Indie Book Club discussion

Does anyone have experience with BookBuzzr? Good? Bad? Indifferent? Poor investment? Good investment?

BookBuzzr? That's a new one on me. I'll go look 'em up...

Ok, interesting claim they've made. They say they're the world's leading provider of marketing technologies yet they only have a small number of registered authors?

We are the world’s leading provider of book-marketing technologies for authors with over 4,500 registered authors.

That's not that many if you ask me. Now, it very well may be that what they're doing is beneficial, but to charge $5 a month to get your book memorized by 100 people per month by posting your book's cover on their sister site, some game website?

I think they need to become a bigger site first before they can charge that. Piddly fee, yes, but both are websites I've never heard of.

Shawn, have you used them?

Wow. 4500 authors shilling out $5 / month each, that's $22500 / month they're making!

As a new market, we indie authors have definitely been noticed. In many ways, that's not a good thing. Seems a LOT of startups are targeting us without offering any real value.

Jeffrey wrote: "BookBuzzr? That's a new one on me. I'll go look 'em up...

Ok, interesting claim they've made. They say they're the world's leading provider of marketing technologies yet they only have a small ..."

No, but I ran across some blogs that endorse them (probably for a fee). If you scroll down the "plans," it does offer a free service-- one of its widgets. I may use the free widget depending upon the terms of service, but I don't think I'm going to invest. I don't think the pro services are worth the money.

Eric wrote: "Wow. 4500 authors shilling out $5 / month each, that's $22500 / month their making!

As a new market, we indie authors have definitely been noticed. In many ways, that's not a good thing. Seems a L..."

Eric, I agree with you about the market. I get spammed by a particular service (right after I joined Goodreads, ironically) that offers some ridiculously priced services for e-book conversions and inclusion in a monthly newsletter to libraries and booksellers.

Caveat emptor. Learn it. Love it. Live by it. It seems to me, and I do hate to admit this, but the people that make money in indie publishing are the people that convince indie authors to buy their services rather than the indie authors. Somewhat analogous to the fact that the people that made the money in the gold rushes were more often than not the merchants that sold the picks, shovels, and pans to the miners instead of the miners.

I've been thinking about BookBuzzr throughout the day and see most of the value in the widgets. But I can get similar widgets free from Wordpress. I just don't see a good return on investment.

Nevertheless, if anyone has hard data to contradict my impression, I'd love to hear it.

I've used Freado and Bookbuzzr for over a year - shortly after my first publication. Like any book marketing business based in India (including FlipKart)- it takes patience and an active participation.

Purchasing the initial package then upgrading to Pro...the ROI was absent. Wordpress.com is far more bookmarketing friendly. Amazon.com is becoming more cognizant of its new cash cow - indie writers. Everything Bookbuzzr sites offers is available through Amazon.com and its affiliates (including hour by hour sales rankings).

If you are a professional author that has an active presence in eMarketing, save hard earned commissions for sites that have greater web presence and name recognition. Quality links and a good webpage can work magic.

Thanks for those suggestions, Barbara. Any specific recommended sites?

Must admit to being rather wary of advertising.

My apologies Thaddeus for the lateness of this reply.

I write for a few sites that market books and everyone asks the same thing. In my opinion, nothing out there beats FB, Pinterest or Twitter. They are stepping up their digital marketing packages designed for indie writers . Of course they own the net.

When I check my analytics I know who is reading my stuff - including business articles. It is time consuming...I know. But new apps for designing websites and marketing bots are being created each day. It is easier than ever to self publish. There are millions of good writers on the globe. So getting noticed is a challenge. Heavy cream does not always rise to the top...it struggles.

There is no magic bullet unless you have the marketing dollars. Use your analytics and throw your efforts into reader demographics that demonstrates who reads your work.

I was surprised to find that I have a following among young anime' lovers in Korea and Japan. I thought I was writing for bored Wall Street Milleniums and Baby Boomers.

In the end it is all about a good story....that folks NEED to read.

Thanks :)

A little late to this conversation but I've only just become aware of Bookbuzzr (via a referrer on my wordpress site). Their fee is now $9.95 (USD) per book per month.