BookBub is a site where readers can subscribe for free to a daily newsletter and receive news about free and bargain books in the genres of their choice. Achieving a spot on their daily deal has been coveted by authors for years. BookBub has strict guidelines on what works for them, and authors may apply numerous times before getting accepted. As a reader, I like this site to discover new series and authors that I enjoy reading.

I have done daily deals twice before, both for international markets only. This time, I landed one that included the U.S. for Easter Hair Hunt on March 10 at a discounted $0.99 price. Expecting to pay $1036 for my Cozy Mystery spot, I was surprised to learn BB had just instituted a new policy and the cost would be reduced to $829. This new policy allows BB to offer two books per day in the same genre. Prior to this change, I believe there was only one book per day per genre, which led to less competition.

As before, I stacked other ads around this date. These included sites such as Book Doggy, Authors XP, Bargain Booksy, a 5-day Facebook ad via Written Word Media, Book Goodies, The Fussy Librarian and EReader News Today. Including my own newsletter cost and a BookBub ad, this brought my total ad costs to $1406.

Then rumor said March was a month designated for an Amazon boycott. Whether this affected my sales or not, it’s hard to tell. Sales on Amazon had generally been down this year. By the end of March, I did not earn back the money I’d invested in this venture.

One thing that may have affected sales is that the story blurb for my book could have been better written. I had no say in the ad copy, and I worried that this description might discourage readers rather than entice them to buy the book. Hopefully, this wasn’t the case. Also, if readers chose a lot of categories, they might have to scroll down to find my title on the second page of their newsletter.

A big bonus was that Easter Hair Hunt made #1 on the Amazon Bestseller List in their Holiday Fiction category. So that was a win. And the number of Amazon ratings for my book increased, if not the number of reviews.

I also saw many more downloads of my first-in-series permafree title, Permed to Death, and a rise in purchases for other books in the series. Sales swelled at sites such as Barnes & Noble, Google and Apple.

Two months later, as I revise this post, I finally saw increased sales at Amazon. Since there’s a time lag in royalties, this could reflect March sales even though I didn’t see them at the time. If that’s the case, and this tail continues, I made out better than I’d thought and the BookBub Deal ended up having a positive influence on overall sales.

How about you? As a reader, do you click all the way through the newsletter when you receive it to check out all the choices? As a writer, have you had success with a BB Deal?

NOTE: This post has been revised as of May 31, 2025.