PubbyReviews 124

Been using Pubby for a month or so. I've been able to read some incredible stories and had many opportunities to share my own work. Support is great and quick as well!

I've only been using Pubby for a couple months, but so far I have had a good experience. I wish more authors were involved with this site because sometimes I can't find the type of book I want to read, but one will normally come up in a few days. I know that some of the customers on pubby do not actually read the books they are reviewing in order to get their snaps, but most of my requests have been read and reviewed based on what was written and posted on Amazon.

I have had a few incidents where I get a warning that my review was not published on Amazon, when it was, but a quick email to their customer service fixed it. The one thing that I hope they change is the time frame they give you to read and review a book. I think the best is about 2 weeks time instead of 4 days. I think that would help with the fly by reviews since it will give people actual time to read the full book.

Pubby.co and i have been together for a year. We have had no real complaints except unfair reviews given by people who can't see Real content. Pubby is easy to use and i have had no real problems with them.

Not only does Pubby give you a chance to get your book into the hands of people who may otherwise not read your book, but it gives you a chance to have other authors read your work and critique it. It creates a chance for you to improve your craft, while also feeling good about helping others. Yes, you too will get a chance to read some great books and help other authors to do the same thing, by growing their craft through critiques. Awesome platform! I love it!

Pubby is a wonderful resource for authors to pump up their review count. I would have a tiny fraction of the number of reviews if I didn't use this service. I highly recommend it! My only gripe is that it's obvious many people don't actually read my novel. Some skim, some read part of it, some read nothing at all - they simply copy from your book's info page on Pubby and give you 4 or 5 stars. So, although Pubby is a great source for reviews from total strangers, it's not particularly helpful or "true" feedback. Reviews are for the readers anyway, I suppose, but it would be nice to have more people actually read the work. Overall, I recommend Pubby's services though! It's not their fault other authors on there don't actually read!

Pubby offers a great start for gaining reviews and bringing new work to market. Will it magically sell your book for you? No. You'll still have to put the hard work into selling your books. But Pubby will give you feedback from your peers, which are usually do much more insightful than typical reviewers. Their customer service is top notch too!

Terrible experience, $240 per year and then you have to spend more money buying or earning Snaps to get ONE review on your own book...! And then in my own case, PUBBY even approved a ONE star review from one of their reviewers (After giving them a free copy of the book) which was totally unfair as I already had a confirmed purchase 4 star review, am a well established author with over 130 plus books on Amazon... and they expect authors to subscribe! Unbelievable.

Overall, Pubby works well for obtaining reviews and helping fellow authors. You pay a membership fee, submit your published book, and enter your book for reviews. Other author members can choose your book among all of the current titles available in Pubby. When another author chooses your book, they are supposed to read it then offer an honest review, receiving "snaps" for following the process (you spend your snaps to have your book offered for review). I've had an excellent response whenever I've put my book up for a review request, it has been snatched up within minutes. The catchier the title and cover, the quicker people respond. If an author complains about their book not receiving reviews through Pubby, it's probably because they have a weak title or less-than-exciting cover (people DO judge a book by its cover).

I would say the majority of the members follow Pubby's rules and do leave honest reviews. Unfortunately, not all do. A minority takes shortcuts and leaves generalized reviews without reading your work. This can be quite frustrating when they leave less than five stars without reading. But with the high quantity, it averages out.

Pubby is a great way to obtain quantity reviews. It helps a new author get the numbers needed to gain interest. And it allows those of us who enjoy reading, many titles to read for "free" under the paid membership program. I would recommend it, even if only for a month or two.

Oh, so many good intentions. Unfortunately you can't pave your way to a good rating on Amazon with them! Without Pubby, I've read the grim statistics and experienced them for myself: out of 100 people who swear up and down that they will, they will, they REALLY REALLY WILL review your book... maybe two of them do.
Who's got the time to track them all and make sure they follow through? If you value your time and would prefer to spend it writing, researching or doing other kinds of marketing then Pubby is well worth the price. Its users know what they're there to do, and they do it— either you Pubby or you herd cats. Nuff said.

I recently released a book and my publisher said Amazon reviews are important. Pubby has been a great place to find people who will read and review books. The platform works on "Snaps" - which you gain from reading and reviewing other peoples' books. Then you can use the snaps to request a review for your book. Readers can select which books they want to review (based on interest/category) and have a time frame they need to submit their review. This has been a great resource for me to build up honest reviews on Amazon. I also have found some good books to read that I wouldn't normally know about.

I am a public speaker and author, and I recently published a new book this past spring. Upon release, I joined Pubby to help launch my new book off the ground. The site is a useful service for authors to post their book within the platform and generate reviews. In order to receive reviews, you must write them for different authors on the site as well. The site is very user friendly, and once you get going, you gain readers and reviews very quickly. Oftentimes, it can feel like the Amazon algorithm can work against smaller authors, so it's nice that tools like this exist so we can stand a chance. Pubby does a great job facilitating collaboration amongst authors so we all have an equal opportunity to gain exposure and get thoughtful reviews. I would definitely recommend it to any other looking for strategic ways to market their book.

Every writer knows how hard it is to get reviews, even from your own family and friends. I have tried other review sites and found them a waste of time, but not Pubby! I have received a great number of honest - sometimes too honest - but honest, reviews, and that's all I can ask for. Easy to work with and well run. I highly recommend Pubby

It is really my source for getting quality reviews on Amazon. Once I post my book up for review, it usually takes fifteen minutes for someone to pickup the book, and for a Verified Purchase, it may take a couple of hours. Once in a while, a Verified Purchase Review shows up as a regular review but I get my snaps refunded. Very easy to work with.

I have used Pubby for over 6 months.
Here are my thoughts:

Site Administration
I have had to contact the site's admins a few times. Sometimes for things they controlled, other times for things (in the books on the site) that they might want to know about. (Like a file not loading.)
Each time I used their "chat" feature I got a response within the time indicated on the chatbot. Sometimes it's just a few minutes. Other times, like weekends or late at night, it's a few hours or the next work day. But I have always gotten a good response in a polite, helpful tone.

The Service For Authors
I have used Pubby to find reviewers for my books. So far, all but one review have been excellent--after 40-some reviews. They are not all "automatic 5-star" reviews. They have been, for the most part, very, very helpful and thoughtful. I honestly think a mix of three, four and five-star reviews are much more helpful to potential readers of the book--so I am not worried about that, and I do not think Pubby is a place where you get "rote" reviewers all giving 5 stars. Look elsewhere for that.

The Service for Readers
This is the fun part. If you join this site, you are agreeing to review other writers' books. I have gotten to read many, many great books by new and established authors. I have dabbled in genres I had not looked into previously and thoroughly enjoyed them. I have reviewed a "book II" of a series and immediately after gone and purchased the "book I" because I just had to know the full backstory because the book was so engaging.
Before I accept a book to review, I usually go to Amazon and check out the author and that book, and any other books the author has written. Most often I find the titles in question already have a good number of reviews, which then validates my opinion. If I find the book not to my liking, I don't accept it as an assignment, and go look for something else.

Pubby works pretty simply: you review other authors and they review you. It gives you options for offering free of purchase reviews, Kindle Unlimited, or Verified Purchased reviews. All the reviews are on Amazon (not on Goodreads or any other site). It might seem like paying for reviews, but I think it skirts around the issue by using a token system they call "snaps". Essentially you can't "offer" your book for review in their marketplace unless you have enough snaps. The only way to get snaps is to read and review other people's books through the site. So all in all it's really a "authors helping authors" situation. They have a "reader's" program, but my gut feeling is there are less pure readers and most of the users are also other authors. It does cost like $20 a month to access the service, but it's well worth it! If you organize yourself, you can get A LOT of reviews (about 3-4 a week), which is the whole point.

The reason you're using Pubby is because Amazon reviews are real currency for your book. Not just ratings but reviews. This is super important, especially when your book is new. Pubby really get's your review count higher and higher. There are a few things to keep in mind:

1) The quality of the reviews is not good. Most people who are reviewing do not read your book. Don't expect them to do so. Again, this is mostly authors helping authors, and they don't have time to read the book.
2) Make sure the information you post is informative and has some key buzz words. Reviewers will use these words in their review.
3) Don't use Pubby until you have ten reviews yourself (friends and family). This is because Pubby reviewers are a waterfall: they build upon each other. If you have a bunch of 3 star reviews, then a Pubby review will come in with a 3 star review even though they didn't' read the book. Because they want to be "fair" and base it off of what others have done. So if you have like 10 4-5 star reviews already on there, you're more likely going to get that same ranking form Pubby reviews.
4) This is a quantity play, not a quality play. Make sure your expectations are appropriate.

All in all Pubby is an awesome site for getting reviews on Amazon. Super easy to use, very intuitive. If you organize yourself and set your expectations correctly it'll be worth it!

Pubby is great for authors who are looking for readers to critically examine their novels, as well as enjoy them!