At BookBub, we believe selling books directly to readers is the biggest challenge facing authors and publishers in the evolving publishing marketplace.
On one hand, new ways to reach readers are cropping up every day, and communities of book lovers exist now that could not have come together a decade ago. But with vast increases in the amount of content available — the number of self-published books alone is up 287% since 2006 — it’s becoming harder and harder for a reader to find your book.
Whether you’re a self-published author looking to find your audience, or a traditional publisher learning how to sell books to consumers rather than retailers, targeting readers in your book marketing efforts is crucial.
One of the most exciting things about BookBub is that we are able to collect a large amount of data. We know how many of our subscribers click on and buy the books we feature. We do a lot of testing. As many of our author partners know, we ask for feedback, both from partners and from readers. And after working on thousands of promotions, we’ve been able to track trends and compile insights that help us understand why certain books we feature sell well while others don’t.
That’s why we’re starting the BookBub Partners Blog, a blog where we can share this knowledge and help you understand what you can do to connect with more readers. Our industry is changing rapidly, so the methods you used to market your books a few years ago, or even a few months ago, are likely different from what you’re doing now. But ultimately, the end game is always the same: sell as many books as possible.
While we don’t have all the answers, we believe that if you’re armed with information — information based on real results and analysis — you’ll be able to sell books more effectively.
Of course, we plan to write about how to work with BookBub. We’ll offer tips on how to make your submissions more competitive, insights into what types of books perform well for us, and how to make sure your book is discounted in time for your feature. But we also plan to write about lessons we’ve learned from the BookBub audience that might impact broader marketing goals. Are readers more interested in books with bright covers or dark covers? Do review counts affect conversion rates? When is it more effective to run a free promotion vs. a $0.99 promotion?
In short, we want to open our doors, share our observations with you, and help you reach more readers and sell more books. We’ll be posting weekly, so check back regularly for new content. And you can also follow @BookBubPartners on Twitter to get updates from the BookBub Partners team.
Interested in partnering with BookBub on your next price promotion? You can submit your title for consideration here.
