Deconstructing a BookBub & KDP Countdown Promotion

A condensed version of the article below originally appeared as a guest post on BookBub's Unbound blog.

As a bestselling suspense author who has been indie published since 2003, I've learned that being flexible and open to learning and adapting to change is key to being successful in this industry, and success for a professional career author should be defined by sales and income, though there are other indicators of success.

Too many authors schedule discount sales, post a couple of Facebook posts and send out a few tweets and then complain about lack of sales. Some do many small promotions, paying for 1-2 inexpensive advertising spots each time, and again don’t see high sales. Promos like these might get your book on a Top 100 genre bestseller list on Amazon, but they’re not enough to produce high sales.

You need to understand that watering down the impact of a discount sale by doing them too often just isn’t the way to go. You’re better off saving your advertising budget for a MAJOR promotion, and by “MAJOR” I mean spending $600-1200, and running 1-2 major promos a year per title. This is an investment in your career, in your work and in you.

Today, I’ll share some stats on my last major BookBub promotion, detailing my recent experience with a BookBub promo, so that you can see what advertising on book sites can do for sales.

Organizing and setting up my promotion:

First, I selected a book that has sold well but had never been on BookBub before or priced at $0.99 for many months. I chose SUBMERGED, a standalone thriller with tie-ins to my #1 bestseller, CHILDREN OF THE FOG. When I run a promotion for one title, there is always a strong possibility that some of my other titles will see an increase in sales too.

I decided to run a Countdown/BookBub combination promo, since Countdown deals get extra exposure from Amazon, and they create a bit more excitement. I determined I would only run this promo if BookBub accepted SUBMERGED (they'd turned it down numerous times in the past), so the first thing I did was pitch my book to BookBub, letting them know that my dates were very flexible. I requested a date close to the end of the month—payday. I did not book any other ads until after I had a BookBub date.

Once my BookBub ad was secured, I used that date as Day 1 of my Countdown promo and set up both US and UK Amazons. (Since we only get one Countdown promo every 90 days, you may as well do both Amazons.) I used all 7 days because it can take a few days to get into the overall Top 100 on Amazon, and I wanted to stay there as long as possible, building momentum.

My promo for SUBMERGED was set for the last few days of October and first few days of November, from October 28 - November 3rd (evening). This worked out great because most people are paid at the end of the month. I’ve found better success when I run a promo during a payday—15th and 30th.

I priced SUBMERGED at $0.99. I selected this price as this title had only been on sale for $0.99 once before, and that was when the SUBMERGED was first published, 8 months earlier.

Then I purchased other advertising, including Kindle Nation Daily, Fussy Librarian, BookSends, Story Finds, Bargain Booksy, Digital Book Today, Ereader News Today, The Kindle Book Review and more.

5 ads ran on Day 1 (Tuesday)

4 ads ran on Day 2 (Wednesday)

2 ads ran on Day 3 (Thursday)

4 ads ran on Day 4 (Friday)

3 ads ran on Day 5 (Saturday)

2 ads ran on Day 6 (Sunday)

2 ads ran on Day 7 (Monday)

Four of the above ads were free for various reasons; 18 ads were paid. I paid a total of $1214 for 22 ads.

I also set up various tweets to go out every couple of hours at random times each day of the promotion. During the promotion, I posted various updates to my Facebook pages, creating excitement and getting my readers and fans involved in where I was in my promotion. I used screen captures to show them when I made the lists. I had screen captures that showed where my book stood in relation to other Big-Name authors.

It’s important to note that prior to this promo and during the first 27 days of October, I had only sold 26 copies of SUBMERGED across Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Results of my BookBub/Countdown promotion:

On Day 1 (Tuesday) SUBMERGED made Amazon's Top 100 overall bestseller list, which provides extra exposure to potential new readers. (This is the first time I made the Top 100 overall on the 1st day of a promo.) SUBMERGED remained in the Top 100 overall for the first 3 days of my promo. It remained in the Top 1000 overall for a week and in the Top 5000 overall for almost 2 weeks.

SUBMERGED also made Amazon.com’s Top 100 Movers & Shakers list, which provides extra exposure to potential new readers.

In the first 4 days of my promo (October 28-31) I sold* 2421 copies of SUBMERGED. Approx. 500 copies of SUBMERGED sold* in the first week of November (Nov 1-3). In the first 17 days of November I sold* 1000 copies of SUBMERGED. I sold* a total of 3421 copies of SUBMERGED on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk during my promo and in the 14 days afterward.

Three of my other titles’ sales increased approx. 50% during and after the time SUBMERGED was on the Countdown deal.

SUBMERGED, sold from October 28 to November 3 inclusive, was on sale for $0.99, which earned me a 70% royalty (a perk of the Countdown deals) for most, or were KOLL/KU sales. I earned $1633 for SUBMERGED sales* in October; the majority of that income was created in the last 4 days of October.

When my Countdown deal was over, SUBMERGED sold for $4.99, which also earned me 70% royalties for most. I earned approx. $3000 for SUBMERGED sales* in the first 2 weeks of November. And even after those first 2 weeks, I still saw an increase in sales of SUBMERGED. Many of my other titles continued to sell at a higher rate than before this Countdown/BookBub promo.

I earned an approx. total of $4633 for SUBMERGED sales* during my BookBub/Countdown promo and in the 2 weeks following. I averaged a royalty of $1.36/sale.* From the $4633 I earned during this promo from one single title, I paid $1214 for 22 ads, which results in a $3419 profit. If I had to split my profit with a publisher at 50%, I still would have earned $1709.50 for this one single title and I still would’ve seen a profit.

My takeaway: RUNNING A BOOKBUB PROMO WITH A SELECT COUNTDOWN DEAL WORKS! I will do this again…and again.

PS: If BookBub turns one of your books down, try, try again!

*Sales data marked with an asterisk includes Countdown sales or after-Countdown sales plus KOLL and KU.

To summarize, I put SUBMERGED (a psychological thriller) on sale for $0.99 via a KDP Countdown deal on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk from October 28 to November 17, 2015, and I sold 3421 copies. I paid $1214 for 22 ads (including BookBub--$500 Thrillers category), leaving me with a profit of $3419.

Authors: Submit your book to BookBub, and follow a similar marketing plan if they accept your work. I am sure you'll see great results.

PS: I recently did a similar BookBub promo for my DIVINE TRILOGY, and it too was a success and sold thousands of copies during my promo--and after.

Guest Post: Why Spying on Your Competition is a Great Way to Be Successful

One tip I've passed on to writers is this: Stalk your competition to see what they're doing and mimic those who are successful. Learn from those who are where YOU want to be. I know for a fact that I have a few "stalkers" who follow me around on Facebook and Twitter to see what I'm up to, and I say, "Kudos!" to them. I'm not alone in thinking this way. Today, Penny Sansevieri, discusses why spying on your competition is a GOOD thing...

There’s an old saying that to be successful you have to stop obsessing about the competition. I agree with that to a certain degree, but to not be aware of what other folks in your industry are doing is never a smart idea.

Regardless of what you write or the business you are in, you need to be dialed into the competitive landscape. Knowing what others in your market are doing, writing about, and promoting can be key to your success as well. Not that I would ever encourage copying, but being in tune with your market can be a fantastic idea generator, not to mention it gives you the ability to stay ahead of certain trends that haven’t even surfaced at the consumer level yet.

Many times I see authors, even savvy business people who write books, totally unaware of the market or other books that are out there. I think this is a big mistake. When I was first in business I studied the market, the books as well as other people in the industry. It helps you to also differentiate yourself from them in products, services, and pricing. It’s something I still do to this day. Again, you don’t want to copy, you just want to be aware. Another lesser known reason for doing this is that if you’re struggling with your social media - both from the aspect of what platform to be on to what to say to drive more engagement - keeping these folks on your radar will greatly increase your marketing ideas, too. I’ll expand more on that in the points below.

Living in a vacuum never made anyone successful. Here are some strategies for keeping your ear to the ground when it comes to your market.

Google search: First up is the pretty basic online search of who else is in your industry. If you’re in business you want to know other businesses that are out there. If you’re an author, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, you want to know who else is writing on your topic. Now let me tell you a little secret about this search. The results will not just turn up names and book titles but also show you the best ways to interact with your consumer.

Let me explain. Let’s say you’re searching on the top books on natural healthcare and you find that page one of Google is packed with names of authors who write about this topic. As you begin to compile your list I want you to do one thing: ignore big brands because it’s likely that they can do anything they want and still be successful. If you’re a thriller writer, names like Stephen King and Dean Koontz come to mind. These authors are big, powerful brands. You want the smaller names, the people you may not immediately recognize. Why? Because they have to try harder. If tomorrow King decided to put out a book on poetry, while his fans might be surprised they would likely still buy it. But if a lesser-known author did that they’d look like they have writer-ADD.

So start putting your list together, as you do I want you to sign up for their mailing lists, and follow them on Twitter and any other social media site they use. Aside from the obvious reasons why you want to do this, I’m a big fan of supporting other authors in my market. Share their Facebook updates, retweet their great Twitter posts, etc.

One of the hidden gems of this research is it will also show you what social media sites to be on. If you've been struggling to figure out where your market resides, this exercise should really clear that up for you. Why? Because if you’re plucking names off of the first page of Google you know one thing: whatever they are doing to show up in search, they’re doing it right. Google has made so many changes to their search algorithms that you simply can’t “trick” the system anymore to get onto page one. You have to do all the right things vis-a-vis content and online outreach. Look at their updates. What are they sharing and why? How often do they blog? Are they on LinkedIn instead of Facebook? Is there much going on for them on Pinterest? Really spend some time with this. Not only will it help you tune into your market but it will cut your learning curve by half, if not more.

Bookstore Research:  While I love Amazon, I love our bookstores more. A recent BISAC study indicated that the majority of book awareness came from brick and mortar stores so we really need our bookstores, and, it’s a good indicator of what’s selling in your market. Bookstores typically won’t stock something that isn't going to sell. Go to your genre and look at the shelf. But I want you to pay attention to the names you don’t immediately recognize. Why? Because much like the big brand discussion above, it’s easy for a big name to get shelf space. It’s a lot harder for an unknown to do this unless they have some marketing muscle behind them or a good sales record. Take note of these titles and then buy a few of them. Why? This is part of your research (and I believe it’s always nice to support your fellow author).

What direction did they take with their particular topic and why? How can you improve upon the conversation? What can you say that’s different? Take note of that. It could help you considerably when you’re putting together your book.

News alerts: This is another must. You should get onto sites like Talkwalker.com and Mention.net and sign up for news alerts. Both of these sites have the flexibility of getting any update, even Twitter retweets if you want. It’s up to you how deeply you want to dive into the research. But be aware where your competition is appearing. Not only is this a great way to stay tuned in, but keep a log of the blogs they've appeared on or news outlets that have featured them. These places could be targets for you, too. Keeping track of this for future pitching will save you a ton of time.

Reviews:  Now is the time to comb through Amazon and look at the books in your market, but don’t pay attention to the books. Instead I want you to read the reviews. What are readers saying about the books? What do they like, what don’t they like and what would they have wanted more of? Granted, everyone has their own take on a particular topic but if you’re reading through enough reviews you’ll start to see a trend. This may be a trend that has yet to emerge in your market, or it could be a need that has yet to be filled. Could you fill that need with your next book?

Speaking: If the author(s) in question are going to be speaking or signing books at an event or location convenient to you, then by all means go. Again this is a great way to network and get to know other people in your market and it’s also a nice show of support. I mean how would you feel if an industry partner dropped by one of your events? Pretty flattered, right? If the event is a talk, pay close attention to the questions the speaker gets at the end. Why? Audience questions are often the best way to generate new ideas for topics you could blog about, future books, or emerging trends.

Industry events: It used to be that I really didn't feel I could make the time to go to events I wasn't speaking at. I felt that I traveled so much already. I mean make time for another event that wasn't a mandatory attendance? Why? Because good industry events are almost always mandatory. Now I go to as many of them as I can. I’m not always right in my selection but I go and I figure that if I can eke out one piece of wisdom from the event, it was worth my time. Industry events are great places to meet some of the folks you've been following, do some networking and also: learn. I don’t know about you but I find it hard to be successful if I’m not in a constant state of learning.

Spying is a catchy way of saying “do your research and stay tuned in.” Regardless of what you call it, it’s a mandatory part of being successful. It’s also a great way to build connections. I have great respect for others in my market and I will often recommend much of what they offer to my own readers and customers. Why? Because I've spent a lot of time differentiating myself from them.

Is Facebook your biggest challenge? Then make sure you find Amy Porterfield on Facebook. That girl rocks out on there and she has a ton of great books and programs that will make you a pro in no time. You want to know all there is to know about Google+? Follow Denise Wakeman on G+. She consistently has posts and experts on her page and on her live chats. Does she offer a service? Yes. Could someone hire Amy or Denise instead of me? Sure.

The point is that it’s sort of like the Santa Claus in Miracle on 34^th Street. If you saw that movie you know that he was the Macy’s Santa and would send parents to other stores where they could often find certain toys cheaper. He wanted to be helpful and make sure parents got the best deal possible. In the story it didn't end up putting Macy’s out of business, in fact the exact opposite happened. People flocked there and the recommendations helped build a loyal following. In the end that’s what we all want: a loyal following. This isn’t achieved by keeping blinders on or hoarding information. It’s achieved by learning and sharing.

http://denisewakeman.com/
http://www.amyporterfield.com/ref?p=bookmkr&w=fbaw

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 Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. http://www.amarketingexpert.com