We know the BookBub Featured Deals curation process might seem shrouded in mystery, and we often get questions from our partners about how it actually works: Why are some books selected for a Featured Deal and not others? What can you do to boost your chances of being featured in the BookBub Featured Deals email?
The truth is, there aren’t simple answers to those questions or any secrets we can share to guarantee selection. Our approach to book selection is holistic, and our editors consider myriad factors when evaluating individual submissions — including the other books that were submitted at the same time.
BookBub has always limited the number of books we feature in order to avoid overwhelming our subscribers and to ensure all featured books have a chance of performing well. Every book that gets submitted to us goes through the same rigorous curation process, but only about 25% of submissions will be chosen for a Featured Deal.
While we don’t have hard-and-fast rules for what will land a book a Featured Deal, we do aim to be as transparent as possible with our partners, so we’ve created the infographic below to explain our selection process in a step-by-step outline.
We hope this graphic reveals just how tough these decisions can be, and gives you more context for your next submission.
If you’d like to learn more about Featured Deals, check out the following resources:
- Review the Featured Deal submission requirements
- Discover 10 tips to improve your next Featured Deal submission
- Read how to make the most of the Featured Deal submission comment box
- Find out the truth about Featured Deal review requirements (spoiler: there are none!)
- Watch a Q and A with BookBub editors about Featured Deal categories
- Learn how the BookBub editors craft blurbs for Featured Deals
Here is the text from the infographic:
Step One: Minimum Requirements
When a book is submitted, the first thing the editorial team evaluates is whether it meets our most basic requirements for a Featured Deal. Any title that does not meet these requirements is automatically disqualified from consideration — but the vast majority of submissions qualify! Here are the requirements to check before submitting your book for evaluation.
- Deep discount: Is the deal price discounted by 50% or more from the current price?
- Best price: Would this deal be the best price offered for this ebook within the last 30 days?
- Error-Free: Is the book free of typos and grammatical errors?
- Special Offer: Is it on sale for only a limited time? (This requirement doesn’t apply to permanently free books, which are eligible for consideration)
- Book Length: Does it meet our minimum page count requirements? (150+ for novels, 100+ for nonfiction, 70+ for cookbooks, 100+ for middle grade, and 20+ for children’s picture books)
- Retailers: Is it available on at least one of our supported retailers? (The more the merrier!)
- 30 Days: Has it been at least one month since this author’s last Featured Deal?
- 6 Months: Has it been at least six months since this book had a Featured Deal?
Step Two: Quality Assessment
Next, our editors find out as much as they can about each book. While they can’t read every title that gets submitted, they review all the information available to a reader when making a purchase decision, including everything from cover design to reviews. The more information our editors are able to gather, the better.
- Reader Reviews: How many authentic reviews does the title have on retailers and other review platforms? What is the average rating? What do the reviews say? While we don’t have a minimum review requirement, our readers are more likely to purchase books that have been well-reviewed by other readers. (If the title is a brand-new release that hasn’t been published long enough to have reader reviews yet, it might be a better fit for BookBub’s New Releases for Less product!)
- Critical Reviews: Has the book been positively reviewed by established publications or other authors who we know our subscribers enjoy?
- Author Accolades: Has the author written a bestselling book? Have they received any noteworthy awards?
- Cover Design: Does the cover look professional and aesthetically appealing? Does it align with reader expectations for the book’s genre?
Step Three: Content Fit
After featuring over 200,000 books, we have gathered a lot of data about the content that performs best in each of our categories. Each Featured Deals category has a specific audience of readers who like certain plotlines and subgenres better than others, so our editors optimize for our subscribers’ unique tastes and track how these preferences change over time. In Historical Fiction, for example, books in the following subgenres and with the following content elements consistently perform well with our audience:
- World War II
- Middle Ages
- Family Saga
- Victorian England
- Dual Timeline
- Biographical Fiction
- Tudor or Elizabethan England
- Multigenerational Story
Step Four: How It Compares
At this point, BookBub editors often have to choose between multiple high-quality books that meet the minimum requirements and include content elements that our readers enjoy. Each category has a set number of deals we can feature each week, so editors have to choose the most competitive submissions, even if there are other submitted titles that would also appeal to our readers.
As an example, let’s say our editors have narrowed down a group of submissions to these three hypothetical Historical Fiction titles. In terms of quality and content, all three are a great fit for our audience, but there is only one remaining slot available in that category.
Book 1:
Deal Price: $0.99
Average Rating 3.7
108 Reviews
Available only on Amazon
Book 2:
Deal Price: $0.99
Average Rating 4.2
79 Reviews
Available on all retailers
USA Today bestseller
Book 3:
Deal Price: $1.99
Average Rating 4.4
86 Reviews
Available on all retailers
Step Five: Final Selection
In this hypothetical example, our editors have to make a tough decision and pass on two books that our subscribers would probably enjoy. They ultimately decide Book 2 is most likely to perform best for a number of reasons.
It’s by a USA Today bestselling author, an accolade that has historically generated high engagement from our readers
We promise our subscribers we’ll send them the best deals available; at $0.99, this submission is more appealing than a $1.99 deal with similar reviews and ratings
The deal is available on every retailer, which means all of our Historical Fiction subscribers will be able to snatch it up!
It has a high number of reviews, a factor we’ve found to be associated with increased reader interest
When In Doubt, Just Submit!
The best advice we can give to boost your chances of getting a book selected is to submit it as often as you can (every 30 days). This is because the selection criteria is always changing along with our readers’ tastes and the pool of other submissions we’re considering at any given time.
Our editors always look at current trends in each category when reviewing submissions to see what content our readers have been responding to in recent weeks. Last month, World War II novels might have performed best. But next month, Civil War novels might be most engaging for our readers. We often see our readers’ tastes change over time!
Additionally, the other books being submitted alongside yours are different every time you submit. So if your book wasn’t selected for a Featured Deal this time, it might compare more favorably next month based on the other books we’re reviewing and the space available in our calendar.
This post was originally published on July 7, 2015. It has been updated with the latest information and best-practices.
