Look! A pretty Table!
My list is getting longer now! Thanks to all of you for your great input and willingness to share!
**These ratings for book marketing companies are all based strictly on customer experience and opinion. This is a running list and I will be happy to add other customer opinions of book marketing companies to this list. To include your ratings, please comment on this post or email me at katepolicani@gmail (dot) com.
| Company Name | Type of service | Pass? | Costs | Comments |
| 99 cent Network | Book Listing | Fail | $45 special intro rate for 3 months | No obvious return for money and no visibility of book on site. No answers to emails inquiring about where to find the book |
| Bewitching Blog Tours | Blog Tours | Fail | “half the people who signed up didn’t post and only 3 did reviews even though it was supposed to be 15” | |
| BookDaily.com | Book Listing | Fail | $49 | “amount of sales doesn’t seem to be worth cost” |
| BookWhirl | SCAM | Fail | http://forums.writersweekly.com/viewtopic.php?t=8338 | |
| Goddess Fish Promotions | tour and reviews | Neutral | $30 for 5-blog tour and reviews | “didn’t break even” but supplied publicity |
| Innovative Online Book Tours | Book Tours, guarantee Amazon reviews | Fail | $100 | “A big flop, didn’t follow through as they had promised”“Three blogs didn’t post at all. The ones who did post had very low followings, and NONE of them posted their review on amazon. Lame excuses from staff.”Bloggers posted ebook giveaway when customer didn’t offer them/wrong day. The ones who did post the correct giveaway all posted separate rafflecopter forms, preventing a fair winner or forcing customer to send 20 prize packs“Hasn’t given me any sales OR amazon reviews. Stay away from them.” |
| Kindle Daily Nation | Book Listings | Fail | $160 | “no results” (used to be great but saturated with too many books) |
| KindlePromo Indie Book Listing Service | Book Tweets | Pass | £15 | “actively promotes books” |
| Orangeberry Summer Splash Tour | Blog Tour | TBA | $25 | TBA |
| Partners in Crime | Blog Tour | TBA | TBA | |
| Pump Up Your Book | Book Tours | Fail | http://www.ripoffreport.com/business-consulting/pump-up-your-book/pump-up-your-book-pump-up-yo-1492e.htm | |
| Promotional Book Tours | Blog Tours | Pass | Facebook Page Increased by 700 fans, Twitter increased by 450 Follows, newsletter increased by 150 | |
| Shades of Rose YA | Blog Tours | Fail | $7.50, $15 | Newer company with small following, had trouble filling tours, do refund when cannot fill tour. |
| Sizzling PR | Blog Tours | Pass -1Fail -1 | $15 -$75 | “Nice people and very affordable.”“90% of the blogs were adult blogs/romance/erotica for a YA book” |
| Smith Publicity | Various | Neutral | “Stellar results, high prices.” |
Kate Policani 
I’d be interested to know if Kirkus is worth the $$ ???
I’ve got my ears open and I’ll post about it if I can find someone with experience.
Cool, Kate – I’ll keep checking in!
Great stuff! But your table is a bit cut-off. Maybe it’s just my computer, I don’t know . . .But I can’t see all the writing on the right hand side.
Thanks for the info Kate!
This is really good info. I’m hearing the same from many places at the moment. paid advertising doesn’t seem to pay off – except for those doing the charging. It appears as if there are no shortcuts.
I do see that some of them grow your platform, which can be worth it if you’re willing to take that rather than straight sales.
I have to say that I think, in some ways, it is worth it… as Kate said, it helps to grow your platform. From the little I know about tagging and internet marketing, the more places you show up, the better. Now, if someone types “Rosa Sophia” into Google, not just my website comes up … But a whole bunch if other websites where there are spotlights, interviews, and reviews about my book. I think this sort of thing pushes you up in search engines. And if you’re short on time, it may be easier to hire a company (as long as the fee is reasonable). I did it because I work a lot, and it takes more time to market on your own than it does to hire a company. 🙂 Just my two cents.
That is a good point. For those who have a day job, hiring promotion may be the only way to get that book seen.
Yeah, if you have the money it’s not such an issue. I’ve been an artist all my life, so I simply don’t have reserves for taking a chance, but, being underemployed I do have time. (Except that I’d rather be writing)
Well, I don’t have the money either, hehe. I spent thirty bucks on a tour a while back, and I felt it was worth it to me, simply because I don’t have a lot of time. I work at home (freelance editing) and I have a day job in a library. I also go to school, and I have a volunteer job. But anything more than thirty bucks? That’s where I get wary. That’s where anyone would want to know if the company is worth it. And that’s what makes this reference so fantastic! 🙂
The RipOff place is a scam. http://www.peoplescreditbureau.com/ripoff_report.php
A scam within a ripoff…huh.