Are my BB ads sabotaging my requests for BB featured deals?

[Sailor Stone]

I have been applying for BB featured deals for years and I have never been selected for one. Fine, I get that it's competitive. However, I also regularly run BB ads for my books and when I do I put the books on sale and lower the price. I was looking at BB's page where they discuss the criteria for getting selected and it has this under the submissions requirements:

The best deal available. We won’t consider a book if it has been offered for a better price in the last 90 days, or if it will be offered for less in the near future.

 My obvious question then is, have I been paying BB to run ads and also removing my applications from consideration for featured deals by dropping the price of my books for these ads?

[Simon Haynes]

If the 'bargain' price you're offering them for the Featured Deal is higher than readers can get it for now, or at any time in the past 90 days, then yes. (Where and how you advertised that lower price doesn't matter. They seem to have the ability to track recent prices across various retailers.)

That's what I believe, but I'm sure others will have different opinions.

PS I once asked whether offering a book as a reader magnet counts as a lower price, and Bookbub said no.

[Bill Hiatt]

I have been applying for BB featured deals for years and I have never been selected for one. Fine, I get that it's competitive. However, I also regularly run BB ads for my books and when I do I put the books on sale and lower the price. I was looking at BB's page where they discuss the criteria for getting selected and it has this under the submissions requirements:

The best deal available. We won’t consider a book if it has been offered for a better price in the last 90 days, or if it will be offered for less in the near future.

 My obvious question then is, have I been paying BB to run ads and also removing my applications from consideration for featured deals by dropping the price of my books for these ads?

If the BB ad runs within 90 days of the date you want for the feature, it could be that that's an issue. The criterion doesn't say this specifically, but I was told back in 2012 that BB also wouldn't feature a book if it had been on sale too much, so even if the price weren't lower than the price you planned to feature the book at (and that idea is still true), it could conceivably be an issue.

This is the kind of question it might be better to ask BB directly. It's unlikely any of us will know the answer.

[Sailor Stone]

Good points. I will ask BB about this and come back with their answer. Thanks.