# BookGorilla vs Bookbub ***UPDATE: Reporting back***



## Christine Kersey (Feb 13, 2011)

Have any of you advertised on BookGorilla? With it getting harder to get a spot on Bookbub, I'm looking for other effective advertising options that are similar to Bookbub, and BookGorilla seems a possible choice.

**Reporting back**

Yesterday (7/1/2013) I ran an ad on BookGorilla for one of my free books _Gone (Parallel Series Book 1)_. On the email I received it was item number 10. I'm not sure if it was the same for everyone who received the email. Before the promotion the rank was #479 of all free books. By the end of the day it was #85 of all free books. This morning it is #86 of all free books and I've had 2200 downloads in less than 24 hours. Nowhere near the success I've seen with Bookbub, but still respectable.

For those of you who have reported poor results with BookGorilla, it seems to me that free books have a little better success than paid books, which isn't surprising.

Now that it's getting harder to get a spot on Bookbub, I wonder what the Next Big Thing will be? Any ideas?


----------



## Colin Taber (Apr 4, 2011)

I don't think anything compares to Bookbub at the moment. It is relevant whether you're advertising free or a sale price. 

If you can't get on Bookbub, try and book other spots on rivals reasonably close together to snowball your result.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish (Feb 1, 2010)

The results I've seen compiled from BookGorilla are terrible, horrible, awful, pathetic, disgusting, and meh.

Sooo...I wouldn't recommend them, is what I'm saying.


----------



## Christine Kersey (Feb 13, 2011)

David 'Half-Orc' Dalglish said:


> The results I've seen compiled from BookGorilla are terrible, horrible, awful, pathetic, disgusting, and meh.
> 
> Sooo...I wouldn't recommend them, is what I'm saying.


That's bad news. I ran an ad on Bookbub for _He Loves Me Not_ (a permafree book) on June 1st and had great results, but they turned down running an ad for _Gone,_ my other permafree book, so I went ahead and signed up with BookGorilla for July 1st, which is when the sequel will be available. It was only $40.00, so I think it's worth the cost to see how it goes. I'll update this thread after it runs.


----------



## LG Castillo (Jun 28, 2012)

I haven't used BookGorilla, but I've used bookblast.co and sold over 100 books within 48 hours. Cost $20.


----------



## Guest (Jun 13, 2013)

I ran a premium ad on Bookgorilla (got listed and got a prime spot among the first novels on the list), and it pretty much tanked. I would have needed to sell 130something copies to break even. I sold forty-ish.


----------



## TexasGirl (Dec 21, 2011)

BookGorilla allows up to FIFTY books on each email.

Stupid horrid model.


----------



## Amanda Brice (Feb 16, 2011)

TexasGirl said:


> BookGorilla allows up to FIFTY books on each email.
> 
> Stupid horrid model.


AGREED. Which is why I don't think it will ever be very effective. And the user is allowed to choose how many books they want, which means that even though you're advertising, you might not end up in everyone's deal email, so what's the point of that?


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

David 'Half-Orc' Dalglish said:


> The results I've seen compiled from BookGorilla are terrible, horrible, awful, pathetic, disgusting, and meh.
> 
> Sooo...I wouldn't recommend them, is what I'm saying.


Is that really what you were saying? I would have sworn you were saying something else. 

And nice to see you around, David.

ETA: Seriously, I looked at BookGorilla and when I saw their model decided I wouldn't even try them. FIFTY books per email?


----------



## Tony Bertauski (May 18, 2012)

Tried Bookgorilla once. Almost no results.


----------



## Amanda Brice (Feb 16, 2011)

DDark said:


> I advertised through another site (I want to say it was KND?) and my book sale ended up on BookGorilla.


Makes sense, since BookGorilla is owned by KND.


----------



## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

David 'Half-Orc' Dalglish said:


> The results I've seen compiled from BookGorilla are terrible, horrible, awful, pathetic, disgusting, and meh.
> 
> Sooo...I wouldn't recommend them, is what I'm saying.


I've never seen results, but what worries me is that while they seem to mimic Bookbub's method, they don't let us know how many readers are signed up in each genre. In fact, I have yet to see how many readers are signed up at all.

That is the selling point for me with Bookbub. It's targeted to genres.


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

MaryMcDonald said:


> I've never seen results, but what worries me is that while they seem to mimic Bookbub's method, they don't let us know how many readers are signed up in each genre. In fact, I have yet to see how many readers are signed up at all.
> 
> That is the selling point for me with me. It's targeted to genres.


They do not really mimic Bookbub's method. Bookbub includes generally one book per genre per email, not fifty. That is a huge difference!


----------



## Amanda Brice (Feb 16, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> Bookbub includes generally one book per genre per email, not fifty.


Depends on the genre. YA has 2 books per day, Romance has 2-3, and Mystery has 2-3. But still, it's a BIG difference between that and the 50 that BookGorilla does.


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Amanda Brice said:


> Depends on the genre. YA has 2 books per day, Romance has 2-3, and Mystery has 2-3. But still, it's a BIG difference between that and the 50 that BookGorilla does.


That's why I said usually. I'm not sure how many they have in other genres and I'm not sure it's a rule, but in HF and fantasy, I normally only receive 1 per day. But today I received 2 each, so it's a very low number at any rate. Yes, a very big difference. I won't pay to be stuck in a list of 50 other books.


----------



## Amanda Brice (Feb 16, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> I won't pay to be stuck in a list of 50 other books.


Agreed.


----------



## Preach (May 13, 2013)

I hear book gorilla is no good. You won't catch me monkeying with them!


----------



## JB Rowley (Jan 29, 2012)

Preach said:


> I hear book gorilla is no good. You won't catch me monkeying with them!


Even though you can buy an ad for peanuts?


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

TexasGirl said:


> BookGorilla allows up to FIFTY books on each email.
> 
> Stupid horrid model.


This. You can't stand out from the crowd when the whole crowd is in the email with you.


----------



## JumpingShip (Jun 3, 2010)

JRTomlin said:


> They do not really mimic Bookbub's method. Bookbub includes generally one book per genre per email, not fifty. That is a huge difference!


That's true, but when you go to their website, it looks very, very similar and the emails look a lot alike too, except for BookGorilla has a lot more and they get lost. The way they are presented is similar.


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

JB Rowley said:


> Even though you can buy an ad for peanuts?


Peanuts is too much to pay for something that doesn't work.


----------



## Zoe Cannon (Sep 2, 2012)

I signed up for BookGorilla's emails, but there are so many books every day that it's overwhelming. Now I hardly ever open them. I bet it's the same for a lot of other readers.


----------



## Christine Kersey (Feb 13, 2011)

Zoe Cannon said:


> I signed up for BookGorilla's emails, but there are so many books every day that it's overwhelming. Now I hardly ever open them. I bet it's the same for a lot of other readers.


I just skim down the email list looking for free books, and if one sounds interesting, I'll get a copy.

Before I started this thread I paid $40.00 to run an ad for a free book (the first in a series) on July 1st. I'm going to keep it and see how it does. Though it sounds like it won't do nearly as well as a book advertised on Bookbub would do, it will be interesting to see how many downloads I get. I wonder if the results are a little different for a free book vs a paid book.


----------



## jimkukral (Oct 31, 2011)

Anyone tried Bookdaily?


----------



## olefish (Jan 24, 2012)

how about bookblast? they seem to the copying the bookbub model more faithfully. but they have smaller subscriber lists.


----------



## TexasGirl (Dec 21, 2011)

The last four people I talked to (including me) got 50-70 sales from BookBlast.


----------



## Amanda Brice (Feb 16, 2011)

I've only tried Bookblast once, during their first week (so the ad was free), but I wasn't impressed. I got 1 more sale than I got the day before, so I don't know whether anyone can attribute that one measly extra sale to them or something else. Totally within the margin of error.

Granted that was their opening week and I know they have built their subscriber list up much more since then, but I've stalked some of the books that advertise in those emails and they don't really seem to have any sort of sales spike whatsoever.


----------



## cblewgolf (Jan 3, 2011)

Good to know about Book Blast.  I thought they were only for Freebies.

I am a subscriber to Gorilla and I only get 12 offers/day.


----------



## dcdenison (Feb 21, 2011)

I just applied for a BookBub slot. I'll report on my results.

Also interested in BookGorilla.

(and seeing if I've figured out how to insert a book cover image, below)


----------



## adanlerma (Jan 16, 2012)

got to this thread via an article from Consuelo Saah Baehr about Bookbub,

http://thewritersguidetoepublishing.com/bookbub-and-consuelo-saah-baehr

really good to read this kind of feedback; though it'd be nice to "try" some of these, i've tried so many ads the last few years, when i had funds, that to do so now, when it's a bit tighter, is just not something i should try, but...

i like having the info, for later 

thanks so much, best wishes

ps - the comment thread on the article above is, i think, exceptionally good

disclaimer, i don't know consuelo, and have just learned about her via the article above, thanks ya'll


----------



## CarterAshby (May 1, 2013)

I had a pleasant experience with BookBlast a couple weeks ago. The ad got me 120 sales over 48 hours...up until then I was only getting a few sales a day. 

Of course yesterday, for absolutely no reason that I can conceive of, I sold over 200 copies in an 8 hour window. I have no idea what happened there, not that I'm not happy about it. (Theories would be appreciated...it was a heck of an anomaly)

I'm fighting with my purse strings to apply for a Bookbub ad. I'm just not confident it will pay off. Such a large chunk of change for me at this point.


----------



## TexasGirl (Dec 21, 2011)

Ereader News Today listed your special yesterday. That's why you got those sales. Did you not tell them about it?

http://ereadernewstoday.com/more-bargain-and-free-books-for-6-14-13/6730739/



CarterAshby said:


> I had a pleasant experience with BookBlast a couple weeks ago. The ad got me 120 sales over 48 hours...up until then I was only getting a few sales a day.
> 
> Of course yesterday, for absolutely no reason that I can conceive of, I sold over 200 copies in an 8 hour window. I have no idea what happened there, not that I'm not happy about it. (Theories would be appreciated...it was a heck of an anomaly)
> 
> I'm fighting with my purse strings to apply for a Bookbub ad. I'm just not confident it will pay off. Such a large chunk of change for me at this point.


----------



## jnfr (Mar 26, 2011)

Bookbub is really something special. I have a lot of books in my TBR virtual pile, and they send me a handful of recommendations a day, but I almost always see one or two that grab me. I sometimes resist picking something up, but they have a remarkable knack for targeting books in a genre and presenting them in such a way that I'm ready to jump.

Frankly, their emails way outshine the Kindle Dailies email from Amazon, which is a feat in itself.


----------



## CarterAshby (May 1, 2013)

TexasGirl said:


> Ereader News Today listed your special yesterday. That's why you got those sales. Did you not tell them about it?
> 
> http://ereadernewstoday.com/more-bargain-and-free-books-for-6-14-13/6730739/


Ha! That's awesome! No, I applied to them, but I hadn't heard back from them. That was several weeks back and I'd forgotten all about it. Figured no news meant a rejection. Thanks for seeing this! Guess I'll be looking for an invoice. Well worth it, obviously.


----------



## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

jnfr said:


> Bookbub is really something special. I have a lot of books in my TBR virtual pile, and they send me a handful of recommendations a day, but I almost always see one or two that grab me. I sometimes resist picking something up, but they have a remarkable knack for targeting books in a genre and presenting them in such a way that I'm ready to jump.
> 
> Frankly, their emails way outshine the Kindle Dailies email from Amazon, which is a feat in itself.


They are pretty amazing.


----------



## Christine Kersey (Feb 13, 2011)

bump


----------



## RM Prioleau (Mar 18, 2011)

Thanks for the update, Christine. I'm glad to see that BookGorilla is another alternative to Bookbub. Unfortunately, none of my books meet their minimum requirements, so I can't use them either...


----------



## ER Pierce (Jun 4, 2013)

interesting. I think I might try bookblast. Can't hurt. I might steer away from bookgorilla. That is a lot of books per email!


----------



## Michael Murray (Oct 31, 2011)

Just ran a promo with Gorilla. Sold about 100 extra books on a monday promo. It did nice things for my rankings - up to #8 in Action&Adventure , but only about 1/2 the sales boost I saw with ENT and Kindle Books & Tricks. 3x more expensive (I splurged on the starred book deal). ENT and KBT paid for themselves, but Gorilla didn't. 

Still, a decent rankings boost, though I watched other book on the same email and they didn't seem to improve as much as mine did, so I guess YMMV depending on genre, cover, blurb, etc.


----------



## Magda Alexander (Aug 13, 2011)

Alas, Bookblast wouldn't take my book. Too explicit for them.


----------



## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

How about BookBasset?

(ENT totally hates me, I'm sure   I was going to give them money to feature me and everything!)


----------



## Guest (Aug 20, 2013)

I did great on Bookblast and the book wasn't free. I think I kept it at $2.99. I'm sure I would have sold more with a lower price, but I made it into the top 25 in Horror/Paranormal. Well worth the money and they were very nice to boot.


----------



## Susan Kaye Quinn (Aug 8, 2011)

I'm kind of surprised no one has been able to successfully replicate Bookbub yet, to give them a little competition.


----------



## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

Susan Kaye Quinn said:


> I'm kind of surprised no one has been able to successfully replicate Bookbub yet, to give them a little competition.


If only I had more time! Or a clone or two! I'd love to try to do something like this. It would require some startup money for gatekeepers and list-building. It would be so exciting!


----------



## trublue (Jul 7, 2012)

I have a bookgorilla starred spot on the 24 th, I know it won't be bookbub but I'm running out of places to promo. I did bookbub (great results) book blast ( also good) and kindle fire. I can't complain I just want to increase the momentum and get to the next level. There are no other places so I'm going to take a chance with them. Will report back


----------



## Tony Bertauski (May 18, 2012)

Quiss said:


> How about BookBasset?
> 
> (ENT totally hates me, I'm sure  I was going to give them money to feature me and everything!)


Running a Book Basset tomorrow, Quiss. Will post results later this week. ENT and POI have ignored me, too. I did get ENT to carry a 0.99 sale a couple months ago and the results much less than Bookbub.


----------



## jvin248 (Jan 31, 2012)

Mimi said:


> If only I had more time! Or a clone or two! I'd love to try to do something like this. It would require some startup money for gatekeepers and list-building. It would be so exciting!


using http://www.trafficestimate.com/ monthly traffic analysis ... Interesting trends:

Amazon = 1200 million (for comparison)
goodreads = 35 million (also for comparison)
POI = 0.5 million (down from 1.5 million a year ago*)
ENT = 0.6 million (down from 1.2 million a year ago*)
Bookbub = 1.1 million

*about a year ago amazon forced changes at the freebie sites on the number of books they could use for affiliate rewards or lose their affiliate accounts. Which cut their traffic in half over a year.

... so it looks like goodreads still has a really large potential compared to the often used advertising platforms. Yes, it's dangerous for authors over there. Yes, it's fractured by genre and any book would not get that much traffic exposure.

Those that have used goodreads advertising .. what success have you had? what would you do differently? would you use goodreads again?


----------



## Wansit (Sep 27, 2012)

jvin248 said:


> ... so it looks like goodreads still has a really large potential compared to the often used advertising platforms. Yes, it's dangerous for authors over there. Yes, it's fractured by genre and any book would not get that much traffic exposure.
> 
> Those that have used goodreads advertising .. what success have you had? what would you do differently? would you use goodreads again?


IMHO the Goodreads self-ads are useless. They're small and in pretty weird places. I never give them a second glance. What you want is the Goodreads AD Box in the top right corner. Unfortunately there's a $5,000 minimum before GR will even consider you for a promo there. Which is why they're always booked for large publishers.


----------



## scottmarlowe (Apr 22, 2010)

I just booked a BookBlast ad in the Fantasy category for a couple of weeks from now. I'm pricing the book at 99 cents. For the price of the ad I figure it's worth giving BookBlast a try.

I'm still waiting to hear back from BookBub on an ad with them.


----------



## Maya Cross (May 28, 2012)

Mimi said:


> If only I had more time! Or a clone or two! I'd love to try to do something like this. It would require some startup money for gatekeepers and list-building. It would be so exciting!


I've been half heartedly entertaining the idea of trying to write some kind of business plan, just to explore a few concepts and work out if it is in any way worth the effort. I feel like there still has to be a bunch of huge holes in this market. The question is if its worth splitting time away from writing. I have an idea or two for growing a list, but I can't come up with any kind of better approach than bookbub for the actual service provided.

Perhaps we should throw our money into the clones thing instead!


----------



## ElHawk (Aug 13, 2012)

Susan Kaye Quinn said:


> I'm kind of surprised no one has been able to successfully replicate Bookbub yet, to give them a little competition.


Working on it...but only in historical fiction.


----------



## Russell Brooks (Dec 23, 2010)

I've read that BookGorilla is associated with KindleNationDaily. Curious, but has anyone had good to great results with KND lately?


----------

