Last week, I ran my first BookBub Featured Deal on my Kentucky Derby mystery, The False Favorite. During the promotion, I discounted the ebook to $0.99 on all platforms. I had heard great things about the power of BookBub for those lucky enough to get a Featured Deal, and I was not disappointed.

Getting a BookBub Featured Deal is especially difficult for indies, so I was honored to be selected. I think it helped that I pitched the novel in April and it has a Kentucky Derby setting–the book always sells well right before the Derby.

Cost of BookBub Featured Deal in Crime Fiction

The False Favorite ran in BookBub’s Crime Fiction category, which is their biggest audience with 2,590,000+ email subscribers. This also means it’s one of the most expensive at $942 for both US and International combined.

You can see the current cost of all BookBub Featured Deal categories, along with susbscribers and estimated sales on their website.

BookBub Sales by Platform

The BookBub Featured Deal ran from Sunday, April 6th to Sunday, April 13th. The majority of sales (673) came on the first day. The second day saw 205 sales, the third had 41, and they tapered down from there.

Here is the breakdown of all sales for the week by platform.

Amazon: 785
Apple: 83
Barnes & Noble: 76
Kobo: 44
Google: 17
Total: 1005

BookBub Sales by Country

The BookBub editors accepted The False Favorite for both the US market and the international market. I figured why not go for both. I’m glad I did because the international sales surprised me.

A total of 263 books sold outside of the US, with most coming from the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. I also picked up a couple sales in New Zealand, Germany, and Ireland.

Did BookBub Get My Book New Ratings/Reviews?

As I write this post, it has only been a couple days since the featured deal ended. Eighteen new ratings have been added on Amazon and about the same on Goodreads. I expect more ratings to come in over the next month or so.

For the record, the rating of The False Favorite on both platforms has stayed about the same at 3.8ish. I assume that means BookBub readers are rating the book similarly to my past readers.

Did BookBub Get My Book on a Bestseller List?

Close, but no. I know some people game the system by putting their books in an obscure category, thereby making it easier to hit number one, but I didn’t really want to do that. My categories are all tough ones to rank in.

That being said, I hit #3 in Mystery on Amazon. Pretty proud of that, considering I was right behind Harlan Coben and Lee Child!

I climbed to #2 in both Southern Fiction and Private Detectives. The highest rank I hit in the Amazon Kindle store overall was #561. Much higher than I’ve ever ranked with any other sale or marketing push.

How Did My Other Novels Sell?

I have two other novels, Slurry and Moneymaker. Both novels are linked in the back of The False Favorite. However, the BookBub Feature has only sold three copies of them. It’s possible more back catalog sales will come in over time.

BookBub Featured Deal Analysis

Overall, I am happy with the results of the sale. It was the best sales week I have ever had as an author. Watching the sales stack up those first couple days was super fun–lots of page refreshing!

Throughout the week, I earned $440. That means I had a net loss of $500 on the promotion due to the high cost of the BookBub deal. Even so, getting my book to that many new readers is worth the cost. During my six years of publishing, I have certainly blown $500 on far less lucrative marketing endeavors.

Bottom line: If I have a chance to do another BookBub Featured Deal in the future, I would not hesitate to pull the trigger.

You can check out all my Southern Crime novels on the shop page.