If only I could have a BookBub every week…I could have a free lunch. It’s been seven hours and eight days since the International Feature promo ran in UK, Canada, Australia and India, and I’m still getting $10-15 of sales and reads per day. It has long since earned the $38 fee and even covered the $50 I wasted on running a simultaneous BookBub ad (don’t do those, but more on that later).
Here is the pretty graph:
While I’m very happy with the result, the number of free downloads is less than it was the first time around. Last year I got 5,094 downloads in the first three days, and this time it was 3,501 over the same time. Unfortunately, I did not include in the last year’s post the buy through, or basically what I sold as a result. Not to make the same mistake, here are the results over the last 8 days:
- Shizzle, Inc: 9 copies sold at $2.99 and just under 8,000 KENP. Approximate return of $58.
- Indiot: 2 copies sold at $2.99 and 2,900 KENP. Approximate return of $18.50.
I have also ran the BookBub ad for full-priced Indiot, spent $50 and sold 9 additional copies, at a loss of $32. So after all of that and $38 for the BookBub, I have made a total of $6.50! In the black, baby!
I could still make more, if KENP continues to move along. With the last BookBub I was wide, which did not pay, since I got hardly any sales through Smashwords. I also did not get to enjoy the sustained spike in KENP, as you can see above. I’m continuing to run an AMS (Amazon Marketing Services) ad and so some of KENP could be due to that, but the ad has been running for several months, and there were hardly any pages read before, an equivalent of maybe a copy per week. That’s one problem with AMS – you can’t tell when your ad and click results in a borrow.
I do have a theory – the book was $0.99 during the last few months and maybe, just maybe, not deemed “worthy” by KU owners. Now that it’s $2.99, maybe it looks like a better value to borrow on a KU plan? The only way to confirm that would be to check the stats a month from now, when there’s no chance that any sales or borrows are generated by the BookBub afterglow.
I have promised to write a post about AMS and will do so next – I’m on annual leave right now but not going anywhere, only painting walls and canvasses. Writers need hobbies too.
Ana Spoke, author 
Hi Ana – can you tell me what package on bookbub you bought? I have a promo on 5/5 – 5/11 that i might want to try out on book bub!
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Hi Tom, unfortunately with BookBub you don’t get to choose – you apply and pray they accept you. If you already have the promo scheduled, apply ASAP. It’s better to apply first and then schedule the promo around BookBub availability (apply with a “flexible” date option). I never got the US mailing list, the result would have been 10 times better. I will post about AMS next, that’s available to everyone.
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Yeah – i knew that and have tried a few times without luck. I saw you had noted a package you had paid $32 for and thought maybe that was a different thing than I was familiar with. I’ll keep trying!
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Ah, ok. I have paid $38 for International Feature in humor category. One piece of advice I can give is to try for a smaller category- I was never able to get chick lit, both my BookBubs were in humor.
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Your covers look great! And Timberwolf has great reviews. Get another category and try religiously every month.
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thank you – i am very proud of the book and am working on a sequel. it’s got quite a big scope and incorporates all of the genres i love in to one cool mix. sci-fi, spy novels, alien first contact, just to name a few
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Wow, so you have lots of categories to try. Btw, I originally wrote my books with women in mind, but the best reviews I got were from men who “got it”. Have you found that your audience is not exactly as you have originally pictured? Btw, who did your covers?
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Oh yes – the people who liked the book the most, were those that gave it a chance outside of what the usually read. Granted – I really focused on the character relationships a lot, so it’s a nice experience to read a story where there are a lot of interpersonal dynamics and tension. I have a lot of female fans who really love the characters, and it’s a fairly male-heavy book. So, I think I hit on some things that were universally appealing.
Fiona Jayde did my covers and she is fantastic. If you reach out to her, please let her know I referred you. Thanks!
https://www.facebook.com/fiona.jayde.96
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Hi Ana. I just wanted to say thank you for all the sharing of experience, emotions and data that you do. Even though I’m on a bit of a writing hiatus at the moment, I still enjoy and value your blog posts. Thanks again.
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Thank you so much Ben! Means a lot.
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Good job as always, Ana! And thanks for reminding me it’s time for me to try again for a BookBub…
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