Fringe Fiction Unlimited discussion

I heard about Bublish as a marketing website. It sounded well designed. My first exploration was to sample it as a reader. I didn't like it and won't use it for finding books to read. I couldn't see how it was better than anything that already exists, as far as a reader is concerned. It was visually cluttered and made me lose interest in every book immediately. So, my question is:
Does it sell books even if I don't like it? Anyone have experience?

I tried it out when the site first came out a while ago. It's a display site, another place you can post your work and make it available online, but that's it. They put out a lot of self-promotion, hype really, claiming to be such a good marketing tool. It's not. I suppose it doesn't hurt, but I found the website useless for my writing.

It was a pain to upload my work there as they only accept epub. However, I use it and find it to be moderately useful. I change excerpts every once in a while to keep things fresh. Its solid and like Lily said they are big on promoting.

I actually tried using bublish just now... It sounds like a cool concept, but I'm having a bit of trouble using the site. Having issues getting the book into e-pub format, especially since the title seems to be auto-pulled from the epub and it used an older version of the title. I'm also having some trouble navigating the page in general, deleting and re-uploading files on the free account. I'm not sure whether or not these are common problems, though

Justin, when you say moderately useful, do you mean a measurable uptick in sales when you stared using it?
I disliked seeing all those books starting randomly in the middle. A book is written to hook readers with its opening. A story begins at the beginning. I guess the authors chose those excerpts for a reason but every single one I saw in the mystery/thriller genre was not thrilling. Reading the middle of a book is just confusing.

Not at all,
I meant it's moderately successful to use. I can't say I've generated any sales from it.

Bubblish isn't an online library or retailer of any kind, so it's not set up for readers. It's a place for extra free adverising. It's very new. Their main selling point, which is free, is they will promote whatever you uploaded as a soundbite on Twitter. The flaw is they really aren't well-connected.

I just signed up but I don't think I like it. Doubt it will help much at all.

Jules wrote: "I just signed up but I don't think I like it. Doubt it will help much at all."

Yeah, I haven't dug deep into the site myself but then again I don't see there being much to dig into and find. It's post your book via Epub and then make a small profile and change your excerpts. It's a cool concept but lacking a bit, could use more but your right, I don't know that it will help. May catch some eyes every once in a while if you post it to Facebook and Twitter, some people enjoy small excerpts.

I have an account. I like the way it formats the excerpts, very pleasing to the eye. I've had a few people comment and have had some people visit my website from there.

Bublish promoted my book a few times on twitter. They aren't set up for general public browsing (one thing I really wish they'd do) But I really love the "bubbles." I like that I can comment on my book with the passage right next to the excerpt.

http://bit.ly/1seqCvP

Gina wrote: "I have an account. I like the way it formats the excerpts, very pleasing to the eye. I've had a few people comment and have had some people visit my website from there.

Bublish promoted my book..."

The link doesn't work, at least at my end it doesn't.

Justin wrote: "The link doesn't work, at least at my end it doesn't."

And it's not as user friendly. :D

http://bit.ly/1seqCvP

Gina wrote: "Justin wrote: "The link doesn't work, at least at my end it doesn't."

And it's not as user friendly. :D

http://bit.ly/1seqCvP"

This one works, very nice Gina :)

I have an author profile page on Bublish. I've enjoyed the format of the site. I like being able to select an excerpt and provide an "author insight" for that excerpt. As a reader, I've always wanted to pick the brains of authors as to what they were thinking when writing a certain part of a book. This gives me the opportunity to do the same for readers.
Does it "work" in terms of sales, downloads, new readers?
Who knows. My guess is probably not. I use the paid (instead of free) service, so I am likely losing money. But, it allows me to do a certain type of social media marketing that I think is interesting. As a matter of fact, I checked with Justin about providing a link for one of my excerpts for the Excerpt Showcase section of this group. If anyone is interested in seeing my author profile, here it is: https://www.bublish.com/author/view/2330

I've had it for 2 months now and really find that I enjoy it, even if it doesn't pay for itself in sales.

I can trace at least 4 book sales from it, including FINALLY my first sale on Kobo. I once created a FB engagement ad and spent an extra $5 pushing a bubble and it performed really well.

Plus, the director's cut box is cool. People who read my book already often still read my bubbles just because they know I put up insider info. I think it actually has the best effect that way. It keeps them engaged.

And, they host good webinars on marketing topics outside of their product.

I watched one of their webinars and had a phone conversation with the founder about my books and the sites features. She gave me a 30 day free premium member status and I was able to promote bubbles for all my books. I did see a big increase in views but nothing further then that..meaning no sales. After my trial expired I chose not to pay for an upgrade because I felt it was way too expensive. I told her my thoughts including the price and was told perhaps the site wasn't for me. I assured her I liked the setup and potential but just that the price was too steep for me. If I happen to gain a steady flow of sales of get another job I'll consider it but until then I'm sticking to free.

Their webinars lately have been so basic and uninformative that I delete any email I receive from them