Have You Heard of BookBub?

So what is BookBub? Well I didn’t know when I first heard of this. An author I follow, Denise Williams, was promoting her new book, The Fastest Way To Fall and she mentioned following her on BookBub. Of course I had to check it out. I never wanted to miss opportunity to get updates on her work, so I googled BookBub.

When you first open the page, in bold letters it reads “Amazing deals on bestselling ebooks.” Well that kind of turned me off a bit. I don’t dislike ebooks (I have a Kindle), however, it is not my preference to read via Kindle. I love the smell of a book and hearing the sound of the pages turning, so I wasn’t so sure about this. But, like I said, I didn’t want to miss promos from Denise, and thus I created an account.

The first thing they do is ask you for your favorites genres. And unlike some other book enthusiast/bibliophile platforms, BookBub seems to have every genre and sub-genre you can think of. I clicked on mostly Romance, Young Adult, and Sci-Fi/Fantasy (which actually is two genres on this site instead of one on most others). This made me feel better about what I had just signed up for.

After I picked out all my genres, I was taken to a home page where you’ll see your recommendations. But before we get into all of that, let’s talk about the lists. Oh yes, they have lists. So anytime you click on a book, you can add it to you Wishlist, I Own It list, Currently Reading, I’ve Finished It list, and I’m Not Interested list. I like these list options better than Goodreads because sometimes I follow authors or genres but I don’t like every book in that genre or by that author. However, I haven’t added any books to this list yet and I don’t know it will affect my recommendations. If someone ever tries it, please let me know in the comments.

Back to the recommendations. So at the very top of the page, you’ll see your Top Pick For You. This can change daily depending on your lists and authors you follow. Below that are four blocks showcasing From Your Wishlist, Most Wishlisted By Readers (which shows up in two blocks), and Your Books List. Below that in list form is the Most Popular In Your Categories section. Then you have You May Also Like . . . section, which doesn’t appear to be based off your lists but just some suggestions. They also have a section for Limited Time Deals on Bestsellers, The Short List section, which is “a weekly collection of today's biggest, buzziest books discounted to $5-$10.” This section is updated every Wednesday so get’em while you can. Also, they have Blog Articles, Recommendations From People You Follow, (a feature I love) Not only do I get to discover new books I might not have considered or that I put on my lists, but I get to see what my favorite authors are reading. Which I don’t think a lot of book platforms allow you to do. So that’s pretty neat. And lastly, New Releases For Less. This doesn’t appear to go off your lists either, it just lists the new releases that happen to be on sale.

So there are a lot of options to choose from on this site that maybe other sites don’t offer. Plus, BookBub is like the TripAdvisor for Amazon, Barnes&Noble and other sites where you can purchasing books. This just puts them all in one place so you don’t have to go searching everywhere else.

Other features this site has to author is the ability to follow authors. You can type in your authors name in the search bar at the top next to your profile pic. And you can manage your authors by clicking the drop down next to you name on the top right, and hitting My Authors, under My Social Feed. Or you can just visit your profile page and click on Following. Kind of like what you do on Instagram. So this isn’t feature that different from what other platforms offer but it’s still nice to have.

Also, you can do book reviews. Here, you go to your profile page and hit Reviews. Then you’ll click on the black that says Find A Book To Rate. If the book doesn’t show in the list, you can also type in the authors name. And if that doesn’t work, go to the Browse at the top of the page next to the Home button.

I kind of don’t like how certain books don’t pop up. Like Jasmine Guillory’s While We Were Dating. I think this is because the book is so new and I preordered it and read it almost the same day of release. I don’t know but I was very unhappy with this. However, I will say I like how they do their reviews.

So once you click on the book, you can hit Review on the far right and a window pops up. At the top of this window, you can hit how many stars you rate it for. It’s only out of five, as most other sites, so that’s not uncommon. Beneath that is a block that says I Recommend This Book. You can click or not click, the choice is yours. Then in the next section, you have all these bubbled words and you can click on as many as you think describe the book. Then below that is the comments section.

I actually like this better than Goodreads because I can pick the words that describe the book and I don’t have to come up with them on my own. But I still get the option to write a full review if I want to as well. So it’s a nice little addition. Unfortunately, you can’t add your own bubbled words, which I think is a real miss opportunity. Maybe someone at BookBub will read this blog and add that feature. Here’s hoping.

Also on your profile page, it asks what are my favorite books. I love and hate this because I could never truly choose a favorite but at the same time, I do have a select few books that I reread over and over. Unfortunately, the site only allows for three but I figured, every month I could choose which three I liked for that month.

I hope this gives you some insight into BookBub and may even want to make you join.

As always, thanks for reading. Until next time . . .