BooksGoSocialReviews of bgsauthors.com

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.