Building Flawless Author Foundations

We’re continuing the series on building author foundations by claiming your author profiles on BookBub. 

BookBub is a free resource that allows readers to find recommendations and deals in their favorite genre and from their favorite author.  It has powerful email marketing and promotions tools that every author should be familiar with. I’m going to begin by walking you through the steps to set up and claim your account. It’s a little more complicated than the previous profiles on Amazon and GoodReads we discussed in my last posts.

Setting up your profile

Before you can claim your work on BookBub, set up an account. It’s simple and you’ll be prompted through the steps as soon as you land on the homepage. Set up includes choosing your favorite genres, authors, and book format. The author part is important. Be sure to like authors you’ve read or enjoy reading so that you can write reviews here on BookBub. Once you’re set up your account, go to account settings to update your profile – add a profile picture and change your account name to your name, not your email address.

Once your profile is set up, scroll to the footer navigation where you’ll see “Publishers and Authors” heading. Near the bottom, click on Partner Dashboard, then click on “Don’t have a Partner account? Sign Up”. Follow the prompts to set up your partner account as an author.

Claim your Author Profile

Once your partner account is set up, you can “claim your author profile”. In the next step, you’ll search for your EXACT author name. In your name isn’t there, you will be prompted to “claim” it. To do so, you’ll need to confirm you’re an author providing a link to your Kindle book and connect your Twitter or Facebook account. Again, be sure that your name matches your published name exactly.

Whew!

You’re done. Sort of. It will take a few days for your account to be confirmed. Once it is, you’ll receive an email from GoodReads. Go back to your partner dashboard to add your bio and look for “books” in the left column. From here, you can search and claim your books. If your book is not in the BookBub library yet, do not despair. When you search and cannot find it, which happens more often than not for self-published authors, you’ll see an option to add the book to their database. This may take some time. If you’re concerned, reach out to their overwhelmingly helpful support.

Why BookBub

BookBub readers are book buyers. According to BookBub, 63% of subscribers are daily readers. Many readers subscribe to BookBub emails for deals, but 76% pay full price for every book format. It’s a great idea to subscribe to their blog, a goldmine of reader research.

Like your Amazon and GoodReads profiles, BookBub is a great contributor to your SEO. There are opportunities to advertising on BookBub and apply for email promotions. Like other social media channels, you’ll “follow” people and people can “follow you”. BookBub readers receive deal and new release emails daily or weekly in their preferred genres and announcements when the authors they follow release new books (That means you!).

Get to know BookBub

I suggest you take advantage of BookBub’s knowledge base within your Partner Platform to learn more about promotions, email marketing and other partner services. Look for articles in their blog with instructions, resources, and research to help you grow your author platform. Another way you can do this, is by linking to your BookBub profile on your other social platforms and your website. You’ll want to gain an engaged following here just like any other social media platform.

Just like any social platform, once you’re set up and confirmed, I know you might find it’s not for you. That’s okay. Regardless, you’ve improved your SEO (search engine optimization) just by claiming and setting up your profile. At the very least, be sure your books are claimed as you release them and that you follow your favorite authors.

As always, if you have questions, please feel free to leave them in the comment box below. If you’re feeling stuck and need a little help, schedule a time to get “unstuck” in a free, 30-minute consultation with me. I’ll do my best to help you get unstuck.