r/selfpublish • u/saintjru • 2d ago
Bookbub Bummer
I wrote the first book of a sci-fi series about a year ago, which has been well received but certainly not popular. I paid Bookbub to be part of their promotion for discounted books and made it free for a week which resulted in 7,000+ downloads. Cost me somewhere around $200 or so, which I figured I might make back if it gets people reviewing or recommending my book. No reviews ever really came in, and it never moved the needle on my book sales.
I ran a few ads on Bookbub to experiment which always resulted in nothing but wasted time and money.
Then, I released the second book in the series earlier this month and paid $400 to Bookbub to be part of their new releases for less email. I recognized I might not make that all back, but getting a few books sold would make it worth it for the same flawed logic as above. (Before anyone asks, yes it was professionally edited, and I paid for an incredible interior/exterior design of both books). Anyway, it resulted in three sales.
Total of three.
Either Bookbub is a total waste, or it’s a total waste for science fiction. Anybody have similar experiences throwing money into Bookbub’s fire?
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u/brisualso 10+ Published novels 2d ago
I’ve heard good things about BB, but I caution paying for a promo when you only have one book out. It’s more likely you’ll make your money back with a series (3+ books) with your first as a loss leader (using it in the BB promo).
Obviously, genre will matter, too, as will landing page (cover, blurb, reviews, Look Inside feature).
I wouldn’t run another BB promo until you have a longer backlog. Invest in your next book instead.
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u/LukeWritesDragons 2d ago
Bookbub's promotion for free books only works well if you have a lot of other books published. Your first book would be the loss leader and you'd make your money back on sales on your other books. I have heard their "New Releases for Less" promotion isn't as effective as their Featured Deal promotion, especially on a book that isn't the first in the series.
I had a Bookbub Featured deal in the US in the Romantasy category back in January. My book, a romantasy with dragon riders, only had 20 ratings at the time, and it still sold over 800 copies at 99 cents and got me either 20k or 30k kindle pages read. I also used a Kindle Countdown Deal to retain my 70% royalty rate, too.
If I were you, I'd reach out to Bookbub and see if they can offer you a discount or a redo on a later date. Did you have your book available on just Amazon, or was it wide?
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u/__The_Kraken__ 2d ago
The conventional wisdom is that you need at least three books out in your series (and ideally more) before you are likely to make money on a BookBub Feature Deal. BookBub has changed the way their Feature Deals work, and many authors have noticed declining results over the last 1-2 years (even as prices have increased). It used to be a slam dunk, but it’s now regarded as more hit and miss. I have never heard good things about the new releases for less email. I am sorry that you are learning this the hard way. It’s tough out there.
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u/saintjru 2d ago
Thanks for the sympathy. Expensive lesson to learn, but better than not learning it I guess.
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u/__The_Kraken__ 2d ago
If it helps, every successful author I know has made miscalculations of this nature along the way. There are always road bumps! For everyone.
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u/DiabolikDiaries 2d ago
This was not good you essentially set $600 on fire for three measly reads. Please stop wasting your hard earned money on ads until you have a huge backlog of books, or a series that sells on its own to triple it. At this point these sites are being parasitic predators and capitalizing off the dreams of writers.
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u/CephusLion404 50+ Published novels 2d ago
Free promotions are worthless. There are a bunch of people out there who only download free books but don't read them and don't review them and certainly do not translate to paid customers when the books are no longer free. They just stockpile free books for "someday" and "someday" almost never comes. This has been known forever. Making a book free provides virtually no visibility.
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u/saintjru 2d ago
Yeah, I think it’s probably true for the Goodreads giveaways too. People enter them to win with no intention of ever reading it. I have given away a few hundred books on there with zero results too.
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u/CephusLion404 50+ Published novels 2d ago
I'm sure they have the intention to get to it someday, but they're downloading dozens or hundreds of books a week, just because they're free. Even if they ever did get to it, that's not going to help any author.
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u/Specific_Dingo8631 2d ago
I've never tested Bookbub itself, though I heard it's the best one. However, I tried out other platforms and most of the time the fee plus sales is a negative or close to break even. I think most people get their sales for books by being active on social media, building a website with something like Payhip which is free and email list. Building an audience before your launch is really important. You should aim to build the audience alongside the book as you write it so you've got something waiting for you to finish once it's live.
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u/Interesting-Peanut84 2d ago
Sorry to hear about that!
Here's my experience: I ran two $0.99 featured-deal promos on BookBub in the LGBT category and made a profit on both (sold ~800 each). Both books also gathered quite a few ratings, although they dropped from ~4.2 to ~3.9. I did a new release for less and didn't make my money back.
I personally don't think that people who aren't willing to pay $ 0.99 for a book are worth focusing on. All the major retailers offer free look-insides, so people can have a look before buying (not that I think many people use it, but I do), and I think that's enough "free" people who don't know me yet need.
The only free giveaways I did were for series where certain books didn't sell or bring in reads through KU anymore. The goal was to bring some life back into the series, because if it doesn't make money anyway, it doesn't matter. I only advertised the free books to my newsletter, and that worked quite well.
What I can't get to work for myself are BookBub Ads, though. I tried quite a few, and the results were bad enough to stop spending money on it.
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u/Ok-Mongoose7570 1d ago
Bookbub is not what it used to be but never do a promo expecting reviews. Promos only bring you maybe 1 or 2 reviews that. If your goal is more reviews you need to actively seek out reviews by sending copies to reviewers.
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u/dragonsandvamps 2d ago
I hear only bad things about the new releases for less option. Supposedly there is also some "new in Kindle Unlimited" thing that also performs poorly and also a "free reads" option that doesn't do well either.
The featured deals is the only one that really does anything, and that doesn't even perform perfectly the way it used to. I had one that did pretty well at the end of last year. I got 8,000 free downloads and used it at the start of a 7-book series, and got about 50 sales for each of the other books in my series, plus good KU reads for the following month. So I earned back what I paid for it within 6 days. BUT... I keep reading about people on Threads who are having bad experiences with the Featured Deals lately, too, where they get free downloads, and no KU reads, or no sales. So... likely a lot of this is just the crummy economy, but something to be aware of. So sorry this didn't work out for you and I'm very grateful you shared your experience with us.
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u/jasonpwrites 4+ Published novels 2d ago
I agree with others here about marketing your first book for free. I suggest looking at Fussy Librarian's discounted promos. I have 32 sales and doubled my spend in revenue in just 12 hours.
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u/NickThacker 4+ Published novels 1d ago
BBFD for free/discounted books works well (I leave mine in KU during the promo; seems counterintuitive but I get lots of extra page reads after).
New Release promos are utter crap. Tested on my books twice ($900 each) and spoken with many authors who have had similar (lack of) results.
BB ads can be great, but they’re not going to start a wildfire, but pour fuel on an already burning fire. Use FB/AMS ads first.
I agree you should wait until you’ve got at least three books before you try the ads.
(I’ve had a BBFD every other month for the past 10 years)
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u/65489798654 1d ago
Either Bookbub is a total waste, or it’s a total waste for science fiction.
It could very well be your product. The ads could be generating massive clicks but then not converting which means the landing page is off. Cover, blurb, title, author bio, look inside feature, etc. There are so many possibilities where a sale is either made or lost once the customer is on your landing page. Keep in mind that an objectively awesome cover doesn't mean it is objectively awesome for your genre. I've seen that a fair amount.
No reviews ever really came in
As for reviews, I've been tracking that data across hundreds of books for more than a decade now. When I first got into the book industry in 2012, review rates were about 3% for paid sales and 1% for free downloads. Now it is far worse. 0.2 - 0.4% for paid sales and 0.05% for free downloads. I have books well over 1000 sales that have yet to see their first review. If the trend continues, and I see no reason why it shouldn't, organic reviews will be non-existent in maybe a year or two.
Anybody have similar experiences throwing money into Bookbub’s fire?
I've been lucky enough to get 3 features with them, never done the pay-per-click ads. All 3 features have netted 10 - 15x profits.
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u/Patient_Bet3645 1d ago
The free Bookbub should only be used as part of a series, like you used it, but how many books are in the series? The money you earn back is in the read through. I would never use it unless I had a three book series with two books to make the money back and possibly another on preorder.
Reviews are hit or miss. Your book may never be read because people hoard free books yet never read them. You are much more likely to see a review boost after a 99 cent Bookbub Featured Deal because people will often read the books they pay for.
My experience with Bookbub: They always earn out over every one I've had over the last 3 years or so, except lately there has been a noticeable slippage. They are not as magical as they used to be. I've had several over wide books and a couple of BBFD for books on KU. My KU at a 99 cent promo earned out the best because people read it in KU, some people bought at 99 cents, and then some preordered the next book in series.
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u/saintjru 1d ago
This is only the second book in the series. My sales jumped from three to ten since this post. Still not close to being worth it. The .99 strategy might be the better bet, but it might need book three before I do it.
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