Diary of a lesbian BookBub feature
Oh, BookBub, that giant of literary promotion. People submit dozens of times, only to get rejected over and over again, and, yet, they keep trying.
My BookBub submission was accepted on the first try. I was initially hesitant about submitting at all to what I’d heard other writers call the “holy grail of book promotion.” I write lesbian erotic romance. BookBub has an LGBT category, but not a specific lesbian category. Those who are interested in G romance aren’t necessarily interested in L romance. There are more G romance fans than L fans. I was skeptical it would be worth my time and money, but I’ve tried all sorts of things to promote my writing. This was something everyone else said would work, so I thought I’d give it a go.
On May 6, I submitted a deal for my Lesbian Light Reads 1–6 Boxed Set. I proposed discounting it from $9.99 to $0.99 and offered to do so globally on all platforms. I said I was flexible about the date. On May 10 I received my acceptance email offering me Sunday, June 11 and asking for a payment of $180 ($140 for the U.S.; $40 for the rest of the world). I paid it and said I would keep the book at 99 cents until at least June 14.
On May 31, I submitted the price changes to Amazon and Smashwords. I’d read that I should give it about a week for the price changes to wend their way through Smashwords to various vendors. I wanted a few days cushion to make sure everything went though on time. I kept the individual volumes at their original prices of $0.99 to $2.99 per ebook. BookBub wrote the blurb (and did a very good job.)
The iTunes, Nook, and Kobo price changes went through on June 1. Amazon also changed the price on June 1.
Lesson learned: Don’t change your price too early. Smashwords moves price changes through their system much faster than in the past.
Interesting: Having volumes 1–6 of the Lesbian Light Reads series in a boxed set for 99 cents did not negatively impact the sales of individual volumes that were full price. Those sales remained steady.
Saturday, June 10 I turn off Amazon ads. I do no other promotion for the 99 cents sale. I really want to see what BookBub can do.
Sunday, June 11 I wake up at 5am (for an unrelated work thing) my deal is not on the website. I panic.
8:17 am. Deal is on website. I sell one copy on Amazon.com.
9:02 am. Deal alert email is sent out.
9:22 am. I have sold 80 copies on the various Amazon platforms.
9:29 am. 92 copies.
9:48 am. 113 copies.
10:16 am. 164 copies.
10:58 am. 204 copies.
11:59 am. 243 copies.
12:26 pm. 265 copies. Of these 161 are in the U.S. 81 are in the U.K. 1 is in India. 21 are in Canada. 1 is in Australia.
3:02 pm. 346 copies. I have the #1 lesbian book in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia. I sell 2 copies on Nook, via Smashwords.
6:54 pm. 441 copies on the various Amazon platforms. Of these 279 are in the U.S. 133 are in the U.K. 1 is in India. 27 are in Canada. 1 is in Australia. The book is ranked in the top 1000 of all books on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. It’s in the top 100 in Amazon.ca. I sell 10 copies on Nook, through Smashwords. No sales have been reported by Kobo, via Smashwords, but the book is now ranked 7 in LGBT and 91 in contemporary romance. I suspect there may have been some sales there.
9:14 pm. 462 copies sold on Amazon. Of these 300 are in the U.S. 133 are in the U.K. 1 is in India. 27 are in Canada. 1 is in Australia. 17 copies are sold on Nook, via Smashwords. I am very close to the break even point for the cost of the BookBub feature. Interesting, sales and pages read (KU) of my other books are like any other Sunday, neither higher or lower. I don’t acquire any new Twitter, Facebook or BookBub followers or any new newsletter subscribers. Unsurprisingly, there is no impact on print sales. Goodnight.
Monday, June 12 I wake up at 6am. A total of 502 copies are recorded as sold on the various Amazon platforms on June 11. 47 copies have sold today. I am now making a profit. I still have the #1 book in lesbian fiction and lesbian romance on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, and Amazon.com.au. Amazon.in doesn’t appear to have a lesbian category. Smashwords reports 23 copies sold on Nook on June 11. No other sales data yet available from Smashwords.
12:15 pm. 79 copies of the boxed set sold on the various Amazon platforms, including 26 on Amazon.com, 20 on Amazon.co.uk, 1 on Amazon.in, 26 on Amazon.com.au and 6 on Amazon.ca. KU page reads jump from an average of 50–100 a day to 527. Smashwords posts numbers from other retailers for June 11. I sold 22 on Kobo and 74 on iBooks in addition to the 23 on Nook.
9:26 pm. 113 copies of the boxed set sold on the various Amazon platforms including 47 on Amazon.com, 31 on Amazon.co.uk, 1 on Amazon.in, 26 on Amazon.com.au and 8 on Amazon.ca. 1,011 KU pages read of my other books. 4 books sold on Nook through Smashwords. Goodnight.
Tuesday, June 13. 6:18 am. Good morning. 119 copies in total sold on the various Amazon platforms on June 12. 5 copies already sold today. 280 KU pages read of my other books. One paperback copy sold at full price. No sales for today yet reported on Smashwords. No sales on top of the 4 for Nook from yesterday from Smashwords. I get 3 new newsletter subscribers. Before BookBub, waking up to these numbers would be the beginning of a very good day. Now, I’m like, aw, it’s almost over. Bookbub promo ends Wednesday June 14. The boxed set slips to the #2 lesbian fiction and lesbian romance book on Amazon’s platforms.
2:13pm. 16 copies sold on Amazon, including 7 on Amazon.com, 5 on Amazon.co.uk, 2 on Amazon.com.au and 2 on Amazon.ca. 309 KU pages read of my other books that are in that program. Smashwords reports that, in addition to the four copies sold on Nook on June 12, there were also 13 sold on Kobo and 27 sold on Ibooks. 1 book reported sold on Nook for June 13. One more email newsletter subscriber. No new Twitter, Facebook or BookBub followers.
8:37 pm. 23 copies sold on Amazon, including 9 on Amazon.com, 10 on Amazon.co.uk, 2 on Amazon.com.au, and 2 on Amazon.ca. 373 pages read of other books. No additional sales on Smashwords. Last day of the BookBub promo is tomorrow. Goodnight.
June 14, 6:21 pm. 27 copies sold on Amazon yesterday. 2 sold so far today. On our first day when I had the massive spike in sales and then the fabulous second day, I wondered if I should have set the feature for longer than 4 days. It appears 4 days is about the right amount of time. 38 KU pages read of my other books. Smashwords reports that 2 books were sold on Nook yesterday. No other data available.
9:05pm. 16 copies sold on the various Amazon platforms. Still at 38 KU pages read. In addition to the 2 books on Nook yesterday, Smashwords also reports 5 sold on Kobo and 8 sold on iBooks. 1 book sold on Nook today. Goodnight.
June 15, 6:45am. 17 copies sold yesterday on various Amazon platforms, and 235 KU pages read. 3 boxed sets sold on Amazon. 7 KU pages read. No additional sales reported on Smashwords. Because I originally said the Boxed Set would only be on sale until June 14, it is no longer listed on the BookBub website. Apparently it is possible to have your BookBub run longer. Unsure about the benefit. May try that next time.
June 16, 6:15 am. 8 copies of the boxed set sold yesterday on various Amazon platforms. No copies sold yet today. 1 copy sold on Nook yesterday, according to Smashwords. Additional sales on June 14 noted by Smashwords include 1 copy sold on Nook, 1 on Kobo and 6 on iBooks. Wow, the Bookbub ride was fun while it lasted.
9:45 am. I sell 2 boxed sets on Amazon. I receive an email from Smashwords telling me that the Lesbian Light Reads, Volumes 1–6, Boxed Set made the Smashwords hot list. This means it will be highlighted in their weekly email to the merchandising managers of various vendors. The note also said to alert Smashwords in advance of any BookBub promotions. Whoops. I had no idea. I’ll remember to do that next time here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdjijKtShG8vuOrva1AR18ybRnWkabcNz7rUc9gHurIhTbtEQ/viewform
7:39 pm. I change the prices back on Amazon and Smashwords. I turn the Amazon ads back on. Today I sold 7 boxed sets on the various Amazon platoforms. No sales yet report today for Smashwords, but yesterday there was 1 sale on Nook, 1 sale on iBooks and 2 sales on Kobo. I can’t wait until I can do a BookBub promo again.
Elizabeth Andre writes lesbian romance, science fiction, and paranormal adventure. She is a lesbian in an interracial same-sex marriage living in the Midwest. She hopes you enjoy her stories. She certainly loves writing them. If you would like to support her work, become a member of her Patreon or subscribe to her email newsletter.
