ACK I GOT A BOOKBUB FEATURED DEAL!!!

HOLY POOP! HOLY POOP! HOLY POOP!

Ok folks. This is major. If you work in publishing you probably already understand why I'm so excited. If not, you are probably wondering why I'm all caps screaming at you across the internet. Assuming that most of my readers don't know why this is a big deal, I will explain.

BookBub is something you may or may not have heard of before as a reader. If you read ebooks, you really should subscribe to BookBub (it's free for readers) as they will send you a curated list of fantastic ebook deals (between free and 2.99, generally) for books that meet their rather rigorous quality standards and also happen to be heavily discounted for a limited period of time. They send those e-mails daily, and they don't repeat the same book in a six month span. Also, each e-mail only contains between 5 and 10 books. Not overwhelming at all, and generally full of good, cheap reads. Plus you can choose which genres you want to hear about and skip all the genres you're not interested in. I am subscribed to BookBub to make my reading habit more affordable. I buy (or download for free) a few books a week from their emails. As an avid reader it's a pleasurable experience, and I'm not alone in enjoying it. Millions (yes, literally, with no exaggeration at all) of readers are signed up for their mailing list.

Ok. So, that's my plug for BookBub, and no, I'm not affiliated with them. They don't pay me anything. Instead they just took a large sum of money from me.

Why?

So that I can get Blade's Edge in front of the 1.9 million readers that are subscribed to the "fantasy" category for BookBub's mailing list.

But this isn't just a pay to play thing. It's a submit and get rejected a bajillion times and then maybe eventually get accepted thing (like much of the publishing industry). And I kind of never really thought I would get a BookBub, because it is, as I mentioned earlier, heavily curated. As in a bunch of traditionally published books get rejected by BookBub, along with the majority of indies who apply. But they DO pick indies occasionally, and they TOTALLY PICKED BLADE'S EDGE AND HOLY CRAP I AM FREAKING OUT!

Ahem.

I mean...

No big deal.

Except it's totally a big deal.

Ok. Deep breath. It isn't a guarantee of anything. The average number of sales for a 0.99 fantasy featured deal are around 1,900. It could be way more than that, it could be way less. That's the thing about averages. But if it's around that number, it will be a huge boosts to Blade's Edge overall sales numbers, its ranking during that week, and hopefully provide a boost to sell through for Traitor's Hope as well.

A number of authors I'm acquainted with online have found BookBubs to be hugely helpful in pushing their writing careers forward. A small handful have found them to be a breakeven endeavor. There is no way to know which mine will be, but I am extremely hopeful and currently looking into all the ways to maximize my experience.

In the meantime, I still feel like I'm dreaming because getting a BookBub is kind of a big deal for a book. It's a stamp of approval that comes from outside of me. It is, believe it or not, more exciting to me than Blade's Edge being a finalist for the Wishing Shelf Book Awards.

Ok. I feel like I'm rambling now, but I was too excited not share this news with folks. The deal will go out on June 4th. I will let folks know about it again around then. And also, both Blade's Edge and Traitor's Hope are now available from every major ebook retailer. For Blade's Edge: click here, and for Traitor's Hope: click here.

Those links will let you choose your favorite retailer and direct you accordingly. :-)

I'm going to stop babbling now and go bask in the warmth of this small accomplishment.

PS. I think it's worth mentioning that while anyone who manages to get a BookBub should feel proud of their book, that does not mean that the reverse is true. There are many mysterious factors in why they choose certain books and not others, and Blade's Edge was rejected 4 times (while it was only available through Amazon) and then accepted on the 5th try (as soon as it was available through multiple retailers). In short, getting rejected by BookBub is not a reason to feel bad about your book. BookBub is merely one tool in the box, and their reasons for rejecting your book could be as simple as, "not available on enough channels," or "not what we need to go with these five other books," or what have you.