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Any experience with OnlineBookClub.org?
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Gary wrote: "Not exactly sure how, but I began receiving multiple invitations online from Scott (the owner/creator of this website) wanting me to join OBC. I finally joined out of curiosity (and due to the on-g..."
Gary,Never heard of this site, but a word of warning. Paying for a review is essentially illegal in the U.S. It's questionable whether they'd be able to get the glowing, 5-star review you just bought (no honest reviewing there at all) published in Amazon or Goodreads, though they might elsewhere.
And once it was discovered you paid for one or more favorable reviews for your book(s), I'd say the odds are likely there would be penalties imposed by both AMZ and GR. No idea what they would be, but logic suggest AMZ might well refuse to sell anything by you, and GR might ban you and your books.
I respectfully suggest you terminate your membership in this organization and find other, legal ways of promoting your books.
Just my USD .02.
Eric
Thanks for your response Eric. I'm surprised this site has not been heard of, based upon my having typed in a simple, "Customer reviews of Online Book Club" and found a ton of both positive and negative reviews on trusted websites. This company has apparently been around for about ten years. I must admit that the more I've read about it, the my questions I have, before I even consider listing my book there, and it would only be providing I'm not forced to pay for a book review to do so.What I find amazing is that the 5-star reviews my book has received on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, etc thus far have all been legitimate reviews done by readers who either have purchased a copy of my book, or won a copy in one of my book giveaways. Not one has been "paid for" by me or anyone else to date. So why would I even consider paying for a review that doesn't even guarantee me a good review. Given a choice, I'd rather a free one. LOL Yet to even post my book on the website in question, the author has to pay for a review. Don't think that is how I prefer to earn a book review! Now as for as "paid for" book reviews go, if it is illegal to pay for a review of one's newly published book, how do these companies like Kirkus Indie Reviews, Foreword, etc. benefit the author and their book if it essentially illegal in the US? When you read there websites, it sounds as if that's the way to go to get the best bang for your buck. I think that you simply need to write a good book and leave it up to the readers for an honest (non-biased) review, whether good or bad. In a nutshell, I believe there are other avenues best suited for my needs as an aspiring author to follow,rather than going the route of paid reviews to boost my book such as the one being requested of me by this website.
I've heard of them and, once they have found you, you will get daily solicitations for your book. I too prefer to have real, verifiable reviews from voluntary readers, regardless of the consequences. I've heard many warnings about paying for reviews. I have researched and used several promotional sites but this one just didn't ring true. Now, I wish they would just leave me alone!
Gary,I've had experience with OBC and I was not very happy with them. Firstly they took months before reviewing my book and said it was because it was longer than normal. Then it was costly, and I was not too pleased with the experience, I think their charges that time were too much. I was getting emails from them for a very long time, now stopped.
I have my four books reviewed. At first a review was free (if I recall) and then a minimal fee, and then more. I paid for the marketing free ebooks - yes attention from quite a few but sales did not pan out. I did address this with Onine, but they give no guarantees. Most sites promise with their marketing and usually or often sales don't match what one pays. I don't think reviews there had any more meaning than those who bought and read my book and reviewed it without solicitation. Just my thoughts and experience.
Since my latest book fits into more of a niche market, (local history, architecture, and engineering, personal stories about the key people in that locale that were pertinent to the main subject matter of the book) rather than the much broader book markets out there, I believe that my money would be better spent soliciting the local newspaper and radio stations for write-ups in their paper and/or radio interviews to get the word out. The really cool thing is that there has never been a book (especially as historically detailed as mine) published about this famous historic building. Which I would hope would give me even more of an advantage on the market, since I currently hold the market for anyone that would be interested in learning more about the history of this registered National Water Works Landmark Building in south Florida. Disclaimer: The preceding was not intended as a promotion for my book, just an observation. But I'm not quite sure just how to go about soliciting them, by email to the editor or station manager, or mailing a copy of the book with a letter attached requesting a write-up or live interview on their station? I've even wondered if I should contact the local TV station's news editor? I know that there are probably tens of thousands of history buffs located within the two county area surrounding this location. Good idea, or typically a waste of time, and money? While dealing with my cancer, I just don't currently have enough time and energy to market this book through book signings, etc.
My local paper had a book reviewer. I contacted her via email and that resulted in my first interview and review. I don't know if it garnered many sales, but, when first marketing my book, which is set in my home state where I still live, it helped get my name out there. Also, you need to offer a free copy to anyone you solicit for an interview. I also contacted local book clubs and I can tell you, that did result in sales. I did do book signings, and had minimal results, but again, publicity. However, I have found that spending the money to promote your book online, especially when running it for free, was my best promotional tool. Good luck to you with your illness and your book.
Nice idea Julie.I will try that.
Thanks.
Toni Mariani, Author
I have used them for reviews and have also just recently signed up for the book of the day promo because they had a half off sale. The prices seem outrageous but the list of sign-ups was filled up until the middle of May! I had real reviews from them, one that was not great, but two that were very good. I've only had 3 books reviewed so far. I will know once this book of the day promo comes about whether it is a worthwhile marketing tool.
Just out of curiosity, Nikki, where were these reviews posted? Both GoodReads and Amazon prohibit posting of reviews that were paid for, thus my wondering where the reviews are. Thanks.Eric-the-ever-wondering
Hi Eric,they are posted on the site and the site has a large following apparently..and i can post them where I want as well...
Nikki wrote: "Hi Eric,they are posted on the site and the site has a large following apparently..and i can post them where I want as well..."
Thanks. But please remember that the only person who can post a review on GoodReads or Amazon is the author of the review, and as previously noted, if the review has been paid for, as these have, then they can't be posted at these two sites by anyone, whether the author or the reviewer.
Yes, I understand this. But I have many places where I can post aside from Amazon and goodreads--I have a website, a blog and FB...I still am not sure whether these reviews are getting me sales, but I have read through the people who read them on the site and can only hope that if they like the review they pick up the book!Thanks for your input :)
I have used this service to generate reviews because it doesn't violate Amazon's rules. BOL makes your book "available' to their readers. There is no guarantee of a positive review or that your book will even be chosen for review. For me it's been another tool in my arsenal for reaching out to readers.
Eric wrote: "Nikki wrote: "Hi Eric,they are posted on the site and the site has a large following apparently..and i can post them where I want as well..."
Thanks. But please remember that the only person who ..."
Eric, you can post reviews from a place like OBC under editorial reviews on Amazon but not Goodreads. I've used OBC. They're expensive and my ROI was minimal. If you want a professional review that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, try Midwest Book Review. They are well-respected whose reviewers are professionals.
I’ve used four professional reviews, Blue Ink, Midwest Book Review, Readers’ Favorite and OBC. As Roxanne points out, all their reviews can be posted on Amazon under “Editorial Reviews.”Blue Ink and Midwest Book Review are both excellent. I recommend them highly.
Readers Favorite is good, but the review(s) — you have a choice of one, two or three — do not have the professional polish of Blue Ink or Midwest Book Review.
OBC is for ebooks only, a fact I should have recognized but didn’t. I don’t know if libraries and book clubs hold OBC in the same high regard that they hold Midwest Book Review and Blue Ink. A plus for the latter two was that they drew other professionals to contact me.
I didn’t use Kirkus. When I looked up reviews of Kirkus I saw it said over and over that a Kirkus review consists of about 250 words of plot summary and one or two sentences about the actual quality of the book. Both Blue Ink and Midwest go into a novel with intelligence and depth.
I've gotten two of my novels reviewed by OBC. Both were excellent and before the review, the reviewer sends a detailed synopsis to prove that the book was actually read.
I made the mistake of paying $97 to use their services to help promote one of my books, but it didn't go well. The reviewer assigned to review one of my children's books had a background in English and she was looking for complete sentences; however, the book she reviewed was one of my children's books which uses rhyming phrases, so just like the Dr. Seuss books and all rhyming books, phrases are common, as this is not an essay or formal writing. The reviewer posted a review which focused on grammar issues, and her claims were false. Not only were they incorrect (she had no knowledge of rhyming verses), but I could not use the review. I contacted the owner (Scott) and he kindly removed the review (which was only posted on their website but I still could not use it even if I wanted to link to it or add it to my testimonials page). Since then, I have received all great, wonderful "real" reviews on Amazon and other sites (like goodreads). I requested a full refund (satisfaction guaranteed?) but I was told (after numerous back and forth emails) that only a partial refund could be given. I was exhausted by then and agree to a partial refund of $65. That was months ago and I never received it. If I try to email them again it seems that I have to go in circles explaining what happened each time. Their website also claims that you will sell 200 copies of your book if you sign up for their services. However, there are more charges and services on their site and so it seems to never end with the fees. So in conclusion, lesson learned, I will not pay for reviews ever again. I hope this reply helps other authors understand that the best reviews are authentic reviews posted by readers who truly care about your book. Yes, it is possible that some reviews on Amazon or other places may not all be 5 star reviews; some may be 2 star reviews, but they are free, and do not cost $97. If anyone knows how to get a refund from onlinebookclub, please let me know.UPDATE: I just received my partial refund of $65.00. Done. :-)
Only that they cost too much! Way out of my budget! I have had them do reviews though.
Gary wrote: "Not exactly sure how, but I began receiving multiple invitations online from Scott (the owner/creator of this website) wanting me to join OBC. I finally joined out of curiosity (and due to the on-g..."Their promos aren't cheap but they do deliver. I have run a number of book of the day events, offering free downloads and I get a thousand downloads. The reviews to Amazon trickle in for a long while and they generate a lot of OBC reviews. I have found Scott Hughes, who runs OBC to be completely ethical and helpful.
I never heard of them.But has anyone ever Heard of Verve Books out of the U.K.?
Would you send them a whole manuscript knowing the U.K. copyright laws are different from the USA?
Fred
Oh, this is a legitimate company alright, but all they want you to do is pay, pay, pay. Once you pay for your review, they would send you a bunch of messages asking to use their services for a fee starting from $150 and up. You don't have to do this, unless you really want to take advantage of their company claims: "you can sell 200 copies of your book". Keep in mind that this only applies to 4 star reviews, if you get a lower rating you may kiss your sales goodbye. Some of the reviewers don't pick the genre they are really interested in, or don't speak English, and you'll end up with a review where they recommend to others, not to read your book. If you know for the fact that your book is truly great you may use them, but be careful what you wish for.
Verve Books is unfortunately closed for submissions, for the time being, but you may contact them directly and they will answer all your questions.
I hope it's not frowned upon to answer an old thread with relevant information.I came to this Onlinebookclub.org from a completely different direction: an advertisement (on a Freedom with Writing newsletter about paying writing jobs - this wasn't on the list, but was advertised there) invited me to become a reviewer on the site. At a quick look, it seems that's not an option that's offered to you if you just go to the site normally.
So: apparently their reviewers get paid from free book to read to several tens of dollars per review. The reviewers are rated according to their past record so that only the better ones can access higher-paying reviews, which I assume means the author paid more for the review. The guidelines for reviews include the kind of instructions you'd hope for, eg. don't pick a book of a type you don't like, and you don't have to give a good review. (Of course we as authors could hope for guaranteed good reviews, except not, since if it's guaranteed, that just makes them fake and unethical.) So it looks like a combination of "the reviewer could be anyone" and "they try to make sure the reviews are good."
This might just be a better deal for a reader who becomes a reviewer than to an author, but I'm definitely going to give it a try as a reviewer. I've nothing to lose in the way I would as an author, and I'll be sure to deliver good reviews myself.
By the way, in the discussion about ratings you get from there, note that their ratings range from one to four, not five.
Jan wrote: "Thanks, M., but what is BOL?"Sorry, that was a typo. I have no idea what BOL is either. I think I meant to type Online Book Club.
reviews were great but they did little for sales...and to have your book listed as book of the day is way beyond my budget...I am simply amazed by the people who sign up...
Can I just say from a reviewer's perspective, I swear this site is literally a scam? This site is very harsh on reviewers. You have to write a nearly perfect review, it has to be 400 words but not more than 800 with proper grammar, and spelling, the title of the book MUST be italicized, and the rating MUST be bolded, they also check for plagiarism, which is fine and understandable, though you cannot publish your review UNTIL it is published on their site, if you post it on amazon beforehand you will be marked for plagiarism. If these things are not proper your review basically won't be published/they take your review and make it their own.
Your reviewer score has to be above 50% and to get a 50% or more on your reviews it has to go through a month of different things.
They justify their scores and levels by saying it is to “vet new reviewers to make sure they can follow our rules and guidelines before giving them our most desirable and highest-paying reviews. These levels are also useful to make sure authors/publishers are getting what they pay for when it comes to paid reviews”.
I recently joined it, it took 2 weeks for the 'Post Review Questionaire' to be approved and then I had to wait another 2 weeks for my review to be approved by an editor, who will harshly edit it. The “editors” who are tasked with reviewing your review for grammatical errors are not proficient in their skills and their constructive criticisms are merely to ensure that your review does not receive a high score. A single mistake, for example, a missing comma that they believe should be present, can cost you a 10-point deduction. You can appeal but it won’t get you far.
In one of the reviews I worked so hard on (putting it through grammar, spelling checks, etc), the editor report said “my review was too similar to one on Goodreads” and I was banned for plagiarism. The sentence I wrote was similar but it wasn't word for word, and it was in my opinion, I enjoyed the book I had read and I had no reason to plagiarise anything. When I appealed and told them that just because it’s ‘similar’ doesn't mean anything, the opinions in my review were my own, and I honestly loved the book I had read, etc, but still banned for ‘plagiarism’.
Have we just reached a point where people cannot have similar opinions anymore?
Anyways, they ban you and use your reviews for themselves, making them better and advertising them.
But once, your review has gone through the editor and has been approved with a 50%+ score, it has to go through another phase just for the review to be published which also takes a while, and you get paid or they hold it ($5-$60 [it shows how much you get with each book before you select to read]), etc. The process is way too long for 1 review that may or may not be published.
So honestly authors, I don't think it's completely worth it to have your books on this site, especially if as the author above my post stated "reviews were great but they did little for sales...and to have your book listed as book of the day is way beyond my budget".
Also, just contact for bloggers on here to review your books, its much more efficient, most of us have 700+ followers, and we always post on our blogs, here and amazon, as well as promoting on our socials.
I joined as a reviewer in the past, but I didn't get around to posting another review after the first one got a not-that-high rating in spite of the only negative thing mentioned in the verbal feedback being unneeded commas. It wasn't a low rating (something like 75/100 if I remember this at all correctly), but it was low enough that it wasn't doing anything to raise my reviewer rating to get up to paid reviews. So that work was for nothing even though I didn't really do anything wrong.As far as I can tell with my semi-limited knowledge, those commas were ones some meddlesome editor might want to remove, but another one might have added them if they weren't there. So I didn't much like losing points for that when it had concrete effects.
So glad to read this thread. OBC has inundated my inbox for months now, and I have been tempted. Experiences I'm reading here have helped me make my decision to block them in my email reader. Thanks!
The online bookclub might be a good place to earn money by reviewing books, but experience and research tell me that it's not always as easy as it seems. I first joined several months ago out of curiosity. I picked a book to review, but the story structure was so bad that I resigned from reviewing it and forgot about the site. Then in December I received an email promising to pay $30 for a book review. I had some time on my hands, so I decided to try it. The book I was assigned was just as bad as the first, but I struggled through and wrote the review. When I did not receive payment, I inquired about it. I was told that because I registered with my legal name (Margaret) with OBC, but my Amazon receipt listed my nickname (Peggy) that I couldn't get paid. Days of grabbing screen shots to prove my identity were fruitless. Finally, days later, I was told to simply change my name in the OBC system. I did that, but was still not paid. Now they wanted more documents, which were already in their system. During this struggle I received a request for a review from Trustpilot. I posted a review of my experience, which, of course, was negative. Then I received a message from Scott Hughes, who I believe is the owner. Apparently the Guidelines you have to agree to prohibit you from posting anything negative about the company. However, Scott claimed he would 'fix' the problem if only I would remove the negative review.
A little research revealed that there have been quite a few people who have not been paid for various reasons. So, you might get paid, but there really is no guarantee.
The OBC site claims, "OnlineBookClub has no complaints on BBB (Better Business Bureau)." This is patently false; I counted at least 19 complaints. The OBC also claims, "OnlineBookClub has amazing reviews on all the major third-party sites." This is also patently false. However, when you require only positive reviews if you want to get paid, it does limit the negative reviews!
I find OBC to be less than aboveboard. They apparently make their money by charging authors for reviews and other services, then paying as little as possible for reviews, and stuffing the site with advertising.
My final thought is, if you have to pay cash for a review, the book probably isn't worth reading.
I used them for a review. It's fine to get one if you want a nice blurb for other places, but it didn't produce any notable sales or increased reach. They boast a million users, but I think most of them are authors or reviewers, not the book-buying public. And then the "Book of the day" emails started, and that's over a grand.If I make money selling books, then heck yea I'll dip back in and invest in more marketing. But this isn't the way. I'm not calling it a scam, but it doesn't have any positive impact on sales or ROI.
Of course I'm am looking to get as much exposure for my newly released book, besides it being listed on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc, It seems that OBC touts themselves as being one of the biggest (if not biggest) online book clubs with the best results for authors being able to get both reviews and sales for their books. So you can see why it might be enticing to someone like me to jump on-board with their program.
I've read the many online reviews about this website, yet remain hesitant. has anyone here, besides using Goodreads, included OBC in their arsenal for promoting their book(s), and if so what has your experience been. Are the two (Goodreads and OBC) similar in what they offer an author and/or book, or vastly different in this area? Would you recommend adding them to the list of venues to get the word out about my book(s) or stay away? Thanks for any input on this matter.