“Now is a lucky time for you–take a chance.”
I was so excited to score my first BookBub deal for 99 cents—in the USA! I’ve done some other BookBub promos before (international for Seniors Sleuth). The popular newsletter offering discounted books gets about 300 submissions a day to be featured in their daily emails; they accept only about 10-20% of those requests.
Getting selected at the 99 cents price point was a huge win for me. It meant that I actually would receive revenue for sales instead of giving a book away for free to build up buzz.
Seniors Sleuth was featured in the Cozy Mystery category, which boasts a healthy readership of over two million people.
Here’s a rundown on how the marketing blast worked for me:
Average number of sales for discounted book: ~2000
Number of sales for Seniors Sleuth: ~3400
Highest rankings:
Kobo–#1 in Cozy, #6 in Mystery & Suspense, #10 in Fiction
Nook–#3 Overall
Kindle–#44 Overall
Amazon bestseller flags: #1 in Amateur Sleuths; #1 in Cozy; #1 in Asian American Fiction
I did end up covering the marketing costs. And I have seven more reviews for Winston Wong Book One. I also gathered a couple more BookBub followers, and I’m happy to have follow-through on my next books in the Winston Wong series (on the magnitude of tens, not thousands, of copies).
All the best to my fellow authors trying to get the word out about their fab books!
Wow! This is wonderful. Congratulations. Your sales numbers and ratings are great!
Thanks, Nicki! I’m just excited to see more readers pop up.
Congratulations! I hope this helps you build momentum with your publishing!
Thanks so much, Julia!