BookBub

If I Knew Then What I Know Now

July 10, 2018 By Keith Cronin 28 Comments

past meets present — The author before and after learning how to use a semicolon

I get approached from time to time by aspiring new writers, asking for advice on how to get started. The longer I’ve been doing this, the harder it gets to answer them. At this point I’ve been in the game nearly 20 years, so how do I condense what I’ve learned into a quick conversation or a brief email? And what if they are interested in a completely different type of writing than the kind that has made me as rich and famous as I currently am? (Hmmm – now that I think about it, that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. But I digress…)

So how to advise them? Do I lecture them on the ever-changing industry? Warn them of the dangers of reading the works of Clive Cussler? Or simply hand them a dog-eared copy of The Elements of Style and turn around and run? Depending on who asks, it’s hard to determine which advice would be the most useful.

When in doubt, fire up the time machine!

I’ve been binge-watching the old Stargate SG-1 TV series recently, and several of the stories focus on time travel, a concept that has always fascinated me. In a couple of episodes, the main characters manage to pass messages to versions of themselves who are living in a different time.

This got me to thinking: what kind of messages would Current-Day Keith send to Past Keith?

After considering obvious nuggets like “buy stock in Amazon” and “don’t enroll in Trump University,” I started thinking about what I would tell Keith The Writer From The Past (or, KTWFTP). Since SG-1 episodes usually incorporate a ticking clock or some other increasingly urgent complications, I decided to ramp up the pressure, and limit myself to five pieces of advice. Here’s what I came up with to share with the younger (and yes, hairier) Keith.

1. Know your genre – and its conventions.
Probably the biggest – and hardest – lesson I’ve learned as a writer is that genre matters. Historically the genre of a book just wasn’t something I thought or cared about – as a reader or as a writer. But after writing one hard-to-categorize manuscript after another, the first message I would pass on to KTWFTP is to pick a damn genre already. It will make things SO much simpler.

Why? Genre simplifies things by setting expectations. It helps an agent sell your book. It helps a publisher market your book. It helps a reader choose your book.

And if you’re self-publishing, it helps YOU market your book, which is utterly crucial. In an era when anybody can publish anything, you need a way to make your book stand out to your potential readers. [Read more…]

The Writer Unboxed / BookBub Interview, Pt 2

September 18, 2015 By Therese Walsh

If you missed Part 1 of my interview with BookBub’s Industry Marketing Manager–or if you have no idea what BookBub is–click HERE, then come back. Today I’ll wrap my two-part interview with BookBub’s Diana Urban.

But first… Something unexpected and fortuitous happened on the way to seeing this interview published. My publisher, Crown, decided to run a BookBub on my second novel, The Moon Sisters, and initiated a temporary price drop. That BookBub goes live today, so I orchestrated things here at WU so this post could go live today, too.

‘Show don’t tell,’ right?

Below is a screen capture of stats for The Moon Sisters on Amazon, taken on 9/17, the day before the BookBub. Just so you have all of the facts, my Amazon rank before the e-book was put on sale on 9/13 was 240,000. It dropped to about 6,000 after the sale began and I ran a BookSends promotion. I’ve also promoted over social media, but nothing too extravagant or repetitive.

This is where things stood on Barnes and Noble as of 9/17:

This is the second time Random House has run a BookBub for The Moon Sisters. The first time was very succesful–the eBook reached #10 in Nook books at Barnes and Noble, and #1 in the Mothers and Children fiction category on Amazon and #116 overall. If you’d like to follow along today, you’ll see for yourself what happens to a book’s numbers on the day of a BookBub; you can watch The Moon Sisters’ pages at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. BookBub’s daily email usually lands around 10-10:30 EST, and the effect is not immediate but, well, you’ll know it when you see it.

Numbers update (9/19), for interested followers:
Within 24 hours of the BookBub for The Moon Sisters, the book reached #61 in Kindle books on Amazon (an increase of over 22,000%). It was again #1 in the Mother’s and Children fiction category, #3 in Psychological Thrillers, #3 in Coming of Age fiction, and #5 in Family Life fiction. It reached #13 at Barnes & Noble in Nook books, #13 in Kobo, and #49 in iBooks.

Without further ado, the second part of my interview with Diana Urban. Enjoy!

The Writer Unboxed / BookBub Interview, Pt 2

TW – Q16: In terms of author sales following a BookBub, is there a point where a given book, series, or author starts to experience diminishing returns with BookBub promos, and if so how can that be avoided?

BB: Each genre has anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions of subscribers. Books sent to these massive and highly engaged lists typically experience a significant spike in downloads and revenue within the span of a few days. This often leads to increased retailer rankings, better performance in recommendation algorithms, and even hits on major bestseller lists like The New York Times or USA Today. This increased visibility usually gives rise to even more downloads from readers who find the title through these other outlets. These extra sales beyond those generated by BookBub subscribers are what we call the “halo effect.”

Independent author Cheryl Kaye Tardiff is a great example of this. Here is a graph showing book sales of her thriller Submerged before and after her promotion. Her BookBub Featured Deal launched Submerged to Amazon’s Top 100 overall bestseller list, and her promotion had lasting effects after the promotion ended, instead of flatlining like before the promotion.

TW – Q17: Does a successful prior BookBub experience make it more likely an author will be promoted again? Conversely, does a less successful promo make it more likely the author won’t be picked up again?

BB: Yes, editors do look at past performance when considering a book that has run as a Featured Deal before. While authors and publishers may look at ROI, profit, unit sales, bestseller status, or any number of other metrics to evaluate the performance of their own promotions, we look primarily at each book’s results as they compare to other books in their respective categories. This helps us determine if a book was more or less appealing to our readers than other books in that category. If a title underperformed last time it was featured compared to other books in the category, it is less likely to be selected for another Featured Deal, and vice versa if it overperformed!

TW – Q18: What makes for a successful promo? Can you provide numbers, as an example? What is a good click-through? What is a disappointing click-through?

BB: We aim to ensure the majority of our partners achieve a positive return on investment (ROI) through their BookBub promotions. Aside from your profit, ROI is a great indicator of your campaign’s success. ROI is expressed as a percentage; it’s your profit minus the cost of your BookBub campaign, divided by the cost of your BookBub campaign — the higher your ROI percentage, the better your campaign performed.

In terms of the numbers, you can see the average number of downloads and sales in each category on our pricing page, so you can compare your individual results to these.

TW – Q19: Let’s say an author has been chosen to do a BookBub. What can s/he do to prepare for sales day, to maximize the success of the BookBub? [Read more…]

The Writer Unboxed / BookBub Interview, Pt 1

September 10, 2015 By Therese Walsh

Whether you know what BookBub is or you don’t, whether you have a book for sale now or are still working on a draft, whether you’re independently or traditionally published, you’re going to want to read this Q&A. First, for anyone who doesn’t know what BookBub is about, BookBub is a company that promotes quality e-books with temporarily–and drastically–slashed prices, via a daily newsletter and web updates. They are good at what they do. Very, very good. In a world where we as authors can’t be sure what will or what will not sell books, this seems one sure thing: A BookBub promotion means sales and lots of them.

How to use BookBub is something that stymies many authors I know, though, so when I noticed BookBub’s star presence at this year’s Book Expo America, I approached. That’s when I met Diana Urban, BookBub’s Industry Marketing Manager. I told her my publisher, Random House, had run a BookBub for my second novel, The Moon Sisters, which went exceptionally well. (As I revealed in an essay for BookCountry, sales for the eBook of The Moon Sisters had never really taken off. But the day after my BookBub, the eBook of The Moon Sisters was ranked #10 in Nook books at Barnes and Noble, and #1 in the Mothers and Children fiction category on Amazon.) We chatted for a bit, and then I asked if she’d be interested in doing an interview with me for Writer Unboxed. Happily, she agreed.

[pullquote]Bio Box: Who is Diana Urban? Diana is the Industry Marketing Manager at BookBub, where she regularly publishes content on book marketing, self-publishing tips, and publishing insights at the BookBub Partners Blog. She was previously the Head of Conversion Marketing at HubSpot and is an expert in inbound marketing, content marketing, and lead generation. Diana is also the author of two Young Adult thrillers, and is writing her third novel. Follow her on Twitter at @DianaUrban.[/pullquote]

I recently asked the Writer Unboxed community–mostly through our Facebook group–to chime in with any questions they had about BookBub, and many of those questions are reflected here. So let’s get to it–part 1 of a two-part interview.

The Writer Unboxed / BookBub Interview, Pt 1

TW – Q1: It’s the prevailing opinion that BookBub is unique among a pool of book-promotion services, in that it seems to move the needle in a much more significant way and have a lasting sales impact on the books that are promoted. Why do you think that’s the case?

BB: One of our core goals has always been to provide authors and publishers with a way to run book marketing campaigns that drive real, measurable results. We’re a data-driven company, so every decision we make — from the categories we launch to the new members we acquire — is based on the results of rigorous testing and analysis, which helps us ensure that BookBub continues to be effective at moving the needle for our partners.

BookBub is also unique in that we’re providing curated recommendations to millions of loyal power readers who have specifically opted into genres they’re interested in reading. Our partners can therefore run targeted marketing campaigns while still reaching a high volume of interested readers. Those readers often become avid fans of authors they discover through BookBub. In fact, 77% of them are willing to buy other full-price books by an author they like, and 65% of them tell their friends about books they discover via BookBub. These highly engaged readers lead to the “lasting sales impact” you’re talking about after running a Featured Deal with us.

TW – Q2: How did BookBub come to be? Was it originally put into action to help indie authors gain visibility?

BB: Our co-founders, Josh Schanker and Nick Ciarelli, came from outside the publishing industry with backgrounds in internet entrepreneurship and digital media. They were exposed to publishing for the first time when a friend asked them to help her think about how to get ebooks from unknown authors discovered. While they knew publishers and authors were finding it difficult to get new readers’ attention, they also realized readers were having trouble sifting through all the books to discover great titles matching their interests. So they came up with the idea of giving away free and deeply-discounted ebooks to gain exposure and a fanbase.

However, they had trouble finding effective ways to advertise these promotions, so they decided to test building their own email list. Readers loved the idea of a regular email featuring flash sales on ebooks, but Josh and Nick soon realized that the service would work best if it featured titles from all publishers and authors. So they decided to run with it as a standalone business, and BookBub was born.

It wasn’t until the rise of ebooks and the evolution of self-publishing that publishers and authors began to shift resources from marketing to retailers to direct-to-consumer marketing. This created a need for marketing channels used by other industries that didn’t exist in publishing yet. BookBub allows publishers and authors to run effective direct-to-consumer marketing campaigns by reaching a highly targeted audience interested in the content offered.

TW – Q3: How many applications do you receive for BookBub promotions, and how many are you able to accept?

BB: We get 100–300 submissions per day right now, and that number continues to grow. Only about 10%–15% of those submissions will be chosen as a Featured Deal.

TW – Q4: How many subscribers do you have, and does your service continue to grow?

BB: As of September 2015, we have more than 6.5 million happy members, and we’re growing rapidly!

TW – Q5: What helps with your decision-making process?

BB: When a book is submitted to BookBub, it goes through a pretty rigorous review process! First, our editorial team evaluates whether it meets our minimum requirements. Any title that doesn’t meet these requirements is automatically disqualified and does not receive further review.

If the book does meet these requirements, our editors assess its quality. They can’t read every title that gets submitted, so instead they review all the information available to a reader when making a purchasing decision. This includes reader reviews, critical reviews, author accolades, cover design, book samples, and formatting.

Next, our editors look at a book’s content fit. We constantly gather data about the content that performs best in each category, and our readers’ tastes change over time. Our editors carefully monitor the trends in each category — what plotlines, subgenres, etc. our readers are responding well to at any given time — and base their selections on what our readers in each genre are interested in receiving.

All else being equal in terms of quality and content fit, our editors will prioritize based on things like the availability of a book on retailers and in regions (the more the better!), the number of reviews it has, the competitiveness of the deal price, or the author’s accolades. Also keep in mind that the selection of a book really does depend on the other books being submitted alongside it in any given week.

You can read this article about our selection process for an even more in-depth explanation on our decision-making process.

TW – Q6: Is it true that a book requires a certain number of reviews — or a certain star ranking — to be chosen for a BookBub promotion? [Read more…]

14+