B is for Bookfunnel or Bookbub

Part 2 of my A-Z of Self-Publishing

BookFunnel

If you want to send out ARCs or free copies of your e-book, for example in a giveaway, or you want to sell your e-books direct from your own store, BookFunnel is your absolute best bet!

They also cater for audiobooks if you want to deliver those securely to anyone, on the higher $ plans.

They also take care of every part of the delivery, so when you send a reader the link, they will have choices on format and device to download it to, and if they have any difficulty or trouble, the BookFunnel team are on hand to help them, rather than you having to deal with any technical issues.

There are various tiers depending on where you are in your author journey.

I am on the Mid-List Author + Integrations Annual plan which is $150 a year, and allows me to upload unlimited books, 2 author names, 5000 downloads a month (which is plenty) and 2 integrations.

The first time author plan is only $20 a year, and gives you 1 Pen Name, 500 Downloads/Month, Unlimited Books Stored, Group Promos, and Author Swaps, so a great starting point and very affordable.

A big advantage is being able to send all your ARCs via ‘certified mail’ and you can see when people read the email and more importantly, whether they download the ARC or not. You can also send follow-up emails to ask people how they are getting on and if they will kindly leave a review.

The group promos and swaps are great and I know several people who have taken part in them - if your objective is simply to get your book out there and read (perhaps it’s book 1 in a series or whatever), then this is a great tool.

The theory is that if you get enough eyes on a free book 1, you might get readers who will go on and read the whole series.

There is always debate about the ‘value’ of something free, and that many readers will simply ‘stuff their kindle’ with free books and mostly don’t read them all. There’s also the discourse that people who are looking for free books will mostly never turn into paying customers later, and will always only hunt for the freebies.

It’s a difficult one to be sure about without large scale data, but my gut feeling is that unless you have a multi-book series, giving away free books doesn’t hugely turn the needle! So, be cautious about when/where you give away your book.

I think, overall, I am happy with BookFunnel. I don’t take full advantage of all it’s services and capabilities, that’s for sure, and I should probably move down to the $20 tier myself, but my delusions of grandeur mean I often think ‘it’s only around the corner that the big sales will come!’

We shall see, but for now, a thumbs up for BookFunnel, certainly worth it on the $20 tier.

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BookBub

The absolute diamond of book promotion sites.

BookBub is a reader promotion newsletter, where they send out a bulk email to large groups of targeted readers with your book (and many others) discounted in e-book format.

You have to pay for the privilege of being in the newsletter (I paid $256 I believe, when I was featured just over a year ago) but it was absolutely worth it in my experience!

It’s especially beneficial for those with long series, and you can expect hundreds of downloads (if it’s a £0.99 deal) or even thousands (if you set your book to a free deal) and you need to make a call yourself if it’s worth the investment - for me it absolutely was - since I did my deal, my books just keeps on being read, either via page reads or e-book/paperback purchases. It’s by far becoming my bestselling book and I’ve done zero advertising since I did that deal!

I wrote more about my own experience with a BookBub featured deal here:

I hope today’s newsletter was insightful and helpful for you, whether you’re an indie author, self-publishing curious or maybe on the traditional side looking over at useful strategies you could implement to complement everything your publisher is doing for you and your books!

Until next time, May the Force be with you!

Stuart