Should You Get Book Reviews On Pubby?

I have mixed messages about the question … Should You Get Book Reviews On Pubby.co?

YES.  IF you are in a hurry, AND have a bit of time to read and review other authors books.

NO.  If you start working on reviews before you hit the publish button. To use pubby.co to get reviews your book has to be published. .

Pubby.co is basically a review EXCHANGE service.  You read and review other author’s books in order to earn points and then you cash in your points to get reviews in return.  As per usual with any reviews from anywhere, you have NO control over the kind of reviews you will get.

You MIGHT think that because people are “exchanging” reviews you will only get good ones, but not so.  I saw a few one and two star reviews (probably well deserved).  The fact is that the authors whose books YOU review probably won’t be reviewing YOUR book … someone else will.

The reality is … most people are on Pubby.co because they want THEIR books reviewed.  They are not avid readers who want to find great books and fabulous authors.  They are self-publishers who want reviews as quickly as they can get them.  You CAN get reviews as fast as two days to start off with (your book has to go through an approval process.  Once you get going, you can get reviews in as fast as ONE day.

This is a pretty phenomenal turn around time.   BUT and this is a BIG BUT.  Don’t expect great reviews.  Don’t expect reviews with any level of detail or even any level of reality.  You MIGHT get fabulous, detailed and helpful reviews,  but consider that to be totally lucking out.

The fact is, that MOST reviewers may not even read your book.  They “may” skim the table of contents and read your book overview.  BUT for the most part they are going to read the information you have posted  in the Pubby.co information panels and do a generic review based on that.

HINT:  Make sure you put some really good, solid information with some details in your Pubby.co Book Description … it will make a difference in the quality of your generic reviews!

The ONE thing I quite liked aboutPubby.co was that their reviews did NOT come with a statement something to the effect of “I got this book for free on a review network and my ratings and comments had nothing to do with getting the book for free.”  The fact is, when I as a reader see five or ten of these notices in a row I actually DO start discounting these reviews.

As a reviewer on Pubby.co I was very careful about the books I chose to review. I actually READ them and wrote  very good reviews.  LOL  I am a bit obsessive about the quality of books I review and about what I say in my reviews.  I NEVER add poor quality books to my Amazon review list.

In return I got several fast and totally generic reviews.  One of the reviews actually had a helpful comment, but was still mostly generic in nature.  You can expect to get one-sentence or two-sentence reviews, and are lucky if you get anything more!

The fact that you will get mostly generic reviews is the reason I gave my mixed comments above.   Use this service when you NEED  a few FAST reviews.  Once you get your first few reviews really WORK on getting reviews from other sources.

To be fair, I actually found a few good and relatively popular authors on Pubby.co. These authors had a few good to great reviews  interspersed with the generics.  So if you are willing to take that chance  sign up for a PAID month … but unless you have three or more books to promote forget about paying for a year.

REMEMBER: You have to write reviews in order to GET reviews so factor that into the time you have available.

What You Need To Know Before Starting:

• Don’t join unless you are eligible to write reviews on Amazon ($50 purchase history in the past year).
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• There is a 10-day FREE trial.
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• You have to part with your credit card number to get the free trial.
• If you go over your 10 days you are automatically charged for either a month at a time OR for a whole year.  Make SURE you click on monthly billing  when you sign up for the free trial.
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• Your book MUST already be on Amazon … you cannot earn points or read other books until you add your book to your account first.
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• You should have this information ready to go as soon as you sign-up:
  *book cover JPG, a book file to upload (either PDF or e-pub,
  *your description ready to copy/paste,
  *sales information about your book,  including categories but also other bits and pieces about the book,such as your two main characters, or chapter headings for non-fiction books.
  *The more information you can provide … the better the generic reviews will be because it gives the reviewers some relevant information to use (copy/paste).
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• It takes approximately one day for Pubby.co to approve your book.  You will get some free start up points, but plan on doing at least one book review first.
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• You can choose to give reviewers a FREE download book  OR  have them pay for the book OR provide a Kindle Unlimited option.  Options 2 and 3 cost you more points.

NOTE:  I am very careful with free trial periods … and mark a cancel day TWO days in advance of what I “think” is the trial period.   I know I am a bit (a lot?) paranoid about this,  but I once missed a deadline by two hours and they would not give me a refund.

ALSO:  I take screenshots  of my cancellation panels and note EXACT (to the minute) times and dates.  I am a very experienced internet buyer and this has come to my “rescue” more than several times.  One time I was able to furnish the screenshots to the credit card company in a dispute.  Bottom line is to take a few extra minutes and make sure you have proof of cancellation.

I am mentioning this because I found two “bad reviews and complaints” about Pubby.co in regard to credit card “mis-use.” I have talked to the  Pubby.co management team and they told me they have already taken care of this.  But it pays to be careful!

A Few Pubby Tips

• Don’t expect great how-to directions (or any directions at all).  If you don’t know HOW to download an e-pub file, you’ll have to look it up on google because you WON’T find it anywhere on Pubby.co .  Ditto with PDF files.
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• There are some really horrendous books on Pubby.co.  My suggestion is to find the books you are considering reviewing on Amazon first and see if there are any existing reviews.  Activate the “look inside” feature.  If you actually plan on reading the books you review, why not pick one that is worth reading!
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• Take screenshots of the reviews you received on Pubby.co and check now and again to make sure the reviews are still there.  The BIG PROBLEM is that Pubby.co does NOT check to make sure members are actually eligible to write reviews on Amazon ($50 purchase requirement).  So these people might write and add a review to Amazon only to have it deleted several days later.  You can ask Pubby.co for your “points” back and get another review BUT it is annoying having to keep track of this!
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• If you decide to get the monthly or yearly service … be sure to check your credit card to make sure you are billed the correct amount.

The Bottom Line on Pubby.co?

• Pubby.co is a useful service if you need reviews FAST.
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• YOU have to write reviews first to get the points you need in order to GET reviews.
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• Don’t expect great reviews because you will most likely get generic reviews.
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• Your reviews will not have “I got this free” statements.
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• Get the monthly service if you have only one book to promote.  Consider the yearly service if you are planning on more books or already have more than one book to promote.
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IF I was giving Pubby.co an Amazon rating out of five stars,  I’d actually give it FIVE STARS  simply because it enables writers with no friends to get a few reviews FAST!

DISCLOSURE:  YES those are affiliate links.  YES you will get a 10% subscription discount IF you use my links.

Want MORE reviews?  Consider these:

7 Ways To Get Those All Important Reviews For Your Kindle Book