When your book gets selected for a Featured Deal, BookBub editors will craft a blurb for your feature. You might have questions about this blurb — how do we decide what to include? What are the editors’ priorities when they put together a blurb?
I’ve been writing blurbs for several years in my role as a Featured Deals editor, so I’ve compiled everything you need to know about how we position each book we feature for success.
Why Featured Deal blurbs matter
An editor’s job when writing a Featured Deal blurb is to make the book sound as appealing as possible to as many of our readers as possible, while still faithfully representing the book’s content. We want to help our subscribers make an informed decision about whether a book is right for them, but we also want to draw them in and motivate them to click on a retailer link to learn more about your book!
In that spirit, we use what we know about our readers’ tastes — from years of data analysis, A/B testing, and fine-tuning the Featured Deals email — and combine that knowledge with the most compelling plot points and accolades to write a blurb that will help your book attract as many readers as it can.
Here are a few of the things we consider as we compose each blurb.
Length
We aim to create concise blurbs so readers can quickly determine whether they’re interested in learning more about the book. To that end, we keep our blurbs around 25–50 words — enough to get across what a book really offers without overwhelming the reader. This sometimes means using sentence fragments for brevity and to emphasize the book’s appeal.
Example: Know-It-All Anthropology by Simon Underdown
Learn the basics of anthropology with this guide to 50 of the most important ideas from a fascinating field — each of which can be read in a minute or less! An engaging primer on the study of human societies and culture.
Content
For fiction, we focus our blurbs around the most resonant hook we see in a book’s plot. Whether that’s an unexpected murder, a family secret, or a reunion between old flames, we highlight what’s happening between or to the characters and try to make the reader feel invested in it — that’s the key to getting our readers to click on a link and buy your book.
Example: The Complete Bloodlender Trilogy by Zoe Perrenoud
After her dangerous magic puts her mother in a coma, Sophie is sent to live with the Delville family in France. She’s their only hope to save their son, Gauthier, from a mysterious illness — but shocking news about her father’s unsolved murder changes everything… A captivating complete series!
For nonfiction, we emphasize what a book will offer the reader, whether that’s expert advice, a deep dive into a little-known part of history, or a unique angle on a well-known public figure.
Example: The Concise Human Body Book by DK Publishing
This concise visual guide to human anatomy delves into each of the 11 systems of the body in stunning detail. Featuring comprehensive diagrams, photographs, 3D imaging, and more, all updated to reflect the most recent medical information!
For both fiction and nonfiction, we use language that we know appeals to the specific BookBub audience for that category, and we intentionally call out tropes, settings, and elements that we know BookBub readers look for in a given genre. We work hard to make the blurbs as broadly appealing as possible while staying true to the actual content of the book.
We also ensure that our blurb is different from the book’s description on retailer sites. We don’t want to mimic or recycle the language you’ve used to craft your book description; we want to write copy that will stand on its own and speak specifically to the BookBub audience.
Platform
“Platform” is the shorthand term BookBub editors use to refer to relevant information beyond a book’s content that helps it stand out. It includes a book or author’s bestselling status, the number of five-star ratings a book has, accolades and quotes from trade publications or other well-known authors, and any awards the book or author has received.
Including any of these items in a Featured Deals blurb has been shown to improve a book’s performance with our readers, so we strive to balance the number of plot points we include in a blurb with the relevant platform details. Weaving in quotes, bestselling status, and review counts not only adds variety and acclaim to a blurb, helping a book jump off the screen, but it also demonstrates to readers that they can trust BookBub is selecting great books for them to choose from.
Example: Slightly Married by Mary Balogh
“Readers will be delighted” (Booklist). To honor a promise to a dying man, Colonel Lord Aidan visits the man’s sister, Eve. He’s soon proposing a marriage of convenience to save her home in this charming romance from a New York Times bestselling author. With over 6,300 five-star ratings on Goodreads!
Another way we use platform is by referencing a backlist title the author has written if we know the category’s readers will be familiar with it. Most often we reference an author’s most well-known or acclaimed title, but sometimes, if a different book has had a successful Featured Deal in the category in the past, we’ll reference that one because we know that specific title will grab BookBub readers’ attention.
Example: The Lost Whale by Hannah Gold
A “poignant and empowering” novel (Kirkus Reviews) from the author of The Last Bear: Rio is lonely when he moves to his grandmother’s house. But a friendship with Marina — and their shared connection to gray whales — lead him on an adventure he never expected. With over 1,000 five-star Goodreads ratings!
If your book doesn’t have any of these platform elements, not to worry! We write blurbs all the time for books that stand on content alone, and we’re experts at drawing readers in with blurbs that are based on compelling plot points or appealing nonfiction elements.
Comparables
It’s often helpful to give readers a point of comparison when they’re considering whether to click on or buy your book — it can help them know what type of experience to expect. Editors compare Featured Deals to other books and authors, TV shows, and movies to capture a reader’s attention and let them know that a book is for them.
Example: Book People by Jackie Ashenden
A 2025 release perfect for fans of Emily Henry: When Kate opens a bookshop for fun genre fiction, Sebastian, the owner of the highbrow bookstore across the street, doesn’t hide his annoyance. But when the rivals are thrown together for a local literary festival, their story takes an unexpected turn into romance!
New or Recent Release
One final consideration we make when writing a blurb is to note when a book has been published recently. While very new releases are often not a fit for Featured Deals, books that have been released in the last several months or even the last year can be particularly exciting for readers, so we’ll call that out in the blurb.
Example: A Greek Island Gift by Mandy Baggot
Molly is shocked to discover she’s inherited an apartment on a Greek island — and even more surprised to learn she’s sharing it with handsome Christos! As Molly finds happiness in her new home, a surprising secret could change everything… An absorbing new release.
There you have it — BookBub’s approach to Featured Deals blurbs in a nutshell. I hope this has answered your questions and given you some insight into how BookBub editors promote your book. We put a lot of time and thought into how we craft each blurb, critical as it is to your promotion’s success and our readers’ satisfaction.
If you’re curious about what kind of blurb we might come up with for one of your books, make sure to submit for a Featured Deal soon!
