Fantastic Brian!
Me too on all the above! Congrats!Rachel Schurig said:That's great! I saw you in my Bookbub email today and grabbed my copy. Hope you get many resulting sales!
They won't accept an ad if you've done a freebie for that book within the previous 90 days.Echo75 said:Nice! I've seen Bookbub work wonders for a lot of indie authors I know. One thing I am wondering is whether they tie you in to not doing freebies for a certain time after your promo.
My strategy for the release of Cruxim was to go in Select for 90-days and try my hardest to shift as many books as possible the first 6 weeks, and then do a Bookbub ad that would drop it to a half-price offer. After that, I'd resume Select and then when/if the ranking dropped again, in the final days of my exclusivity, I'd run the Select freebies. But someone has told me that they tie you in to not making a better offer for three months *after* your Bookbub deal. I couldn't find that in their site information, so I wonder if it is in the contract?
If so, it'll make my Select enrolment a waste of time, or mean I have to wait until six months in if I want to do a Bookbub ad that isn't for a free book. Anyone know? Anyone care to share their strategy?
It's their business and their customers they're presenting us too. We deal with "gatekeepers" all the time. ENT has requirements. Review blogs have requirements. None of them ever said they wouldn't make us jump through hoops if we want access to what they have.heavycat said:I can't help but wonder if Bookbub is "publisher-lite." We considered them for one of our upcoming free runs and the approval process seems (I'll be diplomatic here) formidable. By my reading, of our ten books, only one qualifies on paper and I'm fairly certain it would be rejected at step #2 by the "editorial team" on the grounds it is "not a good fit for our audience."
Then there's the fact the "editorial team" writes a blurb and assembles the "creative" which raises trademark and trade dress issues.
I see this kind of thing as (for now) benevolent influence over writers. "Just follow these instructions and we'll give you access to the teeming masses of readers at our beck and call."
I'm having trouble understanding how that is different from "send us a very nicely formatted inquiry letter and in about eight months..."
Every time I visit their site all I see is "gatekeeper."
Lots and lots of differences, really. I think it was $60 for a single mailing to several thousand readers, not "sign here and we'll take 80+% of the profits." It's just a book promotion emailing list, not a publisher. If you win big, you win big. If you don't recoup your costs, well, better luck next time. If you can't get approved, see what's holding you back and try to improve on that aspect however you can.heavycat said:I'm having trouble understanding how that is different from "send us a very nicely formatted inquiry letter and in about eight months..."
Every time I visit their site all I see is "gatekeeper."
Fair enough. It's my $300 and my company's book.JRTomlin said:It's their business and their customers they're presenting us too.
We have a name and trademarks which we have every right to protect. When a third party presumes to assemble "creatives" without supervision or approval by the owner of the trademarks they are utilizing (in our case, Palace in the Sky Productions LLC) then there most certainly are trademark issues. Expensive ones.As for trademark issues, I see no trademark involved except their own name which they have every right to protect.
Then I'm working for Bookbub, right?If you can't get approved, see what's holding you back and try to improve on that aspect however you can.
That was the philosophy that supported the traditional publishing industry, wasn't it? If they know what readers like why aren't they writing books?They run a list, and they know what their readers might like.
What Brian said.BrianKittrell said:Lots and lots of differences, really. I think it was $60 for a single mailing to several thousand readers, not "sign here and we'll take 80+% of the profits." It's just a book promotion emailing list, not a publisher. If you win big, you win big. If you don't recoup your costs, well, better luck next time. If you can't get approved, see what's holding you back and try to improve on that aspect however you can.
On one hand, I can see how it could be annoying not to get approved for an ad, but on the other, I think labeling services like this as "gatekeeper" is... a bit much. They run a list, and they know what their readers might like. If they receive a request from a book that might not match up to their readership and they offered it anyway, they could face unsubscriptions from their lists. Give the people what they want and all that.