Great Alternatives to BookBub

 

Alternative
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SelfPublishingReview compiled a great list of alternatives – or better choices to the 800-lb Gorilla in book advertising via email newsletters – also called the “Groupon for ebooks”: Bookbub is very expensive (between $65 and US$2.400 in average) and accepts only 10-20% of book applications to advertise, mostly during free Kindle ebook or reduced-book-campaigns.

Their dreaded email answer looks something like this: “The editorial team reviews all the submissions that meet our minimum guidelines for a certain category and price point, and selects the titles within that group that they believe will perform best with our subscribers. Other titles the editors reviewed were a better fit for our readers’ current tastes, so they have not chosen your book for a feature…”
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Not the Only Game in Town…
SPR (SelfPublishingReview) explains: “The reason their newsletter recommendations are so effective is because they’re very selective. Their reader base knows they’re getting a good deal on a good book, not just another 99 cent book with no track record.”  A more important reason: BookBub entered in affiliate programs, and only commercially successful books makes them money – additionally to the expensive ads.

SPR records sites for paid listings on their blog, not free books, and advertising via newsletter.  Requirements of most sites are: a great book of at least 100 pages, price not higher than $5.99 maximum, a great cover and at least 4-5 reviews from verified purchases – and the book should be discounted.
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SPR Lists the Top 35:

http://booksends.com/
100,000+ subscribers min. 5 reviews cost: $10 – 125

http://bookgorilla.com/
100,000+ subscribers min. 5 reviews cost: $40 – 75

http://thefussylibrarian.com/
100,000+ subscribers min. 10 reviews cost: $5 – 16

http://bargainbooksy.com/
50,000+ subscribers ~ cost: $25 – 50

http://ereadernewstoday.com/
~ ~ cost: $15 – 25

http://kindlenationdaily.com/
167,000+ subscribers ~ cost: $99.99

http://ebooksoda.com/
~ min. 8 reviews cost: $10

http://fkbt.com/
150.000+ subscribers min. 4 reviews cost: $25 – 100

Read More and Get the Whole List Here at SPR
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So, Why Was Your Book Ad Rejected?
Very easy: with new books, even if they have several 5-star reviews they cannot make enough money through BookBub’s affiliate program with Amazon.  Only books that are already bestsellers are accepted by their “editorial staff” (whoever this might be and whoever their qualifications are…).  Maybe not a loss, as we hear from so many writers that the success with them is dwindling rapidly…

During a research of book advertising companies I came over their website, studied it carefully and read several press releases that they had blasted out.
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No Answers to my Questions.
As a trained business and marketing professional, I asked them several questions, e.g.:

1. What are your Nielsen numbers? An industry standard in media…

2. Are your email lists acquired or genuine through many years of reader contacts obtained?

3. How can you proof the subscriber numbers?

4. Are you belonging to an affiliate program with Amazon or other online retailers

Answer for question 1:
Only through persistence and several emails later, I got half-answers:
No, the amount of advertisers is not confirmed by Nielsen stats or any other organization. I also was wondering about their relatively low number of followers on Social Media and very few tweets or posts to promote their customers, considered what these writers pay for.
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Answer for Number 2:
no comment from them, despite several emails.
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Number 3: See number 1:
The amount of email subscribers can and will not be verified.
Their subscriber forms contains a dozen or more categories / genres that people can choose – and if someone is interested in several (or all genres) they get newsletters for all of them. Which means in turn, they might be “counted” as not only one subscriber, but as many as they choose genres.  So much about inflating subscriber numbers… And they don’t work with independent analyzing companies, who rate the amount of advertising / subscribers
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Answer to my Question Number 4:
It took three emails with inquisitive questions, until they confessed to work with affiliate programs.

Until last spring, advertisers who were enrolled in Amazon’s affiliate programs, earned up to 7% for each downloaded book in the KDP Select free book campaigns (maybe even for Prime members lending). Now these commissions are only paid for books that are at least 99cents.

They are obliged by FTC rules to let each customer and advertiser know that they make additional commissions, aside from the advertising fees –  without disclosing this!

On March 12, 2015 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) updated its guidance for advertising disclosures in a guide called .com Disclosures: How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising….  Which should be clear and conspicuous. Here are some of the highlights from the guidelines:
Consumer protection laws such as the FTC’s prohibition on unfair or deceptive acts or practices apply to all media, including mobile devices.  Disclosures (for Affiliate programs) must be placed as close as possible to the claims.
To file a complaint or get free information on consumer issues, visit ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261.

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