UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion
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What do you think about a UK Bookbub?
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message 51:
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Lance
(new)
Apr 13, 2014 09:39AM
It would be very useful if the outlet covers the non-Kindle vendors. The BookBubs of the world focus almost exclusively on Amazon, which makes it very hard to connect with the large and growing proportion of e-book readers who aren't on Kindle. eBookBargainsUK covers all the formats (one of the few I know that does), but doesn't yet have nearly BookBub's reach.
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Sadly, IBB's follower count is in four figures. I am sure that Bookbub, ENT etc have ploughed a lot of money into advertising to make them the success that they are.Unfortunately I don't have the capital to invest in getting tens of thousands of fans.
50,000 followers is a worthwhile aim, but if you don't have any advice on how to increase subscribers, how are you going to get that following?
Not trying to rain on your parade - anything that increases exposure for indies is good news to me, but coding a book deal website is a lot of work so make sure you have a clear business plan before you start.
Also, be aware that Amazon sometimes change their TOCs with very little notice, which caused many associate sites to loose a great deal of money last year.
Bookbub pretty much have the monopoly. I have never understood why their system doesn't work in the UK, as I would have presumed they have UK subscribers, but from the sales of my own books through their adverts, I guess not as all my sales have been in the US (but then I hardly sell any in the UK at the best of times - as in a handful a month). For anyone who questions the power of Bookbub, I have advertised with them four times, and each one has paid for itself and then some. The highest position I reached overall I think was around 70 at Amazon and 7 at Barnes and Noble, which made me, albeit very briefly, a bestseller :) I would love to see a UK equivalent, but none has so far materialised.
I read a lot both Kindle and print, but I don't think I need another source of information; I can't keep up with my 'to be read' list as it is. I don't want to know about yet more great books I'll never have time to read – too upsetting.
Rosen wrote: "Sadly, IBB's follower count is in four figures. I am sure that Bookbub, ENT etc have ploughed a lot of money into advertising to make them the success that they are.Unfortunately I don't have the..."
I think you just need to keep on doing what you're doing. I know every time I've had something promoted through IBB I've shared to my buddies, and I'd imagine many other authors do the same. I think the drabbles are a nice touch, and again mean people are likely to share the newsletters. I admit I've not looked at one for a while - have you thought about including poetry submissions as well to widen the field of contributors?
That might narrow it Andrew! Many people are totally turned off by poetry (even mine!) ;)
Kath wrote: "That might narrow it Andrew! Many people are totally turned off by poetry (even mine!) ;)"Roses aren't blue;
Violets aren't red.
If you make me read poetry
You'll just wind up slightly unsuccessful.
Actually, compared to some I've read, that's not bad! ;)
Lance wrote: "Good thought, but Amazon, iTunes and Smashwords would all make you remove it."Ah.
Jim wrote: "Yes I let the automatics deal with Twitter for me, occasionally they draw my attention to somebody mentioning me and I respond appropriately"To me it seems to be a case of either getting on with stuff, or talking about doing it on social media.
I don't have the time for the latter, being too busy with the former.
Okay, I've got a few great responses from everyone. It seems like some of you like the idea and some of you hate it. So I want to narrow it down even more so it'll target my audience. For that, I'm going to need some information.If any of you had signed up for a book deal site before, could you please answer a few questions?
1) Why did you sign up for that discounted book deal site?
2) What do you like about it?
3) What things do you wish that site can do better?
1. Because I own the site.2. It's freaking awesome.
3. It needs more donkeys. I don't think it features enough donkeys.
To be honest, IBB is my favourite because of the drabbles!
I know. Why don't you put 101 word fiction in each daily newsletter and call them 'dribbles'. ;-)
No, Rosen. It needs more goats like Buttermilk then it will be perfect.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IuRz...
No, Rosen. It needs more goats like Buttermilk then it will be perfect.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IuRz...
No, Rosen. It needs more goats like Buttermilk then it will be perfect.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IuRz...
You've totally nailed it Joo. IBB lacks goats.
Goats, in triplicate ;-)There's a drabble in there
I don't know anything about goats, but something I've noticed when doing free promotions is that trying to give a book away in the UK is pretty difficult. No matter which list my books get onto, the number I give away in the UK as opposed to the US, is not in proportion to population. On the other hand, when the book then goes back on sale, I get good sales in the UK, much better than in the US if you put it on a freebies:sales ratio. Why is that?
I know I barely sell on .com. Going on relative size of populations, I suspect my .com sales are to the Irish Republic rather than to the USA
Jim wrote: "I know I barely sell on .com. Going on relative size of populations, I suspect my .com sales are to the Irish Republic rather than to the USA"Ireland was allowed to swap to the uk site last year. I changed over straight away, but some might not have.
Like Katie, I've had loads more of the free book downloaded on .com but more resulting sales in the UK.
Jim wrote: "Goats, in triplicate ;-)There's a drabble in there"
I know a film about that... ;)
http://youtu.be/GC2TzspJn5A
