PubbyReviews 124

This site would be a great idea if they didn't rope you into paying more. They advertise that in the length of a free trial of ten days you can get 10-15 reviews. You get 2000 snaps, their online currency, when you sign up, but that only allows you to put your book out there for one reader. You have to spend your time earning more snaps by liking or retweeting tweets, or reviewing other books—most of which are listed for sale and are not free downloads. You cannot just upload your book and wait for the reviews to come in. Who has the time to play these games? I'd rather wait for real, organic reviews. It's not worth the experience of a free trial, and it sure isn't worth 240 - 360 dollars a year just to be a member of the site.

In my hectic life as a new mom, I did not notice they charged me twice monthly for my subscription. When I contacted them about it, they didn't offer any resolution except to cancel one of the payments. I asked for a refund—or at the very least credit to my account— but was refused by Mary, who stated she can only cancel the previous month's payment. Beware of this company and check your accounts. Sadly, I would have been a customer for many years.

***FYI***
Pubby offered rewards for positive reviews on this website, so take any reviews from around September 2021 with a grain of salt. (Screenshot below)

I have been using Pubby for almost a year, and I have gotten several good reviews from it. I have also been able to find other authors' work that I otherwise would never have picked up.
The idea of anonymous reviews to support other indie authors is good, but you have to execute that idea well. As of right now, Pubby is not executing their idea well at all.
While most people who sign up for a verified purchase of your book, there is an increasing number of people who sign up for a verified purchase but leave a B. S. review without even looking at the book synopsis.
This is extremely dangerous and unfair for the author's standing with Amazon because they can and will actually ban an author from publishing with them. I have reminded the Pubby support team of this several times, and yet, all they do when I report a fraudulent review is give me a partial refund of their point system "snaps". As far as I know, those fraudulent reviewers are going on their merry way with all the extra snaps I paid while Pubby keeps inflating their snaps every day.

I still think Pubby is a good idea, but they need to listen to constructive criticism and CHANGE if they want to stay in business. I am going to give them a few more chances after I have made my requests clear to improve, but if I don't, I will be forced to pull my book from the site for the sake of my struggling author career.

If it comes to that, then I will be VERY vocal about Pubby and why authors should run the other way from it, because if they do NOT improve VERY quickly, then I will come to the conclusion that they are simply another scam that struggling indie authors fall for, and I want to protect my fellow writers from that.

If they DO improve, and I can actually get quality, verified purchases from Pubby readers, then I will tell my author friends about it and let them choose if such an expensive (because it is very expensive) investment is worth it.

Do better, Pubby.

Honestly don't understand the rave reviews here. Signed up and got a review in the first day. But when I saw the review it looked like the reader hardly even read the book. Don't mind if reader doesn't like the book, but taking my money and doing such a superficial job is DISHONEST. That was only review I got in 3 months from pubby. They were prompt and cordial though when I asked to drop the service. Their site is very polished but the service itself is complete crap. Glad I can try to warn others to STAY AWAY.

Terrible customer service from "Mary" (nonexistent person, I'm sure; the thumbnail is a stock photo). Just so rude. Otherwise a pretty good service.

En definitiva es muy útil para escritores, más para los escritores auto publicados, ideal para conseguir tus primeras reseñas, lo único malo es que muchas veces los lectores no leen tu libro y dejan una reseña muy general basándose en el resumen que dejas de tu libro, pero creo que eso ya es conciencia de cada lector, ser responsables de leer lo que se reseña, otras reseñas en verdad son muy importantes y te dan retroalimentación positiva, a mi me encanta leer y he disfrutado leyendo mucho, para mi es genial recibir un premio por algo que me gusta hacer.

As an independent, and really quite new author, it is hard to get reviews and yet follow Amazons rules properly. The site allows you to do just that. When you read other authors books listed on the Pubby site, you earn points regardless of the review you leave for that book. Likewise other readers can read my books and earn points by reviewing them. I have received many reviews now, especially on a few of my better books! I couldn't be happier now that I found a way to share books amongst readers and get reviews. I will keep reading books on Pubby and getting reviews on my creations!

This has been a useful service to gather reviews for my book. It takes a little bit of work to do reviews and get reviews, but it's been worth it. I've used it as an opportunity to read some books I probably never would have read otherwise. I've also received many solid reviews from others. I'll be using their feedback to improve my books in the future.

Customer service has been quick to respond the few times I needed assistance.

I think this is a particularly useful service for children's books.

Pubby has been an invaluable source in helping with my book sales. I'm new to self publishing and it's challenging to get verified reviews on Amazon. This has been amazing at getting fantastic feedback from readers.

This is a great service to help launch new books, especially if you dont have a reliable advanced reader group. Get reviews on your book quickly in the first week by using saved credits (or snaps) before expanding your marketing and advertising. This will give consumers some confidence in the quality of the product / book. Of course you have no control over the reviews so if your book is of poor quality then likely you will still get bad reviews (deservedly). There are not many ways that you can get guaranteed reviews that dont break Amazon's T&Cs - this is one of them. You tend to get a faster turn around than traditional ARCs. The one downside is that some users of the service go to far and get themselves banned from Amazon reviews - this can lead to all their reviews being removed by amazon. This can be frustrating for you when the number of reviews goes down. (Dont read too many books to fast in too many different niches and you should be ok). If you ask then Pubby will normally replace your snaps if this happens.

This is a great way to get reviews. You help others; they help you. Very simple, and Pubby is easy to work with and cost efficiency for the independent publisher.
D. M. Sorlie

Pubby is very easy to use and gets my book lots of reviews. I recommend it highly because the reviews are organic and they are spead out over time

I appreciate how Pubby has an online chat that answers any questions that may arise. Even more, I enjoy being able to receive reviews that can be difficult to all authors. I wholeheartedly recommend Pubby because it gives my writing good exposure to the reading public. I am a fiction author who enjoys comedic scenarios related to my daily life. I enjoy hiking, travelling and cooking some of the most amazing dishes from around the world.

I am quite satisfied with the review service Pubby. Although I went in with some trepidation I found that it's a reputable service with adequate customer support. Every time there was a discrepancy concerning "snaps" as in how many were dealt out and how many were supposed to be dealt out the disagreement was always fairly and quickly resolved. Being a writer like most writers I am beholden to getting my books reviewed and Pubby was instrumental in facilitating those reviews.

The website sounds great. $20 a month for 5 to 10 reviews. Just post up your manuscript and then let keen readers read it and write a review.
What they don't make clear is that on top of the subscription fee you have to earn snaps in order to request reviews of your book. Most books require you to buy them and only a very small number are free to read! You basically have to read others people books to earn credits to the request a review of your own.
I got 1 review and it was obviously a fake. All they did was copy by summary of the book and post 5 stars. I'm not surprised though as when you make people have to read others book before you can get yours reviewed and people don't have time then they will cheat the system.
When you ask customer support you get a very short and rude response from Mary. She does not want to keep customers.

This could be a great site if they just matched keen readers that want books for free in exchange for writing a review. But this isn't the case. I have cancelled subscription and will look for alternatives.

Hope you find this honest review helpful.

Pubby has helped me get more reviews for my book, and many of the reviews are quality reviews. They're honest, which means they're not all 5 stars or anything, which is realistic and what any serious author wants. I've actually received some very valuable feedback in Pubby reviews, and it's helped increase my exposure.

As an indie author, marketing your book and getting your first reviews can be a daunting experience. Pubby provides a positive and Amazon-approved way to get additional reviews for your book while helping others. You receive points for giving reviews to other author's books. These points can be used to get your own book reviewed! It remains anonymous and you do not review the same authors that have you reviewed your book.