So, yeah… BookBub. If you haven’t heard of them, then you’re more than likely not a self-published author. If you have, then you know that running an ad with them can often be a marketing and financial boon. I might have set the record for submitting my book (Multiples of Six by Andy Rane) to them… and getting rejected every time. Well, apparently, they just never wanted me to make money off of it. Every time I submitted, I would offer to lower the price of my novel to $0.99. I submitted to them well over 15 times, perhaps 20. Each and every time, I got the standard rejection letter. So, when my next opportunity came to submit, I broke down and submitted the book as a freebie. And now I’m in. My scheduled day is September 2nd.
Mind you, this isn’t the first time Multiples has been free. It’s just the first time in a very long time. You see, back in the day, when the KDP Select program was in its infancy, going free could be miraculous. My first free day was in February of 2012. I gave away 6700 copies in a single day (thanks to being picked up by Pixel of Ink and Ereader News Today). The next day, the book went back to being $2.99 and sold another 450 paid copies over the next month. It was awesome. A few months later, I ran another promo. This time, I gave away another 9000 copies, but the post-free bump was less than half of what it had been a few months before. Amazon had changed their algorithm. A free sale was no longer equivalent to a paid sale. I ran my last free promotion for that book during the summer of 2012. I gave away another 2500 copies, but saw no post-free bump at all.
I’ll admit, I really didn’t want to go free with that book again. But, now I’m looking forward to it. I only have one other book in that series and maybe it’ll help generate sales and reviews for both.
If you’re looking to promote your book, take a good look at the options. BookBub can be a tough nut to crack into, but the results are well documented. Be sure to check out some of the other sites listed above as well.
Have you had success with BookBub or other marketing sites? Tell us about it in the comments below!
S.A. Mulraney 
I’m currently running a free giveaway of my upcoming novel, Peace of Evon, on Goodreads.com in order to generate interest in the book. I’m offering 24 copies, and, so far, nearly 200 people have signed up for the giveaway. According to Goodreads, the average giveaway receives over 800 requests (more if you run an ad along with it). Also, about 100 people have now added the book to their to-read shelf.
You can take a look at my book’s giveaway at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22858829-peace-of-evon.
I think I’ll keep BookBub in mind for after the book is published.
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I have a Goodreads giveaway going as well, for my suspense/thriller. I’ve had success with that in the past, though I don’t necessarily think that adds necessarily turn into sales. Adds do tend to peak at the beginning and the end of the giveaway, as they are listed as “New” or “Ending Soon.” Good luck! 🙂
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Yeah, I figured that adds peak at those points. That’s why I’m planning to start an ad for it next week, even if it’s just a small thing.
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