It’s the third Wednesday of a new month, which means it’s time for another posting of the Author Toolbox Blog Hop!
This month, I’m looking at BookBub.
Why BookBub?
Having an author presence where readers talk about books is essential. Readers can learn more about you, your books and what you like to read. It’s also good for search engine optimisation — your name pops up more regularly on different platforms when people search for stuff.
Once upon a time, BookBub was only a paid service where you request to have your book’s data (blurb, cover, buy links) sent to their email lists. And they still offer this amazing service (if you can get past their gatekeepers). But they have added something even better: a place where readers can leave reviews of books they’ve read, follow their favourite authors, and talk to like-minded individuals.
Unlike other places where readers can leave reviews, this one isn’t (yet) a place for trolls, crazy algorithms that delete reviews because you (might) know the author, or has a set amount you have to spend to leave reviews. It’s FREE to use for readers and authors.
Remember: reviews are good to have.
How to Use
1. Go to BookBub and create an account.
Make sure to fill in everything — and to use the exact name and surname you use on Amazon to publish your books. (e.g. if you use Ronel J van Vuuren to publish your books, you can’t sign up as Ronel Janse van Vuuren.)
Remember to select “author” from the drop-down menu to make sure that you are creating an author account. (You can create separate accounts if you are also a publisher, agent, etc.)
2. Confirm your BookBub account.
It takes a couple of days (1-7) for BookBub to confirm that you are who you say you are and to approve your new account.
3. Login to your BookBub partner account
Because you’re an author, you are automatically a BookBub partner. So go and login to your account.
From here, you can upload your author photo, edit you author bio and add your books. (Just follow the onscreen prompts — it’s very user-friendly.)
Show and Tell
Obviously, I was logged in when I took this screenshot. As you can see, you can change your profile photo (best to use the same author photo for all of your social media networks!) and you can edit your profile.
For your profile, you can change the bio area and you can have a tagline (I use “Enter the world of the fae…” almost everywhere I can).
Below your bio, your published books appear. You can manually add them and links to all the stores are shown.
When you click on a book, it shows you all the data that you expect (cover, reviews, blurb, more books by the author, etc.) and, most importantly, one can add a review, save it to your wishlist and you can view the price.
When you click to view the price, it shows you all the stores the book is available from. And from there, you click your preferred store and can buy the book.
Awesome, right?
Similar Services
You should have your author bio, website link, along with your books on as many places as you can.
Goodreads
What’s great about Goodreads is that readers can learn everything they want about an author, see rankings for their books, find their books on any store, share reviews, and find similar authors. And it’s FREE to use.
Just go to Goodreads an sign up. To get an author account, you need a reader account first (then publish a book, request that you be added as that book’s author, and basically just follow the guidelines here).
All Author
Basically, you go to the site and sign up for an account. They have different tiers — free and paid plans. I’ve opted for the free plan. You get your author photo, bio, various links and four books to feature.
Again, readers can see various details about the book and where they can buy it. The “buy now” button takes them to a page showing all the places where they can buy the book and they can choose their preferred store.
As you can see, readers can start a book discussion, learn more about the book and the author.
Amazon
To have an author page on Amazon, you need to be a published author — with your book available on Amazon — and have an Author Central account. It’s in your Author Central account where you can add your bio, author photo, RSS to your blog, add videos, claim your books and basically create a great reader experience.
Note that your author page won’t show up on all Amazon stores. You’ll have to create author central accounts with each store that supports it.
And you’ll have to have books available there to have your account.
Remember to have all your profiles look the same!
Again, readers will see all of your books on your profile page and can see if they are interested in one. Then they can click through, see the blurb, image, reviews — and they can immediately purchase it in the format they want from Amazon.
Unfortunately, reviews can only be left by readers who spend a set amount of money on Amazon — and sometimes reviews are removed by the site.
You can also try out the book promotion sites listed here.
Remember to add your BookBub badge to your site!
What do you think of BookBub and the other sites where you can promote your books without doing much except creating an account and adding your bio and links? Do you use these sites? Any sites you’d recommend?
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Yeesh, I had no idea we had to create profiles for all the different amazons. Good to know. And interesting that this is what bookbub is becoming. I feel very behind the times, and I’m making myself a note to sign up. Bookmarked for future reference with respect to amazon as well. Thanks, Ronel!
You’re welcome 🙂
I just followed you on Bookbub. Can you tell? it shows such limited information.
Got the email!
Via email they show you who is following you, who recommended your books/recommended books if you follow them, profile views and followers every week, and send updates on new releases/promotions of authors you follow.
Thanks for the reminder about the various amazon sites. I just changed my author profile but forgot to change it everywhere! Except for Japan. Can’t figure that one out.
I know, Japan is a difficult one. When my UK and other European stores got mixed up, I just sent them an email to fix it for me 🙂
I already had a BookBub account, but after seeing a post at Anne R. Allen’s site, I decided to start using it for reviews. I try to go in once a week and add some (older) reviews of books from Goodreads.
After reading Anne’s post, I did the same!
Thank you for sharing your tips on all of these resources. I like your pictures too 🙂
You’re welcome 🙂
Great post. I really like BookBub and Goodreads. The screenshots are awesome. A very easy to follow guide. TY for sharing!
You’re welcome 🙂
I’m just starting to think about BookBub. I have an account but haven’t done much with it. It’s interesting no one ever mentions B&N.com. I ignore them also!
B&N pretends that I’m not real (people from my country cannot publish directly with them — but D2D helps with that), so I pretend they aren’t real either 😉
Thanks for the tip. Maybe the dream will get a little closer. 🙂
Anna from elements of emaginette
You’re welcome 🙂 Dreams are meant to be pursued!
I had never heard of Book Bub. I’ve signed up and followed you – it looks like a neat resource for reading and authoring. : )
Totally! Thanks for following 🙂
Ronel! I am bookmarking this post for sure! I hope to publish both my college memoir and a collection or two of my YA adventure short stories. I have so much to learn. Are Book Bub and Goodreads ONLY for physical books or ebooks, too? Thanks for all you do to assist your fellow writer.
You are most welcome, Victoria 🙂
They’re for all of your books. You add the different editions (epub for most online stores, mobi for Amazon, paperback, audiobook, special edition, etc.) on Goodreads with their ISBNs/ASINs and that allows the program to send readers to the different stores. On BookBub you just claim your books.
I’m going to look into Book Bub. I have the others, but I need to revisit to update them. Thanks so much for this great overview of ideas!
Thanks for the tips! I’ll have to check out All Author. I’m already on BookBub & Goodreads, but I know I could do more with those sites.