Disclaimer:
As far as we know, staff is monitoring this thread so they can provide clarification where needed or outright correct us. The following is simply our personal observations and best estimates.
Earlier in the thread here are some tidbits to assist in what Tapas is seeking in terms of "fit":
Since we aren't the acquisition editor(s) at Tapas we can't say exactly what they are looking for, other than highly addictive episodic content that hooks readers and keeps them purchasing the next update and telling their friends about it.
What we can say with more certainty is that Tapas is a small publisher in terms of enterprise value, so each decision they make is much more impacting to them versus a large publisher such as Hachette. If Tapas backs the wrong book and it goes bust, it's going to impact their bottom line much more than a larger publisher that is better equipped to absorb poorly performing acquisitions.
Tapas has to be very selective by nature.
Even though Tapas has no external advertising costs, printing costs, or distribution costs, they still have to deal with their biggest expense, editing. The EFA quotes that a basic copy editor should receive $30-40/hour and can do 5-10 pages an hour. That works out to be about 43 hours or $1,300 for the standard 80,000 word novel. Additionally Tapas only keeps 35% of a sale, with 30% going to Google/Apple and 35% going to the author. So now a book on Tapas has to produce $3,700 in sales to break even.
If the acquisition team decides your MS can't earn out $3,700, they aren't going to accept it.
Financial cost isn't the only issue. There's also limited editorial resources. To the best of our knowledge there are only two content editors at Tapas, each with only eight hours in a day to edit books. They can only handle so many pages per hour before everything gets backlogged. Because of this, the acquisition editor(s) at Tapas can only put so many books into the queue at one time. Consequently they will only be acquiring books that are A) highly addictive and/or "viral", B) with minimal editing required, and C) that are a good fit to the Tapas demographic.
So if your fantasy submission needs heavy editing, you're best off not submitting it because by nature Tapas can only take on stuff that is more or less "ready for market". You'd be better off hiring an outside editor first prior to submission. If you can't afford one, publish to Wattpad and let your readers do a lot of the editing for you through their feedback.
In terms of "fit", keep in mind that most publishers tend to focus in on a handful of genre. After all, it's better to be excellent at one or two things rather than mediocre at many. As @UzukiCheverie pointed out in a different thread, you don't see Scholastic publishing Stephen King or Harlequin Books churning out gritty thrillers. In terms of "fit" on Tapas, the majority of what they are green-lighting is romance and LGBT. Their focus on these two genre is simply a result of the app's current readership demographics. Case in point, the immense popularity of BL on Tapastic.
If your fantasy does not have a strong element of Romance or LGBT, it's probably going to find difficulty in being accepted.
Tapas is most interested in editing and pushing out something that is immediately appealing to its most profitable demo. Since those two genres are selling very well, it's the low hanging fruit. Now, this doesn't mean that readers on Tapas don't enjoy thrillers, mysteries, etc, they just don't financially support them enough. Case in point, "Zoo" by James Patterson (104k Twitter followers) has just 683 bookmarks on Tapas, while "Cinderella Boy" by Kristina Meister (600 Twitter followers) has 12.4k bookmarks. So what is popular outside Tapas necessarily isn't popular within Tapas.
The acquisitions team's job is to make selections that are guaranteed to sell well within Tapas.
Another example of the demographic skew is how the most frequently tipped comics on Tapastic are BLs. Look on the comic app's official tipping section. Of the 29 comics highlighted there, LGBT themed series hold a commanding lead. Since Tapas earns 15% on every tip, the content team's job is to promote those series that generate the most tips (and shares and new subscribers).
Since the romance and LGBT reading demo of Tapas tends to purchase the most content, that is where staff is focusing their efforts. If you write outside of those genre, odds are more likely you are going to be rejected.
However if your fantasy is a
1) Game of Thrones level of addiction,
2) well polished into neat 400 word episodes with a great hook at the end of each episode,
3) with a heavy dose of Romance and/or LGBT,
then yes, it will probably fit within what Tapas is looking for.
Those are the best tips we can make.
The rejection letter was limited:
"We can definitely tell a lot of work went into this, with the beautiful character sheets and overall packaging of your submission. It certainly is well-written with strong characterization, and read a bit like a movie, but ultimately, it isn't a good fit for Tapas genre-wise."
As you can see the reason for rejection was genre. However as far as rejection letters tend to go, it was rather generous. Many editors say far less.
Unfortunately, being of the wrong genre, there is nothing this MS can do to fit Tapas. It could have Noble Prize level writing and it would not matter. There is nothing that can be improved. You can't make a penguin fly.
In Tapas' defense, the submission was for an alternative history war drama. Alternative history does not sell well.
That said the contest was open to any genre, which ended up being misleading.
As far as our MS, it's "unfixable" as far as Tapas is concerned.
Generally editors who desire a re-submission will say it in their rejection. The rule of thumb is that if you are rejected and no indication is made for a re-submission, to not re-submit.