Book launches are an exciting time to gain new readers and exposure, but with so many promotion options available, it can be difficult to discern which opportunities are right for you. In today’s post, we explore how 12 authors used New Releases for Less, our promotional tool that offers wide exposure and visibility for newly released books, to support their launch plans. We hope their experiences help you decide whether this tool is a good fit for your next release!
Each New Releases for Less feature is sent to all of the subscribed BookBub members interested in the book’s category, giving selected new releases exposure to hundreds of thousands (and in some categories, millions!) of relevant readers beyond an author’s existing fan base. This exposure offers a reach unlike other BookBub new release tools like Preorder Alerts or New Release Alerts, which only go to an author’s existing BookBub followers.
New Releases for Less Results
These weekly emails feature ebooks at a wider range of prices than our Featured Deals emails, which means sales results can be quite variable, even within a single category. However, there are some trends we can share! Unsurprisingly, new releases priced at $0.99 and $1.99 are driving the highest conversion rates and the highest volume of sales. For ebooks priced above $2.99, the price appears to have less of an impact on performance than factors like author platform or the book’s content. So if your primary goal is to maximize unit sales of a new book, you may want to consider down-pricing to $0.99 or $1.99 — we can schedule New Releases for Less features anytime within the four weeks following a book’s release day, so you’re welcome to set up a limited-time discount within that window.
If revenue is more important to you than sales volume, titles priced between $2.99 and $6.99 are generating more revenue than lower-priced books. However, if profit is your primary goal, we want to note that much like performance, ROI varies greatly for this tool. The primary benefit is the wide exposure to relevant readers, so we charge the same fee for all books in a category regardless of book price. You can view the fees for each category here.
In addition to visibility and sales, authors and publishers have seen a diverse array of other benefits from these features, including boosts in retailer rankings, reviews from new readers, and sales of other books in their backlist. To give a sense of the range of results you can expect for different titles, here are 12 examples of how the increased visibility from New Releases for Less boosted ebook launches across a variety of genres and price points.
Barbara Freethy, All the Pretty People
“I loved the opportunity to promote my new mystery thriller All the Pretty People in New Releases for Less because this is a new genre for me, and I wanted to reach readers who might not be familiar with my work. I was thrilled with the clicks on the feature, which helped send my book to the top of the USA Today list.” — New York Times bestselling author Barbara Freethy
Cadence Connor, Reign of the Dragon Queen
“This was the first time I’ve leveraged BookBub to help with my launch strategy. I had the feature date scheduled two weeks after my release, which helped to determine exactly what sales came from the New Release feature, and also drive my ranking back up after the initial launch boost. I had 83 sales and around 20 KU reads over the next five days, with additional page reads still coming in over the following weeks. I received about 20 preorders for the second book in the series in that first 48 hours as well. My preorder isn’t set to launch until this fall, but it is already lining up to be more successful than the first book thanks to those sign-ups and continual promotion.
The New Releases for Less feature was great at driving increased exposure to a new base, and, mixed in with a launch strategy that included various social media posts as well as BookBub and Amazon ads, it helped me to break into some Fantasy bestseller categories that are usually tough to get into. I was more than able to break even on the cost of this feature, not counting my preorders for the next in the series.” — author Cadence Connor
James Conroyd Martin, Too Soon the Night
“The New Releases for Less took an ordinary book launch for my historical fiction novel Too Soon the Night: A Novel of Empress Theodora and made it sizzle and sparkle.
I thought a long time about the price point. My book was originally priced at $5.99, and if I had a really big author presence or a publishing company behind me, I would have left it there or maybe dropped it to $4.99. But I knew the number of readers taking a chance would drop, so I went with $2.99 to stay at that 70 percent royalty rate while still making it affordable. I was glad that I did. This book was the second in a duology, and I temporarily dropped the price of the first book, Fortune’s Child, from $5.99 to $2.99 to match the feature. The move was successful because for every two purchases of Too Soon the Night, one of Fortune’s Child sold too. Big bonus!” — author James Conroyd Martin
Christi Caldwell, To Catch a Viscount
“I always see a significant sales bump with my New Release features. This one netted me more than 200 additional copies that day alone. I’m grateful to BookBub for all the support you’ve provided me and countless other self-published authors. BookBub remains the one tried and true investment that generates new readers and reliable sales numbers.” — USA Today bestselling author Christi Caldwell
Julie Anne Lindsey, Burden of Poof
“The New Releases for Less promotion was great for bringing awareness to my new cozy mystery series launch! The targeted mailing assured my cover and blurb were seen by readers looking for exactly what I write. The exposure alone was an incredible value to me, and the number of resulting sales was enough to reimburse me for the investment. New Releases for Less will continue to be part of my release strategy for this series and series to come!” — author Julie Anne Lindsey
Anthony J. Melchiorri, Sentinel
“This was a great addition to my release day arsenal. For other first-in-the-series launches, I wouldn’t hesitate to apply for a New Release for Less feature again.
I did not have a huge built-in audience for this particular subgenre of science fiction, so having a New Release for Less feature really accelerated sales on day one, which was huge in maintaining the success of Sentinel‘s launch. I coupled this feature with other standard promotional tools (including my own newsletter, Facebook ads, BookBub Ads, and other newsletter blast-type promotions). The sales I estimate from the New Releases for Less promotion exceed other newsletters that regularly feature new releases, so this was a tremendous benefit. If I could only choose to feature my new release in one promotional newsletter service, this would be it (but thankfully it can be part of a much larger, multi-day or multi-week release strategy to compound on a book’s success!).” — author Anthony J. Melchiorri
R.M. Neill, Finding the Right Forever
“As a new author, this is only my fourth MM title, and BookBub New Releases for Less is an affordable way to reach so many readers in my target market. I knew it was going to go to readers of my genre and it was a truly targeted email. I’m also far too new to consider applying for a Featured Deal, so I do love that BookBub created this option for new releases.
My page reads were higher than I would have expected for at least three days after the promotion. I’m small potatoes but I think they were at least 1,000–1,500 more pages each day than I would have normally had with a release. It’s been my best release yet and I will plan to hopefully be able to use New Releases for Less going forward.” — author R.M. Neill
Anne Janzer, 33 Ways to Not Screw Up Your Business Emails
“The book had 48 ebook and two print sales on the day of the feature. Elevated sales continued the next day as well. During a book launch, I treasure those things I can do in advance or that run pretty much on their own. New Releases for Less fits the bill.
Because I’d primed the launch period by running a few BookBub Ads ahead of time, and choosing categories with care, the book spent about four weeks with the “Best Seller” label on Amazon.” — author Anne Janzer
Elizabeth Lynx, Grumpy as Puck
“The Grumpy as Puck feature happened five days after release day, so it helped breathe new life into the release. The Amazon ranking was very slowly going down (moving down 2,000 a day) when the New Release for Less newsletter came out. Then the ranking went from 11,600 the day before to 4,100 the day of the BookBub newsletter. Since this is the first book in a new series, it helped bring more eyes to the series.” — USA Today bestselling author Elizabeth Lynx
Melissa Marr, Jeaniene Frost, and Kelley Armstrong, Hex on the Beach
“We’ve been very happy with Bookbub both as readers and as authors. It raises a book’s visibility, which is always a challenge for a new release. The more exposure we can get, the better, and we’ve found that having a New Releases For Less feature is an excellent way to do it.” — New York Times bestselling authors Kelley Armstrong, Jeaniene Frost, & Melissa Marr
Cate Beauman, No More Secrets
“We utilized BookBub’s New Releases For Less during our June launch of No More Secrets and fell a bit shy of break-even. This was the last title in a series, which might not have been as enticing for a splurge purchase from an email promo. In the future, we would consider using New Releases For Less to promote titles that are connected to our established series, whether that be novellas, full-length stand-alone, or new mini-series starters. But the higher cost per sale to tap into BookBub’s avid readers through New Releases For Less is justifiable when the profit from a read-through of our existing series is considered.” — Brian Beauman, business manager for author Cate Beauman
David Poses, The Weight of Air
“This new release feature was an integral part of our launch strategy for The Weight of Air. We reduced the Kindle price to $0.99 for launch week and contracted with BookBub and other ebook promotion services to spur early sales and reviews. The initial push from the New Releases for Less feature on launch day lowered our ranking to #300 in the Kindle Store and propelled the book to bestseller status in several categories. We now have close to 200 reviews in large part from that initial push.
We’re very pleased with BookBub’s New Releases for Less. It’s a highly effective way to kick off a book launch.” — Sandra Jonas, Sandra Jonas Publishing House
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