BooksGoSocial Reviews 33

Terrible customer service. They did nothing they promised. It was a complete fiasco and waste of money.

I had dealings with BGS a while ago and pretty much everything they could have got wrong they did. I should have known when my proof copy arrived. It was a simple novel but the formatting and the layout of the text were all over the place. The cover design and back cover blurb, upon which I admittedly conferred, were not up to the task and needed to be completely changed soon after. The main problem with the novel though? It was the wrong size. Fiction paperbacks should always be 5.25"x8". Not smaller and not bigger, this I emphasised more than once to Mr. O'Bryan. How difficult can this be to get right? My novel looked like some cheap, children's text book. I liaised with with him to correct all the mistakes only to be told that once the size has been decided upon it is impossible to change.

This has particularly bugged me over the years because I have written other novels the design and selling of which I have managed myself. Without difficulty. My regret is when they all sit upon my, or anybody else's, shelf they don't look as cool as they should and that is because this inept company is unable to get even the basics right.

Needless to say they burned through my money with minimal sales. When I pointed out all the mistakes they had made they uploaded my new cover design without issue. Then I asked Mr. O'Bryan if I might leave a review of his team's efforts on his website. He managed to bribe/dissuade me from going there by refunding me some of my costs and contributing a little to my sales campaign. This I accepted only to see the usual, pathetic level of sales.

All in all an awful experience. My advice, do your research, ask around and launch your books yourself. You won't be any worse than this mob.

Working with BGS was a total game-changer. From the very first consultation with Tanja, it was clear they understood not just the logistics of launching a book, but also the levers that make a launch successful. Laurence's team brought expert-level guidance, a calm and confident presence along the way. We are working together with ads and I consider them part of my launch team

Lawrence from BooksGoSocial contacted me and refunded me in full, which I greatly appreciate. I purchased the Gold Plan for $225 for 60 days of promotion, no extra charges! Yeah, right. They ran through my $75 ad budget in 2 weeks and then asked for $150 for advertizing AND $75 'admin fee'.
Zero new reviews and my revenue was $30.
I did get a video "consultation" which was more "I can do whatever you want, Amazon ads, FB ads, Instagram...whatever. Well, if I knew what was best I would've saved $225 and done it myself.
Do not recommend.

I hoped to make a splash with my latest book and hired BGS to coordinate my new release. They signed me up for Netgalley, Facebook, and Amazon ads. I met with them once, and that was it. Everything seemed to disappear down a black hole. Net Galley was a disaster, as were the Amazon ads. After I talked to them during the initial meeting, I never heard from them unless I contacted them for an update. I have no idea if they adjusted ad targeting or made changes to get better sales, depending on the data they got. I feel like I threw away $650 I'd saved for a year to do something I could probably do better. I've done Facebook and Amazon ads. I was hoping their expertise would take me to the next level. Instead, I sank. Their communication is so bad that I have to ask them when I need to top off my ad account. They can't be bothered to tell you when the money's run out.

***UPDATE***
I had a productive call with Tanja about my concerns, and she was receptive and willing to work with me on finding solutions, developing a new plan that better addresses my books specifically, and giving me more feedback on how the ads are doing.

***UPDATE***
I've been working with Laurence, the founder of BGS. His and his team's personal attention makes me feel they're committed to making the ad profitable. We went through everything on my side: keywords, categories, and blurb, to make sure it was correct. He walked me through how to read the Facebook ad reports and said the response was good. He suggested a price point change.

Books Go Social have a great range of services such as Amazon Ads, Facebook Ads, Book Publishing, Cover Design - the list goes on. The staff are very helpful and knowledgeable. They've helped me with both my travel books and my fiction books and I can't recommend them highly enough.

I'm an independent author of Historical Fiction. I was recommended BGS by a fellow author, and have found their adverts to be cost effective and well targeted. Most important of all, they have paid for themselves.

From the very first, BGS gave me friendly, constructive and exemplary service. After first contact, they arranged a telephone chat and, on that, I was impressed that they had taken the trouble to already review my results on Amazon. Previously, I had used two London agents and both were useless. BGS have been great, their ad designs excellent, marketing strategy just right and the results very satisfying. Working with them has been a pleasure and I look forward to many more years of their friendly and well-worthwhile service.

During a video consultation, Laurence answered my queries about Amazon ads and book marketing honestly and succinctly, offering several very helpful suggestions free of charge.
In the end, he declined to take my money for a project he didn't think would bear fruit at this stage. This kind of integrity - refusing to make a quick profit at a potential customer's expense - is a rare thing in the world of book marketing, and reflects well on the Books Go Social ethos.
I hope to be able to work with Mr O'Bryan and his team on another project in the future.

I recently purchased BGS's Book Launch Marketing package, hoping for a supportive and collaborative experience to launch my book. Unfortunately, what I received was a far cry from my expectations.

After weeks of silence and multiple reminders, the only deliverables were a NetGalley entry (which thankfully worked well, hence 2 stars, the rest of the service is only worth 1 star) and confirmations of information I already knew. The promised promotional graphics, Amazon optimization, social media campaigns, and ad support were nowhere to be found. Despite paying a substantial sum, I felt completely abandoned and unsupported.

When I requested a cancellation and refund, the response was swift - almost suspiciously so. It left me wondering if they were deliberately avoiding working with me. I explicitly asked for feedback on why this was the case, but received no response, leaving me feeling even more bewildered and insecure.

As an author launching a book, you crave a partner who will guide you through this overwhelming process. Instead, I felt completely alone, left to grapple with unanswered questions and a lingering sense of insecurity. It's disheartening to invest in a service that promises so much, only to be met with silence and a lack of transparency.

While I appreciate the prompt refund, I would have much preferred a proper collaboration and support. The experience has left me feeling unsettled and questioning my own work, even though my book has received positive reviews elsewhere.

If you're seeking a reliable and communicative partner for your book launch, I'd strongly advise looking elsewhere. BGS's lack of transparency and communication left me feeling frustrated and unsupported, and I wouldn't want any other author to experience the same.

Books Go Social promised to run Amazon ads for 3 months and they delivered... They promised to send out Tweets for 3 months and they delivered... They promised to get me book reviews on NetGalley and I got 4 5-star book reviews... Books Go Social also got me a very positive editorial review... They also sent out 2 highly effective email blasts... They also allowed me to post ads on their Facebook page... I also talked to Laurence O'Bryan on the phone twice, he's the founder of the company... I think Books Go Social is a great company...

I work primarily with Tanja, and she has been wonderful. When I had BGS take over my Facebook ads, I saw immediate results and had the best month to date for my books.

I was funneling money, trying to run ads myself, and I simply don't have enough time to sit down and analyze them on a consistant basis. In a single month, they recouped my ad budget, and came close to recouping their own fee as well. I am confident that when my next book is launched, they will break me even on all costs, if not before.

If you, a self-published author, are struggling to balance your writing with a full-time job, a family, and all the responsibilities that come with life, it's incredibly difficult adding efficient marketing into the mix. I strongly recommend giving BGS a shot.

Books Gone Social is my secret weapon to cracking better sales on Amazon.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Laurence and Tana of BGS for the past four years and two books.

They are both pros, share their knowledge, and are responsive to me, the customer. Most importantly, their bills for 3rd-Party Amazon advertising have paid for themselves for years.

The results of their advertising campaigns for my two books were easily measured and well worth the cost.

I do not consider these services optional for any of my books. Amazon has essentially created a system where outside help like that offered by BGS is required, and anyone thinking that you can just put a book on Amazon and it will sell is deluding themselves.

In my case, when I first bought BGS services, I had a reasonable flow of sales that grew very clearly as soon as Lawrence and Tana worked their advertising magic. The before and after graphs were very compelling.

So, thanks to BGS for such fabulous service.

I am working with them now on a new book and consider them part of my book launch team.

As a first-time author of historical fiction, I had no clue as to how to market my books. I was guided through each step of the way by Tanja and her team who could not have been more considerate. As I live in Australia they were wonderful about finding times when we could chat and went above and beyond. They were very honest in giving advice and could have upsold the service many times but rather than that they continued to make suggestions which worked to my advantage. The owner of the business, Laurence, has thought of many creative ways in which customers can promote their books and for the most part these are freely given. Unlike other companies who seem to forget you once you have signed for the service, BooksGoSocial offers a very personal service responding with a genuinely welcome reply where you have questions. The team understand the ever changing market for authors and are up to date with new technologies. It has been a worthwhile experience for me and I would otherwise have floundered.

One month, I thought. I’ll give Books Go Social thirty days to see if they can help get more parents’ eyes on my children’s books. The month isn’t quite up. But the numbers speak for themselves: visits to my author site- up nearly 50%. From as far away as Russia and India. And book sales exponentially increasing as well, especially for my featured book, ‘The Mayfly and the Methuselah Tree.’
I am thrilled with the results. Five Stars are well-deserved. This is a very encouraging way to begin the year.

I really want to like this service, but I don't.

I hired BGS to help with Amazon ads management, and do some other promotions for my book. Long story short, Books Go Social dropped the ball multiple times, changed the terms of their service after I already paid for said service (and gave a perfunctory apology after I nagged them about it), and didn't perform some of the promised social media promotion/advertising and book review promotion. They did eventually do the SM promo and book review promo, but they initially didn't want to do the book review promo as advertised. Eventually, they relented.

BGS’s general approach to the Amazon ads is interesting and, to a certain extent, works. In that respect, I do appreciate the ad setup and maintenance. The ads did bring in more book sales, so I consider that aspect of it a success.

But, overall, the service didn't work as advertised on the BGS website—BGS wasn't able to bring ACOS in line where it needed to be, and while conversions were part of the equation, a big part of this came down to the keywords they used and some of the bidding strategies they employed.

When I contacted Mr. O'Bryan about the growing number of problems, his response was to minimize the problem, push the blame onto my book (e.g. you need more reviews, you need better ad copy, etc).

I did take one of his suggestions and changed the ad copy to his suggested copy. Result: conversions held steady for a little while, then tanked. This isn't the fault of the book. This comes down to his poor ad copy. This is exactly what I suspected would happen given the quality of my ad copy for the book, but wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.

As my doubts grew, I started questioning some of the decisions being made, and pressed Mr. O'Bryan for more answers and more transparency.

It finally came out that he didn't understand the USP of my book (which is right on the cover and in the subhead), nor did he understand the premise of the book (which was clearly laid out in my ad copy for the book). Nor did he even know I had published another book in the same general category, with some audience overlap to the book he was helping promote.

This is not the level of service I expected. Mr. O'Bryan writes this off as "Some books don't sell well" and "You're in a competitive niche".

Yes, I know I am in a competitive niche. I know this because I came to BGS *after* hitting #1 in my chosen book categories, and top 5 in several other categories, and after the book already had some sales under its belt. Mr. O'Bryan knows this because it was disclosed during onboarding. It was a grind to get those sales, which is why I hired BGS to help augment sales from other promotional efforts.

What would have made this a much better experience is if Mr. O'Bryan and BGS had set better and more realistic expectations for what he could do (and couldn't do), and also take some time to read the book (skim it, even), read the ad copy, and really take some time to understand what he's promoting. He could have also owned his company's mistakes early on, and worked to correct them. Being more transparent about his business, not changing terms mid-project, and fulfilling all promised services as advertised would also help improve his business.

Edit (1/8/24): Four days ago, I received an email from Mr. O'Bryan stating, "We don't have any unspent budget so nothing to refund you". Meanwhile, I didn't ask for, nor did I expect, a refund at this point. I did, however, express my dissatisfaction with BGS's services, but assumed it was far too late to be refunded for anything and so I didn't even bring it up.

Almost immediately after my negative review was posted, I receive a refund notification and several emails from Mr. O'Bryan. He apologized for the bad service, but went on to "ask", "I ask you to not try to wreck out business".

I am not in the business of wrecking businesses, but I do occasionally leave reviews when I think a service was exceptionally good or bad. In this case, I received exceptionally poor service, and (finally) an acknowledgement from the business' owner (in his words) that, "I have not got this right with your book."

As a final note, Mr. O'Bryan flagged this review for "containing harmful or illegal content."

I invited Mr. O'Bryan to correct any misstatements of fact or errors on my part, and to spell out exactly what part of my review is "harmful" or "illegal". If there are any errors, this review will be updated and corrected.

As for whether you should do business with him, I can't answer that for you. You'll have to decide for yourself whether it's worth trying.

I've had BGS do most of the covers in my Portia of the Pacific Historical Mystery series. They were great covers, and I've also done their book launch. Now that I see they're using A.I., which is the bulwark in the service I want to market to authors, I'm using them again for the Diamond promotion plan on Amazon ads with my first mystery in the series, and Facebook/Instagram/Tiktok, plus the mailings to get the info out on my new business. I've also recommended them for my clients who want to purchase ads and have them run efficiently! Tanja is a great manager, and has made some superb suggestions about this. I look forward the results and leads.

Very pleased with service and customer support.

I have been a client of BGS for almost three months, and chose the Platinum membership, which cost almost five hundred dollars. Since the start, I have sold exactly five books. The staff I have had contact with are very pleasant and helpful, and I have been contacted by Mr. O'Bryan, the founder of BGS. He was very generous in offering to help me directly, and I am going to give it a shot. I am amending my review to three stars for now, simply because they are trying to help me. I will post a final update later. Final update. I changed my review to five stars, not because I've sold any books (I haven't), but because the staff and owner of bgs have bent over backward to help me improve my listing, my cover, and even my sales strategy. Whether I actually sell many copies or not, I cannot fault them for lack of effort.

BGS is a wonderful company to work with. I used their Editorial Review service, which was thoughtful, constructive and accurate, and I highly recommend it. You can read this review on the book's Amazon page.

I also purchased their NetGalley service for three months, which was excellent in providing quality reviews for my book, "Holmes's Complete Guide To Stop Drinking Alcohol; The Easy, Mindful and Pain-free way", which you can also read on the Amazon page.

BGS is simply the best book marketing company in the world.