First, the good news is that it works if you are willing to do the work—you have to review other authors to generate snaps that you use to elicit reviews for your book. The bad news is that, much like many other online companies that start out well, their downfall is usually due to poor customer service. Pubby CS is horrible, and they don't respond. If they do, they will respond to a question you asked, and they had already answered over a month prior.
JB
Just B.
Worst customer service
Worst customer service. If you can get anyone.
KS
Kathy S.
Just what I've been looking for
Easy to understand. Quick review turnaround. I can choose books to earn " snaps". Great service for Authors
DJ
Daniel J.
Terrible
Terrible! They offer a free trial but if you cancel, they charge you for the full amount! And good luck getting it back. It’s been a week and I’m still waiting for them to just acknowledge my support ticket. Their AI powered support bot said it would be 24 hours for a response… that turned into “wait until Monday”… then “expect a response in over a week”. During this time I got ONE book review on my book- and it was generic and AI generated and had nothing to do with my book at all.
RP
Rini P.
Absolute scam
Absolute scam! I signed up for the free trial and cancelled a few days into it (WELL before the end of the free trial). Sure enough, a few days later, they charged my credit card for the full annual amount. I've tried emailing them several times but never get a response. There is no way to contact them directly. No ability to submit a ticket, do live chat, or call them. I now have to request a charge-back with my credit card company. I honestly don't know how they are still in business with such horrible customer service and crooked business practices. Avoid, avoid, avoid!!
JB
Jelly B.
Started out good, but...
Updated review in 2026:
I had a problem with a reviewer reviewing a 'fact book' (my book is fiction), which was a strange mix of my book and made-up stuff. It just looked like a fake review written by AI, so I contacted customer service. They didn't seem to have any desire to fix it other than refunding snaps and told me I could flag it with Amazon. I wasn't trying to influence the reviewer at all, and don't mind if I got a negative review if that's what the person really thought (as it happens this was a 5-star review). But this was clearly someone who'd either made an honest mistake cutting and pasting, or hadn't bothered to read it and got AI to write a review. I felt really let down by the experience, customer service really didn't seem to care, and cancelled my susbscription. The review is still there, although I tried flagging it with Amazon. It really stands out because I don't have that many reviews on my book. Disheartening for a hard-working, AI-free, indie author.
This was my initial experience from 2024:
great service so far, have been very pleased with the quality of reviews - people are obviously reading my book. I have had a couple of reviewers that didn't like aspects of my book, but that's what you get with honest reviews, and although I actually found the negative comments they made about my book pretty irrelevant, at least they felt they could express themselves freely. Having said that, Pubby does give you the option to cancel if you're not enjoying a book.
Compared to another book review subscription I've tried, Pubby is much better in my opinion. The other book service is MUCH slower and took forever for anyone to pick up my book. Also as the other service allowed authors to set their own book 'token' value you've got a lot of low-content rubbish offering high points for reviews.
Pubby could be improved if it allowed you to offer reviewers the option to purchase a hard copy of your book instead of just ebooks.
JS
Janice S.
Horrible customer service!
Horrible customer service!
They tried to take more money from my card and weren't helpul at all. I am now waiting for over a week now and didn't received a proper response.
FR
Fran
Promise of refunds is a lie
I signed up for the free trial but didn't cancel before the 10 days were up and my debit card was charged $29.99 for the monthly subscription. I didn't worry too much about it, just canceled my subscription and submitted a ticket for a refund, as their website makes the following statements:
"We will process your refund within 24 hours."
"We refund any subscription payment within 30 days of purchase."
"If you never successfully upload a book, we will always refund your money."
I submitted the refund request ticket within 3 days of the date my card was charged (could not submit earlier due to issues with their site), and have never uploaded a book to the site. I has been a week since I submitted the ticket and no refund has been issued. I have followed up via email and live chat and get nothing but what appear to be canned responses saying they will respond within 24 hours . . . which they don't do. Their assurances regarding refunds are outright lies.