If you’ve read our recent post on how to best prepare for your BookBub Featured Deal, you might be wondering if there are ways to amplify your results once the deal goes live. And there are! We surveyed over 200 authors with recent Featured Deals to hear their best strategies and tips for improving their deal performance, and we’ve collected the most common advice here.
On deal day
Announce the deal to your own readers
By far the most frequently mentioned tip for amplifying your Featured Deal is to share the promotion as widely as possible. You can use your newsletter, your social media accounts, and any social media groups you’re a member of to spread the word and let your existing readers know they can buy one of your books at a great price. You can also ask your readers to share the news on their own platforms for an added boost!
I promoted my Featured Deal to my own list the day before the deal, and asked them to let their mystery-loving friends know.
—B.M. Allsopp, author of Death on Paradise Island
Stack ads alongside the deal
Experienced BookBub partners suggest running BookBub Ads to heighten awareness and reach more readers. You can target your own readers as well as those who follow comparable authors so you’re reaching the people who are most likely to enjoy your book. In fact, authors who ran BookBub Ads for multiple days on and after the promotion were more likely to see a multiday tail of sales.
I ran a BookBub Ad targeting comparable authors that was very successful for the entire five-day span.
—R.M. Neill, author of Cowboys Can’t Kiss
BookBub Ads were very effective. Every book in the series increased in ranking. Take the ad advice from the Partners Blog.
—Debbie Baldwin, author of Siren Song
Keeping the momentum going
Keep the promo price for several extra days
Speaking of a long tail of sales, you’re most likely to see that coveted effect if you keep your discount in place for several days after the Featured Deal runs. Some readers open emails a few days late, and others might be hearing about the deal on social media in the days following your promotion. If the discount is still in effect when they do eventually click through, you’re more likely to see sales stay at an elevated level for longer. If you followed our partners’ prep advice and discounted other books in your series alongside your featured title, consider keeping those prices low for a few extra days, too.
I kept the book on sale for a month on BookBub, and the increased sales continued into the next month.
—Lois Winston, author of Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide
I kept the price at $0.99 for 10 days following the promotion to keep the momentum going. The deal was four months ago and the uplift in page reads is still going.
—Anonymous author
Treat it as the beginning, not a one-day event
It helps to think of your Featured Deal as the kickoff to a longer promotional period that can drive sales in the following days and weeks (depending on how long you choose to discount). Not only that, but if you’ve prepared well, you’re likely to see effects beyond sales on the featured book; you may see series readthrough, gain new followers on BookBub or social media, or find new loyal fans who look out for your new work or dig into your backlist. Many partners also report seeing a bump in reviews on their titles.
Don’t overestimate the immediate success, but pay attention to the long tail. I saw definite readthrough and sellthrough for the series, a handful of new subscribers… and good interest in the series for three months, which included my next release.
—Anonymous author
Don’t expect things to happen overnight. It may take weeks to see the real results.
—Inger Wolf, author of Dark September
What authors wish they had known before their Featured Deal
We’ll end this two-part series on maximizing your Featured Deal with some parting wisdom from the authors we surveyed — these tips will be especially handy if you’re already thinking about your next promotion.
Have more content lined up for readers before you run
Many authors signaled that having a place to send readers who love your book and want more from you is key to making the most of your Featured Deal. Debut authors have found success pointing readers to their mailing list or preorders for upcoming books, while some series authors wait to maximize the number of books readers can devour next.
Wait until you have at least three books total or in a series before doing your first promotion so there are other books for readers to find and you can maximize the effects of the promotion.
—Andie James, author of Lost and Found by the Duke
Know your goal before you start
What’s the primary purpose of this Featured Deal for you? You want your priorities to be clear going into the deal so that you know how to measure success.
First thing you do is clearly define your objective. Everything else you do flows from that.
—Geoffrey Michael, author of If They Won’t Bend, Break Them!
Don’t be afraid to keep submitting!
As editors, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again — submit and keep submitting! BookBub partners agree. Editors can never say yes to running a Featured Deal on your book if you don’t take the leap and submit it for consideration. And it pays to keep trying: One survey respondent noted that they were accepted after 19 submissions. Content trends and readers’ tastes are always evolving, so a book that’s not a good fit one month might be just what we’re looking for the next.
Don’t get discouraged if it takes a long time to get the BookBub Featured Deal you really want. Keep submitting, and when it does happen, get to work preparing to make it as impactful as possible.
—Kimberly Diede, author of Whispering Pines
Now that you’ve got the inside information, you’re well equipped to both prepare for your next Featured Deal and maximize your results once the promotion is live. All that’s left is to choose a book and submit it to our editors! We can’t wait to look at your work.
