I have subscribed to several mailing lists to receive book deals. I only read a few genres and I like to receive offers regarding only those specific genres. One of the mailing lists I subscribed to is called Bookbub which is famous among indie authors because it has become the next gatekeeper. Bookbub is a finicky creature. It accepts books with four reviews, half of them attesting the book isn’t worth your time even if it’s free, and rejects books with thirty reviews and impeccable ratings. As a full disclosure, I was rejected by Bookbub thrice, but I can live with that. The person in charge of the new version of the publishing slush pile has decided in three different occasions my book isn’t Bookbub material. My series isn’t for everybody and I can understand an established marketing colossus doesn’t want to risk its name with a controversial title. Said so, I know I am not the only one submitting science fiction works to Bookbub, and yet I seldom see scifi titles in my daily mail. Why, I wonder? And so, I asked:
Hi, as a reader, I signed to receive deals in a few genres, among them science fiction. I understand that the largest amount of your subscribers want different genres, but days go by before I see a science fiction title among your offers. I believe that there must be dozens if not hundreds of science fiction books submitted to you every day. I find hard to believe that you can’t find a slot for at least one of them in your daily mail. I am very picky in my reading habits and only buy specific genres, science fiction being my favorite. Also, I only read historical romance, not contemporary. Since you have the two categories together, I had to change my preferences and remove romance altogether. Thank you,
Monica La Porta
Bookbub asnwered not even half an hour later:
Thanks for emailing BookBub. The selection varies from day to day depending on what publishers and authors make available, but we’re constantly expanding our selection, so stay tuned!
Please let us know if we can be of further help, and thanks again for using BookBub.
Best regards,
BookBub Support
Well, shame on you science fiction authors, start making your titles available. Must say, Bookbub does answer rather promptly, though. Now, if they could separate historical romance from the rest of romances they would make me happy.
*And no, I didn’t send them my picture.
Monica La Porta 
I’m not certain I believe them about Sci-fi writers. Some days I feel like I’m spinning my wheels trying to get free promo on various sites. Two have accepted my books. They both set them up for October. I’ve spent too many hours/years writing and publishing to pay for sites to simply put my book covers on their sites. While I’m here, would like to ask you and others to tell me if they know if children’s picture books sell in audio. One of the sites I mentioned is going to post an audio clip of my kid’s book. Wish you the best, Monica. You know how much I care about you and your success. (@Scarberryfields).
Well, I haven’t considered an audiobook for my Prince’s Day Out. My children’s book does poorly, as in pitiful, but it’s also only available for Kindle Fire and iPad, so no wonders about its lack of success. But, it stands to reason that a children’s book should reasonably sell in an audiobook format. Wishing you the best as well, Rebecca, and thanks for stopping by my cybernetic corner 🙂
I followed @JessieBTyson and on Facebook. She’s trying to get into the audio book business. She was born in England, but now lives in Canada. We became good friends. She made the preview audio clip for my kid’s book, Jumper and promotes the heck out of it. Please follow her on Twitter and FB. Chat with her. Don’t know what your funds are like, with you having to go to Italy so many times. However, if you’re right that kid’s books might sell in audio, you should get her to do it. This is the link to the preview audio she did for me: http://bit.ly/17HJmuX Love Ya!
That’s a lovely audio clip! I already follow her. Thank you for the recommendation.
I was under the impression you couldn’t even submit a book to Bookbub without a LOT of reviews. As in, far more than the ones I have for either of my books. Of course, I’m not a science fiction author, so it wouldn’t help in that respect anyway 😉
It turns out Bookbub accepted a book with four reviews and poor at that. I didn’t take a screenshot of said book because it isn’t the author’s fault Bookbub chooses who gets in by reading tea leaves the night before. So, my suggestion if you are interested in landing an add with them is that you should try. You are eligible to send them a request every four weeks. Try to avoid the full moon though…
LOL! I might just do that. They boast very good returns on the fee you have to pay to get listed. It begs the question how realistic the figures they give really are.
If you go on Kindleboard, there is an ongoing thread about Bookbub. It seems that their numbers are real.
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,130094.0.html