BookBub and My Recent Featured Deal

I didn’t know about BookBub when I first published Hunted back in 2020. Honestly, I didn’t know about a lot of things back then, but I was determined to learn as much as I could about advertising and marketing. I’m still learning.

I joined a number of Facebook groups filled with authors, most much more experienced than I am. BookBub continually popped up in conversations. BookBub, and the mythical Featured Deal.

So, what is BookBub?

It’s a platform made specifically for books. Users can do a number of things:

• Rate and review books
• Add books they’d like to read to their wish list, which notifies them when the book goes on sale
• Sign up for personalized recommendations based on their genre preferences that features only books that are on sale (They send an email out every day. I love this feature mostly for traditionally published book sales; it’s nice to snag a $1.99 or $0.99 ebook for something that typically retails for $14+)
• Follow authors they enjoy, which will alert them when the author has a new release or something on sale.

But there’s a backend to BookBub for authors too. You can create a profile, then add your books and purchasing links. If you’re on BookBub as an author, I encourage you to add your books once you have them available for preorder. BookBub will send an email on your book’s release day at no cost, to all of your followers.

An author can also create ads, which will appear on those daily emails I mentioned above. But this post isn’t about the ads.

It’s about the Featured Deal, which you can apply for through the author (partner) dashboard.

Why is the Featured Deal so coveted?

Here’s where I jump back into my story. I’d heard so much about the Featured Deal and started to apply as soon as I learned about it, which was in January 2021. Based on the author groups I’d joined, I understood it was unlikely I’d be selected right away. I’ve even seen some people say it took them seven years. I was lucky; I didn’t have to wait that long.

Some background on the Featured Deal:

• You can apply with multiple books each month.
• There is a 30 day waiting period before you can apply again, whether you’re selected or not.
• The Featured Deal is not free. There is a fee, based on your genre and other factors. US Featured Deals cost a lot more than international. You can apply to both, but may not be selected for all that you apply for.
• Your book must be discounted during he Featured Deal period. They have several price options: $0.99, $1.99, and Free.
• Persistence pays off.

I started marking a date on my calendar every month (I arbitrarily chose the 4^th) in which to apply. I did so every month for Hunted beginning in January 2021. In February 2022, I began to apply with The Moon’s Eye as well.

Each time, I received a generic email stating my book hadn’t been selected, but please try again next month. It’s sometimes frustrating to go through a process over and over and not get anywhere, but as I mentioned above, persistence is your friend here.

I got an unexpected email on April 5 last month (which also happened to be my birthday, so double yay for me). The Moon’s Eye had been accepted for an international deal at the $0.99 price point! Once I had paid the fee, the book would be included in their email in the UK, Canada, and Australia. (They do check to ensure your book is discounted on all sites before sending the emails out, and made it very clear if the book was not discounted, they’d remove the listing and there would be no refund.)

I was so excited I shouted something that I probably shouldn’t repeat here, and scared my cat in the process. (She forgave me later.)

My hope was that I’d sell enough to cover the cost of the Featured Deal. That was a lot of copies, considering I was only going to make $0.32 per sale on Amazon. I wasn’t sure I’d make my money back. The other sales platforms have a better royalty rate for discount books, but Amazon is the biggest retailer. I assumed (correctly) the bulk of my sales would come from there.

Now, I know the usual convention among many authors is to stack other promos along with a BookBub Featured Deal, but scientist me wanted to see what the deal would do on its own, without any other variables to factor in. Too many variables will muddle the results.

I didn’t adjust my ongoing ads, but kept them running as usual. I mentioned the sale on social media a bit, and I did get a few sales that way (about 10), but I’ll be honest: I was not prepared to see the numbers that started appearing when my Featured Deal went live.

My Results:

This is the chart for my lifetime sales (of all books) since December 2021.

Some points:

• January 2022: The Moon’s Eye released. I did a ton of paid advertising on Facebook and Amazon while the book was on sale for $0.99. I thought it did pretty well for a first-in-series release.
• July 2022: The Talisman of Delucha (book 2) released. I had a blog tour for book one running at the same time.
• December 2022: War of the Nameless (book 3) released.
• April 2023: BookBub Featured deal for book 1.

So to break it down a bit further, 72% of those April sales were on Amazon. But I still sold an even 100 copies on other platforms during that time. There was an almost even split between Kobo and Apple, and a smaller amount on Google Play. The Barnes & Noble sales were for hardcovers, which were not on sale at the time.

I was anticipating sales from the later books in the series as time went on, but I didn’t expect people to buy the entire series up front. I had a number of whole series buys on the day the email went out. Since then, I’ve had a steady trickle of orders for books 2 and 3.

Overall, the BookBub Featued Deal was successful. I made my money back within 2 days, and came out of April with an additional $40 in royalties on top of that (I know for some authors that’s a tiny amount, but for me, it was a success). My main concern was laid to rest, and I’m convinced the Featured Deals are 100% worth applying for.

A couple bonuses came out of that weekend too: I was in the top 10 in multiple categories on Amazon on all 3 international marketplaces.

I didn’t quite snag that coveted orange banner, but I got a few screenshots along the way. Not sure I’ll ever see my book sitting beside Tolkien, Pratchett, or Sanderson again, so I’ll save those screenshots to remember the moment. It was an amazing weekend.

UK Store:

Australia Store: