From BookBub:
BookBub editors get on average 300 Featured Deal submissions per day and are only able to accept 10-20% of them. Why might we select one book above another? What criteria do we look at?
In this post, we’ll reveal some of the most common reasons why a book is rejected for a BookBub Featured Deal, from unmet minimum requirements to cover design issues and other common pitfalls.
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1. The book was too short
One of our minimum requirements to qualify for a Featured Deal is that the work should be full length. Sometimes we receive submissions that do not meet our minimum page count requirements:
- Novels and anthologies: at least 150 pages long
- Nonfiction: at least 100 pages long
- Cookbooks: at least 70 pages long
- Middle grade books: at least 100 pages long
- Children’s picture books: at least 20 pages long
Any work that is too short isn’t eligible for a Featured Deal.
How to fix: Consider bundling multiple related short titles together to make an anthology (just double check our box set rules). Or, submit other titles that do meet BookBub’s page length requirements.
2. The deal didn’t meet our pricing requirements
BookBub promises readers deeply discounted and free books. We expect these promotions to run for a limited time, although we do accept permafree titles. To qualify for editorial review, a book must meet our discounting requirements, which you can read here. However, we often receive submissions for books that have already been on sale for a month or more, or have not been discounted to at least 50% off the predominant historical price. Unfortunately, these pricing issues will disqualify a submission for Featured Deal selection.
How to fix: In some cases, a book could qualify for a promotion if you submit it at a lower price point. For other issues, since we look at pricing history for the past 90 days, try raising that title’s price and resubmit in three months.
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5. We found evidence of a bad reader experience
We want to feature great deals on quality books that our readers will love! If we see that readers are generally having a bad experience with a book, we’ll take those factors into account. For instance, if multiple reviews mention typos, grammatical errors, that the book feels incomplete, or that the story ends in a huge unresolved cliffhanger, that will negatively impact a book’s chance of being selected.
How to fix: For typos or grammar issues, make sure to hire a professional editor. If a book has a significantly open-ended cliffhanger, try bundling it with other books in the series into a box set so the story is complete.
6. The cover wasn’t a good fit
They say “don’t judge a book by its cover” — but let’s be honest, we all do. Readers have different expectations for covers depending on the book’s genre, and elements like the image, typeface, featured characters, and colors all impact how readers approach a book. BookBub editors know what types of covers our readers respond to, and if a book’s genre is unclear at a glance or the image does not appear professionally designed, they may be less likely to accept.
How to fix: Examine the covers of popular titles in the book’s genre and decide if the cover needs a redesign. If so, you might want to hire a professional cover designer — you can check out some of our cover design resources here.
Link to the rest at BookBub
“try raising that title’s price and resubmit in three months.”
Raise the price before putting it on sale: An old and consumer-unfriendly (read: slimy) retailer’s trick. Should BookBub — or anyone else — be encouraging such behavior?
Bookbub have been selling bulk spots to publishers who put up some terrible books, especially Open Road Media.
It’s true. But readers keep buying them, it seems.
So far this year I’ve made three BB submissions, and have had three ‘featured deal’s. The last one got me to ‘best seller’ status on ‘Zon in paid books. What’s not to like?
Looked more like ‘9 Reasons to skip the gatekeepers at BookBub’ to me …
I’ll be perverse and say I don’t believe covers, after rising above a threshold level, are all that and a bag of Doritos.
#9 You weren’t lucky.
Similar to a rejection from an agent, ‘Not right for us now,’ when they really mean they have limited room, and too many submissions.
Sort of like ‘we are not able to offer you admission to Princeton, but this means nothing bad about you or your qualifications.’
Doesn’t help – because there’s nothing you can do about it.
At least at BookBub, you can potentially resubmit. At a deeply discounted price. And hope again.
They don’t know the difference between an anthology and a collection.