What’s All the Hubbub About BookBub?

Posted by

42

 

 

I’ve been seeing a lot of hubbub about BookBub. It’s kind of all over the blogosphere right now.

From all the posts I’ve seen, it seems to be this fab, new site for authors. Yet, it’s hardly new and it’s not just for authors.

So what is it?

(Sorry. I’m not here to answer that question. I’m asking it.)

It appears to be, mostly, for readers to find books and get deals. But authors can join and put up a bio with their books.

Also…reviews. It’s another place to post reviews. That would be so very, very good. I’m just not seeing a lot of reviews there. Is this a new wave of amazingness that people are starting? Or is this just a trend that’s going to fizzle? I know it’s been around for years but so has Pinterest, Flipboard, Google+ and many, many other platforms we’ve signed up for and left to gather dust in the virtual corner of our online attic.

When I search the almighty internet, opinions vary. (I’m sure you’re as shocked as I am.) It’s wonderful, it’s horrible, it’s useful, it’s useless, you MUST join, don’t bother joining… You get the idea.

There is much ambivalence about the Bub so I’m wondering (among my bloggy friends) who is on it, how they like it, what it’s used for, etc.

Is this a useful platform (or…place? or…site?) for authors to be on?

 

 

I’ve seen a half dozen posts in the past month alone about the Bub but the most recent ones are from Colleen Chesebro who is on there and encourages other authors to get on there, too. And Georgia Rose who is on there and is bringing her reviews with her. ❤

 

Image Source

 

Are you on BookBub? Do you love it, hate it, or are you ambivalent about it? How is it working for you as an author? Do you write reviews on there?

 

UPDATE: Okay. I’ve joined. Click the cute, little button below if you’d like to connect on the Bub:

See you there! 🙂

 

Georgia Rose has created a fantastic tutorial: How to Post Your Reviews on BookBub <- (Check that out!)

 

42 thoughts on “What’s All the Hubbub About BookBub?”

  1. BookBub are THE site to get a promotion on, if you are lucky enough to do so. They have a mailing list of millions of readers and, I am reliably informed, that could get you 60K downloads of a free book you advertise with them. It will cost you though. Their promotions are not cheap, but, if you have other books the knock on sales should make you your money back, and more besides.

    Thank you for link through to my blog, Sarah. As Amazon . com will no longer post my reviews as I don’t (actually can’t!) spend the required $50 with them I thought this was a great site to put my reviews on instead. So I’m gradually posting all the ones I have on Goodreads over to there as well as new ones.

    If the book isn’t currently listed with them, as I review mostly indie authors, they are finding the cover and book information and adding it to their database. This means there is more chance some of those BookBub readers may come across these books too. I firmly believe that you should be on every platform you can find – claim your author profile on BookBub and add your books, at the very least. You can decide what else you might want to do after that.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    • Okay, so this is the most comprehensive comment ever. Thank you so much, Georgia. 🙂

      Yes…the promotions. That’s how I’d always thought of BookBub. Promotions that were difficult to get and very expensive (but had a great return). I hadn’t thought of it as another platform to join.

      Glad to hear you are posting your reviews there, too. I *really* hope this catches on and more people add their reviews to BookBub. It would be wonderful to have another place (besides Amazon) to put reviews.

      And, wow. If you review a book they don’t have, they go find it and add it. That is awesome! I think you’ve talked me into this. Thanks!

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      • Joined about a month ago. There are a lot of authors who are just like me. I wanted to finish the draft of my next novel before dedicating a lot of time there. The draft is in the vault now, so the time on BB is coming soon.

        Liked by 1 person

      • That’s a good plan. And, since I’ve let myself be talked into joining the Bub, I’ll look you up when I get there and…er…follow you? Chase you? Friend you? Hug you? What is this? What am I talking about?

        Like

  5. I looked at it three years ago, but ended up not going with their services just because I’m a stingy tightwad. According to my research, Bookbub’s effectiveness really varies based on genre. For epic fantasy, at the time, it wasn’t as effective as it might have been for romance or mystery. So I opted not to buy an ad, considering it was on the more costly side of marketing. That said, all of my information is three years out of date, from an author’s standpoint.

    As a reader, it gives you a curated list based on your reading preferences, and you get to see applicable promoted books that bought advertising space. It’s great for a consumer who is looking for options they might not have encountered otherwise. It’s like Pandora or Spotify or any of those music services.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Yes, see, that’s how I always thought of BookBub (for authors) – the expensive ads/promos for successful authors who got accepted or something. I’d never looked into it as another platform. I’m not entirely sure too much has changed in three years though that is probably naive of me.

      So…you didn’t go with their ads but are you on there? As a reader? I can’t tell if the lists are actually helpful or more annoying (like Amazon’s “If you like this, you’ll like this” crap).

      Like

      Reply

      • I unsubscribed a couple years back because my TBR is a little too full. Annoying or helpful is subjective to your tastes with getting product recommendations. Based on what I know about you, you’d probably think it’s annoying.

        Liked by 1 person

  6. It’s a wave of amazingness that allows us to post reviews. We just have to do it. I’m behind, but I’ll get my reviews posted to the authors I can find. Goodness knows we need all the help we can get to help sell our books. ❤

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  7. Hello my Lovely! Arg, Bookbub, my sister in crime Colleen got me to go on it, it’s quite useless for me. I used up a lot of useless man hours trying to make it work. It won’t post my books or allow me to post reviews, the site is VERY USER UNFRIENDLY. I emailed for help several times, they kept telling me to re login and sending me the same useless link. And then finally in my last email attempt they asked me if I’m Canadian, duh! Oh, she said, you’ll have to login as American. Are you friggin kidding me? Of course when you put your address you can’t change to be American. Are you sorry you asked? LOLLLLLLLLLL ❤

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • That sounds awful, Debby. And, no, I’m not sorry I asked. I really want to know people’s experiences. There’s nothing like wasting time we don’t have. *cringe* I’ve seen comments that the Bub is not very user-friendly. But… What’s is the issue with being Canadian? I feel like you have issues with a lot of sites not allowing you to do what you need to do because you live in Canada. WTF is up with that? I hope you’re able to sort BookBub out (logging in as a bloody American). 😉 If you even want to at this point. ❤

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • Lollllllllll well, personally, at this time of the world, I’m extra thankful to be a Canadian. But seriously, Amazon and Bookbub treat Canadians like 3rd world countries. My hands are tied. And truthfully, after spending one whole afternoon trying to get my stuff on Bub and pointless emails I’m not bothering anymore. I think my lonely page is there with no books, no reviews, and I couldn’t even find author friends to follow. 😦 ❤

        Liked by 1 person

  8. Hi. I’m an avid reader, and when I got my KOBO, someone suggested I take a look at bookbub. I’ve found 3 authors who I’d never have known about had it not been for their promotion. I’ve gone on to buy their entire back catalogue, and every new novel they produce (Jane Davis, DV Berkom, JJMarsh) and some others I buy as and when I can afford to , and I’ve not got anything from the library. I didn’t know that I could post reviews there – I shall start copying them over too. Thanks!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Cool! That is all good stuff there. 🙂 I love that you’ve found new authors *and* that you learn about all their new books from there. And, yes, you can review on the Bub. When you click on a book title/image, scroll down and you’ll see the review section. SO happy to hear you’ll be copying your reviews over!

      Like

      Reply

  9. I’ve heard it’s THE PLACE to promote – expensive, but most authors report selling enough books post promotion to recover their cost. The challenge is getting accepted. They seem to have a number of benchmarks that are hard to reach. I haven’t been able to manage it. I do have an authors page there, but haven’t seen or posted reviews. I’ve also heard the buzz in bloggerland and I’ve planned to check it out… but haven’t yet.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • That is exactly how I heard of BookBub. The place you want your books. If you’re cool enough. If they accept you. And if you pay a lot of money. But, yes, worth it. These bunch of posts recently had me wondering if I was missing something. I guess I was. I *really* hope people start leaving reviews on there. We need another (alternative) place to review, IMO. So glad you’re on there! I’m trying to get an account (sans promo), and I will look you up ASAP.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • There’s no problem getting an account on there, and no cost. BookBub encourage authors to claim their profile, and add their books to it. That’s what I did. I thought being more proactive on the site might mean more chance of getting a promotion. So far that hasn’t happened, but one day…one day… 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      • It seems they do encourage that. I joined (by accident) under “Readers” instead of “Publishers/Authors” and was able to “claim my profile” quite easily. (Although, because I did that, I didn’t get the bio copied over from Amazon. At least I *think* that’s the reason…) ?

        *fingers crossed* You’ll get that promo!

        Liked by 1 person

    • Yes, I wound up joining and am also deleting daily emails. *sigh* But I did find a deal or two which is nice and I love the ability to follow authors, get updates about the ones I chose to follow, and leave reviews. Being able to leave reviews is a huge selling point for me.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    • I’ve been doing this recently, Teri, and I’ve been asked by another author to do a post on how I do that as they’ve looked all round BookBub and couldn’t find out how to do it. So that will be out on Tuesday if it would be of any use to you then 😀

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      • Awesome, Georgia! I’ve gotten the hang of it (it’s more user-friendly than I originally thought) but I’ll look out for that post to see if I’m missing anything. And to share it.

        (Take a peek at my reply to Teri, if you don’t mind. I’m curious about reviewing books for people who aren’t on BookBub. I know it adds the book but how long does it take? And does ever show up on the book? It seems not to.)

        Liked by 1 person

    • Excellent. 🙂 Saw you on there and am following you. I need to set aside time to copy over my reviews, too. Thing is, I’ve skipped some because I’m noticing a lot of the authors I’m reviewing aren’t on there. (BookBub supposedly adds their book when you review it but I don’t know how long it takes and I’m not sure it gets sent to followers as a recommendation.)

      We’ll see. Regardless, great to have an alternative place to leave reviews.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  13. I’ve heard of authors having success with promotions or freebie books, but it doesn’t change your life, just a few days of higher sales. It can sometimes improve sales of any other books you might have too, but its hard to meet their criteria, and its not cheap, but perhaps its worth it to have a good few days sales. I haven’t tried it myself, I don’t have enough of a back catalogue to make the most of the investment, but I’d like to try it for myself in the future. Daily emails is NOT something I want though.and the thought of having yet another platform to manage makes my blood run cold! ❄☃️🤣

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Just found this comment. Sorry about that. Yeah, I’d heard of the Bub for major (pricey) promo but hadn’t thought of it for anything else. I like it as an alternative to the jungle. I hear you on the daily emails. They’re definitely something you can delete. Or look at. *shrug* I’m trying not to think of it as yet another social media platform and, so far, it’s working for me. 😉 Hope you’re doing well, lovely! ❤

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.