Books Go Social Reviews

Name: Books Go Social
Address: 5 Dame Lane, Dublin
Rating: 3.50

3.5 Rating 179 Reviews

60 %

of reviewers recommend Books Go Social

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3.5

Based on 179 reviews

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Books Go Social 2 star review on 29th July 2024

Anna Maria DiDio

Books Go Social 1 star review on 13th June 2022

Chet Novicki

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Sort by: Most Recent Most Recent Highest Rated Filter: None None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“I had a difficult time with BooksGoSocial at the beginning. They asked me to pay an extra $50 to have my cover updated. I had created my own cover in MS Word and liked it, but they were right. I had almost no sales with the old cover and now it's selling. And the extra payment was more than fair. I am very happy with the sales now. I never sold this many books before. I recommend BooksGoSocial. They have a solid process for helping authors.”

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Posted 3 years ago

“I inquired about BGS as part of a free workshop for Children's authors. Turns out you get what you pay for. It was obvious that the reviewer made no attempt to understand the book and asked questions in the review that had nothing to do with the book content. Very disappointed as I was looking for ideas on how to market my book. I never gave permission for anyone at BGS to review the book.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 months ago

Hi Anna Maria, I am sorry that the review happened without your permission. We are happy to provide an Editorial review or NetGalley reader review one month service free of charge any time this year to compensate for this error. Apologies. Email me directly at: laurence@bgsadmin.com to receive either of these.

Posted 3 months ago

“They were good a couple of years back when indie was first off and running. They seemed more personally in touch with their writer. Now, the work has been delegated a lot of the work to representatives, makes for lack of follow through. Bottom line it didn't do much, if anything for sales. I can do better myself on Amazon, FB, TikTik, IG ads.”

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Posted 8 months ago

Happy to provide a free extra service to help with your next book to compensate for any poor service received or refund you. Please email me directly with details on which service was not delivered as you wanted it: laurence@bgsadmin.com

Posted 3 months ago

“Laurence and his staff were very helpful in reviewing, editing and making my book more market ready! Also I have had more sales since using their ads and marketing campaigns.”

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Posted 9 months ago

“It gave me an honest review of my memoir's summary and their review helped me edit the summary and made it so appealing to prospective readers or buyers of my Amazon books.”

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Posted 9 months ago

“Completely useless. Zero impact on sales Waste of money”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Posted 3 months ago

“Used Books Go Social's NetGalley service. I didn't get any reviews for most of the month. Then I emailed them to ask, and got a two line review that looks like a bad ChatGPT imitation - clearly bogus and most likely written by their staff. By the end of the month, I had two more reviews. One was four stars but gushed about everything. Another was five stars. Those reviews were on NetGalley and only one (a first timer) posted a few lines on Instagram. Zero reviews with links to buy. Three reviews on NetGalley where people read for free anyway, This is a very far cry from the librarians, journalists, booksellers, book bloggers and what not you're led to believe when making the payment. The book, cover and description have consistently got good feedback and their team too didn't find any fault with them. Complete waste of money and when I asked, I was told to email people who downloaded the book myself, as though nagging reviewers results in good reviews. In comparison, I got 5 star reviews from legit buyers on Amazon who paid to buy my book and left a kind word too. No nagging needed. No clue who they are. Basically, I paid for people to download my book for free. I was told this is because they approve anyone who wants the book, whether likely to review or not just so they can claim a larger number of downloads, even if actual reviewers were hardly any and none useful. Maybe if you're in a genre like romance it works. There are books in YA/romance that had several reviews. Or if you're a big name like Cory Doctorow, etc. But as a sci-fi writer, that was a complete waste. Even when my book has excellent feedback and reviews, though few in number, it simply didn't reach enough interested readers.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 year ago

Posted 3 months ago

“I paid $99 for a blogging class. I didn't have time to go to it for a few months. Went back and forgot info I gave to sign in. When I tried to get help to fix the problem--no reply. It's now weeks since I informaed them of my problem.”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

Hi, we have sent you a new password and a code to get free access to all our other courses. Please check your spam folder. If you have not seen any reply, please email: laurence@bgsadmin.com

Posted 2 years ago

“A couple of days ago, I wrote a one-star review of this company, basically stating how unhappy I was with the results of my advertising with them. Since then, I've heard from Laurence O'Bryan, the company founder, and I'd like to bring readers up to date on what has happened. First of all, he refunded the entire amount ($350.00) I'd paid them and, second, he said they will continue advertising my book (The Trouble with Podoks) at company expense. We'll see how the second part goes, but I just want everyone to know that this is a reputable company, not a rip-off, and if my previous review gave anyone that impression, I'm sorry - that's not the case. So the five stars in this review is not for the advertising results I got but for the company's trustworthiness. I don't believe I've EVER received better or more prompt service from any company with which I've done business. In short, IMHO, you can trust this company.”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

“Paid $350 for two months of promotion. Five weeks in and I've had ZERO sales and 1440 page reads in KU (worth less than $7). Book has 39 global ratings (4.6 stars average, 75% 5 star, 14% 4 star), a nice, professional cover, well edited and formatted, etc., and still no sales. Can't say this is worth anyone's money. I've had much better results with book promo sites like Freebooksy and BookDoggy (BookDoggy sells a package of five ads for $70 - $14 an ad - and I've had excellent results advertising with them). My advice = Save Your Money!”

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Posted 2 years ago

“I recently bought into the idea that this belligerent ad agency could actually help me sell my books. I believed all these years of experience and all here ads they’d run would carry over to me. With only 2 sales in 3 weeks, I couldn’t have been more wrong. When I first confronted them about this, and I kid you not, I sold my entire catalog (5 books) working an hour. I can’t prove they did this to make me go away, but it’s very shady. Also, I got no sales during the email promotion. How does a book of any caliber bomb that hard? They asked me to discount my book. I did. I sold nothing. As for the social media promotions, despite their large followings, they get no engagement apart from my retweets. That’s right. I ave to do the work for them despite paying for this mediocre service. Lastly, I keep asking for ad reports so I can keep up and they keep forgetting. A word of advice for business owners. When a customer is upset, go out of your way to make them happy. Don’t go telling them about how the page reads are going to come in or that it’s their fault for not utilizing all the services. I asked for a refund earlier and they told me to take a quiz and make sure I was fully utilizing their services. Lobotomized customer service at its finest. I’m going to keep fighting for a refund because these incompetent fools don’t deserve a penny of my hard earned money. Don’t hire them. It’s a scam!”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 years ago

Hi, we are sorry you are unhappy with our service. If you did not get a full refund please email: laurence@bgsadmin.com and we will refund you in full.

Posted 2 years ago

“BooksGoSocial is the worst. They promise everything but never deliver. All they do is take your money and run. I did a Netgalley promotion through them and got nothing! I paid them for Amazon ads only to be told they couldn't market my book because I didn't have the rest in the series out. So, I suggested they market a different book I had where all the books in that series were already released. They sent the same reply, that they couldn't market it. SO, I sent them a third one to market only to receive the same reply. At this point Tanja stopped responding to my emails and Lawrence sent me one saying that the cover of my books were unprofessional, and unless I allowed them to create new covers, which I would have to pay for, they would not market my book. Bear in mind, I had already paid them for the Amazon ads! And I had hired a professional cover artist to create my book covers. At this point, I had asked for my money back only to receive no reply. I sent several messages demanding my money back. I only got a refund after I found one of their facebook pages and threatened to open a PayPal dispute if they continued to refuse a refund. After which, Lawrence blocked me on facebook. Stay away from BGS. They will take your money and run. They do not advertise your books or keep their end of the bargain and always try to get you to pay more for their services. You're better off running your own ads.”

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Posted 3 years ago

“I received a full refund though I had not asked for one. I would have preferred to get the service. But they are honest.”

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Posted 3 years ago

“What did they do? Nothing. When I asked about the ads, they didn't answer. I sold more books (more than 0 is easy) with a guy I hired on Fiverr, and for far less money. The only thing they do is to tell you what to do, they don't do it for you. How helping!”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

Hi Gabrielle. I am sorry we were unable to sell this book. We have a full money-back guarantee so you get all your money back. Bilingual speculative fiction can present challenges, but you will get all your money back on the service you paid for.

Posted 3 years ago

“I am amending the one-star review to five. It was a misunderstanding on my part. BooksGoSocial, went out their way for me. Not only that they refunded my money in full, they continued with the service is if paid in full. They really went way, way out of their way for me...and that's what I call good business. I highly recommend this service. I got more clicks and more attention on my sites. Good going BGS. I definitely will do more business with you. Have a good day. A safe day!”

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Posted 3 years ago

“Sav e your money. I spent hundreds of dollars for promotion, supplied them with all the information needed. And then, I was forgotten. It was left up to me to inquire. The results were dismal. No activity with my book on Amazon. When I approached them, they gave me excuses after excuses. To top it all off, I again wrote an email and the answer was shocking. And this is after a month of them sitting on my account : We are running your Amazon ads, but they are very slow to start. Initially, I gave them my pre-order information. Read the following..... I should get a refund!!!!!! Will your book be available for pre-order as well? It will help boost ads and orders. Alternatively, we can switch to Facebook.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

Hi HD, we will refund you as we promise to do. Amazon ads are slow to start, as we bid medium. We do offer to switch budgets to Facebook ads if you need a faster result, but having Amazon ads running is recommended, even if they do take time, often 3-5 weeks to even show to readers, which is what Amazon admits. Please email: admin@booksgosocial.com for your refund.

Posted 3 years ago

“I found this service from a writer friend's Face Book post now over a year ago, paid for some initial help in editing my blurb and creating a sub-title, then Amazon, Pinterest, and Face Book ads. At every step, the cost was very fair (and far less than the typical author marketing services), The communications have always been to the point and fast. Most of all, my sales have been remarkable and from many regions. I had only my own hand-to-hand sales to relatives and friends before. Excellent reviews of my work keep piling in on several Amazon regional sites, Good Reads, Smashwords, and Kobo. The book we have been working on together has even made some honest best-seller lists. I don't hesitate to recommend this group to any author. In my experience Books Go Social will not take on a project unless it believes it can help. This is not a "we'll take you money and give it a try" business.”

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Posted 4 years ago

“I paid them to promote my book, but they didn't do it. A year later they sent me a survey asking how they did. I told them that they failed to perform the service, and received an email. They asked me to let them make a new cover for my book, which I was excited about. I told them what my character looks like, and they asked me to find two stock photos. They made it sound like they were bending over backwards. They said, 'We pay for everything....I think I am slightly crazy...don't tell everyone I do this!' The stock photos cost just over a 3rd of what I paid them, and their 'design' method would have taken five mins. I wanted a black teenager wearing armour and a red cape. The'aint no stock photos that come close to that, but I thought they'd edit the detail in. Nope. They wanted to bang one photo on the top of the other and call it a cover. Because I couldn't find a black girl in armour with bushy hair, the cover proposed was gonna be a floating head in front of some burning trees. Anyone with any basic photoshop skills can do this. Even a newbie with no photoshop skills could figure out how to do this. I told them I changed my mind and to either do what I paid for or give me a refund. The review isn't one star because they gave me a refund.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hi, we were going to provide the full service you paid and a free cover for you too. The reason the service couldn't start was that you didn't have reviews. We can't start a promotion for a book with no reviews. We emailed you about this and finally you responded to our survey and we offered a free ebook cover to help you. I am sorry you aren't happy, but you have received all your money back. We keep our word. We refund where we can't help.

Posted 4 years ago

“I've wasted hundreds of dollars on BooksgoSocial. I tried every one of their marketing options believing all of their made-up hype. However, I did not try their expensive Amazon Ads, which I figured would be another failure like the rest of their marketing. I never sold one book with them. I can't believe that BooksgoSocial is now charging authors for their newsletter which gives publishing advice. Bookbub and others offer their newsletters for free. I have unsubscribed from BooksgoSocial about 3 times, yet they still send me emails trying to sell me their worthless marketing. I agree with the others about their Netgalley service. I finally asked for a refund because after a month, they had not listed it though they originally said the Netgalley listing would go up in five days.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

I hope you use our refund policy to receive your money back. More on that below. We refund authors every week and have no problem refunding. I am sorry you were disappointed. We can't help every author and every book which is why we refund when we can't help sell books. The publishing advice email you speak about includes free extras including a free place on NetGalley for a month worth $79. See the details of all the free extras here: https://laurenceobryan.substack.com/p/publishingreinvented-13-purpose-in We also have a lot of 100% free advice at our blog here: https://services4authors.com/ You can also access our training courses free as a member. That's $600 of training. I am sorry you are angry that we didn't even sell one book......here's our promise to you.....email us all your payment details and we will refund every cent you paid us. Email us at: admin@booksgosocial.com

Posted 4 years ago

“Having attended several writer's conferences in the US I have never encountered an organization so committed to helping authors reach potential readers of their books. Laurence O'Bryan, Books Go Social founder, continues to provide advertising, marketing and tutorial support that engages and inspires authors of all levels via an online outreach crossing continents from Dublin, to Nova Scotia, Australia and the US. His staff is not only personable, but supportive of each request for guidance and assistance. The Dublin Writer's Conference continues to expand its offerings and hosts presentations by experts in the field of writing, film, sales and marketing. If you are searching for a writer's organization that cares, you can't do better than getting in contact with Books Go Social.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Books Go Social is rated 3.5 based on 179 reviews