True Crime is the biggest of four new categories being added by leading ebook promotion website BookBub for marketing campaigns.
The other three new categories are Dark Erotica, Business, and Parenting.
BookBub campaigns email Featured Deals to category lists, which should mean that authors and publishers get their books in front of people who should be interested in reading their book.
The firm says it gets requests for new categories and tests possible new lists and also launches new categories when it sees a sub-genre isn’t performing well within a list.
It cites the example of having only one Romance category until it launched Historical Romance, which wasn’t performing well in the general Romance list because there were Romance readers who didn’t want Historical.
BookBub points out many of the smaller categories it has launched, including LGBT and African-American Interest, have very engaged subscribers, so despite having a relatively small number of subscribers, there are very active readers.
The four new categories cover:
Dark Erotica
BookBub says Dark Erotica is sexy and sensual. Unlike Erotic Romance, Dark Erotica features an unconventional love story with an anti-hero and may not have a happy ending.
Stories can be suspenseful or psychologically thrilling, and many explore the forbidden or taboo. Some readers can find this content disturbing, so BookBub is giving the sub-genre its own niche.
Dark Erotica has the smallest number of subscribers of any of the BookBub categories at just 72,000. A promotion of a free book costs $55, with average downloads estimated at 4,500, within a range of 2,050 to 6,650.
Promotions on books priced under $1 cost $110, while books costing $1-$2 are set at $185 and $275 for titles over $2. Discounted books see an average of 540 downloads in a range of 80 to 1,270.
Business
The Business category consists of books about leadership, management, and work-life balance. It includes advice for businesses of every scale, from running an Etsy shop to making your name in a big corporation.
BookBub says practical advice for small businesses is one example of content that has performed well in this category.
Business has over 250,000 subscribers initially and looks to be good value as a promotion of a free book costs just $85, with average downloads estimated at 4,400 in a range of 2,200 to 6,900.
Books priced under $1 have a promotion cost of $170, $1-$2 cost $285 and over $2 the cost is $425. Discounted books see an average of 600 downloads with a range of 75 to 1,475.
True Crime
True Crime has been a major category for magazine and book publishing for many years and BookBub is now offering it as a separate category for promotions.
The True Crime category is starting with over 510,00 subscribers at a cost of $155 for a free ebook, $310 for a title priced under $1, $525 for a book priced $1-$2 and $775 at over $2.
BookBub estimates an average of 8,000 downloads of a free book, with a range of 3,550 to 11,650. Average downloads for a non-free discounted book are 1,220 with a range of 135 to 2,975.
Parenting
Parenting covers advice and stories about being a mother, father, or grandparent, including the joys and challenges of caring for a child.
The category also looks to offer good value at present, with 263,000 subscribers and promotion costs starting at $60 for a free book, $120 for a book priced under $1, $200 for books at $1-$2 and $300 over $2.
Average free downloads are estimated at 3,700 in a range of 2,065 to 5,860 while non-free discounted books have an average of 350 downloads in a range between 70 and 605.
One of the great advantages of niche lists for authors is they can be less competitive than some of BookBub’s bigger categories, which are often swamped with books vying to get a promotion spot.
The firm points out that if your book is selected for a Featured Deal, its editors will choose to run the deal in the category where which they think the book will perform best based on readers’ tastes.
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