# BookBub > Featured Deals reach millions of genre-segmented subscribers; the free self-serve BookBub Ads platform runs CPC and CPM campaigns across multiple retailers. Source: https://selfpublishingdirectory.com/marketing/bookbub Website: https://www.bookbub.com Category: Marketing (https://selfpublishingdirectory.com/marketing) Pricing: freemium — $0–$4216/per-project AI-powered: no Editor's pick: yes Tags: promotion, deals, newsletter, book-deals, cpc-ads, reader-discovery, multi-retailer Last verified: 2026-08-19 Best For: Wide-distribution authors with a professional cover and review history who can discount a backlist title by at least 50% Marketing Goal: boost-sales, drive-discovery Min Test Budget: 1 Service Type: advertising, newsletter-promo BookBub is a suite, not a single product. Five partner-facing offerings sit behind one free account: Featured Deals, BookBub Ads, Preorder Alerts, New Releases for Less, and a set of free tools. Authors routinely conflate the first two, and the difference determines how you approach and budget for the platform. ## Featured Deals A Featured Deal sends a promotional listing to BookBub subscribers segmented by genre. BookBub reports over 10 million members, and publishes eligible-subscriber counts per category on its pricing page — Crime Fiction 2,240,000+, Thrillers 2,030,000+, Historical Fiction 1,760,000+, down to Children's and LGBTQ+ at 240,000–290,000+. The editorial team is "only able to select about 10-15% of the books that get submitted for BookBub Featured Deals in the US." **Requirements are concrete and published.** The book must be free or discounted by at least 50%, must not have been offered at a better price in the last 30 days, and must be a limited-time offer — though permanently free books are still considered. It has to be available on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, or Apple Books in the US, UK, Canada, or Australia. Page minimums apply: 150 pages for novels and short story collections, 100 for nonfiction, 100 for middle grade, 70 for cookbooks, and 20 for children's picture books. BookBub will not feature the same book more than once every 6 months, nor the same author more than once every 30 days. There is **no published minimum review count or star rating.** Review volume and average rating are weighted selection factors — alongside cover quality, genre fit, critical reviews, and author accolades — not pass/fail gates. **Pricing is a published table of category × deal price.** Costs run from $122 (Children's, free) to $4,216 (Historical Fiction at the $3+ price point) in the all-regions view covering the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Representative all-region prices: Women's Fiction free $832 / $0.99 $1,027; Crime Fiction free $758 / $0.99 $947; Contemporary Romance free $620 / $0.99 $765 / $1–$2 $1,450 / $2–$3 $2,079 / $3+ $2,910. Note that the four-figure prices belong to the $2–$3 and $3+ columns — most free and $0.99 deals land in the $120–$1,100 band. Deals can be scheduled for all regions, US-only, or international-only (UK, Canada, Australia), and the two regional targeting options are priced separately. International-only is the cheaper way to test the platform. BookBub also publishes expected click ranges per category and states that partners "typically see click-to-purchase conversion rates of roughly 20-30%." Featured Deals drive across every supported retailer simultaneously — a major advantage for authors publishing wide. The halo effect is real: authors frequently report sustained full-price sales for weeks after the promotion ends. **Timeline:** books go through editorial review in two to three business days, and deals can be scheduled up to 60 days in advance. If a submission isn't selected, BookBub invites you to resubmit after four weeks. ## BookBub Ads Any author can run BookBub Ads without editorial approval, at any price point. These are banner ads displayed in BookBub's genre emails and on BookBub.com. Target by author name, book category, and retailer. Bidding is **CPC or CPM**, settled in a second-price auction — win the auction and you pay the rate of the second-highest bid, never more than the maximum you set. CPM buys reach and accumulates data quickly; CPC is the lower-risk option because you only pay for clicks that actually happen. The account is free and the campaign floor is $1: "The minimum total budget for a BookBub Ads campaign with fixed dates is $1. For continuous ads, the minimum daily budget is also $1." That floor is real but not practically useful — a $1 campaign buys too few impressions to read. Budget enough to accumulate meaningful impression and click volume per targeted audience before judging a creative. Unlike Featured Deals, BookBub Ads require active management: image testing, bid management, and audience refinement. Passive campaigns rarely return consistent profit. ## The rest of the suite - **Preorder Alerts** email your BookBub followers when a book goes up for preorder. Access is gated — "Only authors with over 1,000 followers are able to schedule preorder alerts at this time" — and the fee is based on eligible follower count, finalized 30 days before the mailing date. - **New Releases for Less** is a weekly editor-curated email of low-priced new releases, usually around $6 or less. Free to submit; the feature fee runs from $57.50 (LGBTQ+) to $1,115.50 (Historical Fiction) by category, bookable up to 30 days ahead. - **New Release Alerts** are free and automatic, with no editorial selection. They go to your followers when you add a new ebook to your BookBub Author Profile up to seven days after release, and are currently sent to US members only. - **Free tools:** Author Profiles and BookBub Recommendations. - **Author Websites** is a separate BookBub product (authorwebsites.bookbub.com) with a free plan covering hosting, email collection, and up to 1,000 emails per month; Pro is $9.99/month and domain registration is $15/year. Useful to know it exists, but compare it against dedicated tools in the email-newsletter category before committing a list to it. ## Strengths - **Scale:** over 10 million members, one of the most purchase-active reader bases in the industry. - **Genre precision:** subscribers self-select their preferred genres, making targeting sharper than broad social media platforms. - **Wide retail reach:** Featured Deals and ads drive simultaneous sales across all major retailers — ideal for non-Amazon-exclusive authors. - **Transparent pricing and requirements:** unusual in book marketing. You can calculate ROI from a published table before you submit. ## Limitations - **Featured Deals are selective:** about 10–15% of US submissions are accepted. New authors may face multiple rejections before landing a first deal. (BookBub's own Insights blog still cites roughly 25%; the support documentation's 10–15% is US-specific and the figure BookBub currently stands behind.) - **Featured Deal pricing is non-trivial in large categories:** the biggest genres run $600–$900 even at the free price point and clear $4,000 at $3+, requiring a clear ROI calculation before investing. Smaller categories are far cheaper. - **Frequency rules constrain scheduling:** one feature per book every 6 months and one per author every 30 days, so you cannot stack deals across a series launch window. - **BookBub Ads need active management:** conversions require regular testing of ad images, copy, and targeting. The platform has a genuine learning curve. ## Alternatives Written Word Media (Freebooksy, Bargain Booksy) offers lower-cost newsletter promotions with less competition. Amazon Advertising reaches Amazon shoppers directly and often converts better for KDP-exclusive authors with no wide distribution.