best fit for our readers, regardless of who it's published by! So no, we're not always more likely to accept trad-pubbed books. One thing I'll say about YA is that because our audience still skews older, books that have crossed genre (i.e. spread into the non-YA market) tend to perform well right now. So it could be that the month you're referring to happened to include a lot of submissions for titles that were more likely to be recognized by our readers.



katherinef said:


> 3. Sometimes I notice there's a day when no books are featured in a certain category. I thought it was because of my email settings, but then I went to the site and saw that there really wasn't any book featured that day. How is that possible? I'm sure you have plenty of submissions.


This is a bit of a challenge to explain but I'll do my best . We have a set number of slots we can fill each day with a promotion. Some of those slots are for one single category -- for example, we run 2 Mysteries per day (one discounted and one free). Some of these slots are what I'll call "rotating". This means there are a few different categories we could theoretically run in that slot. For many of our smaller categories, it doesn't make sense for us to feature a book every single day, so instead we'll rotate amongst a group of categories. On one day we might feature an LGBT and on the next we'll feature a Chick Lit in that same spot. Does that make sense??

Thanks!!

Hey Katherine!


----------



## erikhanberg (Jul 15, 2011)

Hi BB, and thanks for taking the time to do this!

How do you take past performance on BookBub into account? If an author had one book do well on BookBub a year ago, would that influence your decision on another book by the same author? Or on the same book again?

Thanks!


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Carlyn from BookBub said:


> Hi Donya,
> 
> You'll probably hate this answer, but there's no "magic number" of reviews. It depends on both the category AND the other books that have been submitted at the same time. For example, it's rare that our editorial team will pick Contemporary Romance novels with fewer than 100 reviews (because it's a very competitive category!), but books with far less reviews might get accepted in one of our other romance categories. To get a better sense of what the platforms look like for some of the accepted books in certain categories, you can browse through the books on our website!


Donya, I'll also add that the 100 number doesn't mean a book without 100 reviews would never get selected! It all depends on what's getting submitted at the time, which is why this answer is unfortunately unsatisfying .


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Daniel Knight said:


> Is it possible you could create a separate set of categories specifically for short works, similar to what Amazon has done with their Short Reads? That way you would be targeting readers who are specifically interested in shorter works. You mention that Bookbub has received complaints when they ran ads with shorter works, but have you ever polled your entire subscriber base to find out if there is a subset that is interested in shorter works?
> 
> Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions - it's very generous of all of you.


Hey Daniel! That's another good suggestion for how we might promote shorter works in the future--I'll definitely pass on the idea on to the editors to see if it's something we could test out.


----------



## Harriet Schultz (Jan 3, 2012)

As a reader, I notice I'm downloading more free books onto my overloaded Kindle than I used to. It seems there are more and more options for readers to buy or borrow books for free in addition to Kindle Unlimited and other subscription sites.

Have you documented a drop in click through and buy rates for $0.99 books? Is "free" the new $0.99?


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> When are you going to start promoting our audio books? I noticed your last survey (I think it was your last one) asked about whisper sync. If you're considering audio, will whisper sync be one of the criteria, or would you consider just adding an audio book link next to the usual store link?


Hi Mark,

I love audiobooks and would personally love a way to get audiobooks without paying an arm and a leg 

The problem for us (BookBub us) is that audiobooks aren't discounted in the same way as ebooks. It happens, but it's rare to see deeply discounted audiobooks unless the purchase/download is part of a trial for a subscription service. We don't want our readers accidentally signing up for a subscription service that they don't want!

We have been asking about audiobooks in the surveys, but this has been just to get a sense of whether or not our indie author friends have audiobooks and where/how they're distributed.

TLR - there is a lot of figuring to do before we could ever make this happen.


----------



## shailstock (Aug 12, 2012)

Please consider giving some feedback when you reject a book.  The general comment in the FAQ's says nothing.  If a category is full, that would be good to know.  If the cover is not up to standard, that would be good to know.  If no comments were in that section of the application, that would be good to know.  Anything would be good to know.  The not knowing anything at all is so frustrating.  Thank you.


----------



## Lorena5 (Jan 31, 2012)

I understand that a submission cannot be placed in two different categories at the same time, but would you consider first and second choices when authors submit? Ex: Submitting my YA novel, stating my first choice of category is Supernatural Suspense and my second choice is Young Adult. Is this a feature BookBub might consider offering in the future?


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

Ok, let me see if I can tackle all of these...



lacymarankevinmichael said:


> 1. Is it possible to tell us two or three categories that have the highest acceptance to submission rate? For example, I know you probably get swamped with mystery and contemporary romance submissions, but are there categories that are easier to get selected for an ad in?


Some categories are certainly less competitive, but from our end it's more about finding a good fit with our readers than just where you submit it. Our editorial team has a TON of data on what kinds of books have performed well with our readers on all the different lists, and they have a really good sense of where books will do best. So even if you consider your book a Thriller, they may decide it will work better on our Action and Adventure list.



lacymarankevinmichael said:


> 2. Are there any categories where you wish you got more submissions?


Yes! We'd love more submissions in our smaller/ newer categories like LGBT, African American, and Chick Lit. We're also always looking for more free books.



lacymarankevinmichael said:


> 3. I know it has been mentioned earlier, but I think it would be great to subdivide mystery up more. For example, there are a lot of hard-edged darker mysteries, but also a lot of lighter, more humorous women's sleuth-type mysteries that warrant their own separate category.


Thanks for the feedback! Cozy mysteries are definitely a big hit with our readers


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

I got some questions via direct message that I wanted to answer publicly so you all had the info! Side note that if you have a question that you'd rather not post publicly, feel free to send it to me directly and I'll get it answered anonymously.

** How was Bookbub's mailing list compiled from day one of your service? Any tips on how to do this for those of us that do not get approved by Bookbub repeatedly?*

We've used a combination of paid advertising and viral marketing to build up our user-base since we launched. In the early days it leaned more heavily towards advertising, but now that we have millions of members the word-of-mouth component is really strong (we have millions of fans on Facebook who share our posts with their friends, for example). We've tried tons of different advertising vehicles and we should note that we have a whole team of people dedicated to consumer marketing. They do tons of testing and analysis around creative and copy to see what works best for finding new, engaged BookBub users - they're math whizzes over there!

For authors we'd recommend experimenting! Try different advertising methods from Google to Facebook to Bing to content marketing and more. Just be sure to test which is most effective and be vigilant in analyzing your results and optimizing the campaigns. Also be sure to ask your readers for their email addresses whenever you can! Front matter, back matter, website, etc.

** Can we suggest other categories/genres?*

Yes, please do! When we launch new categories, we're always trying to find the perfect combination of demand from our readers and supply from our partners. We can't guarantee we'll be able to launch every category you request, but it definitely plays a role in the decision.

** What new genres can we expect to be coming soon from BookBub?*

We just recently launched two new categories: Parenting and True Crime, and we have a couple more nonfiction categories we're currently testing (History and Business). We hope to launch those soon as long as the testing goes well! What other genres would you all like to see offered?


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

erikhanberg said:


> Hi BB, and thanks for taking the time to do this!
> 
> How do you take past performance on BookBub into account? If an author had one book do well on BookBub a year ago, would that influence your decision on another book by the same author? Or on the same book again?
> 
> Thanks!


Hi Erik! Yep, we do track past performance of books on BookBub, and it's one of the factors the editors will take into account, especially if they're considering the same book again--it wouldn't necessarily be as big of a factor for a different book by the same author, since we've seen that performance of different books by the same author can actually vary quite a bit.


----------



## Kathy Dubois (Jan 4, 2013)

I noticed that you have added to your services such as recommended authors, follow authors and Bookbound. I have enjoyed looking at the recommendations. Have you found that authors are happy about these services to the readers?


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Harriet Schultz said:


> As a reader, I notice I'm downloading more free books onto my overloaded Kindle than I used to. It seems there are more and more options for readers to buy or borrow books for free in addition to Kindle Unlimited and other subscription sites.
> 
> Have you documented a drop in click through and buy rates for $0.99 books? Is "free" the new $0.99?


+1 Good question. Because when I submit again, I'd like to try the 99c slot. A bit concerned in case there are fewer opportunities there.


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

StephenEngland said:


> This relates to a question I had, Mel. In September of 2013, I ran a very successful promo with Bookbub after they selected the first few lines of my product description (Which were written as a reader hook) as the blurb.
> 
> This past October, I ran another promo with Bookbub and the e-mail was sent out with a custom-written blurb which regrettably completely mischaracterized the nature of the book. Sales were less than half of their previous numbers, and reviews received after the promo indicated that some readers certainly hadn't received what they expected based on the blurb. Another colleague of mine had an identical negative experience with his Bookbub promo blurb around the same time.
> 
> Based on this, I would definitely like to see more author input on the blurb, if that is feasible.


I'm sorry to hear about that. As I mentioned before, our editors have done extensive A/B testing on what works best with our readers in the blurb content, and so are likely to include certain words, key phrases, etc. that will lead to increased user engagement.

If you have specific blurb input, I encourage you to include that in the "comments" section of the submission form. The editors are always happy to look at suggestions!


----------



## Nancy Warren (May 5, 2014)

Hi BB,

It's so great to meet you all and get a sense of who you are. Like so many other posters I am deeply grateful for the incredible boost to sales and visibility I get from each BB ad. So thanks  

Question: I didn't realize you would consider a multi-author set of short stories or novellas. Do you have a max word or page count for these? 

Question 2: with a single author boxed set, do you take into account the reviews on each book or do you need a high number of reviews for the bundle itself?

Thanks again for being here today.

Nancy


----------



## FictionalWriter (Aug 4, 2010)

I love this whole question and answer thing.

I notice you do have a minimum word requirement and I've heard about the complaints about shorter works. But if the book is advertised for *free *wouldn't that make any complaints moot? I'd love to be able to advertise my shorter works but it's such a bear finding an advertiser to accept it. Bookbub would be ideal...


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Lorena5 said:


> I understand that a submission cannot be placed in two different categories at the same time, but would you consider first and second choices when authors submit? Ex: Submitting my YA novel, stating my first choice of category is Supernatural Suspense and my second choice is Young Adult. Is this a feature BookBub might consider offering in the future?


Hey Lorena! There seems to be a lot of confusion about this, which is totally understandable. The categories you guys select on submission forms are actually just suggested categories. Our editors will consider the title for whichever genre they think it would work best in, so submitting for different categories or multiple categories won't actually impact their decision. IF you are open to running in another category, it is helpful for us to know that in the submission in case the editors think it will work better elsewhere (you can just throw that in the comments section). Otherwise we'll just ask you if you're ok running to the different list!


----------



## jcafesin (Sep 30, 2014)

I did a Bookbub promo back in October. I did a free Amazon giveaway. I had 26,000 downloads in two days. Thanks!
1. I was put on the Literary list and did not make back the $140 I paid Bookbub for the promo. I've heard this list is a dud. Is this true? What are your stats on the response to all your lists, please...


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Harriet Schultz said:


> As a reader, I notice I'm downloading more free books onto my overloaded Kindle than I used to. It seems there are more and more options for readers to buy or borrow books for free in addition to Kindle Unlimited and other subscription sites.
> 
> Have you documented a drop in click through and buy rates for $0.99 books? Is "free" the new $0.99?


Interesting info, Harriet! We have not noticed any consistent drop in CTR or conversion rates for our $0.99 promotions. As a couple of my colleagues have said here, we actually have more availability for free promotions than $0.99 promotions in almost all our categories, so we'd love some more free submissions!


----------



## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Craig from BookBub said:


> Hi Mark,
> 
> I love audiobooks and would personally love a way to get audiobooks without paying an arm and a leg
> 
> ...


Thanks for answering my question, Craig. The discount problem is why I mentioned whisper sync. For example, my audio books are $28 but can be had for $2.99 through the whisper sync program. I know your list members sign up for categories they're interested in. Any chance you could offer a whisper sync audio category to get around the membership problem?

No one is promoting audio yet. It's a growing market, and needs something like Audiobub to take the lead 

Thanks again, Craig

Mark


----------



## Susanne O (Feb 8, 2010)

Hello everyone from Bookbub!

I've had two highly successful runs with Bookbub in the past (Hot Property) and the results were amazing. I would so far as to say that the first one kick started my comeback into romantic fiction after having strayed into mystery with two books. So I am very happy with both those ads.

But I just submitted my most recent novel and, as I was busy trying to find all the URLs, I clicked away and then the submission went off without me having to fill in any dates. Was that my mistake or have you changed the submission forms?


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Kathy Dubois said:


> I noticed that you have added to your services such as recommended authors, follow authors and Bookbound. I have enjoyed looking at the recommendations. Have you found that authors are happy about these services to the readers?


Hey Kathy! Really happy to hear you're enjoying the new features. We got a ton of great feedback from authors when we announced Author Follows on BookBub Unbound: http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/104110007985/announcing-bookbub-author-follows

We were thrilled to hear so much excitement from our partners. And this wasn't even an actionable announcement because the Author Follows feature is really just laying the groundwork for additional features we're hoping to launch over the course of this year. So stay tuned for more announcements!


----------



## TuckerAuthor (Jan 31, 2014)

Thanks for engaging here. Love your service and wish I was accepted more often! ;-)

Two questions: 1) Do you have data on how well non-first-books-in-series do vs. first books and does that factor into your decision to accept those?

2) Can you give us some more information about how to entice you to accept a new release that has only a handful of reviews?


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Kathy Dubois said:


> I noticed that you have added to your services such as recommended authors, follow authors and Bookbound. I have enjoyed looking at the recommendations. Have you found that authors are happy about these services to the readers?


I'd say both our authors and readers are always excited to hear about new features, and we're always excited to roll them out!  And again, we're always happy to hear directly from YOU about services you think would be useful in the future!


----------



## Kathy Dubois (Jan 4, 2013)

I have another question. LOL! You have the listings on the pricing page with all the data. You mentioned before that you are always looking at the trends at the moment. How often do you change the data on the pricing page? Do you end up doing that every week? Kudos to you if you do!!!!


----------



## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Hi, I have question: is there any way an author can see how many "Follows" they have?


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

Nancy Warren said:


> Hi BB,
> 
> It's so great to meet you all and get a sense of who you are. Like so many other posters I am deeply grateful for the incredible boost to sales and visibility I get from each BB ad. So thanks
> 
> ...


Hi Nancy! It's so great to hear how happy you've all been with your past promotions!

For anthologies of novellas or short stories, we have a minimum page count of 150 for fiction, and 100 for nonfiction, but no max page count! Use your judgment for that one  We also require that short story/ novella collections have 2D covers, since readers have complained that 3D covers are misleading about the length.

For single-author box sets, our editors will check out the individual books if the bundle itself doesn't have a lot of reviews.

Thanks for the questions!


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

shailstock said:


> Please consider giving some feedback when you reject a book. The general comment in the FAQ's says nothing. If a category is full, that would be good to know. If the cover is not up to standard, that would be good to know. If no comments were in that section of the application, that would be good to know. Anything would be good to know. The not knowing anything at all is so frustrating. Thank you.


Hey, thanks for asking! Craig actually just gave some good insights on this:



Craig from BookBub said:


> Hi Guys,
> 
> I'll give this one a try. We do actually give specific rejections for each of our basic guidelines. If your book is too short, you'll get a rejection that says this is too short. If the pricing doesn't work, we'll tell you. If we're out of space, we'll send you an email that says we're too booked please resubmit in 1 week. And if we've accepted your book but we don't have any openings during the dates you picked, we'll send you an email offering you a different date!
> 
> ...


I'll add that part of the reason we can't give specific feedback beyond our minimum requirements, like "Our readers won't like this cover" or "This book doesn't have enough customer reviews" because as Craig mentioned, once you've met the minimum requirements, it gets complicated--selection standards and criteria change over time, and there's almost never one factor that makes or breaks a book's acceptance. But as he also mentioned, we will always tell you if the problem is that your book doesn't meet a minimum requirement, or if we'd like to accept it but the category is completely full. Hope that helps!


----------



## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

Since you do consider short story anthologies, would you consider promoting our Writers' Cafe one? 101 authors worked together and Andrew Ashling headed up the editing and formatting on our Stories On The Go Anthology. It just released in December.

It's perma free, and gives readers a taste of a wide variety of Kindleboard Writers' Cafe authors and genres.

http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Go-Very-Short-Authors-ebook/dp/B00R1GECO6/









P. S. Thanks again for running ads on my books in the past. My only regret is I wish I had more novels written to submit!


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Susanne. said:


> Hello everyone from Bookbub!
> 
> I've had two highly successful runs with Bookbub in the past (Hot Property) and the results were amazing. I would so far as to say that the first one kick started my comeback into romantic fiction after having strayed into mystery with two books. So I am very happy with both those ads.
> 
> But I just submitted my most recent novel and, as I was busy trying to find all the URLs, I clicked away and then the submission went off without me having to fill in any dates. Was that my mistake or have you changed the submission forms?


Hey Susanne, great question! We recently updated the submission form to make the date part less onerous for authors. There's now an option to say "I'm flexible" and not need to provide any other information. We hope it's helpful!


----------



## Susanne O (Feb 8, 2010)

Katie from BookBub said:


> Hey Susanne, great question! We recently updated the submission form to make the date part less onerous for authors. There's now an option to say "I'm flexible" and not need to provide any other information. We hope it's helpful!


Thank you! Yes, I said 'flexible'. It does make it easier if you don't have to fiddle with dates and then I suppose there is a higher chance of acceptance, as you (BB) can then pick a date that fits the book and your lists on a given day best.


----------



## Sylvia R. Frost (Jan 8, 2014)

Hi, Bookbub,

Question. Do you look at Amazon sales rank vs reviews. For example a book that is selling very well but doesn't have as many reveiws as a title not selling as well? Which would get the edge?


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

Lydniz said:


> Hi, I have question: is there any way an author can see how many "Follows" they have?


Great question! Author Follows is a new feature, so unfortunately we don't have this capability yet. But it's definitely something we hope to offer in the future!


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Caddy said:


> I have been accepted several times in historical fiction, but have been rejected a couple times in thriller. I have heard thriller is the most competitive category. Any suggestions on how I can increase my chances? Because it is such a competitive category do I need a ton of reviews no matter when I submit? Should I try a different category? Also, will you consider breaking down the thriller categories? I personally write psychological thriller, but there are many.


Hi Caddy,

I can't answer any specific questions about your books, but let me try and give you some info on the Thrillers category since that's one that I work on!

You're right, Thrillers is a very competitive list, so there are always tons of submissions to sort through and what we feature is really a matter of matching content to the tastes of our readers. We're currently seeing contemporary story lines work, as well as historical content, conspiracies, terrorist plots, and espionage. Our Thrillers readers also respond well to books that have quotes from big authors in the genre.

I wouldn't say that splitting the Thrillers is next up in terms of lists that need splitting, but that doesn't mean that "thrillers" that aren't a good fit for our Thrillers list are doomed. For example, say conspiracies are actually better on our Action and Adventure list. So, if you were to submit a conspiracy thriller to our Thrillers category, our editors would also consider it for Action and Adventure. I think a lot of our indie author friends don't realize that we'll consider books for categories other than the one they submitted to!


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Lisa Grace said:


> Since you do consider short story anthologies, would you consider promoting our Writers' Cafe one? 101 authors worked together and Andrew Ashling headed up the editing and formatting on our Stories On The Go Anthology. It just released in December.
> 
> It's perma free, and gives readers a taste of a wide variety of Kindleboard Writers' Cafe authors and genres.
> 
> ...


Hi Lisa -- glad to hear you're interested in running another BookBub promotion!

Unfortunately, as we outlined prior to the start of this Q&A, our only guideline is that we're not going to be answering questions about specific past or future submissions.

But feel free to submit through our website! https://www.bookbub.com/submit-order/new


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

TuckerAuthor said:


> Thanks for engaging here. Love your service and wish I was accepted more often! ;-)
> 
> Two questions: 1) Do you have data on how well non-first-books-in-series do vs. first books and does that factor into your decision to accept those?
> 
> 2) Can you give us some more information about how to entice you to accept a new release that has only a handful of reviews?


Hey Tucker! Thank you for engaging! To your questions:

1) This is something we want to do more specific analysis around, but currently the editors consider a book from any part of a series. I'd say they probably prefer to feature the first in a series, because it's a better entry-point for readers and the first book tends to have the biggest platform.

2) We hardly ever feature new releases because of this exact issue. We recommend authors submit backlist titles or wait until a new release has had a chance to build up a significant platform before submitting. We're hoping to add featured in the future that allow us to work with partners on new releases more easily!


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

Kathy Dubois said:


> I have another question. LOL! You have the listings on the pricing page with all the data. You mentioned before that you are always looking at the trends at the moment. How often do you change the data on the pricing page? Do you end up doing that every week? Kudos to you if you do!!!!


Hi Kathy,

We update the data on the pricing page every 2 weeks!


----------



## Eskimo (Dec 31, 2013)

Hello BB,

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions -- your feedback is very valuable! I have run 5 promotions with BB over the past two years and they have been wildly successful. Thank you for your help.

One thing I have noticed on BB is that there are more books being priced at $1.99 and $2.99. How would you compare their results with books that are priced at 99 cents?


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

jcafesin said:


> I did a Bookbub promo back in October. I did a free Amazon giveaway. I had 26,000 downloads in two days. Thanks!
> 1. I was put on the Literary list and did not make back the $140 I paid Bookbub for the promo. I've heard this list is a dud. Is this true? What are your stats on the response to all your lists, please...


Hi there! Sorry to hear you weren't completely happy with the results of the free promo. It can be tricky to determine ROI with free promotions and this kind of feedback is helpful as we think about how to adjust our pricing model to make sure everyone has a good experience. We do post all of our stats for average sales and downloads in our different categories publicly here:

https://www.bookbub.com/partners/pricing


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Sylvia R. Frost said:


> Hi, Bookbub,
> 
> Question. Do you look at Amazon sales rank vs reviews. For example a book that is selling very well but doesn't have as many reveiws as a title not selling as well? Which would get the edge?


Hey Sylvia! Sales ranking doesn't play a significant role in our review process. The editors consider reviews and average rating more important, so I'd focus on making sure your submission has a solid platform of reviews and reader feedback.


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Hey everyone! Thanks so much for your awesome questions so far! 

The BookBub team here is going to take a quick break for lunch . We'll be back at 1pm EST for more questions.


----------



## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Hey, Sonja and the BookBub gang,

I was wondering if y'all might be giving any thought to expanding the date range for submission aside from being between a week from today and five weeks from today? I have plans to promote certain books well into the future. Actually, books I haven't even written yet, I already have on a calendar to submit.

In the near future, I plan to submit for a free promo to run at some time in the last two weeks of March, but to submit, I currently have to wait until next week, for those dates to open up. It would be great if the submission calendar were expended to two months.


----------



## Z. Rider (Aug 15, 2014)

Katie from BookBub said:


> 2) We hardly ever feature new releases because of this exact issue. We recommend authors submit backlist titles or wait until a new release has had a chance to build up a significant platform before submitting. We're hoping to add featured in the future that allow us to work with partners on new releases more easily!


If you add an option for readers to sign up for a new releases list (in our preferred genres) at some point, I'd definitely subscribe. Goodreads' monthly New Releases email is one of my favorites (but at the same time it's frustrating because they offer such a limited selection of genres for it). I don't even care if the new releases are discounted-I'm just looking for new shinies to grab.


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> The discount problem is why I mentioned whisper sync. For example, my audio books are $28 but can be had for $2.99 through the whisper sync program. I know your list members sign up for categories they're interested in. Any chance you could offer a whisper sync audio category to get around the membership problem?
> 
> No one is promoting audio yet. It's a growing market, and needs something like Audiobub to take the lead


Whispersync is a great idea, and again I use it and love it!

BookBub has always tried to be retailer agnostic, meaning we want our readers to be able to get the content they want on the device(s) they want. We also strive for simplicity and don't want to complicate things for our readers. For example, it would be very confusing to sell someone a Kindle book if they have a Nook or a Kobo book if they have a Kindle.

The same ideas apply to audiobooks. We want all of our subscribers to be able to join in on the audio fun if we start to promote discounted audiobooks and we don't want to sell someone a Kindle/whispersync bundle if they are a Nook user.

If (when?) we join in on the audio party, I will lobby as hard as I can to call it AudioBub!


----------



## jcafesin (Sep 30, 2014)

Hi Sonia,
Thanks! I'm looking for stats on sales AFTER a Bookbub promotion from each list. You send out a follow-up form that asks this question. Do you have the stats from these forms?


----------



## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

I found your new Author Follow program to be very interesting.

But it did have me wondering something.

Will you be using the number of "followers" for an author to assist in determining whether or not a book gets an ad?


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Lisa Grace said:


> Since you do consider short story anthologies, would you consider promoting our Writers' Cafe one? 101 authors worked together and Andrew Ashling headed up the editing and formatting on our Stories On The Go Anthology. It just released in December.
> 
> It's perma free, and gives readers a taste of a wide variety of Kindleboard Writers' Cafe authors and genres.
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Go-Very-Short-Authors-ebook/dp/B00R1GECO6/


Lol! Worth a try, Lisa! Thought you might manage to slip it in under the wire. But sadly, not. :-(


----------



## Teri A (Jul 23, 2014)

I'm so glad you're here answering questions.  Thanks.

I'm often unsure when its best to end the promotion for maximum results. My inclination is to end the promotion the same day, so that the book goes back to full price and I can earn more royalties during the coming days.

But on the other hand, it may make better sense to keep the price low for a few days to keep the sales higher and boost ranking.

I know your FAQ says that sales peak after 4 days. Does that change depending on whether the promo continues and the price remains low?

Do you have a recommendation on how long to continue the promotion?  Does author choice influence your decision on whether to accept a book?


----------



## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

When you are selecting books for ads, does the amount of days we choose to run it have any effect on your decision?

I mean, are you more likely to select a book on sale (or free) for 4 days than one on sale for 2 days? Or vice versa?


----------



## frigatebird (Jan 21, 2015)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Hey, Sonja and the BookBub gang,
> 
> I was wondering if y'all might be giving any thought to expanding the date range for submission aside from being between a week from today and five weeks from today? I have plans to promote certain books well into the future. Actually, books I haven't even written yet, I already have on a calendar to submit.
> 
> In the near future, I plan to submit for a free promo to run at some time in the last two weeks of March, but to submit, I currently have to wait until next week, for those dates to open up. It would be great if the submission calendar were expended to two months.


To save the lovely BB people some time, they answered this a few pages ago:



Carlyn from BookBub said:


> Hi there! Glad to hear you were happy with your promo!
> 
> There are a couple reasons we don't book more than a month in advance, but the main one is that we want to stay up-to-date with our readers' tastes. We evaluate the performance of every book, and if we booked more than a month in advance, that info wouldn't be as current!
> 
> ...


----------



## amydaws (Feb 3, 2015)

Does Bookbub take into account "Amazon Verified Reviews" moreso than other reviews? I get a lot of my honest reviews from bloggers during blog tours. If the reviews say "Book Received in exchange for an honest review"...does that negatively impact your chances of getting accepted?


----------



## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

Hi, BB peeps! Thanks for this!

I've only ran one BookBub, on my first novel last May. The 2nd had just been released and the ad was very successful, putting me in the #1 spot (free) at Amazon within 4 hours and kept me there for almost 2 days, or very very close to #1... Anyhoodles, it resulted in over 50,000 downloads in U.S... Thank you very much.

My question is, with that many downloads, would it still behoove me to try again with same book but as a paid (.99), or with that many dl's, do you think the book is too saturated? (Too many peeps got it to now buy?)

It's the first in the series, so I'd rather promote that one to funnel, but I'm worried about the above...  

This is a generic question that applies to many that did a free, and want to try paid with same book.


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

We're back! Let's get this party started again. We'll try to catch up on the questions that came in during our break first.


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

I understand the difficulties of coping with your bulging inbox, but, as has been mentioned previously, the editorial blurbs you supply aren't always as spot on as they might be. I found this with one of my mysteries. No, it didn't affect the download rate (as far as I know, but this was my one and only submission, so I'm lacking personal data). But it didn't sound like my book - not as I describe it.

I can appreciate that you must work under tremendous pressure (God, can I?! I'm an indie!), but is it possible that you could have a pre-submission element, when the contents of the blurb could be thrashed out in two or three emails?

Those freebie interns might come in useful here.


----------



## Mark Dawson (Mar 24, 2012)

What's the highest you've seen a book go on the Paid Chart thanks to a BookBub ad?


----------



## Mip7 (Mar 3, 2013)

Hi. I am afraid to do Librarything giveaways because I'm worried that will disqualify me for a Bookbub promo, especially a 99-cent promo -- because I'm concerned it will violate your rule that the book cannot have been "available cheaper" recently. Can you comment on whether a Librarything giveaway is considered listing the book cheaper on another site ?

Thanks


----------



## cjdarlington (Dec 18, 2014)

I have a similar question to L.L. Akers. I'm curious if you think it would be wise to run an ad for the same book (after 6 months) that is permafree. I was thrilled with the results of my late-August promo for my novel Thicker than Blood (exceeded expectations and really boosted sales of the other two books in the series), so I'd like to submit it again for consideration. Is it possible to have good results, in your experience, running an ad for the same free book twice in six months, or is it better to try for the second book in the series at a discount?


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

David Chill said:


> Hello BB,
> 
> Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions -- your feedback is very valuable! I have run 5 promotions with BB over the past two years and they have been wildly successful. Thank you for your help.
> 
> One thing I have noticed on BB is that there are more books being priced at $1.99 and $2.99. How would you compare their results with books that are priced at 99 cents?


Hey David! Great question. Our advice around different promotional prices really depends on your marketing goals. The dropoff in sales between a $0.99 promotion and a $2.99 promotion is pretty significant -- last we checked it was around 50%. On the other hand, you obviously make more revenue off each sale. So it's really a question of what you're aiming for: maximum eyeballs or maximum revenue.

The other thing I'd say is that price is a major factor during the editorial selection process. Often times the books we're featuring at $2.99 are either box sets or bestselling titles from brand name authors. We always recommend partners submit their deals at the most competitive price possible to increase their chances of selection!


----------



## Lisa Grace (Jul 3, 2011)

Mark Dawson said:


> What's the highest you've seen a book go on the Paid Chart thanks to a BookBub ad?


I can answer that one. #1 in the whole store. 
When I've run Bookbub my books have made as high as #7. This is why so many of us tout apply for a Bookbub. They reach readers better than anyone.


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Caddy said:


> *I would also really like to see Drama as a category. I know you have Literary Fiction, but for so many readers Literary seems to mean "hard to read and understand", experimental, high brow, etc so some don't sign up. Yet, many readers do enjoy a good drama.
> 
> Another welcome category would be just plain "Contemporary" instead of just Contemporary Romance or Women's Fiction. Again, people who are "afraid" of literary fiction might like this.*
> 
> ...


Hi Caddy,

Since Craig answered the first part of your post, I'm going to jump in here and tackle the second half!

We consider a lot of things when we're launching a new category -- or splitting an existing list -- including category name and subscriber demand. There's a big difference between the kinds of deals our Contemporary Romance readers want to see and what our Women's Fiction users are interested in purchasing. We want to direct our readers to the lists that offer the content that they're specifically interested in, so we find that easily recognizable category names like "Literary Fiction" and "Mysteries" work best.

To answer your last question, feel free to submit to whichever one of our categories you think is the best fit. Our editors each review books for specific categories, but if the Thrillers editor receives a submission and they think it might be a better fit for Action and Adventure, they'll pass it on to that editor to consider.

I hope this answers your questions!


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

L.L. Akers said:


> Hi, BB peeps! Thanks for this!
> 
> I've only ran one BookBub, on my first novel last May. The 2nd had just been released and the ad was very successful, putting me in the #1 spot (free) at Amazon within 4 hours and kept me there for almost 2 days, or very very close to #1... Anyhoodles, it resulted in over 50,000 downloads in U.S... Thank you very much.
> 
> ...


Hey! Thanks for your question! As long as it's been 6 months since your last promotion, you're absolutely welcome to submit the title again for a $0.99 promotion. The editors will look at how the book performed last time, what's currently performing well, etc. to figure out whether it's a good fit at that price. If it isn't selected, I'd recommend waiting awhile longer and/or trying it for another free promo (or submitting a later one in the series, which we're also happy to consider for a promo!).


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Z. Rider said:


> If you add an option for readers to sign up for a new releases list (in our preferred genres) at some point, I'd definitely subscribe. Goodreads' monthly New Releases email is one of my favorites (but at the same time it's frustrating because they offer such a limited selection of genres for it). I don't even care if the new releases are discounted--I'm just looking for new shinies to grab.


Also, it might be a good point to mention that the author with the new work has a large series, of which this new release is the latest part, and a heap of other novels with good reviews and satisfied customers.

Any chance of convincing the reader that they're getting work from an already proven professional would be great, so thy don't feel (even if it's a freebie) that they're going in blind and possibly getting a 'pig in a poke' (if you'll excuse the cliché and the mixed metaphors!).


----------



## Dom (Mar 15, 2014)

To everybody at Bookbub, thanks for doing this. It's great outreach to the indie community.

I have a general question about choosing and applying for categories, and then a specific one about my books.

To start, how flexible are you with submitted categories? Does it help if an author/publisher lists several applicable categories, or do you prefer one?

I ask because sometimes I'm not sure which category is best to submit my work. My novels are essentially crime mysteries with fantasy elements - is that fantasy enough for that category or do you mostly find that epic fantasies work best there?

Thanks!


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Lynn McNamee said:


> Will you be using the number of "followers" for an author to assist in determining whether or not a book gets an ad?


Hi Lynn,

The Author Follows tool is purely a feature to allow our readers to stay up to date on their favorite authors and to help authors stay connected to the fans that found them through BookBub.

We aren't using Author Follows for anything on the editorial side of things.


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

hardnutt said:


> I understand the difficulties of coping with your bulging inbox, but, as has been mentioned previously, the editorial blurbs you supply aren't always as spot on as they might be. I found this with one of my mysteries. No, it didn't affect the download rate (as far as I know, but this was my one and only submission, so I'm lacking personal data). But it didn't sound like my book - not as I describe it.
> 
> I can appreciate that you must work under tremendous pressure (God, can I?! I'm an indie!), but is it possible that you could have a pre-submission element, when the contents of the blurb could be thrashed out in two or three emails?
> 
> Those freebie interns might come in useful here.


Hello! Thanks for your feedback on the blurbs. The reason we write the blurbs in-house actually has more to do with the data we've collected through running tens of thousands of promotions than a bandwidth issue. We do extensive testing on the language that drives the highest click throughs from our users, so the editors know what they're doing when they write those things!


----------



## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

Thanks so much for offering to do this Q&A! I had a BookBub promo in December for my MG novel and have been very happy with the results! Thank you so much!

My question is:

Do reviews posted to your book page from book bloggers and review sites (NetGalley, for example) carry more weight in your decision than regular reader/customer reviews?

Thanks!

Rue


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

We had a couple of questions about recommended length of promotions:



Lynn McNamee said:


> When you are selecting books for ads, does the amount of days we choose to run it have any effect on your decision?
> 
> I mean, are you more likely to select a book on sale (or free) for 4 days than one on sale for 2 days? Or vice versa?


The length of the promotion has ZERO impact on our selection process 



Teri A said:


> I'm often unsure when its best to end the promotion for maximum results. My inclination is to end the promotion the same day, so that the book goes back to full price and I can earn more royalties during the coming days.
> 
> But on the other hand, it may make better sense to keep the price low for a few days to keep the sales higher and boost ranking.
> 
> ...


Great questions! This is actually something we'd really like to collect more data on. Right now we only have access to sales data during the length of the promotion, but it would be helpful to know the long-term impacts of promotions on sales. Our instinct is that it would depend on your goals for the promotion. If you're looking to boost rankings, it's probably better to keep your price low for a little longer to drive higher numbers of sales. If you're looking to generate more profit, then you'd likely want to return to your original price soon after the promotion. Hopefully we'll have some hard data on this sometime in the future though!


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

jcafesin said:


> Hi Sonia,
> Thanks! I'm looking for stats on sales AFTER a Bookbub promotion from each list. You send out a follow-up form that asks this question. Do you have the stats from these forms?


Ahh, sorry I misunderstood! The sales and downloads on the pricing page are based on the total clicks and sales directly from BookBub subscribers, recorded in the four days after a promotion. We unfortunately don't have the stats or a breakdown by category for post promotion sales right now, but it's a good idea--I'll suggest to the blog team that they should write a post about it.


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Lisa Grace said:


> I can answer that one. #1 in the whole store.
> When I've run Bookbub my books have made as high as #7. This is why so many of us tout apply for a Bookbub. They reach readers better than anyone.


Hah! Thanks Lisa. This is right on .


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

amydaws said:


> Does Bookbub take into account "Amazon Verified Reviews" moreso than other reviews? I get a lot of my honest reviews from bloggers during blog tours. If the reviews say "Book Received in exchange for an honest review"...does that negatively impact your chances of getting accepted?


Hi Amy! I just checked with the editors and they said that reviews that say "Book Received in exchange for an honest review" are fine


----------



## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

cjdarlington said:


> I have a similar question to L.L. Akers. I'm curious if you think it would be wise to run an ad for the same book (after 6 months) that is permafree. I was thrilled with the results of my late-August promo for my novel Thicker than Blood (exceeded expectations and really boosted sales of the other two books in the series), so I'd like to submit it again for consideration. Is it possible to have good results, in your experience, running an ad for the same free book twice in six months, or is it better to try for the second book in the series at a discount?


I can tell you I've had more than one successful run with the same book. I do check to make sure the category has increased reader's signed up. In my case, the historical has always increased in size significantly once 6 months have passed. Also, keep in mind not all of the, say, one million readers in a category respond on any given day. Still enough to make you a very nice amount of money, and give you success. But we're all busy and we don't look at our promotional emails or choose to pick out books every day from emails offering books. Which is good news for us. That means we can do it again in six months and still get great results as different people respond at different times.


----------



## Lynn McNamee (Jan 8, 2009)

Thank you, Bookbub Team, for taking the time to come here and answer questions.

RAP loves BB! One of our books made the NYT Bestseller list after the ad.  

Suggested new category:

Subcat for each genre: New Releases and/or Preorders 

You could even limit this to authors who have had a previous BB ad. That way, the readers who follow the author would be notified of a new book.


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Arkan9 said:


> Hi. I am afraid to do Librarything giveaways because I'm worried that will disqualify me for a Bookbub promo, especially a 99-cent promo -- because I'm concerned it will violate your rule that the book cannot have been "available cheaper" recently. Can you comment on whether a Librarything giveaway is considered listing the book cheaper on another site ?
> 
> Thanks


Hi there! Temporary giveaways at places like Librarything are just fine. So long as you don't make the book available for free on one of the retailers we link to (Amazon, B&N, Google, Kobo, Apple, Smashwords), it won't count as being available for cheaper.


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Domino Finn said:


> To everybody at Bookbub, thanks for doing this. It's great outreach to the indie community.
> 
> I have a general question about choosing and applying for categories, and then a specific one about my books.
> 
> ...


Hey Domino,

I'll just second what Katie said earlier that there seems to be a lot of confusion about this! 

The categories you guys select on submission forms are actually just suggested categories. Our editors will consider the title for whichever genre they think it would work best in, so submitting for different categories or multiple categories won't actually impact their decision. IF you are open to running in another category, it is helpful for us to know that in the submission in case the editors think it will work better elsewhere (you can just throw that in the comments section). Otherwise we'll just ask you if you're ok running to the different list!

TLR - submit for the category you think is best and we'll always tell you if we think your book fits better somewhere else.


----------



## Robert Bidinotto (Mar 3, 2011)

Let me chime in and agree about the "blurb" issue. I did a 99-cent Bookbub promotion for _HUNTER_, my series debut thriller, last November. It did very well, propelling the book to around #38 on Kindle overall. But the editorial blurb significantly misrepresented the plot and characters. My concern is that such distortions might irritate a lot of readers by thwarting their expectations.

I know you folks are overwhelmed with work. I also know that there is only so much that you can squeeze into 3-4 lines of a blurb, and that condensation is necessarily going to leave a lot out. But omission is one thing; significant misrepresentation is something else.

Have you considered vetting proposed blurbs past the author, strictly for accuracy only? Yes, yes, I _know_ that many authors will want you to rewrite their blurbs, and I also know that a lot of them don't know the fine points of writing effective ad copy. (I do, because I used to do it professionally.) But I think it might help even to send a message: "We are experienced ad copywriters, and we have a good idea what kind of language works best with our subscribers. However, we are sharing our proposed ad with you in advance, because we want to make sure that it does not _distort_ your story or significantly _mislead_ our subscribers about your book. Your feedback is welcome and will be considered, if you submit by (date)."

If you find that a dubious suggestion, how about this: Have a second editorial staff member double-check the first writer's proposed blurb, comparing it against the book's posted product descriptions, just to make sure that it accurately reflects the story.

While I believe a blurb that adhered closer to my own product description might have performed somewhat better, let me emphasize that I was satisfied with the results of my Bookbub campaign and want to use your service in the future. So please take my suggestions in the constructive spirit intended. Bookbub rocks! Thanks for what you're doing for authors like me.


----------



## cjdarlington (Dec 18, 2014)

Thank you for this, Caddy. Very helpful! I know that happens to me all the time with my Bookbub emails. I look at them frequently, but there are days I don't so I would've missed something.



Caddy said:


> I can tell you I've had more than one successful run with the same book. I do check to make sure the category has increased reader's signed up. In my case, the historical has always increased in size significantly once 6 months have passed. Also, keep in mind not all of the, say, one million readers in a category respond on any given day. Still enough to make you a very nice amount of money, and give you success. But we're all busy and we don't look at our promotional emails or choose to pick out books every day from emails offering books. Which is good news for us. That means we can do it again in six months and still get great results as different people respond at different times.


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

ruecole said:


> Thanks so much for offering to do this Q&A! I had a BookBub promo in December for my MG novel and have been very happy with the results! Thank you so much!
> 
> My question is:
> 
> ...


Hello Rue! When our editors are evaluating a submission, book reviews fall into two different camps: reader reviews and critical reviews. As we mentioned earlier, the editorial team checks out Amazon and Goodreads to get a sense of a book's platform (number of authentic reviews, average star rating, etc.). In terms of critical reviews, the editors are looking to see if a book has been positively reviewed by established publications and/or credible authors that we know our subscribers enjoy.

Looking at the big picture, I'd say reader reviews oftentimes better inform the editorial team's decision, unless your title has been reviewed by a big publication like the NY Times (although that's not to say it has to be!).


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

This experience is absolutely marvellous. I've learned so much about BB and the submission process.

Even better, you're all now human beings to me, not cold-hearted robots, distanced from us poverty-stricken creatives! You've answered our questons in such a sensiitive, understanding and open-to-being-creative manner, that it's been a revelation. Perhaps, in our chilly author eeries, we're too prone to surround ourselves with our clones, all huddled together here on kboards, instead of trying to grasp things from the other guy's POV. Whataver. I now feel older   and wiser  .

Let's do this again.

Harvey?


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

hardnutt said:


> This experience is absolutely marvellous. I've learned so much about BB and the submission process.
> 
> Even better, you're all now human beings to me, not cold-hearted robots, distanced from us poverty-stricken creatives! You've answered our questons in such a sensiitive, understanding and open-to-being-creative manner, that it's been a revelation. Perhaps, in our chilly author eeries, we're too prone to surround ourselves with our clones, all huddled together here on kboards, instead of trying to grasp things from the other guy's POV. Whataver. I now feel older  and wiser .
> 
> ...


Thank you so much! This is such great feedback and we're all really excited to hear that it's been helpful so far .


----------



## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

Thanks so much for your answer regarding reviews!

I have another question for you (maybe more of a suggestion?):

The Listing Requirements on the BookBub website says: "We won't consider a book if it has been offered for a better price in the last 90 days, or if it will be offered for less in the near future."

However, the first time I submitted, I received a rejection that said: "At this time, BookBub only features limited-time promotions, so this deal unfortunately does not qualify for editorial review. In order to be considered, a title must be offered at full price for at least 90 days before the BookBub promotion."

To me at least, these seem to be two different things. "Better price" implies the book cannot have been at a lower price in the last 90 days than the price you're submitting for the ad. So, for example, if you're applying for a $0.99 ad, it can't have been free for the 90 days prior. But the "full price" mentioned in the email is quite clear that the book cannot have been any other price for proceeding 90 days.

Can you clarify? And if the latter really is the rule, would you consider making that clearer on your website? Because I think there are a lot of authors who're submitting and submitting and not realizing their regular $0.99 price-pulsing is affecting their ability to be featured on BookBub.

Thanks so much! 

Rue


----------



## teresahill (Jan 22, 2014)

Hi,
  
  I've had a couple of BB promotions, and I wish you guys could sit and watch the sales numbers roll in on our KDP, B&N, iBook dashboards on BB days. It's amazing and so much fun. I had a box-set promotion right after Christmas, and a little more than a month later I'm closing in on 9,000 sales of that set. You guys are the best. 

    The ad also brought in new sales of the later books in the series, new reviews, new Facebook subscribers, new newsletter subscribers, new traffic on my website. On every level, I had new readers finding my work and following me. (Not sure you guys know BB isn't just about sales. It's very good at increasing a writer's platform across social media.)

  Want to go back to the idea of featuring new releases. I know they have no data, no reviews, no sales history. But you've features some of us before. You've seen other books of ours with lots of good reviews. So you're not without data on the author, just that one, new book.

  Readers love and get very excited about new releases. I think if you tried it as a new spotlight category -- the brand new release great deal -- you'd get great results.

  Also wanted to talk to you about pricing. I know you want a book at a regular price for a while and then discounted for a BB ad. I get wanting to give your subscribers a great deal. But if I have a new release out or a book in pre-orders, I hate the idea of pricing that book high for my best readers, the ones who grab the book when it's first released, so that three months later, I can drop the price and hopefully get a BB ad.

  Would you just give that some thought from the author's POV and that of our best readers? 

    I'd be happy to start out at 99 cents on a new release for a short period of time. A lot of authors are doing that now. Starting low in pre-orders and maybe the first week their book is out.

    99-cents is a great price for a book, regardless of whether it was ever on sale for $3.99 or $4.99 or something higher. I know it's a marketing thing -- show that high price, cross it out and tell people they're getting a deal. I just don't like it for the readers who want a new book right away.


----------



## Piers Platt (Mar 27, 2014)

Just wanted to thank you guys for making it possible for indies like us to hit above our weight and compete with the big boys, if only for a short while.

Haven't had a chance to read through the thread (at my day job right now), but if it hasn't already been suggested, any chance of you guys working with ACX to make Audible titles available on promo and then building out an audiobook mailing list?  Audio is my #2 channel and seems to just keep growing...

(if something similar is posted, please shower me with rotten tomatoes, my apologies).  Can't wait to read all this later!


----------



## Megan D (Feb 3, 2015)

Hello, I've been lurking for a while but this opportunity is too good to miss!  My question relates to non-fiction.  The cookery category for discounted but not free books seems to be heavily skewed to titles from Callisto Media eg Rockridge Press, Mendocino Pres, Salinas Press, which seems to be working well for BB. Do you accept titles by other authors that publish in the same sub-genres of the cooking/healthy eating category, or do you need to be in a completely different sub-genre of cookery?


----------



## sstaubin (Feb 2, 2015)

Here's a question about BookBub and Kindle Countdown Deals (KCD).

Last week BookBub announced it has extended it's distribution to included Canada.  Currently KDP Select only offers Kindle Coundown Deals in the U. S. and the U. K.  If I run a KCD ($0.99) in line with a BookBub promotion, I'm unable to include Canada in the BookBub ad.  Currently with KDP, if I change my price to $0.99 in Canada, I'll lose the 70% royalty across all Amazon platforms.

Is there a way BookBub can influence KDP to include KCD on Amazon.ca, or influence KDP to change the KDP royalty structure to not affect all Amazon platforms when a KCD discount is in effect?


----------



## Robert Stanek (Nov 16, 2013)

Here representing the 20,000+ authors and readers that are part of my GoIndie, ReadIndies, FreeToday, AmBlogging networks.

A number of our members participated in a 12-month study of BookBub submissions and successes, and I'd like to ask some follow up questions. Our research had already picked up and reported on your Canada and UK expansions.

I noted you are starting to break out pricing for US, CA and UK markets as well. Will authors eventually be able to be more selective in the markets they are featured in?

You've mentioned the submissions split is about 50 / 50 between indie and traditional. Can you provide more information on the split between paid and free features?

Your website was one of the biggest issues and disappointments for our readers, so I was pleased to read you are working on a number of improvements. Will the home page actually start showing current features soon? Right now, this is mostly past deals from big name authors.

Can you explain more about editorial selection process? Reviews, sales history, pricing history, and sales rankings seem to be a big part of selection.


----------



## B.A. Spangler (Jan 25, 2012)

Great thread -- and thank you to the BookBub team for all that you do.
I've been accepted for a few promotions and they've all been great experiences, having put my books in front of a lot of readers.
Keep it up.


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

teresahill said:


> Hi,
> 
> I've had a couple of BB promotions, and I wish you guys could sit and watch the sales numbers roll in on our KDP, B&N, iBook dashboards on BB days. It's amazing and so much fun. I had a box-set promotion right after Christmas, and a little more than a month later I'm closing in on 9,000 sales of that set. You guys are the best.
> 
> ...


Hey Teresa! Thanks so much for your feedback. We're very happy to hear you've had successful BB promos in the past .

We're also happy to hear about all the interest in featuring new releases. It's not something we're going to introduce into the existing email in the near future, but I promise we're working on other ways to help you guys get new books out there! Stay tuned.


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

Brian Spangler said:


> Great thread -- and thank you to the BookBub team for all that you do.
> I've been accepted for a few promotions and they've all been great experiences, having put my books in front of a lot of readers.
> Keep it up.


Thanks so much Brian! We're thrilled to hear you've had good experiences with your promotions


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Katie from BookBub said:


> Thank you so much! This is such great feedback and we're all really excited to hear that it's been helpful so far .


It's been so helpful that not only am I bookmarking it AGAIN (on the 'just in case' principle!), I'm going to print out the entire thread. And to hell with the cost of the ink!


----------



## A Woman&#039;s Place Is In The Rebellion (Apr 28, 2011)

hardnutt said:


> This experience is absolutely marvellous. I've learned so much about BB and the submission process.


This 100% ~ thank you so much for all of your time!


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Robert Stanek said:


> Here representing the 20,000+ authors and readers that are part of my GoIndie, ReadIndies, FreeToday, AmBlogging networks.
> 
> A number of our members participated in a 12-month study of BookBub submissions and successes, and I'd like to ask some follow up questions. Our research had already picked up and reported on your Canada and UK expansions.
> 
> ...


Hey Robert! Thanks for your questions. I'll try to answer them one at a time:



Robert Stanek said:


> I noted you are starting to break out pricing for US, CA and UK markets as well. Will authors eventually be able to be more selective in the markets they are featured in?


Authors can already choose to run their promotions in one, two, or all three regions. Segmenting their promotions by region will continue to be an option as we launch more markets.



Robert Stanek said:


> You've mentioned the submissions split is about 50 / 50 between indie and traditional. Can you provide more information on the split between paid and free features?


About 30% of the promotions we feature are for free books.



Robert Stanek said:


> Will the home page actually start showing current features soon? Right now, this is mostly past deals from big name authors.


I think you may be referring to the BookBub homepage (which is the signup page) rather than our deals page. If you visit us at bookbub.com/deals you'll see all the most recent deals we've featured. Additionally, if you create a BookBub account you'll see the deals in categories you've opted into, so it'll show a more personalized feed of promotions.



Robert Stanek said:


> Can you explain more about editorial selection process? Reviews, sales history, pricing history, and sales rankings seem to be a big part of selection.


We've answered a number of questions about the selection process throughout the thread here, so I'd encourage you to read through those. Another great source of information can be found in this blog post on BookBub Unbound:

http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/89056785680/how-bookbubs-selection-process-works

Hope this helps! We're of course happy to answer any specific questions about the selection process too, so et us know if you have follow-up questions.


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Piers Platt said:


> Just wanted to thank you guys for making it possible for indies like us to hit above our weight and compete with the big boys, if only for a short while.
> 
> Haven't had a chance to read through the thread (at my day job right now), but if it hasn't already been suggested, any chance of you guys working with ACX to make Audible titles available on promo and then building out an audiobook mailing list? Audio is my #2 channel and seems to just keep growing...
> 
> (if something similar is posted, please shower me with rotten tomatoes, my apologies). Can't wait to read all this later!


Hi Piers,

I answered a couple audiobook questions earlier, but just to give you the highlights of why this hasn't happened (yet?):

The problem for us (BookBub us) is that audiobooks aren't discounted in the same way as ebooks. It happens, but it's rare to see deeply discounted audiobooks unless the purchase/download is part of a trial for a subscription service. We don't want our readers accidentally signing up for a subscription service that they don't want!

Also, BookBub has always tried to be retailer agnostic, meaning we want our readers to be able to get the content they want on the device(s) they want. We also strive for simplicity and don't want to complicate things for our readers. For example, it would be very confusing to sell someone a Kindle book if they have a Nook or a Kobo book if they have a Kindle.

The same ideas apply to audiobooks. Mark suggested using Kindle and Whispersync as a way to start getting audiobooks to our readers (listeners?), but we want all of our subscribers to be able to join in on the audio fun if we start to promote discounted audiobooks and we don't want to sell someone a Kindle/Whispersync bundle if they are a Nook user.


----------



## KatLatham (Feb 3, 2015)

Hi there. I just joined kboards today so I could take part in this Q&A, so thank you! (Next step: figure out how to upload a profile picture.)

I'd like to come back to something Nancy asked. I had the same question, and I just want to check whether I understand correctly. Here's the conversation:



Carlyn from BookBub said:


> Hi Nancy! It's so great to hear how happy you've all been with your past promotions!
> 
> For anthologies of novellas or short stories, we have a minimum page count of 150 for fiction, and 100 for nonfiction, but no max page count! Use your judgment for that one  We also require that short story/ novella collections have 2D covers, since readers have complained that 3D covers are misleading about the length.
> 
> ...


The question was about multi-author collections of novellas/short stories. So, if five or six authors put together an anthology, the whole anthology has to be at least 150 pages (for fiction) -- is that right?

But each individual work has to be a novella/short, not a full-length novel?

Can you point to a recent multi-author anthology on your site, or is there a tag I could use to find one?

Thanks in advance!


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

ruecole said:


> Thanks so much for your answer regarding reviews!
> 
> I have another question for you (maybe more of a suggestion?):
> 
> ...


Hey Rue! You're totally right--that language is something we need to clarify to match up with our most recent update to our discount pricing requirements. Basically, to determine if your book is discounted enough to qualify for a promotion, we look at its pricing history for the past 90 days. We consider the original price of the book the price it's predominantly been at for those 90 days, and the deal price you're submitting for needs to be 50% off that. In order for it to qualify for a BookBub promotion, it can't be discounted for more than 14 days total during that 90 day period (unless you're submitting the book for a free deal, in which case this doesn't apply, since we do feature permafree books.) We also require that you don't discount the book to a lower price than the submitted deal price at any time during those 90 days--so if you want to promote it at $1.99, it can't have been offered for $0.99 or free in the past 90 days.

Sorry these requirements are a bit complicated! Our goal is just to make sure we're featuring the best deal on a book to our readers, and we've set up these requirements so authors have an idea of what we're looking for. Let me know if you have more questions about them, and we'll definitely look into ways to clarify them on the site! Right now, this FAQ question is a good reference: https://bookbub.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1654245-what-are-bookbub-s-pricing-policies-?b_id=4259


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Megan D said:


> Hello, I've been lurking for a while but this opportunity is too good to miss! My question relates to non-fiction. The cookery category for discounted but not free books seems to be heavily skewed to titles from Callisto Media eg Rockridge Press, Mendocino Pres, Salinas Press, which seems to be working well for BB. Do you accept titles by other authors that publish in the same sub-genres of the cooking/healthy eating category, or do you need to be in a completely different sub-genre of cookery?


Thanks for jumping in, Megan! We are accepting indie author submissions for our Cooking category. As we mentioned earlier, we currently have roughly a 50/50 split of indie books and traditionally published books, with slightly more books by indie authors. Slow cooking books consistently kill it, and we've found that healthy spins on classic favorites and quinoa recipes have been a big hit with our readers lately.

But our users' tastes are always changing, so feel free to submit a book even if it doesn't fall within the trends I mentioned above!


----------



## Eskimo (Dec 31, 2013)

Another question (BTW, this forum is GREAT!) --

I have chugged the KDP Select Kool-Aid, and now sell all of my books through Amazon. I am wondering how this factors into the BB selection process. Am I impacting my chances of getting a BB promo by going exclusive with Amazon?


----------



## teresahill (Jan 22, 2014)

>We're hoping to add featured in the future that allow us to work with partners on new releases more >easily! 

Okay, thanks. I know as a reader, even if I'm paying attention, it's hard to know when some of my favorite writers have a new book out.

Amazon's system of notifying readers about new releases seems to have no rhyme or reason to it. There are times when I get an e-mail telling me XX has a new book out in six months. Sometimes when it's in pre-orders. Sometimes months after the book comes out. I have no idea how Amazon decides when to send those e-mails.

If you do some kind of new-release thing, please make sure the book is at least in pre-orders or on sale when you notify readers. I need to be able to click on that link and order the book right then. Otherwise, I'll probably forget about it.


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

sstaubin said:


> Here's a question about BookBub and Kindle Countdown Deals (KCD).
> 
> Last week BookBub announced it has extended it's distribution to included Canada. Currently KDP Select only offers Kindle Coundown Deals in the U. S. and the U. K. If I run a KCD ($0.99) in line with a BookBub promotion, I'm unable to include Canada in the BookBub ad. Currently with KDP, if I change my price to $0.99 in Canada, I'll lose the 70% royalty across all Amazon platforms.
> 
> Is there a way BookBub can influence KDP to include KCD on Amazon.ca, or influence KDP to change the KDP royalty structure to not affect all Amazon platforms when a KCD discount is in effect?


This is really good to know. We are currently trying to test how Kindle Countdown Deals in the US and UK impact pricing in regions that don't have Countdown Deals. We'll be sure to let you know if we find out more information!


----------



## Megan D (Feb 3, 2015)

Mel from BookBub said:


> Thanks for jumping in, Megan! We are accepting indie author submissions for our Cooking category. As we mentioned earlier, we currently have roughly a 50/50 split of indie books and traditionally published books, with slightly more books by indie authors. Slow cooking books consistently kill it, and we've found that healthy spins on classic favorites and quinoa recipes have been a big hit with our readers lately.
> 
> But our users' tastes are always changing, so feel free to submit a book even if it doesn't fall within the trends I mentioned above!


Thanks so much for the answer. Would you believe it, my Slow Cooker title is about the only one I've not submitted to you! I'm off to rectify that immediately.

Can you also give any insight into how much weight you pay towards UK book performance? I'm a UK author and my UK titles outsell the US on average 2:1 (I know it should be the other way round, but it is what it is). Do you notice if the titles you promote perform equally well in the US and UK (relatively speaking, I know that the US market is far larger, I mean do titles work equally well relative to overall market size). Also, would you accept a UK only submission?


----------



## Dean F. Wilson (Aug 15, 2014)

Katie from BookBub said:


> Hey Susanne, great question! We recently updated the submission form to make the date part less onerous for authors. There's now an option to say "I'm flexible" and not need to provide any other information. We hope it's helpful!


I just want to say that I found this was a small, but very helpful, change to the submission process. Thanks!


----------



## Robert Stanek (Nov 16, 2013)

Hi Everyone from BookBub,

Here representing my GoIndie, ReadIndies, FreeToday, AmBlogging networks.

You've mentioned your subscriber base a few times and how it's changing. Can you provide more details on your membership?

Do you track active vs inactive membership? Your subscriber base has grown quickly, year by year, and you currently list this as over 4 million subscribers, but what percentage of your base is active daily, weekly, monthly? 

Can you share standard metrics for open rate, click through and conversion rate as well as territory break down and demographics?

I know you've talked about boxed sets briefly. Can you share more about what you are looking for with single-author boxed sets, especially regarding per-book/overall pricing?

Thank you!


----------



## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

Sonja from BookBub said:


> Hey Rue! You're totally right--that language is something we need to clarify to match up with our most recent update to our discount pricing requirements. Basically, to determine if your book is discounted enough to qualify for a promotion, we look at its pricing history for the past 90 days. We consider the original price of the book the price it's predominantly been at for those 90 days, and the deal price you're submitting for needs to be 50% off that. In order for it to qualify for a BookBub promotion, it can't be discounted for more than 14 days total during that 90 day period (unless you're submitting the book for a free deal, in which case this doesn't apply, since we do feature permafree books.) We also require that you don't discount the book to a lower price than the submitted deal price at any time during those 90 days--so if you want to promote it at $1.99, it can't have been offered for $0.99 or free in the past 90 days.
> 
> Sorry these requirements are a bit complicated! Our goal is just to make sure we're featuring the best deal on a book to our readers, and we've set up these requirements so authors have an idea of what we're looking for. Let me know if you have more questions about them, and we'll definitely look into ways to clarify them on the site! Right now, this FAQ question is a good reference: https://bookbub.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1654245-what-are-bookbub-s-pricing-policies-?b_id=4259


Thank you so much for clearing this up, Sonja! I'll be honest, I was really confused when I received that email! I had not seen the link you just shared, so was really in the dark about the (seemingly!) conflicting requirements. I now have a clearer idea how to market my book in the future that will not conflict with BookBub's pricing policies.

Thanks! 

Rue


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

KatLatham said:


> Hi there. I just joined kboards today so I could take part in this Q&A, so thank you! (Next step: figure out how to upload a profile picture.)
> 
> I'd like to come back to something Nancy asked. I had the same question, and I just want to check whether I understand correctly. Here's the conversation:
> 
> ...


Hey Kat! Glad to clarify. That's correct -- we don't feature multi-author box sets with full-length novels, but we do feature multi-author SHORT STORY (this is key!) collections. You can see a recent example here:

https://www.bookbub.com/books/a-day-of-fire-by-stephanie-dray-and-e-knight?region_f=us

And pro-tip (not that I'm a KBoards pro  ): To add an avatar, click profile --> modify profile --> forum profile --> upload avatar. That should do the trick!


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

David Chill said:


> Another question (BTW, this forum is GREAT!) --
> 
> I have chugged the KDP Select Kool-Aid, and now sell all of my books through Amazon. I am wondering how this factors into the BB selection process. Am I impacting my chances of getting a BB promo by going exclusive with Amazon?


Hey David, good question! In general, we want to encourage authors to make their books available on as many sites as possible, since that means more of our readers will have access to them, but we also realize there's a lot of advantages to KDP Select for authors, especially when it comes to running price promotions. So, retailer availability is something the editors consider in the selection process, but it's not a huge factor and we do run plenty of Amazon only deals at this point.


----------



## over and out (Sep 9, 2011)

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions here - it's very helpful.

I have a question about subscriber demographics.  Which categories do you see the greatest subscriber growth (in volume /%). Which ones have levelled off?  Any interesting trends you would like to share?

Thanks!


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Sonja from BookBub said:


> Basically, to determine if your book is discounted enough to qualify for a promotion, we look at its pricing history for the past 90 days. We consider the original price of the book the price it's PREDOMINANTLY been at for those 90 days, and the deal price you're submitting for needs to be 50% off that. In order for it to qualify for a BookBub promotion, it can't be discounted for more than 14 days total during that 90 day period (unless you're submitting the book for a free deal, in which case this doesn't apply, since we do feature permafree books.) We also require that you don't discount the book to a lower price than the submitted deal price at any time during those 90 days--so if you want to promote it at $1.99, it can't have been offered for $0.99 or free in the past 90 days.
> 
> 
> > I got a bit carried away with the back-deleting, so my quoting might be a bit wonky.
> ...


----------



## Colin (Aug 6, 2011)

Hi BookBub Peeps!

Many thanks for the great feedback and for taking time out from your overloaded working day to answers our questions.

I'm sure that most UK authors on Kboards and elsewhere, will agree that the opportunities to promote books in Britain are very, very limited. I think if you put extra focus on building your UK subscriber list you can blow away any competition without even breaking into a sweat!

My question: Are you planning to accelerate your reach in the UK to take advantage of this serious lack of opportunities? I hope the answer is yes, because a word in the right ear and I can arrange to get you all honorary Knighthoods! 

Colin

*The Electronic Book Company*


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

KatLatham said:


> Hi there. I just joined kboards today so I could take part in this Q&A, so thank you! (Next step: figure out how to upload a profile picture.)


Kat, welcome to KBoards!

And Mel from Bookbub is here to answer not only your Bookbub questions, but your KBoards questions! Well done, Mel! 

Kat--if you couldn't find how to do it before, it's because you must have at least one post before being able to edit your profile. So have at it! If you have any problems, let me know!

Betsy


----------



## JETaylor (Jan 25, 2011)

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to obtain a coveted BB spot... yet, so I can't comment on ROI.  But that doesn't keep me from trying.  

Anyhow - here are the questions that come to mind as I read through all the pages here... 

I was wondering whether individual titles do better or do box sets tend to get more mileage?

I'm sure it varies, but currently, which category brings in the most downloads/sales (looking at January 2015)?  Do you see significant trends away from any genre?  

Thank you.


----------



## Moist_Tissue (Dec 6, 2013)

Hello,

Thanks for your time today and tomorrow.

I have submitted to Bookbub on numerous occasions and, alas, I have been rejected each time. I know with other promotional sites, they make it plain that they will not promote certain subject matter. I am wondering if Bookbub also has a list of certain topics or subjects that you will not promote. Thanks!




To all the new authors and readers who joined to participate in this Bookbub thread, I hope you stick around after they are gone. It's always nice to have new voices.


----------



## Robert Stanek (Nov 16, 2013)

Katie from BookBub said:


> About 30% of the promotions we feature are for free books.


Thank you!



Katie from BookBub said:


> I think you may be referring to the BookBub homepage (which is the signup page) rather than our deals page. If you visit us at bookbub.com/deals you'll see all the most recent deals we've featured. Additionally, if you create a BookBub account you'll see the deals in categories you've opted into, so it'll show a more personalized feed of promotions.


There's actually no direct link to bookbub.com/deals on your home page. You can get to Free Ebooks (https://www.bookbub.com/ebook-deals/free-ebooks) and Free Kindle Books (https://www.bookbub.com/ebook-deals/free-kindle-books) but not bookbub.com/deals. When you sign in, you are taken to https://www.bookbub.com/ebook-deals/latest.



Katie from BookBub said:


> We've answered a number of questions about the selection process throughout the thread here, so I'd encourage you to read through those.


One of the biggest disappointments of our membership was how reviews were being used in the selection process. Given how broken the review system is, many authors are being arbitrarily excluded simply because they are honest. Are other selection metrics being looked at?


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Hey again Robert,



Robert Stanek said:


> You've mentioned your subscriber base a few times and how it's changing. Can you provide more details on your membership?


You can find out more about BookBub's subscribers in this Unbound post from last year: http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/80678538507/8-things-you-should-know-about-bookbub-subscribers



Robert Stanek said:


> Do you track active vs inactive membership? Your subscriber base has grown quickly, year by year, and you currently list this as over 4 million subscribers, but what percentage of your base is active daily, weekly, monthly?


We have a very active user base! As I explained earlier, our consumer marketing team constantly measures the engagement of our subscribers and targets our marketing efforts towards audiences that will be active users. We also closely measure user engagement over time. After the first week or so of membership, a user's activity typically levels off and we haven't seen that drop off over time. Our earliest subscribers from 2012 are still some of our most active members!



Robert Stanek said:


> Can you share standard metrics for open rate, click through and conversion rate as well as territory break down and demographics?


We don't actually look at open rate as a success metric because it's difficult to measure accurately and it doesn't directly reflect how well an author's title is performing with our readers. What matters more than how many people see your promotion is how many people are clicking on it and buying the book, right?! So we closely analyze click data and conversion data for every book we feature. These numbers vary a great deal across category and price point, so it's difficult to provide averages. As an example, a $0.99 Mystery is sent to 2.2 million readers. On average, a Mystery at that price point receives about 7500 clicks and 3200 sales. You can find more about our average sales by category here:

https://www.bookbub.com/partners/pricing



Robert Stanek said:


> I know you've talked about boxed sets briefly. Can you share more about what you are looking for with single-author boxed sets, especially regarding per-book/overall pricing?


Single-author boxed sets just need to meet the same minimum requirements as the rest of our submissions. The editors typically look at the platforms for the individual books rather than the set as whole. The pricing history needs to meet our historical pricing guidelines as well.

Thanks!


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Megan D said:


> Thanks so much for the answer. Would you believe it, my Slow Cooker title is about the only one I've not submitted to you! I'm off to rectify that immediately.
> 
> Can you also give any insight into how much weight you pay towards UK book performance? I'm a UK author and my UK titles outsell the US on average 2:1 (I know it should be the other way round, but it is what it is). Do you notice if the titles you promote perform equally well in the US and UK (relatively speaking, I know that the US market is far larger, I mean do titles work equally well relative to overall market size). Also, would you accept a UK only submission?


Hi Megan,

Let me try and answer some of your UK questions!

The first thing I would say is that we are still experimenting with what works and doesn't work on the UK BookBub email. We have a lot of performance data for the US about what our readers are responding to, but because the UK is so new, we haven't built up the same knowledge about reader preferences there yet. One example that I can give (and intuitively makes a lot of sense) is Westerns do well on the US Action and Adventure list, but don't do well at all to UK Action and Adventure.

In response to your last question - we do feature UK only deals and I'd encourage you to submit a UK only deal if you'd like to!


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

JETaylor said:


> Unfortunately, I haven't been able to obtain a coveted BB spot... yet, so I can't comment on ROI. But that doesn't keep me from trying.
> 
> Anyhow - here are the questions that come to mind as I read through all the pages here...
> 
> ...


Happy to answer! The box sets we feature do tend to perform incredibly well -- keep in mind that our readers are bargain buyers, which means that they're looking for the best bang for their buck. 

We update our Pricing and Statistics page every two weeks, so all of the average download and sales numbers you see there are up to date as of January 2015! https://www.bookbub.com/partners/pricing


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

Colin said:


> Hi BookBub Peeps!
> 
> Many thanks for the great feedback and for taking time out from your overloaded working day to answers our questions.
> 
> ...


Thanks Colin! We'd love a couple Knighthoods over here!  We're definitely trying to expand our reach in the UK, and it's been going well so far.


----------



## JETaylor (Jan 25, 2011)

Thank you, Mel.  

One more question for you folks and then I need to get back to the day job...

Do you only look at Amazon rankings for the books or do you also take into consideration rank on itunes, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc?


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

hardnutt said:


> Sonja from BookBub said:
> 
> 
> > Basically, to determine if your book is discounted enough to qualify for a promotion, we look at its pricing history for the past 90 days. We consider the original price of the book the price it's PREDOMINANTLY been at for those 90 days, and the deal price you're submitting for needs to be 50% off that. In order for it to qualify for a BookBub promotion, it can't be discounted for more than 14 days total during that 90 day period (unless you're submitting the book for a free deal, in which case this doesn't apply, since we do feature permafree books.) We also require that you don't discount the book to a lower price than the submitted deal price at any time during those 90 days--so if you want to promote it at $1.99, it can't have been offered for $0.99 or free in the past 90 days.
> ...


So long as the price isn't discounted for more than 14 days in the 90 days before you apply for the BookBub ad, and it's not reduced below the price you want to advertise it at on BookBub, you should be fine! So if you want to apply for a $1.99 BookBub promotion and your book is regularly $5.99, it's ok to do something like another three day promotion of your book at $1.99 in the 90 days before you apply--it just wouldn't be ok if that promotion of it was at $0.99 or free. That's what we mean by predominantly--hope that clears things up!


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Colin said:


> a word in the right ear and I can arrange to get you all honorary Knighthoods!
> Colin
> *The Electronic Book Company*


Lol! You're such a card, Colin!

Don't listen to him. He can't get you a gong of any description (has he got one?). You'll have had to sleep with Prince Andrew to be in with a chance. And the competition is stiff (!). Or so I hear . . .


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Colleen Cross said:


> Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions here - it's very helpful.
> 
> I have a question about subscriber demographics. Which categories do you see the greatest subscriber growth (in volume /%). Which ones have levelled off? Any interesting trends you would like to share?
> 
> Thanks!


Hi Colleen!

We did a really cool post on subscriber demographics last year that you can find here: http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/80678538507/8-things-you-should-know-about-bookbub-subscribers


----------



## Colin (Aug 6, 2011)

Carlyn from BookBub said:


> Thanks Colin! We'd love a couple Knighthoods over here!  We're definitely trying to expand our reach in the UK, and it's been going well so far.


That's good to know, Lady Carlyn of Bookbubshire!


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Moist_Tissue said:


> Hello,
> 
> Thanks for your time today and tomorrow.
> 
> ...


Thanks for joining the conversation  Our editors are happy to review any submissions that get sent to us. We currently don't have any restrictions on subject matter, so submit away!


----------



## Colin (Aug 6, 2011)

hardnutt said:


> Lol! You're such a card, Colin!


A joker in the pack, maybe - but I'm not easily shuffled!


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

My company, White Whisker Books, which has five authors including me, have happily been on BookBub before--always to great results. My new book "A Death in Vegas," a mystery, has great reviews and even a book trailer that I'm trying to add to the book's landing page. Mysteries are your top genre, as I discovered when submitted a few weeks ago. The book didn't make it in--do you recommend I try the literary category, where my other titles have been. It's a literary mystery. In general, would you recommend trying another category if one doesn't work, or keep trying in the same category? I love you guys.


----------



## Robert Stanek (Nov 16, 2013)

Katie from BookBub said:


> Hey again Robert,
> 
> You can find out more about BookBub's subscribers in this Unbound post from last year: http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/80678538507/8-things-you-should-know-about-bookbub-subscribers
> 
> We have a very active user base! As I explained earlier, our consumer marketing team constantly measures the engagement of our subscribers and targets our marketing efforts towards audiences that will be active users. We also closely measure user engagement over time. After the first week or so of membership, a user's activity typically levels off and we haven't seen that drop off over time. Our earliest subscribers from 2012 are still some of our most active members!


Thank you!



Katie from BookBub said:


> We don't actually look at open rate as a success metric because it's difficult to measure accurately and it doesn't directly reflect how well an author's title is performing with our readers. What matters more than how many people see your promotion is how many people are clicking on it and buying the book, right?! So we closely analyze click data and conversion data for every book we feature. These numbers vary a great deal across category and price point, so it's difficult to provide averages. As an example, a $0.99 Mystery is sent to 2.2 million readers. On average, a Mystery at that price point receives about 7500 clicks and 3200 sales. You can find more about our average sales by category here:
> 
> https://www.bookbub.com/partners/pricing


Thank you!



Katie from BookBub said:


> Single-author boxed sets just need to meet the same minimum requirements as the rest of our submissions. The editors typically look at the platforms for the individual books rather than the set as whole. The pricing history needs to meet our historical pricing guidelines as well.


Thank you!


----------



## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

While we're talking about splitting categories, is there any chance that the Children's category could be split into Children and Middle Grade? I'm mostly interested in books for the younger set (as you can see from my book list sig!) but it seems like I've been seeing a lot of MG books in the Children's section lately.


----------



## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

Just thought of another question that I'm sure pertains to many other authors:

Amazon just recently released an advertising program to their Select members. However, it has very strict rules regarding the book cover. It cannot portray guns, blood, or nudity (including naked male chests), among other things. What are BookBub's guidelines for cover content?

Thanks!

Rue


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

Christopher Meeks said:


> My company, White Whisker Books, which has five authors including me, have happily been on BookBub before--always to great results. My new book "A Death in Vegas," a mystery, has great reviews and even a book trailer that I'm trying to add to the book's landing page. Mysteries are your top genre, as I discovered when submitted a few weeks ago. The book didn't make it in--do you recommend I try the literary category, where my other titles have been. It's a literary mystery. In general, would you recommend trying another category if one doesn't work, or keep trying in the same category? I love you guys.


Hi Christopher! Glad to hear you've had past success! We can't talk about your specific case (against the rules!), but we had a couple of category questions earlier, so I'm going to bring back Katie's response:

The categories you guys select on submission forms are actually just suggested categories. Our editors will consider the title for whichever genre they think it would work best in, so submitting for different categories or multiple categories won't actually impact their decision. IF you are open to running in another category, it is helpful for us to know that in the submission in case the editors think it will work better elsewhere (you can just throw that in the comments section). Otherwise we'll just ask you if you're ok running to the different list!

TLR - submit for the category you think is best and we'll always tell you if we think your book

Hope this helps!


----------



## MyraScott (Jul 18, 2014)

beccaprice said:


> While we're talking about splitting categories, is there any chance that the Children's category could be split into Children and Middle Grade? I'm mostly interested in books for the younger set (as you can see from my book list sig!) but it seems like I've been seeing a lot of MG books in the Children's section lately.


Yes, please! They are truly different audiences. I don't know how big the subscriber base is, but even if it's small, they are distinctly different categories.


----------



## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

beccaprice said:


> While we're talking about splitting categories, is there any chance that the Children's category could be split into Children and Middle Grade? I'm mostly interested in books for the younger set (as you can see from my book list sig!) but it seems like I've been seeing a lot of MG books in the Children's section lately.


Becca and Myra, they already have. 

Rue


----------



## Megan D (Feb 3, 2015)

Craig from BookBub said:


> Hi Megan,
> 
> Let me try and answer some of your UK questions!
> 
> ...


Thank you again for answering! I've noticed that the "hot topics" in my subject area do have some major differences on either side of the pond. In the US, if it's diet, it has to be Paleo, where as in the UK, it's all about the 5:2 Diet or the Hairy Bikers (don't ask)!

One more question, my books contain a lot of original photography, which is valued by customers in this category but this doesn't get "counted" by Amazon towards book page length, and so my books appear to be shorter than they actually are. Do you take content into account and if so, how?


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

ruecole said:


> Becca and Myra, they already have.
> 
> Rue


Rue, you beat me to it! We recently split the lists in to a separate Children's and a separate Middle Grade category!


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

JETaylor said:


> Thank you, Mel.
> 
> One more question for you folks and then I need to get back to the day job...
> 
> Do you only look at Amazon rankings for the books or do you also take into consideration rank on itunes, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc?


Rankings don't really play a role in the editorial review process, but the editors do look at the reviews available across different retailers and platforms. We've discussed the review process at other points in this thread, and you can check out this great blog post we wrote up a couple months ago if you want some more detailed information! http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/89056785680/how-bookbubs-selection-process-works


----------



## mythsnake (Oct 22, 2014)

It's been mentioned that BB looks at 90 days of pricing to determine whether or not a title is eligible, but what if there isn't 90 days worth of pricing data on a ASIN or ISBN? Say, for example, the author got their rights back from the original publisher and recently republished said book themselves, but it hasn't been 90 days yet since that transition happened. Would that effect an author's chance with BB? Or do you guys look at multiple editions to determine the pricing issue? (and should this multiple editions issue have been something brought up in the comments section of the submission form? )


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Carlyn from BookBub said:


> Hi Christopher! Glad to hear you've had past success! We can't talk about your specific case (against the rules!), but we had a couple of category questions earlier, so I'm going to bring back Katie's response:
> 
> The categories you guys select on submission forms are actually just suggested categories. Our editors will consider the title for whichever genre they think it would work best in, so submitting for different categories or multiple categories won't actually impact their decision. IF you are open to running in another category, it is helpful for us to know that in the submission in case the editors think it will work better elsewhere (you can just throw that in the comments section). Otherwise we'll just ask you if you're ok running to the different list!
> 
> ...


It helps, thanks. And a hello to Sonya, who's been helpful, and Stephanie before her.


----------



## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

ruecole said:


> Becca and Myra, they already have.
> 
> Rue


That must have happened since my last application; I don't remember seeing it before. But I'm still seeing stuff that I'd categorize as middle grade/older elementary under Children.


----------



## graphogoddess (Feb 3, 2015)

Having had two extremely successful BookBub campaigns that resulted in being #1 in Kindle and seeing a big bump in sales of all my books for a month, I've been rejected by BB about the last half-dozen times I submitted. I had submitted at .99 cents and it was suggested by BB I submit free. I did. Another rejection despite meeting all criteria. 

I understand that you have huge numbers of submissions, but when books that have no relation to mystery (my category) come in the BB emails every day, I wonder why I keep being rejected, and whether to just give up--maybe I pissed off somebody at BookBub


----------



## 10105 (Feb 16, 2010)

Comment:

You say 30% of your listings are for free books and the wider the distribution, the better the chances are for acceptance of a submission.

We all try to send submissions with the best chance for selection, and meeting these two criteria can be difficult. For Amazon to list a book as free, the book must be in Select, which narrows distribution to Amazon. They do price-match free books (making them perma-free), but it is often difficult to make that happen, such that we might not be able to guarantee that amazon's listing will match the deal. When they finally do match a free offering, it's like pulling teeth to get them to reverse it, which makes me reluctant to force a book into perma-free status when I want to make money on it after the promotion.

You've listed my perma-free book twice with more than satisfactory results in the sales of other books in the series. As near as I can tell, sales of the other books have more than paid for the promo and significantly increased my reader base. So I'm a happy BB customer.

Question:

Now, for an unrelated question. I have a book that was originally $.99 and is now $3.99. I'd like to submit a $.99 promo, but I do not remember (CRS) when I bumped the price, so I cannot say for sure whether it's been there for the required 90 days. All the price history sites say that Amazon doesn't provide those data for Kindle books. How does BB find the price history and how can I?

(Thanks for your service and for being approachable in coming here and putting up with our harangues.)


----------



## TuckerAuthor (Jan 31, 2014)

Here's another for you: I saw you mention that you check both Amazon and GoodReads reviews for the submissions. Do you notice a generally lower average rating for titles on GoodReads? I have myself and wondered if it was just me or if the trend runs across most books. Also, do you give more weight to one or the other site when looking at reviews?


----------



## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

Megan D said:


> Thank you again for answering! I've noticed that the "hot topics" in my subject area do have some major differences on either side of the pond. In the US, if it's diet, it has to be Paleo, where as in the UK, it's all about the 5:2 Diet or the Hairy Bikers (don't ask)!


Must... resist... googling... hairy... bikers! 

Also a general chorus of more thank yous to BookBub for being here. You guys are so patient and thorough!


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Sonja from BookBub said:


> So long as the price isn't discounted for more than 14 days in the 90 days before you apply for the BookBub ad, and it's not reduced below the price you want to advertise it at on BookBub, you should be fine! So if you want to apply for a $1.99 BookBub promotion and your book is regularly $5.99, it's ok to do something like another three day promotion of your book at $1.99 in the 90 days before you apply--it just wouldn't be ok if that promotion of it was at $0.99 or free. That's what we mean by predominantly--hope that clears things up!


Ah! Thanks for that, Sonja.

Another question (I'm full of them today, but to get such an opportunity to ask things of everyone at BB is not to be resisted).

Previously ('cos I've always found it difficult to afford the more expensive promo opportunities), and because custom covers (particularly if you have, as a main series, a 15-book bunch of novels, so have had to take the most economic option), I was wondering, because I've now set in motion the professional customisation of my Rafferty & Llewellyn mystery series, would it be helpful to my book being selected for an ad if I mentioned this in your 'comments' section?

Would that be likely to give me an 'edge' when it came to acceptance?

Sorry! This question is so convoluted. Where are those editors when you need them?!

Apologies also for all the brackets!


----------



## 10105 (Feb 16, 2010)

YA-SF would be a helpful category. I have such a book, which fits both categories, and I've seen others.


----------



## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

beccaprice said:


> That must have happened since my last application; I don't remember seeing it before. But I'm still seeing stuff that I'd categorize as middle grade/older elementary under Children.


When I applied in early December, they had the MG option available. 

Not sure if you're seeing MG books in the Children's category on the site or in your newsletter, but are you maybe subscribed to both?

Hope that helps!

Rue


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

ruecole said:


> Amazon just recently released an advertising program to their Select members. However, it has very strict rules regarding the book cover. It cannot portray guns, blood, or nudity (including naked male chests), among other things. What are BookBub's guidelines for cover content?


Hi Rue,

We just checked with the editorial team on this! They'll usually take anything that our major distributors (e.g. Amazon) will allow on their sites. They also take the genre into account...a cover that's appropriate for the erotica list might not make the cut for Christian fiction!


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Megan D said:


> Thank you again for answering! I've noticed that the "hot topics" in my subject area do have some major differences on either side of the pond. In the US, if it's diet, it has to be Paleo, where as in the UK, it's all about the 5:2 Diet or the Hairy Bikers (don't ask)!
> 
> One more question, my books contain a lot of original photography, which is valued by customers in this category but this doesn't get "counted" by Amazon towards book page length, and so my books appear to be shorter than they actually are. Do you take content into account and if so, how?


We do! Our page requirements for Nonfiction, Cooking, Middle Grade, and Children's books are all lower than our normal minimum page count to account for this exact kind of thing. You can reference each of those specific page counts here: https://www.bookbub.com/partners/requirements


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

mythsnake said:


> It's been mentioned that BB looks at 90 days of pricing to determine whether or not a title is eligible, but what if there isn't 90 days worth of pricing data on a ASIN or ISBN? Say, for example, the author got their rights back from the original publisher and recently republished said book themselves, but it hasn't been 90 days yet since that transition happened. Would that effect an author's chance with BB? Or do you guys look at multiple editions to determine the pricing issue? (and should this multiple editions issue have been something brought up in the comments section of the submission form? )


Hey there! Thanks for your question. If we can't find a full 90 days of pricing history the editors will just look for whatever they can find (and the list price on the retailers). Hope that helps!


----------



## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

If Bookbub says "We do not think this book would be a good fit for our readers.", does that mean the book didn't get over the first hurdle and there would be little point in continuing to submit that book?

Philip


----------



## R. M. Webb (Jul 24, 2014)

Just wanted to say thank you to all you BookBub people for taking the time to answer our questions and thank you to all you authors for  asking excellent questions. I'm not ready to start applying for a BookBub run yet, but once I am, this thread will be ever so useful! 

Yet another reason I love KBoards.


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Al Stevens said:


> YA-SF would be a helpful category. I have such a book, which fits both categories, and I've seen others.


Thanks for the suggestion Al!


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Colin said:


> A joker in the pack, maybe - but I'm not easily shuffled!





Colin said:


> That's good to know, Lady Carlyn of Bookbubshire!


God, but this man's a tryer. You've got to give it to him!


----------



## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

Carlyn from BookBub said:


> Hi Rue,
> 
> We just checked with the editorial team on this! They'll usually take anything that our major distributors (e.g. Amazon) will allow on their sites. They also take the genre into account...a cover that's appropriate for the erotica list might not make the cut for Christian fiction!


Thanks! Good to know, as long as the cover is genre appropriate, there's no restrictions. 

Rue


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

hardnutt said:


> Ah! Thanks for that, Sonja.
> 
> Another question (I'm full of them today, but to get such an opportunity to ask things of everyone at BB is not to be resisted).
> 
> ...


Not a problem -- we're here to answer your questions, after all!

You can mention the new cover in the "comments" section on the submission form, but our editorial team automatically sees any updated information, so I wouldn't say it's necessary.


----------



## Colin (Aug 6, 2011)

hardnutt said:


> God, but this man's a tryer. You've got to give it to him!


Steady there. We could end up derailing this thread and cause a diplomatic incident with our American cousins - and Betsy!


----------



## cslakin (Oct 15, 2011)

I'm getting lost trying to find all the answers to questions. You guys must have headaches by now. Thanks so much for all this! I couldn't find the answer to my question: what is the minimum word count for a novella that you'll take and are they other things you look for in picking a novella? I have a western romance series that does great on Bookbub and I just ran one book last month and another coming up this month. Since my novellas tie in with my series, will that count for something?

One last question: do you think there is any market via Bookbub for nonfiction writing craft books (on how to write novels)?


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

TuckerAuthor said:


> Here's another for you: I saw you mention that you check both Amazon and GoodReads reviews for the submissions. Do you notice a generally lower average rating for titles on GoodReads? I have myself and wondered if it was just me or if the trend runs across most books. Also, do you give more weight to one or the other site when looking at reviews?


Hi Tucker! We actually have also noticed that Goodreads ratings tend to be a little lower across the board than those on Amazon. So when we're comparing two books, we'd compare their Goodreads and Amazon ratings separately, since comparing a book's Amazon rating to another book's Goodreads rating probably wouldn't be comparing apples to apples. In general, the editors give equal weight to reviews from both sites in the selection process.


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

graphogoddess said:


> Having had two extremely successful BookBub campaigns that resulted in being #1 in Kindle and seeing a big bump in sales of all my books for a month, I've been rejected by BB about the last half-dozen times I submitted. I had submitted at .99 cents and it was suggested by BB I submit free. I did. Another rejection despite meeting all criteria.
> 
> I understand that you have huge numbers of submissions, but when books that have no relation to mystery (my category) come in the BB emails every day, I wonder why I keep being rejected, and whether to just give up--maybe I p*ssed off somebody at BookBub


Hi there! While we can't speak to specific cases, we usually encourage authors to continue submitting because timing is a big factor in the selection process. Your book is being compared to other books being considered at the same time, so depending on the quality and volume of other books being submitted in the category, your book may be more or less competitive. This is also why we don't provide specific feedback when books aren't selected. The submission requirements are always changing based on what other books have been submitted, so we can't tell you exactly what to change and guarantee you'll be selected next time.

Hope this all makes sense! Thanks for the question.


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Philip Gibson said:


> If Bookbub says "We do not think this book would be a good fit for our readers.", does that mean the book didn't get over the first hurdle and there would be little point in continuing to submit that book?
> 
> Philip


Hey Philip! If a book doesn't meet our requirements, we'll definitely let you know which requirement it doesn't meet.


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Colin said:


> Steady there. We could end up derailing this thread and cause a diplomatic incident with our American cousins - and Betsy!


Oops! Mea Culpa!


----------



## J Tavakoli (Jan 23, 2013)

Hello BookBub and thank you for being here. 

Do you have plans to promote Spanish language books in the near future?

Portal a Ciberlibros (www.ciberlibros.com) promotes Kindle Spanish language books in the USA, Mexico and Spain, but it has a limited subscriber base and so far only has limited traction with free offerings.

Those of us who have invested in having our books translated, proofed and edited in a foreign language would be delighted to get the kind of visibility that Book Bub has provided for our English language books. I've been delighted with BookBub's results every time.

Thank you!


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

J Tavakoli said:


> Hello BookBub and thank you for being here.
> 
> Do you have plans to promote Spanish language books in the near future?
> 
> ...


Hey! We'd love to enter Spanish language markets in the future. We have quite a few English language markets left that we want to hit first, so it's not on the immediate roadmap, but we do hope to expand beyond English language someday!


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

I think you guys deserve a coffee break about now.

Back in 15?


----------



## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

cslakin said:


> One last question: do you think there is any market via Bookbub for nonfiction writing craft books (on how to write novels)?


I can answer this one because BookBub has run a promotion for one of my authors, Shelly Lowenkopf's The Fiction Writer's Handbook, which has done extremely well in the How-To/Advice category. Shelly taught in USC's Master of Professional Writing program for 34 years, so I felt lucky to offer this book.


----------



## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Like so many others here, I really do want to thank you guys for taking the time and answering our questions. I learned SO much. For example, I had NO idea you guys had to wade through a thousand submissions a week with only a handful of eyes. What you need is a few more monkeys on typewriters I may or may not have some stashed away, music boxes included.

I applied twice and now have a pretty good idea why I was rejected. I look forward to my third rejection err, application, in the coming month--maybe next time I'll try for a free giveaway 

Thank you again!!


----------



## Raquel Lyon (Mar 3, 2012)

Thanks, Bookbub Peeps, for ensuring I get absolutely zero writing done tonight, due to continually pressing the refresh button!


----------



## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

at least they deserve a break to look at all the submissions they're getting from the Writer's Cafe folks who have had their submission questions answered!


----------



## jesshawk (May 11, 2013)

Hi BookBub team,

Thanks so much for answering our questions today. I appreciate that your readers are always the crux of your decisions. It's better for everyone that way.

Most of my curiosities have been addressed, but just wondering - another email deal service recently added the option for authors to use their Amazon Associates ID for their ad. Is that bonus in BookBub's future? I'm also curious about insights to Al's point regarding the difficult process of making a book free on Amazon if it's not in Select. That's hindered me from submitting free books in the past. And for the sake of input - I would also love to see the inclusion of new releases and novellas somehow, even if it would need to be an especially selective acceptance process.

Thank you again - really appreciate your time!


----------



## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Thanks to both Harvey and BookBub for doing this! I need to catch up quickly, reading the discussion so far.


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

cslakin said:


> I'm getting lost trying to find all the answers to questions. You guys must have headaches by now. Thanks so much for all this! I couldn't find the answer to my question: what is the minimum word count for a novella that you'll take and are they other things you look for in picking a novella? I have a western romance series that does great on Bookbub and I just ran one book last month and another coming up this month. Since my novellas tie in with my series, will that count for something?
> 
> One last question: do you think there is any market via Bookbub for nonfiction writing craft books (on how to write novels)?


Hi again C.S.! We don't promote standalone novellas--we have a minimum page count of 150 pages for fiction. If we're talking about a book that's a collection of novellas/short stories, we look for similar things as we do with regular books, and the minimum page count for the collection is the same, 150 pages.

As for nonfiction writing craft books, I don't think we've promoted many in the past but you're definitely welcome to submit and see what the editors think!


----------



## Caddy (Sep 13, 2011)

I just want to thank BookBub for answering my questions and considering suggestions and also thank Harvey for setting this up! The best thing I've ever seen on here!


----------



## cslakin (Oct 15, 2011)

Thanks so much for that answer. Novellas can be 50,000 words, which is usually more than 150 pages, so I'll assume a novella (long style) is possible to submit.

I'm so grateful for you all and appreciate the time you've taken. You have certainly created a successful model and it's clear with your attitude that you will keep in the forefront of marketing our books! I've been amazed at the sales and increase of readers from all my Bookbub promos in the last year, and I will keep writing more books so I can get enough to run ads monthly!

Sending you all a big hug. Now ... back to work!


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

jesshawk said:


> Hi BookBub team,
> 
> Thanks so much for answering our questions today. I appreciate that your readers are always the crux of your decisions. It's better for everyone that way.
> 
> ...


Hi Jess! Glad you're finding this all helpful  To answer your first question, offering authors the option to use their own Associates ID on an ad isn't something we foresee doing in the near future, but thanks for the feedback about that and about wanting options to promote new releases and shorter works!

As for free book promotions--I completely understand that discounting your book to free on Amazon can be a frustrating process. Basically, the two options we know of are KDP Select free promotions or price matching, which works best for either long term or permafree discounts. We've written a bit about the logistics of those two options here: http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/72778210826/how-to-discount-your-ebook-part-1 Sorry--I wish there was a better way to discount to free across multiple retailers!


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

+1  Harvey, being a techno-thickie, I can't imagine how much work this has involved you in. But kudos to you, darlin'. I'd put you on my Christmas Card list if I knew where the hell you lived (stalker warning!).

I think (with upwards of 1,000 emails a week), that we've seen how much effort BB put into everything they do. You must have a terrific, easy-to-get-along-with, crew, or you wouldn't manage it.

I have fond memories of one of my earlier incarnations, when I was a young woman (age 21 with my first office temp assignment, in a psychiatric hospital. Pretty scary!). So I can appreciate what a difference it can make (to everyone) that you all get on.

Thanks again, for taking the time and the trouble to answer all our questions. Appreciated. Mucho. (I doubt you will ever understand just how much it's appreciated from a self-confessed, hopeless marketer).

Kisses XXXXXX
Geraldine


----------



## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

When a book has passed the basic criteria and is looked at in more detail, how many people are involved? And is the final decision taken by one person, do you discuss the book's merits/demerits until you reach a consensus, or do you take a vote? Just trying to visualize the physical process here.

Philip


----------



## 25803 (Oct 24, 2010)

Thank you so much to the entire BB team for joining us here today! And thank you to Harvey and mods 

I haven't yet seen a question regarding stand-alone novels vs. series books. Are the acceptance odds much less for stand-alones?

Many thanks.


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Philip Gibson said:


> When a book has passed the basic criteria and is looked at in more detail, how many people are involved? And is the final decision taken by one person, do you discuss the book's merits/demerits until you reach a consensus, or do you take a vote? Just trying to visualize the physical process here.
> 
> Philip


Hey Philip! It often depends on the submission. We have a team of editors, each of whom specializes in certain categories. So they know what works on their lists really well. The whole editorial team looks at the performance of every book we feature on a daily basis! And when tough submissions come in where an editor wants a second opinion, the team meets multiple times a week to talk those through and come to a consensus. It's a very hands-on, data-driven, careful process and the editorial folks have some tough decisions to make every day!


----------



## KatrinaAbbott (Jan 28, 2014)

Thanks again for being here, BB peeps! 

A question about YA. Since it's an umbrella term that includes many genres and has a ton of crossover appeal, do you ever feature YA novels in categories that are not specifically YA? Many of my fans are middle-aged women, so when you say you're always looking for more chicklit, my YA rom coms would totally fall into that category, though they're technically YA. It's been documented that a lot of YA readers are definitely not YA themselves, so do you cross those lines or are you open to it?


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

Caddy said:


> I just want to thank BookBub for answering my questions and considering suggestions and also thank Harvey for setting this up! The best thing I've ever seen on here!


Damn right! It's been terrific. But can we all stop now 'cos I'm not sure I can afford the printer ink this far! Expensive stuff. At least in the UK (where we seem to pay through the nose for everything).

Europe Out! Out! Out!

UKIP in! etc.

Sorry. No intention of turning all political. If only those old European Union auditors could manage to get those European accounts to pass muster! Once in a decade? Too much to ask?

Apologies. I've been up since 2.30 this morning (keep waking in the middle of the night), so I'm probably getting crochetty. Does that have two 't's or one? Too exhausted now to give a toss . . .


----------



## Graham C. (Oct 19, 2014)

Hi BookBubbers! You guys have been the hottest thing to ever happen to some of us indie novelists. My BookBub free run day was one of the funnest days in my indie publishing career, so thanks for that. I hope you go into work in the morning knowing that you are making a difference in the world! (Or at least our little indie-writer's world).

Question: Do you ever buy a copy of a book under submission and read parts of it as part of your decision-making process?


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

KathyCarmichael said:


> Thank you so much to the entire BB team for joining us here today! And thank you to Harvey and mods
> 
> I haven't yet seen a question regarding stand-alone novels vs. series books. Are the acceptance odds much less for stand-alones?
> 
> Many thanks.


Hi Kathy,

First things first - I noticed your status and hope you found your reading glasses! 

Whether a book is a stand-alone novel or in a series doesn't play a significant role in the selection process, unless the book is part of a series we've run before. We've talked about the selection process quite a bit today, but I'd just highlight real quick that historical performance about content and about specific books, if we have it, is important in the process. We want the content in the BookBub email to be content that our readers will respond to, so if we know that the readers are responding to a series well, we'll keep running that series!


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

Graham C. said:


> Hi BookBubbers! You guys have been the hottest thing to ever happen to some of us indie novelists. My BookBub free run day was one of the funnest days in my indie publishing career, so thanks for that. I hope you go into work in the morning knowing that you are making a difference in the world! (Or at least our little indie-writer's world).
> 
> Question: Do you ever buy a copy of a book under submission and read parts of it as part of your decision-making process?


Hi Graham,

It's so great to hear what a difference we've made for you and other indie authors! 

We receive anywhere from 700-1,000 submissions a week, so unfortunately our editorial team just doesn't have time to read parts of every book. But they do occasionally read the free samples that are available! Any many of us here at BookBub end up buying a lot of the books that we feature, too!


----------



## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

Hi BB Guys:

Many thanks for your lists, your transparency, and your consistency over the past 3 years. It's been a great pleasure working with you!

This is something you may not care to answer on a public forum so I'll respect a non-answer on it , but I've wondered whether BB stopped advertising multi-author book bundles and new releases because of outside influence. It seems like both types of titles would be lucrative -- and for those who took advantage when BB *did* feature them, they were. 

We know Amazon started excluding sales and downloads for transactions coming from BookBub from their poplist algorithms back in the summer of 2013. From that we can pretty well deduce Amazon sees BB as an undue influencer on its own in-store marketing. Could Amazon also be asking for no undue influence on its New Release lists? And could the NYT/USAT lists be asking for the restrictions against multi-author book bundles?

Or, more generally, are you working in conjunction with the retailers and listmakers, or have you been able to keep your policies completely unbiased?

And a couple of easier questions  : For the categories you have in rotation now, do you see any of those increasing in frequency and becoming daily in the near future? And will the new non-fiction categories mentioned (such as Historical Non-fiction) be in rotation or will books appear daily?


----------



## Robert Bidinotto (Mar 3, 2011)

I'm curious about the relative performance of various ebook platforms. Limiting this inquiry only to _those titles available on a wide variety of platforms_ (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, et. al,), do you have any stats indicating the relative sales percentages for each?

The answer to that question might help some of us to decide the age-old question of whether we are leaving a lot of money on the table by being exclusive with Amazon, or limited to only a couple of platforms.

Thanks.


----------



## Kathy Dubois (Jan 4, 2013)

Thank you for all your insights today!!!


----------



## Colin (Aug 6, 2011)

Kathy Dubois said:


> Thank you for all your insights today!!!


Yes. You guys have done a great job and deserve another coffee break - or two...


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Phoenix Sullivan said:


> Hi BB Guys:
> 
> Many thanks for your lists, your transparency, and your consistency over the past 3 years. It's been a great pleasure working with you!
> 
> ...


Hey Phoenix! Thanks for your questions -- we're happy to answer them here. Our policies haven't been influenced by retailers or services like NYT and USAT. I will say that when we featured a couple multi-author box sets way back in 2012, we noticed that most of them hit the bestseller lists in the aftermath of the promotion. We then decided to stop featuring them because we wanted to make sure there was always room for authors to feature single titles. If everyone noticed the box sets were consistently hitting the lists, we feared our submissions and features would skew too heavily in that direction.

The new releases policy is primarily based on platform. We very rarely see new releases with platforms (reviews and acclaim) that are competitive with the older titles that are being submitted.

For the easier stuff! Yes, we're constantly updating our daily schedule. If a list grows really quickly or we have a ton of submissions or it's performing really well in other ways, we'll often shift things around so we can feature more stuff in those genres. Newer categories usually aren't substantial enough to feature every day, so they'll likely start off being featured a couple times a week.

Thanks!!


----------



## 60169 (May 18, 2012)

I completely understand and appreciate why a book can only be promoted once every six months with you and an author every 30 days. Here's my question, though: If an author writes in two different genres, under two different pen names, does that same 30 day rule apply? Say Stephen King wants to run in horror one week and two weeks later he submits as Richard Bachman (okay, not a great example because everyone knows Bachman was King, but you get the drift!) would you consider both of them, or would the Bachman book be put off until 30 days after the SK book ran?

And, for the millionth time, thanks for being there. I don't want to think where my career would be without you guys.


----------



## anaeross (Mar 30, 2013)

Hello BB,

I just want to say thank you very much for simply existing. You have helped me reach numerous benchmarks as an indie author. I can honestly say that I credit my success to being featured in your daily emails 2 times last year. Your price is high, but I took a chance and it paid off. Best money I every spent. Keep doing what you're doing, please.
Ana E Ross


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

KatrinaAbbott said:


> Thanks again for being here, BB peeps!
> 
> A question about YA. Since it's an umbrella term that includes many genres and has a ton of crossover appeal, do you ever feature YA novels in categories that are not specifically YA? Many of my fans are middle-aged women, so when you say you're always looking for more chicklit, my YA rom coms would totally fall into that category, though they're technically YA. It's been documented that a lot of YA readers are definitely not YA themselves, so do you cross those lines or are you open to it?


Hi Katrina,

We generally don't feature YA content outside of our Teen and Young Adult list, but I can't say we never do. We don't send YA content to other lists more often because we've seen books with teenaged and youth protagonists tend to do below average when they aren't sent to our more targeted Teen and Young Adult list.


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

Shawn Inmon said:


> I completely understand and appreciate why a book can only be promoted once every six months with you and an author every 30 days. Here's my question, though: If an author writes in two different genres, under two different pen names, does that same 30 day rule apply? Say Stephen King wants to run in horror one week and two weeks later he submits as Richard Bachman (okay, not a great example because everyone knows Bachman was King, but you get the drift!) would you consider both of them, or would the Bachman book be put off until 30 days after the SK book ran?
> 
> And, for the millionth time, thanks for being there. I don't want to think where my career would be without you guys.


Hi Shawn,

Thanks for the question! No, the 30-day rule does NOT apply for a single author using two different pen names. So Stephen King and Richard Bachman could both run a book this month


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Robert Bidinotto said:


> I'm curious about the relative performance of various ebook platforms. Limiting this inquiry only to _those titles available on a wide variety of platforms_ (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, et. al,), do you have any stats indicating the relative sales percentages for each?
> 
> The answer to that question might help some of us to decide the age-old question of whether we are leaving a lot of money on the table by being exclusive with Amazon, or limited to only a couple of platforms.
> 
> Thanks.


Hi Robert -- looks like you managed to squeeze in the last question of the day!

Our subscriber retailer distribution closely matches up to that of the general ebook marketplace. It's worth noting that the promotion fees we charge are based on the TOTAL subscriber count of a given category, so if you're featuring a title on only one retailer, you're invariably missing out on a portion of our subscribers, and therefore, potential sales/downloads.

Hope this helps!


----------



## KatrinaAbbott (Jan 28, 2014)

Craig from BookBub said:


> Hi Katrina,
> 
> We generally don't feature YA content outside of our Teen and Young Adult list, but I can't say we never do. We don't send YA content to other lists more often because we've seen books with teenaged and youth protagonists tend to do below average when they aren't sent to our more targeted Teen and Young Adult list.


Makes sense - thank you.


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Ok everyone, we’re out for the night! Thanks so much for participating in the q&a today. It’s been great all around. Your questions have been super smart and we’re glad we’ve had a chance to clarify so many things! This has also been really helpful for us in identifying what can be improved about our existing communications, so thanks for that too.

Anyway, we’ll be back tomorrow at 10am EST! Hope to see you then. 

We’re going to go have some beers now .


----------



## RochellePaige (Feb 2, 2015)

Hello and thank you for taking the time to answer so many questions today and tomorrow. I setup my account here yesterday when someone mentioned this event to me & I am so happy to have found kboards.

I did a box set $.99 sale in the New Adult/ College Romance category with you in November. The process was easy and the impact from the sale was enough to propel the box set into the top 100 overall at Amazon for the first time ever for me. So thank you for that!

Shortly after, I put the books in that series in KDP Select and they will be coming out at the end of this month. I've been giving serious consideration to trying a first in series free after putting the books back up on all platforms and would want to submit the first book for a free ad. Since it was part of the box set, would I need to wait for 6 months to do this? And even if I didn't have to wait, would you recommend doing so? 

Thanks.


----------



## SunshineOnMe (Jan 11, 2014)

Do you notice when books change their covers, and does that make them less desirable?  My book was accepted under a different cover, but since I changed it, it hasn't. So now I'm a bit insecure.


----------



## Colin (Aug 6, 2011)

Katie from BookBub said:


> We're going to go have some beers now .


Cheers! And well deserved.


----------



## bookbabe (Feb 26, 2014)

Thanks BB - You're the best service I have ever used! I have noticed that several authors have the first book in their series perma-free. Does anyone know how they are able to do that?


----------



## hardnutt (Nov 19, 2010)

SunshineOnMe said:


> Do you notice when books change their covers, and does that make them less desirable? My book was accepted under a different cover, but since I changed it, it hasn't. So now I'm a bit insecure.


I'm hoping, now that I'm finally getting Cutom Covers (yes, Capitals. Because it's that important to me), that my next (second), application will be approved.

But - who knows? I'm a bit insecure, also. The authort's lot. The lot of any creative in this business-driven, fastest-buck wins, world.


----------



## anaeross (Mar 30, 2013)

bookbabe said:


> Thanks BB - You're the best service I have ever used! I have noticed that several authors have the first book in their series perma-free. Does anyone know how they are able to do that?


Hi Bookbabe,
Nook and Amazon do not allow you to make a book free, so just make it free on ibooks, D2D, Kobo, ARe, and Smashwords, and then have your fans, family, and friends send a "lower price" announcement to Amazon. Nook will offer it for free through Smashwords or D2D. Once you leave it free it automatically becomes perma free.


----------



## Tony Bertauski (May 18, 2012)

Robert Bidinotto said:


> I'm curious about the relative performance of various ebook platforms. Limiting this inquiry only to _those titles available on a wide variety of platforms_ (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, et. al,), do you have any stats indicating the relative sales percentages for each?


A breakdown of my last BookBub promo sales, a 3-book boxed set in the sci-fi category, looked like this after day one:

Amazon, 68%
Nook, 15%
Apple, 11%
Google Play, 4%
Kobo, 3%
Smashwords, <1%

I think those numbers continue skewing in Amazon's favor after the first day.


----------



## teresahill (Jan 22, 2014)

Hi,
  
I haven't broken my last BB promo down into percentages by retailer, but it was interesting to see how fast the sales rankings and bestseller lists responded and how long that lasted.

At iBooks and B&N, my box set (contemporary romance) climbed faster by rank and onto the bestseller list the afternoon the ad came out, but fell off those bestseller lists really fast. I got as high as No. 2 overall at B&N. Within four or five days, I was off the main bestseller lists at both iBooks and B&N.

At Amazon, the rankings rose more slowly, peaking overnight or early on the day after the ad came out. I got as high as 34 overall on the Amazon bestseller list, but it was right after Christmas, Dec. 28. The lists were packed with heavy hitters.

But the set lingered high on a number of the smaller bestseller lists, holiday romance, holiday fiction, contemporary romance, etc. And it stayed there for weeks. It wasn't until one day this week that the set completely fell out of the holiday top 100 lists. That's with me raising the price from 99 cents to $2.99 on Jan. 5th or so.

Made me curious about how much of our rankings at Amazon is one huge sale day within the last 30 days and how much is what we actually sell in any given day. (I think I've read that it factors in sales within the last 30 days.) And that it's hard to put any hard number of sales per day to any Amazon sales ranking.


----------



## Lefevre (Feb 1, 2014)

My favorite thing about SP is that authors take chances big publishers/boring publishing don't and can mix genres. Will BB ever create a category that caters to non traditional tastes and genre blends? 

I would love to subscribe to BB again.


----------



## RuthNestvold (Jan 4, 2012)

Sonja from BookBub said:


> Hi Tucker! We actually have also noticed that Goodreads ratings tend to be a little lower across the board than those on Amazon. So when we're comparing two books, we'd compare their Goodreads and Amazon ratings separately, since comparing a book's Amazon rating to another book's Goodreads rating probably wouldn't be comparing apples to apples. In general, the editors give equal weight to reviews from both sites in the selection process.


Ah, that's good to hear. My Goodreads ratings tend to depress me, and I don't hang out there much as a result.

I've had great results from my ads with you guys, btw. Thanks!

One question: Recently I've been writing more YA than adult, which (for me at least) tends to run shorter. Do you have the same length requirements for YA that you do for other genres?


----------



## Ronnizoom (Dec 7, 2012)

Katie from BookBub said:


> I got some questions via direct message that I wanted to answer publicly so you all had the info! Side note that if you have a question that you'd rather not post publicly, feel free to send it to me directly and I'll get it answered anonymously.
> 
> ** How was Bookbub's mailing list compiled from day one of your service? Any tips on how to do this for those of us that do not get approved by Bookbub repeatedly?*
> 
> ...


Self-help? That's my category and I've been rejected by BB twice  I wonder if that's a category that you will expand. As your readership is more female that is the gender that tends to read self-help books.


----------



## Dolphin (Aug 22, 2013)

Katie from BookBub said:


> Hello! Thanks for your feedback on the blurbs. The reason we write the blurbs in-house actually has more to do with the data we've collected through running tens of thousands of promotions than a bandwidth issue. We do extensive testing on the language that drives the highest click throughs from our users, so the editors know what they're doing when they write those things!


Having seen this reiterated a few times in the thread, it occurs to me that one of the areas where you could get added value from a BookBub ad would be to rip off their copywriters and use the blurb afterward. Makes perfect sense as long as your promo is successful, doesn't it?


----------



## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

All right, what brave soul wants to condense all the important points from this thread into one page?


----------



## BATS (Feb 4, 2015)

There is a good reason why Goodreads ratings are lower than Amazon's.

You are not comparing like with like.

A 4* Goodreads rating is probably equivalent to a Zon 5*.....and so on.

And only a 1* on Goodreads means they didn't like the book. Whereas both 1* & 2* on Zon would mean the same.

Check out the meaning of the different ratings and you'll see what I mean.

It's a reason that Zon and Greads will never amalgamate their ratings system, even though Zon now owns Greads.


----------



## Doril (Nov 2, 2013)

Z. Rider said:


> If you add an option for readers to sign up for a new releases list (in our preferred genres) at some point, I'd definitely subscribe. Goodreads' monthly New Releases email is one of my favorites (but at the same time it's frustrating because they offer such a limited selection of genres for it). I don't even care if the new releases are discounted--I'm just looking for new shinies to grab.


I love this idea.


----------



## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Dolphin said:


> Having seen this reiterated a few times in the thread, it occurs to me that one of the areas where you could get added value from a BookBub ad would be to rip off their copywriters and use the blurb afterward. Makes perfect sense as long as your promo is successful, doesn't it?


Absolutely, this!

Several other advertisers require a submitted blurb be much shorter. Some of those written by BookBub for my promos have been spectacular and I've saved a few to use elsewhere.

Here's a couple that really stand out:


> Jesse - retired from the Marine Corps - has tried to stay out of trouble on an isolated island. But when his former sergeant dies suspiciously, Jesse is thrust into a race to find a psychotic killer stalking the Florida Keys. Perfect for fans of Carl Hiaasen.





> Elbow Cay, 1566: A Spanish treasure ship sinks in the Bahamas, leaving one obscure clue to its exact location. Centuries later, retired Marine Jesse McDermitt has a lead on the riches - but the Croatian mob and a greedy attorney are on his trail. Perfect for Tom Clancy fans!





> For fans of Tom Clancy comes a thrilling adventure! Jesse is mourning a loved one's death when a friend asks him to rescue her father from a dangerous smuggler. When Jesse discovers the man's connection to terrorism, he realizes he finally has a chance for revenge!


----------



## sarahdalton (Mar 15, 2011)

I just want to say that if you guys hadn't picked up my book back in February 2012 I don't think I would be a full time author right now so thank you. And I hope you carry on taking chances on smaller indies with great books who are just starting out. 

Also I'd just like to reiterate what other authors have said about novellas. As a subscriber, I would love to see a novella/short story category from Bookbub. I'm a big fan of the shorter book, and I'm sure I can't be alone. 

My question (sorry if it's a repeat, I tried keeping up with the thread but it got away from me) - are there any categories that are perhaps under-performing a little that you would like to build up? Also, I noticed that you've featured a few short story anthologies recently, do anthologies perform well?


----------



## KatrinaAbbott (Jan 28, 2014)

sarahdalton said:


> I just want to say that if you guys hadn't picked up my book back in February 2012 I don't think I would be a full time author right now so thank you. And I hope you carry on taking chances on smaller indies with great books who are just starting out.
> 
> ...


THIS. Discoverabilty is the number one issue for Indies and while some of us are working really hard at making good books that people like, it's that initial discoverability that we need help with. I've been at this for just over a year now and I've done a lot of promo elsewhere and do get some bumps and am building a solid, committed readership, but it is taking a lot of time and effort to reach readers almost one by one. I've tried for BB since I put my first in series to free back in July and haven't been lucky yet, but I will keep trying. I've heard that there are other ways to build a sustainable career without BB, but I have yet to hit on whatever that may be. So yeah, thank you for taking your chances on us and for existing AND (hopefully you're not getting tired of hearing this) for being here and opening up to us on how/why/what you do.

Also, it'e been mentioned here before, but I would like to add my +1 to the new releases category. I would love to see that, too.

One thing I'd like to ask is what do YOU BB people love to read? What gets you folks excited when it lands on your ereader?


----------



## Ronnizoom (Dec 7, 2012)

HI BB, Could you say a little bit more about non-fiction titles. I love the self-publishing world and have got some great support and advice from Writers Cafe. However, I do think there is a difference with marketing a non-fiction book and a fiction book. I wondered if you will be expanding the non-fiction category and into what areas. I'm particularly interested in the 'self-help' category. As you have a larger female audience this is usually a category that appeals to them.
Many thanks for your time
Veronica


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Good morning, kboards! We've all had our coffee / shots of espresso and we're ready to get started. We're going to answer some of the questions that came in over night first, but feel free to start posting others.


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Sever Bronny said:


> All right, what brave soul wants to condense all the important points from this thread into one page?


That's a great idea! After the Q&A, we'll also be posting a wrap-up highlighting some of the most popular questions and answers on our blog here: http://unbound.bookbub.com/.


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

RuthNestvold said:


> One question: Recently I've been writing more YA than adult, which (for me at least) tends to run shorter. Do you have the same length requirements for YA that you do for other genres?


Morning, Ruth! You can find all our length requirements here: https://www.bookbub.com/partners/requirements

We have a 150 page minimum for all novels, YA included. Thanks!


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

RochellePaige said:


> Hello and thank you for taking the time to answer so many questions today and tomorrow. I setup my account here yesterday when someone mentioned this event to me & I am so happy to have found kboards.
> 
> I did a box set $.99 sale in the New Adult/ College Romance category with you in November. The process was easy and the impact from the sale was enough to propel the box set into the top 100 overall at Amazon for the first time ever for me. So thank you for that!
> 
> ...


Hi Rochelle -- I'm happy to hear you were happy with your BookBub ad! Our 6 month policy does apply for standalone books previously featured in a box set (or vice versa). Sonja answered a question about this policy yesterday, so I'll just copy and paste her answer below:

There's a couple reasons we have to limit how frequently a book can be promoted. First, in order to keep our subscribers happy and engaging with BookBub, we've found it's important to offer a variety of books and authors. We also want to wait until there are enough new subscribers in a category so that your promotion isn't reaching the same people--we used to promote books more frequently, and saw a decrease in success of the repeat promotions. Hope that helps explain!


----------



## AA.A (Sep 6, 2012)

Morning to you Katie (evening from Dubai to be honest)

I was told by some, that mentioning some reviews, or ratings in the comment segment would help. Any truth in that?

Thanks,
Ahmad


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Ronnizoom said:


> HI BB, Could you say a little bit more about non-fiction titles. I love the self-publishing world and have got some great support and advice from Writers Cafe. However, I do think there is a difference with marketing a non-fiction book and a fiction book. I wondered if you will be expanding the non-fiction category and into what areas. I'm particularly interested in the 'self-help' category. As you have a larger female audience this is usually a category that appeals to them.
> Many thanks for your time
> Veronica


Hey Veronica! Happy to give you some more info about nonfiction. We have recently launched two new nonfiction categories (True Crime and Parenting) and we're currently testing a couple others (History and Business). As long as the tests go well, we're hoping to launch those soon.

We do feature self-help regularly in our Advice & How-to category and it can perform really well with our audience!


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Ahmad_Ardalan said:


> Morning to you Katie (evening from Dubai to be honest)
> 
> I was told by some, that mentioning some reviews, or ratings in the comment segment would help. Any truth in that?
> 
> ...


Morning Ahmad! Great question. Sonja gave some info about this yesterday, so I'll just quote her answer 

The editors will read a book's product page VERY carefully, so there is no need to include awards, editorial reviews, endorsements, and other information that's already on that page in the Comments section. However, if there's some new information that you haven't yet added to the product page, that's a great thing to mention in your comments section. Also, if your dates are generally flexible but there are a couple dates that don't work for you, that's something you might want to mention as well. Hope that helps clarify!


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

sarahdalton said:


> I just want to say that if you guys hadn't picked up my book back in February 2012 I don't think I would be a full time author right now so thank you. And I hope you carry on taking chances on smaller indies with great books who are just starting out.
> 
> Also I'd just like to reiterate what other authors have said about novellas. As a subscriber, I would love to see a novella/short story category from Bookbub. I'm a big fan of the shorter book, and I'm sure I can't be alone.
> 
> My question (sorry if it's a repeat, I tried keeping up with the thread but it got away from me) - are there any categories that are perhaps under-performing a little that you would like to build up? Also, I noticed that you've featured a few short story anthologies recently, do anthologies perform well?


Good morning Sarah! Great to hear we were able to help you get your start  We're always looking for more submissions in our newer categories--these are generally the ones with smaller subscriber counts on our Pricing page, such as True Crime, Parenting, Chick Lit, African American Interest and LGBT. As for short story anthologies, we unfortunately haven't run enough of them to have a lot of data yet--so far there isn't a clear pattern and the success seems to vary a lot between individual anthologies and genres.


----------



## AA.A (Sep 6, 2012)

Katie from BookBub said:


> Morning Ahmad! Great question. Sonja gave some info about this yesterday, so I'll just quote her answer
> 
> The editors will read a book's product page VERY carefully, so there is no need to include awards, editorial reviews, endorsements, and other information that's already on that page in the Comments section. However, if there's some new information that you haven't yet added to the product page, that's a great thing to mention in your comments section. Also, if your dates are generally flexible but there are a couple dates that don't work for you, that's something you might want to mention as well. Hope that helps clarify!


Thanks Katie. That was quick. What brand was the coffee you had?


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Ahmad_Ardalan said:


> Thanks Katie. That was quick. What brand was the coffee you had?


We are very lucky in that our building provides us with many coffee machines to use free of charge! It's very startup-y . I had a Nespresso this morning. It was delish.


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

KatrinaAbbott said:


> THIS. Discoverabilty is the number one issue for Indies and while some of us are working really hard at making good books that people like, it's that initial discoverability that we need help with. I've been at this for just over a year now and I've done a lot of promo elsewhere and do get some bumps and am building a solid, committed readership, but it is taking a lot of time and effort to reach readers almost one by one. I've tried for BB since I put my first in series to free back in July and haven't been lucky yet, but I will keep trying. I've heard that there are other ways to build a sustainable career without BB, but I have yet to hit on whatever that may be. So yeah, thank you for taking your chances on us and for existing AND (hopefully you're not getting tired of hearing this) for being here and opening up to us on how/why/what you do.
> 
> Also, it'e been mentioned here before, but I would like to add my +1 to the new releases category. I would love to see that, too.
> 
> One thing I'd like to ask is what do YOU BB people love to read? What gets you folks excited when it lands on your ereader?


I'll jump in here! Personally, I'm a huge fan of nonfiction. And I studied Latin American literature as an undergrad, so I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some of my favorite LA authors: Gabriel García Márquez, Borges, and Junot Diaz.

Katie and I were both super psyched about the launch of our True Crime list (in fact, I think you'll find a copy of a book we recently featured on BookBub -- Why We Love Serial Killers -- on both of our Kindle homepages  ). The team also gets together once a month for a book club. We always read a recent BookBub title -- last month, our pick was In the Garden of Beasts!


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Mel from BookBub said:


> I'll jump in here! Personally, I'm a huge fan of nonfiction. And I studied Latin American literature as an undergrad, so I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some of my favorite LA authors: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Borges, and Junot Diaz.
> 
> Katie and I were both super psyched about the launch of our True Crime list (in fact, I think you'll find a copy of a book we recently featured on BookBub -- Why We Love Serial Killers -- on both of our Kindle homepages  ). The team also gets together once a month for a book club. We always read a recent BookBub title -- last month, our pick was In the Garden of Beasts!


I'm in the midst of a Charles Manson biography at the moment .


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

SunshineOnMe said:
 

> Do you notice when books change their covers, and does that make them less desirable?


We do notice when books change their covers, but I wouldn't say that changing a cover makes a book less desirable.

We definitely see that certain cover trends work with our readers and the editors do try to select for those trends, which makes it important to have a cover that fits within your genre. However, as we've said before and I'll say again, the editorial process is holistic and the cover is just one thing that the editors look at.

We've actually done a lot of fun blog posts about covers at this point. I'll include some of them here:

http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/65540128819/8-cover-trends-that-sell-books

http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/69698779204/8-great-holiday-ebook-covers

http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/97221282485/5-fall-cover-trends-that-help-sell-books

http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/100256926755/9-cover-mistakes-to-avoid - this was when we tried to make our own covers ... it didn't go well  haha

http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/108915324380/7-tips-for-creating-a-successful-book-cover - Matt Tanner, a professional cover designer, recently did an awesome guest post for us about cover design tips.


----------



## TuckerAuthor (Jan 31, 2014)

Could you walk us through a submission from an editor's POV? In other words, when you pull up the next submission in your queue, what specific steps do you go through for each one? Do you first look at the book's Amazon page, or GoodReads? Blurb or reviews? Etc. (And, yes, I'm nosy ;-))


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

MeganBryce said:


> This was a great idea, Harvey. It's eye-opening to see behind-the-scenes at Bookbub (like, 4 editors for 1000 submissions a week?! I'll be more patient. )
> 
> I was wondering if Bookbub is an affiliate for all the retailers and has to stay on the good side of the affiliate rules, especially Amazon's free to paid ratio.


Hey Megan! Good question. Yep, we do participate in affiliate programs with all of our retailers.


----------



## viper9826 (Oct 18, 2012)

Craig from BookBub said:


> Hi Guys,
> 
> I'll give this one a try. We do actually give specific rejections for each of our basic guidelines. If your book is too short, you'll get a rejection that says this is too short. If the pricing doesn't work, we'll tell you. If we're out of space, we'll send you an email that says we're too booked please resubmit in 1 week. And if we've accepted your book but we don't have any openings during the dates you picked, we'll send you an email offering you a different date!
> 
> ...


So when we get a rejection with a generic email like this: (What exactly does this mean) It doesn't state if something is wrong with the book so we can correct it. Can you please explain?

Thanks for your submission. Unfortunately, our editorial team has not selected this title for a BookBub promotion at this time.

Due to limited space in the email, we're only able to feature about 20% of the titles that get submitted to us. The editorial team reviews all the submissions that meet our minimum guidelines for a certain category and price point, and selects the titles within that group that they believe will perform best with our members. Other titles the editors reviewed were better fits for our readers' current tastes.

While this deal hasn't been selected for a feature, here are some tips to make future submissions as competitive as possible:

- Submit your deal at a lower price point
- Submit other titles from your backlist
- Re-submit your title in a few months, when it might be a better fit for our readers
- Review additional tips here: https://www.bookbub.com/partners/submission-tips

Please wait at least four weeks before resubmitting this title for consideration.

Best regards,
BookBub Partners Team


----------



## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Katie from BookBub said:


> We have recently launched two new nonfiction categories (True Crime and Parenting) and we're currently testing a couple others (History and Business). As long as the tests go well, we're hoping to launch those soon.


That's good to know. Will you give us a heads up when the new nonfiction categories go live by announcing it to us email subscribers? Or maybe posting an announcement here at Kboards Writers' Cafe?

Philip


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

TuckerAuthor said:


> Could you walk us through a submission from an editor's POV? In other words, when you pull up the next submission in your queue, what specific steps do you go through for each one? Do you first look at the book's Amazon page, or GoodReads? Blurb or reviews? Etc. (And, yes, I'm nosy ;-))


Hey Tucker! We've answered questions about the submission process throughout this Q&A -- I know it's a lot of pages to scroll through, but I'd encourage you to browse through when you have the time! If you want a one-stop, comprehensive breakdown of the editorial review process, check out this blog post: http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/89056785680/how-bookbubs-selection-process-works


----------



## KatrinaAbbott (Jan 28, 2014)

Mel from BookBub said:


> I'll jump in here! Personally, I'm a huge fan of nonfiction. And I studied Latin American literature as an undergrad, so I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some of my favorite LA authors: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Borges, and Junot Diaz.
> 
> Katie and I were both super psyched about the launch of our True Crime list (in fact, I think you'll find a copy of a book we recently featured on BookBub -- Why We Love Serial Killers -- on both of our Kindle homepages  ). The team also gets together once a month for a book club. We always read a recent BookBub title -- last month, our pick was In the Garden of Beasts!


Obviously, y'all are book lovers and it's great to hear that you have a book club! I'm a fan of true crime, too, though I love other non-fiction, too. Mary Roach is my all-time fav non-fic writer. I have never laughed so hard at non-fic as when I read Bonk - particularly the footnotes.


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Philip Gibson said:


> That's good to know. Will you give us a heads up when the new nonfiction categories go live by announcing it to us email subscribers? Or maybe posting an announcement here at Kboards?
> 
> Philip


Great idea! We haven't announced new categories in the past (they've just been added to our pricing page, which you can find here: https://www.bookbub.com/partners/pricing), but it's definitely something we could be more public about. Thanks Philip!


----------



## ElHawk (Aug 13, 2012)

Great thread, and thanks to all of you at BookBub for taking the time to answer all our questions!

I've read through your answers here carefully and am glad to note that you're working on something to help promote new releases. I also saw you response to Phoenix, clarifying that one of your reasons for not featuring new releases in emails is due to less-impressive platform of new releases (which I'm taking to mean reader reviews.)

Is there any wiggle room in your development plans in this regard? For example, using a *ahem* purely hypothetical scenario  ...if you have a title, first in a series, that's had three BB runs in the past, each one performing very well (20,000 - 40,000 downloads)...and then that same author starts a NEW series that is so very similar that it will make all those readers drool (again, entirely hypothetical, but imagine if both series were set in ancient Egypt...) might the first book in the new series be a tempting book for an ad?

I guess, to distill my question a bit so it's easier to answer, is there any chance you guys might finesse your requirements for new releases *for email promotion* (since that's the promo method we all know and trust) to consider more than just number of reviews? Surely how similar a new book is, content-wise, to books by the same author that performed very well on BookBub in the past, would be a sensible criterion. Or maybe I know nothing, Jon Snow, because I don't have your data. 

Thanks! Looking forward to more BookBub ads in the future.


----------



## Matt Ryan (Nov 16, 2012)

Thank you very much for doing this. Lots of great info and I plan on using you when I'm ready.

Would BB consider doing a special on whole series instead of just the one book?

Example(And I've seen KDD do this with Jim Butcher and others with huge success): Say I am releasing book 6 in the series and I want to promote the whole backlist. Would you consider listing books 1-5 individually in one big special, or would you like to see a one book omnibus(books 1-5 compiled in one listing) to discount? Or ideally, how does BB like to work with a series in promotions?


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

viper9826 said:


> Craig from BookBub said:
> 
> 
> > Hi Guys,
> ...


Hi there! So if you receive a response like the one you just posted, which doesn't specify that you didn't meet a specific guideline, that means that you did meet all the minimum requirements but didn't get selected this time around since the editors felt that other books were a better fit for our readers. As Craig mentioned and as we say in that type of response, you should feel free to resubmit in the future since the editorial decisions can be affected by timing factors and by new information about what appeals to our readers. Hope that helps explain!


----------



## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

I have another question: you say you get up to 1,000 submissions per week. Roughly what percentage of those get rejected right out of the gate because they don't qualify?


----------



## TuckerAuthor (Jan 31, 2014)

Mel from BookBub said:


> Hey Tucker! We've answered questions about the submission process throughout this Q&A -- I know it's a lot of pages to scroll through, but I'd encourage you to browse through when you have the time! If you want a one-stop, comprehensive breakdown of the editorial review process, check out this blog post: http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/89056785680/how-bookbubs-selection-process-works


Thanks! I was being greedy and hoping for a more "blow by blow" account, maybe with video and music ;-)


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

ElHawk said:


> Great thread, and thanks to all of you at BookBub for taking the time to answer all our questions!
> 
> I've read through your answers here carefully and am glad to note that you're working on something to help promote new releases. I also saw you response to Phoenix, clarifying that one of your reasons for not featuring new releases in emails is due to less-impressive platform of new releases (which I'm taking to mean reader reviews.)
> 
> ...


Hey there! Thanks for reading through all the posts. We hear you guys loud and clear on the new releases  (and we're happy to hear it since it's something we're working on). We're probably not going to start featuring new releases regularly in the email any time soon for the reasons we've mentioned, but I should clarify that you are welcome to submit a new release if you want! The editors will certainly consider it, and we don't have any strict policy around not running them. They just tend to underperform because our readers are looking for titles with bigger platforms and that's what they're used to seeing, so it's very rare for the editors to select a brand new title for a feature. Thanks!


----------



## viper9826 (Oct 18, 2012)

Sonja from BookBub said:


> So when we get a rejection with a generic email like this: (What exactly does this mean) It doesn't state if something is wrong with the book so we can correct it. Can you please explain?
> 
> Thanks for your submission. Unfortunately, our editorial team has not selected this title for a BookBub promotion at this time.
> 
> ...


Thank you so much for explaining! I thought I was a lost cause!!


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

TuckerAuthor said:


> Thanks! I was being greedy and hoping for a more "blow by blow" account, maybe with video and music ;-)


Haha we should consider making one of those! I'll run it by the editors


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Lydniz said:


> I have another question: you say you get up to 1,000 submissions per week. Roughly what percentage of those get rejected right out of the gate because they don't qualify?


Hey there! So I took a look at the numbers for December and it looks like in that month, 90% of the submissions we received met our minimum guidelines for editorial review--10% didn't meet at least one of them and received responses specifying which guideline they didn't meet.


----------



## viper9826 (Oct 18, 2012)

Does the book have to be published for a certain amount of time to be considered? Or do you accept newly published books? ex.. a book that is only a month old.

Second question: If one book has been rejected, can we submit a different book under the same pen name but a different series?  Ie.. two series.. first books / of series 1 get rejected.. but can we then try to get book 1 of series two approved?

Thanks so much for being here and answering all these questions!


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Matt Ryan said:


> Thank you very much for doing this. Lots of great info and I plan on using you when I'm ready.
> 
> Would BB consider doing a special on whole series instead of just the one book?
> 
> Example(And I've seen KDD do this with Jim Butcher and others with huge success): Say I am releasing book 6 in the series and I want to promote the whole backlist. Would you consider listing books 1-5 individually in one big special, or would you like to see a one book omnibus(books 1-5 compiled in one listing) to discount? Or ideally, how does BB like to work with a series in promotions?


We do feature single-author box sets. Currently, our policy is to only run an author once every 30 days. I want to make a quick clarification: a feature -- while oftentimes a single book -- CAN be a box set with multiple works, but we would never run multiple single book promotions on the same day from one author.

We've seen a lot of our authors promote the first work in a series and have really great results. Anecdotally, we've heard that these kinds of promotions really drive up series sales!

Alternatively, bundling a series into one product also works well, but as I mentioned before, our 6 month same book policy does apply for standalone books previously featured in a box set (or vice versa).


----------



## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

Jumping in late here and still have a lot of pages to read, so I'll hold off on any questions since they've probably been answered.

More just wanted to add my voice to those expressing thanks to the folks from Bookbub for being here.  I've run two BB promotions to date and both have been pretty huge for me - easily worth the investment.


----------



## 60169 (May 18, 2012)

I really liked the blurb you guys wrote when you featured my second memoir a few weeks ago. In fact, I contemplated incorporating it into my sales page, but I was concerned that I might be violating a sense of trust by doing so. Thus, my question is, if we really love the blurb you come up with for our books, can we use it in our marketing, or would that be considered a no-no?

Thanks!


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

viper9826 said:


> Does the book have to be published for a certain amount of time to be considered? Or do you accept newly published books? ex.. a book that is only a month old.
> 
> Second question: If one book has been rejected, can we submit a different book under the same pen name but a different series? Ie.. two series.. first books / of series 1 get rejected.. but can we then try to get book 1 of series two approved?
> 
> Thanks so much for being here and answering all these questions!


Hi! As we've mentioned, we currently rarely select new releases to feature because they typically don't have as much of platform (in terms of customer reviews, editorial reviews, etc.) as the older books that are submitted to us, and don't tend to perform as well. But you're still welcome to submit newer releases if you like! And yep, feel free to submit other books after one book was not selected. We just ask that you wait four weeks before resubmitting the same book.


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Shawn Inmon said:


> I really liked the blurb you guys wrote when you featured my second memoir a few weeks ago. In fact, I contemplated incorporating it into my sales page, but I was concerned that I might be violating a sense of trust by doing so. Thus, my question is, if we really love the blurb you come up with for our books, can we use it in our marketing, or would that be considered a no-no?
> 
> Thanks!


Hey Shawn! Thanks for asking! You're welcome to use our blurbs as long as they're attributed properly. Hope that helps .


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

We're running to lunch everyone! We'll be back at 1pm EST.


----------



## Andrei Cherascu (Sep 17, 2014)

Sonja from BookBub said:


> So when we get a rejection with a generic email like this: (What exactly does this mean) It doesn't state if something is wrong with the book so we can correct it. Can you please explain?
> 
> Thanks for your submission. Unfortunately, our editorial team has not selected this title for a BookBub promotion at this time.
> 
> ...


Hey guys, thanks again for taking the time to talk to us. I have a related question: from what I've read so far, I get the impression that the slots for the free promos and those for paid promos are two completely different entities. So let's say I request an ad for a 0.99$ book and it gets rejected with the comment "Other titles the editors reviewed were better fits for our readers' current tastes." If I change my mind and decide I'd rather have a free ad (you guys mentioned that there's more availability in the free slots than the paid) do I still have to wait four weeks before resubmitting?


----------



## 10105 (Feb 16, 2010)

Katie from BookBub said:


> We have recently launched two new nonfiction categories (True Crime and Parenting) and we're currently testing a couple others (History and Business). As long as the tests go well, we're hoping to launch those soon.


Good morning, folks. (Afternoon, actually. I was up late reading this thread.)

I suggest you consider non-fiction categories for technical and medical issues.


----------



## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Craig from BookBub said:


> The first thing I would say is that our subscribers LOVE history, especially WWII history and US Civil War history. They also like trivia and popular science. Easily digestible things that teach something are perfect for our audience


That's good to know. Perhaps you could consider adding a 'Popular Science' or 'Science and Technology' list.

Philip


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Could someone who has read the entire thread summarize Bookbub's answers, please?


----------



## Aurora_B (Feb 4, 2015)

Hello! I joined the boards today because I really want to ask a question here. Thanks so much for doing this!

I'm not sure how to word this without sounding snarky or ungrateful, so please keep in mind that my intentions are good. My question is, why are some books featured on BookBub when they're clearly not high-quality, well reviewed books? There's one in particular (a series) that has been featured twice and the reviews for both books are just awful. It's puzzling to me to see these, especially when I try month after month to have my book placed with BB.

Thanks again, this has been an enlightening discussion!


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Philip Gibson said:


> That's good to know. Perhaps you could consider adding a 'Popular Science' or 'Science and Technology' list.
> 
> Philip
> 
> ...


Hi Philip and Al -- thanks for these suggestions! We'll certainly pass them along to the editorial team.


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

Andrei Cherascu said:


> Hey guys, thanks again for taking the time to talk to us. I have a related question: from what I've read so far, I get the impression that the slots for the free promos and those for paid promos are two completely different entities. So let's say I request an ad for a 0.99$ book and it gets rejected with the comment "Other titles the editors reviewed were better fits for our readers' current tastes." If I change my mind and decide I'd rather have a free ad (you guys mentioned that there's more availability in the free slots than the paid) do I still have to wait four weeks before resubmitting?


Hi Andrei! You're right, the editors do evaluate free spots separately from paid ones. If you're not selected for a paid promotion, and you'd like to immediately resubmit for free, that would be fine!

Thanks for the the question!


----------



## Teri A (Jul 23, 2014)

Cherise Kelley said:


> Could someone who has read the entire thread summarize Bookbub's answers, please?


Regarding editorial selection:

Reader reviews are generally more important than trade reviews (with the exception of NY Times or an endorsement from an author who Bookbub readers are familiar with and respect)

Bookbub understands that Goodreads reviews are generally harsher. They look at all reviews across all platforms.

Rank is irrelevant.

For competitive lists like contemporary romance, it is rare to feature book with less than 100 reviews, simply because the competition for slots is more intense.

New releases are rarely featured because the book has not yet built its "platform."

While Bookbub reps have not defined "Platform," I take it to mean either/or "What kind of book is this, and who is the readership?" and "what established readership or fan base does this author already have."


----------



## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

Teri A said:


> Regarding editorial selection:
> Reader reviews are generally more important than trade reviews (with the exception of NY Times or an endorsement from an author who Bookbub readers are familiar with and respect)
> Bookbub understands that Goodreads reviews are generally harsher. They look at all reviews across all platforms.
> Rank is irrelevant.
> ...


Okay, so three cheers for Kboard's new official note taker!


----------



## Teri A (Jul 23, 2014)

Rick Gualtieri said:


> Okay, so three cheers for Kboard's new official note taker!


I accept the job one one condition: The Great Bookbub Wizards will pay closer attention to my next submission


----------



## julieorleans (Feb 16, 2011)

Hi, BookBub guys, especially Craig and Sonja--I think you know how awesome I think you are! (This is Julie at booksBnimble.) I'm learning a lot from this thread and it's brought up some questions for me. Some thoughts I had--
1. I always assumed the 30-day rule was both to keep the list fresh and to give everyone a chance. But I gather from your answers that the fresh issue is the larger one. So I'm emboldened to wonder...we have several authors who write under pseudonyms in two different genres. To Bookbub, is that one author or two? Could we submit a mystery by Joe Lee Jones and a nonfiction book by his evil twin, Joe Jones Lee, within the same 30-day period?

2. I'm struck by how closely you monitor  your readers' changing tastes. I see that your subscribers love history, but I'm wondering about historicals set in ancient times-- adventure and romance, mostly. How do these kinds of books sit with your readers? Popular or unpopular? Would they have a chance of getting listings? (Assuming all other requirements are met.)

3. For some reason, I don't think I knew that you'd accept anthologies of short works.  We have some, but not all our anthologies seem to garner reviews in the same numbers as the individual stories/novellas . When making a decision, would you consider reviews only on the anthology, or would you look at those on the individual works? (Incidentally, I'm impressed at how thoroughly you study each detail page before making a decision!)

4. Some of our best books are about to come out of KDP Select and are being offered at non-Amazon retailers for the first time. So we're noticing we're weak on reviews at Kobo and B&N-- in fact, some of our prizewinning books even have bad reviews at sites other than Amazon. So if we offered a deal at several retailers--and had few or bad reviews at those other than Amazon--would that work against us? Or would we be better off making the deal available on Amazon only?

Many thanks for this amazing opportunity!


----------



## rosclarke (Jul 12, 2013)

If a book is resubmitted after the necessary time following a rejection, do the team reconsider it from scratch or do they refer back to their previous research? That is, would they check whether reviews/ratings etc have changed, or is it just a matter of what other submissions are on the table at that time?


----------



## Robert Stanek (Nov 16, 2013)

I've read through the entire thread and participated yesterday as well. My full-time job is as a technologist and technology writer. I write as Robert Stanek for fiction and William Stanek for (most) everything else.

Non-fiction really seems to be an underserved category on BookBub, especially as compared to fiction. There are categories for cooking, advice + how-to, general nonfiction, cooking, biography + memoir, and parenting, however, there are so many more possibilities. With technology books, such as those covering computers, scripting/programming, operating systems, devices & gadgets, the run-rate for general non-fiction or advice + how-to would be very high as compared to the subset of readers who would be interested.

From this a few questions:

Is BookBub looking at topics like these for possible new categories? Is BookBub looking at these specific topics?

What does BookBub do when a book truly doesn't fit into any current category but would likely reach a solid subset of the subscriber base?

If accepted hypothetically, would an author like me have to pay the current $1275 for advice + how-to or the $1125 for general nonfiction even though the audience for such would more likely be closer to 500,000+ than the 1,000,000+ base?

Finally, I note that much of BookBub's focus seems to be kindle and Amazon. Are you actively working with Google, Apple and others to create more traction and cohesion?

Thank you,

Robert Stanek


----------



## EC (Aug 20, 2013)

Hi BB, I'm commenting here as a subscriber to BB, not as an author. I feel you are missing a trick with the non-fiction genres. I find it mildly amusing that you have a genre for historical fiction but not a genre for history. Your general non-fiction category is just - well - too general. Non-fiction readers are voracious readers and you are not serving them well.  

Travel, weight-loss, gardening - no doubt others could point out more. I certainly feel there is room within your portfolio for a better range of targeted non-fiction. I for one, would buy a lot more via you guys if you could work out better targeting.


----------



## Andrei Cherascu (Sep 17, 2014)

Carlyn from BookBub said:


> Hi Andrei! You're right, the editors do evaluate free spots separately from paid ones. If you're not selected for a paid promotion, and you'd like to immediately resubmit for free, that would be fine!
> 
> Thanks for the the question!


Carlyn, that is very useful information. Thank you!


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

Hi Julie! Thanks for all the questions! Craig and Sonja say hi 



julieorleans said:


> 1. I always assumed the 30-day rule was both to keep the list fresh and to give everyone a chance. But I gather from your answers that the fresh issue is the larger one. So I'm emboldened to wonder...we have several authors who write under pseudonyms in two different genres. To Bookbub, is that one author or two? Could we submit a mystery by Joe Lee Jones and a nonfiction book by his evil twin, Joe Jones Lee, within the same 30-day period?


Yes, an author could potentially run two books under different pen names in the same month, but the editors probably wouldn't allow this if the names were as close as Joe Lee Jones and Joe Jones Lee!



julieorleans said:


> 2. I'm struck by how closely you monitor your readers' changing tastes. I see that your subscribers love history, but I'm wondering about historicals set in ancient times-- adventure and romance, mostly. How do these kinds of books sit with your readers? Popular or unpopular? Would they have a chance of getting listings? (Assuming all other requirements are met.)


We have an entire list for historical romances! And it would be up to the editors to decide whether an adventure book set in ancient times would perform best in Historical Fiction or Action and Adventure. They know what sort of content works best with both groups of readers!



julieorleans said:


> 3. For some reason, I don't think I knew that you'd accept anthologies of short works. We have some, but not all our anthologies seem to garner reviews in the same numbers as the individual stories/novellas . When making a decision, would you consider reviews only on the anthology, or would you look at those on the individual works? (Incidentally, I'm impressed at how thoroughly you study each detail page before making a decision!)


Great question! Our editors will look at the individual stories within an anthology or box set if the collection itself doesn't have a lot of reviews.



julieorleans said:


> 4. Some of our best books are about to come out of KDP Select and are being offered at non-Amazon retailers for the first time. So we're noticing we're weak on reviews at Kobo and B&N-- in fact, some of our prizewinning books even have bad reviews at sites other than Amazon. So if we offered a deal at several retailers--and had few or bad reviews at those other than Amazon--would that work against us? Or would we be better off making the deal available on Amazon only?


The editors primarily look at Amazon and Goodreads, so I wouldn't worry too much if you don't have as many reviews on other retailers

Phew, hope that covered everything!


----------



## Carlyn from BookBub (Feb 3, 2015)

EC said:


> Hi BB, I'm commenting here as a subscriber to BB, not as an author. I feel you are missing a trick with the non-fiction genres. I find it mildly amusing that you have a genre for historical fiction but not a genre for history. Your general non-fiction category is just - well - too general. Non-fiction readers are voracious readers and you are not serving them well.
> 
> Travel, weight-loss, gardening - no doubt others could point out more. I certainly feel there is room within your portfolio for a better range of targeted non-fiction. I for one, would buy a lot more via you guys if you could work out better targeting.


Hi there EC! Thanks for the feedback. We're actually in the process of testing some new non-fiction categories right now, so stay tuned!


----------



## David VanDyke (Jan 3, 2014)

Regarding new releases - I was pleasantly flabbergasted to get a BB slot coming up on Sunday for a relatively new book in a new genre for me (mysteries) under a new pen name (look at my sig covers below if you care) with only 19 reviews on a book that has been out only a couple of months. So, while it's not as good as actually launching a book with BB would be (everyone wishes they could get up high in the rankings during the Hot New Releases period), it does show that a book doesn't have to be around too long or have 100 reviews before getting a slot.

Why did they pick my book? The BB people can respond and comment, but here are my guesses, in no particular order (after #1):

1. Meets minimum requirements, of course
2. It's a damn fine book, with a good cover and thorough editing job from multiple editors, and has a strong voice from the opening paragraph (1PPOV)
3. It features a battered female PI as protagonist, so it seems like a good fit for BBs largest demographic (avaricious-reading adult women) as well as appealing to others who like PI mysteries.
4. High review rating
5. Free. I decided to offer it free (short term on Select, not perma) after publishing the second book. Free books are easier to get into BB
6. I'm not hiding the fact that it's a pen name, so the overworked editing staff knows I have a track record in other genres, which might give them some confidence that it will be well received.

I'm sure there are other factors.

Having worked in jobs that required me to evaluate a lot of submissions quickly (for example, teaching adults to write and/or speak in public) I can believe that with an average of 250 per day per person, the BB staff have no choice but to make quick, often intuitive decisions about what to run. Probably at least half get rejected right away for one of a dozen reasons, and I'd guess those decisions get made within fifteen seconds - reject, reject, reject - not because they're cruel, but because by now they're experts on what works and what doesn't.


----------



## Robert Bidinotto (Mar 3, 2011)

I offered a couple of suggestions concerning blurbs, but you folks didn't comment, so let me restate them.

Context: I can't complain about the results of my November Bookbub promotion, which were excellent. My concern was about a blurb I thought was misleading in describing my book, and possible repercussions from readers whose expectations weren't met.

To remedy these problems, I proposed two optional solutions: 

(1) that proposed blurbs be vetted first past the authors, for accuracy. I understand if this is too problematic, in which case I suggest...

(2) that you appoint a second Bookbub editor to doublecheck each drafted blurb against the book's posted Amazon/BN product description, again to ensure accuracy.

What do you think of my second suggestion, in particular? And how does Bookbub currently try to ensure that drafted blurbs accurately summarize a book?

Thanks again for what you are doing to assist indie author like me, and I look forward to using your service again in the future.


----------



## John Ellsworth (Jun 1, 2014)

I don't have a question right now, but I just wanted to thank Bookbub for all the help in my writing career.

You've given me an entirely new life and I'm forever grateful.


----------



## EC (Aug 20, 2013)

Carlyn from BookBub said:


> Hi there EC! Thanks for the feedback. We're actually in the process of testing some new non-fiction categories right now, so stay tuned!


Thank you


----------



## Tricia O&#039; (Feb 19, 2013)

Hi Bookbub!

Thanks for being here. I have always had a great experience with your promotions. Last one had my book ranking at #45 on Amazon.

My question is - what do you see for the future of Bookbub? 

And, have you ever considered launching your own independent press?


----------



## Mel from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

rosclarke said:


> If a book is resubmitted after the necessary time following a rejection, do the team reconsider it from scratch or do they refer back to their previous research? That is, would they check whether reviews/ratings etc have changed, or is it just a matter of what other submissions are on the table at that time?


The editors do, in fact, treat a resubmission as a new submission. They look at everything available (reviews, star rating, etc.) at the time. I'm going to quote Craig here, since he did a good job expanding on the editorial review process earlier (this holds true for resubmissions):

Where it get's complicated is for the books we don't pick that do meet our minimums. SO much of the editorial process is based on timing because the editors compare all submissions in a given category to pick the best fits for our readers. Sometimes there are a lot of submissions for one category and very few spots open, driving up the standards for that category.


----------



## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

EC said:


> Hi BB, I'm commenting here as a subscriber to BB, not as an author. I feel you are missing a trick with the non-fiction genres. I find it mildly amusing that you have a genre for historical fiction but not a genre for history. Your general non-fiction category is just - well - too general. Non-fiction readers are voracious readers and you are not serving them well.
> 
> Travel, weight-loss, gardening - no doubt others could point out more. I certainly feel there is room within your portfolio for a better range of targeted non-fiction. I for one, would buy a lot more via you guys if you could work out better targeting.


I agree. Splitting up the non fiction list into several smaller lists would benefit both readers and authors.

Philip


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Teri A said:


> While Bookbub reps have not defined "Platform," I take it to mean either/or "What kind of book is this, and who is the readership?" and "what established readership or fan base does this author already have."


Hi Teri,

Thanks for point out that we keep throwing around a term that we haven't defined, but you basically got it!

When we say platform we mean - what kind of reader ratings and critical reviews does an author have; does the author have an existing fan base; has the author written any bestsellers, won any awards, or had books that generated any kind of buzz in the past?


----------



## rosclarke (Jul 12, 2013)

Mel from BookBub said:


> The editors do, in fact, treat a resubmission as a new submission. They look at everything available (reviews, star rating, etc.) at the time.


Thanks, that's good to know.


----------



## SunshineOnMe (Jan 11, 2014)

Dear Book Bub, my question got missed... maybe because I forgot, "Dear," and "Book Bub."   Do you notice when books change their covers, and does that make them less desirable?  My book was accepted under a different cover, but since I changed it, it hasn't. So now I'm a bit insecure.


----------



## Christopher Bunn (Oct 26, 2010)

I wasn't aware that Bookbub allowed permafree submissions. Thank you for clarifying that.

Does your Children's category trend more toward illustrated book/minimal text, or is it more chapter book heavy (such as Lemony Snicket, Boxcar Children, etc)? Also, you've mentioned that your biggest member group is older women. Do you see them as the strongest demographic buying in the Children's category (assumption being that they're buying for their children)?

Thanks!


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Robert Bidinotto said:


> I offered a couple of suggestions concerning blurbs, but you folks didn't comment, so let me restate them.
> 
> Context: I can't complain about the results of my November Bookbub promotion, which were excellent. My concern was about a blurb I thought was misleading in describing my book, and possible repercussions from readers whose expectations weren't met.
> 
> ...


Hi Robert! I'm sorry we missed your comments earlier. The editors work hard to ensure that all of our blurbs are accurate descriptions of the books based on their product description, and all blurbs are edited by at least one other editor and usually more. If there were factual inaccuracies in your blurb we're very sorry and we'd definitely encourage you to reach out to us by email so we can make sure to correct them for any future promotions!


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

SunshineOnMe said:


> Dear Book Bub, my question got missed... maybe because I forgot, "Dear," and "Book Bub."  Do you notice when books change their covers, and does that make them less desirable? My book was accepted under a different cover, but since I changed it, it hasn't. So now I'm a bit insecure.


I'm sorry you missed my answer! It's easy to get lost in the thread. I know I keep forgetting to refresh 

We do notice when books change their covers, but I wouldn't say that changing a cover makes a book less desirable.

We definitely see that certain cover trends work with our readers and the editors do try to select for those trends, which makes it important to have a cover that fits within in genre. However, as we've said before and I'll say again, the editorial process is holistic and the cover is just one thing that the editors look at.

We've actually done a lot of fun blog posts about covers at this point. I'll include some of them here:

http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/65540128819/8-cover-trends-that-sell-books

http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/69698779204/8-great-holiday-ebook-covers

http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/97221282485/5-fall-cover-trends-that-help-sell-books

http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/100256926755/9-cover-mistakes-to-avoid - this was when we tried to make our own covers ... it didn't go well  haha

http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/108915324380/7-tips-for-creating-a-successful-book-cover - Matt Tanner, a professional cover designer, recently did an awesome guest post for us about cover design tips.


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

John Ellsworth said:


> I don't have a question right now, but I just wanted to thank Bookbub for all the help in my writing career.
> 
> You've given me an entirely new life and I'm forever grateful.


Thanks so much John! That's wonderful to hear and I'm so glad we were able to help you out!


----------



## SunshineOnMe (Jan 11, 2014)

Thank you! Sorry for missing the answer.


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Tricia O' said:


> Hi Bookbub!
> 
> Thanks for being here. I have always had a great experience with your promotions. Last one had my book ranking at #45 on Amazon.
> 
> ...


Hi Tricia! Thanks for joining the thread today. We're all really excited about the future of BookBub. Some specific things we're working on now include additional international expansion, new tools for our author and publisher partners, and developing new products/ways to reach BookBub's audience. I'd recommend signing up for updates from our BookBub Unbound blog to stay tuned as we launch new features:

http://unbound.bookbub.com/

As for our own independent press, this isn't something we're exploring at the moment!


----------



## Robert Bidinotto (Mar 3, 2011)

Sonja @ Bookbub, thanks for your clarification about the blurb-writing process. When I next submit for a Bookbub campaign, I'll be sure to note my past blurb concern, and perhaps suggest a handful of plot points around which on might be drafted.

It says a great deal for you folks that you're doing this and that you're so responsive to our concerns and suggestions. Amazon has built itself into the top online retailer by focusing on its customers, and you're also showing that the same focus has made you #1 among online paid book promotion services. Thanks for helping to provide authors with that ever-elusive "discoverability."


----------



## Aurora_B (Feb 4, 2015)

I'll try one more time too in case my question got missed.  

Hello! I joined the boards today because I really want to ask a question here. Thanks so much for doing this!

I'm not sure how to word this without sounding snarky or ungrateful, so please keep in mind that my intentions are good. My question is, why are some books featured on BookBub when they're clearly not high-quality, well reviewed books? There's one in particular (a series) that has been featured twice and the reviews for both books are just awful. It's puzzling to me to see these, especially when I try month after month to have my book placed with BB.

Thanks again, this has been an enlightening discussion!


----------



## mberent (Jan 5, 2011)

Hi, Book Bub:
You gifted me 3 yrs ago (quadrupled my income! 46.6K last year)and got me promoting. Many thanks.
Questions:
1. How far back can I go back and see what my promo pages looked like?
2. What is an 'after run' survey? i.e., how to check how my book did that day.
Thanks in advance.
Mark Berent


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Aurora_B said:


> I'll try one more time too in case my question got missed.
> 
> Hello! I joined the boards today because I really want to ask a question here. Thanks so much for doing this!
> 
> ...


Hey Aurora, thanks for joining the discussion! However, one of our ground rules was that while we're happy to answer general questions about the selection process, we aren't able to discuss specific editorial decisions so unfortunately I can't really provide much insight on this question. I'm sorry you've been disappointed but as always we'd encourage you to keep submitting since as we've mentioned in previous posts the selection process is impacted by timing factors and you may have more success in the future!


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Christopher Bunn said:


> Does your Children's category trend more toward illustrated book/minimal text, or is it more chapter book heavy (such as Lemony Snicket, Boxcar Children, etc)? Also, you've mentioned that your biggest member group is older women. Do you see them as the strongest demographic buying in the Children's category (assumption being that they're buying for their children)?


Hi Christopher,

This is actually pretty interesting because we just recently split Children's and Middle Grade into separate Children's and separate Middle Grade categories so that we could send illustrated books to our the Children's list and chapter books to the Middle Grade list.

As far as the biggest demographic buying books in the Children's category - we haven't actually dug into the Children's or Middle Grade audiences to that level yet. But you're right, our readers skew older and toward women, which is essentially right in line with the general book buying population!


----------



## Aurora_B (Feb 4, 2015)

Sonja from BookBub said:


> Hey Aurora, thanks for joining the discussion! However, one of our ground rules was that while we're happy to answer general questions about the selection process, we aren't able to discuss specific editorial decisions so unfortunately I can't really provide much insight on this question. I'm sorry you've been disappointed but as always we'd encourage you to keep submitting since as we've mentioned in previous posts the selection process is impacted by timing factors and you may have more success in the future!


Thanks Sonja, I appreciate your response. I guess, more generally, I'm wondering how important the reviews of a book are in your decision process? Thanks again!!


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Aurora_B said:


> Thanks Sonja, I appreciate your response. I guess, more generally, I'm wondering how important the reviews of a book are in your decision process? Thanks again!!


Hi Aurora, thanks for clarifying your question! Because the selection process is holistic--the editors look at each book individually and take into account many different factors, of which reviews are just one--it's unfortunately hard for me to define exactly how important reviews are. There isn't a set minimum number of reviews or review rating for books to be accepted, and the number of reviews and rating that would typically make a book competitive in the selection process varies a lot from category to category. It also varies over time, since we compare submissions to others being considered at the same time rather than to a fixed standard. Another big factor in the process is how well the book's content aligns with what we know about our reader's tastes at the time when the editors are making their decision. Probably the best place to learn about all the factors that might be considered in the process is this blog post: http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/89056785680/how-bookbubs-selection-process-works

Hope that helps explain the selection process for you a bit! We've talked about the process quite a bit throughout the thread as well so looking back at some of the older posts may also be helpful!


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

mberent said:


> Hi, Book Bub:
> You gifted me 3 yrs ago (quadrupled my income! 46.6K last year)and got me promoting. Many thanks.
> Questions:
> 1. How far back can I go back and see what my promo pages looked like?
> ...


Hi Mark! So glad to hear you were happy with your past promotions. If you have specific questions about them, please email us directly! We don't typically typically send out stats after promotions but you can always check your sales on each retailer to get a sense of how your book did.


----------



## Megan D (Feb 3, 2015)

Hello again, I have waited a while before asking another question as I didn't want to be too greedy. Can I ask what is your criteria for distinguishing between an independent author, and an independent publishing imprint, and does the latter get to work with you differently from a solus author?  My reason for asking is that I am building a publishing niche brand, with the aim of having a small number of authors, each expert in their different (non-fiction) fields.


----------



## Craig from BookBub (Jan 8, 2015)

Megan D said:


> Hello again, I have waited a while before asking another question as I didn't want to be too greedy. Can I ask what is your criteria for distinguishing between an independent author, and an independent publishing imprint, and does the latter get to work with you differently from a solus author? My reason for asking is that I am building a publishing niche brand, with the aim of having a small number of authors, each expert in their different (non-fiction) fields.


Hey Megan! We evaluate submissions from publishers and independent authors in the same way, so we'd encourage you to submit your titles once you launch your new brand!


----------



## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

We're into the last few minutes of this session, so let me now say THANK YOU to BookBub for choosing KBoards for its first-ever live Q&A session!

And thanks to our many members around the world for participating -- you all make this a pretty special community for authors and the world of self-publishing.

Welcome to our new members who joined over the past 2 days as well!! Stick around and feel free to dive in to other threads.

We've added this thread to our "Essential Tips for Authors" sticky post.

-Harvey


----------



## ariagracebooks (Feb 4, 2015)

I subscribe to the LGBT newsletter and only get a book in that category 1 or 2 times per week. I know books that meet the editorial requirements are submitted regularly (and rejected) so do you have a maximum of books that you run in that category? I'd love to receive at least one per day but that's never the case.


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

ariagracebooks said:


> I subscribe to the LGBT newsletter and only get a book in that category 1 or 2 times per week. I know books that meet the editorial requirements are submitted regularly (and rejected) so do you have a maximum of books that you run in that category? I'd love to receive at least one per day but that's never the case.


Last question of the q&a in under the wire! I talked about this a bit yesterday, so I'll just repost that answer:

This is a bit of a challenge to explain but I'll do my best . We have a set number of slots we can fill each day with a promotion. Some of those slots are for one single category -- for example, we run 2 Mysteries per day (one discounted and one free). Some of these slots are what I'll call "rotating". This means there are a few different categories we could theoretically run in that slot. For many of our smaller categories, it doesn't make sense for us to feature a book every single day, so instead we'll rotate amongst a group of categories. On one day we might feature an LGBT and on the next we'll feature a Chick Lit in that same spot. Hope that helps!


----------



## Katie from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Hey again KBoards,

We want to thank you all for having such a great conversation with us for the past couple days! Your questions have been super and we really appreciate all the kind things you've said about BookBub over the course of the thread. It's really exciting for us to hear stories about how we've managed to help authors with their writing careers. That's what it's all about in the end!

Anyway, thanks again for participating. And thanks to Harvey for organizing this event and hosting us!

Be sure to check out our recap of the thread on BookBub Unbound later this week (it'll probably go up on Friday): http://unbound.bookbub.com/

Until next time, folks!

Katie, Carlyn, Craig, Mel, and Sonja


----------



## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Thanks for your time. It's been really helpful.


----------



## Colin (Aug 6, 2011)

Thanks Katie, Carlyn, Craig, Mel, and Sonja. Great job.

Now go and have a beer - or two!


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Teri A said:


> Regarding editorial selection:
> 
> Reader reviews are generally more important than trade reviews (with the exception of NY Times or an endorsement from an author who Bookbub readers are familiar with and respect)
> 
> ...


Thanks!

The fact that we can immediately resubmit for free if we are rejected for paid was shocking news, too!


----------



## Colin (Aug 6, 2011)

Harvey said:


> We're into the last few minutes of this session, so let me now say THANK YOU to BookBub for choosing KBoards for its first-ever live Q&A session!
> 
> And thanks to our many members around the world for participating -- you all make this a pretty special community for authors and the world of self-publishing.
> 
> ...


Thanks Harvey. You also deserve a


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Poor BB. I bet you'll get a thousand submissions per day over the next few days!


----------



## Dean F. Wilson (Aug 15, 2014)

Thanks for the excellent Q&A


----------



## A.A (Mar 30, 2012)

Oh shoot. Missed this.

*_Goes back to read thread and see what I missed*_


----------



## 10105 (Feb 16, 2010)

Teri A said:


> For competitive lists like contemporary romance, it is rare to feature book with less than 100 reviews, simply because the competition for slots is more intense.


That's probably the most important point I've taken from this discussion. It explains a lot about my own acceptance/rejection experience (in the Mysteries category) and tells me which books not to submit.


----------



## BATS (Feb 4, 2015)

Al Stevens said:


> That's probably the most important point I've taken from this discussion. It explains a lot about my own acceptance/rejection experience (in the Mysteries category) and tells me which books not to submit.


Yes, I agree. Basically - don't bother applying for a popular category UNLESS you have over 100 reviews.

Or, more cynically, Don't bother applying for a popular category unless you are successful already.

It makes breaking into the such genres much harder for those of us with a mere 15 reviews.


----------



## Dolphin (Aug 22, 2013)

BATS said:


> Yes, I agree. Basically - don't bother applying for a popular category UNLESS you have over 100 reviews.
> 
> Or, more cynically, Don't bother applying for a popular category unless you are successful already.
> 
> It makes breaking into the such genres much harder for those of us with a mere 15 reviews.


There's a silver lining too, though: if you're in a less competitive genre, you can score BookBubs more easily. The important takeaway is that you should judge yourself against your competitors (which makes complete sense, after all). Look at the covers, reviews, ratings, titles, topics, &c. that are getting BookBubs in your genre and you'll have a sense of what the bar is.


----------



## David VanDyke (Jan 3, 2014)

I just got a new mystery into BB with 19 reviews. Go a page or two up up and look for my other post on the subject...


----------



## Philip Gibson (Nov 18, 2013)

Thanks so much Harvey and Bookbub for this really informative Q&A.

Great to hear about the upcoming Non Fiction lists. Hopefully, these will be announced here and/or in Bookbub Unbound when the new lists go live. Here's the Bookbub Unbound link:

http://unbound.bookbub.com/

Philip


----------



## Kirkee (Apr 2, 2014)

Thanks BB! And thanks to all the Kboard members for asking the questions & helping clear things up.
Read every single page of this amazing thread. You all deserve a beer. On Colin. Or maybe Harve can
pick up the tab. Wait; he already has.    

Just one last inquiry, to anyone at BB, is bribery acceptable? if so, to what extent?  
You know I'm kidding. Sort of.


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Sonja from BookBub said:


> That's a great idea! After the Q&A, we'll also be posting a wrap-up highlighting some of the most popular questions and answers on our blog here: http://unbound.bookbub.com/.


Thanks!


----------



## Sonja from BookBub (Dec 18, 2014)

Hey all! Just wanted to let you know we've posted a recap of a few of the popular questions from the Q&A on our Partners blog! You can check it out here:

http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/110279604585/recap-bookbubs-first-live-q-a

Thanks again to all of you for making this Q&A such a success!


----------



## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Nicely done. Thanks, Sonja!


----------



## H. S. St. Ours (Mar 24, 2012)

Sonja from BookBub said:


> Hey all! Just wanted to let you know we've posted a recap of a few of the popular questions from the Q&A on our Partners blog! You can check it out here:
> 
> http://unbound.bookbub.com/post/110279604585/recap-bookbubs-first-live-q-a


Thanks for the recap! Great way to revisit the questions.


----------



## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

Oh, man! I can't believe I totally missed this!!!! How awesome that Bookbub came here for a Q&A. Now I need to spend the next few hours reading all the posts!


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Sophrosyne said:


> Oh, man! I can't believe I totally missed this!!!! How awesome that Bookbub came here for a Q&A. Now I need to spend the next few hours reading all the posts!


Can't believe I missed it too   Will bump for others who also missed it.


----------



## DianaUrban (Mar 3, 2015)

Hi everyone,

I'm Diana over at BookBub. *waves*

This kboards Q&A went so well that it inspired us to start a weekly Twitter chat! We'll be hosting the first one today at 3pm EST. If you have questions on book marketing, increasing book sales, running price promotions, or submitting to BookBub, simply ask your question and include the #AskBookBub hashtag in your tweet.

If the Q&A is helpful, we'll host this chat every Thursday at 3pm EST. You can read more details about this chat here: http://insights.bookbub.com/askbookbub-twitter-chat

Hope to see you there!


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Thanks   Now just have to work out what time it will be in SA


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson (Aug 25, 2010)

Has anyone sent a tweet yet?


----------



## Raquel Lyon (Mar 3, 2012)

I think we missed it!


----------



## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

Am I the only one who feels depressed after reading as far as page 5?

As far as I can see, I'd never be considered, so why bother even thinking about this? I know people rave on about the value of it, but for us newbies, this is a pipe dream.


----------



## JenEllision (Jan 13, 2014)

Oh, I dunno. I'm a pretty much a newbie myself and I think it's at least worth trying to submit! That, at least, is free. XD


----------



## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

Whats the point of submitting, when you have zero chance of being accepted? Soliciting rejections doesn't seem like a good plan.


----------



## lilywhite (Sep 25, 2010)

I guess I don't know why you're saying you don't have a chance. I'm nobody, and I'm about to have my second.


----------



## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

lilywhite said:


> I guess I don't know why you're saying you don't have a chance. I'm nobody, and I'm about to have my second.


Just looking at the criteria. One of my books has 3 reviews, two have 2, the latest has 1. As far as I can see by the criteria, they may as well have none, as far as they are concerned.

As far as I can see, unless you're already selling 50 a day, and have people raving about your books, the criteria makes it plain they don't want to know about you.


----------



## AllyWho (May 16, 2015)

TimothyEllis said:


> Whats the point of submitting, when you have zero chance of being accepted? Soliciting rejections doesn't seem like a good plan.


Then why don't you do something about it?

Take a hard look at your books and figure out why they aren't selling. Is it the covers, blurb, first chapter?

Look at what you can control and fix it. There will be a reason why your books aren't being bought/read/reviewed. You just have to dig deep enough to find it. Once you do something about that, will have a better shot at Bookbub. And I would suggest if you identify the underlying reason for the books not reaching their audience, you might find sales overall increase, even without a Bookbub slot.


----------



## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

AliceWE said:


> Take a hard look at your books and figure out why they aren't selling. Is it the covers, blurb, first chapter?


You tell me and we will both know. They are selling, but I'm still not making a 2 a day average, in spite of recent spikes.

I'm not getting any complaints about first chapters. The covers I cant afford to do anything with at this point. Blurbs? I'm open to suggestions, but I see some much worse ones here. (imo)

As far as I can see, they are saplings lost in the forest. That's why one needs BB. It's also why they aren't interested.


----------



## Guest (Jul 14, 2015)

Regarding Timothy Ellis.

Basically, most sites want to feature books that they think are good i.e. meet their criteria.

How do they decide a book is good? There are 8,000 new books published a day. No way to read them all.

So shortcuts

a) Is the cover top quality. If not, exclude unless exceptionally strong somewhere else.

b) Are the reviews very good. If so, look at other factors. If not reject.

c) Are there editorial reviews? Kirkus Reviews? Midwest Book Review?

d) Is it already selling i.e. must be good or must be doing something right?

*****

So you have to do something to show your book is good.

*****
Another reason it's hard to get featured is

Most sites want to get good results so they can sell slots at higher and higher prices.
So they limit number of books per day.
That means less slots.

****


----------



## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

ireaderreview said:


> a) Is the cover top quality. If not, exclude unless exceptionally strong somewhere else.
> b) Are the reviews very good. If so, look at other factors. If not reject.
> c) Are there editorial reviews? Kirkus Reviews? Midwest Book Review?
> d) Is it already selling i.e. must be good or must be doing something right?


You just proved my point.

The reviews are good. Just few of them.


----------



## AllyWho (May 16, 2015)

TimothyEllis said:


> They are selling, but I'm still not making a 2 a day average, in spite of recent spikes.


Ok I'm confused. Your books are selling, but at 2 a day? So you're selling approx 60 books a month? At the end of the day, if you're happy with sales, then this is a moot conversation and you don't need a Bookbub (or similar) promo.

With regard to reviews, they are a natural function of sales. I believe it takes something like 100 sales for 1 review. So if you need a minimum of 10 reviews to apply for Bookbub (or wherever) then you need at least 1,000 sales to have 10 organic reviews. I would have thought covers are the easiest thing to change and see how that impacts sales (assuming you want to lift sales and see more organic reviews). Covers are your number 1 marketing tool, they convey your first impression. Readers and advertisers will judge your book on its cover in the first instance. You can tinker with the blurb and opening pages, but if nobody is clicking on your book because of the cover, it's kind of redundant work. You need to snag the reader first.

If you're not interested in changing covers, then I'm not sure how you can entice readers to click on your thumbnail and read further? Others more experienced than me, might have some ideas?


----------



## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

AliceWE said:


> Ok I'm confused. Your books are selling, but at 2 a day? So you're selling approx 60 books a month? At the end of the day, if you're happy with sales, then this is a moot conversation and you don't need a Bookbub (or similar) promo.


Averaging 1.? per day over 16 books. But actually, over 5 for the last couple of months.

When I get to 30-50 a day, I'll start feeling happy with sales. But even that isn't enough to live on.



> With regard to reviews, they are a natural function of sales. I believe it takes something like 100 sales for 1 review. So if you need a minimum of 10 reviews to apply for Bookbub (or wherever) then you need at least 1,000 sales to have 10 organic reviews.


Exactly. You cant reach that number selling 1 a day. Not without reaching senility first.



> I would have thought covers are the easiest thing to change and see how that impacts sales (assuming you want to lift sales and see more organic reviews). Covers are your number 1 marketing tool, they convey your first impression. Readers and advertisers will judge your book on its cover in the first instance. You can tinker with the blurb and opening pages, but if nobody is clicking on your book because of the cover, it's kind of redundant work. You need to snag the reader first.


I've done the best I can with the skills I have, and the resources available. I went looking for prepaid images and found nothing that suited the books. I live on a pension, so the funds aren't there for paying for custom. Not yet, I'm trying to save for them.



> If you're not interested in changing covers, then I'm not sure how you can entice readers to click on your thumbnail and read further? Others more experienced than me, might have some ideas?


Its not a matter of not being interested. I found an artist who would do them justice. But at A$600 a throw, it isn't a happening thing. None of the other artists I've seen do anything I deem suitable. I keep looking, but I'm not holding my breathe waiting to find someone.


----------



## Guest (Jul 14, 2015)

You wrote This: The reviews are good. Just few of them.

You have to distinguish yourself from the hundreds of thousands of authors.

1) Cover you don't have the budget. What is your budget? There are designher who offer special rates for series, even for premades? Have you tried with them? What about goonwrite.com at $39 per cover. Emailed and asked for making 6 premades for you? He might.,

2) Reviews. Just few of them means you need more. What are you doing to get more?

*****

It has to be extraordinary effort to show your book is good.

It's very simple

Option 1: You are 100% sure your book is good and you don't know what to do next. In that case read the board, see the authors who have success and experience and learn.

Option 2: You are 100% sure your book is good and want some magic step. Unfortunately, there's no magic step.

That's actually why Bookbub has so much demand.

They put 1 single book in front of a list of a million readers in a genre.

So suddenly you get a magic step.

Now demand has grown so much that even with money you can't get the magic step. First you need to show yourself worthy of getting the magic shortcut.


----------



## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

ireaderreview said:


> You wrote This: The reviews are good. Just few of them.
> You have to distinguish yourself from the hundreds of thousands of authors.
> 1) Cover you don't have the budget. What is your budget? There are designher who offer special rates for series, even for premades? Have you tried with them? What about goonwrite.com at $39 per cover. Emailed and asked for making 6 premades for you? He might.,


Budget? Zip.

Had a look, nothing there that says 'this is my book cover place'.



> 2) Reviews. Just few of them means you need more. What are you doing to get more?


That is the question. Is there an answer?



> It has to be extraordinary effort to show your book is good.
> It's very simple
> Option 1: You are 100% sure your book is good and you don't know what to do next. In that case read the board, see the authors who have success and experience and learn.


BOOKBUB. Pretty well unanimous. Oh wait, I don't have a hope of attracting their attention.

Reminds me of that 'hole in the bucket' song, which goes round in a circle. You need a Bookbub in order to be worthy of getting a Bookbub.



> Option 2: You are 100% sure your book is good and want some magic step. Unfortunately, there's no magic step.
> That's actually why Bookbub has so much demand.
> They put 1 single book in front of a list of a million readers in a genre.
> So suddenly you get a magic step.
> Now demand has grown so much that even with money you can't get the magic step. First you need to show yourself worthy of getting the magic shortcut.


*bashes head against desk*

Just as well I don't drink alcohol. The whole thing is enough to make you want to just go get drunk. But I cant do that either, the hangover would put me in hospital.


----------



## lilywhite (Sep 25, 2010)

TimothyEllis said:


> You need a Bookbub in order to be worthy of getting a Bookbub.


But ... no. Because everyone who's ever had a BookBub, be it 1 or 50, had a first, had a time when they'd never been featured and BB chose them.

And let me add to that, with apologies to the lovely BB folks, whose thread this is after all, but: BookBub is not the end-all, be-all. I had VERY good results with a mix of ENT and a few smaller sites for my first big free promo in mid- to late-April, which netted me close to 4K free downloads, a next-day sales spike close to $200, and a really nice 2.5 week tail that gradually slid from about $50/day to $20/day. All of that for an investment of just under 50 bucks, of which ENT was the largest cost ($20).

I know what it's like to be tight on budget, but lots of promo sites are $10 or less.


----------

